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Local fantasy tourny coming up and these will be my first local tournament. No End Times rules or characters as far as I know. Struggling with deciding on either more magic lord/heroes or combat lord/heroes.


Here is what I have so far.

Lords -250pts

Prince
Dragon Armour
Moranions Wayshard
enchanted shield
Reaver bow
Talisman of Protection

Heroes -275pts

Mage lv2
Lore High
Dispel Scroll

Noble
Dragon Armour
Shield of Merwyrm
Sword of Might
Obsidian Trinket

Core 700pts

Archersx40
Standard

Spearmen2x15
Standards

Special 635pts

Swordmasters x20
BotWD

White Lions x20
Razor Banner

Rare 140pts

Bolt Throwers x2

Like I said I am not sure but I kinda like to go more magic and I am not sure I want to keep the bolt throwers since I haven't had much luck with them. any and all advice is welcome. Thank you

I'll preface my advice by stating I'm not sure how serious the tournament you're entering is or what the players in your local meta are like... but if this is a half serious tournament in which other players will be taking strong lists then winning with this army will be a struggle.

It's a fairly average list, for a number of reasons;
- Poor character choices and average item loadouts.
- Overspending on core and strange unit sizes.
- No chaff/redirectors
- Sub-par Magic phase

The Prince really adds very little to this list. Reaver bow won't really scare too many things, he has no real hand-to-hand ability and the Wayshard is currently being used on a unit of 15 Spearmen. Overall this isn't really a list that needs or benefits from a Prince. Id scrap him completely and put the points towards an Archmage.

The Lvl 2 is fine, however is you follow my advice and scrap the prince you can possibly do without him. Give the Archmage the Tali of Preservation and the Book of Hoeth and you have a really great caster who is well protected. Lore of Shadow rarely isn't the best choice for Elves.

The Noble needs to be a BSB. Best build is Dragon Armour, Shield of the Merwyrm, Sword of Might, Battle Standard.

Onto Core now, and the general rule of thumb for High Elves is that you take the bare minimum you need to. The strength of the book lies in the Specials section, so taking more than the standard Core tax isn't normally beneficial. This current list goes well and truly over this and the configuration of these units is poor. 40 Archers suffers from an 'all eggs in one basket' problem. If you are set on taking 40 archers then I would say taking 2x10 and 1x20 would be better as it gives you more deployment drops and more options for dealing with enemy chaff and redirectors. Giving the larger unit the Banner of Eternal Flame gives you an option for stripping regen, so take that into consideration.

Brining me to the next hole in this list. A complete lack of chaff. If you have access to Reavers or Great Eagles then you should consider including them. Eagles have the added benefit of being able to fly, however Reavers come out of your core tax and are extremely manoeuvrable. Spending 500pts on Core selections could be as easy as 3x10 archer blocks and 2 5-man reaver units with musicians. The 200-odd points you save here could be spent on either bumping the White Lions to 30 , or (if you add the savings from characters) put towards a Frost Phoenix.

A last few pieces of advice I would have is to definitely swap the banner selections on the Lions and Swordmasters. The Lions are your major threat, so the protection from magic is great, and at S6 the extra -1 on enemy armour saves is better given to the Swordmasters. Finally, have a think about splitting the Swordmasters up into 2 blocks of 10 and using them as flankers. You are paying a premium for their 2A, so to have so many supporting attacks wasted past the front rank isn't ideal.

Unfortunately I don't have any eagles to use and I have had very poor luck with the reavers. The Prince was going to be very situational in a group of archers to get them behind a gunline or two. However, I see your point on the points being wasted.

It's a cool gimmick, but I'm guessing you won't know who you are playing until the day so it may be one that is completely wasted. In any case, the Wayshard can only be used on a unit of 30 or less.

When you say you aren't having much luck with Reavers, what exactly are you referring to?

Just poor performance from them, just seems every time I use them they are shot to he'll turn 1. Unit that is feared the most and my local store is my sword masters. This is due to the local shop keep having a bad experience against them :-D.

Revised list:

Lords 320 pts

Archmage lv 4 Shadow
book of Hoeth
Talisman of Preservation

Heroes 285 pts

Mage lv2 145pts
High Magic
Dispel Scroll
Noble 140pts
BSB, Dragon Armour, Shield of Merwyrm, Sword of Might
Core 520 pts

3x Archers 10 man squads with Standard
2x Reavers 5 man squads with bows and spears

Special 850pts

White Lions 25 man squad 395pts
Champion and BotWD
Shadow Warriors 10 man squad 140pts
Sword Masters of Hoeth 20 man squad 315pts
Razor Banner

total of 1975.

I know this is far from being a good competitive list still so all input is welcome.

 GreenWarMachine wrote:
Just poor performance from them, just seems every time I use them they are shot to he'll turn 1.

Smart players will target them early so they don't need to worry about them march-blocking, frenzy baiting and hunting warmachine later in the game. In this case you need to deploy them better and be smart about how you use your vanguard move. They aren't a unit that is going to rack up big kills outside of a warmachine here or there, but they are really crucial in ensuring favourable engagements for you combat blocks.

Unit that is feared the most and my local store is my sword masters. This is due to the local shop keep having a bad experience against them :-D.

Fair enough, but in a tournament any player worth their salt is always going to identify the White Lions as the bigger threat.

The new list is looking much better. Just a few small issues to point out;
- The archers don't need banners. One unit could possibly carry one in order to take the Flaming Banner for Regen-hunting, but otherwise no upgrades is fine to keep them cheap and somewhat disposable.
- The Reavers absolutely need musicians. The importance of Quick reforms on fast cavalry cant be overstated.
- Im not sure if it has been included in the cast and not written on the list, but the Lions and Swordmasters have to take a standard bearer in order to take a magic banner. Find the points for full command on both units.
- The last choice that is a bit iffy is the Shadow Warriors. These guys just aren't going to do much for you. They suffer from 'expensive strength 3' syndrome and just aren't going to cut it in tournaments. Trust me, I love them as well, as regularly take them in casual games, but for the same cost you can take 2 bolt throwers. Stick with that instead.

Made all the changes you suggested and will just see how the lists performs tomorrow. Hope to have better luck with the reavers too but we will see.