Grimdark Future/Tactics/High Elf Fleets

Why play High Elf Fleets?

The elves are a very flighty and very elite force. All of your troops are quite specialized in their roles, meaning they can serve quite well in their intended role, but will suffer when pushed out of it.

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Pros

• Almost your entire army is some shade of Fast
• Great tanks
• Plentiful Rending on the guns

Cons

• Your army is costly as hell
• Troops aren't as tanky as your tanks

Special Rules

• Very Fast: Fast+1. Some of your models can move 12" and dash/charge 24". Your entire army can cover obscene distances without even blinking. You absolutely will be needing it considering your army's pretty lightweight.

• Teleport: When activated, this unit can teleport 6" without sacrificing movement and ignoring any terrain.

Psychic Spells

• Hide (4+): Enemy unit within 12" takes -1 to hit with shooting. Again, this is critical for protecting your troops.
• Soul Seeker (4+): One enemy model within 12" takes an AP 2 hit. Absolutely welcome to have such a cheap sniping spell.
• Creator (5+): Friendly unit within 12" gains +1 to defense when they next get hit. Absolutely worth comboing with Hide.
• Destroyer (5+): Enemy unit within 12" takes 6 hits. Not much, but it can handle mobs.
• Blessing (6+): One friendly unit within 12" can immediately charge 6" and gets to add +1 to hit in melee. You're only going to use this for the dedicated melee units.
• Curse (6+): Two enemy units within 6" take a 4 AP 2 hits each. Evil.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Elven King: The king's actually quite well-rounded as a leader. While your lone melee weapons are either the stock CCW or the energy sword, you can spend 20 points for Regeneration without losing the option for a gun - of which you can grab a pretty decent variety. The king also has quite a few options for mobility between Teleport, hawk wings (for Ambush and Flying), Fear or a jetbike (Impact 1, Strider, Very Fast and a twin shardgun). The last and most costly option is the Ancient Commander, giving your shooters some mobility, as you let the king and his unit the ability to move 3" before or after their movement.

• High Seer: Your most elite psychic has 3+ quality, giving a good lot of power. Besides the shard pistol, you have a choice between the energy sword or an energy spear reliable AP 2 without spending anything. Alongside boosting their psychic level to 2, you can buy a jetbike for the seer as well, giving you a super-mobile means to cast and block as you see fit.

• Seer Council: Slightly worse shots than the high seer, but you have three models giving you a psychic level equal to the number of models present, though only one chance to block spells. They are otherwise identical to the high seer, including the ability to buy jetbikes. Good for accompanying the high seer.

• Avatar of Flames: Obscenely costly, but very powerful with a 2+ to quality and defense. It comes with what's effectively a fusion rifle for shooting and 6 AP 2 sword swings, making it frightening to face. On top of that, it remains Fast while also having Regeneration and Tough 12, guaranteeing that the enemy's gonna need to load up the heavy guns to take the avatar down.

Infantry

• Storm Squad: Your force is pretty light, though 4+ quality makes them better than most hordes. Issue is that your armaments are pretty meager with only a shard pistol and CCW, relying on Fast to get stuck in. You can buy two energy swords for some rending and AP, while two of the guns can be either flamethrowers or fusion rifles.

• Guardian Squad: The shooty version of the Storm Squad. Each of them carries a shardgun, which are shard pistols with another attack. Their guns pretty much are their life, though you can grab a weapons platform for a longer-range heavy weapon. If you're not patient with managing reapers, then you're well-served by this.

• Ranger Squad: For only 5 points higher than the guardians, you can get rangers with sniper rifles, Scout and Stealth. While you're not utterly helpless like most dedicated sniper units, you're not in a good spot if you're in danger regardless.

• Avengers Squad: By default, the avengers are slightly better than guardians, with slightly better range on their shard carbines and 4+ defense. Like the guardians, you will need to learn to love these things if you want to get far, and you can give one unit two of them for fun. If you want something more suited to melee, you can instead swap the carbine for a shard pistol and either an energy sword or a dire sword (AP 3) for free. However, if you value the lives of these troops, you can go down to a pistol+CCW to give the squad Regeneration.

• Banshee Squad: You'll be needing strider because this unit's all about combat. After all, they get energy swords as default weapons and for 20 points you can buy Fear. If you're planning on focusing more on shooting you can try a tri-sling for 3 extra shots (without Rending) while those more keen on melee by weight of die would look at the mirror swords so you can throw 6 attacks without any shooting or Rending. Buy an execution sword if you plan on throwing the banshees at a hero or heavy weapons attachment, as it's the best use for Deadly 3.

