High Elves......

So High Elves have been getting a lot of flak lately from what I can tell and I am curious to see if they are really that bad. No one can say until they play them of course but their book has a lot of nice little tricks and has the advantage in the magic item department from being an older book. The main thing that I can say it they are expensive, always have been, but in 8th its a bigger deal because of the changes to the game it self and size of armies.

So I made a couple of lists and may try them out after Colonial:

(Magic Heavy)

Archmage- 300
Lvl 4, Lore of Light or High Magic, Annualian Crystal

Archmage- 255
Lvl 3, Lore of Shadow, Seer Staff (Withering, Pit & Mindrazor)

Mage- 120
Lvl 1, Lore of Metal and Dispel Scroll

Noble- 168
BSB, Great Weapon, Armor of Caledor, Amulet of Light
and Luck Stone

24 Archers- 304
Command and Standard of Discipline

10 Archers- 115
Musician

10 Archers- 115
Musician

10 Archers- 115
Musician

14 Swordmasters- 238
Standard, Musician and
Banner of Eternal Flame

14 Sword masters- 228
Standard and Musician

13 Phoenix Guard- 300
Full Command, Banner of Sorcery
and Skein Sliver

Great Eagle- 50

Bolt Thrower- 100

Bolt Thrower- 100

I personally love my High Elves! My only gripe with them is their relatively low Strength and Toughness for armies with such high point costs (what we pay for LSG will pretty much net you a Chaos Warrior).

I do have a couple questions about your list as is.
- Why do you take only 13 Phoenix Guard? Even with a 4++ ward and Ld9, I'd worry about Panic and losing combats.
- Have you considered dropping the Standard of Discipline or the Annulian Crystal and taking the Sigil of Asuryan on your Light/Metal mage? While it costs twice as much as the Dispel Scroll, it does carry a 50/50 chance of never having to deal with that spell again...

The list is meant to be small and elite. There is not much else you can do with high elves as they are so expensive.

There is only 13 because they will sit at the back and give me +D3 magic dice every turn and provide an additional +1 to see who goes first. Can also be a bunker for the mages but most likely they will be with the big block of archers until the enemy get close.

The Sigil is nice, but I dont roll to well and most likely I wont destroy the spell. The Crystal is a certain every turn and the Banner gives me LD 10 when the General is with them whcih helps my army.

The Sigil is good but I would prefer the scroll with the crystal as it is certain and it works for you in every turn not just once.

That's legit. Let me know how it does!

Sure will I might try and proxy it before the Colonial but we shall see.

White lions are infientaly better than swordmaster imo. I'd make the two swrodmaster units into a horde of 30 white lions.

Agree. Sword masters are the worst of the 3

Good thing is they all cost the same so to proxy is easy

White lions are good, but when you make them into one unit you loose flexablility. Stubborn is nice but I am not looking to get into prolonged combats. One unit can be tied up and redirected, its harder to do it to multiple units.

I like swordmasters because they have 2 attacks and when you combine the Shadow lore with them it gets ugly.

Again all personal preference, I just preder Swordmasters.

chinsquaz wrote:

Agree. Sword masters are the worst of the 3

I will have to disagree on that. All 3 have their uses but for the same points level none are terrible. I think everyone gets so caught up in the Stubborn of the Lions, but again more attacks with re-rolls at Str 5 should not be discounted by any means.

Str 6, improved shooting defense. Then keep the two small units of lions. The stubborn doesnt have to be prolonged combats to be useful. With the swordmasters you're paying points for attacks you cant use.

Well like I said different strokes for different folks. Your play style may be better suited with Lions and I prefer Swordmasters.

Fair enough, I'd love to play a few games against that list though so you can prove me wrong

(not trying to be sarcastic hah, I actually would like to play against it.)

Sure I will have to proxy it though. And believe me I am not saying that any unit or list I build is 100% the best, but I play with what I feel most comfortable with.

Did you play at the tournament this past weekend? What did you play, just trying to put a name to the poster.

I did, I was runninng skryre skaven. I'm the guy who wasn't tyler.

Congratz on the win by the way

Maybe on the 7th of april after the tourney we could have a game?

If you want to play this list sometime Joe, let me know. I own a good portion of it. All except the Bolt Throwers and Phoenix Guard, I think.

Re: Swordmasters vs White Lions. I'm with Joe. Swordmasters are crazy good. They may not be as good at anti-armor as the White Lions, but 2 attacks each makes them just about as good ...and better vs other units.

@W3- yeah as long as the tournament doesn't go too long I don't see why not.

@John- that would be awesome, I will hit you up when I am ready to test it out.

Awesome Joe, I'll post my list here when the date gets closer (it's only fair!)

No worries either way I actually like playing against the unknown. If you can beat lists tooled up to beat you then you can handle anything, at least that's my philosophy.

I won't tool, it'll be my planned 2500 pt skaven list.

Scooter approves of it, so you know it's gonna be evil

Well good, a solid list is always a good start.

joe good min maxing i like it! keep up the good ideas. and cant wait to see what dumb you bring at 1000

I've actually been working with Pip (MaverickKnight) on a competitive high elf list and i think we came up with something pretty good. It's still fairly magic heavy with 2 mages instead of 3 a unit of 5 dragon princes with the amulet of light and walk thru woods banner a horde of spears eagles and swordmasters.

I do agree with Joe sword masters are pretty awesome. you just have to be good with them in the movement phase and keep them a lttle better protected due only having a 5+. In all truthfulness thouigh the wound output should be about the same.

Joe I'm very curious to see how the MSU works in 8th. I've just had my doubts.