WHFB Army Info and Tactics - New to WHFB? Read this! (New and Improved Thread)

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**The Shadow**

Hello all,

Welcome to the WHFB Army Info and Tactics Thread. This Thread contains (or will eventually contain, at least) a comprehensive guide to each and every army in the world of WHFB, featuring detailed Analysis on characters, units and items, as well as example lists and how best to get started. This is an excellent place to come if you're struggling to pick an army, or need help with a current one, and will hopefully answer any questions you may have.

Note that though these tactics and lists are usually a great guide, they are certainly not the only way you can play that certain army. We can give you advice, but you're never obliged to take it, if you don't want to.

So, please, have a read. Simply click on the Spoiler under the army's name to read all about it. I hope it helps!

NOTE: I need someone to help me with High Elf Analysis, since I'm not entirely keen on doing an entire army analysis by myself again. I also need people to update the WoC and Daemons Section, as it is still out of date. I also need people who will form a sort of "council" who will judge all lists we post here to make sure they're of good quality (PM if interested). On the subject of lists, if you have one, feel free to send it in.

Why the Updated Thread?

Spoiler:

Beastmen (BM)

Spoiler:

Bretonnia (BR)

Spoiler:

Daemons of Chaos ( DOC )

Spoiler:

Dark Elves (DE)

Spoiler:

Overall Army Style: Elite, High: Initiative Weapon Skill Ballistic Skill, Exotic Weaponry, Low Toughness Strength, Excels in Magic.
Battalion Purchase: 28 Dark Elf Warriors(Core) , 20 Corsairs(Core), 5 Cold One Knights(Special) $115 / $143.75 20% Off Bundled Savings.

Dark Elf Guide written by: The Shadow

Dark Elves Analysis

Intro and Overview

So, you’re considering starting Dark Elves, are you? Well, fortunately for you the Dark Elves are one of the best armies going in fantasy at the moment and are rewarding and forgiving to play, with plenty of various, viable list constructions. Provided you avoid being assassinated by your fellow Dark Elf Lords, your campaign into the Warhammer Fantasy World should be both successful and bloody!
Dark Elves are, if anything, a glass cannon army, though such a term is not often applied in WHFB. This means that, although Dark Elves dish out a lot of pain, they will take a lot in return too. Dark Elves are pretty much army-wide Toughness 3 and have quite low armour saves - the best you’re going to get on an infantry unit is only 5+, with a parry save. Fortunately, Dark Elves have numerous positive army-wide traits. First and foremost, there’s the awesome special rule “Eternal Hatred” which gives every unit hatred of everything. This means you’ll always be re-rolling to hit on the first round of combat, which, coupled with the fact that Dark Elves tend to dish out lots of attacks, is really devastating. Don’t worry if you keep forgetting about this rule at first, everyone does. The general profile of a Dark Elf is also pretty good. All Dark Elves are fast, at least Initiative 5, if not 6. This means they’ll be striking first in the vast majority of combats, which is a good thing too, since, as I’ve mentioned, the Dark Elves aren’t great at taking hits. Dark Elves are also fairly skilled in terms of WS and BS, with each unit having at least 4 of each. Finally, Dark Elves have an above-average Movement of 5 which is great help in the Movement Phase.

Best Way to Start

For most people, the best way to start is the following: One Battalion Box, one Box of Warriors, one Box of Corsairs and a Sorceress. With the ideal assembling of the Warriors Box, this gives you 24 Spearmen, 20 Crossbow men, 30 Corsairs, 5 Cold One Knights and a Sorceress, which is a fantastic start to any list. All of this costs £114.50 direct from GW, and you can get a decent 20% off from most independent online retailers, which puts the whole lot at £91.60. Other, themed lists, may start in different ways.

General Phase Overview

Dark Elves are predominant in all phases of the game, which is what makes them such a great army in terms of balance and trying out different list compositions. Unlike armies such as Dwarves or Warriors of Chaos, they don’t rely on a certain phase in which to do their damage. This also makes Dark Elves a fantastic beginners army, as you’ll feature predominantly in each phase, so you’ll pick up the game quickly.

Movement is a good phase for Dark Elves because, as I’ve mentioned, Dark Elves have a Movement of 5, which allows you to close with the enemy quickly or outmanoeuvre them. Speaking of outmanoeuvring, Dark Elves have access to fantastic Fast Cavalry and Skirmishers in the form of Dark Riders and Shades, which can really run rings around your opponent.

Despite the fact that Dark Elves are good in all phases, Magic is still a stand-out phase for Dark Elves. Dark Elves have a good selection of Lores to choose from: Dark Magic, Fire, Metal, Shadow and Death and great casters and items to make the most of these. For example, in WHFB, wizards are normally limited to six dice for casting a spell. Dark Elves, however, have no such limits. Do you really need to get that certain spell off to win the game? Is your opponent standing there with a smile on his face and seven dispel dice in his hand? Never mind, throw every single one of your dice into the spell. You have twelve? Doesn’t matter, go for it. If you can’t get 2 sixes on that many dice, throw them in the bin. Finally, Dark Elves have some fantastic Magic Items available to make the most of the Magic Phase. It is usually through Magical support that Dark Elves can destroy their opponents as well as they do.

Despite the fact that Dark Elves have very few “shooty” units, the shooting phase is normally a good one. The vast majority of your shooting phase will be made up of firing the fantastic Repeater Crossbow. Its large output of shots, coupled with the Armour Piercing Special Rule, make a mess of lightly armoured targets.

Dark Elves have fantastic combat units, ranging from the humble Corsair to the mighty Hydra. There’s plenty of choice here and, although there are stand-out units, pretty much any combat unit can make a mess of stuff in the phase, and, provided you learn the skill required to make favourable matchups and cast the right spells here and there, it’s not uncommon to utterly annihilate the opposing unit before they even have chance to strike.

