Lumineth Aesthetics

[Aloth_Corfiser]

Since there was such a heated debate in the Rumour Thread, I wanted to create this poll to see what you are all thinking. 

I have followed the whole Lumineth debate quite closely. I know it has been discussed to death maybe, so I'll apologize beforehand if I offend anyone. Also I do not intend to step on anyone's toes and create a topic that derails into senseless arguing. It's just that I like the occasional poll. 
The release was a long journey and people were intrigued or gave up on the way - that's the reason for my arbitrary categories. 😄

However, since I have myself parted with the Army, I would like to see your opinions. Especially if you are / were a Lumineth Player.

[Sance]

As a new player I wanted to build an Aelf army.

I used to collect High Elves and Sylvan Elves in Warhammer Fantasy 6th when I was a kid. I play Elves all the time in Total War Warhammer.

Getting into AoS i wanted an army with 100% new sculpts. I waited the Lumineth release to pick which one (DoK, Idoneth, Lumineth). I was very impressed by the models, yes including the Cow with hammer dude, the only model i dont like is the stonemage. Tyrion missing was an issue for me, he was my favourite character when i was a kid.

But Idoneth have sharks and eels.

Sharks > Cows

Eels > Horses

It was an easy choice, Idoneth are the obvious better looking Aelves army.

I'm still gona buy Eltharion and Dawnriders one day just for painting

[Enoby]

I collected a few of them, but the price put me off going any more than 1000 points. I don't mind the cows and I like the other stuff, but their price isn't justified for the amount I like them

[Baron Klatz]

Needs "I wasn't hot on the army until the battle cattle arrived" to balance it out.

(Certainly was my stance on it. Living armor was good but bull helm priests & walking mountains are glorious.)

[Aloth_Corfiser]

9 minutes ago, Sance said:

As a new player I wanted to build an Aelf army.

Yeah I was also always in it for the Aelf-Armies.

I almost started Idoneth when they came out, however there was this 50% split for me where I didn't like half the Models but really liked the others. 

When Lumineth Came out I was hyped! It saddened me to see people not liking the release. The Battle Cattle, Eltharion and Teclis were not for me - I bought  the whole Box anyway, because I like the basic troops that much. After a few months of assembling and painting I quit it. Because I discovered that I ddidn't like the assembly of the Models and the Lore that much (If that makes sense).
Now I have moved on from Aelves.

[Fulkes]

I'm in the "interested in collecting them in the future" camp. At the moment my attention is on Deepkin but I do like the Lumineth concepts and will be picking them up in the future. For now though: rolly polly fish elves.

[Dreadmund]

I like them, I own 2000pts worth and I will be getting more. I never played WHFB, so I don't feel any connection to old elves.

[Lord of the Isle]

General aelf fancier here with eclectic old fantasy appetites. Currently going Cities / mixed order but interested in lore and especially like Cathallar

[Aelfric]

I collected Dark Elves pre-AOS.  When AOS dropped, it seemed that I could now play an army of any type of Aelf, which was amazingly freeing, so I collected a Wanderers army and made a start on High Aelves.  I did a bit of dabbling with Idoneth, but haven't really expanded on the old Witch Elves I have.  The Cities book came along and gave my Aelves a home, which is nice.  Since AOS launched its Battletomes, though, I have been waiting for an Aelf faction that is embedded in the new lore and when Lumineth came along it ticked all the boxes for me, lore-wise and model-wise.  So here I am, totally committed and hoping the faction will slow-grow for years to come to give me lots of hobby pleasure. 

If the Umbraneth had come along first, I'd no doubt be waxing lyrical about them.  When it comes to Aelves and me, GW are preaching to one of the converted  .

[Jeremierty]

I started AoS with 1250 points of Golden boys but felt they were quite weak and not that interesting to play (at least currently, I am still waiting impatiently the next BT ! )

Then I had a huge crush on Katakros and his ossiarchs so I built a 2000 point army buying 1 kit of each. I am still in love with the ossiarchs as their slow relentless legion dynamic is awesome looking on the table  but as I reached 2000 points I was searching to begin a new army and Lumineth came.

At first I fell in love with the wardens pikemen that reminded me the mortek guards and looked so damn cool! But I was really not so thrilled by the very bland and uninspired archers and cavalry  But then I saw eltharion that is one of the coolest mini I own and the war cows... I was surprised at first by the cows but they grew on me and now that I've painted one alarith spirit it is one of my favourite models ! It is really the elemental aspects (and the interesting gameplay associated with it ) that make the Lumineth interesting for me.

So as I'm still collecting and playing lumineth I'm very pleased with the cow part and super duper excited by the wind part coming in, the cloud riders and the camel cavalry looks like they are going to be incredible ! Especially if they also include the fox archer spirit ! I just wish they would give a bit more synergies between the different temples and find a way to play Tyrion and Teclis together. 

