The High Elves of Ulthuan: a HE tactica WiP

[Vase]

Defeating Dwarfs

Authored by Allonairre

As with all armies, defeating dwarves starts with your list. Writing a list to take on dwarves is reasonably easy to do. Ideally we should include at least 2, preferably 3 fast, disrupting units that can take out warmachines as early as possible. Aside from that I haven’t figured out a best infantry or unit to use against them. Most of our units are reasonably reliable once warmachines and shooting are dealt with. With our small bases the Grudge Thrower is particularly deadly as is the Gyrocopter (whose weapon is not a flaming attack so DP are not immune).

If you play against someone who you know uses Thorek or an anvil frequently, take the pendant of vengeance. It will prevent them from using ultimate power (which is really scary) too often. I don’t know of a really good way to kill an anvil. It generally self destructs when I play against one but I don’t often kill it myself. Anvils are my biggest concern in a Dwarf list but their presence (and cost) means that the combat elements will be substantially reduced. (I have never played an honest-to-goodness Thorek/Anvil Gunline so I have not idea what to do in that case). Suggestions would be great but I think it would require a tailored list or a weird deployment/movement scheme, overloading one flank big time.

Magic is worth considering, but as always, it’s all or nothing. With 4 base dispel dice, 2 L2 mages won’t get that much off but a L4, L2, Ring of Fury and Banner of Sorcery should be very successful. Magic does often play a supporting role (ward saves etc.) in my battles against dwarves. Pit of shades and Lore of metal are both great against dwarves (for an Archmage) as is Lore of Life picking L2’s spells. It sounds stupid but Remains In Play spells like Celestial Shield and particularly Howler Wind can be protected with Annulian Crystal or Drain Magic, as I think Dwarfs can still dispel with their 2 casting dice.

Regardless of your list however, there are some things that you can take advantage of when playing any dwarf army.

When you see your opponent’s list/deployment, decide then whether or not you can beat his shooting phase. If you have superior shooting, then don’t move forwards too much (except your warmachine hunters obviously). You get about 4 turns to whittle down his incoming troops.

Pit your archers against their Thunderers (handgunners), use your range and their immobility and lack of armour. You should win this skirmish every time. Focus on taking each shooting unit down to below half strength. Based on how aggressive the opposition is moving his combat blocks, decide whether or what needs to be shot at, but only work on 1 unit at a time. Trying to whittle down static combat res is a good idea as Dwarves need that or Characters to win their combats.

Be smart in your movement phase. Your Eagles, Reavers, Shadow Warriors (and chariots if you are desperate) are crucial to defeating dwarf war machines and you can’t afford to have them taken out because you left them in line of sight of crossbows or handguns. All their shooting troops are Move or Fire so you should be able to avoid all but one unit most of the time. Overload that one unit and give them 2 or 3 targets. That way most should survive. As a result of Move or Fire, your cavalry elements should only be shot at for one turn as they cross the board as well (again work on overloading one of his units). You can choose through your movement which of his units can shoot you. This makes protecting your troops from shooting using Rainlord that much easier. If you must charge at Thunderers or Crossbows from the front then try and use 2 or 3 units (say Chariot, Dragon Princes and Eagle). Stand and shoot will have minimal impact then. Once you have a hole in their line you should quickly gain the upper hand.

I have found that the key to defeating most (not all) dwarf armies is their warmachines and shooting troops. If you can destroy them then it’s possible to avoid combat with dwarves almost indefinitely. Even miners won’t be able to catch your bolt throwers if you are smart with your movement (and there’s no anvil). It makes you feel a bit sad avoiding combat but Dwarves are rock hard and (I find them) unpredictable. They are often stubborn and are capable of taking leadership tests on 1 dice with up to as much as 7 or 8 static combat resolution so even the perfect combo charge can leave you high and dry and facing a flank charge in the second round of combat.

