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Witch elves should take the flaming banner and AP banner on the black guard.

Drop the light armour on the shades.

Drop the Dark Riders and up the corsairs to 30.

I find everyone obsess' with hydra's and whilst i do have some i find they regularly get shot to pieces, I am one of the few who prefer to use the bolt throwers!!

To be fair a bolt thrower can kill a hydra probably 70% of the time and costs nearly half the points! but taking only 1-2 is useless, so I field a minimum of 3, 4 if possible in a 2k game!

4 Reapers and 19 crossbowmen with a L2 sorc (lore of fire) with the guiding eye is a devastating missile combo! wait until turn 3 if possible before you use the guiding eye to get a close-ish range volley re-rolling misses, and the same turn if possible max out her fireball spell to 3d6 all against same unit and the reapers, you will probably clear it off the board.

prior to this monster hunt firing the s5 D3 wound bolt x4 each turn at your opponents biggest monster! you WILL kill it by end of turn 2 almost a guarantee - definintely if your xbows fire at it too!

or if your opponent has heavy cavalry hit them instead!

I also NEVER leave home without a horde of 39 spearmen lead by a noble with the armour of darkness 1+save, and the the banner of murder, cos 30+ attacks makes armour piercing worthwhile!

i also like to field an accompanying horde or large unit of corsairs too lead by my dreadlord on foot. but this varies if i'm fielding him mounted on a cold one in a unit of CoK 13strong (deployed 7x2 with lord in front rank) - I always give my dreadknight pearl of infinite bleakness to do away with the stupidity tests just in case!

for special infantry - witch elves or executioners are both great if you can field HUGE units black guard are hard as nails but a unit limit of 20 models means they're too frails to big spells or templates. Chariots are amazing IF they dont get smashed up too. Shades are essentials!

the rest you will lear as you play

Yanos wrote:
I find everyone obsess' with hydra's and whilst i do have some i find they regularly get shot to pieces, I am one of the few who prefer to use the bolt throwers!!

To be fair a bolt thrower can kill a hydra probably 70% of the time and costs nearly half the points! but taking only 1-2 is useless, so I field a minimum of 3, 4 if possible in a 2k game!

4 Reapers and 19 crossbowmen with a L2 sorc (lore of fire) with the guiding eye is a devastating missile combo! wait until turn 3 if possible before you use the guiding eye to get a close-ish range volley re-rolling misses, and the same turn if possible max out her fireball spell to 3d6 all against same unit and the reapers, you will probably clear it off the board.

prior to this monster hunt firing the s5 D3 wound bolt x4 each turn at your opponents biggest monster! you WILL kill it by end of turn 2 almost a guarantee - definintely if your xbows fire at it too!

or if your opponent has heavy cavalry hit them instead!

I also NEVER leave home without a horde of 39 spearmen lead by a noble with the armour of darkness 1+save, and the the banner of murder, cos 30+ attacks makes armour piercing worthwhile!

i also like to field an accompanying horde or large unit of corsairs too lead by my dreadlord on foot. but this varies if i'm fielding him mounted on a cold one in a unit of CoK 13strong (deployed 7x2 with lord in front rank) - I always give my dreadknight pearl of infinite bleakness to do away with the stupidity tests just in case!

for special infantry - witch elves or executioners are both great if you can field HUGE units black guard are hard as nails but a unit limit of 20 models means they're too frails to big spells or templates. Chariots are amazing IF they dont get smashed up too. Shades are essentials!

the rest you will lear as you play

Hydras are useful and underpriced. A bolt thrower won't do anything what with the armour and regen. The crossbows with the guiding eye are good, but there are better core options. Such as thirty corsairs. This brings me onto the horde of 39 spearmen. The 30+ attacks will be equaled by the front rank of corsairs. As for the dreadlord, you only take one to take the PoK/CoC combo. Then we have the CoK unit, which is only worth it if you take a Hydra Banner BSB. As for specials, Black Guard are the best choice, followed by witches, then Cold One Knights and lastly followed up with executioners. Shades are awesome as they fill a role nothing else does.

The army I've been using with great sucess in local tournaments goes roughly like this:

Level 4 (Shadow) with POK, SacDag, and Lifetaker in a bunker of 15 spearmen with shields, FC, and Standard of Discipline.

Level 2 (Fire) with Dispel Scroll (and sometimes the Guiding Eye) in a unit of 20 RXB's with shields and FC.

Cauldon BSB

30 AHW Corsairs with FC and SSS

2 units of 10 Witches with musicians

And several units of maneuver control, a mixture of some of the following: 5 Shades, AHW, 5 Dark Riders, RXBs, musician, 5Harpies, or occasionally 5 Cold One Knights with musician.

It hinges pretty totally on being able to control the matchups, use the Witches to whittle down the biggest enemy units so the Corsairs can finish the job. It also gives me three good chances to get Mindrazor off - 10 Witches with Mindrazor will rip the heart out of almost any unit in the game, leaving them easy meat for the Corsairs. So you have to stop Mindrazor thee times.... and I only need to get it off once.

If I don't get Mindrazor, then I take out the biggest thing I can kill and use the chaff to make sure the enemy heavy hitters never see real combat.