With regards to the lore I find it very interesting and I am very pleased to see it getting developed more and more !

Sorry for the long post but I thought I would be good to show some positivity ❤️

[Charleston]

For me it somehow evolved over time:
On first glance I tought the models look odd. Cow-Helmets, Sauna-Hat-Archers, Giant-Cow-on-Spider-legs and so on. 
With time, I got used to most of these and found conversions for the worst offenders. And Lumineth also provide all that I desire in an army: Units With Bows, nice Cavallery, big monsters, outstanding heroes, base troop infantery that seemingly matters and looks awesome (wardens).

Right now I really concider Lumineth as next Army-Project.

[Chikout]

The battle cattle is my favourite part of the Lumineth army. I was disappointed that so few kits were in the original release so I didn't start the army. But now with a least one more temple and hopefully another spirit on the way soon I am interested again.

 

[Doko]

Im a fantasy elfs lover,so this blind elfs riding fish,50%elf50%tree,half snake elfs,and now this half cow elfs are ugly TO ME. 

Easy fix,im buying old elfs(dark elf,wanderers,high elfs) and playing citys of sigmar

[Greybeard86]

May I suggest a different poll?

Do you like Lumineth: yes/no then reasons in the post.

The current version is a tad convoluted.

Personally, I do not like the aesthetics, but I did not like classic HE either. I am looking forward to Kurnothi, though!

[NotAWzrd]

I much prefer Teclis’s first attempts at Aelves over the Lumineth (Idoneth and Kharadron Overlords have captured my attention more than standard fantasy dwarves and elves ever could) but Eltharion, the Dawnriders and all the Mountain aligned units are great. It’s actually the wardens and the sentinels that I don’t like as much, mainly due to them being so static and regimented in comparison.

[Saturmorn Carvilli]

I am a big fan of the Lumineth aesthetic.

I like the more traditional holy trinity of rank and file (line, cavalry and archers) of the Vanari, and I adore the Alarith even more.  The Alarith are a rare instance of sophisticated elegance not usually given to fantasy four core elements: earth.  As for the teasers, there isn't much to work with, but I lean toward enjoying them more than not with what little of their is revealed.

That's what I like about the Lumineth.  Even with such a small collection of models, they cover the standard fantasy army units while at the same time they include some of the more daring models of all of AoS that attempt to distance itself from generic fantasy.  So the faction can both have its feet on the ground while also having its head in the clouds.  Literally, when that cloud riding model is released. 

 

My big concern is that the Lumineth is a highly compartmentalized faction consisting of at least six elements (Teclis, Mountain, Cloud, River, Zenith and Tyrion) at its conception.  While I am sure the faction will retain some cohesion, it may very much feel like a mini-Grand Alliance of aevles.   I get the feeling that each elemental aspect is likely going to be rather thin and consists of about 3-5 units in total (about what the Alarith have now).  On the other hand, I think the Teclis and Tyrion elements could be expanded to be rather robust parts if not separate but at very least when combined.

So that extreme I enjoy may prove to make them somewhat irritating to other players at least in terms of potential model releases.  I personally have no doubt that the Lumineth will become a popular faction as more high elf throw-back units materialize.  I am concerned that this may lead to elemental aspects falling to wayside though.  All the while, annoying other faction players as they perceive the Lumineth hogging more than its fair share of model releases.  Which is already happening despite the Lumineth having a notably small initail release.

[Bosskelot]

I'm very much 50/50 on them. I think the Lumineth are one of the best examples of GW's weird schizophrenic approach to AOS visual design where you can see the obvious start of the idea and then someone came in and tried to make it more "different" and things go off the rails a little bit. The idea of being "different" and "unique" not only leads to some real misses but as is often the case the attempt just makes them look derivative of something else still.

The Vanari stuff is basically all a slamdunk success and Eltharion is wonderful as well. The decision to vaguely ancient Greek or Minoan with some of the visuals really works too, although some of the lack of variety in poses for the Archers is a shame.

The cow stuff is where a lot of it falls apart and in many ways the individual models are 50/50 themselves.  Big cow boys have elements that work very well, only for the legs and mallet to make the entire thing fall apart. The mountain shoulder pads are a bit too obvious and goofy looking too. The stoneguard have some wonderful poses and excellent torsos, only for those mallets to show up again and some of the worst helmet designs I think I've ever seen on models. This isn't me saying Elves shouldn't use cows or bull elements in visual design, or even that they shouldn't use "heavier" armaments and armour. But you only have to look at GW's past attempts at how they've absolutely nailed it previously. White Lions are a very similar idea and executed perfectly well, most of the 40k Aspect Warriors are brilliantly executed and utilize design elements that aren't your typical "Elf" aesthetic. Elves that worship elemental Earth spirits that take the form of giant Bulls? Awesome idea in concept. That doesn't mean they should be given croquet mallets and idiotic helmets. And it's not like there aren't previous models and designs that utilize horns much better. But again, I have a feeling there was an attempt internally to be like "avoid as MUCH of WHFB as possible in design, even the good ideas, just do everything the opposite." (but of course they'll still use character names to score lazy nostalgia points)

