Editing Warhammer Army Project/Dark Elves (section)

==Building Your Army==
===Buying Your Army===
The army is expensive as fuck.  If you buy a Cauldron of Blood/Bloodwrack Shrine, always make the Cauldron of Blood.  You get Hellebrone (a special character), the Death Hag (a Hero), the Bloodwrack Medusa (a monstrous beast) and the Cauldron.  Spearmen and Crossbowmen got dearer, so be careful with core units.  Also, Witch Elves, Executioners and Black Guard became WAY overpriced because of the excuse that it's a double kit, since they're plastic models that cost as much as they did when made of metal.  

Cold One Knights are still fairly reasonably priced, and the  Hydra got cheaper while also gaining the option of making the Kharibdyss.  Bolt Throwers are as expensive as they ever were, but still a good unit.

To save money with a Dark Elves army, you'll have to get creative.  

Buy some basic High Elf models from GW (or Mantic--but only if you like owning ugly ass minis), remove their more High Elven bits and replace them with Dark Elf bits or spikes.  Then paint them in Dark Elf colors and in the fluff pass them off as defectors from Ulthuan (or Athel Loren) gone over to Naggaroth (For example; Spearmen become Dreadspears, Glade Riders become Dark Riders).

Corsairs are good for conversions and can be used to make other units.  
* For example, take a box of Corsairs (using Aus prices that's $55).  Take two away and use them to buff an existing Corsair unit.  As for the remaining 8, take 5 Corsairs and with some modeling putty and tools convert 5 of them into Shades.  Take the Standard Bearer and give him the same treatment, he becomes a BSB Master.  Another Corsair can become either a Master on foot, a Dreadlord on foot or a Fleetmaster.  The final Corsair, with the same method, can be converted into an Assassin.  Buying GW's Shades, two Masters and an Assassin model would cost $125, but with this idea you save $70!  (NOTE: IF you're already into conversions you won't have to worry about buying modeling putty or tools, and get them from crafting stores, not GW).  Since Warhammer is more expensive with Aus prices, imagine how much cheaper this method would be for gamers in the US or UK (prices in other parts of the world vary but fall between these price ranges).

Alternate take, buy some dark eldar. They are currently one of the cheapest armies of 40k and they have great kits that you can convert with relative ease.

===Army Composition===
*Characters:
**A pair of Sorceresses will serve you better than a single Supreme Sorceresses unless you need Mind Razor or Purple Sun.
** Pair a Sorceress with the Sacrificial Dagger and a large unit of Bleakswords for even more dice.
** Keep your BSB and most expensive mage in separate Dark Rider or Warlock Bunkers.
**If on a budget a Master in a unit with the Standard of Discipline is a cheap way to a general to leadership 10.
** A Master on a Darksteed, with Heavy Armour, Sea Dragon Cloak, Shield, Lance, Repeater Crossbow and DragonBane Gem clocks in at 96pts with a 1+ save vs shooting and immunity to Fireballs and Searing Doom. This is who you’ll use to hunt that wizard hiding with archers. 

*Core
**With needing a hag for each Witch Elves or Hellebron, Hordes removed and Witchbrew not stacking with Cauldron Witch Elf focused list are out, but still a powerful DBPs unit with all the Synergy's that still have and gained.
**Corsairs are cheaper but went from being the best armored to the worst armored core unit.
**Dreadspears and Bleakswords are still a mainstay and unless you're taking a mounted only list, two or three should be included. Take one big unit if you're using the Sacrificial Dagger.
**Dark Riders are ever so slightly worse but still mandatory.
**Darkshards can win lots of shooting matchups with medium armour and shields. And unlike bows, can be double tapped on the move. Also, they're no pushovers in melee and if given shields perform identically to Bleakswords.

*Special
**Take as many Bolt Throwers as you can, one cost the same as 5 Darkshards. You’ll get 60% the shots at +1 strength, twice the range and hitting on 3s vs 4s and 5s.
**Cold one knights hit hard on the charge with the inclusion of impact hits. With Hydra’s moved to rare this is the unit you’ll be flank charging with.
**Executioners you need a unit of these, especially if you opt not to take Black Guard, they’re here to kill anything that needs to die.

*Rare
**With Hydra, Doomfires, Cauldron and Black Guard all competing for rare now, something is going to be left at home. If going the Cauldron Route, you should mount a Hag Queen on it so it counts in character. Now you have  two choices to keep rare under 500pts. Hydra w/upgrade (220) + unit of 10  Warlocks w/champion (230) = 450. Or, a 25 man unit of BlackGuard Full Command and Razor Standard (460).

