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So I've recently started Fantasy, but I can't seem to figure out how to handle some things.

I have 3x Island of Blood and a BattleForce so far (some bits were scavenged from there for Eldar corsairs).

Anyways, how do I handle Monsters? The first time I faced them, some tomb King chariot-beast charged my Sword Masters head on (15 of them, full command), and wiped them out in 1 round without taking a wound (killed 7, and they fled).

I've faced a few other monsters, but nothing I have seems to phase them.

The other issue I've been having is magic. I've been trying to rely on Magic, going so far as taking a mage and a lvl 4 archmage in a 1k list several times (30% of my points), but I've only gotten two spells off twice (once was 2 sub-10 difficulties, and the other was in a tretchery game when another player forced a miscast, costing me a large str10 blast and the warp swallowing my lvl 4). I've had a lot of rounds where nothing goes off (countered or below the difficulty). Can HE be effective without leaning heavily on magic?

In my experience the best way is large numbers of weak attacks (ie archers) or multi wound attack (ie bolt thrower). You can also let them get into combat with a steadfast block of troops and overwhelm them with CR and quantity of attacks.

Small elite units in my experience are not a good unit to send against monsters (though white lion blocks can definitely do it).

Wouldn't weak attacks just take forever?
Assuming hitting on 4 (either melee or shooting a bow), wounding on 6 (t5+), and being saved on a 3+ (most monsters I face seem to have that), how can they effectively handle a monster? I'm looking at 36 soldiers per wound per turn. And that's if he doesn't have anything else to protect it, and doesn't kill any of them!

Also, how do you keep mages alive? If they're in the unit, they blow up the unit if they miscast (even with World Dragon, it can be painful!). If they're outside a unit, as long as they're with 28" of Tomb King archers, they can just move up and shoot them without penalty, even if you try to hide behind things.

For High Elves you can use White Lions and Dragon Princes as your monster hunters. (Princes because of speed, lions because of stubborn and str 6)

A small-ish unit of Lions (15-18) in 3 ranks can spit out a lot of attacks at str 6 even without re-rolls. Similarly, DP in a unit of 5-6 with a banner of flame can drop most monsters in 1 round of combat (10-12 str 5 attacks, re-roll to hit). Take the star lance on your champion if you want the extra power on the charge (+3 str, no saves).

For magic, you take a ward save on your lvl 4 or at least the golden crown to shrug off the first wound. Stick him in a bunker of spears or archers and let them soak up his wounds. Grab the Book of Hoeth if you are having serious trouble with casting spells... though you should learn to prioritize casting/ dice allotment as soon as possible.

Good luck!

Which monsters are you facing? The majority of T6+ monsters seem to have a 4+ or worse.

I usually take 30-60 archers in a list. I also have an archmage which usually buffs my list. 60 archers can about kill a T6+ Sv4+ monster in 2 turns but honestly I would want some bolt thrower shots or decent debuffs/buffs to help out.

If you anchor them in a block of troops the damage they can do is relatively minimal versus your CR. You can then flank charge them and quite possibly get them to run.

It appears that you have;
3 Prince on Griffons
3 Mages
30 Lothern Sea Guard
30 Sword Masters of Hoeth
15 Ellyrian Reavers
20 Spearmen
20 Archers
1 Tiranoc Chariot
8 Silver Helms

I can see why you might have some problems. How are you at conversions? If you can convert a bowman to a noble you can give him the magic bow + potion of strength which is pretty good anti monster.

Otherwise your mages can probably deal with them you just need to game the magic phase and I would recommend BoH and either light + 2 light mages, shadows, or beasts.

Light for banishment.

Shadows for mind razor.

Beasts for amber spear.

If you are worried about not getting the spell you need then take 1 Lv 4 archmage and 2 Lv 2 mages and you can game the spell selection mechanism.

If you can sucker them into charging your lothern seaguard block then you might be able to withstand them but your infantry blocks are a bit small for those games.

BTW putting mages into big blocks of troops which are meant to get into combat is usually not a good idea. I know the ward buffing ability of high magic makes this seem like a good idea but even with a 3++ ward the mage is rather squishy and big blocks take massive damage from miscasts (as you noted). A 7-9x2 block of archers keeps the mage about as safe, keeps them out of trouble, and allows you to loose a max of mage + 4 archers from miscasts.

I like all the advice that is being given so far. Basically, you need to invest (yes, GW is a business...one that has me by the b*&^s) in some other Special or Rare choices--I would suggest Eagle Claw bolt throwers as a way to counter monsters as well. You could definitely make a hero a Monster-Killer--especially the Prince on the Griffon, who is very fast.

