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I and a friend of mine is about to buy the Island of Blood together, with me taking the elves, but how do i play them? So far i've only played 40k, (orks/csm) but aside from reading some White Dwarf battle reports, i know little about them. Any tips please?

get the HE army book for starters

High elves are an elite infantry army . You will be outnumbered in every battle and mistakes can cost you dearly. They are very fragile with low armor saves so they die pretty easily however make up for it with their speed , high weapon skill, leadership and initiative. They are also very good at killing. There are a few good articles that can break down the army for you just google : war hammer high elf tactics. Should pop a few up for you

If your mainly going to play against your friends skaven, be prepared for a rocky road ahead of you since it is one of the tougher matches. Highelves are quite versatile and can be a nice army to play with. Damage output is high but so is the ability to take damage.

In my opinion, these are the strengths and weaknesses of High Elves:

-High Elves can dominate the Magic Phase. Teclis is probably the best caster in the game right now. Banner of Sorcery is another great item to take to increase the potency of your Magic Phase.
-Great Eagles allow you to dominate the Movement Phase. A High Elves player needs to learn how to use these properly or a lot of games will be lost.
-The Special infantry (White Lions, Sword Masters, Phoenix Guard) of the High Elves are the only decent combat units High Elves have. All of them have their uses and it really depends on your strategy and choice of Magic Lores which type you should take.


-The High Elf Shooting Phase is terrible. The only models with bows that are decent are Archers, but not for their shooting, only to bunker your wizards.
-Never take more than the minimum amount of Core required. High Elf Core sucks, which wasn't a problem back in 7th edition when you could just take 2x10 Archers and have your minimum Core. Now that you have to spend 25% of your points on Core, this really hamstrings High Elves. When people cry cheese about your Magic Phase, explain them how 25% of your army is almost worthless.

I have to disagree with airmaniac in only a couple ways, I think our core can be a disadvantage with all comers lists as I find it hard to be able to effectively build something that can counter a large portion or whatever, I dont do those lists often as I play with a group of 6 people continuously for years now so I guess we always know in a way what we are going. Anyway he might be right in that sense with the core.

However I think finding ways to utilize your core effectively is a huge part of playing high elves since your specials can wipe the floor with a lot of enemies . I absolutely love my lothern sea guard and am known for making large units of them haha I absolutely love find knew weird combos with all our units as we can be very specialized and of course knowing your enemy helps a lot . I think you'll have a lot of fun playing them as long as you enjoy uphill battles

The general consensus seems to be that HE shooting sucks... well it kinda does, due to 8th edition changes bs shooting did take a beating. Anyhow, I find shooting the be the only valid way for HE to go and it is supported excellently by magic making it viable. Combining magic and shooting can wreck even big bunkers and get to the squishy characters inside. Range is also a plus that plays to your advantage here.

Its just madness to start aggressively pushing your soft high-cost models towards the enemy hoping to get a mindrazor of every time an opponent gets close. Though big spear boxes are sexy. Sea guard are definitely sub par though, the popularity they hold is intriguing.

BTW, food for though: HE melee army should most likely fill core with archers too, mindrazor those babies and people die.

Mind razor only works in melee. No shooting is not the way for elves, can it work? Yes is it the most viable no. High elf elite are extremely dangerous you want them up close but you have to careful, it's a finesse army, it's all about list composition and having a plan when you put your models on the table.

Regardless to how powerful HE elites are however they still need support you can't throw them heartless into just any combat, sometimes you can lol but you have to puck your battles. Just remember your a glass hammer you will hit hard and you'll hit 1st 9 times out 10, but it's all about reducing the enemys punch back as much as possible before they hit you lol

Cheers
Mike

I think HE are an extremely powerful race.

Their Lords/Heroes are super powerful (at least the magic ones). They still have access to their own list of magic items in addition to the BRB.

Their core isn't great but there's worse. It's kind of fodder.

Their Specials are pretty amazing. As already listed.

Their Rares...hmm, what are their rares again? Oh, yeah. Well Eagles are good. They only got 2 Rares.

But from magic items, spell domination, anti-spell domination, special characters, elite infantry, they have a lot.

They don't have everything, but no army is supposed to have everything. Though Skaven do get close...

I think i got the info i need, thanks guys. (except for that with HE army book, it wasnt very useful...)