Blood Bowl – High Elves Team Part 1

We gave you an introduction on the stock for 3rd edition Blood Bowl High Elves and now it is time to muster a team for the Chaosbunker Blood Bowl League (CBL). We did it similar in the article on the Chaos-Team, with the fitting name "for the love of the game", and we will do the same now for the team from Ulthuan.

Unlike the chaos team, I don't need to strip the miniatures. They are cleaned, based and primed and basically ready to get painted. But that's the current problem - decisions over decisions on team names and colours.

I have quite a few decals, so that is something that shouldn't be a bottle neck. The models themself have a place on their shoulder pad where those fit neatly, and it is likely that I will use white decals for this team. They're still High Elves.

We started doing ingame narratives for these, in an interview style, about the league commissioner of the CBL, Dwight D. Durr'den, the Third. And we will continue this way of narrating. He just came back from a journey to Ulthuan to meet with several team owners all over the island, to have talks about the participation in the league. And once again, Rarcel Meif, Cabalvision Blood Bowl commentator and columnists for the BLITZ! magazine, will ask him about the trip.

Rarcel Meif: Welcome back to the Old World, Mr. Durr'den, and thank you again for taking the time to talk with BLITZ! magazine. How went your journey to the Ten Kingdoms?

Dwight D. Durr'den, the Third: Thank you, thank you, Rarcel. I'm fine, had the pleasure to take one of the airships by an upcoming sponsor GunnAir. Have to say, first class ticket on the Spirit of Grungni, was quicker than traveling by sea via Marienburg.

RM: Oh, so secured a new sponsor?

DDD3rd: GunnAir is the guild of air travel, located in Nuln and supported through the Imperial Gunnery School, as well as the ingenious engineer Malakai Makaisson. This should make it easier for the teams to travel as well and will allow us to have Albion Weeks (Three-Game-Weeks for non Imperials) for denser game play and more matches.

RM: That certainly opens up the divisions for teams from farer away. Currently the High Elves would arrive by Eagle Ships, or in case of the sons of Caledorn on the back of dragons.

DDD3rd: You certainly did your homework.

RM: Will we see the Dragon Princes in the upcoming CBL?

DDD3rd: Maybe. There are many teams interested in joining and the negotations are still ongoing. The Caledor Dragons are a strong competitor and Prince Imrik has opened up the treasure chest to add some new trophies to their collection. They are currently rebranding and having endless discussions about the shades of green of their jerseys. I hope they will come to a conclusion towards the end of the transfer window. Beyond that, we had good talks with the Chrace Lions, they are really eager to join, and are most likely the top competitors in the qualifying and talks for that spot.

RM: Those are the two biggest teams of the High Elves. Are there any newcomers, or other teams that showed interest?

DDD3rd: Yes, while we were invited to the impressive stables and amazing vineyards in the West of Ulthuan, we had talks with the Ellyrian Stallions as well. And further we went back east and had meetings with the local licensing partner for Cabalvision in the Tower of Hoeth, and their own home team the Wizards of Hoeth. Before leaving we had the chance to see the swimming stadium of the Lothern Sea Serpeant. It's like one of the Black Arks, but not as spikey and much more ... welcoming.

RM: You certainly came around during that trip. That sounds like quite the competition for the slot. Any suggestions how they will resolve that? I guess there were incentives?

DDD3rd: The elvish hospitality is certainly second to noone. And while the Elvish Nobility would never sink as low as to try to bribe me, I am quite happy to have a few new steeds for the stables in Altdorf and some barrels of fine elvish vine. But regarding the qualification, it seems as the princes agreed to a final tournament on Gaen Vale, and will use the nation wide Tears of Isha-Cup to see, who will join the CBL.

RM: That would see us with 6 teams competiting for the Tears of Isha-Cup and a brand new sponsoring deal with the Anvil of Vaul. Once again, thank you very much for your time, Mr. Durr'den, we hope to see you again soon and jump back to our college Hank in the studio!

As you can see, quite a few options to choose from. The poster-boys are the Galadrieth Gladiators, a pun on Galadriel, just like many Tolkien-esque names with the Elven in the early years of Warhammer. The Gladiators have a classic blue-and-white paint job and certainly don't look bad, but I don't want to use any of the official teams for the CBL slots. Anyhow, we will use the linemen and play around with the colours in Photoshop.

There are two main ideas that I really fancy. One of them is the team from Chrace and as they have a very famous unit, the White Lions of Chrace, a team like the Chrace Lions in white-and-blue would be a great fit. And with the Detroit Lions we would have an amazing source material. I looked at the home and away team jerseys and tried a Variant A (white cloth with blue contrast), but that looks a bit too close to the Gladiators, to be honest. And then went with the inverted away colours, and would use white and silver as contrast in Variant B. Not looking bad, but maybe a bit dark for my taste. I'm really not sure, but the lore for that team would be amazing, with the names for the stadium, fans and lots and lots of Lion King jokes along the way.

The blue and white would have been the colours for the Ellyrian Stallions as well as the Lothern Sea Serpents, with the later adding a bit more greenish blue to the paints and bits of red.

Chrace (A)Chrace (B)

The other strong idea are the Caledor Dragons, who should look like the classic 4/5th edition regiment of the Dragon Princes in bright green and red. I wasn't sure how to apply the classic paint job onto a "sporty" Fantasy Football adaption. While the Variants A (Green with Gold) and B (Red with Gold), I tried something lighter and went with White and Green, with accents in Red and a thinking about either Gold for the metals - Variants C - or Silver for the metals - Variants D. Maybe wash them with green instead of blue, to tie it closer.

Caledor (A) (B) 
(C) (D)

What's your favourite or do you have any suggestions how to fine-tune on the ones that I did?

The Logos for both teams are more or less set, but I still have to add some background information in this format;

Name:
Colours:
Home Stadium: (zz.zzz capacity, surface: )
Management / Owner:
Head Coach:
Health (Apothecarius):
Cheerleaders:
Motto / Chant:

Team
Honours:
Hall of Fame:

Painting the High Elves will be a mile-stone for me, as I then would have a second team that I could do game reports and probably, if I managed to get 4-6 teams painted in total, to do some small tournaments or weekend events. Beyond that, at some point I'd love to add some things like coaches, fans etc.