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Here's my Black Arc list, that will be invading Southern California for Christmas.

Sorceress Lord, level 4, 5+ ward, +1 spell, flying carpet (lore of Darkness)
Master: BSB, cloak, heavy armor, cold one, reverse ward, halberd.

25 Warriors, standard, musician
15 warriors, standard, musician
18 Corsairs, hand bows, full command, champ with 2x hand bow, flaming banner
10 repeater crossbows, shields
2x5 harpies
5 dark riders, standard, musician, repeaters
5 dark riders, musician, repeaters
18 executioners, standard, musician
18 black guard, standard, musician
7 shades, extra hand weapon
7 shades, extra hand weapon

Please don't tell me to get 2 hydras and a dragon. I've got 140 models, and I want to be running a light, fast infantry based army.

-Matt

The unit sizes are a bit small, but if you know what you're doing you can overcome this disadvantage.
I would combine the warriors and maybe consider getting more crossbows. Be very very careful with the executioners, you don't have very many of them and they can't really take a punch. I'd consider grabbing more black guard, or executioners to have one big bloc of execs or two units of BG. Either way those two need support, which can potentially come from each other, but a bigger unit would be best.

HawaiiMatt wrote:
Sorceress Lord, level 4, 5+ ward, +1 spell, flying carpet (lore of Darkness)
Master: BSB, cloak, heavy armor, cold one, reverse ward, halberd.

25 Warriors, standard, musician
15 warriors, standard, musician
18 Corsairs, hand bows, full command, champ with 2x hand bow, flaming banner
10 repeater crossbows, shields
2x5 harpies
5 dark riders, standard, musician, repeaters
5 dark riders, musician, repeaters
18 executioners, standard, musician
18 black guard, standard, musician
7 shades, extra hand weapon
7 shades, extra hand weapon

Warriors - 25 is good but whats the point of 15? They won't kill much, or hold up in combat (and you don't have a sac dagger). Also sense they don't have shields your probably better off with one large unit of 40.

Corsairs - I have had no luck with handbows in this edition. If they work for you great, but I would rather have 18 with either the SSS, Banner of Murder or Flaming Banner and xtra hand wep.

Xbows - 10 with shields is too few. You need have at least 16+ for shields to be effective for them (the entire point is to have them hold something in combat when they get charged, and 10 is too few for the benefit).

Harpies, Shades, Dark Riders - all good for warmachiene hunting and something will make it through. I would drop the standard on the 1st unit of Dark Riders as thats just giving away a banner.

Executioners - without a Cauldron or ASF BSB can't take a punch, if you don't want either of those then drop the BG for more executioners as they don't have a unit cap

Black Guard - I haven't had any luck with them in 8th as they usually are dead by turn 1 shooting. They also don't stand up in combat like they use to. I would drop them for points.

Master - whats his point? Where does he go. You don't have any CoK for him to go with and you definatly don't want him with Dark Riders. Put him on foot or on a Dark Pegasus so he can fly around (if you wanted a mobile BSB).

Lvl 4 - if you wanted a flying lvl 4 why not put her on a Pegasus. She is the most important figure on the table so a 4+ ward is best. You will also want to look at the book lores. Lore of Shadow is simply amazing for Dark Elves this edition.

Overall I think it is an interesting concept however it lacks any real punch which we can fix with some revisions.

How comfortable are you with the ability for the Supreme Sorceress to remain protected? Assume she'll be angling for the 4+ LOS save to go with her 5+ ward.

Also, Dark lore? I'm interested to see how that does...

Is it ok to suggest one Hydra?

Only if it's modeled as an amphibious sea monster of some sort...

Ok, here's the run down:
Why 15 warriors? Because I can lose 5, and still strip ranks. On a flank charge, I don't think I'll lose more than 5. With 15, I'll have a rank bonus and standard after taking light to medium cav charge, and against monsters I'll still have 5 men; 15 guys makes for a very good speed bump on a flank. Think, dark elf detachment.

Corsairs: Why no luck with handbows this edition? They still ignore range and movement modifiers, and can still always stand and shoot. You've also gained shooting in 2 ranks, and the ability to reform, move 5" and still shoot. They are better than before.

To Peg, or not to Peg...
Not to peg. A pegasus is huge. 4 times the base size, and significantly taller. I wouldn't gain any speed or wounds, and I'd lose my 4+ look out sir. I would gain a 6+ armor save, but that's it. Unless you need more than 50 points of additional magic gear, the carpet is a lot better. A sorceress is significantly smaller, and as such she can actually be OUT of sight, completely removing you're ability to shoot/magic her.

As for the lore, I either go 4+ ward and a BRB Lore, or 5+ ward w/+1 spell on dark.
Lore of Darkness is awesome, with a +4 to cast.
More often than not, my sorceress has 6 wounds (steal soul) very quickly, which I count on to cover the reduced ward save. With how easy the lore is to cast, 9 power dice gives me a very good shot at successfully casting (before dispels) 6 spells. Half of the spells hit units in combat, which critical. With my MMU (multiple medium units), helping out in combats may be needed. Two of the spells thin units very well (Steal soul and black horrors). Neither is a "dwellers" but 2 is better than 1.

