I am seriously overdue on my Lumineth analysis. I blame a year of agonising wrist pain (now thankfully cured) and youngest child transforming from baby to rampaging toddler. Honestly it's like living with a Gobbo wired on mushroom brew. Sorry, what was I talking about?
My precious, precious High Elves return
High Elves were my first Warhammer Fantasy Battle Army. I loved them to bits, their models were beautiful, their lore intriguing and they were reasonably straight forward to play. Naturally I lost every game I ever played with them to the point it was a running joke. In a fit of frustration I sold my lovingly painted Elves and purchased an Empire army. The losing streak ended with the flash of powder and roar of guns.
I vowed to one day return to my first love, the High Elves. Then they blew up the Old World. Age of Sigmar was alright and all but it just lacked that certain... High Elfness. Then the Lumineth arrived. It was love at first sight.
Such beautiful models
Look at them. I mean seriously. LOOK AT THEM! The flowing robes, the delicate curves of their armour, the elegant weaponry, the hats that stretch for miles. I can't even truly articulate the beauty of Lumineth hats. Plumes that could put a burlesque performance to shame rise to the very skies. Cows, actual heads of figurative cows adorning tapered cones of phallic symbology. A fukken cow-giant-mountain-spirit-realm with hammers the size of a very big thing. That lady with the sadness magic and bowl of incense.
That was just my first reaction. Games Workshop were holding out on us and have now shown Kangaroo cavalry, flying Fox spirits, a mage riding a cloud to battle like Dragonball Z just jumped into the mortal realms. I haven't even mentioned the well groomed guy holding a sword whilst his Sister leaps over him in her sweet 80's jumpsuit.
There was also a new Teclis model in there at some point. That guy can eat a whole bag of dicks.
Alrighty, the Codex then?
At first read the Lumineth Codex was a fascinating insight into the Realm of Light and the Elves that had long been missing from AoS. I mean sure we had the Straw Feminist cult of Morathi and the Little Mermaid Elves. Both those factions were full of beautiful models, intriguing lore and loads of reasons to hate Teclis for his bullshit.
As the pages turned we got the same information rewritten slightly. Ultimately the Lumineth codex was too little butter spread across too much bread. You can only read so many pages talking about how Teclis felt bad. How he liked to go off being the martyr to find a magical fix instead of actually buckling down and showing some emotional maturity for once. I mean, the writers didn't actually think he looks the hero do they? First he screws up so badly his children hide under the sea to escape his bullshit. Then he tries again and encourages everyone to treat the realm of Light like a kind of horrific Silicone Valley tech bro paradise, with all the irresponsibility and zero self awareness that entails. It's such an Elon Musk type approach to look at the fall out and decide it's easier to go to the moon than put in any real work.
There are gems in the rough though. Actually the whole thing is an absolute gem if you pretend Teclis doesn't exist. High Elves who are classically arrogant yet meet their comeuppance and reconcile with the realm through genuine contrition. I cannot begin to express how refreshing that is as a concept. Naturally that seems to be entirely forgotten once they step outside the Realm of Light because there are some things GW just can't let go of. I don't want to nay say a lot of hard work folk have put in but seriously, either the Elves learn from their mistakes or they are arrogant fools. It's downright lazy to offer something new yet remain tied to the old tropes
The Great Nations
There are eight great nations in the Realm of Light. Much like there were kingdoms of Ulthuan but with less of a focus on specialised units and more of a focus on cultural difference. Four nations are blank slates to be filled in when Tyrion shows up. One nation does magic, one nation is all about being one with the Mountain spirits, one nation is something like crafting or whatever and the best nation is Iliatha.
Iliatha is a Matriarchy which means there was no actual effort to explore what that actually means but that's what it is. Presumably the other nations are meritocracies? Whatever, GW did the minimal effort girl power thing here. Iliatha have a history of cloning and motherhood which means a moment of thought throws up all sorts of beautiful stuff like detaching biology from parenthood, epic level polyamory and the kind of family reunions that involve hiring out an entire hotel.
Honestly I don't even have anything to say about any great nation that isn't Iliatha.
You're a wizard...
Playing Lumineth is both beautifully straight forward and hideously complex. Everyone is a Wizard. The Spears stand and murder anything that gets into combat with them using mortal wounds, the Bows shoot anything that gets into line of sight or hides because the Lumineth have discovered gravity, the Horses charge stuff and in classic High Elf style get one turn of dangerous sword play before being torn to shreds. Everyone is a Wizard. If you want to hold an objective you sit cow-hammer Elves on it. Everyone is a Wizard. If you want to sink a huge amount of points into a massive cow-mountain-spirit-giant-hammer time you take one of them. Everyone is a Wizard.The mages support their respective troop type and the Spirit of Altharion is a murder machine with like zero synergy. Did I mention everyone is a Wizard except Altharion?
Then you get to the magic phase and oh gosh it's token time and rolling and choosing what you need to cast. Magic is where you win or lose a battle as the Lumineth. Do you move your spears forward at breakneck pace to grab an objective, hoping like anything enough units make their casting roll to offer mutual support? Do you tie up your opponents with sadness magic? Will your horses actually get a spell off at all or have you holding your head in your hands? Can you actually remember what all those tokens mean and when to apply their rules?
If you want solid and reliable magic to really bring a Lumineth force together and excel; you take Teclis. With his ability to auto-cast spells of eye watering power at a rate that makes Nagash jealous, Teclis is a stunning powerhouse of magical joy. Unfortunately he is Teclis so fuck that guy.
What the newly revealed models mean for playing Lumineth we shall have to wait and see. I absolutely must have Flying Fox Spirit and Goku mage regardless. Also Everyone is a Wizard.
In summary
The Lumineth are a showcase of beautiful and delicate models (how the heck do you transport 40 pikes safely?) that encompass the best of the Old World High Elves alongside the larger than life aesthetics of the Mortal Realms. Their hats bring joy to the world with their opulent plumes or cows. They tick all my boxes.
The lore is tantalising yet disordered and with both intentional and lazy gaps that I look forward to seeing filled out. With a bit of love and a lot of time the Lumineth background will inspire narratives and offer a refreshingly new personality to the noble Elf trope. With a continued focus on Teclis and a tendency to fall back on old ideas the Lumineth will be a disjointed mish-mash of conflicting ideals. I want the former but suspect the latter will be what we see moving forward. Already we see the facist/elf supremacist characters jumping up in fiction where callously murdering humans and looking down on them for having facial hair is somehow seen as interesting rather than overdone garbage. Did I say Iliatha is a Matriarchy? They won't do anything interesting with that in the writing department.
As for the rules. They are solid. Easy to learn, hard to master. Entirely fitting for an elite army of Elves. I can't offer any higher praise than that to be honest. A++.
I will continue to throw any money I can spare at every new Lumineth release from now until they blow up the Mortal Realms. They look gorgeous, have plenty of things for me to be angry about and play on the table in a way my mind can comprehend. Teclis needs his head kicked in.
