And firstly, to top the list, the thing I think is the most important:

An optional head on the dragon without the helmet! :D Now us woodies can use the dragon as well. Check out our beautiful new model here! This fantastic model is not only posed in the nicest (read: copied from Warmaster, but no-one's complaining) poses they've ever released, but in the spirit of the new High Elves apparently having a lot of loose rocks hanging around to float on, it is on one of the prettiest bases I've ever laid my eyes on. Sure we'll probably have to take off the saddle, but our woodies should be surfing the dragon if anything.

Eltharion is back! With his very own Empire Griffon. That's right, not only are there dragons, but a griffon as well. No longer does the Empire have more beasties in its bestiary than the Elves! We tamed them first! Though admittedly, the guy does have one of those butt-ugly saddles, and his pose (read: sitting straight up with a generic sword/spear combo) yearns for us to twist his spear arm forwards, and his helmet wings look like something out of 40k. I wouldn't use the model, but I'm sure a lot of people would be interested in that griffon! You can see him here.

Caradryan and Korhil, captains of their respective companies (Phoenix Guard, and White Lions) make a showing as new characters, easily filling their bases out. Now, the moment I saw Korhil, I was immediately thinking of Hector from Fire Emblem. With a cool White Lion cloak, mind. Now note the size of the lion on Korhil's cloak, and remember it when you see the White Lion Chariot (yes, they made one!). I don't know what they're feeding their captive lions... it's either that, or Korhil went out and killed a little baby lion. Caradryan (sporting a snazzy Eldar-style name) on the other hand, doesn't to me look like anything special. He looks like a very cool Phoenix Guard, with a helmet (a cool helmet, given, but still just a helmet) under his arm. I think this will find much use as a Champion model.

First thing's first when discussing the new plastic Arc Mage: the floating rocks... rock! I haven't seen the sprue yet, so I don't know how poseable or exchangeable the parts are, but I hope they are, because the one they have assembled on the website looks a little fat. And ugly. It's mostly just the face. The cloak and paint job are awesome. I'm definitely looking up the plastic floating rocks on bitz to use for my woodies (as well as using some of those empire wizard parts for my spellsinger's cloak).

The Noble model (mounted one) looks fantastic! The helmet, trailing spear, and heavily barded horse, together with the tucked in shield and kickass base (more rocks! Not floating this time - lucky for him!) contribute to a slim, but deadly looking model. I'm sad to say I can't say the same for the model on foot. The dynamism is lost, and it looks almost like they've just given us a Spearman champion body and legs, and expect us to tack on the awesome parts from the mounted guy! Bleh! Love the standard top though.

Sadly, no new Spearmen, or Archers. Looks like we're still stuck with the super giant hand ones. Not that there's anything wrong with a giant hand disability! The better to grip the spear with.

(For the following, I'm not sure if this is the new models displayed on the website or not. I'm going forth assuming they are. If not, the critique still applies.)

Looks like a new set of Swordmasters is coming out, but I'm not altogether impressed. They remind me of Spearmen, with swords, nose masks, and fluffy helmets. For something as dynamic as Swordmasters, I was expecting a little more, I guess.

"But Games Workshop can't do dynamism in ranked models!" I hear you say. Alas, and lucky for us, it seems they're also releasing some amazing Phoenix Guard models! Just look at the poses, at the arms, at the faces. Talk about resolute. I shiver just looking at those expressions. The cloaks as well have been masterfully done, with the extra boots and shoulder chainmail providing an example of why the new miniature line is great.

Not that impressed with the White Lion models. They had a real chance to make some awesome models, with experience and practice working on all the dwarves, but when you pretty much glue an axe to a model's shoulder, it makes the unit look lame ranked up. Sure it fits a blister pack easier, but if they'd just dropped the arms to be swinging sideways, or upwards, or built the model out a bit more from its base, it could be good. But no.

Same old Silver Helms (which I'm happy about: I love those models), Reavers (not so happy about, using the old dodgy horses), and Dragon Princes (that's okay though).

