Something Different - Vanari Auralan Wardens for Age of Sigmar...?

A group of Vanari Auralan Wardens for GW's "Age of Sigmar" game. 28mm plastic figures from GW.

Here we have a group of Vanari Auralan Wardens, warriors for the High Elves, sorry, I mean "Lumineth Realm Lord" faction in GW's "Age of Sigmar" game. These are 28mm multi-part plastic figures from GW.

[Insert record screech sound]Age of Sigmar? Really?

Those are some loooong spears...watch out, bad guys!

Yes, really. Having played in a demo game here in Northern Ontario, and rather enjoyed hacking some monsters to bits, I picked up a battleforce box of these proto-high-elves and I have to say it has been fun to build and paint these figures. Does this mean I find "Age of Sigmar" to be a fitting replacement for "Warhammer Fantasy Battle"? Well, no, of course not - it is a wholly different game, and wholly different game experience - but one that, separated from the emotion of GW's decision to blow up the beloved Old World - is in fact a fun, not-too-mentally demanding scrap on the table with some quite lovely figures.

Rear view, showing the Wardens carry swords for when battlefield matters get a little closer.

My understanding of the game and the world is still pretty limited, but as you would expect with an elf-type faction, the warriors hit hard, but with a bit of a glass jaw, and seem to rely on magic to succeed in battle. The Vanari Auralan Wardens are a basic sort of infantry unit for the Lumineth - although as you can see by the armour and the weapons, still pretty fancy. This makes sense when you consider nature of this faction. 

The High Warden, leader of the unit.

Some extra flashy kit for this fellow - and of course, he has to stand on a piece of terrain because reasons.

The sculpting quality of the Lumineth figures is tremendous, and these were a lot of fun to paint. Now, these pike-length spears are not the easiest things to manage in terms of logistics of moving the models around, but they are quite nice to paint - I pause here to strongly recommend painting the shields separately, an approach I took and it worked out well.

Lots of lovely details on the shields as well.

The particular aspect of the sculpting that really pleased me was the proportions on the figures. The high elf models for Warhammer Fantasy were certainly very nice, but the multi-part plastics, at the time GW ended the Old World, had actually lost their proper sense of proportion - in particular, I recall the cartoonish size of the hands on the basic warrior frames. They were getting cartoony and goofy. 

These Lumineth sculpts, on the other hand, show how to do heroic-scale 28mm "elves" while maintaining proper proportions. These sculpts also show that GW continues to raise the bar overall on the design of multi-part plastic miniatures. There are so many lovely details, lots of options for shields, slight differences in helmets etc...all very nice, and lots of fun to paint. 

Coming soon to a gaming table in Northern Ontario...

This group of Wardens is the first AoS unit I have painted. The "Battleforce" box contained enough models to put a small force out for a game, and I'm continue to paint them up, so watch for more in this space! Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great day.