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Greetings all,

I'm looking at starting my second Warhammer Fantasy army, Dark Elves, but right now I have no real idea of how this army works/plays, and what units go into a pretty decent (and fun) army list. The units I know I like are the Corsairs, Executioners, Black Guard, Assassins, and Reaper Bolt Thrower. I'll likely have to choose between Black Guard and Executioners, but what I'd like to hear back from people are ideas for a successful 2000 point starter army. What units are must have's, and what should I absolutely avoid

I'm hoping to put a list together this week, and perhaps give the army a trial run (so even a smaller 1k army might be the place to begin since I only wanna give the race a test drive at first).

I should also mention I am still running 2k+ Brets, and I'd like this army to play very differently, and also perhaps contain some more of the fantastical elements of Warhammer (Hydras, as an example) since Brets are rather tame in that department (Pegasus and Hippogriff... meh). Are the monsters for Dark Elves any good, and is it best to run a list with as a Monster Mash or Monster-less, or is a list with just one fairly playable?

Thanks in advance,
-Xeno99

This is a tough one to start with. The dark elf list has a plethora of builds available. Here are a couple of the different options:

You can have a shoot and counter attack list.
All shooty point avoidance.
All monsters ( you can literally get 4 flying monstrous creaters, 2 hydras and cold ones in a 2000pt list)
All out infantry combat.

Do you have a play style that you want to try out? From what you listed above the following would probably work well to start off with.

Core
Corsairs
Crossbowmen
Crossbowmen

Special
Black Guard
Executioners

Rare
Bolt throwers

I would then add in either some dark riders or cold one knights to get some fast moving cav. Then you need to decide lots of magic or little magic.

Thanks for the feedback. I stopped by my local hobby shop for a few minutes today, here was the list I came up with so far. I realize it's probably not all that great, but like I said it's just a start with units I know I like the look and feel of...

Lords
Dreadlord: 280
Hydrablade
Chariot
Heavy Armour
Shield
Sea Dragon Cloak

Heroes
Sorcerous: 150
Dispel Scroll
Dispel Scroll

Core
Crossbowmen: 160
x16

Crossbowmen: 160
x16

Corsairs: 225
Reaver
Musician
Standard
x17

Assassin 1: 151
Two Hand Weapons
Rending Stars
Rune of Khaine

Assassin 2: 165
Venom Sword

Special
Shades: 80
x5

Executioners: 118
Standard
Musician
x8

Cold One Knights: 159
Standard
Musician
x3

Rare
Reaper Bolt Thrower: 100

War Hydra: 175

That leaves me about 77 points let to play with, and I'm sure there's some stuff that people will tell me needs to be dropped (like I said, never even played this sort of army, so I dunno what is gonna be worth taking just yet). I'm thinking Dark Riders will be a necessity somewhere in here (I know I love the Yeomen for my Brets), and I still kind of want those Black Guard somewhere in here.

Anyhow, there's what I've got so far. Not sure on playstyle or anything particular. I'm thinking either Infantry heavy or shooty heavy, but I also want powerhouse units in there who can countercharge, etc. Just something that doesn't revolve around "charge and win, sit and you die" mentality.

Thanks,
-Xeno99

I would recommend always fielding reapers in pairs. Either none or two. For some reason they seem to do a lot better with two.

Also for 1 pt shields on crossbowmen are amazing. A ws 4 4+ as save isn't exactly shabby. It won't stop a dedicated assault unit, but it'll make smaller units think twice before charging in.

Why 16 crossbowmen? You either go small with 10 or you do multiples of 5 for a possible rank bonus.

It's usually a bad idea to put characters in chariots. There are too many strength 7 things out there that will leave him hoofing it.

Do you have a plan for where you are going to put the assassins?

Warmaster wrote:I would recommend always fielding reapers in pairs. Either none or two. For some reason they seem to do a lot better with two.

Also for 1 pt shields on crossbowmen are amazing. A ws 4 4+ as save isn't exactly shabby. It won't stop a dedicated assault unit, but it'll make smaller units think twice before charging in.

Why 16 crossbowmen? You either go small with 10 or you do multiples of 5 for a possible rank bonus.

It's usually a bad idea to put characters in chariots. There are too many strength 7 things out there that will leave him hoofing it.

Do you have a plan for where you are going to put the assassins?

Thanks for the input. I guess I'll clear up space for another Reaper. I'm a little concerned about adding shields to a ranged combat unit... I mean, if they're the ones taking the brunt of a charge, doesn't that mean things are already going a little bit wrong (I could be way off on this, keep in mind my only ranged unit experience is with my Brets bowmen who... well, they die.) The reasoning behind 16 was two ranks of 8. The thinking was that they would stand in a long firing line, and if on a hill that secondary rank could join in as well. Alternatively I could do 3 units of 10, I'm not concerned either way.

I wasn't sure on the chariot either, maybe put him on a Cold One instead then?

Assassins... well, I was thinking perhaps with the right deployment I could have one mix with the Shades and thus make it into enemy lines early on (so if I can get them near a multi wound character and pop out a venom sword wielding killer to take the character (hopefully general) out early, I'll have less strong characters to deal with). The ranged one I thought perhaps of mixing in with the Executioners so they could have a multi attack, fast hitting, potentially ranged character to compensate for their own slow hitting, heavy damage weapons (so they can actually make up some kills when outnumbered by another unit for instance).

Then again, I could be way off on those, but I'm always open to suggestions

Thanks,
-Xeno99

If you're going to field Executioners, give them the Standard of Hag Graef. Elves and great weapons don't mix well, so giving them ASF is a HUGE boon.

Manfred von Drakken wrote:If you're going to field Executioners, give them the Standard of Hag Graef. Elves and great weapons don't mix well, so giving them ASF is a HUGE boon.

I'd love to, except for that part about the banner being 35 points and Executioners only allowing for a 25 point banner. If I get a BSB later, I'll think about it, but since that plan doesn't seem to be working I decided on trying a slightly altered list:

Lords
Dreadlord: 226pts.
Heartseeker
Lance
Heavy Armour
Shield
Sea Dragon Cloak
Cold One

Heroes
Sorceress: 150pts.
Dispel Scrolls x2

Core
Crossbowmen: 150pts.
x15

Crossbowmen: 150pts.
x15

Corsairs: 210pts.
Standard Bearer
x19

Assassins
First:126pts.
Two Hand Weapons
Rending Stars

Second: 165pts.
Venom-sword

Special
Shades: 80pts.
x5

Cold-One Knights: 159pts.
Standard Bearer
Musician
x3

Black Guard: 130pts.
x10

Rare:
Reaper Bolt Thrower: 200pts.
x2

War Hydra: 175pts.

((I forget if I can have 2 rares in 2000 points. If not, I'm dropping the War Hydra in favor of more toys for Black Guard.))

Any thoughts?