Grim Dark Warhammer Fantasy Battle! Starting a High Elf Army

High Elves - Making the Gleaming Host Grim and Dark

This will be the start of something wonderful, I assure you. To elaborate on what I mean by wonderful - I mean grim and dark and full of woe and destruction. Nothing happy can come from the worlds of Warhammer and 40k. Not the ones I imagine at least.

Far too shiny for my tastes

So, in addition to my Crimson Minotaur Chapter and Tau Empire Cadre I will begin to trickle in posts following the progress of my High Elf force. I have been writing a more detailed post detailing my thoughts behind the colour scheme and background fluff for this army and I'll hopefully get this out soon. For now I'll just say my theme will be that of a High Elven task force who has travelled north, deep into the chaos wastes with the goal of stopping some horrible chaos threat. They will be battle worn, bloodied, tired but steadfast in their goal. A stark departure from the gleaming blue and gold of the traditional look.

This is closer to the Fantasy I want to target

My collection begins with 30 Sea Guard from the Island of Blood Warhammer Starter Set. They will probably be proxies for standard spearmen as I dislike the models in the standard High Elf Spearmen box.

I have also picked up the mage from this set too.

Great models all.

I am completely open to pulling in models and parts from other miniature companies, or simply using Games Workshop Dark Elf and Wood Elf units where appropriate. This will be a completely customised force that will follow my set theme in every area. I will aim to create new characters where I can although initially I'll be using stock commander models to get me started. I love the idea of conversions involving Dark Eldar parts, Shadow Warrior parts among others. There is a lot of potential.

Of course, I actually need to learn the rules and find out what is effective in a High Elf army. My knowledge is gappy at best right now. I have found this thread from Ulthuan.net to be a useful starting point. It seems like there are plenty of competitive units and lacking too many seriously uncompetitive units which is a refreshing change from the armies in 40k.

If anyone has any advice when starting in Warhammer or with a High Elf army then that would be much appreciated. Keep following for regular updates on my progress on all my wargaming fronts!

Classic good vs evil. Not in my world, in my fantasy there is only GREY.