The Shadow Warriors look pretty sweet, though their helmets leave much to be desired. Not too many models provided (the unit picture only has 4 unique models!) but I can see a lot of conversion potential in them. A lot of them have those high necked shirts meant to be pulled across the mouth, but none actually wear them up. I see a lot of conversion potential just there. The two champion-looking models at the bottom are awesome though. Very dynamic, very nice facial expressions. Though I swear I've seen the one on the bottom left somewhere before!

Here's the biggie, the White Lion Chariot. The plus I can see to this one, is that you can assemble it either with lions or with horses! That means a bunch of lion or horse parts floating around ebay! That means amazing conversion potential for Wood Elves on Great Stags! (Or, judging by the size of the lions, for Wild Riders as well! Which I am TOTALLY planning on getting.) Check out its awesomeness here.

According to the website, the Eagle Bolt Thrower is coming soon which makes little sense, since the picture up there seems to be of the old Bolt Thrower, and it's already an excellent plastic miniature. And of course, they still get an Eagle. Hopefully not 2 for 1, but down to 1 for 1 like we got! Hahaha!

Overall, I'm really impressed with the floating rocks, the dragon model, lions, mounted noble and phoenix guard. I'm disappointed there aren't new Spearmen, or at least new arms. And that the phoenix guard aren't plastic. It's still an improvement overall. I think from this, Woodies can salvage a nicer dragon, some nice rocks for our mages, and plastic lions for our wild riders or stags! Love it!

I am definately converting the High Elf Dragon (see my topic on the Sisters of Twilight Conversion).

I will definatly use the lions as a conversion for a Great Stag, or even a Unicorn! I mean, I just have to take the beard off, and green stuff a horn on... shouldn't be too hard.

Also, here are a bunch of new models (the Cold One in particular). There is a bunch of new stuff, so I think that they are already working on WE and other later armies (like Lizardmen) now.

T.W.

I agree with most of your comments Foxtale, although a lot of them aren't actually new- Eltharion on Griffon is a very old model now, the white lions, swordmasters and phoenix guard are also old. In fact, high elves have recieved very few new models (as far as main units go)- only the chariots really (white lion and steed chariot, both come as one set I've heard). Most of the focus for their new models is the characters.

The anarmoured head is good for the dragon, though I prefer the éar things'to the horns, and the body is still covered in lots of armour.

I love the look of the new cold ones, though am disappointed they went 'kiddy friendly' with the daemonettes. Still, apart from their awful hair they look good.

I'll be very interested to see a warhammer daemon army list.

I'm just moving this to 'Beyond the Forests', as its about High Elves not Wood Elves. Note I've also made a similar topic in that forum: Topic

If they are releasing new PG models, they aren't it. Those are the old models. ;) They are pretty good though.

I have to say, although I've seen most of those models already I haven't seen the Lion Chariot painted. I thought it looked cool unpainted, and now...IT LOOKS EVEN SWEET-AH! Those Lions look beautiful, and the rest of the chariot isn't bad either :). One of the best models I've seen for GW.

It's a week today until the new White Dwarf comes out in Australia. Since the High Elf Army set is released for advance order later in October I'm hoping for some new pics in that issue :)

Ohh im sooooo gonna have to get a high elf army now... their just sweet, always liked the high elfs much... but this just makes one really want to collect them... except for the phoenix guards, white lions and swordsmaster are the old models... i hope there will be some new ones... but if not... i still like thoose old models and they will still fit in with a chunk of thoose nice new models... :D

Haha, I don't play High Elves, so I just talked about the ones that said Coming Soon on their entry in the Online Store.

Okay wow. Just saw the range of High Elf mages available. Looks like the cloak and body is all one piece, then each arm, the head (man that spiky helmet is awesome!), and then the base (one of them floating on water/air/energy, the other one on the floating rocks. For the arms it looks like there's a staff arm, a book arm, and a sword or dagger or something arm. The right arm also has a staff and a sword, but also some kind of weird WAR-Marauder style mutated arm, if I'm looking at it right. And I'm probably not. It looks weird.

