Of mice and men

Another Friday, another update. Today, it's the core units of my druchii force. Also, look to your right and please spare a minute to vote in the poll (you can choose more than one answer).

The backbone of Drazhar's army consists of the three regiments that stayed true to their lord and left Naggarond with him. These include a twenty-strong block of spear-armed infantry, supported by two units of crossbowmen and two units of light cavalry, five-strong each.

The spearmen have served under Drazhar's command for a considerable amount of time, even before they left Naggarond. Their adventures after turning mercenary have only stimulated their combat prowess. In more than one skirmish, their steel-like resolve - honed by whatever means necessary by their commander, Melarna - has turned the battle in Drazhar's favour. Their banner has been used as a symbol denoting envoy and messengers on those rare occasions Drazhar or Yenlui make use of these.

True to the rightly-established tradition of druchii warfare, Drazhar makes extensive use of repeater crossbows in his army. No less than twenty crossbowmen have been assigned to his force in his days in Naggarond, and these left with him as well. Due to some severe monetary circumstances, the army quartermasters denied the crossbowmen their mail tunics, equipping them only with shields and cuirasses for protection. Their commanders, however, have the right to use whatever spoils of war are included in the crossbowmen share of the plunder.


The models are made of dark elf warriors' torsos, heads and arms plus high elf archers' legs. Yes, I'm a sucker for the kneeling legs too, it's a shame GW doesn't make more sprues containing these, or legs in any other pose than advancing for that matter.

I toyed with the idea of substituting the heads for high elf ones as well, but after making some test models I dropped that; the models looked neither properly druchii, nor properly asur, like a weird cross. Too weird for my tastes.


As I was kinda pressed for cash when making these, I decided to add fillers to the units. This allowed me to both, add commanders made from other models than plastic warriors and make two units using a single Dark Elf Warriors box.

The commanders are the bolt thrower commander and the corsair champion #1, respectively. On the former, I sawed out the scroll he was holding in his right hand and swapped it for a shield. The latter is unconverted.
The cavalry under Drazhar's command is also a very welcome addition to the army, serving as its eyes and ears. They can stay in the field for days on end, scouting out both the countryside and enemy troop movements. On the battlefield they fulfill an equally subtle role, harrying the flanks, disrupting reinforcements, chasing down fleeing or withdrawing units and even kidnapping designated individuals should the need arise.

Model-wise, these are dark elf warriors' upper portions plus glade rider legs. I was also very happy with the then-new wood elf horses, as they look just SO much better.

The other unit is almost identical to the one pictured, the only difference is the color of the wraps on spear shafts - brown as opposed to green; for easy game reference.

Yenlui was not without a helping hand in the military as well. her forces, however, were oriented more towards raiding and pillaging than open battle. Hence, her house's standing force consisted of corsairs and scouts.

These are just unconverted dark elf corsairs. Alright, the standard bearer is made out of and ordinary rank-and-file corsair with an arm swapped for the cold one knights' banner arm. The banner is usually fielded as the Soul Shadows Standard, hence the lack of decorative whatnots on it. The other unit has a musician instead.