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Heroes:

Dragon Mage
-Level 2
-Gem of Sunfire

Core:

Archers (20)
-Full Command

Archers (20)
-Full Command

Spearmen (40)
-Full Command

Special:

Sword Masters of Hoeth (10)
-Full Command

Ellyrian Reavers (5)
-Full Command
-Bows

Rare:

Repeater Bolt Thrower

Repeater Bolt Thrower




Automatically Appended Next Post:
This army list is for local play, nothing serious

Then what are you looking to gain by posting out of curiosity?

-NO BSB

-Archers are a poor unit

-Bolt throwers are an over priced unit

-Eagles do the same jobs as reavers only better and for less points

-Full command is not needed on the archers and champions are really hard to justify for HEs unless they are carrying the Iron curse Icon

-A unit of 10 swordmasters is going to die to just about everything they will not see combat in such a small unit.

-dragon mage? really prolly one of the worst choices in the book.

-High Elves are NOT a shooting army we dont have any real firepower and over pay on rank and file missile weapons.

HEs have 3 main strenghs as an army

1. Great elite infantry choices

2.Eagles!!

3.magic between teclis,banner of sorcery,talisman of hoah a few other nice magical items and access to all of the normal lores HEs can dominate the magic phase.

If you have your heart set on taking 40 archers then all I can say is take 4 units of 10 rather than 2 of 20.

Seems you have your heart set on a shooting army, whilst I understand this army is for casual play I need to stress High Elf shooting is EXTREMELY weak. Even 40 strength 3 shots aren't going to scare many players. If you want to play a shooting army you probably need to lose 10-20 of the archers and beef up your Swordmasters so that you do have something that can cause trouble once the enemy is upon you.

Or maybe try getting the banner of sorcery on the SMs and taking a lvl 4 archmage and just debuff and mindrazor things since your spearmen can dish out alot of attacks they work ok with mindrazor.

I would back this up with a level 1 fire mage for max diceing fireball on those magic phases you have spare dice.

How can the Dragon Mage suck? its so ridiculously awesome that I can't see it failing.

I can understand taking multiple 5x2 ranks rather than two 10x2 ranks.

I don't really see how Eagles can do the same thing as Reavers . Reavers have bows that take no negative modifiers for moving and shooting and spears that give them +1 str on a charge.

Dragon Mages really aren't worth it; you're paying Lord level prices for a level 2 mage who is stuck with Lore of Fire and also rides a giant "Shoot me!" sign with wings; dump it and get an archmage instead, preferably one that compliments the army as a whole, like Shadow or Life.

You're overspending on core. Our core is overpriced and generally isn't worth taking above the minimum for the points level unless you're really struggling for places to dump the last few points. Knock them down to an anvil of spearmen supported by a BSB with Guardian Phoenix/Dawnstone and Armour of Caledor if you want an anvil unit (you will pretty much need one) or make the spearmen sea guard with shield if you want to retain some shooting capacity.

If you're really stuck on archers, then take them with a musician only, perhaps give one a standard bearer + Banner of Eternal Flame, since they can help knock down regenerating monsters like Hydras and Hell Pits in conjunction with Bolt Throwers; Archers throw lots of flaming attacks at it and hope at least 1 wounds it, then it loses regen for the shooting phase and you knock it flat on its arse with a single bolt from the BT.

Special is where we reign supreme, and having spent the minimum possible on core, we need to maximise our special potential. Reavers, first off, are not worth it, when eagles do the same job. Yes, reavers have shooting, but for 5pts more than 2 Eagles, and remember that the reaver's bows are 24" range (so you'll be firing at long range until you get close enough to charge) and only S3, with 5 shots per shooting phase; an Eagle gets 20" of march movement, a charge range of 10" + 3D6 picking the highest two, 2 WS4 S4 attacks in combat + stomp, 3 wounds each and T4.

They're also a hell of a lot more expendable, and can be placed 1" away from enemy blocks and angled so a charge at the eagle moves them out of position. They're also great for running down fleeing units.

All things considered, Great Eagles are one of our most versatile and useful troops, and as a rule of thumb, I like to take at least 1 per every 500-750pts in my army.

If, like archers, you're set on Reavers, then get another unit; one unit will die very quickly.

You also need more swordmasters. Being the combat beasts they are, 10 SMs will be seen as a large threat, and with only T3 and a 5+ AS, plus very little else in your army that is at all threatening, they will go down very fast.

