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Hi guys im new to this forum, im a Daemon player and I would like to collect a Dark Elves army now, the thing is that i dont want to buy things that im not going to use later, so i would like to ask you about how can i start making a competitive 2000 list for tournaments, i have read some things but i havent read the codex fully yet, I like the Hydras and the cauldron of blood too, so could you guys advice me how to start with a 2000 list please? Thanks a lot.

welcome to dakka dakka
my brother is a dark elves player but i dont
a good advice is to buy islands of blood!!!

...Bwuh.

Okay don't do that, I think there was some miscommunication going on. The battalion box is a good investment. It'll give you some great core frameworking, you have to want the cold one knights for it to be worth it though - but man why wouldn't you want them? Here it is in the catalog.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440047a&prodId=prod1520011

I wont say whether you *should* get this, but generally the Hydra is considered the most point efficient unit in the Dark Elf arsenal, so you wouldn't be making a mistake getting one. Of course the other side of the coin is it's also considered over powered, and so gets a lot of shunning.

.... you do know Island of Blood is High Elf, right?
Dark Elves are are very ... diverse in the number of competitive builds you can create. Definitely get a sorceress, most would steer you towards RXbowmen with shields as a Core choice, spearelves are cheap to horde, ....
Because everyone has a different way of playing, I'm usually reserved about commending tactics/units but get a Hydra, possibly two. That's one thing almost everyone agrees on. For special units, Black Guard aren't as good as they once were, but the are still very nasty, they have a limit of 20 per unit though, which leads many to gust take a LOT of executioners instead.

Basically the best advice I can give you is read this:- http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=263677

Dreadlords are awesome, take a lvl4 Sorceress wherever you go, Repeater Bolt Throwers should be dumped for Hydras.

And yeah, the Battalion Box is a pretty good investment. Give your CoK banner of slaughter for +D3 combat res on the charge, and give Corsairs the Sea Serpent Banner for Frenzy.

I think you would be hard pressed to find a single unit in the Dark Elf book that doesn't work.
People have favorites, but everything can work.

I'd say, look at the model range, come up with a budget, and then post say, your 3 favorite units, and 2 favorite character models.


-Matt

Yeah, everything *can* work with Dark Elves, they're a very good army, but it's all a matter of how to use them, but personally, I've never seen repeater bolt throwers make their points back. Especially when you can take a Hydra for not much more and tends to wreak FAR more havock on your opponent's battleline.

What doesn't work, incidentally, is trying to give the executioners an always strikes first banner, which will give them I5 instead of always strikes last. They can't take it, you'd need to take a death hag BSB, who has no armour and therefore will die easily once you get into combat, spend points on another few ranks of executioners instead, make them soak more damage from shooting before you crash into combat and kill everyone. Strength 6 killing blow? Yes please! Not a bad idea to horde them or at very least, field them 6-7 wide to get as much supporting attacks as you can.

Other than the standard Hydras, my personal suggestion is crossbowmen and spearmen. You will use both of them. When you are making spearmen, make sure to save the cross bows as you can get a unit of wood elf horsemen and convert them to dark riders with the extra helmets, shields, and crossbows. As far as special choices go, I would suggest to go in one direction of either Black Guard (no 1 choice), Executioners (no 2 choice), or Witch Elves. Just because the models are sweet and you have the options for it, go with one nice sized cold one unit and put a hero on it. Put the Ring on him and you'll have a bubble to get close to your enemy to force the miscast. Lastly you can get a unit wood elves and use the bits from them to make the shadow warriors.

Have fun with the DElves!

Ring of Hotek has mostly lost its potency now that it affects wizards within 12" rather than wizards' targets within 12". Used to be great, just watch your miscasting wizards die... Now you'd have to put it on a master on a dark steed and ride it up close behind them or something stupid to get any use out of it.
Dreadlord + Armour of Darkness + Pendant of Khaeleth + Crown of Command + Great Weapon (241). Put this guy wherever you want to hold the line, use wisely.

Hi guys thank you so much for helping me, so something like this could be a solid lis? I like the format a lot, would you make any change?

Dreadlord, Crown of Command, Pendant of Khaeleth, Armour of Darkness, Great Weapon = 241

Sumpreme Sorceress (Death Magic), Lv 4, Focus Familiar, Talisman of Endurance, Ironcurse Icon = 320

Death Hag, Cauldron of Blood, Bsb = 225

44 Spearmen, Shields, Full Command, Banner of Eternal Flame = 333

20 Repeater Crossbowmen, Shields, Standard and Musician = 235

10 Repeater Crossbowmen, Shields = 110

10 Cold One Knights, Full Command, Standard of Hag Graef = 345

5 Shades, Additional Hand Weapons = 85

War Hydra = 175

War Hydra = 175

Total = 2244

How would you make it a 2000 points list?

That's a pretty good start.

To make it 2000 i'd drop the dreadlord, you're over on your lords allowance with it anyway.

I'd also reccomend some khanite units, i.e. executioners in this list as they benefit more from the cauldron of blood, may as well take advantage of it

Yeah, in a 2k list you can only take 500pts worth of Heroes, you'd have to drop either the Dreadlord or the Sorceress Supreme. Your choice really. That Dreadlord will take a hell of a beating before he dies, and an entire unit will have been stubborn (and probably died first) up till then. If you're taking the Cauldron, I echo Eldar Own's recommendation of Executioners. Take a lot though, 20-30 min. maybe switch the Cold Ones out for them, or take that 10-man crossbow unit out to make room. You could also give the Sorceress the Dagger instead of the familiar, plonk her in the spearmen and she has a nice supply of expendable souls to be sacrificed for more power dice. A mere thought.

One Dreadlord build I heard of was one on a Cold One, with shield, with the armour of eternal servitude. That's 2+ armour save with regenerate. Can't remember all the details, but I'm sure a Pendant of Khaeleth and a nasty Magic Weapon was in the somewhere as well. Plonk him with the CoK, and it's suddenly much more interesting. But I may simply be confusing you with MOAR CHOICES, so I'll shut up now.

GoldenKaos wrote:One Dreadlord build I heard of was one on a Cold One, with shield, with the armour of eternal servitude. That's 2+ armour save with regenerate. Can't remember all the details, but I'm sure a Pendant of Khaeleth and a nasty Magic Weapon was in the somewhere as well. Plonk him with the CoK, and it's suddenly much more interesting. But I may simply be confusing you with MOAR CHOICES, so I'll shut up now.

Then if you want to take it one step further add a BSB with hydra banner for an uber unit of killiness, capable of killing anything in a storm of lances and claws. MWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Wow, that'd be a crazily expensive unit of Cold One Knights!

Dreadlord - Caledor's Bane, Armor of Eternal Servitude, Null Talisman (2), Cloak, Shield, Cold One - 279
Master - Hydra Banner, BSB, Full Mundane, Cold One - 214
10x Knights - Full Command, Banner of Swiftness - 325

A total of 818!!!

So how would you leave the list to be optimal at 2000 points making the changes with executioners and the other advices? Thanks a lot for helping me.