Army Sections Overview

The Lords and Heroes of the Dark Elves are very good and there’s plenty to choose from. Although you’ll mostly be using good ol’ Sorceresses, there’s plenty of other options and some nifty Special Characters too.

Core is arguably the most important section in an Army as you have to spend a quarter of your points on it. Thankfully, this is no curse for the Dark Elves as Dark Elf core is among the best in the game and every single unit in the Core Section has a place on any Dark Elf list. You’re almost spoilt for choice and Dark Elf Players won’t mind spending a lot over that 25% of obligatory core.

Special Units are also a good thing for Dark Elves though, on the contrary to core, in the case of most units, you can’t just simply pick them up and plonk them in an army list. Many need to have an Army built around them, but will function very effectively if this is done.

It goes without saying that there’s not much choice in the Rare Section. Furthermore, half of the Rare section is brilliant, half is bad, so often you may find yourself not using any Rare at all. The Hydra is the brilliant unit and is feared by all WHFB players – well, ones that don’t have flaming cannons that is – but the Repeater Bolt Thrower is sadly lacklustre.

Unit Analysis

In this section, I’ll be analysing each Dark Elf Unit, saying how good it is and how it can or should be used. Feel free to skip the units you’re not interested in.

Special Characters

Malekith

Malekith, the chap to whom the Dark Elves owe their existence… Malekith is very expensive. At 600 Points, you can just squeeze him into the standard sized game, but you will rarely ever do so. Malekith is cool and fun to use, especially mounted on a Black Dragon or Chariot, but he’s rarely taken, as he is, sadly, not that good. Whilst Malekith is a Level 4 Wizard, which is cool, he’s limited to using the Lore of Dark Magic which, with the new edition, is an underwhelming Lore (see the Lore Anlaysis below for more details). Also, although Malekith has 4 WS8, I8, S5 Attacks, he’s not going to be killing that much in combat either. He does have a nifty sword which destroys Magic Items and Spells but what you really want with a character such as this is a beat-stick weapon! Oddly though, Malekith is very, very difficult to kill. He holds the record of being the only Elf in the book with a Toughness that isn’t 3. That’s right, he has a whopping T4!! That, however, is not where his durability ends. He has a 2+ Ward save and is immune to Killing Blow and Multiple Wounds. His ward save, is, however, negated by Magical Attacks, but if you think that Magic will take him down think again. He has Magic Resistance (2) and if you dispel a spell cast against him, the Wizard suffers a S6 Hit for every dice used to cast the spell. Ouch.
In summary then, Malekith is cool, but, save for massive get-together and lark-around games, you’ll normally leave him at home.

Morathi

Morathi suffers from one of the main flaws that her son has: she has to use Dark Magic and even being a Loremaster of said Lore cannot offset this disadvantage. That said, Morathi is a powerful caster, being a Level 4 and getting an extra +1 bonus for casting spells. Unlike most other Special Characters, you can kit her out with one Arcane and Enchanted item, which means you can make her even nastier. Morathi is also pretty mobile on her Dark Pegasus and is fairly durable with a 4+ Ward and MR (2). She’s even not that bad in combat, thanks to the Magic Weapons she has access to.
In summary, Morathi’s not actually a bad Special Character but generally you’ll want to go for a generic Sorceress who is not only cheaper, but can use better spells.

Crone Hellebron

Hellebron is a character of extremes. She’s the epitome of the Dark Elf concept of dealing out pain but not taking it. She kicks out 5+D3 WS7 I9 S10 Attacks but is Toughness 3 with absolutely no saves of any kind. Crone Hellebron also has the unique ability to make Witch Elves Core units, which just screams a thematic army list. Even if you don’t go down that path, a horde of Witch Elves accompanied by Hellebron is pretty scary, and it frees up plenty of space for other Special Units. That horde of Witch Elves is also relatively safe against the “Uber-Spells” of 8th Edition, such as Dwellers below, as the first spell cast on Hellebron’s unit is dispelled on a roll of 4+, which is a nifty, often-overlooked ability.
In summary, if you’re ever going to take a Special Character, it will probably be Hellebron as she is, imo, the best one about. She kicks out a lot of pain and makes for an excellent leader of an army, be it thematic or not.

Malus Darkblade

Malus Darkblade is another pretty cool Special Character and, if you’re that kind of gamer, he has awesome fluff. Malus has the advantage of being relatively cheap compared to other characters, and isn’t a Lord, so you can leave that for space for that Level 4 Supreme Sorceress. Malus is also pretty brutal with 4 WS7 I9 S5 Attacks that re-roll to wound and ignore armour saves. Bear in mind though that you have to activate a Daemon to do this, and doing so may cause Malus to attacks his friends. Or comrades. That would be a better word. Activating said Daemon also makes Malus T5 (doesn’t count for beating Malekith’s record though ) but sadly Malus has no Ward Save and only 2 Wounds, so he’s not as durable as he might seem.
In summary, Malus is another nice character you can take, especially if you want an army themed around awesome fluff. However, you do really have to stick him with a unit of Cold Ones, which will likely be very expensive already. Eggs in a basket…

Shadowblade

Shadowblade has the unique ability to conceal himself. In one of your opponent’s units. If you want a character to die, especially a bunkered Mage, then Shadowblade is often the man for the job. He has high stats, numerous nifty poisons and items as well as the all-important Killing Blow. Sadly, like with most Assassin’s, he doesn’t have much to do after he’s accomplished his task, so is often expensive for what he does. However, unlike normal assassins, Shadowblade is almost certain to actually do his job. Oh, and, if you’re interested, Shadowblade is one of the quickest things in the game, with an Intiative of 10 and ASF.

