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Hey all. So I’m expanding my Island of Blood armies with.... well another island of blood...

Anyway I’m slowly building up each army (Skaven and high elves) and as I have 2 islands I have 20 sea gaurd. Doesn’t seem like they are the ideal core but that gets into my question. So I have 2 boxes of the spearelf/sea gaurd kit and I’m wondering when I get to building those should I build more sea gaurd or spearelves?

My goal is to build a 2k maybe even 2.5k army. I can list what boxes I have if needed. I really just play friendly games with friends and none of us have anything competitive (lately I’ve been playing with the 2 40k players who use the high elves anyway, I like my little meth head rats)

Spearelves, because they will look significantly diferrent from the Sea guard models you have. Remember that you double up on command groups so unless you convert you have two units of seventeen infantry.

32 spearelves is a good size unit for your main combat block.

 Orlanth wrote:
Spearelves, because they will look significantly diferrent from the Sea guard models you have. Remember that you double up on command groups so unless you convert you have two units of seventeen infantry.

32 spearelves is a good size unit for your main combat block.

I’ll probably make 3 into seafarer and recycle the command. Last game the extra command just got put in the back and taken out as first casualties. And the different look doesn’t bother my OCD (I already paid for that with dice heh).

You can also run the extra SG banner as a BSB, if you have a way to differentiate at least.

I actually have a proper BSB of all the things I don’t proxie. Skaven gonna get kit bashed do sure though.

I'd say have a unit of standard Spearelves just for the variety. I'm of the mind that Seaguard really don't do much to justify the higher points cost. If you're shooting on the move, that means lessened shooting while slowing down your unit. If you DON'T shoot at all, then you pissed away 80 points or so. That's an Eagle Claw, damn near. If you Stand and Shoot with them, that's 50% hitting with 25% or less doing any damage BEFORE saves. All in all, Spears come out on top.

 Just Tony wrote:
I'd say have a unit of standard Spearelves just for the variety. I'm of the mind that Seaguard really don't do much to justify the higher points cost. If you're shooting on the move, that means lessened shooting while slowing down your unit. If you DON'T shoot at all, then you pissed away 80 points or so. That's an Eagle Claw, damn near. If you Stand and Shoot with them, that's 50% hitting with 25% or less doing any damage BEFORE saves. All in all, Spears come out on top.

Yeah I’ve heard this preference before. And I can’t say it doesn’t make sense but I got both my island of blood boxes for around $80 so... yeah. Considering my group isn’t super competitive they fit good enough in the army and facing the other armies. (Although to be fair I’ve owned them more times than not with my meth rats. But that could also be due to both being my armies so I have the home field advantage of sorts)

Well, you HAVE the models so I'd say build them as Seaguard and fill in the back ranks of the two 10 man regiments from IOB. Then, if you are still on the fence, run them both ways. I sincerely doubt people would have an issue with you running them as simple Spearmen. Run them as such and see what the points difference nets you as far as other units, and see if it was cost effective vs. viability.

Yeah we’ve already ran them as basic spears before. I only inquired due to the mixed opinions on sea gaurd I’ve heard.

Sea guard dont get any good until 8th. You pay too much for the bow over spearelves.

l really like the idea of a versatile main block like sea guard, but they are definitely too expensive, and that’s from someone who runs a block of 30.

The reason i chose to use sea guard is mainly because I built my entire army around Teclis for 8th Ed. He needs protection badly and I wanted a unit that could stand up to a charge, but also not be entirely useless while not engaging the enemy. It’s useful in a defensive-counter charge army like my high elves are.

Being able to chose Teclis’s spells also mitigates some of their weaknesses like flaming sword of rhuin, mindrazor and harmonic convergence.

In 8th the Sea Guard are a lot better, the extra rank of shooting, reduced cost and extra rules.
If you play 8th you will be OK, otherwise you are better off with spearelves and separate archers.