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So my friend and I are going to start playing Fantasy, just for fun really.

He has a bunch of Ogres because he thought they looked cool and I have a lot of Dark Elves because I thought they looked cool.

Anyway as we're both going off to college we're just going to play 1000 which is really small but I don't want to pay a ton of money.

I was wondering what would be effective against Ogres as Dark Elves. The Reaper Bolt Thrower looks pretty sweet.

But the really big question I have is whether to use Executioners or Black Guard.

The Executioners have more strength because of great weapons, and killing blow which is sweet. But they have 1 attack and they have ASL because of great weapons.

The Black Guard have more attacks and they're Str 4, so I feel like I will get a better deal out of them.

Of course I don't know a ton about Fantasy, but what would be better against Ogres? Executioners or Black Guard?

Also I was thinking of taking some Cold One Knights because they look really cool. Against Ogres, are they a good idea?

And final question, I promise: Should I go with a Master or a Sorceress? I mean either one works but I'm wondering which one would be more effective.

I already have a Sorceress model so if she works fine I'm going to go with her and make her unless of course a Master would help me out more!

So, TL;DR:

Assuming we are playing with 8th edition rules:
1. Against Ogres, which are better: Executioners or Black Guard?
2. Are COK useful versus Ogres?
3. Sorceress or Master? I'm leaning towards Sorceress but I'm a newb so I don't know.

Thanks! : )

1. Black Guard
2. No
3. Depends on list, in 1000 points possibly the Sorceress.

Consider a list with level 1 Sorceress with Tome of Furion, 1x 20 crossbowmen with shields and standard and musician, 2x10 crossbowmen without shields but with standards, about 14 Black Guard with standard and champion and a 25 point magic item and a War Hydra. If there's a few extra points left over then just buy more crossbowmen to the smaller units and some command models like musicians. It's a wonderfully powerful army that's also fun to play since your army is mobile and you can play all phases of the game actively with your horde of crossbow fire, decent magic and two hard as nails combat units/models.

Happy hunting.

Therion wrote:1. Black Guard
2. No
3. Depends on list, in 1000 points possibly the Sorceress.

Consider a list with level 1 Sorceress with Tome of Furion, 1x 20 crossbowmen with shields and standard and musician, 2x10 crossbowmen without shields but with standards, about 14 Black Guard with standard and champion and a 25 point magic item and a War Hydra. If there's a few extra points left over then just buy more crossbowmen to the smaller units and some command models like musicians. It's a wonderfully powerful army that's also fun to play since your army is mobile and you can play all phases of the game actively with your horde of crossbow fire, decent magic and two hard as nails combat units/models.

Happy hunting.

That sounds good, thanks a ton!

Too bad about the Cold One Knights, they looked really damn cool. I'll still probably buy some just for fun!

Is the 20 FC with shields RxB unit really a good idea? Seems like a large number of points for a support unit...

Generally you don't want that many RxBs warriors in an army. At 1k two units of 10 is enough. I would say with this edition take music on them, but that's it. (for the movement and reform options)

After that the best core you can take are dark riders. Give them RxBs and maybe music (I usually skip it, DR generally don't need it with good enough LD and fast cav rules) The new rules for fast cav means they get to be exactly where you want them to be turn 1 (they get a beginning of game movement IIRC) Ogres don't have much in the way shooting, so can't really suppress them. They are a bit fast, but DR are much faster (where RxBs will get hunted down and killed by ogres). DR allow you to bait units better, so its more likely that you can pull off a flank trap with your combat units.

I don't recommend CoKs against ogres, since they have the stupidity rule (which is ItP, so no fleeing when you don't get the charge...) OK get something called a bull rush, impact hits per model that charges. Then each model gets at least 3 attacks at S4 or 6, then get the new stomp attack that auto hits... Yeah, you don't want to get charged by them at all. Move around them, and only charge the fewest models that you can (each model has 3 wounds, so you have to do mass wounds to kill guys.) Ogres got much better with this edition, so don't underestimate them.