The High Elves of Ulthuan: a HE tactica WiP

[Vase]

Principles of Deployment

Authored by Lord Aewyn Machiara
Edited by PapaElf and Vase
See the original article at Machiara's Website forums.battleglade.com

Deployment is closely tied to maneuver. Winning the maneuver battle starts with army deployment. Good deployment can win games, and bad deployment can lose them. The goals of deployment should be:
1. Figure out as best you can what your opponent’s plan is.
2. Try to hide your intentions for as long as possible.
3. Ensure that your units have good match-ups across from them on the battlefield.

How Your Opponent Reveals His Plan Through Deployment
Your opponent will give you clues about what he plans to do through his army deployment. If he begins by putting all of his missile troops on one side of the board, you can be fairly sure he will attempt to use a weighted flank with his melee units on the other side of the board. Some clues are very obvious; if your opponent places his big Chosen Chaos Knight unit in the center of his deployment zone, he is obviously planning to use it in or near the center of the battlefield. Simply because a clue is obvious doesn’t mean it’s not useful; you can begin to place your units assigned to fight that unit (whether a Great Eagle for redirection, stubborn White Lions to stick it, etc) with confidence that they will easily be able to engage their target unit.

Other deployments by your opponent are less obvious, or simply unhelpful; if your opponent places a fast cavalry unit near the edge of one flank, does that mean he is planning a push on that flank or is he just putting a fast unit in position to make a flank charge later in the battle? You will have to figure that out through your knowledge of your opponent’s army and an analysis of the units he has already placed on the board.

The battlefield terrain can also give you clues where your opponent will deploy. If the left side of the board is heavily wooded, you can bet your opponent will favor the right side of the board (depending on the army he is playing). If there are numerous patches of difficult ground in one area, you know that your opponent will probably not be placing his chariots there. Often terrain placement will create only one or two places on the battlefield where your opponent can conduct a strong intersupported cavalry or infantry push. If you know that’s where your opponent will have to deploy his heavy units, that knowledge should allow you to deploy your units more effectively.

Hiding Your Plans During Deployment
Obviously, if your opponent’s deployment reveals important aspects of his battle plan, your deployment can reveal important aspects of your plan. If you place your archers in a certain area, your opponent knows that you will want to keep their firing arcs free, and therefore you will probably not be sending many melee troops through the archers' threat area. If you place a small elite infantry, its relatively slow movement means your opponent knows where on the battlefield he expects to find the unit, and allows him to react to the placement by putting his kill units in a position where they can easily make contact.

To avoid this, one should try to place your cheapest support units first. Ellyrian Reavers are excellent “deployment fodder”, as they move very quickly and can easily re-deploy to other parts of the table. Great Eagles are also good early placement, as their deployment rarely gives anything away about your intentions on the battlefield. Do not get too carried away with the subterfuge though; you still want your units where they will be most effective. It’s normally not worth it to place your units in a non-optimal position just to confuse your opponent.

One should also look to see if there are any “obvious” terrain influenced placements. If there is a well placed hill that both you and your opponent know would be a firebase for your archers, one won’t be giving much away by going ahead and deploying the archers.

Matching Up with Your Opponent
One of the most important parts of deployment is to ensure that your units are not placed in a position where they are vulnerable on turn one. For example, if you are playing against Dark Elves you want to make sure that all of your units are at least five inches back into your deployment zone so that you don’t have to suffer any infantry based repeater crossbow fire. If you are fielding chariots against Empire or Dwarfs you would want to hold back until the enemy has placed his war machines (cannons).

Try to obtain favorable match ups while avoiding the detrimental ones. If you have a White Lion unit that you plan to use as a stick unit against the enemy’s nastiest shock melee unit, it helps if the enemy unit is not on the opposite edge of the table. If you intend to use Reavers to hunt war machines, one either wants to place them fairly centrally, or directly opposite of the opponent’s best position (the hill in his zone) or directly across from the war machine, if already placed.

For the complete source material contained in this post, see the "General's Tent" at Machiara's web site, Welcome to Machiara's Battle Glade
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[Vase]

Battling the Dark Elves

Authored by Allonairre

I have started by quickly outlining the strengths and weaknesses of Dark Elves before I go into tactics that we can use against them.

Strengths
Offensive Magic
A single L2 can potentially cast both her spells even if they are power level 11+. This can make the magic phase a real challenge.

Magic Defense
They have some very good magical protection items, ring of Hotek, MR talismans (like scrolls but provide stackable MR), seal of Ghrond etc.

Shooting
Repeater Bolt Throwers are solid and Repeater Crossbows are debatably the best hand held weapon in the game.

Fast
Dark Riders and Harpies Core makes them capable of fielding the fastest armies in the game.

Eternal Hatred
Blessing and a curse

Assassin
I think that these are amazing, hidden and volume of attacks make them very difficult for some troop types to deal with.

Weaknesses
Hatred
They can be dragged around since they must pursue

Soft
They have the same stat-lines as we do, although characters can be better armoured (1+ mundane save is possible).

Close Combat
Our specialists are better at close combat than theirs provided we are able to utilise ASF, (an assassin can wreck a unit before they can strike back however).

Stupid
Some of DE’s best heavy hitters (COK & COC) are Stupid so vulnerable to failing crucial leadership tests

Magic Items
They have some great items but there can be a temptation to base a strategy around those items.

Watch Out for these Nasty Tricks

Ring of Hotek- Forces you to miscast on a double when casting at a unit or from a mage within 12”. Look out for a unit your opponent’s mages are avoiding or a flying noble deployed strangely.

Pendant of Khaeleth- Ward save based on weapon’s strength, stronger the weapon the better the save. Some nasty combo’s here with 1+ mundane save (on cold one) or 3+ save mundane save on a dragon. Not a great deal you can do about this, some spells can be a nasty surprise here but there isn’t a lot you can do about this guy.

Banner of Hag Graef- Grants the unit ASF. This is cheap enough to be taken as the unit standard for both Cold One Knights and Black Guard (not Executioners or Witch Elves), both these units have I6, so higher than all but Phoenix Guard and Dragon Princes.
Cauldron of Blood- This got a big improvement and now bestows various different gifts on units for a turn, but it is short ranged and not mobile so you can drag units out of its range using hatred.

Assassins- If these are built to attack rank and file (lots of attacks) then these can be devastating to our elite troops that rely on attacks to win combats. If possible declare a challenge with a ward-saved character to keep your troops alive.