Dark Elves are a VERY flexible army. You can build a heavy-hitting combat force or a fairly nasty shooting army... or a maneuver- intensive force like mine.

Dreadlord @ 277.0 Pts
General; Heavy Armour; Sea Dragon Cloak
Dragonhelm
Pendant of Khaeleth
Crown of Command
Soulrender
Cold One

Supreme Sorceress @ 335.0 Pts
Magic Level 4; Lore of Shadow;
Talisman of Preservation
Sacrificial Dagger
Ironcurse Icon

Sorceress @ 180.0 Pts
Magic Level 2; Lore of Death
Tome of Furion
Seal of Ghrond

Death Hag @ 225.0 Pts
Cauldron of Blood; Battle Standard

35 Dark Elf Warriors @ 260.0 Pts
Shield; Standard; Musician; Lordling

20 Dark Elf Repeater Crossbowmen @ 215.0 Pts
Standard; Musician

20 Dark Elf Repeater Crossbowmen @ 215.0 Pts
Standard; Musician

5 Harpies @ 55.0 Pts

5 Harpies @ 55.0 Pts

War Hydra @ 175.0 Pts

War Hydra @ 175.0 Pts
20 Black Guard @ 330.0 Pts
Standard; Musician; Tower Master
Banner of the Eternal Flame
Armour of Darkness
the total is 2497
this is the list im looking at right now, and i am thinking of dropping the dreadlord in favor of 20 Corsairs with AHW and all of the trimmings it should come out to 250 with about 23 pts left over.


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I could drop a few spearmen and get a 5 man unit of shades.

Using the Unkillable Dreadlord is a lot like riding a bike with training wheels. It's terribly easy and you won't fall over, but you're not impressing anyone either.

3 Errors with this list.

A) The dreadlord. He is lacking maneuverability. Drop the ward save and icon and stick him on a pegasus. But he is a cheesy character.

B) You have one combat unit, black guard. If you're going this way, take 2 units with a musician and 30 corsairs.

C) Two hydras in a competitive setting is a pointsink in a tourney level game. If your opponent can deal with one, he can deal with two. 175 isn't that much to give away, 350 is.

Like I said in the ammended post I was thinking of dropping him for a block of 20 corsairs


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I can also swap stuff for the level 2 wizard so she can just be a scroll caddie or stick her with the xbow men


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And if I drop a hydra and fenagle some pts around I can get a 10 man squad of witches and a 5 man squad of shades

 silentdan wrote:
Like I said in the ammended post I was thinking of dropping him for a block of 20 corsairs


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I can also swap stuff for the level 2 wizard so she can just be a scroll caddie or stick her with the xbow men


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And if I drop a hydra and fenagle some pts around I can get a 10 man squad of witches and a 5 man squad of shades

Unless you're willing to fork out for the pegasus, drop the dreadlord.

Definitely get a scroll caddy, and keep her as a level 1.

As for the witch elves, either go 30, or units of 6.

Drop the dreadlord and the second hydra and get the 30 corsairs or witch elves.

I'll see what I can do


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Lord: supreme scorc (shadow) with pendant sac dagger and iron cure icon. 325

Heroes: scorc level 1 (fire) dispell scroll, 125
cauldron bsb 225

Core: 25 spearmen fc with banner of discipline , 205
20 xbowmen, 215
20 xbowmen, 215
5 harpies, 55
5 harpies, 55
30 corsairs fc, sss banner and AHW, 350

Special; 5 shades AHW, 85
20 blackguard banner of flame fc and armor of darkness, 330
6 witches with muso. 65
6 witches with muso. 65

Rare: hydra 175.

Any better? : total 2490

It is better already. I recommend dropping a crossbowman or two to get more shades, but that is a personal nitpick.

I could do 18 xbowmen in each squad and grab 3 more shades

 silentdan wrote:
I could do 18 xbowmen in each squad and grab 3 more shades

That's the ticket. Shades work best in at least 7s I find.

Armor of Darkness is iffy on the Towermaster. If he's in a challenge, it works okay. But if the unit takes 20 unsaved wounds, he dies without ever rolling the 1+ save.

I can drop the armor for the enchanted Halberd they are the same price and it could be better for softening up units


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I also understand that but I was going to have him for challenges so I don't have to worry also it can take a commander out of a fight if they decline.

 silentdan wrote:
I can drop the armor for the enchanted Halberd they are the same price and it could be better for softening up units


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I also understand that but I was going to have him for challenges so I don't have to worry also it can take a commander out of a fight if they decline.

A) You're better off either giving him the S5 scourge, or dropping him. If you don't face much ethereal he won't add anything to the unit.

B) You can't declare challenges with champions. Only accept/decline.

false, you can declare challenges with champions.

CalasTyphon216 wrote:
false, you can declare challenges with champions.

So they can. Turns out I've been playing it wrong...

So if not to keep the guy with the armor what should i do with the pts, i could give him the ring of ruin

 silentdan wrote:
So if not to keep the guy with the armor what should i do with the pts, i could give him the ring of ruin

I run two full units of black guard with no standards or musicians. This allows me to keep them relatively cheap and still combat effective.