Well, I thought since the FB forum is slowly developing, I might just type down my own thoughts on the High Elf army units and some strats. This is far from an ultimate guide on playing High Elves, but rather my view of it. I could list all the magic items, the spells, etc, with my comments on them, but I wont.. They are pretty selfexplanatory =) .

Well, lets just start of with the basic High Elf units, shall we?

CORE:

Archers:
The High Elf archers are good archers, but with their Longbows low strength, I dont think they will kill off much. When you use archers, be sure to concentrate your fire as much as you can. Fire all arrows possible on a single unit, and try to get 25% casualties, otherwise kill off a lone character (but needs alot of arrows, probably, as most characters pack a high save) .
Personally, I use 10-20 in a 2000pt army, as I dont feel that I need more. I
use them to pose a small threath to anything moving up to my Repeater Bolt
Thrower(s) and to kill flyers/light cavalry/scouts. I never use any form of
command for them.

Spearmen:
Very very useful unit (i suppose you knew that) . Citzen Levy is a great skill. They should be used to soup up charges, and set the charging unit up for flank attacks by harder units (Silver Helms etc) . Use them for adding rank bonus.
Personally I use them when I can afford them. They are the best infantry
unit at Core level. Give them banner for sticking in HTH, and a champion if
you can. Musician if you have extra points.

Lothern Sea Guard:
These guys are spearmen AND archers. Seems nice, eh? Well, they arent =( .
Since only the first rank can shoot (2 if on a hill), you would have to reform from line to block when expecting a charge, to max your shooting and rank bonus. This means alot of the time all you do is reform. And with their horrendous pt cost, the arent worth it in my book. Personally, I never use them.

Silver Helms:
These are the core cavalry units, which you can fit with light armour, or give them shields and heavy armour. This allows for a versality which is unique. Either weak 18″ chargen hardhitters, or 16″ charge with hardhitting wellarmoured cavalry =) .
Personally, I use these ALL the time. When I “know” they wont get hit back in HTH (IE they surely will break the enemy) I dont fit them with shields and HArmour. But normally I use them with total armour. They are the core of my army most of the time. Use SBearer and Champion with them. Leave the Musician, as you wont be needing it.

SPECIAL:

Ellyrian Reavers:
Well, they are the HE light cav. Get bows, but leave the spears (unless you can afford them) . They are an harassment unit with the bows, and can target warmachines, lone characters, or other light troops. I use them for blocking march moves, picking on units, and for setting up charges for my other units. ALWAYS give them Musicians. Dont bother with SBearer or Champion. I use themwhenever I can, to support my Silver Helms. They arent Dark Riders, but not THAT much worse =) .

Dragon Princes:
They are really not much different from the Silver Helms, except that they get Ithilmar Barding, which gives them a good advantage, and Dragon Armour, which makes them immune to Fire. Slightly higher WS, I and Ld. I use them in units of 5-8 =) . Give them SBearer and Champion at least. If you can, use a Musician. Stick your Prince/Commander in there to give them that extra “umph” in their charge, and also a nice banner if you use a large unit, you may use the Battle Standard Bearer with Battle Banner in it, to make sure you get the results you want.

Swordmasters:
Well, they chave the charging power of knights, but the armour of spearmen. They are feared, and will probably be THE target for any arrows in the opponent army, and they will probably die too. Use them well protected, and dont stick any important banner in them (like the Banner of Sourcery) since if they run form a battle, or off the table, its lost… Rather give them a banner which helps their unit (if you give them a magic banner at all) . Use them for flanking units for the spearmen if you use them. Use them at 15+ if they are to be vs a shooty/magic army. If not, just protect them
15+ from charges, and use them at about 10. Give them full command if you can. Least
important is of course the musician.

Shadow Warriors:
Good for mage sniping if they are deployed somewhere near the enemy dep zone. Also good for stopping march moves. I use them because I like them =) . You could use them as a screen for your other units. Lets say you screen spearmen with a unit of 5 to 10 SW. They wont get hit as much by shooting due to skirmishing, and if they are charged by a strong unit, just have them stand/shoot, get hit, fail the combat, and run off. Your spearmen will probably not be affected by this, and the charging enemy overruns right into the spearmen. This means the combat will be worked out in YOUR CC phase, which means you get to charge the flanks, and even rear of this charging
unit. When using that tactic, make sure it is worth it. Do it vs those 8+ Dark Elf
Cold One Knights, but not vs the 5+ Dark Riders.

Tiranoc Chariot:
Well, its a chariot. not much to say other than the usual. They are great when charging with your Silver Helms or Dragon Princes to ensure a victory. Dont put them in the line of enemy shooting (as they dont come good out of such hails of arrows). I use them for backup for my Silver Helms and Dragon Princes. Remember that they dont negate ranks.

RARE:

Phoenix Guard:
Have their ability to cause fear. They are at low save (thus have the same problems as Swordmasters) . I dont use them at all. If anyone can give me a reason to use them (besides fluff reasons), please contact me. I’d imagine they would serve as support units for spearmen like the Swordmasters if they are used.

