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I'm stuck between Wood Elves and Dark Elves, and I'm leaning more towards Wood. I've made this list to check for any problems before I start collecting.

Heros: Sorceress: Lore of shadow, Level 2, Talisman of Preservation, Hand weapon.

Core: 20 Coarsairs: AHW.
2x10 Darkshards: Shields.

Special: Reaper bolt thrower.
5 Cold One Knights: SB.

Rare: Doomfire Warlocks.

I'd mount the sorceress on a dark steed and throw her in the doomfires.

To make points, swap out the corsairs for 2 units of 5 dark riders (shields and crossbows). This will give you mobility shooting.

You might want to beef up the cold one knights too.

Nice list though

Thanks for the input!

nice list, however the way WHFB is at the moment you don't want to lose that block of corsairs as you'll need at least one big unit, my advice is to also get some wood elves and high elves and use a host of the eternity king list (found in ET book 3) as it provides a larger quantity of units to choose from making it very balanced.

the only thing I would change at the moment is instead of having the darkshards in two units run them as one in horde formation allowing them to all shoot at once this will make them more effective (smaller units of 'shards will struggle to kill anything quickly), also do this with the corsairs as it will allow them to make extra supporting attacks in combat.

also just out of curiosity could you provide points costs for all of your units as it doesn't look like you have anything near 1000pts there unless there is something that is a hogging a load of points.

Ok, can you please me some advice on the Wood/High Elves list? I'll make a new thread if nessacery.

hmm won't be able to help greatly with the wood elves, but with the others I'll be fine.

for your lords take malekith the eternity king, he will cover your magic, will be able to take on large units and ALL characters in combat (including nagash and the glottkin and other high cost characters with ease) and is very resilient, plus with this profile he is able to give fantastic buffs to nearby units (I won't go into detail for all his perks as there are just too many to list quickly) and I don't think it would be over exaggerating to say that he is the strongest character in the game at the moment and is one of the few characters really worth his points (which is 1000pts btw so you will only ever see him in 2000pt games but most people who play tend to have at least 2000pts anyway so it shouldn't be too much of a problem).

for your core you want to focus on dark/wood elf core as it puts high elf core to shame (high elves are my main army though so I mainly have core for them however), I like to run a large 30 man unit of darkshards (no command or shields) with a 10 man unit of corsairs with repeater hand bows (full command with brace of hand bows for champion), this allows me to churn out a sickening amount of shots very quickly (freeing up my special and rare slots for more combat orientated units), a favorite tactic of mine is to field the eternity king and use the end times shadow spell to move the darkshards behind my opponent once they have moved out of their deployment zone as it will cause absolute havoc, however this does NOT work against gunlines. If you are facing a gunline split the darkshards into three units of ten and send them over individually to hunt cannons and put dents in large tarpit/anvil units to reduce their VoF so that it is safer for your large combat units to charge them, do the same with the corsairs. both tactics can be achieved with glade guard however they are slightly more flimsy than darkshards.

for special, take a couple of combat units that have 10-15 men in them as high/dark elf combat units tend to do well in these size units (swordmasters of hoeth are a personal favorite, I also recommend getting dragon princes as they can come in hand against heavily armored units however only field them in units of 5-10 any larger is too big unless you are facing an army that uses horde formations a lot).

and finally for rare, I would consider taking a either a frostheart phoenix or hydra or two with both making them 200pts each upgrades as they will chew through light infantry like it is nothing.
always take a couple of bolt throwers (use the high elf ones, they are the exact same as the dark elf ones but cost less to money.

however I tend not to take much from rare and instead use the points on special units instead.
hope this helps, if I think of anything more I'll let you know.

Mr Glasdir,
I think the author is discussing a 1000 point army...

Huey11 wrote:
Mr Glasdir,
I think the author is discussing a 1000 point army...

yes I know he is, however he is discussing his options to start an army and I am recommending a method of setting up a larger army quickly, if you use malekith's new profle it is quick and easy to set up an effective 2000pt army that is fun to play for very little cash. most people who play fantasy tend to play at least 2000pt games.

