Warhammer/Tactics/7th Edition/High Elves

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Why Play High Elves

Because you like Elves. And winning. High Elves win a lot. They have a fucking BRUTAL magic phase, solid infantry choices, a variety of savage monstrous mounts and a solid shooting phase. Oh and did we mention that they have Always Strikes First, to a man, which combined with their high Initiative means you are essentially always getting rerolls and according to their FAQ, this is unaffected by Great Weapons.

Don't think they're a cinch to play though, they're not THAT overpowered. Low Toughness, light armor and high cost units means that they have to be played well. But if you play them properly you will utterly buttrape the competition. An army for people who like gorgeous models and want to play a tactically fulfilling army without being hideously underpowered. An army, in short, for the exact kind of people who like Warhammer Fantasy.

Unit Analysis

Lords & Heroes

Named Characters

Note: Under the current edition, named characters tend to be overpriced; you can pretty easily emulate most named characters from scratch and save yourself some points. That said, a few named characters do have abilities and wargear or wargear combos unique to them, so if you absolutely need to have them, go ahead. Just make sure you're really getting your points worth.

• Tyrion, the Defender of Ulthuan: Tyrion is an expensive close combat beast, and that's what you want him to be. Between ASF, WS9, I10, 4 attacks, S7 and a breath weapon, he can pretty much wreck and entire unit on his own, and with his 1+ armor and 4+ ward he will just not fucking die. However, he's kind of lacking outside of that, and at that level of points, you might as well just take someone on a Dragon and he can't do TOO much that a tricked out Prince couldn't do just as well for less. He's fun, but competitive lists tend to prefer his brother. In addition to being expensive, he is also a unit unto himself, meaning that he can't join or bolster any friendly High Elf unit, since he is technically on a monster base.

• Teclis Don't be fooled by his lack of a title, Teclis is high in the running for one of the best casters in the game (Slaan have nightmares about him). He's a level 4 Wizard who knows EVERY spell in his lore (favorites are Lore of Life and Fire, though most can work), he gets D3 power and dispel dice per phase, an auto-Irresistible Force on ANY roll that includes a double (but as the FAQ reads, only Miscasts on a roll of a Double 6), can dissipate his first Miscast PER PHASE and has a dispel scroll that can eat a spell. Beware though, he's expensive (475 points) and with S2 (which doesn't matter so much, since his sword wounds on a 2+ and ignores saves), T2 and NO save he will die if he gets caught alone. But if you can protect him properly, he can carry entire games on his own.

• Alith Anar, the Shadow King: Alith suffers, not from being bad, but from having better choices be available. He's got a solid shooting weapon, some good abilities and a nice statline, but if you want a powerhouse special character, all of the Lord Choices are better and if you want cheap shooting Lord, just run a regular Prince with the Bow of the Seafarer. Most of his abilities are centered too much on Dark Elves as is (and Hatred loses out in favor of ASF in 8th). If you KNOW you're fighting Dark Elves, he could be good but otherwise just skip him.

• Elatharion the Grim, Warden of Tor Yvresse: Elatharion is a fucking badass blind swordsman who lost his eyes after raiding Naggoroth DERP LAST EDITION! Ahem. Elatharion is a solid fighting Lord, who is perhaps a tiny bit too expensive for his own good. He's also a Level 2 Caster who can grab any lore from the Rulebook, but that's a job you generally want to split between combat Lords and Casters (Never mind that, for his cost, you can grab a Lord AND a level 2 Mage, albeit with no equipment). He can also ride his enhanced personal Griffin, but at that points level you might as well take a Lord on a Dragon. As with Alith, he's a good enough Lord who's mostly overshadowed by how much you're paying for him and how much better the other two lords.

• Caradryan, Captain of the Phoenix Guard: Caradryan is a good fighting hero who seems to be paying an absurd amount of for his 4+ Ward Save and Magic Resistance (3) (which is almost worth it to see a unit of Phoenix Guard get a 1+ ward save against wounds caused by magic). His magic weapon is FANTASTIC against trolls and other regenerating monsters and he himself is not too expensive, especially since he discourages tricked out Lords/Heroes from coming after him with his dying ability. Not the greatest Hero in the world, but kinda fun.

• Korhil, Captain of the White Lions: Korhil's advantages are as follows: He's cheap (140 points, only 5 points more than a level 2 Mage with no equipment) and he's Stubborn and thus grants this to any unit he joins. Those two reasons are reason enough to take him, especially if you want to dump him in a large Spearmen unit. He's reasonably killy on his own merits (S6 and Killing Blow) and survivable enough. Not someone you want to rely on to turn the game around, but good enough.

Generic Characters

Note: While named characters are judged against their generic counterparts, generic characters are examined based on their role in your army.

• Prince: Princes personify everything about the High Elves: Fast as hell, kickass in close combat, can take a variety of special stuff, about as hard as tissue. Be sure to give this guy an armor or ward save, or else he will get his ass killed. Aside from that, he's a brutal close combat Lord (WS7, I8) and properly kitted out there's very little this guy can't kill. Do note, however, that there is no reason to EVER take a Halberd, as a Great Weapon is only a little more and is unaffected by Always Strikes Last. Also, Dragon Armor lol's at flaming attacks and breath weapons and only costs 3 points more, so it's always worth the extra investment. Look for the variety of killy options down in the magic weapons.

