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Hey guys,

I'm new to WH but after doing some research and reading some battle reports, this is what I came up with for my first army. Please feel free to let me know what you think. Thanks!

Mage x 1
Archers x 10

Spearmen x 18
Champion
Musician
Standard Bearer

Silver Helms x 5
Standard Bearer
Shields

Dragon Princes x 5
Standard Bearer

Ellyrian Reaver x 5
Bows x 4

RBT x 2
Total 999 pts

Hmm at the 1000 point level, I recommended a different hero, one that can help in combat. but if you really insist on using a mage, make him level 2 and give him some items.

I don't think spearmen will win many combats, even with full command.
and you have three diverse units of calvary, with the dragon princes HEAVILY wearing you down on points. I recommended sticking to 1 calvary choice in 1000pts, imo probably silver helms.
also, a great eagle is always amazing to have, and it's half the points of a RBT.

And Welcome to Dakka!

I'm going to respectfully disagree with some of gmpoto's points.

Namely, the spearelves. At 1000 points, most people won't have particularly large blocks of infantry, much less elite infantry. Against most other Core units at this points level, I'd say that 18 Spears with full command can put up a decent fight. 18 ASF attacks is nothing to snark at, even it's only at S3. Having said that, you only need to take 1 Core choice at 1000 points. Use this to your advantage. If you want to save points for more elite units, drop the Spears. If you prefer the block of infantry, drop the Archers.

Drop the Reavers and the Silver Helms. They, along with Shadow Warriors, are unfortunately the weakest units in the game. Use some of the points from those to upgrade your Mage to a level 2 with Silver Wand and Ring of Fury. Use remaining points to bump the Dragon Princes up to 6 strong and give them the Banner of Ellyrion. Yeah, they soak up lots of points, but they'll be quite fast and hit hard.

Depending on what Core choice you drop, you're left with ~200 points. This is enough to get, depending on how you want to take your army, another unit of Dragon Princes (no command) or a moderately sized unit of elite infantry (Swordmasters, White Lions, Phoenix Guard are all good choices) or a combat hero (not a bad option to take). If you're concerned about enemy warmachines, consider dropping an RBT for a Great Eagle instead.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

My thought process for including the archers, silver helms, and reavers was as follows...

My primary opponents I'll be facing off against will likely be skaven, dark elves, and chaos as those are who my friends play. The skaven have average toughness which means the archers and RBTs should be moderately effective against them, at least breaking some rank bonuses. The archers and RBTs will also force the DE to bring the fight to me as I'll outrange his repeater crossbows. Against Chaos, well I guess they'd just babysit the RBTs since those I think will be key to punching through the thick armor. They could also try and panic any flank guard marauders since their not that tough either, leaving room for my calvary to flank and hopefully run them down.

Also, with only 1k points, I want to use the spearmen as the anvil and either the silver helms or dragon princes as my hammers. That said though, I'm hesitant to get some more dragon princes as I feel I'd be putting too many eggs in one basket. Finally, the reavers would act as march blockers and potentially war machine hunters as only the DEs are really shooty.

I'm just scared to field fewer blocks of specialty infantry in this size of a game as it'll let my opponents outposition me at the start and probably flank me much easier.

Am I just paranoid? Haha, I haven't even played a game yet so this is purely theory craft for me.

If you want an anvil, use Pheonix guard instead of spearmen, with T3 and light armour, Spears are never going to do that job. Since you only need the one core, it'd make sense to make that change. The 4+ Ward will soak up far more than if you run Spearman, even if you have 1/2 the models of that unit.

My understanding of how people typically say to use PG units is in a model size of minimum 15 preferably 20 or greater to get the full benefit of Fear. In a 1,000 point game though that'll probably end up hurting me in some other department (hammer, ranged, support, magic, war machines, march blocking).

As far as specialty infantry go, from what I've read, the white lions seem to appeal to me the most with a high strength which the HE's seem to desperately lack and some decent ranged protection. Have you ever seen them used effectively as an anvil before? I would imagine that ASF helps them out in this respect, maybe not making them a tarpit, but buying my DPs a turn to get into those juicy flanks.

In 1k games, I've run PG's in units of 10 to decent effect. That 4+ Ward Save is a tough nut to crack at the 1k level, in my experience.

WL's actually can work out as a decent anvil unit; However, they need the ranks to pull that off decently, imo.

Reavers make for really expensive march-blockers. Really would suggest using a Great Eagle instead. A bit more vulnerable, but for 50 points, is MUCH more maneuverable and not a big loss when it gets killed off.