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Hey, just wondered what you guys thought of this version of my high elf army, since getting the book i've wanted to do an army of caledor and just wondered if there was anything that could be tweaked or swapped out, anyway C&C welcome.

As you can see the basic plan for this army is to leave the archers and bolt throwers in a commanding position to rain death upon what ever the please and everything else will bolt forward at full speed to try and get as many combi charges off as possible was thinking of perhaps having essentially two squads with a dragon, chariot and unit of DPs each to gang up on units and win combats through sheer number of high Str attacks.

High Elf Prince: Star Dragon, Star Lance, Vambraces of Defense, Dragon Armour, Shield: 627pts
Dragon Mage: Level 2, 2 Dispel Scrolls: 425pts
10 Archers: 110pts
10 Archers: 110pts
Lion Chariot: 140pts
Tiranoc Chariot: 85pts
5 Dragon Princes: Full Command: 200pts
5 Dragon Princes: Full Command: 200pts
Repeater Bolt Thrower: 100pts
1997pts

I would find the points to give your prince the Armor of Caledor to take advantage of that re-roll the vambraces give.

I'm in agreement with IsThisIt1015 with regard to the Prince. With the amount of attention this guy is going to get, it doesn't hurt to have a re-rollable 2+/4+ over a 4+/4+. Still, I'd be interested in seeing hearing how effective the Star Lance can be. I kind of agree with comments that someone (I think it was Arion) made some time ago suggesting to just use a Sun Dragon mount if you were going to run a double-dragon list. While not as potent as its Star Dragon counter-part, your opponents will still have to worry about 10 T6 W's that will be flying around the field, and you save a bunch of points for other things. This is the only scenario where I would choose a non-Star Dragon as a mount for a Prince (and even then, the Star Dragon is still a tempting choice for extra survivability alone).

I feel like the DM is getting under-utilized with this setup, but you'll need the scrolls since you've no other magic defense. Make space for the Silver Wand on this guy - it'll at least let him spam magic a lot more (effectively running at 7PD).

I would personally drop the command off both units of DPs and raise them both up to 6 models. Gives you a little extra oomph on the charge and can potentially stave off Panic Checks for an extra turn. You could also just drop the command and use those points for an extra RBT instead of the extra DPs. I've always found 2 RBTs to be a "must" for HE lists.

The list is fluffy, though, and for the most part I like it.

The main reason I prefer the Star Lance and Star Dragon is purely the amount of Str 7 Attacks your pumping out in the first round of combat, which I find quite vital to using a dragon your not going to win on static combat res so you have to make sure that what you hit you either wipe out or kill enough to force a break test (say your dragon has charged the flank of a unit your still have to deal +2 Combet res before you hit on average with the 10 Str 7 attacks you'll cause 5 - 6 wounds average their still only minus 4 and with an army like dwarves you don't want to get bogged down in combat) thats at least my experience using a star dragon character.

I did have a silver wand originally but it had to go to squeeze in the star dragon I feel that I will be pumping alot of power dice into Flaming Sword anyway and not use this guy like a caster as with the way he works theres just no point, the fact that the breath weapon on the dragon is only str 2 also causes a problem for me as if i was going to use him as a caster (which i probably would do in a larger game) i'd want the dragon to get close enough to cause maximum wounds with a breath attack but str 2 is just so pitiful i find it not worth it at all it might cause a few wounds but thats it, a dragon mage is better off in combat.

I might consider the loss of FC on the DPs but as i'm going to be buying the boxes of dragon princes I will stick with it for now also that +1 CR might just be enough to seal a combat for me, even if I have 11 Str 5 Attacks on the charge at WS 5, a unit should be able to destroy another unit quite nicely on its own leaving the chariots and dragons free to concentrate on large targets.

Those are just my thoughts anyway, would you really consider RBTs an absolute must? One could still be devastating on its own surely?

Re: Star Dragon - fair enough. Just thought I'd throw out an alternative if you were considering shaving points off places. I tend to err on the side of defensiveness myself, but that just comes from my horrible luck with first-round rolls (really, it's kind of distressing how many 1's I roll).

Re: Dragon Mage - ah. I hadn't accurately divined how you intended on using the fella.

Re: Dragon Princes boxes - they actually come with 5 regular Lance arms, so you're not obligated to make command models with the kit, if that was your concern. My DPs also tend to suffer from Rubber Lance Syndrome, which is why I've a tendency to keep 'em cheapish, though I usually find that I either win by a lot or lose by a lot with very little in-between. Still, YMMV.

With regards to 2+ RBTs - I think a lot has to do with me just rolling really poorly consistently (it's not the dice - my friends seem to have no issues when using the same dice ). However, multiple RBTs help just to make sure that any enemy unit you do hit is softened up quite a bit to nearly guarantee a win on the charge. Asides from Magic Bow-bearing heroes, the RBTs are the only reliable shooting HE have, and, personally, I've only found them to be consistently reliable in at least 2's. Granted, I've never played a Double Dragon list, so perhaps a lot of the concerns I normally have could be mitigated by the Dragons.

Considering shaving off points is something I might consider I did originally put the Prince on a Moon Dragon but by the end I was stuck for points so I chopped and changed a little to fit in the star dragon, don't get my wrong their have been times when the prince suffers from rubber lance syndrome, luckily in these cases the star dragon has always saved the combat for me, for example in a challenge my Prince got nuked by a Chaos Lord because he had this rather nasty combo that forced you to attack yourself, once the prince had been killed the dragon tore the Chaos Lord apart but then other times both of them have hit a block of chaos warriors and after i had finished hitting them they were rolling break tests on double 1's. Its very hit and miss so thanks for the alternative I will give it a go in a game and see how a baby dragon does or give him the armor of caledor and see if that makes any difference.

Re Dragon Mage: I don't know what your thoughts are on it, that was just my interpretation on how they should be used i tried using one as a caster before and the damage wasn't what I had expected still YMMV

Re Princes: Really thats good to know, we all know what GW are like so I just assumed you got the command and would have to mail order blister packs for more lance armed princes perhaps just a musician in the unit just encase as there isn't a great amount of difference in 10 or 11 attacks really.

Re Bolt Throwers: It goes without saying they are great at shooting, I may be too used to my Wood Elves and there normal bowfire being so devastating still I may be able to jig things around with a few of these suggestions and opt for 2 just encase anything big and scary needs sorting out before my dragons charge it.

Thanks for the advice though Jin, its been a great help and given me plenty of food for thought.

Generally I like to spam magic missiles with the Dragon Mage, and given his lack of defense, keep him away from CC, though he _can_ perform fairly admirably with Flaming Sword activated so long as he's only hitting Rank'n'File. My feelings on the DM, though, are that he works best with at least another mage on the field, if only to make your opponent burn through their dispel dice faster. For obvious reasons, that option's not available for this list. I'm curious to know how well you can manage to get FSoR out with just the one mage casting.

Glad my ramblin's been of help

hmmmm, I've used this Star Dragon set up before, and personally i didn't like it. The Str 7 attacks from the lance are good and all, but it leaves him way to vulnerable to shooting. Drop the Lance and take the Armour of Caledor and a halberd. thus giving yourself Str 5 attacks all the time, and a rerollable 2+ save. when i ran the Lance, the Prince always died to fast.

I have considered running two dragons therefore will you please keep us updated about the results. Please include the silverwand on the dragon. Your lord has very little defense and hopefully will not get stuck in combat.