• Reaper Squad: One of your few Slow units, but they're well-protected and have very long-ranged weapons to compensate. If the base missiles don't satisfy, you can give any of them shot missiles for some serious punch. You can also buy either a shard cannon for short-range mass fire with Rending or tempest missiles for Indirect blasting - it's not like you're very mobile to begin with.

• Dragon Squad: The entire squad has heavy flamethrowers, meaning you're throwing out a lot of attacks. If you're set on killing tanks, you're going to want the fusion rifles or pikes - the only difference between the two is just range. Just beware the price tag because these things don't come cheap.

• Scorpion Squad: Another melee squad, but you have Scout and Stealth to set you up in better positions and the option for a biting sword if you feel Poison will be more worthwhile than Rending. Scorpion claw gives what amounts to another pistol shot, and you can still make one of them go full-melee with two energy swords.

• Spider Squad: Ambush and Teleport mean that they can pretty much be wherever they want, though they lack Fast. The web spinner is pretty much a shardgun with AP 1, which you can then give one guy either a second one of or buy the web spinner rifle for slightly longer range. Spider blades give you two weapons with AP 1, which should really only be for self-defense.

• Hawk Squad: Your laser blasters have twice the range and more attacks, but it lacks the shardguns' Rending. With Ambush and Flying, you'll have plenty of space to move around for the sake of getting all your shots. For guns you're stuck with spending 5 points for either AP 1 or Poison on your laser blaster. You could also grab an energy sword for token melee, but there's not really much reason to do so when you all have long-range guns.

• Wraith Suit Squad: Heavyweight units with 2+ defense and Tough 3, but lack Slow. Wraith cannons provide you with high AP right out the box, but you could also give the squad distortion guns for a lot of attacks with Rending. If you're more keen on making these tanky boys more melee-focused, you're stuck with either twin energy swords or energy swords and shields for Regeneration.

• Jetbike Squad: Jebikes are fun because they have Strider and Very Fast, meaning they can pretty much be anywhere you want. While you can use them to charge with Impact, you're going to be stuck with CCWs. It's better to view them as mobile weapons platforms, as your only other options see you sacrifice your weapons for twin shardguns with the option for one long-range shard cannon.

• Jetspear Squad: Better jetbikers with laser spears to lean into Impact a bit harder and twin shardguns. You could give one guy an energy sword to make ongoing combat slightly less torturous or a star lance for AP 4 on the charge, making it pretty much able to nail anything.

Vehicles

• Anti-Gravity APC: A fairly cheap but very versatile transport with Very Fast and Strider to make sure you get where you need. On top of the stock twin shardgun (you can swap this for a longer-range shard cannon), you can also buy a long-range heavy gun and then have the option between Stealth or the very dangerous pulse laser.

• Anit-Gravity Tank: A bit tougher than the APC and comes with a star cannon on top. While it has most of the same options, it can also replace the star cannon with a dizzying variety of heavy cannons, including the costly but devastating prism cannon and doom cannon.

• Heavy Jetbike: While beefier than the regular bike, it's not by much - You're only Tough 3. Instead, it serves as another platform for some of the heavy cannons the tank could grab. Buying Stealth would absolutely help in your case because of how relatively fragile you are in comparison.

• Combat Walker: While not as fast as everything else, this walker's still Fast and comes with Scout so you can use those star cannons early. You can swap either of these cannons out of the list of heavy weapons available to the tank and heavy jetbike in any manner of combination. Again, Stealth will help as you will be grabbing attention pretty early.

• Wraith Walker: The bigger walker has smaller shardguns, but also an AP 3 ghost sword. If you want more shooting, you can instead buy flamethrowers for more attacks instead of the shardguns. You can then buy up to two guns between star cannons, shard cannons, scatter lasers, missile launchers or the star lance, all providing way better shooting from afar.

• Support Artillery: Your only Slow vehicle, but you don't need to move it much anyways - the distortion cannon is high-AP, Blast 3 and has Inaccurate. If you want anti-air, you can snag the vibration cannon, or grab the shadow cannon for long-range bombardment with Blast 3, Rending and Indirect.

• Wraith Plane: Bizarrely enough, this plane is psychic. This means that you can have a very mobile and hard to hit plane firing mind bullets and shielding allies while also using its heavy distortion guns to obliterate. That said, make sure you target whatever dedicated long-range firepower and anti-air the enemy has, because that's what you really should fear.

• Hunter Plane: The dedicated dogfighter. This plane's got a pulse laser and two star cannons, giving you plenty of AP. Your only option is to swap out the star cannons for laser lances, cutting your range and limiting your shots but also giving AP 4 and Deadly 6, the perfect choice for killing tanks and titans.