Um, I just noticed this, but does it look like to anyone else that they have a new kind of plastic? The one that the mages are made of look a lot shinyer and smooth looking.
Just a random thought...

T.W.

Might be resin originals.

Could be... Anyway, they made all the changes on the GW website for the High Elves. Suprised to see that Lions, Pheonix Guard, and Silvers are all special (theres like 6-7 in all). From what I remember, there are 3 core, 6-7 special, and 2 rare. There's like 6 special characters, and I don't really remember the Lords/Heroes.

T.W.

You're rigth, The Wanderer. As far as I know:

Basic units: Archers, Spearmans and Sea Guard

Rare units: Great Eagle and REpeater Bolt Thrower

Special units: Every other thing...

There won't be 2 Repeater Bolt Thrower or 2 Egales in one rare choice. And Silver Helms are now special...

Who was going to say that high elves would become in an infantry army! :-P

I've always liked high elves, the models are very much anticipated. I'm looking forward to the army book coming out! :p

~ Lindsay ~

Erm, The Phoenix guard, Swordmasters and White Lions are the same as they were before, they have just been repackaged...

Darn, it seems to me that I'm the only one who dislikes the new HE model range.

The White Lion chariot is a shining exception though :love:

But it might be just me, because I generally dislike HEs.

I'm only anticipating the new DEs. But it is still a year away I think...

Well there's not a great deal of new models out really, bit of a disappointment.

The new lion chariot is gorgeous and I like the dragon and plastic hero & BSB too.

I'm not too sure about the mounted mage, must be the hat it looks a bit silly. The Phoenix Guard character is nice but not really special enough to be a named character, same with Korhil I liked the old model better.

It's a real shame they didn't bring out new plastic archers. I've always seen them as the weakest models in the range.

I hope they manage to get the balance right this time, the old high elf book made them rather weak unless you took extreme lists. I'm still not convinced on this strikes 1st rule, especially on White Lions, it makes no sense that wardancers have to give up an attack to get it when they are supposed to be some of the fastest elves in the game. It will make spear elves much better though, I wonder if they still get to fight in 3 ranks.

Yes, spear elves still fight in three ranks. Combined with strikes first, they're almost as good as the old DoW pikemen but with better stats overall. We don't want to be charging these guys in the front...

HE archers have nothing special it seems- no fire in two ranks, as was originally thought, and probably not much cheaper (if at all). I think they're around 12pts at the moment?

I don't mind the strikes first thing most of the time, but I hope it is a first turn only thing (it was mentioned once that it might be, but I've heard no mention of it since). Great weapons striking first EVERY turn is insane (and beyond fluff). Spearelves can still be dealt with by flanks, and our forest spirits should be tough enough still, but otherwise I see swordmasters etc. recieving a dull death from shooting (although white lions have a 3+ save vs archery, and a while ago there was some mention swordmasters may re-gain their ability to 'knock arrows from the sky'- ie. be harder to shoot as well). I imagine gunlines will become ever more popular...

One fun thing- it's rumoured Teclis is S and T 2, with far less in the way of saves than he used to have. The Hunter's Talon and Pageant combo could be entertaining (although on the downside Teclis has gained the Book of Hoeth (I think?)- Any double other than 1 is irresistable force...)

Hmmm, Dark Elves in a year? Sweet! That means I'll have enough time to get my HE done, and then I can start on DE! (possibly, DE could be my 5th army...). And the new DE cold-one I am stealing for my Lizardmen...

Back on topic...: I really like the Lion Chariot, the Lions because they represent so many conversion options (I think Im making a great eagle, great stag, and unicorn out of them).
The new dragon is perfect for the Sisters of Twilight as they have much more room to stand on it. And I do belive that the armour is removable (at least I know that the head and seat are).

T.W.