Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Warscrolls Compendium/High Elves
Your High Elves for the Age of Sigmar rules, so you can be an arrogant, snotty bastard on the battlefield while still championing good Order.
If you like the idea of being an elegant but powerful elder race with light shining out of your every orifice (or spending years in Slaanesh's gut before being spit out like Boba Fett) this is the army for you. Or if red, white, and blue with fire is appealing.
Highborn Summary
Elites everywhere, high stats, powerful characters with a lot of special rules that buff your troops, and some of the best ranged attacks in a game where ranged attacks are king. What's not to love? Furthermore, when changes to fluff come chances are good that this faction after Sigmarines and Chaos will be getting the bulk of the lore.
Those who have piled into the Asur army over the years due to crunch overpowering may find themselves raging not due to nerfs, but due to every other faction getting buffed to equality. You can scream Communism and cry into a Banner of the World Dragon until you find the strength to muster on or go emo and paint your Highborn into Exile Aelfs.
Another sticking point is the army identities are gone. Aelfs live and work with round-ears and Grudge-monkeys without even a degree of raised nose, praise Sigmar and only bear the symbols of the Elf pantheon as remembrance rather than worship, and Ulthuan is space dust, probably part of Sigmaron now. Once again, old players must stick it out to stay current.
Highborn Warscrolls
Forenote: The following section will be arranged with similar units and formations being grouped together for easier reading.
This is by no means a complete guide, and focuses only on Highborn. Also due to the relatively recent release of Age of Sigmar and lack of Fantasy players remaining, most of this is based on theory. Take everything with a pinch of salt.
Named Characters
Tyrion Extremely powerful character. His sword now makes a strong ranged attack every turn with six Attacks rather than once per game, he ignores anything but strong (-2 or better) Rend and has that himself, makes all Highborn (basically the entire Highborn army) use his very high Bravery, and gets a fuckton of decent Attacks. Oh, and if killed you roll a dice and on anything but a 1 he comes back to life.
While taking 10 Nagash is still better when powergaming, Tyrion is much cheaper to buy.
As cavalry, Tyrion can be easily delivered where you need him to be.
Teclis Still a god-tier caster. Teclis can cast three spells, dispel three spells, knows any spell any Highborn Wizard within 16 inches of him knows in addition to Arcane Bolt, Mystic Shield, and his own unique spell Tempest with a cast value of 5 that deals a mortal Wound to a unit and halves all mouvements till your next hero phase. Still not enough? He adds 2 to his Casting and Unbinding rolls, and if he can roll 3 higher than the spell requirement he gets double range on it.
Take him.
Interestingly, his staff hits harder than his super special sword. Futhermore, his crippled nature did not translate to Age of Sigmar at all with decent stats and just slightly higher killing power than you'd expect a Wizard to have.
Eltharion on Stormwing He can Fly, and between his two weapons (the lance dealing a fuckton of damage on the charge) and Stormwing's special Wicked Talons and Razor-Sharp Beak the model is a killing machine pure and simple. He gets a 3+ Save against blows that only deal 1 damage, is a 1 Spell 1 Unbind Wizard who knows Arcane Bolt and Mystic Shield, and he can give one Highborn Unit per turn rerolls on Wound rolls.
Barring the ranged attack and Bravery boost, Eltharion is superior to even Tyrion.
Alarielle the Radiant Despite now being the leader of the Woodelves (Wanderers), she's still a Highborn special character option. Her ability makes highborns to ignore battleshock test if they are 16" within her and heals herself 1 wound in each of your hero phases. She can attempt to cast 2 different spells, one being her unique spell called Boon of life, a 6 casting value, 20" range spell that heals D6 wounds in a unit or single model (!!). But wait, there's more!: Until your next hero phase, if the unit healed by this spell suffers a wound or mortal wound, roll a D6 and in a 6, the wound is healed instead.
