Warhammer/Tactics/7th Edition/High Elves

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Why Play High Elves

WHY YOU NO WRITE TACTICS

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.

Teclis Ld. 10, 1-man Magic phase, High Loremaster of Hoeth. He doesn't really attack, but he's the best offensive caster in the game.

Oh Teclis, how I love and hate you at the same time. One of the things that drew me to High Elves was magic (the other being Dragons). Elves are a mystical race and one of the most appealing things about them is that they're masters of magic. Teclis, is the strongest offensive caster in the game. He IFs on any successful spell cast that consist of any doubles and gets to ignore his first miscast each turn (on double 6s). He also generates +d3 extra power dice AND dispel dice in every turn because of his staff and carries a mindwar-ish forget scroll. To top it off, he is the High Loremaster of Hoeth and he knows every spell of every lore and gets to choose which lore he wants to use before the game. While other mages are stuck with a lore when the army is built, Teclis' rules specifically states he gets to choose before the start of the game. Some habits sure die hard and 8th Ed is both Teclis' playground and deathbed. Good because all the spells got a lot stronger and casting them with IF can be game changing, but BAD because the randomness of the game have increased A LOT. Gone are the days that you can take Teclis balls up and place him outside a unit and think he'll be safer on foot (TLoS), and gone are the days you think you're safe from a charge (lol boxcars!). At nearly a quarter of your army when playing 2k points, T2 and no saves of any kind, you better be prepared to eat some wtf random moments and like it. Oh, and you can lose concentration when dispelling and casting.

Caradryan Ld.9, MR(3), 4+ Ward, Fear, Kill me and I kill you. WS6, I7, 3 attacks that are S5 Flaming and does D3 wounds with ASF.

For 175 points, you don't really get better than Caradryan. The 4+ ward is extremely helpful at keeping him in the game and the 3 attacks at WS5 Flaming that does D3 wounds is godsend. Caradryan, is also a challenge monster like Korhil because no hero, lord or special character wants to get locked in combat with him. This is not because they fear that Caradryan will kill them.. but this is because when Caradryan dies, he does D6 wounds with no armor saves to whoever killed him! To make things even more ridiculous, these wounds count towards combat res. The MR(3) is just fantastic in almost any unit you want to throw him in. Having MR(3) in 8th Ed. means that you give one of your units a 4+ ward against magic damage. It's still kinda strange that Caradryan works best in White Lions and Korhil does it best in Phoenix Guard. Oh, and before I forget, Caradryan has Fear. He doesn't say much, but he'll make your opponent take fear tests in every round of combat you're in with him.

Korhil Ld. 9 Stubborn, Immune to Poison, Woodsman. WS6, I7, 4 attacks with S6 Killing Blow and ASF.

Korhil is a challenge monster and his high WS, ASF and Killing Blow will leave most characters headless on the ground before they get the swing. He has really crappy 4+ armor, so he's really a glass cannon that adds a nice Ld.9 Stubborn onto whatever unit that he's in. Woodsman, sadly, is wasted when he joins a unit of Phoenix Guard, but that's just the price you pay for someone like him. At 140 points, he's one of the biggest steals in the game and can really deter enemy characters from assaulting the unit that he's in. Put him on a corner of a unit to minimize the amount of attacks he'll be taking back and challenge every chance you get. Challenge puts him out of combat, can score you a +4 overkill (or kill the enemy hero/lord), while maintaining his awesome Stubborn in effect. The strength of this character is that he's designed to be in a challenge. If you're not doing that, you're doing it wrong.

Generic Characters

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

Archmage Lv.4, Book of Hoeth = 360 Lv.4, Annulian Crystal = 300 Lv.4, Book of Ashur (new item) = 330

The reason why these two will work is because they're relatively cheap and have specific purposes. The Silver Wand and Seerstaff is no longer a good choice for Archmages because of the way magic selection works. I still roll 4 dice randomly pick spells, but for each double I roll I get to pick the spell instead of re-rolling to see what I get. Chances to me to get the one or two spells I really want is pretty high already. Another reason not to take these two items is because I can only take one Arcane item and both Annulian Crystal and Book of Ashur are superior choices. This also means that dispel scrolls cannot be taken if the Archmage already has an arcane item.