I do really like the sound of a 2000 point list with all three kinds of elves, it's what I've been looking for as a new player, all I've got to do then is get that end times book and build my army. However, doesn't this mean I have to get all 3 Elves books?

 Glasdir wrote:
nice list, however the way WHFB is at the moment you don't want to lose that block of corsairs as you'll need at least one big unit.

You mention this and in the very next line advise splitting the corsairs into two smaller units?

 Glasdir wrote:
the only thing I would change at the moment is instead of having the darkshards in two units run them as one in horde formation allowing them to all shoot at once this will make them more effective (smaller units of 'shards will struggle to kill anything quickly)

Why would you limit your options in both the deployment and shooting phase by doing this? Shooting is unaffected by deploying in a Horde formation, and units of 10 darkshards can still all fire anyway when deployed in 2x5 formation.
Having two units of 10 is pretty much always better then a single unit of 20. It gives you an extra drop in your deployment phase, allows for better chaff clearing and means you have the option of targeting different units. If you need concentrated fire to kill a big nasty then they can still both elect to fire at the same target anyway. Only thing I would suggest is giving both units a Musician for swift reforms and possibly giving one unit a Standard and the Flaming Banner so it can strip Regen if need be.

Agree that the Mage should probably ride with the Warlocks. Other small change I would make is giving the COK's a Musician instead of a Banner.

Decay wrote:
However, doesn't this mean I have to get all 3 Elves books?

Yep... $$$

Ok, here's what I'll do, I'll stick to Wood Elves as one army for now, and if I go any further, then I'll add some Dark Elves as well.

alex87 wrote:

 Glasdir wrote:
nice list, however the way WHFB is at the moment you don't want to lose that block of corsairs as you'll need at least one big unit.

You mention this and in the very next line advise splitting the corsairs into two smaller units?

 Glasdir wrote:
the only thing I would change at the moment is instead of having the darkshards in two units run them as one in horde formation allowing them to all shoot at once this will make them more effective (smaller units of 'shards will struggle to kill anything quickly)

Why would you limit your options in both the deployment and shooting phase by doing this? Shooting is unaffected by deploying in a Horde formation, and units of 10 darkshards can still all fire anyway when deployed in 2x5 formation.
Having two units of 10 is pretty much always better then a single unit of 20. It gives you an extra drop in your deployment phase, allows for better chaff clearing and means you have the option of targeting different units. If you need concentrated fire to kill a big nasty then they can still both elect to fire at the same target anyway. Only thing I would suggest is giving both units a Musician for swift reforms and possibly giving one unit a Standard and the Flaming Banner so it can strip Regen if need be.

nope I didn't advising splitting up the corsairs at all, you have misread what I wrote I'm afraid. I wrote that I take a unit of 10 in order to perform a particularly nasty tactic which involves sandwiching a unit between them and a combat unit.

as for darkshards yes splitting them up can work but it's very situational but then so is running them as a horde, (however they really would struggle to kill anything larger than a unit of 10 if split up) however splitting them up will mean you are slightly more likely to get the second turn when rolling off as you will probably not receive the +1 bonus for setting up first. I totally agree with taking a musician and a standard for them (I don't just becuase I can't afford the points). flaming banner is a good choice BUT only bring it if you know you are facing an army that has units that are flammable/regenerate.

Ok then, I'm not sure where to advance except that the Wood Elves should be the ranged support and the Dark Elves are the combat force. So what units should I get for them, except for Coarsairs, Glade Guard, Spellweaver?

For Wood Elves you have 3 choices of core troops. A Fast Cav avoidance army which puts it's core into uncatachable, but ineffective Glade Riders (Hagbane). A Gunline-ish list of 3 Glade Guard with Trueflight (2x15 or 3x10) to give you a solid backbone of firepower, but also presents a vulnerable target. Or a nice big unit of Eternal Guard (Between 25-30, i use 25 with a Shadow Dancer and Death Hag for Frenzy. Consider Moonstone) supported by 2x10 Trueflighters to handle chaff.

Ignore everything tree related.