===Magic===
Dark Elf Sorceress has access to all Fire, Metal, Heavens, Beast, Shadow, Death, and Dark Magic. While every [[Warhammer Army Project: Lores of Magic| lore]] has its use, some are particularly good. These are; 
 
* '''Fire:''' Your standard DPS option. 

* '''Heavens:''' Makes enemy harder to hit you, and lightning ignore armour

* '''Beast:''' turn pansy elves into Swollen & hairy men.

* '''Metal:''' With Cold-Ones, Executioners, and Black Guard having Heavy Armour, and all of your core having some armour, it is elementary to cast Glittering Robe or Enchanted Blades to give your units that edge in close combat. The bubble version Glittering Robe will keep your whole army in tip-top shape against shooting. With natural armour stacking, even your Hydra can get some love. Searing Doom is as powerful as ever and can help your bolt throwers destroy heavy cav.

* '''Death:''' A good choice, with buffs and debuffs, though you've got to be pretty close to an enemy for the latter. In addition, the lore attribute synergizes well with the Dark Elves' ability to gain extra power dice. Doom and Darkness synergize well with your Fear and Terror causing units, especially the Kharibdyss, while Aspect of the Dreadknight is good for Cold One Knights/Chariots. Purple Sun of Xereus is excellent due to the Dark Elves high initiatives meaning your elves have only a 1 in 6 chance of dying from this if it goes astray, except your monsters, so be careful with them. 

* '''Shadow:''' Has a lot of very good debuffs and can make one guy a flier, the latter being great for Sorceresses on foot and assassins. It also comes with a semi-cannon ball initiative test spell and a blast initiative test spell which can destroy your enemy's tougher units. The best spell in this Lore is Okkam's Mindrazor, which replaces a unit's Strength score with its Leadership when rolling to wound, which means that the unit you cast it on will essentially have at least 8 Strength (except for Harpies and some monsters) in close combat. Black Guard is the best choice for this spell; Black Guard with Okkam's Mindrazor EAT UNITS! They become STRENGTH 9, with RE-ROLL ALL FAILED ROLLS TO HIT (ETERNAL HATRED/WARRIOR ELITE), WOUNDING MOST THINGS ON TWOS AND RE-ROLLING ONES WITH MURDEROUS PROWESS! Nearly anything in combat with that, from Ironbreakers to Bloodthirsters, will suffer critical existence failure. 

* '''Dark Magic:''' It's your lore and by no means a bad one. It's the dark cousin of the High Elf pussy Lore but meaner and more direct in blasting the crap out of anything.
**It's sometimes difficult to cast, but some really good spells are affordable with a 12 or less, so even a lvl 2 sorceress can get a lot out of it. Still, though the lore is not easy to use since many spells have a small range or rely on buffing the sorceress's unit, it would e best if the sorceress were near the frontlines, even if that is not generally advised. But give The Black Amulet to a lvl 4 and take a few challenges with a bit of luck it can be great, and remember, if you did right, you would only have one round of combat anyway.
**'''Attribute''' Your attribute does more damage every time you target an enemy unit and roll doubles or triples; you hit them with 2d6/3d6 S3 hits. Read the damage of the Lore Attribute carefully as it is taken after the actual spell, this doesn't seem important, but it is. Imagine Teclis running with a unit of 15 archers. Imagine further you cast the great version of your second signature Spell on this unit. Now imagine all high elves dead (anyone gets a warm feeling by these words?), but of course, Teclis is still standing because your spell can't hit him. But now the archers are dead, the Lore Attribute kicks and kicks Teclis right out of the game with a bit of luck, so never forget the lore attribute.


Dark Magic remains a popular choice due to its technique of blasting the crap out of things. Fire is less popular, but its low casting values mean that it works well on a Level 1-2 Sorceress (don't bother putting it on a Level 4 though). Death is solid lore, with many damaging spells and ways of siping heroes out of units. Shadow is a powerhouse lore under many circumstances, but it has very little synergy with the other Lores. Unlike Death, Fire, or Dark Magic, shadow requires you to devote a Level 4 to operating at peak efficiency (as most of its powerful spells would need silly numbers of dice for a Level 2 to cast reliably). But if you've only got 1 Level 4 Wizard, it can work well independently. Metal is only helpful against a handful of enemies and is not even exceptionally useful against them. 

A pair of Sorceresses with Dark Magic and Fire/Death can knock out small enemy units that would typically get in the way of things, allowing you to focus your shooting on more important targets. A single Supreme Sorceress with Shadow can boost your center quite a lot, which are the two primary setups for a tournament-level list.