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I've been playing Warhammer 40k for well over a year (Tau and a little bit of Witchhunters) and I'm looking to start playing Warhammer fantasy. What are the major differences in gameplay and play strategies between the two games? How much of a leap from 40k to fantasy?

I'd also like to know a little bit about High Elves, are they a competitive army? What differences should I expect to face coming from a Tau point of view? How flexible of an army are they as far as different units and strategies are concerned? What are some starting units I can get for a budget of about 150 dollars?

As a Tau and HE player myself, I love the concept of the accurate ranged attacks from archers, and RBT I run two minimum units of archers right off the bat.

Curse of Arrow Atrraction is the nastiest spell in my set up, lets you reroll to hit with ranged missle fire. for the whole army on one target.

Otherwise I run a chariot heavy army, 3 lion, 1 with Korhil, 1 with a level 2 mage. I have tried White Lions and love them, they fit well with my theme.

I've used Teclis and he is a beast, dominates the entire magic phase of the game, I find dragon mage is great for killing core choices and war machines as well as lone heroes.

I agree with most of what Arcardia has said, but I would like to point out that High Elves happen to be one of the heaviest magic armies available, we are all about utilizing our magic to support our elite units. Here are some of our best units.

Sword Masters
-A very good hammer unit, known for its large number of attacks and for being able to beat almost any other hammer style unit, but has issues versus high armor units.

Phoenix Guard
-These are our anvil of choice, they have good damage, but also have the equivalent of a 4+ invulnerable save to use 40K terminology, with certain characters they become the best anvil in the game. (Korhil comes to mind)

Now it should be pointed out that we also have some interesting things we can do with magic, one of the lores from the core book the lore of shadow, has a spell that gives us an additional movement with any of our units, this allows our Dragons, Great Eagles, and Tiranoc Chariots to charge any unit on turn 1 if you can get the spell off.

In closing I would suggest that you pick up the following first, then fill up on the goodies like Repeater Bolt Throwers, and other stuff when you can.

Korhil
One of the mage boxes, it has a mage, and a mounted mage as two seperate models.
15 Phoenix Guard
A Box of Archers

Thanks for the help! I've already ordered the Army book and plan to take a gander through it and order up some models at my FLGS.

Are there any models I should just not bother buying? or is every unit well put together as far as rules go?

Hi,

I was a Tau player who started High Elves, too

Units/models that you should not bother buying as far as rules go are:

-Silver Helms
-Excess archers
-Excess spearmen

Obviously you need some archers to meet your troop requirement, and possibly a block of spearmen. But no more! Your strengths lie in the elite units of the army.

All of the elite units are excellent imo. I would look through them and see what you like to make an army theme. I personally don't like it when an army has one of each... a unit of white lions, swordmasters, and phoenix guard. It's more fun to focus on a few to have a strong theme.

Swordmasters and Dragon Princes are awesome! White Lions would be cool if you're considering getting a lion chariot; Phoenix Guard are a good option but more to hold fast than do anything else.

But just make sure you get a theme and go with it! The models are expensive so you don't want to get any that aren't leading you towards your goal of a fun, cohesive army

You'll also want to make sure to include a few bolt throwers; you'll be forced to take two small units of archers for core requirements, so you might as well have some real firepower to go with them. The rest is up to you, imo

As said, don't use Silver Helms. If you're good to convert (or you're low on money like me) then convert/prox Silver Helms as Dragon Princes. SHs are not worth it when DPs are only 7 points more for extra attack, extra WS, Ld and being immune to fire and the ability to take magic banner.
Every other unit is at least semi-competitive, though yous shouldn't buy Shadow Warriors at the beginning. Buy the basics of your army, proxy some excess Archers as Shadow Warriors before buying them, and see if you like them. The same thing applies to all units, though.
Phoenix Guard are the ultimate Anvil, they will not die. They just won't, the 4+ ward takes care of that.
Swordmasters can take almost anything with Toughness less than 5, due to attacking first with two S5 WS6 attacks! You will love these guys.
Lions are the ultimate Tarpit: being stubborn (no modifiers for Break tests) with Ld8 and the mandatory buying of Lion Standard (immune to fear and terror) won't easily flee away. And hitting first with S6 hit is nice, and the ability to go through woods free makes them excellent Mage bunkers to hide them in.