Next projekt: 2000 points!

[Auere]

Hi everyone! After starting the hobby around a half year ago, my friends and I are moving up to 2000 point battles! They play following:

Dwarves
Orcs and Goblins
Wood Elves

We are planning on making a tournament using the same list to play each battle against all opponents. I could use some advice on my army list (see below) and if you can give me a hint on what bad-ass combos each race might have in store for me, I would be happy ;-)

We play by the normal rules for pitched battles, with the following extra restrictions:

- no more than 6 levels of magic
- no two of the same rare choice
- no more than two of the same special choice
- no more than three of the same core choice
- no special characters

My balanced list so far looks like this:


CHARACTERS

Dreadlord 215
Soulrender, Armour of Darkness, Pendant of Khaeleth

Sorceress (level 2) 167
Dark steed
Power Stone

Sorceress (level 2) 165
Lifetaker

Sorceress (level 2) 160
Darkstar Cloak


CORE

10 x Repeater Crossbowmen 100

10 x Repeater Crossbowmen 100

5 x Dark Riders 117
Repeater crossbows, musician

5 x Harpies 55

5 x Harpies 55


SPECIAL

5 x Shades 85
Two hand weapons

19 x Black Guards 335
Tower Master, standard
Crimson Death, Banner of Hag Graef

5 x Cold one Knights 135

5 x Cold one Knights 135


RARE

War Hydra 175


Total: 1999


Power: 9
Dispel: 5



I hope you can find the time to make a few comments, especially on how to defeat Orcs and Goblins as I havent faced them yet. I could also use an insight to the powerful dwarven setups at 2000 points.

Thanks,

Auere

[notabot187]

Well dwarfs can start taking dangerous quantities of cannons, bolt throwers, and other ranged units, and still have a somewhat solid core of good melee blocks. The thing to watch out for the most is the lord with anvil, though luckily you don't have to worry about the special character with it. Don't try to build a gun line at all, since dwarfs can bring minors. (outflank from off the board)

Wood elves are most dangerous when they use a decent number of forest spirits, since they are tougher, have saves, and cause fear. Watch out for double tree man. (one ancient, one normal) Stay away from forests, since its likely that he can bring enough magic to actually get some spells off.

Orcs and gobos: There is too much variation with this army to really make plans against. Just watch out for night goblin (and their fanatics). If he brings a decent number of war machines (spear chuckas and doom diver) it could be a bit rough since elves aren't very good against ranged attacks. Try to bait out the fanatics and let him have time to have his battle line get ragged. Since the army has a very rough time staying together, it shouldn't be too long before holes form in the line that you can exploit.

As for your list:

You have spent too much on characters for the point limit. If you want magic, bring a lvl 4 and a master, and MAYBE another lvl 2.

You only have one block unit, getting some static resolution is nice so your flanking units have something to work with. You probably have too many flank type units and not enough blocks for them to work with.

Other than that nothing really bad about the list.

Here is something with the suggested changes:

Supreme sorceress: lvl 4 black staff ~ 315
Sorceress: lvl 2, tome of furion, dark steed ~ 162
Master: general, heavy armor, sea dragon cloak, shield, great weapon, pendant of khaeleth ~ 129

5 dark riders ~ musician, RxB ~ 117
10 RxB ~ 100
10 RxB ~ 100
20 warriors: FC, shields ~ 155
5 harpies ~ 55
5 harpies ~ 55

14 black guard: FC, crimson death, banner of Hag Graef ~ 277
5 CoKs ~ 135
5 CoKs ~ 135
5 shades: GW ~ 90

War hydra ~ 175

Master goes with the warriors or black guard. Although it is a bit weird to have a GW and a shield, it allows you to choose if you want more armor or more killing power. He has the ward save crutch that DE are known for. So he will be decent at challenges and at killing rank and file.

SS goes where you think she can do the most good. With 4 dice and bound PoD she should have plenty of dice to work with. If you want to save some points, (30!) switch to the dagger and stab some regular warriors. The savings can be used on lifetaker.

The Lvl 2 is a roving magic user that either goes with the riders, or solo. She has 3 spells so has a good chance of getting something good. Since the lvl 4 has enough dice already, she can make good use of the pool dice.

I dropped the size of the black guard because they really don't need to be that big to act as the anvil they are. With a fair amount of screening and ranged unit hunting you have, it shouldn't be too hard to protect them from ranged attacks. With that problem out the way, and the fact they have 1-2 strong melee guys in the unit and ASF, they shouldn't have any problems with not having enough bodies.

The points I saved above allowed me to include another R&F unit in the block of warriors. They aren't that bad by themselves, and if you add the master to the unit they become pretty formidable. Just don't ask them to do what they can't, and support them with flankers and they will work quite well.

Shades have great weapons because they can. I had the points, and GW are really good at chopping up dwarf war machine crew, and do a fair job at killing forest spirits.