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There is a small tournament being held near me, and I thought I would drag some of my old High Elves out of storage for a game or two. The tournament rules are standard 8th edition, 1000 points for your army. I believe the idea was to make it accessible to newer players, and keep the games shorter so more games should be playable in the day.
The theme I want to follow is the city of Eataine, the greatest city of the Asur.

My list idea for 1000 points is as follows;

Lords
Nothing

Heroes
Mage with Level 2 Khaines Ring of Fury, Golden Crown of Atrazar, Channeling Staff
Using High Magic probably, for Soul Quench and the ward save to help the LSG survive

Core
19 x Lothern Sea Guard with shields and Full Command
Mage goes here

Special
20 x Phoenix Guard with Full Command and Razor Standard

Rare
1 x Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower
1 x Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower
1 x Giant Eagle

The basic idea is to shoot as many S4 shots into the enemy as I can before they can engage. With 12 shots from the ECBTs and a potential 6d6 S4 from the Mage and his Soul Quenches, the enemy should be fairly dented before ever reaching my lines.
If the enemy do manage to get to my lines the PG are really capable at holding their own, and the LSG have bows to at least help them hold.
I picked an eagle over 5 Reavers for two reasons. One is fluff, the Reavers aren't likely to be near the city of Eataine. The second reason being that the eagle is cheaper and can get where he needs to be easier thanks to 20'' movement + flying.

Do you think this list is viable in a 1000 point tournament, given that I have no real idea of what armies to expect? All feedback is welcome.

EDIT: Took out values, whoopsies.

Firstly, just a heads up but I'd remove the specific point costs from items/upgrades and such, as GW can get a bit funny about it. Just keep points values for the entire unit after all upgrades are applied.

Onto the list... It's solid, for 1000pts there isn't obviously a lot of wiggle room.
It's kind of hard to offer advice for a force this small whilst still keeping within the theme you are going for.
What other models do you have that you would consider? Are you set on playing the traditional stationary, defensive force like this one?

Thanks for the list advice; I just thought it would be easier to see where my points were spent. If that's the case it makes life easier for me, so I'm happy to not

I am willing to drop the theme, but I don't have many more models at my disposal at this moment in time. I picked the theme as it fit what I had, and I also like the paint scheme I came up with.
I do have some spare cash to pick some up, as I was saving to get myself a Phoenix however I am happy to re-allocate the funds.

As for tactics, my idea was much as you had posted. Get a corner of a table, deploy so my ECBTs have open arcs to whatever I find the most threatening unit. I am thinking to move my infantry blocks to within 18'' so I can fire off spells, and then slowly inch them back so I can maintain as much distance as I can.
Cowardly in a way, but I'm hoping quite effective!

EDIT: Spares I have now are as follows;
30+ Swordsmasters
20+ Spears/Lothern
another Eagle
2 Mages
Noble with BSB
Annointed
7 White Lions (I had more, they were lent out and never seen again)


Thanks for taking the time.

You might want to trim the Phoenix Guard a little and see if you can squeeze in a BSB.

After finding a useful app for laying out army rosters, my latest iteration of army is as follows;

+++ High Elves (1000pts) +++

+ Heroes (250pts) +

Mage (155pts) [High Magic, Wizard Level 2]
Magic Items [Golden Crown of Atrazar, Khaine's Ring of Fury]

Noble (95pts) [Battle Standard Bearer, Light Armour]

+ Core (258pts) +

Lothern Sea Guard (258pts) [Champion, Musician, Standard Bearer]
19x Sea Guard [19x Shields]

+ Special (300pts) +

Phoenix Guard (300pts) [Champion, Musician, 15x Phoenix Guard]
Standard Bearer [Razor Standard]

+ Rare (190pts) +
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower (70pts)

Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower (70pts)

Great Eagle (50pts) [Great Eagle]


I am quite liking this app!
I'm not 100% sure I like swapping 5 models for 1. I do know the BSB is amazing, and re-rolling tough Panic checks is important, but I'm slightly worried it will hurt the combat effectiveness of the squad. That said; it is 3 attacks at S4 in the front row, which adds a fair amount. Just less bodies overall.
Annoying that I can't give him equipment, making him even more of glass cannon. But the 25% cap is in place, and I really don't have the points to give him a decent armor save AND my Mage a form of protection.

EDIT - Spelling.

I wouldn't bother with the BSB to be perfectly honest.
Obviously they are a staple of most armies but at T3, 6+ and only 2W this guys is just giving up an easy 95 points. Given you have so few points to spend I'd recommend just sticking with the mage and taking the Standard of Discipline instead of the Razor Banner. That way the Phoenix Guard are now Ld10 and you at least have a Ld 9 General.