Dark Riders + Standard: It's awesome, give it a try. he extra +1 combat res has made the difference between winning and losing more times than I can count. (Well, Winning and drawing, or Drawing and Losing, but that's just a mouthful). Since banners only give up 25 points, it's worth the risk.

Xbows. Yeah, 10 isn't enough, and I'd get more with more points. Now that you mention it, I can drop 5 harpies for 5 more xbows. 15 is enough to act as a flanking unit, and that's a change I'll make.

Executioners: WS5 has been enough to keep these guys in the game for me. I'd like more, but again, out of points. I feel that dropping black guard would just put a big target on that unit. Dropping them for a 2nd unit of black guard cost more, and doesn't give me any more durability.

Black Guard: I could add 2 more, but that's it. I like to go 6 wide for the extra 3 attacks, so 18 is enough.

Mounted Master: He joins a unit. The lack of Look out, isn't an issue. Reverse ward and 1+ save against shooting takes care of those issues. He's great in a challenge, and with so many units, I need the re-rolls. If I properly thin, flank, and redirect my enemy, I should be winning, or losing combat, by a few points. It's been my experience that drawn out combats favor the player with more units; because it's easier for a flank/rear charge.

So, why so many mid sized units? (6 with the change to the xbows)
Because it limits the effect of your magic phase.
My most expensive units are my sorceress lord (she's not easy to catch or kill), followed by whatever unit my BSB joins (usually the 25 spearmen, which is a total of 331 points for him and the unit).
I just don't have a clear 400 or 500 point target on the table. Outside of the general (who's hard to catch) and the BSB (who's very hard to kill), I can afford to give up units.


Anyhow, that's the plan. We'll see in a week if it works that way.

-Matt

I'm interested to see how this works (especially with only a handful of things above Str 3).

Got everything packed to go, (flying out in 10 hours).
Here's the last minute changes.

Sorceress lord, 4+ ward, +1 spell (on foot).
BSB: heavy armor, cloak, cold one, reverse ward, soul render.

18 corsairs, full command, double handbow champ.
25 spearmen, standard, music, banner of discipline
15 spearmen, standard, music
15 xbows, shields, standard, music
5 dark riders, xbows, standard, music
5 dark riders, xbows, music
18 executioners, standard, music, flaming banner
18 black guard, standard, music
3x6 shades

Going lore of metal or darkness, not sure yet.
I do like the idea of buffing all units within 12" with +2 armor save.

I think I'm going to get in two games, and I could be facing:
Warriors of chaos, Ogres, daemons, skaven, or vampires.
Yeah, nobody I know likes the good guys.

I'm leaning toward metal, just because I've used dark so much.

-Matt

Metal is good as it deals with one of the major weaknesses of Dark Elves. Dark is goo because casting it with a lvl 4 is cheap (most spells you need just 2 dice for). You may also want to look at Shadow, dropping the enemies T by D3 makes all of that str 3 much better - not to mention the other great spells.

I considered shadow, but I have no characters to use the lore attribute. -toughness, -strength, and signature spell are all good, but significantly harder to cast then dark. IMO word of pain is a lot better than the shadow signature. I love pit of shades, but Init base tests are iffy. I could face two Init5 armies. The Strength based black horror is more reliable, if slightly less effective (characters get Look out, and ward saves, hits less models).

The +1 to hit and armor piercing is actually pretty good. It makes the shooting from corsairs awesome (38 shots on 3+, followed by 38 on 4+ stand and fire).

-Matt

Just a quick run down on how the games 1 and 2 went.
Game 1 was against warriors of chaos; 2 blocks of warriors, 1 block of chosen, 6 trolls, 2 warshrines, BSB and level 3 with 3rd eye.
I tabled him with very few losses in 4 turns. His army was compact enough that my mobility let me whittle him down, and hit him from all sides.

Game 2 was ugly for me. I went up against a skaven army: Seerer, BSB, Priest on Furnace, 2x30 storm vermin, 2x36 giant rats, 4x20 slaves, big monk unit, clan rats, 3 mortars, and a warp lightning cannon.
His wall to wall infantry block prevented me from slipping through his lines, and by the end of turn 2, his magic and shooting had stripped ranks most of my ranks away (turn 1 plague did horrendous damage). My multiple medium units failed, because of being out magicked, and then being out classed in hand to hand. Good rolls for his phases and poor rolls for my phases didn't help.

Lore of Darkness worked great in the first game, but in the 2nd game I really could have used more range. I'll go with metal for game 3 tomorrow.

Corsairs are rad.

-Matt

Does "rad" mean good or bad? Corsairs are really cool but kinda sukk on paper for theor points IMO. How did they work out?