Lokhir Fellheart

Lokhir’s another character that makes for a great themed army, namely a Raiding Ark. Such an army is actually quite strong and competitive as well with, in fact, only Lokhir himself letting them down. Which brings me onto Lokhir himself and, as you may have guessed, he isn’t competitive, but he’s by no means something you’d leave at home – he’s also a Hero, which means you can get that Level 4 in again. Lokhir is not good at taking down big, heavily armoured, tough things but neither are Corsairs – the obvious retinue – so Lokhir compliments them very nicely. He has a bonus to his attacks equal to the number of ranks the enemy unit he’s attacking has – take that, Skavenslaves! - and can re-roll to Wound, as well as the re-rolls to hit from Hatred. All this means that he will shred his way through large, lightly armoured units. Lokhir’s real prowess comes in the Merciless Slaver special rule, which means any unit run down by Lokhir’s unit are worth double victory points. Combine this with Corsairs and some Magic and you can easily bag yourself lots of victory points. Lokhir also causes Terror, which is pretty cool.
In summary, Lokhir is another good special character who is brilliant for themed lists but is still quite costly.

Generic Characters

Sorceresses

Sorceresses are brilliant and every Dark Elf Army should include one. Their Magic-casting prowess, along with the brilliant synergy that Magic has with the army means you’d be foolish not to take a Sorceress. Get a Supreme one in as soon as you can!

Dreadlords

Dreadlords are not bad, not by a long shot. Despite this, they’re rarely seen, simply because of the brilliance of Supreme Sorceresses who compete for the Lord slot and the fact that Magic is so prevalent in this edition. There is one great reason to take a Dreadlord though and that is the “Unkillable-Dreadlord” or “PegLord” combo. That is, a Dreadlord on Pegasus with full mundane armour, the Dragonhelm, the Pendant of Khaelth, the Crown of Command and a cheap Magic Weapon, usually Soulrender. This load-out is nigh impossible to take down and can go around taking on whole units by itself.

Masters

Similarly to Dreadlords, Masters face competition from standard Sorceresses for a Hero Slot. That said, they can make excellent BSB, adding great bonuses to certain units and can provide a bit of extra combat punch if you feel you need it. Normally, however, you won’t be taking a Master unless he has a BSB.

Death Hag

There’s two reasons you’ll ever take a Death Hag. The first I’ll explain in the Executioners entry, the second I’ll explain now, using three words: Cauldron of Blood. Oh, and BSB. Yes, I’ve gone over three, but I planned to do so anyway. As you may have guessed, it is the Cauldron which makes Hags so good. The Cauldron can confer a blessing to a single unit within 24” and these cannot be stopped in any way. They all synergise really well with the Dark Elf units and make for some brutal combats. They’re also great for Khanite themed armies, as they make all of them within 12” Stubborn. A common tactic is to give the Hag the BSB. Not only is the BSB an-almost essential item, it’s very well protected with a Cauldron. The Cauldron counts as a Warmachine, which makes it hard to take down with shooting and, if anything should get into combat with it, they’ll have to face numerous poisoned attacks from the attendants. You can give your Hag some gifts of Khaine to make it even better protected, if you want.

A Note on Character Mounts

You’ll very rarely find yourself using any of the big mounts, purely because cannons are just too accurate this edition and the big beasties are, sadly, too much of a target. The Pegasus and Dark Steed are, however, quite useful due to their mobility and are common mounts for sorceresses rocking the Pendant of Khaelth and wanting some decent mobility. The Cold One is a good option for any Master or Dreadlord wanting to add some extra punch to a Cold One Unit.

Core Units

Whether you like it or not, you are going to have to spend at least 25% of your points on Core units. For many armies, this can be a burden but for Dark Elves it is anything but. Dark Elves have access to fantastic core units and you’ll often find yourself spending over that 25% necessity.

Spearmen

Spearmen are the standard foot solider for the Dark Elf army and, thankfully, they’re a pretty good choice. While they’re often outshone by other core choices, the Spearmen have plenty of uses. Coming in at a mere 7 points (you’ll be wanting those shields), it’s not hard to fit in a sizeable unit you can use as a tarpit or as war machine protection. However, you have to remember that they’re only T3 with a 5+ save so, if you’re going to be tanking anything, you need the numbers to pull it off. Spearmen aren’t that bad in combat either, thanks to a decent WS, Initiative and Hatred. With the help of some magic, they can be very damaging indeed. Finally, in classic Dark Elf fashion, Spearmen are excellent choices for a Sorceress with the Sacrificial dagger. I’ll touch on this item later but the basics are: kill some spearmen, get some magic!

Repeater Crossbowmen

Repeater Crossbowmen are another fantastic unit to load up on. Their high volume of armour piercing shots make a mess of any lightly-armoured targets (and aren’t exactly friendly on heavily armour ones either). In addition, Dark Elf magic, by taking the Lore of Shadow, synergises brilliantly with Crossbowmen, as they really benefit from the potential toughness drop of their enemies. Don’t underestimate Crossbowmen in combat either. In combat they’re actually the most durable infantry unit, if you give them shields, thanks to the 5+ save and the Parry Save. Dark Elf Armies do excel in combat though, so, although taking plenty of Crossbows is no bad thing, I’d make sure you have some decent combat units in your army too.

Corsairs

Corsairs are one of the best units in the book and they’re certainly the best core choice. However, this brilliance is granted mostly by the Sea Serpent Banner which, for only 25 points, gives the entire unit frenzy. The best setup for the Corsairs is a unit of 30-40, deployed as a horde, with extra hand weapons and the aforementioned banner. This unit puts out an insane amount of attacks and, with support from a Cauldron or Magic, they can take out almost anything. Most good DE armies have one of these units but, because you can only take the Sea Serpent Banner once, it’s not often you’ll see a second.

