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I am trying to sell my High Elves that I haven't played in 5 years or so. If I don't, I'm thinking of playing them again and relearning Warhammer Fantasy. I flipped through the army book and came up with this for 2000 points. How viable is it? I'm assuming a tactical stance of ranged and magic, with the Silver Helms and Sword Masters guarding my flanks, and the spearmen in the center surrounded by archers.

Archmage (level 4) power stone, dispel scroll, steinsliver
Mage (level 2) incense, silver wand
Battle Standard Bearer, battle banner

10 Archers
10 Archers

15 Sword Masters with Blade Lord, standard, musician
05 Silver Helms with High Helm, standard, musician
05 Dragon Prince with Drakemaster, standard, musician, sword of battle, war banner
02 Tiranoc Chariots

02 Repeater Bolt Throwers
01 Great Eagle

1999 points

Mage and BSB with Swordmasters, Archmage with Dragon Prince.

Do you own the most recent High Elf book, or only the 6th edition Army Book?

I was able to view the most recent book to get accurate point costs. If I decide to play I will purchase it.

Take archers in units of 10, no standard, maybe musicians if you have the points for them.

If you're planning on using the Sea Guard as a block of spears, save yourself the points and just make them Spearelves rather than Sea Guard. Also, I would make this unit into a block of 21 to get the maximum number of attacks out of them.

Generally, unless you plan on going with a fluffy list, don't take more than the minimum number of Core units in a High Elf army (Minimum is 2 for a High Elf Army at 2000 points). The real killing/stopping power is in other sections of the army book.

If you can use Dragon Princes instead of Silver Helms, do so. For 7pts more per model, you get 1 extra WS, I, A and Ld and immunity to fire - well worth the trade off in points. If you're planning on using them simply to counter-charge, consider running them without any command.

It's generally considered better to run Sword Masters in smaller units (2 units of 7 is popular) with maybe only a Blade Lord to add a bit of extra hitting power. It gives you somewhat better maneuverability without any loss in hitting power. Just gotta keep 'em out of sight of enemy shooting and magic.

If you want to run the Banner of Sorcery, you'd probably do best to run a biggish (15 or so) unit of Phoenix Guard or White Lions and give it to the standard bearer of that unit. To a lesser extent, you could put it in that current block of Swordmasters, but that's not ideal. Giving the BoS to an Elite unit frees up the BSB to take up one of the pricier banners (the Battle Banner is great).

I think the book is the most important purchase you can make for an army, but that's besides the point.

Just a few things off the the top of my head:
*Rank bonus is obtained when they are at least 5 wide
*Full command is a waste of points on the archers
*Swordsmens are awesome, but you need more
*Upgrade SHs to Dragon Princes. Silverhelms are old and busted. I don't of anybody that effectively uses Cavalry in multiple ranks.
*If you're wanting to go magic heavy, drop Teclis for an Archmage and upgrade your Lvl 1 to Lvl 2.
*Eagles and bolt throwers are your friends. Surround yourself with them

Other than that just work up some lists and read the other lists that are posted.

barlio wrote:I think the book is the most important purchase you can make for an army, but that's besides the point.

And it will be my first purchase if I decide to play Warhammer again. These models are years and possibly 1 or 2 editions old.

Otherwise good info to know, thanks everyone.

I would recommend that you get back into if you have players in your general area. I've found that after collecting/playing Fantasy is a refreshing break. You are painting more models, but every unit is more regular and you tend to adapt a "horde mentality". When you go back to 40k and see how flexible your moving and shooting is, you will have a greater appreciation for 40k.

Good luck though. I'm always glad to see that there is continued interest in Fantasy.

Please review the list I put up after watching a battle report and reading the notes in this thread. If my EBay auction doesn't sell I think I'll buy a chariot (the 1 thing I'm missing) and try this army out next week.