There are Combat dwarf lists that don’t rely on warmachines or anvils. I have never played against a really effective one though. What I would attempt to do however is pick your battles. Only try and fight the units of warriors that are relatively unsupported by characters. Dwarf combat characters are some of the best in the game with very high Toughness and superb armour and weapons. A challenge with a heavily armoured Vambrace-of-Defense-toting Prince will often wind up a draw. Dwarves themselves are alright in combat but our combat troops do have the upper hand with ASF and numerous attacks. One on one you should beat the dwarves but they generally stay close together and as already mentioned have some great runes to help them out at that crucial break test. (My dwarven friend has pointed out that every dwarf unit needs to able to win their combat without help because it takes so long for help to arrive.)

The really frustrating thing for a Dwarf general is their movement. I know that I already said it and it makes for a boring game, but you can avoid combat and you should almost never be forced into a fight you can’t at least draw. You do have to watch out for the Rune of Challenge though as that can be used to suck in your units. This is also harder to do if the dwarf list includes an anvil (especially Thorek) as they can get double moves when necessary, giving them a massive 12” corner-turning charge. This is quite a long way and I am not mocking them intentionally (although their beards, stature and grumbling make them kind of cute in an unsophisticated and inelegant way).

I think that most of this can be applied to Empire as well, although you do have to consider magic defence with them.

Good luck, have fun and play fair We have a slight upper hand against dwarves (I think) so you don’t need to write and rewrite the perfect list. You can compete without Stardragons, Teclis and the Battle banner, most of the time.

Just so you know, I am a very defensive minded player against dwarves. I am happy to grind out a slow draw if I feel that he is going to shoot the crap out of me if I move forwards. Yes it’s dull but I am not a “Charge of the Light Brigade” kind of player. I used to be but it didn’t work very often at all for me so I changed.

[Vase]

Lothern Sea Guard

Authored by CaptainSarathai

This is a brief tactica on the Seaguard (hitherto LSG) unit choice. As HighElves benefit most commonly from a “min-maxed” approach to unit selection, most players forego units of LSG. However, there are reasons to take LSG into consideration.

The Statline-
Seaguard, in my opinion, shouldn’t be a separate unit choice. They should be an option for spearmen to “add bows for +4pts/model”. This would actually be in line for the price of adding a bow to Ellyrian Reavers. Instead, they give us elves with spears, bows, and then they make SHIELDS an option. In all honestly, who DOESN’T want a shield?!
Beyond this, the LSG are identical to all of our elves, low toughness, low saves, and a weak S3bow. They still have ASF, and more importantly: they fight in 3 ranks with their spears, and can take 25pt banner.

Unit Role-
The fluff in the book hits the nail on the head for this unit’s role. Whenever we’re too tight on points to include a separate shooting unit alongside our spears, we can field LSG. Also, if we can afford a few more points within our army, we can get a better close combat unit than spears for just a few points extra. This will be explained in just a bit.
The unit itself can be used in two major ways. If the regiment is bulked up enough for combat, you could field it right on the front lines. This is a great spot because the bow has a short range, and if you’re right on the front, you can make the best use of it. However, if you’re fielding the unit in a more shooting-oriented role, you can use it to defend war machines, since its bows mean that it can sit in the back rows of your army and still kill enemy warriors.
A third minor use that I’ve seen LSG employed in is “close fire support”. In an infantry army that is meant to advance, players will sometimes forego Archers because they want more bodies in the melee. Regiments of LSG can advance with the troops, then fill in the archer’s roles by attacking screens, skirmishers, and light cavalry who would otherwise flank or stall the main combat regiments. If need be, the LSG can engage these units in combat with a good chance of success, or hold them in reserve and send them in after the first wave has been broken up a bit.
The LSG are best used in small point games. In 500pts, I use them almost exclusively. In games of 1K or less, we only need 1 Core unit in our army. Why pay for archers or spears when we can take a more flexible unit that will fight with a lot more power in CC?

