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Ok I've bean running this List against a number of opponents, problem is I can't find a Magic Item set that works, I think I don't have enough Heroes.

Hero, Mounted W/Barding Heavy Armor & Shield - 107pts

Mage, Lv2 - 135pts

40 Spear-men, Inc Full Command - 385pts

20 Archers, Inc Full Command W/Light Armor - 265pts

10 Sword Masters, Inc Full Command - 180pts

5 Silver Helms, Inc Full Command W/Shields - 155pts

2 Repeater Bolt Throwers - 200pts


Now I usually give the Spear-men a War Banner and it works out good, but I just can't find the right mix of Magic Items for the Heroes.

I've found that against Bretonnians and Empire my Spear-men and Bolt Throwers have bean my most effective units, against Orks & Goblins you can add the Archers to that list of the Highly Effective. I don't think the Silver Helms unit is big enough and although the Sword Masters have provided a few upsets I find most of the time I can't maneuver them properly.

Are Repeater bolt Throwers 2 for 1 slot in the new army
book? In a 1500 pt. battle you can only have 1 rare choice,
so that would save you 100 pts right there.

in the new book its still two for 1. a 40 man block of spearmen?? does that work pretty well?/ also 20 archers what are you going for combat res from archers? archers always work better in groups of ten, heck its not like theyd hold up against a charge of clan rats or goblins for that matter. also giving them a full command is kinda like handing VP over on a silver platter, easy taget=easy VP. Its not a bad list but you should really split those archers into 2x10 units and lose the command all together.

With the Spearmen it dose work very well, Most of my opponents are running Cav Heavy armies so with First Strike and 21-31 attacks blocks of 9-10 Knights are not surviving their Charge, either Killed out right or losing the combat and braking, if they do survive the Charge their geting Boged Down and not surviving my Round. also of the dozen or so games I've used this list in only three times has someone made it to my back line, once they took enough Casualties to force a Panic Test from Stand & Shoot, an other I was able to completely wipe out a small unit of RAF before they could complete their charge using Stand & Shoot, unfortunately the third time the Archers where Cactus, they held on the Charge round but broke on the opponents 2nd round. As I said I'm having trouble Manuvering my Sword Masters to put them to good use, and my unit of Silver Helms is too small to use against the other guys Cav, it lacks the Attacks against Brets Lance formasions and Unit Strength against everyone, If I had the points I'd swap them out for my Dragon Princes, I know they'd only be Unit Strength 10 but the 11 Attacks would be a terror

at less than 2K points High Elves are Core: 1+, Special: 0-5, Rear: 0-2

Thats right i forgot that HE get tons of special units. sounds like the 40 man unit works well. I might have to inform a friend of mine to try it out and see how well it works.

I'm kinda in agreement that you should split the archers into 2 units of ten. God help you if you play anyone who has fast calvary, flyers or scouts.. At least this way you force your opponent to split his forces to deal with BOTH units of archers. Definitely think about dropping the command squad as well as the light armor. a 6+ save is about worthless and isn't that hard to negate.
Also, I'd take the extra points and split the spearmen into two units of 20 and pay for a second command group. That still offers you plenty of static combat resolution (by HE comparison anyway).
I'd almost say drop the caster down to a level 1 to spare some points for a dispel scroll or a few more models somewhere.. you're not going to get much off in your magic phase with a lvl 2 caster and if you weren't expecting heavy magic anyway, I'd drop him all together..
If you plan on using your spearmen as anvils, I'd also experiment with fielding two units of 5 swordmasters with no banner to tag along on either of their flanks to allow you a devastating countercharge.
I like the bolt throwers though, in my opinion they're great as long as you don't go nutty with them. 2-3 (depending on point level) offer solid fire support, 4 or more offers your opponent an easy to exploit advantage.

nieto666 wrote:Thats right i forgot that HE get tons of special units. sounds like the 40 man unit works well. I might have to inform a friend of mine to try it out and see how well it works.

Please keep in mind that this works against the guys I'm playing against, Most of whom are running Heavy Cav. Heavy armies, it may not work as well against Multiple units of Infantry or Light Cav, But the Bolt Throwers & Archers providing fire support will limit that threat some what, what I fear is seeing a unit of 6+ RAF, 10+ Flying Infantry or Scouts they can get in to my back line and play Merry Hell with my supporting elements. But the Guys I'm playing against don't seam to have Scouts in their Lists or any Flyers, except for the Brets with their RAF and one guy thinks more than 4 RAF is too much (and likily is against everyone but 20 BS 4 Long Bowmen) and the other was iffy about RAF till he saw what happend when they tryed to charge my Archers, now He's going to give it a miss for the time being.

Guess you never play wood elfs?? they can get you in so many different nasty ways its crazy. 8 waywatchers and watch out its going to be a bad day for your bolt thorwers and archers. not to include most of the army is immune to pshycology and can easily out shoot u. throw in Hail of doom arrow and your archers might just turn tail and run off the table in the 1st turn. I should know i play woodies and know all their nasty little tricks. When i play my woodies and i see a oppenant might be able to out shoot me i pick apart their units as fast as i can. sounds like it would work quite well against a heavy cav army and perhaps even a shooty army.

Brets Me and two other guys, Dwarfs one of the Girls, High Elves the other Girl, but she hasn't played since we went over 1K and she gave my High Elves back, a guy playing Empire and an other with Orcs & Goblins.

When we visit Stores & Guilds it's more Brets, VCs & Orgers, though I haven't used this army against them their is lots of Chaos.

Well Every Army has it's Used By date, and due to some silliness on my part I did the equivalent of leaving it out over night. I'm going to have to re-do my Order of Battle if I want to keep using these same Minnies, But I've got Dragon Princes, More Silver Helms and Phoenix Guards still Boxed up, I may have to drag them out.

Found my Balance of Magic Items, but it called for swapping the Silver Helms out for Reavers, What I should have done from the Get Go since I ended up trying to use my Silver Helms as Reavers anyway.

So Tips with this Army. 1) Keep up Shield of Spahery on the Spearmen, the Ward Save keeps Attrition down (Atleast till you get off Flames of the Phoenix). 2) Use your Bastions Maneuvers to prevent Flank Charges. 3) Always give your Archers Elevation to keep them shooting in Two Ranks and to give them "Up Hill" for Combat Rez. 4) Don't bunch up your Support Elements, it makes them too vulnerable to Overrun. 5) Make them Charge your Spearmen by Deploying as far forward as possible and March Moving in in to their bigist block of Knights on your first round (Rember you Bastions and Terrain Blocking to prevent Flank Charges and keep the number of Units of Charging Knights down). 6) Space is your Friend, Don't use on a 4' X 4' table, only use on a 4' X 6' Tornie Table or a 4'X 8' Full Sized Table. 7) Don't use against Chariots, Impact Hits is a Bigger Killer than Scouts.

I know the Tips are all Nubbie reminders (apart from 5 & 6), but High Elf players will forget them a lot of the time since Big Units isn't a common High Elf tactic these days. and Finally this is a "Something Different" Army so Don't use it too long (My Mistake) or too oftern.