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My dark elf army is reaching 2k and its time to include a Lord level character. I had 3 possibilities for this but didnt know which is best.

Here are my possibilities:

1) SORCERESS
Lvl 4, Cold one, Pendant of Khaeleth, Darkstar Cloak....350PTS**

2) DREADLORD
Manticore, sea dragon cloak, shield, Deathpiercer**, Ring of Hotek, Amour of Eternal Servitude.....434

3) DREADLORD
Executioner's Axe, Blood Armour, sea dragon cloak, shield....244PTS

Ok here are the options please vote in the poll with your prefered choice. Post with tactics, improvements, or the question (see below) etc. It's theese choices only, no saying i should take a Black Dragon.

*I might swap theese for Deathpiercer and im not sure if you can use the Dagger of Hotek with a lance (i want it to grant an extra attack). Can you?? And which would you go with?? The Deathpiercer option is 11pts cheaper. Also i might put the sorceress on a cold one, is this a good idea??

**Edited. See mekboy's post and mine.

Thanks for your help.

Let's see then...

Sorceresses cannot take armour. And I'd recommend the Black Staff, as it gives you two chances for Power of Darkness.

For the 1st Dreadlord, The Dagger of Hotek won't give you an extra attack, as you are mounted, and even if it did the lance would be pointless as you must use a magic weapon as your weapon if you carry one. I'd give him Crimson Death, as it means that netters et.c. won't drop your killing capacity.

I can't really comment on the Executioner's axe. I have no experience with it, but it looks like it might be useful againt powerful heroes and monsters, providing you can ensure you strike first.

It isn't hard to make a GW character on foot strike first. You just put him in the ASF unit of black guard.

As for the builds of characters you have, none of them are optimal. I choose the SS, as there is no reason why a master can't fill the roles the other characters are filling. If you want a dreadlord, it should be doing something important and something that a master can't do. Like ride a dragon. The only reason to run a manticore master, is that the manticore doesn't take up a hero slot with a dreadlord. Also if you are going to make a dread lord fly, you should give him the pendant, since he will absorb all of the cannonballs. Sure tossing the ring on him seems like a good idea, but the ring should go on a champion or master that is safely in a unit of some sort. Having a flying ring only really works if you also have a dreadlord on a dragon to distract the war machines. You get more reliable coverage when your ring is in the middle of your own army. (many players have flying wizards, and can fly away from your ring just as easily as you fly up)

Isn't executioners axe a magic great weapon? Since you must use a magic weapon, and it takes up 2 hands, the shield you paid for does nothing since you can't use it except against shooting. Since you are in a unit presumably, then it serves absolutely no purpose. I am personally not a big fan of the axe, since it is so costly. So it wounds on a 2 and does d3 wounds. An assassin with KB or venom sword can remove all of the wounds for cheaper.

Also to help you dicide i'll tell you what ive already got: a master on cold one and a lvl2 sorceress (foot).

@mekboy, ah i thought there might me something agaisnt this. In this case i will put her on a cold one and perhaps giver her the pendant of khaeleth, ill edit the post, what do you think of this change?

I don't really like putting lvl 4 wizards on stupid mounts. I don't care when a combat unit that only costs 135 points goes all short bus, but when your magic phase decides to have a senior moment, that just sucks.

notabot187 wrote:I don't really like putting lvl 4 wizards on stupid mounts. I don't care when a combat unit that only costs 135 points goes all short bus, but when your magic phase decides to have a senior moment, that just sucks.

This is to giver her an armour save, 5+ at that, which is OK for a wizard. If i could give her armour instead, i would but i can't.

But a bad leadership roll means she doesn't use her magic for a turn.

The more important question for you is are you running a combat heavy army or a magic heavy army?

I vote Manticore. Running those big puppies takes the most jubblies of the three options, and is cooler and more unique

Though Vengis's point is a good one for understanding what role this lord is playing in your list.

- Salvage

#3 is my choice as long as he is ran in a unit that has the ASF Banner. It makes anything big an nasty think twice about charging that unit.

Vengis wrote:But a bad leadership roll means she doesn't use her magic for a turn.

The more important question for you is are you running a combat heavy army or a magic heavy army?

It's sort of a mix. But probably more CC heavy. I can see that you'll probably say I should take a sorceress now, but if i dont take the sorceress for a Lord i will include another lvl2.

Another thing i will take into consideration is the price, as in money, and the assemblability (is that a word? If it isnt, i claim it as mine) of the models. The sorceress and foot lord will be a lot cheaper, easier to assemble and needs only minor conversions. The manticore however is more expensive and will be hard to assemble, since it's metal (i think it is anyway).

Lord w/ Crimson Death, Pendant, Regen Armor, Cold One, Sea Dragon C., and a sammich b/c he's gonna get hungry have beating down all those enemy characters. This guy has taken down Hellcannons, Bloodthristers, and Vamp. Lords galore. He's been eaten alive by zombies hehehe.

I LOVE my lvl 4 Sorcerer (that's right...its a DUDE!). I usually give him Black Staff and Pendant and stick him in a combat unit (usually either spearmen or ASF BG). I also stick an Assassin in there too so if some Chaos Tard comes up and screams "FIGHTMELOOKATMEIMAHEREGOVERNATORRAWRRAWRRAWR!!!" my lvl 4 answers (with pendant!) while my Assassin slices and dices.

The thing is a 5+ against what will be fired at a lvl 4 is effectively no save at all. So don't bother. Give her the pendant and be done with it.

bd1085 wrote:Lord w/ Crimson Death, Pendant, Regen Armor, Cold One, Sea Dragon C., and a sammich b/c he's gonna get hungry have beating down all those enemy characters. This guy has taken down Hellcannons, Bloodthristers, and Vamp. Lords galore. He's been eaten alive by zombies hehehe.

