Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hey, folks! This is Craig from the D6G, and I'm trying desperately to use my old Dark Elves in our 1000pt Mighty Empires campaign, but I'm finding at 1000 points I can't really get anything I want in numbers large enough to get solid use out of it.

Here's the force I used last week:

Noble on coldone with standard stuff

Sorceress with tome of Furion

10 Corsairs

10 Repeater Crossbowmen with musician

5 Dark Riders with repeater crossbows, musician, standard

5 cold one knights with musician, standard

5 shades

5 harpies

Reaper bolt thrower

I held my own, but then, thanks to a couple rookie mistakes, i gave up a minor victory in the end.

Are there other options I should look at? Other troop types I should have tried?

Help me, folks, because i just can't seem to get a grip on this army list!

Thanks,

~Craig

The one overriding thing that I think this list could use is a bit of focus. You have a wide selection of units but your force doesn't appear to be concentrating on anything. First, you definitely need to drop the standard on your Dark Riders, they should be used for march blocking the enemy, skirmisher hunting and war machine hunting, giving them a standard is just giving up 100VPs if they break and run or extraneous combat resolution that they don't really need.

Second, drop the harpies. Only 5 of them aren't going to do much and with their abysmal leadership of 6 they're likely going to run when the slightest thing goes wrong. Besides, you have shades and Dark Riders to accomplish the same things that the harpies would.

For your crossbowmen, give them shields. For an extra point you get a 5+ save against counter-shooting and a 4+ save against the inevitable flyer or fast cav charge. Also you might want to consider putting the sorceress with them to bunker her (not sure if you were already doing this).

Ringing in at 29 pts apiece Cold One Knights are very very pricey for this low of a points value game, but they can be used effectively if you set them up for flank charges or against low leadership troops. If you win combat and outnumber you can auto-break and likely ride down your enemies, and if they fail a fear check they're only hitting you on 6's for the first round of combat. That being said, just run the bare minimum of 5 with a musician because they lack the oomph to take on a real close combat unit head to head and having them break and give up that 100VP standard just isn't worth it.

For your characters, I'd consider mounting the sorceress on a steed and putting her in the Dark Riders unit as a way to keep her fairly well protected while letting her get close enough to use short range spells, or if that doesn't appeal to you I'd suggest keeping her on foot and with your repeating crossbowmen. Your Noble would be better served off the cold one, in the unit of corsairs (who you should give a command group to and bulk up to 15-20 so they have some power), and kitted out to kill. At 1000 points a BSB is still useful, but you don't really have the points to throw around for it and your DE have a solid leadership anyways. If you make him killy and stick him in the corsairs then you've got a decent infantry block for static combat resolution and a killy character to deal out punishment.

Sorry to ramble, but that's my experience playing with/against Dark Elves.

Thanks, Walrus! I had dispaired that anyone in my old home discussion pages was going to help me out!

That pretty much goes along with what othes have been telling me. I hadn't thought about the angle of giving up the DR's 100pts for the standard. That's a part of the meta game I better pick up fast!

One suggestion had been to drop the RBT and the Corsairs and pick up a Hydra. What do you think about that?

Also, going against Dwarfs in my next game, I just can't see spending the points on a Sorceress when she's going to get shut down 99% of the time.

Further thoughts?

If you're playing against dwarfs you can either take two lvl2 casters and overload his magic defense, or take no magic at all and make his 4DD pretty much useless, it's all up to you. I think a hydra would be a good choice for you, it can keep up with your army, it causes terror, and it can move through terrain without penalty which is a huge bonus. It's profile looks fierce on paper but it's not really strong enough to take down a unit of dwarfs by itself, so if you can combine a charge with your corsairs or even better your cold one knights and watch one of his units crumble. (On a side note I had a unit of hammerers and my thane get charged and beaten in combat by a hydra and a unit of cold one knights and they subsequently auto-broke because of being outnumbered by a fear causing unit costing me my 150+ point general and a 200+ point unit. )

Whether you take a hydra or a RBT is up to how you want to play the game. If you want to get close in and make his battle line crumble, take the hydra. If you feel like sitting back and whittling down his units before closing, take the RBT. At 1500 points you're likely to be facing one of two builds 1) the standard gunline with an organ gun, at least one cannon, a good amount of missile troops and some counter charge infantry blocks or 2) your opponent with take strollaz's rune and move up 12" before the game starts and give his general a master rune of challenge, forcing one of your units to charge or flee.

Hope this helps!

Thanks again, Walrus! Yeah, I think that helps a lot. My opponent and I are both pretty fluffy players. He plays his dwarves as conservative old crackers who won't field black powder weapons, so my main concern is quarrelers and stone throwers.

Lately he's been fielding 2 blocks of warriors w/hand weapons/shields or great weapons, a big block of quarrelers, and a stone thrower with 2 thanes mixed into the bunch. He got his butt handed to him by a woodelf player last week, but that was mostly luck.

Again, thanks. if anything else occurs to you, I'm all pale and pointy ears.

~Craig

Best of luck on your game, and on an aside your podcast is great!

Thanks for the help! I'm sure the results will be all over Achievements in Gaming next week! (One way or the other).

Well, Walrus, that went . . . well.

I ended up taking a Beastmaster on Manticore, 2 5-man DR, 2 6-man Shades, 5 harpies, and the Hydra. So, no magic, and no static lines of any kind. It was a bit of a gamble, but put him on his back foot from turn 1, and it turned out best that I didn't take any static shooting, because the terrain we pulled included a nasty little side effect that any time a unit wanted to shoot there was a 50% chance they had an additional -1 to hit.

We played Prisoner Exchange, so I was a bit out of sorts with no spare champions or heroes to babysit my dwarven prisoners. He deployed deep in his corner (quadrant deployment) and I had to go and root him out. Luckily, between the two monsters and the speed of the rest of the army, I could pick and choose where to hit him. The harpies screened the army coming in, then flew over his gunline to free the dark elf prisoners while the manticore and hydra hit from opposite flanks and caused much death destruction and terror tests, which actually saw his general flee off the table to the only fear/terror test failed all game.

Thanks for the help! Lord Verullian and the Talon of Spite appreciate the effort. Unfortunately, should word every reach the thanes of Karak Grimfast that you helped, your dwarfs will probably find their way onto a grudgestone rather quickly!