Armies of the Jungle: Warhost Lotus Storm of Impossible Contemplation  by Patrick Eibel
In the From Idea To Reality series, we chronicled the process of creating an army from scratch. In this series, we will showcase the finished results of our labors – the completed armies (as much as any 40K army can ever be considered “completed”). By detailing how the army was collected, how the background and color schemes were developed, and how the army is used on the battlefield, we hope that this series will provide inspiration for those interested in collecting similar armies.

Introduction 
Back in the dark days of 2nd Edition, Kenton and I were fumbling around with our Marines and Orks and frequently found ourselves on the losing end of games. An army we never were able to beat was the combined Eldar forces of our friend Reese and my wife (and no, I was not just letting her win). Today, their tactics might be described as “Mathhammer,” but they had devised a highly effective force by maximizing the number and efficiency of troops they brought. 

As the years went past, both armies were eventually shelved and I bought Reese’s Eldar to merge with my wife’s force. Since 5th Edition and the new codex were released, the army has been used occasionally with varying success. With a dearth of vehicles, there was no real choice but to field a “Footdar” force, with the expected reliability. Recently, I was able to allocate some Christmas cash to the Eldar, and I added two Wave Serpents and a Falcon to the one Wave Serpent I already had. I look forward to trying out the new toys in a campaign sometime in the near future. 

Collecting the Lotus Storm
Most of the army was collected back in the early 1990’s, but new figures have been added to represent new wargear or vehicles. Unless noted, all models are 2nd Edition figures.

• Eldrad.  Even though the Eldar Codex predates the special character madness, Eldrad still is pretty good.
• Farseer.  Back in the salad days, Reese and my wife used to field a stripped down Farseer they called “Joey.”  This figure pays homage to that idea using a limited edition Bonesinger.
• Avatar of Khaine.  One of my favorite HQ choices 
• Prince Yriel.  I picked up the Yriel figure because he seemed kind of cool.  I have yet to use him.
• All of the Phoenix Lords.  They look cool, but most are too expensive to actually use.  I do have a list based on Karandras I want to try though.
• Striking Scorpions.  Two squads of 10 each, with each squad including an Exarch
• Fire Dragons.  Two squads of 10 each, with each squad led by an Exarch with a firepike
• Wraithguard.  One  squad of 10, with Warlock
• Howling Banshees.  Two squads of 10, each led by an Exarch.  One Exarch is a newer model with an executioner, the other is the classic with the axe weapon.
• Harlequins.  One squad of 10, with various weapons, half of them with Harlequin kisses
• Dire Avengers.  Two squads of 10 each, each led by an Exarch.  One Exarch is the classic with sword and catapult, and the other has been converted to have two catapults.
• Rangers.  Two squads of 10 each
• Guardian Jetbikes.  Two squads of 10 each
• Guardians.  Back in the 2nd Edition days, these guys were the backbone of the army. I have six squads of 14 each, with each squad including a heavy weapon team
• Shining Spears.  Reese converted a squad of 5 with cool lance weapons, but recently I have been thinking of making them a Seer Council
• Warp Spiders.  Two squads of 8 each, each led by an Exarch with two deathspitters
• Swooping Hawks.  Two squads of 10 each, each led by an Exarch
• Vyper Squadron.  I added 3 Vypers with scatter lasers for some fast moving guns
• Support Weapon Battery of 3 D-Cannons.  Still haven’t tried these yet
• Dark Reapers.  Another staple of the 2nd Edition-era army.  There are three units of 5, but I converted an Exarch to have a missile launcher for some anti-tank love
• Two Wraithlords with brightlances
• Two War Walkers with brightlance and missile launcher
• Falcon with pulse laser and missile launcher
• Wave Serpents.  I now have three: one with twin shuriken cannon, one with twin scatter laser, and the last with twin brightlance 

Background 
Contrary to the dying race fluff that surrounds most Eldar back stories, I have always viewed this warhost as a more aggressive fighting force. In the universe of the Jungle, the Warhost is first mentioned at the Battle of Two Fangs on Bray. They have shown up occasionally as a band of skirmishers. Kenton came up with the name writing one of the stories for the Jungle, and I came up with the Eldar translation (Lote Arma en’Callanta) by co-opting words from The Silmarillion – the official gamer guide for anything Elvish.

Modeling and Painting 
The color scheme for the army has uses the vast array of metallic paints that Citadel at one time made. This makes it difficult to paint the army now, as half of the colors have been discontinued. Roughly, the breakdown goes like this: 

• Scorpions: Brass/Burnished Gold
• Banshees: Blue/Shining Gold
• Fire Dragons: Beaten Copper
• Dire Avengers: Metallic Green/ Shining Gold
• Rangers: Black/Metallic Purple
• Warp Spiders: Boltgun Metal
• Swooping Hawks: Metallic Blue
• Reapers: Boltgun Metal/Blue
• Most everything else: Amethyst Purple/Metallic Green.

Dire Avengers. What visually ties the army together is that it's all painted in metallics

Using the Army 
I have tied fielding the army without vehicles, attaching Warlocks to the Guardian squads, and using the Avatar to make everyone Fearless, but I have only had limited success. I have been adding more vehicles over time to add a little more variety to the lists I can generate, so I look forward to trying out some new tactics.

Related Pages
Armies of the Jungle

Posted February 2011 
 

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