• Archmage: A fantastic caster. Access to all 8 Lores, plus High Magic, means he can literally be designed to do whatever you want, though the preferred option is Lore of Life. Also remember that as long as he's on the board (along with his little brother the Mage) you get +1 to dispel attempts, for a total of +5 when channeling it through a Level 4 Archmage. Like with the Prince, he has access to some of the best magic equipment in the game.

• Noble: A great fighter for his points, but if you have the points you really should be taking a Prince (who's only 65 points more). The main reason you take a Noble is because he can be a BSB or if you're low on points (either overall or in the Lord Choices) in which case, he'll serve. He's best as a BSB and you DEFINITELY want a BSB.

• Mage: Unlike the Noble vs. Prince the difference in points is big that you might want a Mage, and it's always nice to have a backup Mage to add +1 to your dispel rolls. Can also be kitted out for a different role than your Archmage based on his Lore (most common is to give Archmage Life and Mage Light or Death, but as said before, there are others). A solid choice.

• Dragon Mage: That's right fuckers, we even have HEROES riding Dragons. The Dragon is fairly squishy (for a Dragon) and the model as a whole runs on the pricy side, but the Hero Level Dragon and the sheer power of the Mage on top make up for a lot of that. Flaming Sword of Rhun is actually worthwhile in this edition and the Mage himself can put out an incredible amount of firepower. Note that you should never ever use the actual amount of dice you need; Figure out how much you need and then take one less, it'll give you more mileage. Can be a game breaker at lower points, but tends to get irrelevant once it becomes possible to grab a Prince on Star Dragon.

• Mounts:

• • Elven Steed: Since Ithilmar Barding stopped being a thing, un-barded Elven Steeds kind fell out of favor. If you've taken a unit of Ellyrion Reavers and want to send them into combat with a Noble as backup (why would you want to do that?) then you might get some mileage out of an Elven Steed. Otherwise, skip it.

• • Barded Elven Steed: If you want a frontlines Lord without a monstrous mount, this is the one. A good choice.

• • Eagle: Eagles suffer by being ABSURDLY weak. T4 and 2 wounds means they crumble when a shooting unit so much as looks at them funny. Still, if you're in a weird mood, they're cheap (50 points) and good at delivering a Hero into a unit he wants dead. Still probably not worth it.

• • Griffon: Griffon suffer by being the middle child: They're not cheap enough or powerful enough to really get chosen all that often. For 30 more points you can get a Sun Dragon and get higher T, W, an armor save and a breath weapon in exchange for 1 Initiative for those 30 points. It's a shame, the Griffon Model that comes with the Island of Blood is AWESOME.

• • Sun Dragon: The mini-Dragon. Still a Dragon, still kick-ass. Good for if you're short on points (as unlike the upgrade from Griffon to Star Dragon, the 70 point entry level for each tier of Dragon actually does matter). Probably on the level of a Manticore.

• • Moon Dragon: The medium Dragon, same power level as most Dragons. This is the highest tier of Dragon an Archmage can take, if you care, and the most commonly seen. A good all around choice.

• • Star Dragon: The highest tier of Dragon and probably the most brutal Monstrous Mount in the game. With WS7, S7, T6 7 wounds, 6 attacks, a Strength 4 breath weapon and a 3+ armor save, this guy, with a properly tricked out mount, can probably rip the head off of anything stupid enough to get in it's way without tipping the odds. Beware the I2 though and be aware that everyone and their dog will be gunning for it. Don't let it get bogged down in a head on collision with a large unit; Yes it probably can't do any real damage to the Star Dragon, but it'll be stuck there all game and probably get flanked. Have him charge down small units, flank big units in conjunction with a frontal assault, hunt down enemy monsters. Unless it gets hit by a cannonball, something is going to die when a Star Dragon gets involved.

Core Units

• High Elf Spearmen: Nice unit that just got buffed to holy fuck. ASF and their Spears means your opponent will try to keep infantry units out of combat with your basic tarpit unit. Even beefier units like Ogres and Cavalry will be hesitant to fight these guys (unless said beefier units tear your shit up with Impact Hits and special abilities).

These are your meatshields, use them wisely. These also find horrifically great synergy with the Okram's Mindrazor spell from the Lore of Shadow. Imagine it: 20-30 WS4, I5, ASF, Strength 8 attacks with re-rolls on anything below WS5. This turns a mediocre, meat-shield, Strength 3 unit into a literal meat grinder.

• High Elf Archers: Good fire support, has ASF if they get charged, but generally will die slowly over time. Pretty much use them to whittle down targets until you can get a Spearmen Regiment to carve it. It costs an extra point to put armor on these guys, and many players will not go for the 6+ save. However, Archers do make for a half-decent last ditch tarpit unit, they do have ASF after all (though if you're using them as a tarpit at that point you're probably f***ed anyways).

Has synergy with High Magic spell Arrow Attraction, and makes them more worth their points (since ballistic units are mainly shit in Warhammer)

• Lorien Sea Guard: Crap, overcosted and but can do either job of the other two but not at the same time. If they could reform as a charge reaction they would be better, going from archers to spearmen, but until then just use Spearmen and Archers for your Core. Some players prefer a 7-wide formation as a compromise, and grants extra attacks against a standard 5-wide battle formation. It also allows for more shots with their bows.

