Hola amigos. Please excuse this brief interlude between my NOVA report, but this is what has been on my mind. After the fun/exhaustion of NOVA, I’m taking a break from 40k for a bit to work on my Fantasy army, at least until I get the 40k bug. My timing is fortuitous because Fantasy is experiencing a resurgence at my LGS due to a bunch of new players picking up Ogres and the gorgeous new models for the other ranges.
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| Charge! |
That got me to thinking about my Dark Elf lists. I have very strong chariot spam lists for 2k and 3k games, but unfortunately, 2,500 seems to be the standard point level. I actually like that point level for various reasons, the most important of which is that the game isn’t dominated by the Rare selections. At 2k, certain Rares (Hell Pit Abominations, War Hydra) are insanely hard to kill, and you can pack two of them. Many lists struggle to tackle those undercosted beasts at lower point levels. Your opponent has 1,000 points of army for each of the uber-rares.
3k is very similar and even worse, because you can bring four of each Rare. Your opponent has only 750 points of army to deal with your power units. Scary stuff.
This makes 2k and 3k lists really easy to write for Dark Elves and other armies with powerful Rare choices. But this same effect makes 2,500 lists hard to write. As I’ve explained waaaaay back in the past* Hydras at 2,500 aren’t nearly as scary due to the 1,250 points of opponent per Hydra. This means that at 2,500 points, Hydras can be part of your list, but they can’t be ALL of your list.
So at 2,500 points, you have a conundrum. Since Hydras can’t be the core you build around (but can provide excellent support!), you need to find a new core. For similar reasons, chariots are great at 2k (where you get three Special choices) and super strong in 3k (where you get six) but at 2,500 points, three of them aren’t a scary core of your army.
One solution is to run my Blackguard list with 3 max units of BG, which are insanely killy and a quite nasty core to build around. But that list has match up issues. It simply can’t beat High Elves and some Lizardmen builds. Plus, beating artillery heavy lists is never a given when you’re running multiple big blocks of infantry. So that list is out.
My plan, then, is to run a character heavy list at 2,500.
You only get 3 chariots, but you can cheat two more by putting the BSB on one, and a barebones Master on chariot. Add two Hydras as support for the chariots, rather than using them as their own independent forces and you have a monster wing that’s seven models strong, which is a decent core.
Add the usual shooty core bits to fill out that requirement. I don’t care what druchii.net says, Dark Riders are good. Their best use? Providing a 4++ Look Out, Sir! save to you Sorceresses on Dark Steeds. Not having to buy a ward save for your wizards is vastly underestimated.
Oh by the way, add a L4 Shadow sorceress, and a L2 Metal Sorceress. On Dark Steeds, with no magic items beyond a Tome of Furion on the Level 2.
So our Core is done, as are the scary beater units, and the magic-wing is spoken finished.
What is this list weak against? Warmachines and deathstars. Warmachines, because despite Dark Riders, the list is kinda slow and good players will always put things between my Hydras and their cannons.
It has trouble with deathstars because you can’t count on magic to solve your problems: sometimes it can, sometimes it can’t, so your gameplan should have ways outside of magic to solve deathstars, especially with the High Elf no-magic-banner being quite common. Most big blocks are smashed by a Hydra and two chariots charging it. But something like Chaos Chosen aren’t super scared by those prospects, as they will make the saves with 2+ armor followed by 3++ ward, and then hit back with Str 6 attacks.
So what solves both of these problems? An “unkillable” Dreadlord. He is a fighty character, which I normally abhor, but he some some excellent merits that the list needs:
1. He flies, so he can get to warmachines in a hurry.
2. He is damn near impossible to kill.
3. He is stubborn so he can tie up any big block, deathstar or otherwise, indefinitely.
4. He is reasonably killy with 5 Str 5 Armor piercing attacks, so it is conceivable he could actually beat some of those big units in combat and cause them to flee.
That rounds off the list nicely. Let’s see how it looks…
DreadLord
-Dark Pegasus
-Heavy Armor
-Shield
-Sea Dragon Cloak
-Pendant of Kahleth
-Crown of Command
-Whip of Agony
=300
Supreme Sorceress
-Lore of Shadow
-Level 4
-Dark Steed
-Focus Familiar
=315
Sorceress
-Lore of Metal
-Level 2
-Dark Steed
-Tome of Furion
=162
Master
-Cold One Chariot
-Battle Standard Bearer
-Armor of Eternal Servitude
-Dragonbane Gem
-Halberd
-Shield
-Sea Dragon Cloak
=245
Master
-Cold One Chariot
-Heavy Armor
-Shield
-Sea Dragon Cloak
-Relic Sword
=190
12 Repeater Crossbowmen
-Standard
-Musician
-Shields
=142
12 Repeater Crossbowmen
-Standard
-Musician
-Shields
=142
5 Dark Riders
-Musician
-Repeater Crossbows
=117
5 Dark Riders
-Musician
-Repeater Crossbows
=117
5 Dark Riders
-Musician
-Repeater Crossbows
=117
Cold One Chariot
=100
Cold One Chariot
=100
Cold One Chariot
=100
War Hydra
=175
War Hydra
=175
Total: 2,497
A balanced list, I think. Good magic, good shooting, good combat ability. Thoughts?
Hi there, a bunch of fantastic articles on Dark Elves. I was wondering what would you add to this list if you were to bring it up to 2600 points?
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