[Treelord Ancient - Autumn]

The unusual choice of colours works beautifully - the contrast of blue and orange really catches the eye!

Looking forward to see what you do next

[What's in Aesthetics]

A lot of interesting thoughts and analysis here. Speaking as a High elf player I think GW's treatment of the faction has been awful (I feel more incentive to rebase my Bretonnians than my High elves... if that doesn't suggest a problem I don't know what does), but I agree with many of your thoughts regarding the sub-factions.

I think the biggest problem is that there's simply too many to handle. It would take years to try and update even some of the aelf factions. IMO the best way forward would be to pick 2 or 3 of the ones with the most distinct themes - say, Scourge Privateers, Phoenix Temple, Lion Rangers, or Daughters of Khaine - and slot them for updates in the next 12-18 months. Everything else would be merged back into armies more like the old Dark/High elf armies, perhaps as Darkling Covens and Swifthawk Agents respectively.

It wouldn't be ideal, since there'd be some different aesthetics in the merged factions, but no more than the differences between vanilla and vanguard Stormcast. And of course some potentially interesting factions might miss out. However, it would make sure every aelf faction has the legs to stand on its own, which I think is more important given how unappealing they are and how few people seem to be playing them nowadays.

I'm not sure how much promise there is for many of the aelf factions though. What future does Order Draconis have when Stormcast have already gotten a bigger, better dragon and monstrous drake-like cavalry? Likewise for Lion Rangers and Vanguard Stormcast (and you just know we're going to see a Space Wolves equivalent Stormcast chamber at some point ). If there are new Cthulhu aelves coming, Scourge Privateers might find themselves redundant. And so on.

One final unit you didn't cover but is probably worth mentioning is the Sisters of the Watch. I'm still baffled that GW moved them to Wanderers when literally every high elf faction is desperately starved for units. The aesthetics of the models are very much high elven, too. They even have a fire motif for crying out loud - which doesn't exactly fit with the green leafy forest look of the Wanderers.

Personally I'd like to see them moved over to Phoenix Temple (aelfs with firebows in a fire themed faction? Madness I know). They fit perfectly aesthetically and would add some shooting to a defensive but currently melee only army. And at that point, Phoenix Temple would be dangerously close to a fully fleshed out faction - just add a couple of heroes and a basic battleline unit and you'd pretty much be done. It'll probably never happen though