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Hi folks, I've been playing Ogres for a while and I'm looking for a different play style. I like the aesthetics of the dark elves, so this is my first try at a list. I'd be basing my purchases on this (after any feedback) and expanding from there.

1998/2000

Supreme Sorceress - General, Level 4 (leaning towards Shadow or Life), Dispel Scroll, Ring of Hotek, Dark Steed (bunkers with large Dark Riders unit)

Master - BSB, Cold One, Lance, Light Armor, Sea Dragon Cloak, Shield, Talisman of Preservation, Tormentor Sword (anti-Ethereal, bunkers with Cold One Knights)

Dark Riders x9 - Full command, Repeater Crossbows, Shields
Dark Riders x5 - Musician/Standard Bearer, Repeater Crossbows, Shields
Darkshards x16 - Musician/Standard Bearer

Executioners x20 - Full command, Banner of Swiftness
Cold One Knights x5 - Full command, Razor Standard
Shades x5 - Musician/Standard Bearer, AHW, Light armor
Reaper Bolt Thrower
Reaper Bolt Thrower
Reaper Bolt Thrower

Warlocks x5 - Master of Warlocks

Looks pretty good to me, just a few changes I would make:

1) I can't quite do the maths in my head, but if you're over your Core allowance, I'd strongly recommend dropping the unit of 9 Dark Riders down to 5, bumping the Warlocks up to 9 and bunkering your Sorceress in there instead. It's generally a much safer place. Also, get rid of any champions and standards on the Dark Riders, they aren't needed.

2) Cold Ones aren't the best unit in the book and, whilst definitely still usable, need to be fielded in one of two ways. That is, small units of 5/6 with just a musician, or large "bus" like units. With your Master in tow, your Cold Ones fall between the two, which means they won't be strong enough to be effective, but not cheap enough to be throwaway. I would put your Master on foot and keep him with the Executioners. A good BSB build is full mundane, enchanted shield, dawnstone and sword of might. Dropping the standard and the champion on the Cold Ones should also net you a few extra points to beef up the executioners a little more.

3) As some minor nitpicks, drop the light armour on the Shades and the champion on the Warlocks. Neither of these will come in particularly useful.

4) Finally, I would recommend Shadow on your Lvl4, due to large amount of shooting which benefits immensely from it. Executioners do prefer life, but Melkoth's is still a very useful spell for them.

Hope this helps, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

So taking your advice in mind (I wasn't over min core, so I had to beef up the Darkshards):
A bit concerned with the lack of ward on the BSB, but a re-rollable 1+ is nothing to sneeze at. My other concern is that Warlock/SS unit, that's a bunch of eggs in one basket. Pretty survivable, but still a concern.
Another option would be to move the flame banner to the Cold Ones to let them go monster hunting.


Supreme Sorceress - General, Level 4 Shadow, Dark Steed, Ring of Hotek, Dark Steed

Master - Heavy armor, Sea dragon cloak, Sword of might, Enchanted shield, Dawnstone

Darkshards x22 - Musician, Standard bearer, Banner of eternal flame
Dark riders x5 - Musician, Repeater crossbows, Shield
Dark riders x5 - Musician, Repeater crossbows, Shield

Executioners x23 - Full command, Banner of swiftness
Cold one knights x5 - Musician
Shades x5 - Musician, AHW
Reaper bolt thrower
Reaper bolt thrower
Reaper bolt thrower

Warlocks x9

2000/2000

Looks really good to me!

The only things I would say is that perhaps your Darkshard unit is a little big. I know you had to beef them up, but 22 is a little clumsy, unless you go in three ranks and lose some firepower. Maybe split some off for a third Dark Rider unit. Also, I'd consider swapping out the Executioners for Black Guard, who tend to work better at around the 20-strong mark, though there's no reason why Executioners can be used either.

It's a good point that the Warlocks/Sorceress combo is a little eggs-in-one-basket, but they're quite a survivable, mobile unit so, whilst strong shooting may be an issue (something you'd want to prioritise taking out), combat units are no way near as much of a problem (especially in the late game) compared to when your Sorceress is bunkered in an infantry unit.

And moving the flame banner onto the Cold Ones is actually a really good idea - one I'd not really thought of. If you can find the points to do it, that'd certainly be worth trying out.