Writing your Army List
Dark Elves are an extremely flexible army. There is no best build that I can come up with, and as such a reasonably balanced army is probably your best bet when tailoring a list to fight them. That said, here are some brief notes to bear in mind.

My average list will include 1-3 mages depending on how aggressively I want to cast spells, but I feel that at least 1 mage is a must against Dark elves, due to the potentially devastating nature of their magic. As mentioned a single level 2 can be a handful if you are unprotected, even a level 1 can cause issues if they end up with the right spell.

We are more fortunate than some however. Items like Loremaster’s Cloak, Banner of Arcane Protection, Caradryan’s MR3 and Radiant Gem of Hoeth, enable our Nobles and Princes to help protect our units from the magical barrage. I am loathe to use the banner of the World Dragon, although it will keep the unit completely safe, the point of the other items is that your opponent attempts to cast spells on a protected unit and you chance of survival in the rest of the magic phase is improved.
Destroying spells is also worth considering against Dark Elves particularly if they have a 1 very nasty spell.

Ring of Corin is another very tempting choice, as mentioned earlier there are some very nasty magic items in the DE list that are almost always included. With the Ring’s ability to effectively neutralise these it is a good choice in an offensive magic list.
Trickster’s Pendant is worth mentioning against Dark Elves. If I know that my main defense is going to be spam casting Drain Magic then this is a very good item, as they will use more dice to get spells through and miscast more often.


Unit-by-Unit Summary
Lords
Prince- Okay, but best used to get a big dragon into the army
Archmage- Great, I almost always take one at 2000+ pts

Heroes
Noble- Okay for unit support, and BSB
Mage- Good, I feel that some magic defense is a must against DE
Dragon Mage- Okay, don’t expect too much

Core
Archers- Okay, good for keeping opposing mages and fast cavalry honest
Spears- Great, the best footslogging core in both books
Seagaurd- A bit expensive and no more valuable vs Dark Elves

Special
Swordmasters- Easily neutralised by Assassins etc, still good flankers
White Lions- Easily neutralised by Assassins etc, still good flankers
Phoenix Guard- Best Elite infantry against Dark Elves, as they don’t need to kill to win combats
Shadow Warriors- Great
Ellyrion Reavers- Good (exploiting hatred)
Tiranoc Chariot- Okay
Lion Chariot- Good, Still a bit pricey for how fragile it is but there are few S7 attacks in Dark Elves
Silver Helms- Okay, Same as always, Dragon Princes are better value
Dragon Princes- Great, armour should protect them from assassins etc, don’t expect them to win a drawn out fight with Cold One Knights though

Rare
Repeater Bolt Thrower- Personally I think it is a must for us, to target fast cavalry, Hydras, Dragons, Manticores, all of which are likely
Eagle- Unfortunately these are often a must as well

General Tactics

I wrote a very extensive guide and came to the conclusion that most of the tactics are the same as you would use against any other army.

Here is what I came up with:

Deployment

Depends on play style, you will probably be outnumbered as usual, so refuse flank. Remember 1 on 1 we can normally beat Dark Elves in combat, the exceptions being the units with Assassins, The Banner of Hag Graef, Cold One Knights vs Dragon Princes and perhaps The Pendant of Khaleth.

Movement

Be smart and play to your strengths. Remember Repeater Crossbows have a range of only 24”, so try and make them move and fire if possible.
Don’t be afraid of charging into a combat you know you will lose, particularly with Eagles, Reavers and Shadow Warriors, when you lose and flee your opponent must pursue, this is useful for forcing Dark Riders, Hydras, Repeater Crossbow Troops, Mage Bodyguards and Harpies (that are less annoying in combat) to flee or engage your combat blocks with their overrun.
In case you care fleeing on 3d6 is bigger than 2d6 about 77% of the time, and you do need to weigh up the reward. While it is funny having a wounded chariot pursue Shadow Warriors through difficult terrain, it may not be worth the points of the troops you threw away, (I should know I laughed when the cold one Chariot chased me through 2 piles of rocks, then my opponent laughed when it survived).

Dark Elf hatred allows us to dictate some of our opponents movement to them, if you get the chance to mire a devastating combat block in terrain then take it, but realise it is a sacrifice for a gamble.

Same thing applies to the frenzied Witch Elves and stupid Cold Ones, we can use these things to our advantage and will have to in order to win consistently.

Magic Defense

In spite of all our magic defense and our +1 to dispel, Dark Elves will get spells through our defenses so you need to be able to know what you can let through, below is a brief summary of the Dark Magic Lore

Power of Darkness- D3+1 casting dice but does no damage, I don’t like to use more dice to dispel it than my opponent did to cast it, but for some it is a must stop
Chillwind- D6 S4 hits, No shooting if wounded.
Word of Pain- Drops WS and BS to 1, Remains in Play. Can be cast into combat.
Doombolt- High strength, but only D6 hits, nothing nasty with it
Blade-wind- A reasonably good spell, 3d6 S4 close combat attacks means it will murder warmachines, White Lions and Sword Masters but average against spearmen, go figure. Can be cast into combat.
Soul Stealer; With our low Toughness this spell is deadly, hits every model in a unit and allows no armour save. It is short Range, 12” I think so may not be a problem for a couple of turns. Can be cast into combat.
Black Horror; Nasty, always stop it Large template and only has to touch a model to hit it, our low strength makes it 50/50 and no armour save. Only does 1 wound now though. Can be cast into combat.

They can also choose, Shadow, Death, Fire and Metal, but as they roll for their spells none come close to Dark Magic in my opinion.

Magic Offense

Dark Elves have a similar magical defense to us, so we can be effective casting our own spells.
Drain Magic is a real double edged sword, cast it once and the only impact you have on your opponent is to force him to use 2 dice to cast Power of Darkness (some Dark elf Generals do this anyway), because they can use as many dice as they like, they can always attempt to cast high cost spells. More than one cast of Drain magic however does have an impact.
Flaming spells at the Hydra, particularly Lore of Metal spells 1 and 6.

Shooting Phase

Personal preference in terms of priority but personally, Fast Cav + Harpies turn 1 (or the first opportunity you get).
If possible, do a couple of wounds to the Hydra before it gets into flame range, it is better out of combat than in it if it still has 5 wounds (flames have the strength of the remaining wounds) but this can wait till turn 2 or 3 when the fast stuff is dealt with.