Dark Riders

Dark Riders are among the best fast cavalry in the game. They’re very fast, can put out a lot of shots with Repeater Crossbows and with Eternal Hatred, they hit fairly hard in combat as well. However, they still struggle finding a place in most DE armies, since there are simply better units out there. Finally, many of their roles are covered by other units or are simply not necessary. For example, one of the roles of fast cavalry is to avoid unfavourable combats, but Dark Elves can win most combat with the right support. Despite this, Dark Riders are still a great unit to take.

Harpies

Harpies really only have one role and that’s to take out war machines. They can do some of the stuff Dark Riders do too, but Dark Riders are far better at it. If you’re struggling with war machines, take a small unit of harpies. They’ll make a mess of any war machine crew they face and they’re cheap enough to be expendable.

Special

Witch Elves

Witch Elves are by no means bad, although, usually, you will find yourself running other units. If you’re going with Witch Elves they need to be run in large numbers. Hordes of 40+. They’re T3 with no save, so will fall very easily. Witch Elves are best having an army list built around them, possibly with the aforementioned Crone Hellebron. However, on the other hand, Witch Elves do have a use as small units of 5. A steal at only 50 points, they’re great for guarding important units (i.e. that crossbow unit with your sorceress in) since the high volume of attacks they put out is more than enough to slay most chaff units.

Shades

Shades are a great unit that have a place in almost any list. Being a somewhat tricky unit type, they do take time to perfect, but once this is done, you can stick them in any list and they will perform effectively. They’re fantastic War Machine hunters, able to put out a lot of shots/attacks at both range and in combat. They’re more than capable of taking out any chaff units and can even take on smaller, lightly armoured units. All this comes with the added benefits and annoyances for your opponent of being Skirmishers!

Executioners

Executioners really need a list built around them. They need to be fielded in a horde of 30+ models, accompanied by a BSB Hag with the Banner of Hag Graef , which will give them ASF and therefore counteract the burden of their GWs. However, it’s a lot of points to put into a unit, and said unit can often be underwhelming. They need a lot of support to work well (for example, +1 Attack from a Cauldron) and therefore your army can end up lacking in other places. Again, by no means bad, but not something you can stick in your list and have it kill stuff.

Cold One Knights

Cold One Knights are not brilliant, but they do fall into the category of “very good”, and can be fielded in two ways, making them fairly easy to fit in any list. This first is a unit of 5, with no upgrades except a Musician. Such a unit is fairly cheap, and puts out 5 WS5 S6 hits with re-rolls and another 5 WS3 S4 hits. It’s an excellent flanking unit, and can often swing the balance in a close fought combat with a well-timed flank charge. They also have the added benefit of being pretty hard to take out, with that 2+ Armour save. Your opponent is going to have to seriously commit to taking them out, or let you roam free with them.

The second way to run Cold Ones is in what is known as the “Cold One Bus”. This consists of a unit of 14/15 Cold Ones (though 9/10 can work also) accompanied by a BSB Master with the Hydra Banner, which gives every model in the unit +1 Attack (even the Cold Ones). The unit is normally deployed 6 wide and such a formation churns out 4 WS6 S6 attacks with re-rolls (from the Master), 16 or 17 (depending on whether you take a champ or not) WS5 S6 attacks with re-rolls and 12 WS3 S4 attacks. That is going to put a serious dent in any unit and you can further increase the killing potential in other means, such as the Cauldron of Blood’s blessings. However, this method is very much “putting your eggs in one basket”. It’s a very expensive unit and will attract a lot of fire. You’ve got to make sure they get stuck in, and get stuck in fast.

Cold One Chariot

In my opinion, the Cold One Chariot is a seriously underrated unit. For a mere 100 points, you get a durable chariot with T5, 4 wounds and a 3+ Save as well as D6+1 S5 impact hits, and 2 WS5 S5 attacks with re-rolls and 2 WS3 S4 attacks on the charge. The crew even have repeater crossbows! The Cold One Chariot can dish out a lot of pain on the charge, and is an excellent unit to swing round the flank, or go with a combo charge. Combo charging is certainly the way to go as, being a Chariot, this unit suffers from its inability to do any significant harm when it has not charged, so make sure you don’t get bogged down by a large, steadfast unit of infantry!

Black Guard

Black Guard are a fantastic unit, and compete for the title of “best unit in the book”. They dish out a large number of high WS, decent Strength hits and will do so with re-rolls and probably before the enemy can strike. They even get re-rolls in subsequent rounds of combat. Adding the Banner of Murder (or the Razor Banner if you have two units) to the unit is a common tactic, and can real help augment the amount of pain they dish out. Black Guard also come with some, other, neat, often over-looked toys, such as ItP and Stubborn. However, Black Guard have two shortcomings. One is their saddening unit size limit of only 20 models and the other is the fact that they’re still only T3 with a 5+ save. Whilst the latter is a general DE problem, it’s all the more worrying since Black Guard will attract more fire and have more to lose. Black Guard are best supported with Magic. A simple “Withering” spell on the Black Guard’s opponent can spell doom for your unfortunate opponent. Remember that BG still strike at only S4, which is only wounding many things on a 4+. If you can decrease that to a 2+, or even a 3+, the Black Guard will kill enemies in droves. However, a unit or two of Black Guard can fit in most lists and, if you can get them into combat (one should do, if you take two units), then you’ll be sure to see why I sing their praises.