A confused unit, but they can usually get in two or maybe three volleys before having to use their spears

Special Units

20x Phoenix Guard with Full Command (5x4) = 330 30x White Lions with Full Command (6x5) = 480 9x Dragon Princes with Full Command (5x2) = 320 Lion Chariot, Sword Masters, Ellyrion Reavers

Now we before we start, there's a pretty serious discussion going on on various gaming forums about the ruling of Great Weapons in the new edition and High Elves' ASF. The rule in 8th basically says that if your unit has both a Great Weapon with Always Strike Last on a model with Always Strike First, then the two special rules (ASL/ASF) cancel eachother out and you strike at initiative. How does this work with the Speed of Asuryan rule that applies to all High Elves? The army book states that models with this rule have the Always Strike First rule regardless of what weapon they're carrying. As High Elves, you always strike with ASF regardless of the weapon you're carrying. This is FAQ'd and confirmed, so don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

First, Phoenix Guard and Dragon Princes got pretty amazing this edition. The reason why is because they're both I6 and using weapons that are not great weapons. Phoenix Guard will ASF in 2 ranks with re-rolls to hit. That's 11 hits at WS5 with re-rolls to hit. Take that new magic standard that gives the unit Armor Piercing and you've got yourself a fierce, durable unit that can stay in there because of their 4+ ward. If you really want to get fancy, throw in Korhil to add some killing power and make the unit Stubborn. Be careful though, with units being able to strike back always, Korhil will be a pretty big target for your opponent. Another good option for Phoenix Guard is the Banner of Arcane Protection. MR2 and 4+ ward stacks onto each other for the purposes of anti-magic missiles and direct damage for a lovely 2+ ward save.

If the slow killing power of Phoenix Guard isn't good enough for you, try some Dragon Princes. WS5, I6 and 2 attacks a piece at S5 and re-rolls guarantee things will die in combat when they hit. Since the riders in the back rank can also fight once they reach combat, the combat power of the unit goes up considerably. Let's say you have a BSB with a Lance in the unit of 11 (he's in the front) and charge a unit at speed 8 + 3d6 pick the highest 2. When you hit, you're hitting with 20 S5 (3 of them at S6) attacks that will strike first and re-roll to hit. If you have the Warbanner on your cavalry, and you should because cavalry can now charge through terrain with no penalty to speed, you're looking at +3 to combat res before the bodies start flying. Banner of Ellyrion is good.. and was a staple to most Dragon Prince builds in the past, but until they give them the 'Strider' rule or make it so they ignore terrain completely, I'll stick with the extra combat res or something more useful.

Next, we have White Lions. Even with Great Weapons and no errata, they're still I5 WS5 Elves that have S6 weapons. Stubborn got hell of a lot better in 8th Ed. and the Woodsman rule will probably turn into Strider. The new Stubborn basically says that units with Stubborn are Steadfast regardless of ranks when making break tests. Steadfast is a new rule that allows units to use their normal leadership when taking break tests (this includes using the general's leadership). Another thing about White Lions is that since all units can fight in 2 ranks, 11 WS5 S6 attacks hitting you before you swing is going to hurt. A lot. Personally, I'd take White Lions over Sword Masters any day: Elite WS, Stubborn, S6! and more protection vs. shooting. Whether you like it or not, the High Elf army simply can't afford to lose 15ppm infantry to something like Goblins because they can just step up and attack. The entire design of High Elves last edition was to use their superior speed and weapons to cut down enemies before they can strike back and maul them. In 8th Ed and the introduction to stepping up, Elves can still dish out damage, but they'll be taking a lot more damage in return. In terms of cost effectiveness, this doesn't go our way unless we win combat.

Just a quick blurb on Lion Chariots and Ellyrion Reavers. Chariots changed a good amount since last edition. S7 no longer instantly kills chariots and chariots no longer get slowed by difficult terrain. Instead, they now take dangerous terrain checks and if you roll a 1, you take D6 wounds with no armor saves. Regardless, the Lion Chariot is still dangerous. The White Lions are top are now S6 because mounted Great Weapons don't lose any of their deadliness and 4 WS5 S5 Lion attacks that cause Fear is still vicious as ever. Ellyrion Reavers can use Vanguard movement because they're fast cav and can reform any time during their movement. Vanguard basically allows them to make a Scout move in 40K in Fantasy. Before the game begins, they can go ahead and make a free 12+ move. You can possibly get a first turn charge if you so desired in some lucky cases. I probably won't do anything that extreme because I'll probably use them to setup a flank/rear charge.

Sword Masters are risky, but can be good. They're one of units who really had a poor transition going into 8th Ed. T3, 5+ save with no parry or anything to protect them means that Skaven Slaves wins out vs. them when you're purely speaking about points. However, they can still be really good against an army without a lot of shooting since you can deploy them on a flank and no one in the right mind will charge into them. This makes them invaluable flank protectors and the best MSU units vs. Knights in our arsenal.

Rare Units

RBTs and Eagles.. what a selection!

I am no longer comfortable with RBTs. The reason why is because of these things: There's no more randomization when hitting warmachines and crew, anything can wound anything on a roll of 6 and our RBT only have 2 dudes. When someone aims at our RBTs, they simply aim at our warmachine and fire into it. Because we only have 2 dudes, the Warmachine only has 2 wounds at T7. If we get wounded twice by something like a S3 bow or something, our WM is dead, period. That kind of sucks.