Combat Phase

Here we should have the upper hand with Speed of Asuryan, as mentioned watch out for Assassins (challenge them if possible), Banner of Hag Graef and Sword of Always Strike First (don’t know proper name).
Hatred does make Dark Elves very reliable in combat and they can be relied upon to do odds at worst.

Matchups - Spears vs anything
- Phoenix Guard vs anything (try and outnumber though)
- Sword masters and White Lions vs anything w/o Assassins or BoHG
- Dragon Princes vs anything, take care against Cold One Knights

Bear in mind that this was written with my play style in mind, your opinions may differ in some (or many) areas, don’t hesitate to PM me and tell me.

Same applies if you feel something warrants further explanation, let me know via a PM and I will get back to you.

There is not a great deal about a Cauldron of Blood in here because I do not play against one often at all. I think that they take a Lord slot (add on to a Hag Queen) and if so then I would just be glad not to be facing a L4 Sorceress. If I played one I would deploy deep in my zone and make my opponent come to me, with superior ranged spells, and Long Bows, then drag them even closer with Eagles and Reavers. Feel free to correct me on this if you know more.

[Vase]

Maneuver After Deployment

Authored by Lord Aewyn Machiara
Edited by PapaElf
See the original article at Machiara's Website forums.battleglade.com.

Many generals have become comfortable with a certain style of fighting, and you can use this to your advantage. Some generals will head straight across the battlefield towards your archer line, because that is what they always do. Other generals will march their melee units towards the unit that they consider the biggest threat. If you know the habits of the opposing general, or can make some shrewd guess about what those habits might be, you can exploit them for your benefit. But how can one guess what an opponent is apt to do if one has never played the opponent before?

In many ways the composition of an opposing army can go a long way toward helping us understand opposing generals. The more points your opponent puts into a “main” unit, the fewer support units he has. One unit cannot fight an entire army by itself. Many times a melee unit only has time to engage one of our units. By keeping the unit costs of our units relatively low we can afford to misdirect the big unit (while beating up on the enemy’s support units) without crippling our army.

If you see an opponent who has invested in such a unit, you know that he will want to direct that unit at what he sees as the largest point opportunity on the battlefield. If you can create an appropriately tempting opportunity (OR the illusion thereof), you can create your plan of maneuver and attack around the near certainty that he will move the big unit towards that opportunity.

On the other hand, you can try to confuse your opponent by having no such tempting opportunities on the table at all. Many generals are used to fighting armies that have one or two “main” units, normally “Shock” or “Attrition” melee elite. Their normal battle strategy is tailored around destroying those “main” enemy units. When fighting a High Elf army, many generals become, if not confused, then somewhat unfocussed in their maneuvering, because they don’t have a firm idea of what do when presented with an army without large units.

Splitting the Army
Armies that do have a large “main” unit of the type are vulnerable to the “split army” strategy. This ploy essentially involves the division of your melee units into two fairly even forces, deployed on either flank of your missile base, which will control the middle.

The enemy’s “main” unit will have to commit itself to one flank or the other. If you present the indecisive general with a target unit (large spear block, for example), he can be lured into pursuing that unit on one side of the board, which may open opportunities for you in other areas of the battlefield and/or allow you to set up his melee units for flank or rear charges. The target unit you present must be seen either as a threat or as a large source of victory points for the opponent if this strategy is to work effectively.

Once the enemy’s main unit has committed itself to one side of the battlefield, use your march interdictors to keep that enemy unit from marching. Re-deploy a portion of your forces to the other side of the battlefield on the “contact” flank, where you will hopefully have an advantage.

The “Split Army “ ploy can be countered by an enemy who is able to concentrate all of his melee forces onto one flank, using an “oblique line” strategy to deny you engagement on your planned “contact flank”. While this kind of setup will deny the major benefits of the split army tactic, it should also open up maneuver opportunities of its own. The split army is also weak against a “Horde” army, since the army can stretch across the entire battlefield. Against a horde army, you will normally want to try a weighted flank attack of your own.

Fighting the weighted Flank
So your opponent has placed all of his melee units in close support of each other on a weighted flank, has put his missile troops in the center, and is basically ignoring the other flank.

Many of us remember the excellent battle scene in the movie “Gladiator”, in which General Maximus leads a flank charge of Roman cavalry. As they’re riding through the forest Maximus continually yells at his troops to “stay on line”. Maximus knows that a flank assault is much more effective when all the flankers get to the battle at the same time.

Well, we want to encourage our opponents to ignore General Maximus and get their units to our waiting Sword masters, Spear Elves, etc. piecemeal, so we can defeat them in detail. Many times our opponent will help us out by taking melee units of differing speeds, i.e., cavalry and infantry. An undisciplined opponent will bring his cavalry and infantry across the board at full speed. Fortunately for us, these speeds are very different, and the cavalry will arrive much before the infantry. This means we can use the full force of our army to fight a portion of the enemy's army, which is the whole purpose of maneuver in the first place.

If you’re playing against an army with melee elements of similar speed, you’ll have to do some of the work yourself. For example, say, there are three enemy melee units. If you move your march interdictors to prevent two of those units from marching, you give your opponent the opportunity to be undisciplined and march the un-interdicted unit. This causes the opponent to arrive at the battleline piecemeal, giving you a better chance to destroy the unit.

Of course, your opponent may be disciplined. If he is, at least you get that much more time to shoot the units before they make it to the battleline.

For the complete source material contained in this post, see the "General's Tent" at Machiara's web site battleglade.com

[Vase]

Fighting the Weighted Flank

Authored by Lord Aewyn Machiara
Edited by PapaElf
See the original article at Machiara's Website forums.battleglade.com

So your opponent has placed all of his melee units in close support of each other on a weighted flank, has put his missile troops in the center, and is basically ignoring the other flank.

Many of us remember the excellent battle scene in the movie “Gladiator”, in which General Maximus leads a flank charge of Roman cavalry. As they’re riding through the forest Maximus continually yells at his troops to “stay on line”. Maximus knows that a flank assault is much more effective when all the flankers get to the battle at the same time.

Well, we want to encourage our opponents to ignore General Maximus and get their units to our waiting Sword masters, Spear Elves, etc. piecemeal, so we can defeat them in detail. Many times our opponent will help us out by taking melee units of differing speeds, i.e., cavalry and infantry. An undisciplined opponent will bring his cavalry and infantry across the board at full speed. Fortunately for us, these speeds are very different, and the cavalry will arrive much before the infantry. This means we can use the full force of our army to fight a portion of the enemy's army, which is the whole purpose of maneuver in the first place.

