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Hey people, my local GW is running a campaign style thing with armies up to 1500pts so I thought I'd give it a go for a bit of fun

Lords

Supreme Sorceress w/ Pendant of Khaeleth + Tome of Furion - 275pts

Heroes

Death Hag BSB w/ Cauldron of Blood - 225pts

Core

14 Repeater Crossbows with musician and shields - 159pts

25 Warriors w/ full command + shields - 190pts

15 Corsairs w/ full command - 175pts

Special

5 Shades w/ light armour + AHW - 90pts

15 Executioners w/ full command - 210pts

Rare

Hydra - 175pts

Total = 1499

Sorceress goes in with Xbows and shreds enemy with Dark Magic or buffs and hexes with Shadow (haven't decided yet), Shades harass and hunt warmachines, Hydra tears up, Cauldron buffs according to what is needed (so starting with ward save until combat begins then seeing what's needed when), Corsairs shield Executioners from shooting and cut things up in close combat, Executioners cut off heads.

Let me know what you think

Your only real problem is the Executioners. 15 of them are nowhere near enough.

What happens is, combat begins. He swings and kills a good number of them, not only generating ACR but also preventing swings back. Then you get to go with whatever is left... then break and run. Okay, if the Caludron is nearby, they will hold another round, but they just die off too easy.

I'd go with Witches instead. Between the Cauldron and the buffs from the SS (lore of shadow, I presume?) they will tear things up nicely, and still keep the Stubborn boost from the Cauldron

Cheers for the feedback. I was gonna use the Executioners mostly because I love their models (and my Witch Elves aren't all painted yet and I like playing a fully painted army, just silly elvish pride )

What about if the Execs get into the units flank? If the corsairs can hold the enemy unit and the Executioners can get a flank charge in then wouldn't they do better as there's less attacks coming their way?

I really love the executioner models as well. But vulkan has it dead on. They really play completely at odds with the dark elf 'way'. Dark elves tend to field small units of infantry, which baffle most opponents, but then they turn around and dump 50-55 hatred poisoned attacks at high initiative. Attacks that might even be strength 8.

When you pass on wyches, you lose the frenzy, you lose the choppy, and you lose the high initiative. Of course you do gain armor and natural strength 6. But you are stuck with that T3 and only heavy armor. Now you are tempted to drop the ward save on them in combat, and now you lost the +1 attack. It starts going downhill from there.

If you want high strength combat units for those times that mindrazor isn't available then the executioners can provide that for you (but then so can hydras and cold one knights).

I could see using executioners as a dedicated monster hunter, giving them a flaming banner and then working out how many of them you would need to comfortably beat an abomination or a hydra. But I don't think I would ever use executioners for block on block combat. You'd need like 40 minimum. And witch elves could easily do the same anti-infantry work with 20-25.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Let me add that I think that you could invest less in the spearelves and more into the corsairs. Corsairs with the sea serpent standard end up putting out almost the same amount of hurt as witch elves and they have a better save. They just lose out on poison.

If you could find a way to get the corsairs up to 20, then they can put out 50 high initiative rerollable attacks with cauldron support. You've already got a supreme with tome of furion, so you can essentially guarantee having access to mindrazor... Does 50 strength 8 attacks at high initiative from a core unit sound good to you?

Those 25 spearelves look like they are built to grind. Dark elves don't grind well. I'd say to either drop them entirely for more crossbows, or make them 15 strong just for a sorceress bunker. 15 should be able to beat up most wizard killers, and it saves you 70 points. That and 5 points will get you 5 corsairs and the sea serpent standard.

Hope this is welcome and helpful advice.

Ok, thanks for the feedback. Jiggled it around and came up with this

Lords

Supreme Sorceress w/ Pendant of Khaeleth + Tome of Furion - 275pts

Heroes

Death Hag BSB w/ Cauldron of Blood - 225pts

Core

14 Repeater Crossbows with musician and shields - 159pts

15 Warriors w/ full command + shields - 120pts

20 Corsairs w/ full command + SSS - 250pts

Special

5 Shades w/ light armour + AHW - 90pts

18 Witch Elves w/ full command - 205pts

Rare

Hydra - 175pts

Total = 1499pts

Witches go in 3 ranks of 6, rest is pretty much the same

Light armour on shades isn't worthwhile, unless you really have nowhere else to spend them. The 15 warriors won't really need shields if you're intending to use them as a bunker, they also won't need a musician and in my experience, ward saves on mages are unnecessary.

Shields on the xbows are also a bit superfluous.

With the points that saves, you can fit a couple more shades in.

Also, if you can, I'd suggest trying to fit the flaming banner onto the Witches, it means they can deal with abombs/hydras very easily indeed.

The 15 spearmen are a unit without a role in your army. Normally the only reason to have that small a warrior unit is as dagger fodder for a SS. Yours has ToF, and PoK to boot, so she doesn't need them either as meatshields or power dice. She can go with the RXBs if you are facing mass low-strength shooting; otherwise she will be fine.

I would dump the spearmen, boost the RXBs to 20 with shields and command, boost the Witches to 20 with Flaming Banner, then take more shades in two units.

I think the PoK on the SS is quite nice myself, it allows you to run her solo without worrying about cannon sniping. It also allows her to tank all those high-S hits on the miscast chart pretty reliably, allowing you to throw lots of dice at the spell you need to get off without worrying about the miscast coreing out one of your infantry blocks.

The tactics go like this: Drop the RXBs near a corner in the spot with the best sightlines, then the Witches, Corsairs, and Hydra toward the center. CoB goes behind the Witches, Shades (as always) go where they do the most good.

Advance the melee units forward toward their targets; move the RXBs up more slowly so they can give cover fire. Let the SS go where her spells dictate she will do the most good (magic missiles/direct damage - look for good sightlines in range; hexes/augments - keep close to the combat blocks; vortexes - look for a good flank spot). If you're going to run the SS solo, a Dark steed will give her maximum mobility for minimal price.

Pick your fights, use the shades to hold up the units you don't want to engage, and don't forget to make the best use you can out of your magic advantage.