Rare

Repeater Bolt Thrower

As I’ve mentioned, the RBT is not a great choice. Whilst it does kick out a nice amount of damage, it’s pretty expensive for what it does. I’d rather have 10 Crossbowmen, or another 10 Corsairs. Moving on…

War Hydra

Ah, the infamous War Hydra. This many-headed malice is another unit that competes for the glory of being the best unit in the book and it’s not hard to see why. For a clearly undercoated 175 points, you get a very durable monster: T5, 5 Wounds, 4+ Save and Regeneration. It kicks out an insane amount of damage, with 7 (yes, seven) WS4 S5 attacks, with re-rolls (yes, it has Eternal Hatred too). And then you have Thunderstomp. Oh, and a Breath Weapon, which has a Strength equal to the Hydra’s remaining wounds which, if you’re lucky, is S5. Yep, another 2D6 S5 hits in combat please. And then we have the Beastmasters. Heck, even they’re pretty decent in combat.
However, despite the Hydra’s obvious awesomeness, it does suffer from being a colossal fire magnet. If you have a Hydra and your opponent has any Cannons or Bolt Throwers, he will be firing at the Hydra, since there are virtually no other decent targets for war machines in the army book. Added to the fact that the often-present “hey look I have the flaming attacks banner” unit, Hydras can often find themselves blown to pieces before they can make an impact. Such an outcome is not so bad however, since the rest of your army will have advanced largely unscathed. However, for this reason, taking more than one Hydra is often unadvised. As the old adage goes “If your opponent can take out one, he can take out several.” 175 points is not a big deal to lose. 350, or 525, is.

Magic Items and Gifts Analysis

Gifts of Khaine

While, in general, the gifts of Khaine aren’t bad, you’ll hardly ever use them since you don’t need to. You can only take them on Hags, Assassins and Witch Elf Champions. The former is the most likely to make the most of the gifts, to make your Cauldron of Blood even harder to overcome in combat. For this, the Rune of Khaine is a must, and Manbane and Touch of Death can really help too. However, the points are better spent elsewhere. Secondly, you shouldn’t really be taking Assassins though if you do, Touch of Death is a must, since it helps the Assassin do his job much better. Again, Rune of Khaine and Manbane are very useful. Witch Elf champions should never really use any except Rune of Khaine and even then, you might question if it’d be better to have more models in the unit.

Enchanted Items

You’ll want to stay away from this section, most of the time. The items on offer are all fairly underwhelming, and the rulebook offers a better selection of Enchanted Items. The one exception would be the Guiding Eye. For a Sorceress (perhaps with Lifetaker), bunkered in a large unit of crossbows, this could come in very handy indeed.

Magic Weapons

Once again, Magic Weapons don’t see that much use in a Dark Elf army though that can largely be attributed to the fact that Sorceresses are taken far more frequently over their close-combat orientated counterparts. Even if you do take a combat Hero/Lord, these Magic Weapons face competition from the simple rulebook ones that will simply up your strength, getting around the Elf Hero/Lords’ underwhelming strength of 4.
That said, there are a few worth mentioning. Lifetaker will see the most use, especially as it can be taken by Sorceresses with the same effect as with Dreadlords. 30 points for a 30” S4 Weapon that fires 3 shots and ALWAYS hits on 2s is not bad at all. Deathpiercer and Caledor’s Bane are all worth considering if you are taking a Master/Dreadlord mounted on a Cold One. However, as with most Elf characters, you should prioritise loading out of defence first. Soulrender is the weapon of choice for PegLords and the Executioner’s Axe, though expensive, does have a niche when equipped by a Dreadlord in a unit of executioners with an ASF Banner BSB.

Magic Armour

Again, this section faces competition from the Armour in the rulebook, but there are a few nice pieces of kit in this section. The Armour of Eternal Servitude is particularly nice and, effectively, gives you a 4++ for 15pts cheaper than you can get it on Armour in the rulebook. You’ll rue the day you come against a character with flaming attacks though! Finally, the Shield of Ghrond is a nice item, as it can make your character quite survivable indeed. Watch out for tooled-up CC Characters though, even with the -1 S Penalty, they may be still wounding your T3 Lord on a 2+!

Talismans

This section is absolutely, bloody brilliant, purely for the fact it contains, in my opinion, the single best item in the game: The Pendant of Khaeleth. What does it do? You get a Ward Save which, to pass, you must roll equal or under the strength of the attack (with 6s always failing). It is, effectively, a reverse ward save. Get hit by a S3 attack, you get a 4+ Ward Save. Think that’s cool, well, if you get hit by a S5 attack, you’re getting a 2+ Ward. The same goes for any S10 hits such as say, cannonballs and miscasts. It is, simply, fantastic. It’s 10 points cheaper than a 4+ Ward, and will almost always be better or equal to it. This item should be somewhere in every list. It’s awesome. Other Talismans? What other Talismans?

Arcane Items

This section is absolutely, bloody brilliant, purely for the fact it contains, in my opinion, the second best item in the game: The Sacrificial Dagger. Yes, I did just copy and paste that sentence from the above
section. So why is the SacDagger, as it is known, so good? Simply put, you can increase the casting value of any spell, at any time, by D6, all for the cost of one measly Dark Elf life. That’s another thing that’s great about the item, it’s so Dark-Elfy. The best thing about it though is that you can see the casting roll before you choose to sacrifice, so you can play it more cautiously and just sacrifice models if necessary. Or you can go all out and try to cast a 12+ spell on “one” die. It’s very good. Put this on your Level 4.
This time around, there are other items worth mentioning. The Tome of Furion is a very good item, especially for a normal Sorceress, giving her an extra spell. It’s a steal for 15 points. The Darkstar Cloak and the Black Staff also have their places in Dark Elf lists, both boasting ways to get EVEN MORE POWER DICE. You usually have plenty though, so perhaps save these for Storm of Magic games.