I do think that having a strong magic base for HE makes sense--they are powerful in that regard, but the choice of Lores is key, as @Warp Spider makes clear. I would also suggest Lore of Life, as Dwellers from Below can wreck Monsters just as easily as anything else--I even saw it "eat" a HE Star Dragon once, and also saw it consume 8 out of 12 Ogres in a giant block--terrible! In terms of placement, I also agree about putting them with Archers. It prevents them from getting sniped but you don't risk losing much if they blow up.

However, definitely the HE can go offensive--you just need some larger blocks and your high movement and great Army rules and Initiative will allow you to get to and deal some serious damage to most armies. White Lions are definitely hard core, but I have a massive Horde of Sword masters that is pretty fearsome and hard to shift--the Stalwart special rule really helps them not run away when they lose models to stuff like Monsters too.

What points level are you playing? A larger game might help you work more elements into your army.

HE Magic is very strong and, unless it's for a specific reason, you'd be foolish not to utilise it. Take a Lvl4 with the Book of Hoeth, it's one of the best magic users in the game. Your issue here may be your choice of Lore. Don't use High Magic on a lvl4, it's just bad. Life or Shadow are much better bets, and so are most Rulebook Lores, though it depends on your list. Just don't get to the point where your list absolutely requires a certain spell going off. Magic should be a support, not a cornerstone.

As for monsters, you shouldn't really have to worry, since they're easily held up all game by most infantry units and can be killed easily by such units should you get the right spell off. HE are probably better off killing the monsters though, since our units are pretty expensive. Bolt Throwers, White Lions and certain spells are pretty good at taking them out and a Frostheart will hold up most monsters for a while, and do decent damage too, maybe even killing it.

Hope this helps!

The Lore you take for High Elves is really based on how you play them and which army style you use.

For example, I run all Silver Helms fore Core, a Dragon Mage for a Hero, Swordmasters in a big block with World Dragon Banner, a Phoenix, and a handful of Bolt Throwers.

HE Lore does little for me. Same thing with Life, because I only have one unit that I could really regen. Instead I find myself alternating between Beasts, Shadow and Heavens. (Which I've started to stop using because my knights close too quickly for a safe comet.)

Point being you should pick magic that compliments what you do. If STR 6 on the charge (with the Griff Prince) is as strong as you can hit, definately grab either Beasts/Shadow/Death so you have something that makes you strong enough to wound the big bads.

Beasts for Amber Spear or Savage Beast of Horrors so you can either Magic Missile the baddies with Str 10 or charge them with STR 9 attacks with the Griffon Prince.

Shadow for Pit of Shades (Big monsters usually have bad I) or Mindrazor. Imagine his suprise when your block of spearmen (at 5x4) now have 20 STR 10 attacks that reroll misses?

Death to lower strength or toughness to a manageable level for your Swordmasters, Purple Sun (picking on poor initiative again), or taking advantage of bad monster leadership with Doom and Darkness/Spirit Leech Combo). Plus Lore of Death has a lot of static wounds. (ie, spells wounding on 2+ or 4+ with no armor saves allowed.)

Nice comment, @Thunderfrog...I have never really used Shadows, but I think I need to. Attacking the Monster's low Initiative is a great strategy.

Shadow is pretty good for standard elf lists.

Step 1, Miasma.

10 points to lower WS, BS, M, and I.

Step 2, Pit of Shades.

You just dropped their I with Miasma! Now they pay for it. Even better, unlike sun, it doesnt center on you with an artillery roll.

Even better, if your mages bunker gets charged, you can use smoke and mirrors to swap him out with another Inf. model in the army.

Yeah, Elves synergize very well with Shadow. Elves' main disadvantages are their low strength and toughness, and Shadow has many ways to mitigate this weakness. Also, since Elves have generally very high WS (especially so in the case of certain units), it's quite easy to use Miasma to make the enemy hit on 5s. On top of that, Shadow is just a great lore in general, with fantastic spells and some nasty combos.

Awesome! Thanks for the great tactical advice on spell sequence. I have been playing around with non-Army Book lores with my WoC as well (Death with a Nurgle Daemon Prince, namely) and what you said seems very similar. There definitely seem to be ways to utilize some of these Lores to "set other spells up" as you have described!

It also makes sense to capitalize on the HE strengths and make others' comparative weaknesses even worse, as you described, @Shadow, so thanks for that too!