For special, two obvious choices and a few situational. Wild Riders are amazing, by far the killiest unit in the game that is half as fast as they are for similar points. Take 3x6 units. Sisters of the Thorn keep your level 4 alive and kicking, a perfect bunker for a level 4 Death Wizard. Situationally, War Dancers are cheap enough to be chaff but skilled enough to cleave through other chaff and threaten light combat units. Amazing in woods. Warhawk riders are speed incarnate, there is no unit as fast as these. They are the ultimate in backfield disruption. Finally Deepwood Scouts are simply better Glade Guard. If you are spending more then minimum points on Glade Guard, don't, spend the extra pt to get March and Shoot and Skirmish.

Rare = Waywatchers. 2 units of 7 at least to handle all of your troubles.

If you were to take the best part of Dark Elves and the best of Wood Elves you'd get a Glade Guard gunline with Cauldron support (allows re-roll to wound in shooting) supported by Bolt Throwers, Warlocks and Wild Riders with Waywatchers popping up to murder 2+ Svs.

 Glasdir wrote:
nope I didn't advising splitting up the corsairs at all, you have misread what I wrote I'm afraid.

 Glasdir wrote:
the only thing I would change at the moment is instead of having the darkshards in two units run them as one in horde formation allowing them to all shoot at once this will make them more effective (smaller units of 'shards will struggle to kill anything quickly), also do this with the corsairs as it will allow them to make extra supporting attacks in combat.

...?

 Glasdir wrote:
as for darkshards yes splitting them up can work but it's very situational but then so is running them as a horde, (however they really would struggle to kill anything larger than a unit of 10 if split up)

Both units can still fire at the same target, there is basically no advantage at all to deploying them as a horde, especially considering horde formations do not let you shoot in an extra rank.

alex87 wrote:

 Glasdir wrote:
nope I didn't advising splitting up the corsairs at all, you have misread what I wrote I'm afraid.

 Glasdir wrote:
the only thing I would change at the moment is instead of having the darkshards in two units run them as one in horde formation allowing them to all shoot at once this will make them more effective (smaller units of 'shards will struggle to kill anything quickly), also do this with the corsairs as it will allow them to make extra supporting attacks in combat.

...?

 Glasdir wrote:
as for darkshards yes splitting them up can work but it's very situational but then so is running them as a horde, (however they really would struggle to kill anything larger than a unit of 10 if split up)

Both units can still fire at the same target, there is basically no advantage at all to deploying them as a horde, especially considering horde formations do not let you shoot in an extra rank.

look I'm not looking for an argument but I where in that sentence do I advise splitting the corsairs up? I made it quite clear that I didn't advise it.
and yes there is an advantage to large units of 'shards and if you read my last post properly you would know why. getting first turn can make all the difference, especially if you are playing elves.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Decay wrote:
Ok then, I'm not sure where to advance except that the Wood Elves should be the ranged support and the Dark Elves are the combat force. So what units should I get for them, except for Coarsairs, Glade Guard, Spellweaver?

you've pretty much hit the nail on the head there, definitely consider a hydra or two with both breath weapon upgrades.
for combat units, HE/DE units are the best. I recommend, HE sword masters/white lions/pheonix guard or DE executioners/black guard/cold one knights.

Aren't the Deepwood scouts better than the Glade Guard, should I get them instead and fill up the Core some other way?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
If they now count as one army, I'll fill it up with DE Core and put the scouts in Special.

Deepwood Scouts are better then Glade Guard, true, but Glade Guard are better then Crossbow men. Trueflight arrows make Glade Guard very good at taking out chaff that crossbowmen can barely touch (Long range, multiple shots + Skirmish). On the other hand Eternal Guard are much better then Spearmen, the few extra points payed for Ws 5, Armour Piercing and Stubborn are worth it.

Dark Elves excel in Dark Riders being better then Glade Riders by virtue to starting on the board, and Witch Elves beat the ever living snot out of Dryads so much it's not funny.

Use that to decide what you need, an anvil (Eternal), a Core Gunline (Trueflight), Fast Cav avoidance (Dark Riders) or naked murder on a stick (Witch Elves).