Bump your SMs up to 18, or maybe get two units of 14 running 7x2 for maximum frontage. White Lions might also be good, since you're not a very fast army at the moment, and your main threatening units don't have much in the way of shooting protection. Your SMs and any WLs MUST have musicians at least, but a champion with the ironcurse icon on one of the SMs, and maybe one with another item like the Talisman of Loec or The Other Trickster's Shard can help too, use the champion's magic item allowance to your advantage; even the Ruby Ring can be nice.

With only an archmage, Banner of Sorcery isn't mandatory, but is is nice, and i'd put it on your largest special unit (preferably Phoenix Guard or WL's, but the Ironcurse SMs will do fine).

Drop one of the bolt throwers and get two eagles.

Avatar does make a lot of really good points. I agree about dropping a bolt thrower and throwing in 2 eagles.

I'd also like to say: Keep the Dragon Mage. You've said yourself that the list is mainly for fun games and not to be uber competitive. I run Dragon's all the time against my regular opponents and they are just fun to play. It's what attracted me to High Elves to begin with. You may want to drop the Gem of Sunfire and get yourself a ward save of some kind though. It is the weakest dragon after all and as your only character the Mage will need the protection.

BSB are NOT mandatory, High Elves have decent leadership... that said the moment you fail that much needed test by 1 you will kick yourself for not having one.

Our core choices are NOT horrible, they just need a little support. Archers backed up by a little magic can and will kill things and your opponents may not see it coming. Also it depends on your opponent. One of my friends has a Dark Elf army and against him I always take archers. Str. 3 kills most elves, goblins, and humans just fine. Pick your targets and don't mess up your placement.

Another character wouldn't hurt. A 2nd mage with High magic or the Lore of Life would be good. That or a hero tooled up for combat.

That's all from me. Hope your game goes well and above all have fun.

DangerousBeans wrote:Our core choices are NOT horrible, they just need a little support. Archers backed up by a little magic can and will kill things and your opponents may not see it coming. Also it depends on your opponent. One of my friends has a Dark Elf army and against him I always take archers. Str. 3 kills most elves, goblins, and humans just fine. Pick your targets and don't mess up your placement.

They aren't horrible, they are just horribly overpriced. Seriously, compare High Elf Archers to Dark Elf Repeater Crossbowmen and say with a straight face that High Elf Archers aren't overpriced. Repeater Crossbowmen get twice the amount of shots, which are all Armour Piercing. Additionally, Repeater Crossbowmen are more survivable (light armour and shield against nothing). The only advantages Archers have over them is 30" range instead of 24" and ASF instead of Hatred (not that Archers will kill much in combat anyway).

I would have to agree with Avatar720 that you should probably drop Core until you have the bare minimum. The High Elf Armybook was designed with the 7th edition rules in mind, where High Elves had a special treatment that they got to field less Core than anybody (and they made crappy Core rules to make sure every High Elf player used this). The Core is still crappy, you just have to take more of it in 8th edition. Taking more than the minimum isn't only sub-optimal, it is also unfluffy for High Elves.

Airmaniac wrote:Seriously, compare High Elf Archers to Dark Elf Repeater Crossbowmen and say with a straight face that High Elf Archers aren't overpriced. Repeater Crossbowmen get twice the amount of shots, which are all Armour Piercing. Additionally, Repeater Crossbowmen are more survivable (light armour and shield against nothing). The only advantages Archers have over them is 30" range instead of 24" and ASF instead of Hatred (not that Archers will kill much in combat anyway).

I'm not going to lie and say that Dark Elf Repeater Crossbowmen suck, because they don't. I absolutely agree with you but I'm not going to complain that my army is no good because another army has cheaper troops. I play High Elves. If I wanted Repeater Crossbowmen I would play Dark Elves. Yes the book was written for 7th edition but that isn't going to stop a good general.

High Elf core is horrible and archers are the worst offenders.

And yes an older book is not going to stop a general but a sub par book with a sub par list will.

High ELf core is not the worst core in the game, no they aren't the best n you still don't get many of them but that doesn't meen they are garbage all you really need to do is support them with something, I like lore of shadow n horde formation n I'm sire there are other combos out there as well to be tried, but fighting in extra ranks with asf , yes please!

I will agree that archers generally aren't worth their points unless you really help em out (curse of arrow, wither come to mind) other than that they are ok Mage bunkers n that's bout it

Cheers
Mike