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Greetings. I've been thinking of doing a monster heavy Dark Elf army. What do you think of:

Rare

Giant

Giant

Special

Cold One Chariot w/ spear x 4

9 Harpies

Core

5 Dark Riders w/ musician x 3

Heroes

Beastmaster w/ light armour, SDC, lance, w/ Seal of Ghrond on Manticore

Lords

Highborn w/ 65pts of stuff on Black Dragon

2 Power

3 Dispel

No scrolls

or take out the Beastmaster for a

Noble w/ lance, Heavy armour, Shield, SDC, seal of Ghrond, on Dark Pegasus

Sorceress w/ 2 Dispel Scrolls

3 Power

4 Dispel

2 Scrolls

Thoughts?

I'd think if you're gonna do monsters, the dragon would be where it is at.

Dragon, manticore and 2 giants sounds pretty hardcore. Especially with a bunch of fast cav and flying dudes to make sure they die when they break.

It's all fun and games until you fight the guy with two cannons.

Two cannons? You mean four Great Cannons, a Helblaster and a Steam Tank, together with four wizards and Knights as core? Yes, the Knights of the Holy Cannonball are tough on a monster list.

I'm thinking the Beastmaster is a waste of points. You don't have any hydras to worry about, so his special ability will be of limited use; and Beastmasters tend to be crunchy in HtH.

An extra terror-causing, flying, rank-breaking support unit a waste of ~ 200 points? No, he's highly useful.

Looks like a fun list, to be honest, and effective. I'd consider dropping the dragon to a manticore, freeing up some points for more chariots or dark riders.

I'm more tempted to field a War Hydra in place of a second Giant, if only because the Giant is somewhat unpredictable. After all, there's only so much he can do when he yells at a Steam Tank two turns in a row.

Beastmaster: a terror-causing, rank-breaking, flying, really low armor save support unit. Admittedly, if the Highborn is on a dragon, taking a beastmaster is the only way to get a Manticore in the list. I just hate when my ~200 point unit's rider gets whacked in CC and the beastie then runs away. 

And with the BM gone, you get some magic & magic defense too.

Your concept is a good one. Have you thought about modeling your dragon to have mutiple heads. If not that then, GW had an awesome 2 headed kegox dragon from the 80's that you may be able to find on ebay still. It was an awesome model and would give your army more character. I would take out the giants. They don't seem as much in character for the army and as you said the giants are somewhat unpredictable. I would most certainly field a war hydra and replace the other giant as well, with anything more dark. :-)

Posted By fellblade on 09/13/2006 1:01 PM

Beastmaster: a terror-causing, rank-breaking, flying, really low armor save support unit. Admittedly, if the Highborn is on a dragon, taking a beastmaster is the only way to get a Manticore in the list. I just hate when my ~200 point unit's rider gets whacked in CC and the beastie then runs away. 

And with the BM gone, you get some magic & magic defense too.

Except that when a Beastmaster dies, his monstrous mount is assumed to automatically pass its Monster Reaction test.

Using a list like the one abaove is great against Dwarves and other low-magic armies. Works wonders against Skaven, too.

By dwarfs you mean the multiple cannon, bolt thrower and similar list, right?

It'll work great against anything without a monsterslaying character or cannons, or even a bunch of bolt throwers.

This list is for fun, I'm guessing, and will do fine against a lot of lists. But too many tourney or even decent competitive lists will rake it over the coals.

Hell, can you poison monsters with skinks? That'd be a sad day, watching all your monsters get shot to death by blowpipes.

...I don't think I've ever seen a Dwarf player field multiple cannons... Hell, even a single cannon is rare.

Really? Even with a Master Engineer making it a great cannon and entrenching something else?

Thanks for the comments so far.

I feel the beastmaster is worth it,despite his low armour. Another flying rank breaker on the flanks will force my opponent to turn to face, which is troublesome with 2 Giants coming up the middle. And when he gets into combat, the manticore + his 2 lance attacks should minimize the return blows against all but heavy calvary and characters

The only thing is, I am really worrying about the magical defense of the army - don't want a million tree singings to block my troops or zombie hordes charging me/redirecting me.

Heavy artillery armies do concern me, but what can you do. They better make those shots count as harpies+flying monsters+3xdark riders will get them quickly.

Definitely taking a Giant over the War Hydra. Unpredicatable as his attacks are, stubborn 10 is too good to pass up, and he's less points!

This list is mostly for fun, though I think it can do well in tournaments. I mean, most people worry about chariots. How about 4 chariots? Then there's the 2 Giants. Then there's the Mantirore rider. Then there's the Black Dragon...Not to mention all the flyers and fast cav which will try to get behind you to get some crossfire on.

Poison can be concerning, but there is Terror to worry about...and the harpies, and the Chariots which can act as rear guards to the Giants.

Anyway folks, thanks for the comments. Keep 'em coming!

Clarence

Personally, the only thing I would change would be the Harpies. I just don't find them as useful as others (but then again it might just be sour dice rolls). I would scrap the harpies and the chariot and go with 8-12 Cold One Knights, even more fast hitting power. Have em plow through the middle like there's no tomorrow then have your Dark Riders clean em up. Great List though looks very frightening and I would imagine an awesome sight to see.

Never mind my last comment, I just realized that it was not 1 but 4 Chariots (I was wondering why it didn't seem like enough points). Great list! Bravo- keep the Beastmaster more towards your theme and he just plain rocks. Might I suggest a War Hydra for more variety as well? Just a thought. Wonderful list, should bring many victories! To Waarrr!!