If you’re playing against an army with melee elements of similar speed, you’ll have to do some of the work yourself. For example, say, there are three enemy melee units. If you move your march interdictors to prevent two of those units from marching, you give your opponent the opportunity to be undisciplined and march the un-interdicted unit. This causes the opponent to arrive at the battleline piecemeal, giving you a better chance to destroy the unit.

Of course, your opponent may be disciplined. If he is, at least you get that much more time to shoot the units before they make it to the battleline.

For the complete source material contained in this post, see the "General's Tent" at Machiara's Website battleglade.com

[Vase]

Destroying Elite Shock Melee Troops

Authored by Lord Aewyn Machiara
Edited by PapaElf

Every so often you’re going to be facing some nasty enemy units, such as Chaos Knights, who have Speed and Shock Melee value to spare. These units are largely invulnerable to your missile fire, and if they get first turn, they’ll already be halfway across the table, leaving you no opportunity to interdict marches. At this point, you have four options:
1. You can avoid the enemy shock melee
2. You can redirect the enemy shock melee unit with a Great Eagle or Ellyrian Reavers
3. You can use a “stick” unit to pin the enemy shock melee
4. You can flee from the enemy shock melee, causing a failed charge and bring the unit into the charge range of your melee units.

Avoidance
If your army is fast and flexible enough, you may be able to completely avoid engagement with your enemy’s main shock units on anything but your terms.

Even a slower army can avoid nasty enemy units through clever deployment, and use of terrain. Setting your units up behind centrally placed woods creates an opportunity for avoidance. Your opponent will have to send his shock melee one way or the other around the woods; your main units go the other way around, thereby completely avoiding his main unit. If your opponent has multiple shock melee troops, at the very least you have split them up and prevented them from intersupporting each other.

Redirection
Start with a cheap unit that the enemy will have to align to, should the enemy charge the unit. Skirmishers are not good because they form on the chargers. Great Eagles are ideal, Reavers are fast enough to get the job done if desperate.

Move your unit an inch away from the unit you wish to redirect, positioned so that the enemy unit will not be able to move without hitting your unit. Place your unit at an angle, so that if the enemy unit charges your unit, the wheel to align will face it away from anywhere important. This can sometimes be tricky and it is vitally important not to: a) accidentally give your opponent a flank charge on your unit; or b) snipe at the enemy unit with missile fire or magic if your opponent could remove casualties in such a way that your “redirect” unit is no longer blocking the target units forward move.

A caution: be careful about using this tactic against large fear causing units. Your “redirect” unit will have to take a fear test; if your unit fails and the enemy unit has higher unit strength than the “redirect” unit, your unit must flee, leaving the enemy unit to declare a charge on a unit that you were trying to protect.

Stick and Flank
First, this tactic requires a “stick” unit. A “stick” unit can successfully receive the charge from an enemy shock melee unit and hold. In the new High Elf army you should use a White Lion unit (stubborn) or to a lesser extent a large Spear Elf block (high static combat resolution). In either case a nearby BSB is useful. After the “stick” unit holds, you then “flank”, in your subsequent turn by charging the pinned units flank or rear.

Here’s how to do it: You maneuver your stick unit to a position where your enemy must either charge them or avoid them. Your designated flank unit positions itself for a countercharge on your turn.

On your enemy’s turn, he charges the “stick” unit. The unit holds. In your turn, you flank or rear charge with your flank unit. Now you’ve eliminated the enemy rank bonus, gained the +1/+2 bonus for the flank or rear attack, probably have +1 for outnumbering and, if a Spear block is in the mix +1-+4 from ranks and standard. Add in any combat damage and you win this combat, and probably win it BIG. Threat eliminated.

Flee
Clearly, the “Flee” tactic involves fleeing, but this shouldn’t just be random flight from threatening enemy units. We want intelligent flight, flight that sets our enemies up for their eventual destruction.

The best way to flee is to tempt your opponent into failed charges against Ellyrian Reavers or Great Eagles that bring his charging units into range of your melee units. The Reaver unit should present something of a threat (Bows). The Reaver unit moves toward the target enemy unit threatening to get on its flank unless the enemy charges. Melee units hold back, far enough away that they cannot be charged themselves but close enough so that they will be able to charge the enemy unit after a failed charge (and yes, this can be tricky with our slower melee units such as our elite infantry).

The enemy unit will have to charge the Reavers (if they don’t want to be charged themselves or expose a flank to the Reavers), and you will flee. This causes a failed charge by the enemy unit. The enemy unit will then move half their charge move towards the fleeing unit, putting them in front (hopefully with an exposed flank) your remaining combat troops. You charge on your next turn and clean them up.

For the complete source material contained in this post, see the "General's Tent" at Machiara's web site battleglade.com.

[Vase]

Teclis, Loremaster of the White Tower

Authored by Herman1004


In this article, I will explain the use of one of the most potent mages in Warhammer: both the destructive and defensive capabilities and the different lores which he can use extensively.


First of all, about half of the players you’re facing will cry “CHEESE” before you get to place Teclis on the table. They clearly don’t understand that they’re facing a T2 model that will get beaten up by a Skink in close combat. If your use of Teclis becomes an issue for your opponent, explain to him how easy it will be to kill Teclis and give him advice how to.

Lores
Teclis is a mage of extraordinary power. Not only does he provide you with enough power dice and dispel dice for an entire army, but with a variety of all the lores in the BRB plus High Magic. The first question you encounter when including Teclis in your army is what lore to choose. The answer to this question is highly dependent on your enemy. If you’re facing Dwarfs or Lizardmen, both of which have very low Initiative, you take Lore of Shadows and see unit after unit falling to their death. If you’re up against magic-heavy armies, (Dark Elves, VC) then you go with High Magic for Drain Magic.

You will have the command of all the spells in whatever lore you choose so what spell to try next will always be an issue and you must use your brains to figure out what your army needs next. Here is a list of basic advice on how to use the different lores to their full extent.

High Magic
*Useful against any enemy.

High Magic can be used as either a defensive or offensive lore. Be sure to get off Drain Magic at the end of the phase. Flames of the Phoenix should be used early to get rid of huge units with low T, but remember you can’t cast other spells while it’s in play.

