Tom
writes:
"Hey Nike,
I've been reading your blog for a little while now ever since I got back into Warhammer, and I was wondering if you could give me some tips on my Dark Elves, and probably at a later time my Space Marines too haha.
This is what my Army list looks like at the moment:
Lords:
Supreme Sorceress 315pts
- Lvl 4
- Life Taker
- Sacrificial Dagger
- Shadow
- Power of Darkness
Heroes
Sorceress 125pts
- Dispell Scroll
- Fire
- Power of Darkness
Death Hag 250pts
- Cauldron of Blood
- Rune of Khaine
- Manbane
Core
20 Dark Elf Warriors 155pts
- Shields
- Full Command
20 Dark Elf Warriors 155pts
- Shields
- Full Command
20 Dark Elf Crossbowmen 205pts
- Musician
Special
10 Cold One Knights 335pts
- Full Command
- Banner of Murder
20 Black Guard 267pts
- Musician
Rare
War Hydra 175pts
SO what's the go with what…
One Sorceress goes with one of the blocks of Spearmen, the other Sorceress goes with the other block.
Cauldron lingers behind moving up, so it can buff a unit. The Cold One Knights can get in close and personal, or provide a flank bonus, with the Black Guard being a main target too.
The Blocks of Warriors can be really buffed up by shadow, or have their enemies buffed down, and I kept the musician's in with the Crossbowmen and the Black Guard just for leadership purposes, with the reasoning behind no standard bearer being that hopefully I won't need the extra point in combat res.
I have 15pts left over to spend, so am thinking of adding a Standard of Discipline onto one of the Spearmen units, or adding in a Standard to the Black Guard.
What do you think? I haven't played a game with this army and still need to purchase some of the models such as the Hydra etc., so any criticisms or suggestions for models to buy is all good, because I don't want to waste money on things I won't use.
Thanks,
Tom"
 |
| What? No dragons?!" |
Reply:
So
there are some issues, both major and minor, with this list that I want to
address. I’ll start with the minor ones,
and then address the major ones.
Minor
issues:
- I don’t
understand the Fire Sorceress.
Random Fire magic spells are pretty lame, I guess your plan is
Fireball spam? Seems weak to
me. Also, you need to look at the
price of the magic bunker when taking into account her cost. This is a fantastically expensive unit
that is not at all scary at magic or combat. I would make her Shadow Magic, and
probably lose the bunker.
- I don’t
get the close combat upgrades on the Cauldron. The Cauldron shouldn’t often be in close
combat, and if it is in close combat things are going very wrong. Also, it’s no slouch in CC. Anything in close combat with it that
actually threatens it isn’t going to be phased by those upgrades, so they
seem a waste of points.
- Full
Command on your magic bunkers is bad.
You don’t need the Lordling.
He doesn’t add leadership, just one extra piddly attack. Those points would be better spent on
banners that assist with Leadership or giving the unit Flaming attacks.
- Banner of
Murder belongs on the Blackguard, since the armor piercing actually
matters. The COK need Haeg Graef
for ASF. Also, you want full
command on the BG. Not having a
magic item on the officer is throwing away free value.
- Break the
Repeater Crossbowmen into MSU. You
want to be able to target multiple units per turn, and reduce your
vulnerability to AOE magic and warmachines.
Major
Issues:
- You don’t
have enough threats. Before buying
the COK or BG I would make sure you have a second Hydra. You need to present your opponent with
more threats than he has answers.
- The
threats you do have are have all different speeds. This is crucial. Your opponent can focus fire on your
units from fastest to slowest and destroy you bit by bit. By making target priority so easy, you
are essentially making your fewer threats significantly less scary.
Changes:
- Add the
second Hydra.
- Break the
RXB into two units of 10 with banner and musician.
- Lose the
second magic bunker unit. Make the
first one 30 strong, add banner of Leadership. Use the left over points to buy more
units of RXB. Do not exceed 500
points on Core.
- Lose
either the BG or the COK. I
recommend losing the COK. Buy a
second unit of BG. Use the points
savings to properly equip them with full command and offensive magic
items. Any extra points will go
towards the Hydra.
- Lose the
offensive upgrades on the Hag.
- Lose the
L1 Sorceress. Her contribution will
be trivial, and her points will go a long way towards the second Hydra.
The
results will be you now have 4 seriously scary units, your magic isn’t
significantly worse, and you have significantly more and better scoring units.
Thoughts? Comments?
Questions?
