My Current Lists: Dark Elves 3,000

Grand Armies are a strange beast.  The game clearly breaks down at 3,000 points.  You have enough points to comfortably bring two Lord level wizards without taking anything away from the nuts and bolts of your list.  If you have an army book capable of generating additional power dice to satisfy the needs to two wizard lords the game can get really nutty really quickly.  All the things people commonly cite for why Fantasy is non-competitive and bad are mostly untrue… until you hit 3,000 points.  At 3,000 almost all the complaints are quite founded.

But alas, ‘Ard Boyz is played at this absurd points level for some reason and thus once (hopefully twice!) a year I’m forced to play a 3,000 point army.  Here is my current list for this non-sense.

My Dreadlord hates Grand Armies

Lords

Supreme Sorceress

-Lore of Shadow

-Level 4

-Focus Familiar

-Talisman of Preservation

-Dark Steed

=360

Supreme Sorceress

-Lore of Metal

-Level 4

-Pendant of Khaleth

-Dark Steed

=325

[At this points level and with Power of Darkness, not bringing SS would be purposefully gimping my list.  Thanks to PoD, DE magic scales with the points level whereas most other books get weaker.  At lower points levels I can use Focus Familiar and Dark Steed to keep the caster safe.  At this dumb points level I need real wards to make me feel better about their safety.  Additionally, at lower points levels, magic isn’t as important to the list’s success, whereas it is vital at this level, so the wards are like an insurance policy for the list.]

Heroes

Master

-BSB

-Cold One Chariot

-Armor of Eternal Servatude

-Dragonbane Gem

-Halberd

-Shield

-Sea Dragon Cloak

=245

[Same loadout as the 2.5k build, except better because I have even more scary big stuff to keep him as a lesser target.]

Core

11x Repeater Crossbowmen

-Shield

-Standard

-Musician

=136

11x Repeater Crossbowmen

-Shield

-Standard

-Musician

=136

10x Repeater Crossbowmen

-Shield

-Standard

-Musician

=125

6x Dark Riders

-Musician

-Repeater Crossbows

=139

5x Dark Riders

-Musician

-Repeater Crossbows

=117

5x Dark Riders

-Musician

-Repeater Crossbows

=117

[The core is superfluous, as in the 2.5k list.  The Xbowmen sit back and on the flanks to keep faster enemy units from flanking the monsters.  The Dark Steeds use the vanguard redeployment trick, and they give 4++ LOS saves to your Sorceresses, and they are decent harassers in a pinch.  They are much more fragile at this points level, though, so I gave the Sorceresses wards because I place little trust in the Look Out Sir! save being there on turn 2+]

Special

Cold One Chariot

=100

Cold One Chariot

=100

Cold One Chariot

=100

Cold One Chariot

=100

Cold One Chariot

=100

Cold One Chariot

=100

[Three basic chariots are tough to kill at 2.5k for a lot of lists.  Adding three more is bad beats for the opponent.  You actually run into problems of not having enough space to deploy them all, having difficulty wheeling/maneuvering, and arranging multi-charges with 7 CoK on the board all nearby each other.  Of all the problems to have, having too much of a good thing is one I’ll settle for.]

Rare

War Hydra

=175

War Hydra

=175

War Hydra

=175

War Hydra

=175

[Other than a lucky as hell Purple Sun, I’m not sure of many ways people have to kill four Hydras before they get a chance to impact combat.  They are simply nuts.]

Total: 3,000

This list is well rounded with excellent magic, and has amazing combat capability.  The biggest weakness is against large blocks of ranked infantry, but I mitigate that as best I can with Shadow Magic.  My local meta is mostly elite armies and deathstars, and not many horde lists so I feel this is an acceptable trade off.  Your local mileage may vary on that.

Thoughts?  Comments?  Questions?