Lore of Fire
*Useful against any enemy, especially Wood Elves, Tomb Kings and Orcs and Goblins.

Offensive lore that can really pack a punch. Don’t bother with casting Flaming Sword, but all the other spells, especially Conflagration of Doom and Wall of Fire, are potentially game winning. Wall of Fire could also be used to get rid of characters in a front rank.

Lore of Metal
*Very useful against Bretonnia, Tomb Kings and Dwarfs. (Also Chaos Dwarfs)

Semi-offensive lore that is a must against armies with high armour saves. Bretonnia will suffer greatly against Teclis with this lore as they rely heavily on armour saves and knights. Don’t forget the other spells like Commandment of Brass, as well as the fact that the basic spell can pick out a character from a unit.

Lore of Shadows
*Best used against Dwarfs, Lizardmen, Empire Gun Lines, any low-initiative model.

To be honest, there are only 2 great spells for High Elves in this lore, Pit of Shades and Unseen Lurker. But to compensate, they are very powerful spells and they are best used against armies with lots of war machines and armies with low initiative. Dwarfs and Lizardmen will suffer badly from Pit of Shades cast with Irresistible Force.

Lore of Beasts
*Lore of beasts is great against any army.

Great lore for both offense and defense. Boost Teclis in combat or send a Hunting Spear through the ranks of the enemy. One of my favourite lores. Be sure to use Bear’s Anger late in the phase.

Lore of Life
*Especially useful against Wood Elves, Lizardmen, Dwarfs, Empire, Beasts of Chaos.

Highly underestimated lore that may seem weak on paper, but when playing against Wood Elves or armies that rely on moving through cover, it is a killer lore. You can also use it to wreak havoc in a gun line with Rainlord and Master of Stone if they are within the range of a terrain piece. Remember unlimited range as long as an enemy unit is close to terrain.

Lore of Heavens
*Best used against armies standing still or magic heavy armies.

Mostly defensive, but the Comet of Cassandora will make your opponent waste his power dice or make his butt hurt, so VERY effective against magic heavy armies and a good all-around lore.

Lore of Light
*Best used against Daemons of Chaos and Vampire Counts.

Almost a must if playing undead or daemons as you get high strength attacks against them. Be sure to not forget the other spells as well. Some might say this lore is not a very strong lore, but I can guarantee a VC player won’t say that.

Lore of Death

In my opinion not a great lore, but Steal Soul is very effective. I struggle to see the great strengths in this lore and would advise not to take it very often unless you get a sudden urge to try it out.

Now I have dwelled with the lores of Magic long enough and will move to a bigger issue.


Protecting Teclis
As awesome as Teclis might seem, he is extremely vulnerable to absolutely everything. If he gets into close combat he is dead before you can say: FOR ULTHUAN!
That is of course if your enemy survives ASF, for no other race has the advantage of having ASF to protect their mages. If you put Teclis in a mediocre unit of Swordmasters, he will probably be safe from anything but combat res. The downside with this is Swordmasters are needed at the front, and Teclis is going to die at the front, even if he’s inside a SM unit.

Second option is a unit of archers, probably on a hill, to keep him safe. Downside: if the enemy gets as much as a march blocker to your unit, Teclis is dead as the ASF from the archers won’t do much good.

The solution I’ve found is not totally safe, but it shouldn’t place him in any immediate mortal danger. You simply put him with a unit of 11 Swordmasters, with full command and Banner of Arcane Protection, and send the unit on the flank. This should keep him pretty safe from the big nasty units on the front, and at the same time you won’t be wasting either the Swordmasters’ or Teclis’s powers.

Another build is to put him with White Lions and move through some wood to keep him safe.

Whatever you find to be the most effective way to protect Teclis, be sure to ALWAYS issue a challenge with either a CC character or the unit’s champion as this will reduce the number of attacks available to your opponent.

Useful Additions to the Army
When including Teclis in your army, there are some units and magic items you should always take with him. First of all, a unit of Ellyrian Reavers should be mandatory to get any frenzied units away from your precious Teclis. The magic item you should always include is the Banner of Sorcery to ensure you drown your opponent in power dice. The two others are the Gem of Courage, so the unit guarding him doesn’t run away after a failed panic test, and the Skeinsliver, so you can get into position with the bodyguard unit and start the game with a face-melter magic style. Another piece of advice is to always bring a lvl. 2 Mage with the Annulian Crystal to ensure total magic dominance.

A common mistake is to think that because Teclis has a special rule which allows him to cast with Irresistible Force when rolling a double, he will always cast with Irresistible Force. He does NOT always cast with Irresistible Force. Therefore it is still important to use your brains when choosing what spell to cast. A mistake I did early with 7 ed. was to cast Drain Magic early in the phase to lure out dispel scrolls or dice. I thought: what do I care, I cast with IF anyway. But as stated, you don’t.

I’ll end this tactica here but will most likely come with additions or corrections after hearing your thoughts.

Hope you liked it.

Regards,

[Vase]

Using Psychology

Authored by Allonairre

I do not consider myself an expert in this area of the game but I can offer some basic pointers.

I think that we are in an excellent position to use an opponent’s psychology against him or her. The first thing you have to do to manage this is familiarise yourself with the psychology rules such as how Frenzy, Hatred, and Stupidity work, what the effects of Immune to Psychology are, etc. Once you are reasonably familiar with how these rules work you need to figure out what you are likely to be facing. If you are playing against High Elves, Dwarves, Empire, Wood Elves or Lizardmen then very few of these rules will apply.

If you decide Psychology will be a factor then you need to get the units into your army that can exploit it. The units that do this best are our disruption units: Great Eagles, Ellyrian Reavers, and Shadow Warriors, in that order (my opinion). Ideally these units should cost less than 100 points but some will cost more. Remember these units will often die and may not “do their points back” through causing casualties.