Magic Standards

Most of the utility of these standards has been explained in some of the above sections, where the standards work particularly well with a unit, or even form a tactic altogether. The Banner of Murder deserves a special mention though, since you can stick it on any unit and it will work. It’s also funny that everyone else pays 45 points for an Armour Piercing Banner, whilst we only pay 25. The Standard of Slaughter is another good item that I haven’t mentioned previously, though be wary of spending too much on snazzy standards, when more models or other items will benefit you more.
A note on BSBs: Most BSBs should not take a Banner at all, since they should focus on protecting themselves, or, if you’re running a Cauldron, focus on being a blood-crazed lunatic. Some BSBs have their own tactics, as I’ve explained before, which can be an exception to this rule. Other than these exceptions though, I’d avoid taking an expensive banner, as tempting as stuff like the Banner of Nagarythe may be…

Closing Words

Thank you all for reading (part of) this guide and I hope you’ve found it informative and useful. Perhaps it’s convinced you to start a Dark Elf army of your own, or perhaps it has given you a direction for a list, or simply just allowed you to patch up some holes. Either way, I’m glad. There are, after all, many slaves to capture*, and many towns to raid*, so more Druchii is always a welcome notion.
If you have any feedback on this guide, particularly concering grammatical errors (I really cannot be bothered to scan through all this right now), I’d be more than welcome to hear from you. Similarly, if you have any more questions, or want a list reviewing, shoot me a PM, I’m always happy to help!

*Note that these slaves and towns I refer to are in a purely fictional context. I do not endorse the raiding of real-life settlements and, in no way, do I think the Slave Trade is a good thing. So, just don’t go raiding some villages on the south coast of Wales or anything like that, ok?

Dwarves (DW)

Spoiler:

High Elves (HE)

Spoiler:

Lizardmen (LM)

Spoiler:

Ogre Kingdoms (OK)

Spoiler:

Orcs & Goblins (OnG)

Part 1:

Spoiler:

Part 2:

Spoiler:

Skavens (SV)

Spoiler:

Overall Army Style: The Steam Punk Techno Magi army of Warhammer, owned by 4 bickering Clans.
Skryre boast the most advanced ( and dangerous) weapons. Eshin trains the best assasins, Pestilen brews the deadliest plagues, backed by Moulder's experimental monstrosities.
Battalion Purchase [40] Clanrats, [20] Plague Monks, [2] Rat Ogres, [3]Pack Masters and [6] Giant Rats $115 of $145 20% off Bundled Savings.

Lords & Heroes
Named Characters

Note: Under the current edition, named characters tend to be overpriced; you can pretty easily emulate most named characters from scratch and save yourself some points. That said, a few named characters do have abilities and wargear or wargear combos unique to them, so if you absolutely need to have them, go ahead. Just make sure you're really getting your points worth.

Lord Skrolk: The reason you like Lord Skrolk is because he makes Plague Monks troops. Seriously, that's the ONLY thing that justifies his inhumanly high entry cost (230 points more than a Vanilla Grey Seer, or 30 more than a Grey Seer on Screaming Bell). He comes with some fun abilities and magic items, but even they can probably be outdone for less cost (Liber Bubonicus would be more fun if it weren't for the current rules on Bound Spells and it's 1 in 6 chance of going dud when cast). Ultimately he's too pricey. If you're planning on taking a lot of Plague Monks, he can justify his points, but otherwise? Skip him.

Thanquol and Boneripper: Do you want your army led by a drugged up failure with his mechanical bodyguard? Okay, so that's kinda mean, but he's not bad. He comes with some amusing special rules (his Ward Save deflecting onto a nearby model is funny, as is his kinda ganky wound regeneration) and Boneripper can be nasty but like Skrolk, he costs way too much to be properly competitive (210 points more than a Vanilla Grey Seer). So he's non-competitive, but if you wanna take him for fluff reasons, he's an amusing addition. Keep him out of Tournament lists.

Ikit Claw: Like Skrolk and Thanquol, Ikit is too expensive. Unlike them, I can say without reservation that you're not getting anywhere near enough for his cost. He seems like an odd attempt to combine a caster and a combat lord even more than other armies, that's a job you want to split. He also costs nearly 400 points, and he doesn't do anything casting that a Grey Seer couldn't do, nor anything in combat a tricked out Warlord couldn't do. Don't bother.

Throt the Unclean: Throt could be useful if you're planning on massing Rat Ogres and Giant Rats, in which case his LD ability can work. But, he's expensive (225 points) and while he can be nasty in close combat, especially against big things, but he's more than a little likely to eat an entire model from your own unit (which means he could end up chowing down an entire ****ng Rat Ogre) and he's not powerful or durable enough to make up for that. He can make up his points, if you slap him in a unit of Giant Rats, but at that point you're just wasting him in a unit that's liable to get run over due to combat res. Not worth it.

Queek Headtaker: Okay so he, like the others, runs a little too far on the expensive side, but he's a reliable combat character, and unlike a lot of Skaven heroes/lords, he can actually punch out other lords in a Challenge. He can be truly brutal against high armor save guys, which is always nice. If you're tailoring a list to take on Dwarves, definitely give this guy a look, as he'll do an average of 4-5 kills per round against them. Still a little too pricy, but a solid all around choice. Also the EMPRAH in disguise.

Deathmaster Snikch: At first Deathmaster Snikch looks like a perfect Assassin, until you read his, you guessed it, points cost. 150 points more than a basic Assassin, and all you're getting for that is some Weeping Blades (30 points), a Tail Weapon and a Cloak that doesn't do jack if he's in combat (where you want him) or with a unit (where you want him). Aside from that, he has higher WS, BS, I, A and LD, but not enough to make up for the the over 250 points required to take him. He will almost never see enough action to justify that cost. Don't bother. Minsc: "Skarsnik should be pointed out as being very fragile, being a T4 model with a 6+ save and... that's it. "

Tretch Craventail: Tretch is, put simply, hilarious. He has the exact same stats as a Chieftain, for 100 points more, but he has some amusing abilities. He's got a 4+ ward (nothing to sneer at), a total of 5 attacks, a single reroll per game (do not forget it) and most amusingly, the ability to bamf out of a unit in combat and into another Clanrat/Slaves unit within 3D6. He also grants rerolls to hit to his unit of Clanrats or Stormvermin if they're attacking on the flank or rear, but in practice that's not as useful as you might think. Obviously, he's best in tightly packed battle lines, as if he fails to reach a viable unit with his leaving combat ability, he auto-dies. He can be fun to help countercharge (draw a unit in, leave combat, charge that unit on the flank next round) but that's not as reliable as you might think. Ultimately, he's a fun but non-competitive character. He can be funny in a casual game, but don't take him in a tournament.