How do we field them?-
The LSG aren’t really meant to replace archers entirely. Fielding a unit of 10 of them would just be foolish, as they won’t hold out in a combat any better than a unit of archers would. They need to be given high numbers, just like a regiment of spears. I prefer to run them wide. Units of 15 should be units of 18 instead, and units of 25 should be dropped to regiments of 21. This lets us get the maximum benefit of our shooting and of our spears. I run regiments of 21 in 3 ranks of 7. This is only slightly less effective than a typical unit of 10 archers on a hill when it comes to firing shots. However, it gives the unit it’s full attacks in hand to hand. Of course, you could field a unit with a width of 5, but it’s actually better to have MORE warriors in each rank than your enemy does, because these aren’t wasted models. We’ll learn why in the Tactics section.
When it comes to commands, treat them the same as you would treat a spearman unit. I would suggest a Standard Bearer and perhaps a Musician. It is good to note that the champion of a LSG unit has an additional attack, rather than the additional point of BS like an archer unit.

LSG Tactics-
Now that we have our regiment of 18 or 21 LSG standing in three ranks, we can work out how to use them. It’s actually very straightforward. They fight like Spearmen. They benefit from being charged rather than actually charging. It works out that they have bows, because if the enemy thinks he’s going to try and maneuver around our men, we can shoot him until he makes up his mind. Of course, getting into a shooting fight between elves and any enemy missile unit is a bad idea, because they usually bought that missile unit for about a third of the price that we’re paying for our LSGs.
The main tactical decision with LSG comes in the turn before the charge (whether we are charging, or the enemy is, the choice is the same). We need to decide if we should stay in wide units, or if we should collapse into smaller units with more ranks. For example, the regiment of 21 men can remain 7x3, or fold to 5x4 and gain a rank bonus. Typically, if you are charging, you should collapse the unit in the turn before. However, if you are being charged, the decision is a little tougher. Staying wide will give you the maximum stand-and-shoot damage, but will decrease your SCR. Generally it’s best to fold against tough enemies who will resist our meager S3 shooting and stabbing, or who are too close to provide us a S&S attack. Against an enemy like Goblins though, it’s nice to take the extra handful of S3 attacks and kill several enemies in one phase.
Remember, S&S doesn’t grant points toward CR, but it does negate ranks, and if you cause enough casualties to force a panic test, you will break the charge.

Let’s return to that unit of 21 LSG being charged by an ‘average’ S/T-3 regiment of 20 models.

7 S&S attacks = 2.3 kills
17 ASF Spear attacks = 4.25 wounds
vs.
75% chance of a returning S3 A = .18 wounds

This will result in CR of 8.25 (3R+4.25kills+Outnumber) vs. a CR of 2.18 (2 ranks [lost 1 to shooting]+.18kills) This is a devastating loss for most units.
The real gain between the LSG and the Spearelf regiment is that the LSG’s S&S reaction can actually reduce the enemy rank bonus before the charge. This has been argued, because rank bonus is decided at the beginning of the Close Combat phase. However, these wounds are taken in the MOVEMENT phase, when the chargers are pushed in. Therefore, those models are already missing at the start of the combat phase.

End Verdict-
The final verdict on the argument between the LSG and the Spearelves really comes down to the points cost. A regiment of 21LSG is 84pts more than a regiment 21 Spearelves, and a regiment of 16 is 64pts more expensive. From a sheer combat view, those extra points could purchase another rank of Elves, which is enough to balance the rank that the LSG S&S *might* remove. However, it’s not enough points to buy back an archer regiment, so the Spearelf player will be losing the ability to shoot any enemy targets prior to CC.
Once again, the benefit of the LSG regiments goes right back to their role in a particular player’s army. One player might feel that the ability to shoot enemies on the way into combat, or the ability to replace archers is worth the points variance. Other players may feel that it is better to field small, minimal regiments of Archers of Spears and save the points for Special units.