Key Things to Remember

- Hatred forces pursuit and overrun

Get your “disruptors” into a flank or rear. This is easiest with Shadow Warriors and Eagles as they don’t remove ranks so people don’t panic about them. Get into a flank/rear knowing that you will lose, but force an overrun/ pursuit that will pull your enemy out of line. This is a terrific way to pull a central unit out of line. If you can get them into difficult terrain, even better. It is a great way to keep your opponent’s combat monster out of combat. A 2d6” pursuit backwards in turn 3 or 4 will generally result in that unit never reaching combat, I find that this is the easiest way to deal with Black Guard and other large Dark Elf combat blocks. The disadvantage is that you will often lose the disruption unit and more often than not the combat starts and ends in your turn meaning it is only a very brief stall as they should get their normal movement in their turn, and you shouldn’t get a flank or rear charge from your own combat blocks. This is where working your disruptors in teams helps, one draws the pursuit move the other march block the unit to prevent it ever reaching combat. (It is not often you have enough units to send 2 disruptors against his units but it is a nice idea in theory.)
A chariot that has suffered a couple of wounds can also be used to pull units out of line, particularly cavalry (fast or heavy). The idea here would be to make the cavalry overrun forward into a solid infantry block they would otherwise attempt to avoid. The problem with this is that if that chariot is not destroyed and flees through your own troops it will make you cringe.

- Frenzy must charge if in range and can see, but don’t have to charge closest unit

I find charge baiting to be one of the most difficult skills to get right. When to flee and when to hold is maddening and nobody wants to be made to look a fool by being too generous with their wheel if you flee. In my opinion though, a frenzied unit should never fight anything that you don’t want it to. One unit of Ellyrian Reavers can keep a unit occupied for the entire game (with a bit of luck). Leadership 8 + musician is good but not perfect. With luck you might be able to keep your Reavers alive till the end of the game but again the chances are they will die. Reavers are really the only unit we have capable of indefinite baiting and fleeing. Others should get caught (or forced off the board) on the turn they have rallied and lost their regular move ability. You loose a bit of control after the first turn anyway so it isn’t ideal to bait and flee with Shadow Warriors, although you can use Eagles in pairs almost as effectively.

The other thing you can do is to hold on the charge (doesn’t work well with skirmishers). You force the enemy to align to your unit so you chose where they are facing and what is in their flank. They charge you, then align to your base so you pick where the unit will face. Hopefully you can flank charge them in a subsequent turn. Hopefully this is mentioned in more detail in the using Eagles entry as they do this best. Skirmishers do it a slightly different way. Opponents must charge the closest one, so this can determine the direction of the chargers’ movement, a considerably more difficult thing to do and you feel like a c**k making your opponent charge the Shadow Warrior they can’t see because it is half an inch closer, especially if you have to pull out the rulebook because it doesn’t make any logical sense. I would steer away from it unless you are playing other experienced gamers because it is a rule that doesn’t make sense. That said, it is a rule and people should be aware of it. Make it clear and discuss it with any social players beforehand, like it’s a new discovery, before forcing them into a stupid charge they didn’t expect.

- Immune to Psychology/Can’t Flee

Much more difficult to exploit, I have only mentioned it here because we have Standard of Balance, to make us immune to psychology. This does prevent auto-break from fear though so watch out for it when using Phoenix Guard, and never give Phoenix Guard that banner!! This does allow you to set up awesome combo charges at extreme range, which your opponent can’t flee from.
Don’t bother whittling away at a unit with immunity to psychology (my opinion), because they won’t panic and don’t care if you outnumber them with fear causers.

- Stupidity

Just be aware of it and if you can affect that unit’s Leadership then it is often worth a crack. Death Magic’s “-3 to units Leadership” spell is trouble for any unit that is affected by Stupidity.

- Fear

Where possible, outnumber fear causers, and outnumber them with your own fear-causers. Not always possible however but attempt to manage unit sizes with your Bolt Throwers and Archers.

- Terror

One test per game so if possible try and get your general in a position to help out the leadership near the terror causer. Sometimes you can see them coming and get a Noble, Archmage, or Prince across in time to make a difference.

- Panic

Force as many tests as possible. Force a test, then move on to the next unit and force a test there. Remember there is only one panic test per phase, so don’t Breathe fire then shoot them (except to take them below 25% starting models) if you can cause a panic test elsewhere. Be sensible though, if 1 wound removes a rank from an imminent charge then do that 1 wound before you worry about panicking the unit of slaves at the rear of their army. Be aware of the flee direction; if you can force flight through a friendly unit then you get a free panic check. Remember unit strength less than 5 never causes panic!

- Stubborn and Unbreakable

Can’t really take advantage of these rules as such, but you have got to know which units in your enemy’s army is affected by these rules. No sense flank charging a large stubborn unit with Dragon Princes if there is nothing to back them up next turn.

[Vase]

Warriors of Chaos

Authored by [CATz] Betrayal

I’m beginning by stating this is very brief and I accept that most of you who read this will find it very limited in use so feel free to improve it

I have limited knowledge of Chaos post-1,500 points and I’m glad because they are scary!!! If you have ever played against them the first thing you notice is that most of their units are pretty scary in combat, with their basic warrior having WS 5 and S 4 and A 2.

Let’s start by discussing what units I think I would use.

Infantry

I like my infantry

I personally cannot get over how awesome Sword Masters are. I tend to have quite a few of these and have recently realised after suggestions online that using them in a full front rank of meeting your enemy as best you can is AMAZING. I understand most Chaos players use units of 12 conventionally with 6 in the front rank. This means you can get 9 Sword Masters into them. So I would recommend throwing in lots of them. Common complaints of Sword Masters is that they are paper thin and arrows and other ranged weapons will pick them off like nobody’s business. I can see that as a real possibility as we all know T 3 is a bit poo, and +5 save is a bit of a fail. However Chaos don’t have these things. The closest they have is Maurder Horsemen and any of them fool enough to charge deserves a killing. So Sword Masters only have to worry about combat with WoC.

I toyed with Phoenix Guard as well with varying success, but I would only take them in a huge stack. They don’t tend to kill many of the heavily armoured warriors so static combat and fear should save them normally and their ward saves are nice.

Spearmen are nice but I only use them to hold the enemy for a flank Sword Master charge because they tend to end up being chewed up and spat out. As a redeeming feature, they are well suited to eating through those less armoured few such as Maurders and Chaos Warhounds. (I have no idea of the use of the Lothern Seaguard. I feel they are pricey but they could be useful.)

I have read all the cheers for White Lions. Though they sound impressive with strength 6 and arrow protection of a kind, I fail to see their application against WoC considering they only have 1 attack and no better armour than Sword Masters. So I vote stick to Sword Masters.