Generic Characters

Note: While named characters are judged against their generic counterparts, generic characters are examined based on their role in your army.

Vermin Lord: The Great Horned Rat looked at the Greater Daemons and thought 'Why should Chaos have all the fun?' At first blush, this guy is horrifying. M8, WS8, I10, 5 attacks, 5 wounds, S6, T5, 5+ ward, Level 4 Wizard with access to both Skaven Lores (and he's one of only two models to get access to the Dreaded Thirteenth Spell). Everything is slinky, right? Well then the issues set in. He can't join units, he's got no extra protection from shooting, he's not Unbreakable or even Stubborn, at T5 he's vulnerable to high volume S4 and above attacks, oh and did we mention that he costs 500 fething POINTS! Don't get us wrong, he's a beast if you get him into combat and he can be a nasty caster under a lot of circumstances (he can even, in theory, drop a Bloodthirster, though don't count on that). But his price of entry is inhumanly high and he's a really big and obvious target (a solid Ogre Kingdoms or Dwarf list will have his ass dropped on turn 1), he's weak against getting tar pitted and he has a troubling lack of Always Strikes First. You can safely leave him out of a tournament list, but he'll make a big splash in casual games.

Warlord: Point for point, a Warlord is one of the most effective heroes in the Skaven book. He drops in at 90 points for a solid statline, along with the precious LD7 that lets all units with 3 ranks in his General LD Bubble hit LD10. He can have some solid magic equipment (discussed later) and can actually be an unusually effective combat lord (don't expect him to go 10 rounds with most other Lords though). He's a good choice. He can also take mounts (below) which are generally not the best choice, but can be fun and if you expect him to do some frontline fighting and want him to cause casualties there are worse ways to up his kill count.

Mounts:

Rat Ogre Bonebreaker: If you're up for modeling it, and you need a mount, this is the one you want. It's got a good statline, lets him push up rank bonuses in whatever unit he joins, runs fairly cheap at 65 points. If it had an armor save, it'd be perfect. As is, it's a fun choice if you're in the mood and easily the best mount option. Just remember, he can't join infantry units outside Clanrats and Stormvermin (what a sacrifice).

War-Litter: Not as good as the Bonebreaker but..yeah, it's not terrible. It's a cheap way of dropping a bunch of attacks on him, and pushing up his armor save. If you really can't spare the 30 extra points for a Bonebreaker and you want a mount, you could go for this one. There are worse choices liiiiiike...

Great Pox Rat: This. You're paying 30 points for 1 armor save and 2 S4 poisoned attacks. Woo heehee hoo. It doesn't even come with extra movement, and you can't use the Swiftstride ability for cavalry when he's in a unit (and trying to make him run touchdowns on his own is a surefire way to get him killed). Yes, we know this one has a ****ing amazing Forgeworld model, it's still not worth it. If you're committed to him having a mount, drop a Clanrat and give him a War-Litter. Can also be taken as a mount for a Plague Priest, but it's not a good choice for him either.

Grey Seer: Your general Lord Level Wizard, with a bad statline and a 240 points pricetag. Like the Vermin Lord, he can mix spells freely and get access to the Dreaded Thirteenth Spell, but don't count on him casting that too much (you need to roll approximately 7-8 dice to have a relatively sure chance of casting it). He's a good caster for his points and you'll probably get a lot of mileage out of him, so if you have the points free, he's a good investment. Note that he too has LD7, meaning that he can end up being general by default, which you probably want to avoid, as your enemy is already going to be gunning for him, don't hand them more points for killing him.

The Screaming Bell: The Screaming Bell is for players who love randomness and who are playing in a non-competitive environment. The Bell doesn't come into it's own until well above the usual tournament level (recommended size is 3000 points or so). The major reason is the huge pricetag, attached to an already pricey model (a Bell mounted Seer will clock in at 440 points without any equipment). But, if you can fit it in your army, it makes a great center piece. It can cause a lot of damage with a little luck and if there are buildings on the board, it can make everything really hilarious really quickly. Be aware, everyone will be gunning for it. Also, under the current rules, it might be worth it to make a Bell mounted Seer the General, as his LD range will be 18 inches as opposed to the usual 12.

Assassin: An Assassin is an incredibly expensive way of killing enemy Heroes and Wizards and maybe War Machines or small shooting units. That's about it. Unlike his Dark Elf counterpart (the comparison is inevitable, sorry), his mediocre stats (except for Initiative) means he can't be trusted to kill anything above a hero and he digs into Hero points. He's highly non-competitive, and there will be games where you take him and he gets killed without accomplishing a thing. But hey, you played Skaven cuz you liked the randomness, and given to a unit of Scouting Gutter Runners, they'll excel at War Machine, and the like, removal. So while you should avoid him in tournament lists, he could be fun in casual games.

Warlock Engineer: Don't you sit there expecting to get a hero for 15 points, if you're going to take a stripped Warlock, you might as well replace him with 4 extra Clanrats, it's a better use of the points. No, if you want to get use out of a Warlock Engineer, you're gonna wanna update him to level 2, give him a Warpmusket, maybe some Clan Skyre goodies and then you're in the hole for 150 points. But don't despair, he's a fantastic investment. Stick him in with a unit of Jezzails and have them blast things to pieces.