I'll go ahead right now and explain to you why I think these these configurations is the way to do it. Annulian Crystal takes 1 PD from him and gives me 1 DD. This gives be a better chance to defend against his magic because he rolls 2d6 for power dice during his magic phase and I get the highest for dispel dice. By taking away one of his PD for an extra DD, I nerf his magic and buff my defense. The Book of Ashur is a fantastic choice because it's basically Starwood Staff and Staff of Sorcery on one item. For 10 points less and the fact they're both arcane items, this is as good as it gets. My Lv.4 Archmage now has +1 to cast and +1 to dispel. This gives me magic offense with +5 to cast and +6 to dispel because of High Elves' innate +1 and this item. Beautiful.

Book of Hoeth is a no brainer. It makes you unstoppable in the magic phase and when you need things to go your way, this item makes it so. The only thing here is the price tag. At 360 points, your Archmage is a weaker version of Teclis but it does give you a point discount. The big thing to know now is that your Magic phase is all offense. You need a supporting mage if you want magic defense since your maxed out on magic allowance.

Mage Lv.1 Mage, Annulian Crystal or Sigil = 140 Lv.2 Mage, Seerstaff of Saphery = 165 Lv.1 Mage, Jewel of Dusk = 115

The Lv.2 and the Seerstaff is self-explanatory. You have a Mage with 2 spells that you can choose from any lore in Warhammer. This is a pretty solid investment. The Lv.1 Mages are there as magical defense and magic offense. The crystal's purpose is already explained above.. which gives you more long term usability than say a single dispel scroll. As for the Lv.1 with Jewel of Dusk, this item is much better than the new item, Channeling Rod that gives the bearer +1 to channel an additional energy or dispel. You don't want to ever rely on channeling to give you an extra DD, you want absolutes and results. The Jewel of Dusk is simply +1 PD to your power pool and the Annulian Crystal jacks him and supplies you with an extra DD. You can always just take a Lv.1 with High Magic and give him a scroll (or Sigil) if you want as well.

Prince Prince as DP, Dragon Helm (new item), Vambraces of Defense, Great Weapon = 247 Prince on Foot, Armor of Caledor, Vambraces of Defense, GW = 242 Prince on Foot, Armor of Caledor, Guardian Phoenix, White Sword, Talisman of Loec = 250

Princes in my army list have two roles to play: Leadership buffer and damage dealer. The White Sword Prince is a challenge monster and the other Prince on foot is just there to do damage. All the layouts are basically the same because they fill the same roles: Get in there, do damage and don't care if you get hit back because you can take the damage. The Other Trickster's Shard is also a very good buy but I kept some points out of the main builds. You might also want to look into Amulet of Light, Talisman of Loec or just flat out OTS if you want to kill characters. I don't know though, S6 is sort of weak for killing characters imo. You're much better at killing rank and file.

• • • Notice I didn't include any Star Dragon builds? That's because the cost to play them is in 2500 point games. At 2400 points, it's impossible to field the optimal layout for the Prince so I'm just going to pretend the entire world plays 2500. Besides, the Star Dragon build with Armor of Caledor and Vambraces of Defense will hardly change.***

Noble Noble as DP, BSB, Helm of Fortune, Guardian Phoenix, Great Weapon = 192 Noble on Foot, BSB, Armor of Caledor, Guardian Phoenix, GW = 168 Noble as DP, BSB, Battle Banner, Lance = 218

Notice a trend here? I don't take the noble other than BSB purposes. If I want combat potential, I look at Caradryan and Korhil because they're both better choices for the cost. I'll explain why in a bit. So anyways, the noble on the horses have a 2+ save with the Battle Banner and a 2+ re-rollable, 5+ ward without. The survivability here is absolutely huge. If you don't take magical banners, your noble will be a hell of a lot more survivable. In 8th Ed, the BSB is a HUGE player in how things turn out. That's because the BSB allows re-rolls of ALL leadership related tests within 12" of it. If your general is in range, you're using his leadership and re-rolling any failed tests. Another thing that makes me sad is that the noble on the horse cannot really join infantry units (unit type) and feel safe. Sure, ranged attacks like Bolt Throwers, magic missiles, bows and guns go into the unit, but indirect weapons such as Stone Throwers or Cannons or something that's magical template will be able to hit him with confidence. But what about Look Out Sir! you say? When models are the same unit type and in a unit, characters get a 2+ Look Out Sir. If he's on a horse, this is reduced to a 4+. I don't know about you guys.. but that doesn't give me confidence in knowing that my Battle Banner can be sniped out from under me. That's a BSB, a character and a 80 point banner to lose in one cannon shot.

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.

• 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.