Repeater Bolt Thrower:
Though not as badass as they were in 5th ed, they still pack a punch. With no possibility to misfire, and with their great range, they are good in any game, really. Use for weakening enemy units before a charge, causing fear tests along with the archers, and for getting those hard armoured ones down, which the archers cant. I take one for every 1000 pts nowadays. Up until recently I used as many as I could =P . Remember that you get 2 for 1 Rare choice

White Lions:
Good vs tough armoured armies (can anyone say Chaos?) . Also, with their lion cloaks, they are good for running up through woods, towards that archer unit or warmachine you want gone, and with them behind the enemy lines, the enemy should be concerned =P . Remember that they have heavy weapons, and as such strike last =( . But with their enormous strength, they are goooood =P. I dont use them as much as Id like to, I assume… I might work with them some more.

Great Eagles:
The High Elf flyers =) . They are goood for blocking march moves, awesome at killing off warmachines (can even take out them all, before the enemy can react) . Also, they are good for being charged, then run, to set up a nice charge for your own units. Even better than the Reavers, since the Great Eagles cost less then 5 Reavers. Remember that you can take 2 for 1 Rare choice. I havent used them much, but now things are changing =).

Hmm.. That sums up my few thoughs on the units. Hmm what next. The characters? Well.. Not much to say about them, except that the mages using High Magic get an extra spell, the Drain Magic spell. Also, dont think that a Prince can take down an army by himself. The elven strength is in using the units together. You should kit your characters to do specific jobs, and make sure they do them. If you fight chaos, get a char with some weapon that negates armour save. If you fight skaven, get him something with added attacks, etc. And dont use a Prince to do what a Commander can do just as well. Thats just wasting points.

My personal thoughts on the elven army, perhaps? Well… Where to start? I am trying to focus on cavalry with my lists (some of you may have seen that), and thus I use lots of Silver Helms. They hit hard, and they should be used to break the enemy units. All High Elf units should have the main goal of Breaking the enemy units. 8 Silver Helms and a Chariot can break stuff. When they get a flanking unit in there, they most likely will break the enemy. So combine your units, and use them with eachother.

The Lure
is a well known tactic for most people. You try to get the enemy to charge a unit, then flee with that unit, making the charge fail. This is used to set up the enemy unit for a charge of your own in your turn. Use Reavers or Eagles for this. Note that you can set up the enemy unit in whichever direction you’d like. Use this to get in flank charges for tearing down rank bonus.

The Screen
is good for blocking units like Swordmasters from enemy fire. Take scouts and make them skirmish infront of you. They are at -1 to hit, and as such wont get hit as much as normal. Abit costy, though, with Shadow Warriors =(

The Expendable Unit
is when you take, for instance, said Shadow Warrior unit 1″ in front of a Spearmen reg. The enemy charges the Shadow Warriors, kill them, and overrun into the Spearmen. “My Gods” you might think. But this is good. Since it was an overrun, the combat is resolved in YOUR hth phase. This lets you charge his unit before any hits are allocated. The spearman reg will take some hits, but thats what they are there for. The loss of the Shadow Warriors is a tragedy, but when used vs scary stuff, like say 10+ reg of Dark Elf Cold One Knights, its well worth it if you can get them overrun. You can substitute the Shadow Warriors for a Great Eagle or a Reaver Unit. Anything small, really. Try to make it look not too obvious, as the enemy “might” know what you are planning.

The MSU/MSE tactic:

The Multiple Small Units / Multiple Small Elites tactic is a tactic where you use small infantry units (10 strong) to set up flank charges and such for eachother. Say you have a small spearman regiment which recieves a charge. Then a unit of Swordmasters and a unit of White Lions charge the charging units flank. I havent tried out this tactic yet, but you get more units/more attacks than if you use many models to add rank bonus instead of hitting power. That, I think, is the main concept of the tactic. 20 Spearmen make 3 ranks and a max of 12 kills which is +7 CR. But 2×10 attacking spearmen may produce a max of 20 kills, which is of course, better. This tactic helps you shape the game, and control it, as you will be able to field loads of small units, manouvering around the table, charging, countercharging and flankcharging. I think that a problem for this army is an all cav army or a really shooty army, since you either get charged all the time, or you get shot to pieces due to slow movement.

Keep in mind that I will be updating this over time, and that they are my own thoughts, not nessecarily right =P .

Next up I will write in some magic item combos, which me and King_Ulrik thought of the other day.

If you have any comments, suggections, ideas for what to add to this text, what to change, any questions, or just about anything except ridicolous hatemail, be sure to drop me a message either by EMail to RKristensen@hotmail.com or by PM in the Librarium-Online Forum =) .

DISCLAIMER: I do not in any way try to take credit for strats or such in this text. I have picked things up here and there. Thanks to all my opponents through the time who have taught me a lesson or two, and Asmodeus for the MSU/MSE tactic thingie. He linked me to a Dark Elf page (Ulthuan.net) which talked about it.

BY SLAI