Id also consider swapping Lores on the Mage to Metal and taking the signature spell. That way you have something, other than the Bolt Throwers, that can handle armour.

alex87 wrote:
I wouldn't bother with the BSB to be perfectly honest.
Obviously they are a staple of most armies but at T3, 6+ and only 2W this guys is just giving up an easy 95 points. Given you have so few points to spend I'd recommend just sticking with the mage and taking the Standard of Discipline instead of the Razor Banner. That way the Phoenix Guard are now Ld10 and you at least have a Ld 9 General.

Id also consider swapping Lores on the Mage to Metal and taking the signature spell. That way you have something, other than the Bolt Throwers, that can handle armour.

I was going to suggest a metal mage too, but that depends from the rules used - if he has to generate spells, it might not be worth it: say you generate Golden Hounds and Final Transmutation. Not so useful (expecially when compared to Drain Magic + the other High Magic signature spell). If you use the Khaine magic rules, however... The Metal lore has great support spells. At 1000 points Death is probably powerful too - I don't see many opponents take MR items to mitigate character sniping.

I might be biased towards a BSB because I tend to roll very high on my Ld tests. So much so that I always ensure my most expensive units always get a reroll even if they are Ld 10 Stubborn blocks. I'd agree that if you add a BSB he should be reasonably protected though.

Khaine Magic or not, the signature spell for Lore of Metal is the real reason you are taking that lore. If you're 2nd spell is useful then great, if not you still have a means to deal with armour, which is something the list may otherwise lack.
Death sniping is another good suggestion, I'd probably take both of those Lores over High to be honest.

Had my first battle in my Local GW store, and found out the rules are actually different than I thought. It's 8.5 army building but 8.0 rules for magic.

I would like to weigh in on the deciding of Lore, but I never really got a chance to cast much magic at all, shown in the game I have up on the forum for dissection. I will say that given my opponent was a Bretonnian, Metal Magic would have been destructive. However I chose to stick to High so it didn't appear like I was list tailoring in any way, and so I could get some practice in with the ToolBox that is High Magic.
I had to play a slight variation on the list, but the basic idea is in place.

With 8.5 army building in place, and my combat effectiveness being tested, I have decided to not change much at all to the core list, but instead take away a PG and give my Noble some lovely armour. Having a 6+ armour save is terrifying in far too many ways.

The final list is as follows;
+++ High Elf v1.2 (1000pts) +++

+ Heroes (262pts) +

Mage (155pts) [High Magic, Wizard Level 2]
····Magic Items [AB - Golden Crown of Atrazar, AB - Khaine's Ring of Fury]

Noble (107pts) [Battle Standard Bearer, Dragon Armour, Shield]

+ Core (258pts) +

Lothern Sea Guard (258pts) [Champion, Musician, Standard Bearer]
····19x Sea Guard [19x Shields]

+ Special (285pts) +

Phoenix Guard (285pts) [Champion, Musician, 14x Phoenix Guard]
····Standard Bearer [BRB - Razor Standard]

+ Rare (195pts) +

Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower (70pts)

Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower (70pts)

Great Eagle (55pts)
····Great Eagle [Shredding Talons]

A alternative build you could go for is a number of small Swordmaster units, either a single rank of 7, or two ranks of 5. At low point values MSU style High Elf armies work really well due to the elite nature of the army and Sword masters are perfect for this.
Think of them as flankers or speed bumps. They may seem fairly insignificant, but they are putting out around 15 S5 attacks at I5/WS6. and are only costing you ~100 points.
At low point values most armies wont have a lot of chaff clearers either, so these guys can usually leave a mark in combat.
Dropping the Noble, Golden Crown and Razor Banner could make room for two smallish units. Food for thought.

I'd second dropping the BSB at this points level. With smaller units (and less of them) ou'll have less stuff running away and more stuff simply dying. Also, bear in mind that a BSB gives up 100VPs (plus the cost of the model) when killed and that, at this points level, is a whole tenth of your army. Offering up that portion of VPs is a big risk and one that will be hard to cover up if it goes wrong. You'd be better off spending the points on more Phoenix Guard and/or, like Alex said, some MSU Swordmasters.

Also, I know it's your theme, but Lothern Seaguard really aren't a good unit. I would recommend swapping them out for an equal points value of Spearmen, as you'll get far more mileage out of them. Feel free to still use the LSG models (I do this) and carry on calling them "Sea Guard". Maybe they forgot their bows?