Eagles are still good though! Being able to march block units and redirect charges, Eagles have always been pretty good for 50 points. Having an Eagle redirect the enemy by landing in front of them on an angle and forcing them to either charge you (you would flee) and expose their flank, or attempt to charge another target's too far away and fail. The thing about 8th is that when you want to charge a unit and it flees, you can opt to charge another target if you pass a leadership roll. If you place an Eagle right in front of a unit, he has to either go around or do one of those things above. Either one is not that great for your opponent, and that's what you need to do to make his life miserable. Another use for the Eagle is to use him to charge a fleeing unit. Say you have a big bad deathstar unit that's going to charge one of his units. He's not going to stay and get their teeth kicked in, he's going to run. As soon as they run, declare a charge with your Eagle at his fleeing unit. If you catch him, he's gone. Just like that.

Building Your Army

Magic

Racial Lore: High Magic, the purest form of magic out there in the world: Drain Magic (7+): Casing values of all spells are raised by 3 for each level of Drain Magic cast. Lasts until the caster's next Magic phase.

A great finisher to your magic round as its extremely cheap and affordable to get off. This makes casting for all wizards on the table more difficult. You can stack it if you wish, but one casting is often enough to force an extra die being cast.

1. Shield of Saphery (5+): 18", even in close combat. The unit has a 5+ Ward until the caster's next Magic phase.

Good extension and price on this spell makes it always a good choice. Keep in mind that 5+ ward also stacks with MR now, so a unit with Banner of Arcane Protection receives a 3+ ward vs. magic missiles and direct damage. And just like any other spell that provides another layer of protection, casting this on units in combat can save a third of your dudes.

2. Curse of Arrow Attraction (6+): 24", cast onto an enemy unit. Any missile fire directed at the unit in the Shooting phase may re-roll failed rolls to hit.

People call this edition the gunline edition for some wild reason. Maybe that's because all the partials are gone and everything wounds on 6s no matter what. In either case, we have access to Longbows, Shortbows and Repeater Bolt Throwers. At 24" and a 6+ to cast, this spell makes the unit you want to shoot deader. There's no other explanation.

3. Courage of Aenarion (8+): 12" bubble. All friendly units required to take a Break test counts as Stubborn.

With Stubborn being king under the 8th Ed. BSB rules, you are now almost guaranteed that your army will not break. Rolling for your general's leadership with a BSB's re-roll regardless of ranks makes it so your army's staying in place. Great spell, cheap to cast and with no such thing as outnumber + fear, you're sure to fight to the last man.

4. Fury of Khaine (8+): 24" range. 2d6 S4 magic missiles.

What more is there to say? It costs 8+ and you're getting a Lv.2 Fireball equiv from the new book. You don't cause fire damage, but you'll auto-hit and kill a good amount of fast cav and skirmishers each time. Throw 2 dice at it because you don't ever want spells lower than 8+ cause a loss of concentration on your big caster.

5. Flames of the Phoenix (11+): 24" RIP. Each model in the unit takes a S3 hit immediately. If the spell is still in play at the start of the caster's next Magic phase, each model takes a S4. The strength increases by 1 each turn until dispelled or the unit is dead. All wounds inflicted are flaming attacks.

I've always loved this spell. It is the hallmark of our High Magic and 8th Edition only made it better. Since we can now cast whatever the hell we want after Flames is cast, the spell will not go away unless someone throws PD or DD at it. No one wants to see their armies crumble in flames (except for us), and this spell makes sure your opponents DD are well spent.

6. Vaul's Unmaking (12+): 24", can be cast in close combat. The owner of the unit reveals all magic items in the unit. The caster then chooses one of them to be nullified. The item loses all its magical properties and become mundane versions of its type.

This is the only spell in the entire game now that can strip any magical item from someone. 24", can be cast in combat is just amazing. Drakenhof pissing you off? What about that Runefang? Or maybe even that epically epic Gal Maraz? Vaul's Unmaking cares not for how legendary your item is, once cast, consider it gone. The Emepror Karl Franz can enjoy swinging a blunt mallet for the remainder of the game.

Magic Tactics

In this section, I'll list the multiple ways to use specific Lores in conjunction with our units. Some Lores of Magic are flexible and unique, while some are more focused on specific strategies and units to make them work. Either way, you'll find use of them here.

There are two styles of magic that exist for High Elves in my opinion: Balanced and Specific.

Balanced Lores provide buffs and hexes that cover a large area of High Elf weaknesses. These lores include High Magic, Lore of Metal, Shadow, and Light. Specific Lores depend on certain army builds to bring out their true potential. These Lores include Life, Death and Beasts. I'll explain more below.

High Magic - Balanced This is a very balanced lore that's designed to assist the High Elves take on any foe. The biggest spell in the Lore is extremely dangerous vs. users of powerful magic. Enemy High Elves with Book of Hoeth, Banner of Barrows, Flag of Blood Keep, Ghal Maraz, the list of items go on. Flames of the Phoenix burns down entire hordes if left unchecked and army-wide Stubborn can be really frustrating. However, the one biggest problem with High Magic is that it does not effect our combat potential. Since this is a game based on winning combat, I much prefer the effects of Shadow.

Lore of Shadow - Balanced Our most powerful lore in my opinion. It's almost as if this Lore was designed with High Elves in mind because it compliments our army perfectly: 1. Elite troops with high WS and I can be dealt with Miasma. 2. High armor troops can be destroyed by Mindrazor. 3. High strength can be robbed of their power with Enfeeble. 4. High toughness units can be dispatched easier with Withering on them. 5. Expensive, multi-wound models with low I can be destroyed with Pit of Shades.

I highly recommend this Lore as your go to lore for balanced play.