Core Units

Clanrats: Your basic infantry. Very cheap so you can put them in HUGE units. They will die by the truckload, but you should have so many that even if they get blasted by a cannon, there will still be a good number left. Have them in units of thirty, forty, even fifty. They also have a host of neat special rules that your opponent won't be expecting. Highly recommended. Give them weapon teams for added lulz. It's funny when a ratling gun shoots up the enemy, but funnier when it shoots your own guys and then explodes. You'll have so many clanrats it's not as though your suffering a real loss here.

Skaven Slaves: See clanrats, but no weapons teams. These ****ers are twice as cheap as clanrats, meaning you'll have a lot of them. They have a leadership score similar to a Frenchman, so keep your general nearby to fix that. Make sure they don't get flanked and they're not going anywhere. Keep a warpfire thrower close and have it set the unit held by the slaves on fire, since Skaven are bastards and are allowed to shoot at units tied down with Slaves. Watch as your opponent quits in a huff. Laugh.

Stormvermins

The Empire (Emp)

Spoiler:

**Dakkamite**

Wow, bloody nice work there Shadow

**Jackal**

Love it

Just waiting on skaven to get a full run through now

**TanKoL**

This should be put as a sticky note

**Tangent**

Is this just a repost of the thread that's already stickied, or has it been changed? Done so, I'm assuming, so that you have the ability to edit it as opposed to lunahound?

**Niteware**

Need to add to the note that WoC isn't updated for the new book either; Don't think many people would still say that Deamon Princes suck ^.^

**tmarichards**

Given that the Wood Elf advice is utter nonsense (and the link to one of my own posts from well over a year ago is rather out of date), I'll put myself forwards to rewrite a better review and form part of this council.

**The Shadow**

TanKoL wrote:This should be put as a sticky note

That was, as I understood, the plan, but it seems a Mod hasn't got round to it as of yet.

Tangent wrote:Is this just a repost of the thread that's already stickied, or has it been changed? Done so, I'm assuming, so that you have the ability to edit it as opposed to lunahound?

Yep, the idea is that, with me being more active the thread will get updated with all the new stuff (I'm working on HE now), and will continue to be updated more regularly in the future.

Niteware wrote:Need to add to the note that WoC isn't updated for the new book either; Don't think many people would still say that Deamon Princes suck ^.^

I thought that might have been the case, I'll add that in, thanks.

tmarichards wrote:Given that the Wood Elf advice is utter nonsense (and the link to one of my own posts from well over a year ago is rather out of date), I'll put myself forwards to rewrite a better review and form part of this council.

Excellent, that'd be great. Feel free to collaborate with others, and just PM me when you're done!

**Krellnus**

tmarichards wrote:
Given that the Wood Elf advice is utter nonsense (and the link to one of my own posts from well over a year ago is rather out of date), I'll put myself forwards to rewrite a better review and form part of this council.

I've got some time free now if you want to collaborate.

**Jackal**

Ill dig up info and try and get daemons updated.
A few things in that list really do make me think its not the up to date book.

**The Shadow**

Thanks for all the offers of help guys.

PM me when you've got your guides done. No rush, of course

**thedarkavenger**

When is the High Elf one getting updated? I'd be glad to give a hand with it.

**The Shadow**

thedarkavenger wrote:
When is the High Elf one getting updated? I'd be glad to give a hand with it.

I'm starting on it now, but I could do with some help actually

Do you want to split it? So you could do the Overview and the Analysis for Lords, Heroes and Core. And I'll do the Analysis for Special, Rare and Magic Items. I could do Core as well if you wanted.

**thedarkavenger**

The Shadow wrote:
thedarkavenger wrote:
When is the High Elf one getting updated? I'd be glad to give a hand with it.

I'm starting on it now, but I could do with some help actually

Do you want to split it? So you could do the Overview and the Analysis for Lords, Heroes and Core. And I'll do the Analysis for Special, Rare and Magic Items. I could do Core as well if you wanted.

Yeah. I'll write it up and message it to you today.

**shivman**

I know the Breton's are a Calvary based army but is it possible to just take knights on foot. I admit I don't have a army book but if I were to play Fantasy I would definitely play with Bretonnia for the aesthetic but I can't say having every single model on horses appeals to me. GW does sell individual knights on foot but but I'm not sure if they're some kind of exception to the rule.

**thedarkavenger**

shivman wrote:
I know the Breton's are a Calvary based army but is it possible to just take knights on foot. I admit I don't have a army book but if I were to play Fantasy I would definitely play with Bretonnia for the aesthetic but I can't say having every single model on horses appeals to me. GW does sell individual knights on foot but but I'm not sure if they're some kind of exception to the rule.

Only knightly characters.

**TanKoL**

I do hope there'll be foot knights in the next armybook ... but I doubt it sadly :(

**The Shadow**

thedarkavenger wrote:
The Shadow wrote:
thedarkavenger wrote:
When is the High Elf one getting updated? I'd be glad to give a hand with it.

I'm starting on it now, but I could do with some help actually

Do you want to split it? So you could do the Overview and the Analysis for Lords, Heroes and Core. And I'll do the Analysis for Special, Rare and Magic Items. I could do Core as well if you wanted.

Yeah. I'll write it up and message it to you today.

Awesome, sounds good

**thedarkavenger**

The Shadow wrote:
thedarkavenger wrote:
The Shadow wrote:
thedarkavenger wrote:
When is the High Elf one getting updated? I'd be glad to give a hand with it.

I'm starting on it now, but I could do with some help actually

Do you want to split it? So you could do the Overview and the Analysis for Lords, Heroes and Core. And I'll do the Analysis for Special, Rare and Magic Items. I could do Core as well if you wanted.

Yeah. I'll write it up and message it to you today.

Awesome, sounds good

Sent it through.

**The Shadow**

Yep, thanks TDA, I've got it

I'll upload it, along with my half, later next week. I'm away until next Monday.