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I have been playing this force (or close to it) for some time with decent success but cannot seem to overcome my friend's HE army. I am looking for some feedback and help in overtaking him as my other friends continue to have trouble against the army, so much so that some of the others have asked him to start playing beastmen instead (which I don't like him conceding to doing).

30 Bloodletters + FC
30 Pink Horrors + FC (Changeling)
20 Daemonettes + FC
09 Seekers + FC
05 Flesh Hounds
05 Flamers w. Pyro
01 Herald of Tzeentch w. Loremaster & Dispell Scroll
01 Herald of Khorne w. Obsidian Armour (normally play Armour of Khorne)
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1996 pts

Most recently my HE nemsis has played Swordmasters, Mage, Archers, Spearmen, Dragon Princes, Phoenix Guards, White Lions, Chariot, and Bolt Thrower. I didn't want to rattle off another list, if I need to, let me know and I will do my best to do squad numbers as I don't know items, upgrades, or exact total points he ran.

Let me know what I can/should change. Thanks all!

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dD

At 2000 points you are going to lose all the time with that army list again almost anyone. Daemonettes arent worth it ditch them, you dont even got a herald with them, get rid of the Pink Horrors too the extra couple spells arent going to help too much and most people will shoot them down to make sure you dont keep the good spells past the first turn. Flesh hounds are hit and miss, I say get rid of them too.

Go with 40+ Bloodletters with Herald BSB and give them the addition d6 charge for first charge, horde it up 18-30 bloodletters attacking in the first round of combat can be nasty. They are pretty resilient to anything you can even go and get em MR 3.

Then replace the peices that arent worth it with 30+ Plaguebearers of Nurgle, toss in a Herald with them with noxious vapors, so opponents regiment loses always strikes first and gains always strikes last. AKA I own High Elves, to be even cuter you can give them the standard the lets them either reroll wounds or poison wounds count as an extra point of combat res either or they are only 25pts so your call there.

Keep the flamers and the Herald of Tzeentch, if you have the points try and fit in a Greater Daemon but I know i normally can't unless its 2250+. With the points saved you can probably mage the herald of Nurgle a lvl 1 just for an extra spell, though the daemon nurgle lore is not as impressive as the WoC nugle lore. Depending on how you set up based around Khorne/Nurgle with the Tzeentch Loremaster and flamers you might be able to squeeze in a few beasts of Slaanesh, they really arent bad and at 55pts/ea, you can get some value from them.

Thanks for the feedback Tooky!

I definitely agree with your Daemonette "disgust", I just didn't feel like playin' 40 Bloodletters that game and I completely forgot to upgrade their banner (love 3d6 charge!).

Unfortunately, I don't have a nurgle force yet (didn't like the previous models) :( so I can't take your advice on that... yet. I like the horrors primarily for the Gift of Chaos bubble spell since they usually get swarmed anyway. If they don't get swarmed, I just run them to the middle of a grouping and pop the spell since they can take some hits with 4+ ward.

Ya I didnt like the metal plaguebearers much myself either so i can see what you mean. Slaanesh can be pretty good depending but i try and stick with the beasts since they are only 55pts / ea. Horrors do have that benefit of the 4+ save all the time, so it can work out. If anything a cheap fix to help you out may be a few nurgling bases just to scout aroudn and tie things up to let you dictate the flow of combat a little more.

I know very little about Daemons, but a great deal about High Elves, especially their weaknesses. With that in mind, I'll give a run down of what you can bring in terms of stats or abilities that will really annoy any HE player.

First off, abilities. Anything that cause's impact hits. Doesn't matter how strong or how many, so long as it causes them. Make sure you get the charge with them. Impact hits go first, even before ASF, the mainstay of all HE's. It's a rare chance to hit and kill HE's first. Also, if you have units or abilities that grant ASF, bring them to negate the HE one, and go off initiative. On that note, anything with a high (5 or greater) initiative will be very helpful in negating the HE's ability to reroll hit rolls.

Second, T3 S3. That is the standard of all elves, HE's are no exception on the whole. White lions are S4, as are most heroes\lords. With that in mind, anything that can cause a T or S test will kill many a HE. That being said, I and Ld are quite high on everything; even eagles are Ld 8. Avoid tests which ask for a leadership or I test, won't be worth it.

Armor is rare, and typically is a 5+ or 6+; dragon princes are the exception, with a 2+. They're VERY expensive though (180 points for 5 with a full command), and they're still only S3, T3.

A main point of strength is the HE magic phase. Without knowing exactly what items he is putting on his mages, and what lore he is taking, its hard to know how to counter. Specifics that work well, though, are the feedback scroll and standard dispell scrolls. Also, it would be wise to have something in your army that has the sole purpose of sniping\targeting\charging the mage\archmage. HE's without magic are hindered quite well.

Next, war of attrition. HE's will not come in many large blocks, especially with so many units your opponent seems to field; an exception is a large spearmen\sea guard block, but they are not terribly awesome in combat since, again, only S3. If you have some particularly tough units that can be taken in large blocks, a battle of attrition will likely go in your favor.

Try not to concern yourself with bringing high toughness models, as most heavy hitters will be S5 or 6, and still strike first, negating much armor and still wounding rather easily.

Finally, hex's. Anything you can do to lower a HE's WS, I, T, or S will help a ton. Lowest WS in the army is a 4, average is a 5, and initiative throughout is 4-5+. Drop them down a peg in anything when you can.

Hope that helps in your future battles!

Wow, that's quite the insight to the HEs! Thanks Aipoch!

So I'll just run down the list and see what jumps out at me and you can have a quick understanding of what Daemons can throw back.

Impact Hits

That would be the new Slaanesh chariots (the exalted of which does 2D+1) and the (essentially) herald chariots

ASF

Daemonettes get this with the presence of a herald of Slaanesh
One spell from Slaanesh lore
Lore of Light (Herald of Tzeentch with Loremaster) can grant ASF and I increase
Keeper of Secrets
Noxious Vapour (removes ASF and grants ASL to those models in contact)

S/T/I/Ld Tests

S/T - Nurgle can hit these with a few of their spells
I/Ld - I've heard of Ld bombing and I assume that is the Masque (dancing to reduce Ld by d3), BSB with Icon of Despair (reduce Ld by 2)

Sniping

The only thing I can think of is a Slaanesh spell for this unfortunately.

Tookyflakes, anything I am missing?

Yeah as a High elf player myself impact hits are the best thing for killing sword masters and seaguard/spearmen before they get in the ASF attacks.

For some sniping though not effective you can get a soul grinder, though I personally dont think they are worth it. Lore of Shadow will go a long way vs HE. Especially if you are using daemonettes.

Ah yes, the grinder. Another piece I really should get, I think I'm holding off since it just doesn't feel/look right in the Fantasy realm. Maybe I'm just stubborn/fickle...

Honestly I havent had too much luck with the grinders, they aren't terribly expensive but in my experiances since the white dwarf update, I do much better including a hellflayer or 2, or an exhalted chariot than I do a grinder. Especially since if you get a good impact hit roll on a flayer you can get a lot of extra attacks in with the chariot. Think the max is 17 or so total attacks overall if you roll perfect.

(edit) The addition for the grinder in fantasy was pretty much just a way to move that crappy model off the shelf since daemons in 40k are hurting, or atleast that's the only reason I can see it being in fantasy.