Lore of Light - Balanced This is also a very balanced Lore and very powerful against the Undead. I dare say Daemons but as long as they have Great Standard of Sundering, I'm going to just recommend fighting TK and VC. Army-wide Pha's Illumination and Speed of Light makes your entire army WS10 I10 and -1 to hit. This gives you fantastic combat potential and great protection vs. melee and shooting alike. Timewarp also allows your entire to surge forward and get into combat insanely early. Once they're in combat, the army-wide buffs allow you to win combat and take less casualties. All your units will hit things on 3s with re-rolls and you'll most likely be hit on 6s.

If you decide to go Light, having a Lv.1 Wizard with Light is also suggested. This gives you the ability to inflict fantastic damage with Burning Gaze and Banishment for very low casting values. As for most balanced Lores, feel free to take whatever.

Lore of Metal - Balanced This Lore gives you the power to break through armored units as they were butter. If you knew you were going against an army with multiple, heavily-armored targets such as Brettonian Knights, this Lore is fantastic. Another great thing about Lore of Metal is the army-wide 5+ Scaly Skin. This makes your Light Armor, Shield Spearmen pack on a 3+ armor save. Heavy armor units such as White Lions, Sword Masters and Phoenix Guard also share that lovely 3+. With this in mind, I want to talk about a very specific spell and army-build:

A large unit of Sword Masters with Enchanted Blades of Aiban absolutely annihilate things in combat. WS6 with +1 to hit means you'll most of the game on 2s. With ASF, re-rolls and Armor Piercing S5, you'll walk through troops and elites alike. Even Spearmen with Enchanted Blades plow through units like they were butter. Give it a try, I promise good results.

Lore of Death - Specific For this Lore, you mainly want to focus on the destructive capabilities of character sniping. These spells allow you to pick out BSBs, Generals and other important targets that could ruin the opposing army. VC Generals, TK Hierophants, Bretonnian BSBs, the list goes on. It goes without saying that the army-wide -1S and T allow your troops to inflict more damage and take less in return. Lastly, we have Purple Sun. That thing just embarrasses Lizardmen, certain undead armies and Dwarfs.

Lore of Life - Specific I really like this Lore and I almost placed it in the balanced section, but I want to highlight some key builds that I like a lot. For one, Dwellers is a no brainer for most players: It picks off characters, completely wrecks enemies with Elf-stats and destroys entire units of Skaven. Throw dice at a large target with low S and watch it disappear from the game: Cheesy archer spam builds beware! This, is a very defensive Lore for the most part. You have Regen, protection from Miscast, and awesome +4 Toughness to any unit of choice. Which unit in particular?

A giant unit of Sword Masters with T7 and Regen can mow through most units in the game. They are already incredibly powerful in close combat because of WS6, S5 and 2A, but now give them the T7 and Regen and things just get ridiculous. Use a small Phoenix Guard bunker with a Life Mage and Book, and spam these spells on a giant horde of SM w/ Standard of Balance and Amulet of Light. People will most certainly hate you.

Lore of Beast - Specific If the base unit spell for +1S +1T, the +3T to all characters in 12" is also pretty awesome. Unlike the Lore of Life though, this Lore focuses a lot on damage from characters than defense. Don't get me wrong, Curse of Anraheir can still hex someone down to -1 to hit. Combine this with tough Elven warriors and things look a lot brighter. Take what you would normally take and spam Wyssan's Wildform on everything. Then walk up a bunch of Princes and Nobles with White Sword/Great Weapons and hit Savage Beast of Horrors. Can you imagine the amount of carnage you can inflict with multiple characters wielding +3S and +3 attacks? I'm not sure how effective it'll be, but it'll sure make my Prince w/ White Sword a little scarier.

Tactics

Knowing your Enemy

The first piece of advice I have for newer players is knowing your enemy. There is nothing more important than this piece right here. You look across the table and you see a bunch of units you don't know, you already know this game is going to head into disaster. Very few players have the ability to asset threat, damage and power on the fly so its best you go into battles prepared. Key units like the Skaven Doomwheel, the Bloodthirster or the horde unit of Khorne Marauders with Great Weapons, all of these are important pieces on the battlefield. The best thing to do in these situations is to point across the table and ask. If the player you're playing with is a gentleman, and it's a friendly game, I hope he can tell you what each unit does. In a tournament setting, forget about it. Fantasy already takes a day and a half to set up, so it's best you do your research ahead of time.

Think of it like this: Every game of fantasy (the actual) game is a test of skill and generalship. Any good general takes the time to learn about his enemy and so should you. That's why I buy every army book GW prints. Not only is it superb shitter material, but it's also valuable information on what kind of ridiculous combos, units or special characters that might show up on the battlefield.

Understanding Your Army

I almost think that knowing your enemy and understanding your army works hand in hand. If you think about it, you spend all this time making up your army list and for what? Each army list is designed to accomplish a certain thing on the battlefield. Playing for fun is one thing, but you're also playing so your troops are victorious on the battlefield. This is why army design is crucial and how you can make the best out of your army composition.

Keep in mind that this is not advice on how to min-max your army, it's about making your army work for you. As a general of any given army, you must find a medium where you're comfortable with the units you've taken, and you understand fully how they work. The best way to do this is by assigning battlefield roles. Take Sword Masters for example, what do they do best? They generate CR by ripping up lowly troops in combat but they die as fast as a swift breeze. What's the job of Spearmen? Or Skavenslaves? To hold the line and await reinforcements, using their superior numbers and ranks to tie the enemy down.

To be a successful general, you must know your units like the back of your hand. Understand each unit's functionality and purpose, but most importantly, understand why you put them in your army in the first place.

