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Hi all,

A decade ago, I played Warhammer fantasy a few times, but my gaming group lost interest (too difficult, too many other games). I really liked the miniatures, wargaming stuff, so recently decided to dust off the minis and give AoS a try. I found myself a group which plays regularly, which is great – and have played a few games. However, I do find that my army (dark elves) can not compete and seem to lose about every game I play. I am not a competitive player, I play for fun. So I don’t mind losing, but yeah.. I won’t mind an occasional ‘win’ either. So far, I am playing games of 1k or around 1200 points, but in the future, we probably will move towards 2k at some point. I could greatly appreciate some tips or tricks to improve my strategy and my army build.
As the Dark elves are no more and are spread across several factions. I started with the darkling coven as my backbone for the army, then choose allies as I saw fit (or from which I have the models).

The army I currently have is approx. 1200 points (The blackguard were added compared to my usual 1k army).
1 sorceress; 100 points
1 assassin (because I like assassins and the surprise element) 80
20 dreadspears; 200 points
10 executioners; 160 points
10 blackguard; 140 points
10 darkshards; 100 points
1 war hydra; 180 points
2 repeater bolt throwers (they are absent in the AoS app, but GW does still have the warscrolls for them in a compendium); 2 x 120 points (240)

I do not have a fixed command trait, often impossibly swift for the general/sorceress and as artifact I tend to go with the one which gives my assassin cumulative damage (shadesliver).
Strategy: I try to block what’s coming towards me with the dreadspears/executioners/black guard, while I use the darkshards crossbowmen/repeater bolt throwers to shoot at whatever seems dangerous. I try to use the hydras on monstrosities or other big enemies, often coming in from the flanks.

I find that the dreadspears are always wiped out almost immediately. The hydra can keep something busy, but doesn’t do much damage. Never takes out anything. I’ve played against skaven, chaos and beastmasters. The beastmasters just plow through my infantry, and the chaos game went quite even until he was allowed to do something with command points and summoning reinforcements. That kind of broke the game.

What would you change to this army build? Tips? Tricks? Am I overlooking common strategies or units? I am thinking of putting the sorceress on a black dragon. In terms of models I also have on the shelf: cauldron of blood, witch elves, lokhir fellheart, corsairs, black riders, and recently purchased some doomfire warlocks.

as long as there is no battletome for dark elves (outside daughters of khaine) playing with other dark elves will be an uphill battle whatever you field. It is one of those armies in urgent need of a battletome and updated rules.

In a competitive perspective they are unplayable.


even in a casual perspective, your opponent might not even be able to downtune enough if he is playing one of the new armies.

It is the same with most of my high elf army. shelved until we get new rules.

If you really really want to play with what you got, I advice adding some buffs. Knight Azyros for re-roll 1's to hit, loremaster to get re-roll 1 to hit an to wound. one of the chariots from the collegiate arcanum, and fill those units up to full strength. maybe get yourself a dreadlord on dragon.

But even then I am affraid you will be facing mostly uphill battles that often will be impossible to win.

For 2k you need more warriors. I would say get at least a 30-aelf block of Dreadspears and get your Darkshards up to 20, preferably 30. Warhydra is decent and the repeater bolt throwers can put out some good damage at range. Blackriders are meh and Doomfire Warlocks are good in 10+ blocks. Executioners are probably the best unit in the dark elf range as they have the best MW output. You might want to expand allies like DoK or Stormcast

Do you run the formation for Darkling Covens? (I believe its in the Order battletome) Do you use the Realm spells list? More magic would not hurt in genereal

Overall downside to Dark Elves is that they have sub-par infantry (5+ save with 4+ by 4+ on majoritry weapons) with almost no rending, multi-damage, and mortal wounds. Sheilds are awesome though but rending makes them a bit usless on a 5+ save unit. Corsairs are worse sadly.

Darkling Covens got a nice little bump in the 2018 GH but if you are fighting against an army with a full battletome it's going to be a tough fight.

Thanks a lot for the input! A bit disappointing too learn that the power gap between battletome and non-battletome armies is so big but it does confirm my experiences so far.. Guess I'll have to dive into the battletomes at some point if another army has enough magic and assassins for me .

I like the idea of adding buffs via some allies to make up for some of the sub-par characteristics, I'll definitely look into that. And we never used the realms in our play, but this would give me more magic options so that could be worth looking into as well. And the dreadlord on black dragon also seems like a good addition.

Getting the dreadspears up to 30 is do-able for 2k, but would you still do that in 1k games? Given their sub-par characteristics?

A Sorc on Dragon is a must, the dragon has fire breath (roll for everyone in a unit, 6s are a MW), the sorc on dragon and on foot have spells that work together, so take both. Endless spells are almost a must, you can cast some on a 2+.

Lots of spearmen supported with a sorc, kill a spearmen and you dont take battleshock.

Executioneers are great, best way to get mortal wounds, shards are ok, short range but lots of shots, remember you can shot into combat, tie things up with spears. Blackguard are good too, re-rolls and one of our only ways to get rend.

Be aggressive with half you're army and defensive with the other half, get the spearmen out there and the shards, try and draw charges with the shards, let them die and have exectuioneers ready for counter charges. Get the dragon out there for fire breath and magic, but save its combat until a little later, as they die fast, the dragons jaws do d6 damage, rend -2, but dont let it die too soon, get magic going.

Big blobs of delf infantry really aren't bad. If you are willing to specialize a little you can do darkling covens; a GHB allegiance that will can get you to mid-range effectiveness and even above the low end battletomes. (I have seen it done)

 camsmclean wrote:
A Sorc on Dragon is a must, the dragon has fire breath (roll for everyone in a unit, 6s are a MW), the sorc on dragon and on foot have spells that work together, so take both.

Not true. Spell for the Sorc on foot does 1 MW and -1 to the to-hit roll. Spell for the Sorc on Black Dragon uses the best printed to-hit value for a weapon equipped in the unit and you need to roll under that value. You still want the Sorc on BD, just not for her built-in spell.