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Hey guys

Background - Been very interested in wargaming for 10-12 years now, specifically Warhammer FB and 40k. I've never really had the time or space to work on an army of my own so the interest has never moved passed purchasing codex's and watching battle reports.

Times change! I now have the luxury of space and enough time to really feed my interest and dive in to the war-gaming world. I initially opted for Eldar but really wasn't taken by 40k so, after a gaming club full of nay sayers, I went ahead and started my High Elves! My Fiancée was lovely enough to purchase The Island of Blood as a Christmas present, which has set me on my way with some beautiful miniatures and a rulebook.

So, I currently have:

1 x High Elf Prince on Griffon

1 x High Elf Mage

10 x High Elf Lothern City Guard

10 x High Elf Sword Masters of Hoeth

5 x High Elf Ellyrian Reavers


I've not purchased the new High Elves army book yet so I'm unsure as to how many points that puts me at. I understand that, as it stands, this is not a legal list and will need some work to get it up to scratch. I'd like to start off fairly competitive so am more than happy to add/replace anything that you guys see fit! (I particularly like the look of Sisters of Avelorn and Dragon Princes!).

Anyway, please don't feel that you need to write me a list in order to reply, I'm really just looking for ideas with regard to building my first list

Side Note - I've purchased a modular movement tray kit; with regard to tray size, how am I best to assemble it? Sorry! I know this doesn't belong here but I feel it links with any tips you can give about my unit size and rank and file composition in my list. 21 seemed like a nice number (7x3) but finding that pesky single miniature wouldn't be fun!

Many thanks in advance,

Sam.

Welcome to the wonderful world of high elves!

You should definitely get the elf book for starters.

As far as the actual models we would really need to know how big you want to make an army.

2000 is a nice size. Most competitive events are 2400. I would aim for the latter.

Thanks for the reply buddy I really appreciate it.

I'll be purchasing the army book soon - Can't wait to do some reading

I'm currently aiming for 1500 points as I think that's a reasonable start. In saying that, I'd like to maintain an army that will evolve correctly to the point that I have a larger force, perhaps 2400 points.

Thanks again!

Sam.

Gotcha. Well you need to have a minimum of 25% for core and at 1500 points you would need 375.

Right now you are sitting at under 200. I think you should get some spearmen or archers (same kit which also makes sea guard) I also recommend getting 1-2 more units of ellyrian reavers off ebay since they are a really strong redirector. Get a bolt thrower or 2 and definitely look into the frost phoenix. Very powerful unit. Far better than the flame variant.

Sounds great so far I like the idea of being quite shooty so archers definitely sounds good. I hear that spearmen can have a shortbow as well as a spear? IF that's correct, that sounds great too.

Vanilla Spearmen can't take ranged weapons, however Sea Guard come with a Bow as standard. While it seems awesome to have Spearmen who shoot don't get sucked into the train of thought that they will perform as Archers AND Spearmen in one. You will most likely only get anything out of one discipline and in that case you have essentially either payed for expensive Spearmen or more expensive & less effective Archers. Just food for thought.

Also keep in mind that as a general rule as a High Elf player you want to spend the bare minimum on Core units. Our strength really lie in our specials and rares. Worth considering as you continue to build your army.

You've got a good start. Firstly, a bit of info on High Elves.

They're the weakest of the three elf books, but they're the best written books. This is evidenced by there being no netlist. Multiple people have written many excellent lists(I'd like to draw attention to the masterpiece that is Hristo's UK Masters list).

This is because they've got a lot of strong choices across the board, and no weak choices. The reason they're weaker than the other books is that the other books have access to insanely good options(see Warlocks and Trueflight). But those are staples in every list(See the only Wood Elf tournament list.)

You've got a good army, and a good start. You just need to bulk up your units. As people stated above me, Sea Guard are, and I'm going to let Admiral Ackbar take it away for this one,



They've got shorter range than archers, and are more expensive. You pay more to get less out of a unit.

Swordsmasters are good, I'd probably use these guys as a unit of 7 or two units of 5. Hordes aren't really that strong anymore. They've got their Jedi save, which is a plus, I guess.


A good start for a competitive list is this:

Archmage, Level 4, light Book of Hoeth, Talisman of Preservation.
Mage, Dispel Scroll, light.
Mage, Light
Mage. Light.

Noble BSB with the Armour of Caledor.

600 points of archers. (One big unit of 15-20 with Full command. The rest in units of 10 with musicians, Two have standards for B&G. Keep it as close to 600 as possible.)

Two units of 6 Dragon Princes with musicians and Champs. (Flanking units, or charge+Challenge and do wounds.)

24 White Lions with Full Command and the Banner of the World Dragon.

4 Bolt Throwers.

That SHOULD leave you some points to fit in some units of your choice, but that is a strong list that competes in all phases.

Thanks for the replies guys! Great to come on here and read input from those far more experienced than I.

 thedarkavenger wrote:


Archmage, Level 4, light Book of Hoeth, Talisman of Preservation.
Mage, Dispel Scroll, light.
Mage, Light
Mage. Light.

Noble BSB with the Armour of Caledor.

600 points of archers. (One big unit of 15-20 with Full command. The rest in units of 10 with musicians, Two have standards for B&G. Keep it as close to 600 as possible.)

Two units of 6 Dragon Princes with musicians and Champs. (Flanking units, or charge+Challenge and do wounds.)

24 White Lions with Full Command and the Banner of the World Dragon.

4 Bolt Throwers.

That looks great! Loving the large serving of archers and bolt throwers (as I said, do like being shooty).

Frustrating that White Lions come in boxes of 10! but I'll uphold that 24 elf unit. How exactly would I field that? 6 wide, 4 deep?

Also, would I keep the noble and mage within a unit for protection? I was thinking of perhaps including them in two small units of my sword masters? Oh! I've just noticed that you've said an archmage PLUS 3 normal mages? Magic dominance!

Thanks again guys, really appreciate it.

Sam.