Deployment

I've seen many games where games are lost on deployment alone. Don't worry; hopefully these next lines of text will give you a better understanding of why deployment is so important. Picture for a second that your opponent puts down a unit of heavily armored Chaos Knights after you put your White Lions down far away from them. If those White Lions were your only defense against heavy armor, then I'd say you're in a world of shit once those Knights come crashing on your flank.

That's why you see players taking units whose sole purpose is to give them an edge in deployment. Some might be good enough to be used as re-directors or warmachine hunters too. These units are also known as chaff. Chaff is important because it allows you put these units down anywhere you want for the most part. They pretty much always go in the same place or have outrageous movement speed that they can relocate and not be troublesome for the movement of your army. Eagles can be used as chaff, Sabretusks and Fellbats for example, all can act as chaff for your army.

The key to deployment is matching your opponent's units pound for pound, literally. You don't want to put down a unit that doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell against another unit he put down right off the top. Your unit must have support, or is capable of holding the line against whatever he puts down or your side is just going to fold. The best example is the Knights scenario I presented above. You want to be able to match your opponent in deployment, or be superior to him in deployment. I call these "drops". If your army has greater or equal to the number of drops he has (total # of units he can put down during deployment), you're in a good place. This minimizes on the chance your army will be out-deployed. The person with more chaff will have more chaff that he can put down, forcing you to put down your last unit of White Lions so he can purposely drop a power unit on your flank. Unless your army is designed to fight uphill battles, you should never let this happen.

If you know you're going to be out-deployed, you should analyze which units on his side you don't want in your flanks and deploy your answers last. This is where knowing your enemy comes into place.

Analyzing Threat

To be successful on the battlefield and during deployment, you must first analyze threat. You must understand which units on the other side of the table can cause you most harm. This is huge. Keep in mind that army scale does not equate to the harm they can cause in combat. The best example of this is a giant unit of Skaveslaves vs. a small unit of Sword Masters. The craziest thing to assume is that the unit of Skavenslaves is going to do a lot of damage on the battlefield. Sure, there's a whole bunch of them, but their fighting prowess equates to dried fish where your Sword Masters preform like a hot knife through butter.

One of the things that 8th Ed. has going for it is big creatures. If it's a big monster on the other side of the table, this is probably worrisome. If a unit is carrying Great Weapons, it's probably going to do a lot of damage. If a unit is carrying Great Weapons and is in horde formation, it's probably something you should deploy smartly against because that thing is going to fuck your shit up if you play dumb. The most pronounced threats on the battlefield are normally the ones your opponent has heroes and lords going into it. It's either going to be a caster bunker, or a frontline unit that'll do solid bits of damage.

Remember what I said about battlefield roles? Your opponent does the same thing with his army. He knows what his frontline units are, which ones do the most damage and which ones are designed to hold the line. You know his primary sources of damage and these are the ones that should be generating the highest amount of threat in your mind. You might run into scenarios where certain units don't want to be in combat at all. These are often caster bunkers or vulnerable Magelords who would hate to have an Eagle pick out his eyes. Knowing the weak points of his army can prove to be a great advantage to you during deployment and when you're playing the game. Again, understanding how the opposing army works helps greatly here.

Understanding Favorable Scenarios

Hesitation can lose you a game, but so can your ability to underestimate your troops.

Here are some examples: A scary dragon on the battlefield is not so scary when you shoot him with a billion arrows. Knights actually do quite poorly against White Lions. A small unit of Sword Masters into the side of Skavenslaves really fucks up their shit. A Spearmen unit, given enough ranks can hold a charge from most non-GW equivalents units in the game.

A lot of this might seem like common sense, but you'd be surprised how many times players second guess themselves on the battlefield. Know your army, know what each unit is designed to do (which is surprisingly easy for High Elves because everyone's so specialized), and know which scenarios go in your favor on the battlefield when paired up against any given opponent. This normally takes a lot of experience (normally horrible ones at that), for a player to figure out, but most players understand the gist of it.

At the end of the day, you should always apply a unit's actual battlefield role to do battle. You should always be thinking: The only reason I'm bringing X unit is to fight against Y units. In a game of rock-paper-scissors and random surprise Mindrazors; it still works in your favor when you know what counters what.

Predicting Combat

This is definitely more in the lines of advanced players, but after so many battles, players start seeing the same numbers. A unit of 7x2 Sword Masters hits a unit of Skavenslaves. Aside from a ton of rats dying horribly, how many Sword Masters did you lose and how much CR did you generate? What about Spears? Even if you didn't charge but was instead charged by a unit of Empire Halberdiers, how many Spearmen died and how much CR did you generate via kills, ranks and standard? What about that beefy lord-class character sitting in a relatively weaker unit? I bet he can do some serious work. I'm not saying go out there and mathhammer the life out of everything in the game, but you should have an idea how your units will preform on the battlefield.

The battlefield is a pretty unpredictable place, especially when shit like magic is involved. However, successful players have a good idea of what to expect when they throw their units into combat. For the most part, players only throw their units into combat they can win. This is why predicting combat outcomes are so important. A unit of Spearmen charging a horde unit of Marauders w/ Great Weapons in the front might not be the best choice alone, but what if you plan your magic phase to get Withering off on the unit? What if you decide to combo charge with your Spears and Sword Masters on the flank so you can use your magic elsewhere? The combat res generated from the combined charge "should" win you combat.

