Second try at an almost (minus shades) all mounted list of dark elves. There are a ton of little changes that can be made to this list, but being a new player I'm lost as to which I should make (or even a bigger revamp towards a hybrid list). Anyways, here goes;
List edited
Dreadlord
+black dragon
+crimson death
+armor of darkness
+pendant of khaeleth
Sorceress
+level 2 wizard
+dark steed
+focus familiar
Sorceress
+dark steed
+darkstar cloak
+level 2 wizard
Cold One Knights x5
Cold One Knights x5
Cold One Chariot
Dark Riders x5
+crossbows
+musician
Dark Riders x5
+crossbows
+musician
Dark Riders x5
+crossbows
+musician
Hydra
Hydra
Shades x10
+great weapons
Harpies x5
Harpies x5
Strategy is pretty simple...everything moves fast, so the whole army will be deployed very spread out; goal is to get charges from both sides of the board while moving a couple units such as dark riders up the center to soften things up and eventually get flank charges.
Dreadlord on dragon will take one of the flanks and do what combat dragon/characters do...start at one end of the board and end at the other, hopefully before getting shot up by war machines. I may even sit him behind terrain until turn two, and on the turn my harpies charge war machines move him 20" forward so he can get a charge on turn three, without ever being exposed to heavy artillery(if I play harpies correctly that is...). With pendant of khaeleth and crimson death, he will be able to consistently put out quite a bit of damage, my worry is just him getting swamped.
Sorc's will move wherever needed; I gave one of them tome of furion so I have 5 total spells, I REALLY want to get Word of Pain as often as I can as it can be used on shooty units to make them BS1, helping to protect my cav from being blown to bits before they reach combat. In addition, it's very nice to cast on big baddies
. With the help of familiar, the first sorc can hide and let off offensive spells while remaining relatively safe. I decided to just screw the dispell scrolls completely...I'm not sure if that is a good idea or not...if people think I should take them adjustments can be made.
Shades will sit somewhere in terrain and shoot until they are able to assist with charges etc. Skirmishers+light cover is a -2 to hit, so they shouldn't be exceptionally vulnerable to shooting (although lack of armor save and low T is bad :/). What I'm unsure of is the number I took, 10. I like taking units in groups of 5 or 7, but in this case I only had one special choice left and had to combine.
Harpies are for three things; if there are war machines, they immediately fly straight at them and tie them up turn two (what I'm worried about is them getting shot down on turn one by regular ranged troops and magic...they are extremely easy to kill and panic without fail
). If there are casters, they will hunt. Later on they can assist charges. I'm not sure if taking three units is going overboard, but the things are so damn cheap, and flying+2 attacks seems great for killing war machine crews.
Dark Riders I've heard are one of the best fast cav in the game, so I took what I thought to be a good amount without putting all my eggs in one basket. Super fast movement and good shooting has done me well in my first few games. I finally learned how to bait and redirect, so that is their primary goal the first portion of the game until they are needed for flank charges and support.
CoK are basic cav in the list...I didn't give those units any upgrades. They hit hard enough on the charge at S6, and there are enough appealing targets on the board that at least one should get into combat without being obliterated.
I threw in the Cold One Chariot because it seems to have excellent stats for the points and I would like to model a chariot with cold ones ^^. I originally had 3 units of CoK and no chariot, but in the few games I played it seemed as though the blocks of cav were hindering my movement. The much smaller frontage of the chariot should assist a bit while still providing very good offensive power. From what I've heard, dark elves need to get charges off and punch big holes quickly in order to win with combat oriented armies, and so far this seems to be the case; the chariot on paper looks to do just that, but I have yet to create a model or use it in a game.
I took two hydras because
RBT's don't really fit into the list, and I also love the hydra models. I didn't play "old" dark elves, as this is my first fantasy army, but looking at the original stats they seem to have been given a very substantial buff. I'd like to take advantage of this. Will tournaments rate me down for taking two of the same rare?
That's about it...any advice is much appreciated.
2000
2000
WIP
3000
8000 