I LOVE my lvl 4 Sorcerer (that's right...its a DUDE!). I usually give him Black Staff and Pendant and stick him in a combat unit (usually either spearmen or ASF BG). I also stick an Assassin in there too so if some Chaos Tard comes up and screams "FIGHTMELOOKATMEIMAHEREGOVERNATORRAWRRAWRRAWR!!!" my lvl 4 answers (with pendant!) while my Assassin slices and dices.

I said no other alternatives, only minor changes to the ones ive suggested. Also i have an assasin thank you very much.

Notabot: I think i will go with your advice since 30pts is actually quite a lot and its a lot easier to hide her when she's on foot since i have more infantry than cavalry. And im quite stubborn when it comes to putting cavalry models into infantry units, it looks stupid!

Eldar Own wrote:

bd1085 wrote:Lord w/ Crimson Death, Pendant, Regen Armor, Cold One, Sea Dragon C., and a sammich b/c he's gonna get hungry have beating down all those enemy characters. This guy has taken down Hellcannons, Bloodthristers, and Vamp. Lords galore. He's been eaten alive by zombies hehehe.

I LOVE my lvl 4 Sorcerer (that's right...its a DUDE!). I usually give him Black Staff and Pendant and stick him in a combat unit (usually either spearmen or ASF BG). I also stick an Assassin in there too so if some Chaos Tard comes up and screams "FIGHTMELOOKATMEIMAHEREGOVERNATORRAWRRAWRRAWR!!!" my lvl 4 answers (with pendant!) while my Assassin slices and dices.

I said no other alternatives, only minor changes to the ones ive suggested. Also i have an assasin thank you very much.

Notabot: I think i will go with your advice since 30pts is actually quite a lot and its a lot easier to hide her when she's on foot since i have more infantry than cavalry. And im quite stubborn when it comes to putting cavalry models into infantry units, it looks stupid!

My bad. In that case just go with a lvl 4, Pendant, & Black Staff so you can watch your enemy his/her pants at all that Magic washing over the battlefield.

Also has anyone got a manticore? Did you find it hard or easy to assemble?

Only 2 alternatives, the level 4 Sorceress on a Pegasus or the Dreadlord on a Black Dragon. Both work but the latter is more reliable.

I have a manticore. It is actually pretty easy for a large chunk of metal with plastic wings. You probably want to use green stuff or pin the legs, but the rest of it actually fit together well enough without it. The only pain was getting the rider to line up in a good pose and stay there. It paints up really nice too.

Eldar Own wrote:Also has anyone got a manticore? Did you find it hard or easy to assemble?

Not too bad... not exactly easy, though.

I reccomend pinning everything, though. I don't think the legs will hold too well without pins, and the rest... well, better safe than sorry.

The real hard part is covering up the joints - especially on the foreleg where the joint runs through the mane. Major PITA there.

Vulcan wrote:

Eldar Own wrote:Also has anyone got a manticore? Did you find it hard or easy to assemble?

Not too bad... not exactly easy, though.

I reccomend pinning everything, though. I don't think the legs will hold too well without pins, and the rest... well, better safe than sorry.

The real hard part is covering up the joints - especially on the foreleg where the joint runs through the mane. Major PITA there.

Ok, i may see if i can find an alternate model. I don't want to wastet money on another model I can't assemble.

Consider moutning that sorc on a Dark Steed- if it's a casual game you can jsut coutns as your Cold One Model. You gain 2", and lose the darn stupidity. Whatever is hitting you is going to beat 5+ armor as easily as 6+ armor. Pendant is where it's at.

Therion wrote:Only 2 alternatives, the level 4 Sorceress on a Pegasus or the Dreadlord on a Black Dragon. Both work but the latter is more reliable.

This.

The Dreadlord is simply overpriced compared to a Master. The only thing the Dreadlord brings to the table is the ability to ride a Black Dragon, which is a very good choice.

As mentioned none of the builds you have up there are optimal I would recommend one of the following:

SS W/ Pendant/Staff in a 15 man unit of BG 7x2 wide throw another lvl 2 in the unit with tome of furion = profit!

SS W/ Dark Peggy with either black staff or focus familiar(yay shenanigans!) (with this one you can mount her on a black dragon as well but then you must take the familiar and pendant for casting out of combat fun)

Lastly Dreadlord on Dragon fill in items to taste (crimson death is a fav admittedly though the ring is a good bet here as well)

These all provide you with some much more killyness out of your lord the dready will of course be the most consistent and safe bet but if you get good rolls theres nothing like making blocks disappear with a SS that has dark magic

Well, I'm not a Dark elf player personally, but I know what I hate facing and that's supreme sorceress' (Think thats spelled right ). As Notabot said, theres no real reason I can think of why you should have a dreadlord riding a manticore in 'smaller' lord level games (e.g 2000-3000pts) when a master could do it just as well, for less cost. Having said that, what unit are you thinking of running the sorc. with? I susect not cold one riders (need to get into cc too much IMO), so do you have any dark riders? Also, 1 lucky hit from a warmachine ruins a manticores day, whilst a sorc. with the pendant seems a lot more survivable (wow, that's kinda' ironic )

/ramble

It looks like a sorceress is what i'll be going for ATM. I would probably put my Sorceress in a unit of Spearmen if on foot, but by the looks of things a Dark Pegasus is quite a good idea too, but I'm worried about the assemblibility of the Pegasus model.

I'm thinking of then including a master with a halberd and a potion of strength to go with my Black Guard. Opinions?