The character models are almost all perfect examples of interesting ideas with a pretty bad execution. Everything about the Cathallar's sculpt kind of falls flat, where so much effort was put into showing how GW can do cloth effects on faces that the designers forgot to make the rest of the model look coherent or have a good pose or not have that nonsense giant metal thing she's got around and her waist and back. I get the idea and vibe behind the Stonemage, and he is overall "okay", but it's definitely a sculpt that's missing something. Another example of a horned helmet not being done well too. The less said about Teclis himself the better. Shockingly bad work which is weird because Celennar looks great. 50/50 again.

And the funniest thing about the Lumineth, the Vanari stuff primarily, is that they end up sharing more design cues and aesthetic similarities with the New Line LOTR Elves than High Elves ever did.

[ian0delond]

Mostly hits. I think it helps to remind yourself that they are not high elves. Like Venician during the Renaissance were not from the Roman Empire who were not Antic Greeks.

The stonemage is dope. Really don't care about the Stoneguard or the mountain giants, they never grew on me. 

Teclis didn't click when introduced. Seeing him from other angles and real life he is actually an extremely impressive sculpt. He is one of those model that reminds you that you are not actually supposed to look at a model on picture taken at eye level but 45° degree top down on a table.

I don't collect, cause I can't buy every cool new armies.

Edited January 3, 2021 by ian0delond

[Gecktron]

5 hours ago, Baron Klatz said:

Needs "I wasn't hot on the army until the battle cattle arrived" to balance it out.

(Certainly was my stance on it. Living armor was good but bull helm priests & walking mountains are glorious.)

Im in the exact same boat! I collected High Elves back during Fantasy times (sold them a bit before the End Times). So I had enough of basic archers, spearmen and cav.
At first I thought they played it a little too save but then they showed the Alarith and they have really grown on me. Especially the Mountain spirits (currently painting my second one haha). The elemental and spirit theme really hooked me in and I want to focus on that with my collection, but a few Vanari here and there dont hurt either. 

[Lavieth]

I think the model range is fantastic  and I love the Alarith minis as well. I dont understand why so many people have an issue with their helmets. They are distinctive and make them stand out. Honestly, I fell they are a nice call back to the Phoenix Guard, who, may I add also have overly large helmets that represents their temple.  But I dont hear anyone  complaining about those models

[LordAlpharius]

I really like all the aspects of the current range (both alarith and vanari), and would not regard the dissapointment  voiced by a few  dozen people on the internet as an indiction of wider displeasure with the Lumineth range (this forum is not in any way representative of the aos fanbase after all). 

[PUFNSTUF]

The two reveals make  me want to collect the army depending on their rules. I also like sentinel archers, but don't really like the current lists making the rounds so I hope these new models change up how they play a bit.

[LuminethMage]

17 hours ago, Aloth_Corfiser said:

Since there was such a heated debate in the Rumour Thread, I wanted to create this poll to see what you are all thinking. 

I have followed the whole Lumineth debate quite closely. I know it has been discussed to death maybe, so I'll apologize beforehand if I offend anyone. Also I do not intend to step on anyone's toes and create a topic that derails into senseless arguing. It's just that I like the occasional poll. 
The release was a long journey and people were intrigued or gave up on the way - that's the reason for my arbitrary categories. 😄

However, since I have myself parted with the Army, I would like to see your opinions. Especially if you are / were a Lumineth Player.

I think it would have been interesting if you'd added who got interested into the Lumineth because of the Alarith. I feel that discussion is too one-sided. And part of it is because there is a very vocal part of the community who really dislikes them to the point that people usually say sorry when they do like them. 

Edit: Sorry made the rookie mistake of not reading the comments before posting. So it's just to emphasize what others already said : )

Edited January 4, 2021 by LuminethMage

[Clan's Cynic]

I liked the first batch that were revealed, they felt a lot more grounded and a true spiritual successor to the High Elves.

Then the Moo Men started popping up and my interest sank. I'm also somebody who almost exclusively plays Dwarfs/Dwarves in these kind of games, so you can imagine the absolute fury that boils inside me every time I remember that Elves got hammerers and a mountain/stone theme.

 

Edited January 4, 2021 by Clan's Cynic

[RandyRyan]

I like the Spearmen, Cav, Eltharion, and the stone stuff has grown on me. Not a fan of Teclis or those weird multi-string bowmen. I'm more put off because they look tough to paint 🤷‍♂️ and at this point I'm waiting to see if Soulblight come out and how they look before committing to a non-Chaos army.

Edited January 4, 2021 by RandyRyan