Archers & Shadow Warriors

I have a nice squad of 10 Archers in a single line and I find them very useful. It’s fair to say the archers could at best kill 3 warriors as they advance towards my lines. However if the WoC are using Maurders as meatshields or simply including them in their battle line, you can’t afford to waste your elite infantry on Maurders, after all for 1 point they can have GW’s and if they know they are striking last anyway because we have Always Strike First, they probably have included them. My first target with my 10 archers is to pick off their Maurders because they fall like nobody’s business and can be a nuisance. So in short, my use for archers is to pick off the light-armoured things so they are less of a force when they reach you.

I have never used Shadow Warriors either but I feel that they would have limited use against WoC. They could pick off the handlers of the Hellfire Cannon (but it still can fire apparently), but the advantage of this is that I think it would be more likely to rampage and kill its own units, but I have never faced one so I’m not sure. Another use would be that if they have a lone sorcerer, the SW could pick them off, as from my experience sorcerers stay near the rear. And should neither of these options be viable, harry the back ranks. But I don’t see much application for this.

Chariots

I haven’t tried using a chariot yet but I could see the use of them in the battle after reading other reviews. I think the Tiranoc Chariot would be much better as the impact hits will overall do more than the fighting because their units are strong at hitting back, and the Tiranoc Chariot cheaper in points. So my naive interpretation of their use is as a sort of missile, though I’m open to criticism since I haven’t used them myself.

Cavalry

Silver Helms. I like to use these though never manage to. The application of them would be perhaps to charge flanks as they aren’t outfitted well enough to last more than a turn or 2 in combat at best. Flanking manoeuvres can easily be achieved. I like them but only because I have them at hand.

Dragon Princes are commonly taken instead of Silver Helms because they are so much better. For 7 points more (that is considering you took shields on your Silvers) you gain 1 more attack, higher Leadership, and higher Weapon Skill. I don’t have these models myself so I haven’t tried them but I feel that it’s nice knowing they are flame-resistant because Chaos have Fire as a magical lore choice. Also they are hard-hitting knights that should punch a solid hole in units. I wouldn’t use more than 5 in a unit though, since only a front rank can hit, and 10 models seems excessive. But all in all I feel they are worthwhile, ignoring the expensive price tag. (RAGE!!!!)

Ellyrian Reavers. These things I also lack, but that’s because of cost as well. These give me the impression of being quite AVERAGE in every sense of the word. They could harass the enemy lines while slipping behind their lines, they could harass the Hellfire Cannon, they could lead Khorne Berserkers off into the distance, but I don’t think, other than minor damage, they are useful. And considering the tendency for high armour here they may fail.

Rare Choices

RBTs are amazing and punch holes in most things and the -2 armour save really helps.

Eagles are good for the same as the Reavers I think but perhaps too flimsy.

Lords and Heroes

I’m going to summarise them all here

I know dragons are a big show-off unit and many are feared but for no justified reason. I mean, okay, I am mainly referring to Dragon Mages. They just aren’t as amazing and I feel fire magic is lacking in the threat factor. The purpose of a Strength 2 flame thrower is lost on them as they are too hard to burn, and in combat they can kill you, and the Sun Dragon just isn’t as strong as I would like.

I personally always go magic-heavy as their champions, when they challenge you, are a pretty fair match for Nobles. So I would always recommend the strategy of blowing them to pieces with spells.

As for special characters and lords they all seem useful in their own way, and perhaps our Princes would be very effective.

MAGIC

I have 3 suggestions for law:

High

Shield of Saphery is really useful in protecting you. I always find it good. Arrow Attraction helps the bolt throwers, the Stubborn spell certainly helps considering they will cut through your men like paper in their combat phase.

The big fireball one that is very generic does a fair job of blowing up Chosen of Chaos or other warriors. The Flames of the Phoenix works wonders on the Maurders they all seem to die in a turn

I’m not keen on Vaul’s Unmaking as my enemy doesn’t use many magic items.

Shadow

This might be good only for the second spell. (I think in the magic part of the High Elf tactica speaks about being cast on +6 and doing 3D6 hits Strength 1, this means any rolls of a 6 to wound instant kill because of no armour allowed =D ) Now that is reason to cheer.

Metal

Has various good moves. The first spell does amazing damage to his well-armoured units and can snipe out command groups. The last spell, though cast on 12+, does the same but for 2D6 meaning that it obliterates knight units, warriors, pretty much any heavy-armoured unit you see, which, lucky for us, is most of their army.

Okay that is pretty much all of my suggestions and I have rabbited on for AGES….but that stuff is my views.

As for tactics I tend to wait for my opponent to come to me and mow down as many as you can with bolt throwers as they get near. Perhaps focus on a flank of their battle line with fire and clear a path for your knights to slip through so they can get rear. After a game last night where I managed to break 1 of my own mages by not looking where I was putting my hand, I thought up another way to get around them, it sounds silly but pick off their weaker units, like I said before with Maurders. If they have something with +5 armour save like Forsaken, which can be a problem, taking them out leaves holes in their battle line and the more holes, the less they can flank you and the more u can them =]

Up until now I’ve given you my personal experiences. Here are tips I often hear. Khorne Berserkers have Frenzy, making them a very hard-hitting well-armoured unit. If you use Reavers or a Great Eagle it is easy to bait these out to break their battle line. With a broken battle line those holes I mentioned appear and you can piecemeal their army =]

Their spells can be quite monstrous and 1 wizard with a particular load out can have 4 Power Dice generated by him alone. For a level 2 wizard this is quite annoying. So I would always suggest dominating the magic phase as best you can.

[Vase]

Lore of Metal

Authored by Allonairre

This can be a fantastic lore. But similar to Shadow, it is moderately expensive to cast and I would reserve it for an Archmage. The reason for this is I think there are slightly better base spells in other lores, as well as less situational spells if you are rolling for spells. Using Seerstaff to choose your spells is still potentially worthwhile against some opponents. That said, here is what I think of each spell...

Rule of Burning Iron

A very good base spell. Extremely useful for targeting champions with annoying magic items, (Ring of Hotek using 2 dice). Also useful as a Hydra wounder. Its casting cost means that it will require 2 dice however which means a L2 or using a pool dice for a L1. The spell can have limited uses however and I think that aside from special circumstances there are, in my opinion, better base spells. Great spell for drawing out Dispel Dice by targeting characters.