You see how predicting combat drastically changes the way you play the game? By assessing the battlefield and seeing the game on a larger level, you are able to make plays ahead of time. The key to being a successful general is being able to see multiple instances of this at once and analyzing which ones generate the highest amount of success with the lowest number of risk. Your ability to capitalize on this is what will take you from good, to great.

Lesser of Two Evils

Sometimes, sacrifices have to be made in order for victory for be secured. Sometimes, you just have to choose. Imagine yourself in a scenario where no matter what you do, something bad is going to happen to your army. This might be a loss of a flank, a loss of a key unit or letting a horrible spell go through. If your opponent plays it right, there should be scenarios where all of these happen at the same time. Take note here for a second about what I just said. A well-played game of Warhammer is when you make your opponent sweat over the choices he has to make. No matter what choice he makes, something bad should happen to his army. That's when you know you've made a good play.

If you have to choose, always go with the play that'll guarantee you the greatest chance of victory in subsequent rounds. This is a lot harder than it looks because you have to first let that flank fall, or that unit be destroyed so you can strike back in a manner most decisive. This is why predicting combat and understanding favorable scenarios is important. In a situation like this, always put yourself in the opponent's shoes. Think from his perspective and predict what he would do after he successfully pulled off a big play. Predict what he does and counter it to the best of your advantage. Think to yourself: If he wins big on combat there and I flee, will he pursue or will he reform? If he persues, do I have anything that can hit him in the flank or catch him in a bad spot? If he reforms, do I have anything that can strike decisively and win combat on that unit next turn?

Don't get yourself caught up in the moment. Understand that the 300 odd points of Spearmen you just fed your opponent can equate to you combo-charging his General's bunker and send it into the oblivion, then it's well worth it. If sacrifice has to be made, it has to make its points back and more. If not, then the sacrifice is not worth it.

Magic Superiority

The first thing to understand is that a small advantage is still an advantage. This is how you should analyze the winds of magic. A successful magic phase is all about analyzing which spells your opponent can afford to let go and which spells he can't. With an Lv.4 Wizard, you have access to a good amount of viable spells. The spells your opponent can let go are often the spells you want to take advantage of. That's when why you draw a big winds round, you cast moderately but still vital spells that plink at his dispel dice. These should be all moderately dangerous to the outcome of the fight in question (which will be his main focus).

Use smaller castings of hexes and augments, because a slight advantage (what he sees, and analyzes as less important), is still an advantage (huge for High Elves). A clever mage will be able to feint the significance of a fight and get off multiple spells a turn. If your opponent lets it all go because he's anticipating Mindrazor, that's his problem because now his unit is now -WS, -T and you ASF with a better combat result. Mindrazor isn't even needed at this point. If he throws dice trying to dispel your other hexes, that's less dice he has available when you actually do through down the MR. This goes hand in hand with what I said about anticipating combat results. How badly your troops need your magic will save a lot of unneeded dice.

Redirecting focus: Say you have a unit engaged in combat and you anticipate a victory, or at least a draw result. You concentrate magic on another area of the battlefield that your opponent isn't focused on. This breaks his concentration and draws a big cloud of WTF? over his head. This happens when you see something crucial your opponent doesn't, as often times or not, players get tunnel-visioned in the combat they're in but don't grasp the wider vision of the battlefield. Hexing incoming Knights on your turn with -WS or -S will make much more of a difference than watching Sword Masters narrowly win combat vs. a flanking unit of Clanrats.

Baiting and Feinting

Fleeing from a battlefield is not always a sign of cowardice. It can also be used to bait an opponent out of position or force him into a position he doesn't want to be in. The best example of this could be a unit of Spears fleeing from a charge of Bretonnian Knights. God knows you don't to take that charge in the face so you opt to flee with your Spearmen. He now has two choices: Take a Ld. test to charge something else, or roll for the Spears. Say that you have a unit of White Lions or Sword Masters next to the Spears. Does he really want to re-direct into the Lions or SM? Or does he want to risk the charge and risk exposing his flank to the Lions?

You see what you just did here? A simple flee can put your opponent in a rock and a hard place (especially if the charge is long). Both scenarios equally suck for him so he might opt to charge at all. This is also good for you because it gives you the chance to charge his Knights next turn! And if he doesn't opt to charge, your Spears will still be there to assist in the main battle. Warhammer can be a game of cat and mouse, so it's best to know all the options available to you before you commit. If you plan on charging something, know all the possible reactions your opponent can take before investing. You don't want to be in the same shoes as the above player.

Eagles are an Elves' Best Friend

I've said it once and I'll say it again: Eagles are my MVP. First off, they are probably one of the most annoying pieces of chaff ever. They're great in the deployment phase when you can just put one down and stare into your opponent's soul. They're great ingame because they can fly boldly into your opponent's charge lanes and take one from the team; forcing them to charge them and re-position. Eagles buy you time, buy you movement and allow you to re-position your army while the Eagle re-positions your opponents. They allow you to chase down enemy chaff or flankers, help pressure warmachines and provide you with flank and rear charge CR should they survive mid-game. They act primarily as re-directors (a Frenzied unit's worst nightmare) and are the true workhorse of most High Elf armies. You can find more uses of them here.

Counter-charges and Flanking

Sometimes, the good ol' hammer and anvil is something even the experienced players forget. The concept of a counter-charge is simple: Unit #1 is a unit that can take hits - in the case of High Elves, a giant block of Spears with Steadfast CR up the ass. This is known as the anvil. Unit #2 is a unit that hits hard as fuck but dies to a soft breeze. Sword Masters are an popular choice for an hammer. Your opponent charges your Spearmen because it's the only viable target and you hold knowing that your Sword Masters (who are conveniently placed on your flank), will have a flank charge next round. Magic is invested in keeping the Spearmen alive and steadfast while the Sword Masters charge their flank next turn. Heads start rolling and combat heavily swings your way, winning you the day.