All of this makes her a hell of a support option and the best healer of the game so far. The drawbacks are obvious: she is extremely fragile with only a 5+ save (Mystic shield could improve this but still). And now that independent characters can not join other units, you have to buy her a personal bodyguard or be very careful of how you have to deploy and move her. Fortunately, you don't have to worry about sending her into CC since her only weapon is a 2"/TH4+/TW3+/D3damage that improves into a D6 damage if you fight CHAOS units. So unless you played awful and she is the only mini you have, or you decide that the queen must put an end to your already beaten opponent, she will stay for a loooong time healing your other powerful characters (field her with Tyrion for a fluffy and hard to take down duo!) and being an annoying/high priority piece your opponent must take down.
Cavalry and Monsters
Ellyrian Reavers
Highly mobile offensive unit capable of moving 2d6 anytime in the shooting phase. Move 14 inches, shoot 3 attacks per model, then move 2d6 inches, then charge 2d6 inches, then make 3 attacks per model. Suffers from having no rend and shitty saves. Best used harassing units, staying out of close combat and laying down a lot of arrows until it is time to Leeroy Jenkins. Take advantage of there being no rules against pre-measuring and retreat out of range after shooting every turn. Synergy with nothing - a good unit to plug into an Order army lacking mobility.
Infantry
Lothern Sea Guard
Arguably better than Spearmen due to there being no rules against shooting bows while in close combat, meaning they make 2 attacks on your turn regardless of their unit size. Cannot get the same range as Archers, but still capable of laying down support from 16 inches. Synergy with a Sea Helm holding a Pennant means they can get a +1 to wound rolls and halve the amount of units lost via battleshock. If you don't need the extra range and shooting power the Archers give, take these guys.
Removed Options
The following choices can no longer be fielded, and share a profile with an existing model.
- Anointed of Asuryan can no longer ride Flamespyre or Frostheart Phoenixes to become two profiles, instead the character counts as an upgrade to the mount giving them certain perks but retaining the base stats of the Phoenix. If the Phoenix dies, both die.
- Nobles no longer exist. There are only Princes.
- Archmages no longer exist. There are only Mages.
- Nothing can mount on Eagles anymore. Eagle models with riders count as Wood Elf models, or unmounted.
- Ashtari no longer exists. Caradryan can only be fielded on foot or used as an upgrade to a generic Frostheart Phoenix.
- Eagle Claw Bolt Throwers are now Repeater Bolt Throwers (identical to the one on the Skycutter).
- Eltharion can no longer be unmounted. Stormclaw is default.
- Korhil can no longer crew a Lion Chariot.
- Chrace has been dropped from the name of Lion Chariots. They are now White Lion Chariots.
- Nothing can mount on Tiranoc Chariots anymore except the stock crew.
Formations
Glittering Host A simple Core and character list using one Prince, two Units of Spearmen, two Units of Archers, and one Unit of Silver Helms. Gives them Valour of Ages which is a Battleshock reroll if the Prince is alive and near, and Martial Prowess which allows another unit from the Glittering Host to make attacks on the same target with the first after it finishes (with no specified range, allowing the Silver Helms to rush into a fight and the Spearmen halfway across the map to somehow get licks in) .
Dragon Host Field any three Highborn Dragons, excluding Imrik, and they gain Dragonfire Conflagration which allows all three to torch the same enemy in a combined breath which deals fuckloads of damage and can obliterate almost anything if you get lucky on your rolls. Ancient Dignity lets you reroll any Hit Roll of 1. Dragon Host is a very powerful force, and if you can afford the models is very much worth considering.
Althran Stormrider's Host The Island Of Blood High Elf force, consisting of Althran (Prince on Gryphon), Caladris (Mage), one Unit of Ellyrion Reavers, one Unit of Swordmasters of Hoeth, and one Unit of Lothern Seaguard. Bonds of Friendship gives Althran and Caladris rerolls on Hit, Wound, and Save rolls. Heroic Valour gives all the models in the group 1 extra point to Bravery while Althran is still alive. All of the component forces are very good options, the buffs to the Mage and Prince are very good, and its very easy to get the models making it a good thing to have in any given Highborn army.
Army Building
Wacky Rules
- Ancient Dignity
Pretend you're a stuck-up asshole who doesn't show emotion outwardly for a group of three Dragons to gain rerolls on Hit rolls of 1.