Commandment of Brass

This is also good. It will stop a War Machine for a turn. Again, it will require 2 dice to cast reliably. It does give us a very useful solution to a Hellcannon, Organ Gun, or similarly difficult-to-deal-with War Machine, but it is only a stalling tactic. If the spell fails then you have to deal with the machine. Again, this is a situational spell but potentially very helpful. Great spell for drawing out Dispel Dice against the right enemy. You have to be within 24” though which is a big drawback as it puts you in range of the most devastating War Machines.

Transmutation of Lead

This can potentially give our elite infantry an even greater edge in combat, particularly against heavily armoured knights. Against infantry, the high strength of White Lions and Swordmasters should deal with most armour adequately. However, it will help out Phoenix Gaurd and Spears heaps. The only problem with this spell is that it can only be cast into combat so you have to engineer the situation to be able to cast it. It really needs 3 dice to be certain of casting it. As an enemy, however, I would probably let it through more often than other spells. I find it too situational to be really useful.

Distillation of Molten Silver

Standard magic missile. It is flaming so that is a bonus.

Law of Gold

A cheap and less effective version of Vaul’s Unmaking. Your opponent chooses the item that he potentially loses. Although there are no bad magic items, there are often some that you are definitely prepared to lose for a turn. It is nice but I think there are better spells within this and other lores.

Fury of the Forge

This is the linchpin for this lore. It will take 4 dice to cast realistically, and scares the crap out of any unit with a 4+ save or better. Brilliant for heavy cavalry, Dwarves, Corsairs etc. Your opponent will always save dice to dispel this and it is a potential game breaker.
So to sum up, For a L2 with seer staff or a L1 (for base spell) this is a good lore in certain situations. Spells 1,2,3 and 4 are OK, depending on the circumstances. I would never roll on this lore with a L2 however, as there is a good chance you will get an almost useless spell selection since even the base spell is a bit situational.

For an Archmage however, this lore is potentially a game winner. Getting 4 spells means that there is a better chance of getting a useful spell. Not only that, but you can actually cast Fury of the Forge with some reliability. I would cast this last on 4 dice, because your opponent really has to save 5 (or a scroll) to stop it effectively. That means very few dice (or scrolls) to stop other mages’ spells.
As always you have to carefully plan your magic phase, deciding where to use your pool dice, what spells are the most important to get through, and how your opponent runs their dispel phase.

[Vase]

Ellyrian Reavers

Authored by BrockSamson

The Reavers are the Fast Cavalry of the High Elf army. They are a Special choice, and slightly more expensive than other Fast Cavalry, but statistically make up for it.

- Spears are nice for a Str 4 charge.
- Move 9 is one of the fastest move stats in the game.
- Ld 8 is better than most other fast cav.
- Can have Longbows as a relatively expensive upgrade, or swap their spears for Longbows for a cheaper cost.

Command group:

Musician: Always.
Champion: Only consider if you plan on using them for range, and even then it is a personal choice... one guy rolling slightly better to hit may not be worth it, even for a relatively cheap upgrade cost.
Standard: Almost never. Units of Fast Cav are too small and squishy to reliably hold onto a standard.

Roles of Fast Cav:

Mobile Flankers: Fast Cav are effective at generating a US5+ flank charge from a large distance, helping significantly with combat res.
Mobile Ranged: Fast Cav can maneuver their way into positions that allow them to pepper softer enemies at range while avoiding charges.
Charge targets: Use Fast Cav to draw an opponent into a bad charge, then flee. Position them diagonally to make your opponent's position even worse. This works especially well with a musician for next turn's rally, and this is most effective against armies with frenzy.
War Machine Hunters: Use terrain to screen as you move across the field as fast as possible. Ideally, the enemy will have one turn to shoot the Fast Cav unit with the war machine before they are on top of it. A fast cav unit will generally beat war machine crew in CC.
March Blockers: Fast Cav units can move into annoying positions within the enemy line, simultaneously preventing them from charging the Fast Cav unit or marching toward the rest of your army.

How Reavers Specifically Fulfill These Roles:

Mobile Flankers: While Reavers are even more mobile than some other Fast Cav, the rest of the HE army is also quite mobile. As such, Reavers only shine filling this role through their cost. While another unit of Swordmasters or a Lion Chariot will probably do better here, Reavers can do it for less than 100 points.
Mobile Ranged: The Reavers put up a mediocre performance here as well. The High Elf army favors Longbows (weak but long range), which is exactly the opposite in what you look for in a Fast Cav ranged weapon. Fast Cav don't need long ranged weaponry, as their move can take them close to enemies. Rather, it is preferable for Fast Cav to have short range, high Str ranged weaponry. As this is not an option for the Reavers, they do not shine in this role. If you are looking for more longbows, take another unit of archers.
Charge Targets: Reavers do this as well as any other Fast Cav, as statistics do not matter for this role. They rally on the next turn slightly better (Ld 9 with a musician). However, this role is less necessary in the High Elf army when compared to other armies. With every unit in the High Elf army having Always Strike First, our units will strike even before chargers. Therefore, protecting against the charge is less of a problem for us (and in some cases a boon, with spearmen attacking in 3 ranks if they are charged). It is still useful against the real baddies (Frenzied Boar Boyz, Khorne Chaos Knights), but overall less of an issue for our list.
War Machine Hunters: In an army list that has access to significant ranged, like High Elves, war machine hunters are less necessary. 20 Archers shooting at a cannon will kill a dwarf every round, and in armies with less protection on their crews, even more. However, ranged can't target everything... when an enemy has a war machine in a particularly annoying spot, Reavers can be the answer to your problem.
March Blockers: Reavers can do this. Eagles can do this better, and cheaper. Use Reavers only if you are hurting for Rare choices (aka cheeeeesing RBTs).

Conclusion:

Ellyrian Reavers have a great statline for Fast Cav, and some decent options for use. However, the drawbacks for Reavers come from the High Elf list rather than their actual cost or statline. Many of the Fast Cav army roles are less necessary in a High Elf army, or are better filled by other units, making Fast Cav a bit obsolete. If you need more ranged, take more archers or another RBT. March blocking? Take an Eagle. Flank charging? Take a chariot. Getting charged? Who cares, ASF. War Machines? Reavers can shine here, but magic/ranged should be able to handle most of these. Reavers have their uses, but they are generally very circumstantial, and so you will not see them on many 'all-comers' High Elf lists.

Reavers can fill a lot of roles, just like other Fast Cav. The problem is, either some other High Elf unit does it better, or the High Elves simply don't need that role filled at all.