Flanking is also quite simple: Place something that has good threat range on the far sides of your army and use them as CR generators. I normally like using Dragon Princes for this type of role. Put 5 of these guys down on a wide-flank and they can be used to reliably add CR to any combat mid-field. Flanking can also be used to bypass some of your opponents' attention to hit warmachines and other units chilling in their backfield. Lastly, flanking is also good for having additional CR in combat. An Eagle charging from the far flank gives you 2 CR for just having the balls to be there. It's pretty much free CR.

Winning combat, now what?

So now that you've won combat, you have to think about what to do next. Unfortunately, most players think about this step immediately after the combat resolves. I want you to take a step back and think about what can happen even before you charge. If you charge now, and win a victory over your opponent, can you overrun into an important caster bunker in back? Does your opponent have anything that can crush your overrun if you choose to do so? Is your unit stretched too far and out of range of your BSB? Is he out of his BSB? If you push the advantage, will your advantage be negated if he engages the rest of your army while your best unit is out of position? Winning combat is important for sure, but what happens after is even more important. You must be in a favorable situation to benefit from it: The result of a successful charge should net you more success in the subsequent turns than harm.

Keep in mind that you don't have to keep going after you wiped out a unit. Check to see if the unit has been mauled enough that the only way he can rally is if he rolls double 1s. Sometimes the position you're in begs you to combat reform and stay still. If you commit anymore, you might go from crushing victory to outright defeat. Never lose sight of the bigger picture and don't over extend yourself. Unless you're Stubborn, or have a unit that's incapable of losing combined charges in the next round of combat, it's best to wait for the rest of your army. You want to be in magic support range, you want to be in BSB range and you want to be in support charge range of other units. Don't forget this.

Another thing to keep in mind is Line of Sight. If your unit can surge forward enough after winning combat that'll take him out of LoS (and thus enemy charges), this is a great advantage. It allows you to drive deep in the enemy lines and force him to turn around or suffer a rear charge from you in the subsequent turns. This also allows your main force to advance and catch him in a vice. Surely this is a good thing as even the most lackwit of generals know that enemy forces running in their backfield is bad.

Lost combat, now what?

So your beautiful charge turned into a crushing defeat, what now? Obviously, this means your unit will be running back to your lines like a whipped dog. Don't worry, you can now look into the future and analyze why you lost combat and how you can regain the momentum in the next phase of the game. Maybe something completely unpredictable happened in the magic phase that killed your opportunities in combat? This is the single biggest factor in how combats can sway. This is also something I want you to remember: Magic can greatly skew the outcome of any combat you're invested in. Think about this before you charge, and understand what magic lores he has that can shift momentum in his favor. In order for you to succeed in combat, you must dispel the magic he will use to turn combat in his favor. This is not negotiable.

After losing combat, you need to analyze several things:

Did he Overrun? If so, are you in a position where you can take advantage of his over-extension? Did he Combat Reform? If so, are you able to counter-attack next turn? What made you lose combat? Was it some beefy character or was it magic that turned the tides? How do you not lose combat again? Neutralize the beefy character (or avoid him completely) and dispel the magic that sways combat his way. Is your fleeing unit useless? Treat the game as if you're 1 down, but don't forget about the fleeing unit. Even if he's below 25%, you can still test for double 1s.

When ahead, stay ahead

The philosophy behind this concept is simple: Don't do anything stupid that'll throw away your lead. What happens most of the time when players start winning is they start playing careless. This is a sure way to lose your lead and put you behind in a game where you're almost guaranteed to win. A great example of this would be killing your opponent's Dragon Lord and 1-2 Hydras with your Warmachines first turn before they even get to do anything and still managing to lose the game. I don't know how this happens, but players get lost the ecstasy of great plays (or luck) and think now that the main threats are gone that the game is in their hands. This is the wrong way to approach a lead.

The more appropriate way to take advantage of a lead is to think: How do I get further ahead? You want to be in a position where your next step is to eliminate any and all possible ways the opponent can swing the game around. You put yourself in his position and you think to yourself: I just lost my Dragon Lord and my Hydras, so what can I do now to walk away from the table like a man? Once you think about the situation from your opponent's mindset, you counter it and deny him of it. With no victory options in sight, your opponent will have no choice but to fold. That's just how the cookie crumbles.

Post-game Analysis

Now that the game is won (or lost), you can look back and see what you can do to improve. Human beings are meant to improve; we're a race of learners and adapters. No matter how badly you just massacred your opponent or how crushing your defeat, there's always something to take away from the game. The most important part here is that you must learn from your game to improve. If you won the game, think about the scenarios you could have done better. If you lost the game, think about why you lost and which units caused the most problems. Think about all the topics that were covered above. There must be something you could have done better in the never-ending list of becoming a better general.

It's important that you discuss the game with your opponent. Talk about how the battle could have gone differently if you did this, or that. How his game could have changed if he did this, or that. Not only does this give you a better perspective on the game (and your opponent's army), but also the player you're playing against. Share your thoughts with your opponent and let him share his with yours. Criticism and advice should be taken with an opened mind. It helps broaden your perspective on other general's opinions and makes you a better-rounded player overall.