• Wraith Titan: A genuine behemoth, even bigger than the avatar of flames though less adept in melee...by default. See, it has two wraith cannons for crushing armor, but you can instead buy a ghost sword like the wraith walker or the sun cannon for blasting - both come with Regeneration from a shield. If you're looking for another gun, you can buy the star cannon, the shard cannon or the scatter laser. None of them have the punch, but they give you more things to blast.

Army Building

Tactics

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Pros

• Almost your entire army is some shade of Fast
• Great tanks
• Plentiful Rending on the guns

Cons

• Your army is costly as hell
• Troops aren't as tanky as your tanks

Special Rules

• Very Fast: Fast+1. Some of your models can move 12" and dash/charge 24". Your entire army can cover obscene distances without even blinking. You absolutely will be needing it considering your army's pretty lightweight.

• Teleport: When activated, this unit can teleport 6" without sacrificing movement and ignoring any terrain.

Psychic Spells

• Hide (4+): Enemy unit within 12" takes -1 to hit with shooting. Again, this is critical for protecting your troops.
• Soul Seeker (4+): One enemy model within 12" takes an AP 2 hit. Absolutely welcome to have such a cheap sniping spell.
• Creator (5+): Friendly unit within 12" gains +1 to defense when they next get hit. Absolutely worth comboing with Hide.
• Destroyer (5+): Enemy unit within 12" takes 6 hits. Not much, but it can handle mobs.
• Blessing (6+): One friendly unit within 12" can immediately charge 6" and gets to add +1 to hit in melee. You're only going to use this for the dedicated melee units.
• Curse (6+): Two enemy units within 6" take a 4 AP 2 hits each. Evil.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Elven King: The king's actually quite well-rounded as a leader. While your lone melee weapons are either the stock CCW or the energy sword, you can spend 20 points for Regeneration without losing the option for a gun - of which you can grab a pretty decent variety. The king also has quite a few options for mobility between Teleport, hawk wings (for Ambush and Flying), Fear or a jetbike (Impact 1, Strider, Very Fast and a twin shardgun). The last and most costly option is the Ancient Commander, giving your shooters some mobility, as you let the king and his unit the ability to move 3" before or after their movement.
  • Shooting: The basic shard pistol is pretty basic: 12" A! with Rending. If you're looking for better, you've got a few. The web spinner is the same range, but adds another shot and is AP 1, more allowing the king to punch through light armor. The shard carbine gives another shot and boosts the range a little to 18". The laser blaster doubles the range, but also gives the king the most shots at 24" A3. The fusion rifle is absolutely overkill in Firefight, and thus you're likely to just be better off without it.

• High Seer: Your most elite psychic has 3+ quality, giving a good lot of power. Besides the shard pistol, you have a choice between the energy sword or an energy spear reliable AP 2 without spending anything. Alongside boosting their psychic level to 2, you can buy a jetbike for the seer as well, giving you a super-mobile means to cast and block as you see fit.

• Seer: Slightly worse shots than the high seer, but you have a cheaper psychic. They are otherwise identical to the high seer, including the ability to buy jetbikes.

Infantry

• Storm Warrior: Your force is pretty light, though 4+ quality makes them better than most hordes. Issue is that your armaments are pretty meager with only a shard pistol and CCW, relying on Fast to get stuck in. You can buy an energy sword for some rending and AP, while shooting can be either flamethrowers or fusion rifles.

• Guardian: The shooty version of the Storm Warrior. Each of them carries a shardgun, which are shard pistols with another attack. Their guns pretty much are their life, though you can grab a weapons platform for a longer-range heavy weapon. If you're not patient with managing reapers, then you're well-served by this.
  • Gun Platform: The base gun platform comes with a star cannon, a pretty good long range anti-armor gun with 36" A2 AP 2. The shard cannon is shorter-range, but gives Rending and more shots. The scatter laser gives more attacks at long range, but it's all at AP 1. The missile launcher lets you pick between Blast 3 for coverage or Deadly 3 for killing heroes and bruisers. The laser lance is absurd amounts of overkill, more than you even want for Firefight since nothing has a Tough value beyond 3.

• Ranger: Over twice the cost of a guardian, you can get a ranger with a sniper rifle, Scout and Stealth. While you're not utterly helpless like most dedicated sniper units, you're not in a good spot if you're in danger regardless.

• Avenger: By default, the avengers are slightly better than guardians, with slightly better range on their shard carbines and 4+ defense. Like the guardians, you will need to learn to love these things if you want to get far, and you can give an avenger two of them for fun. If you want something more suited to melee, you can instead swap the carbine for a shard pistol and either an energy sword (AP 1 and Rending) or a dire sword (AP 3) for free. However, if you value durability over all else, you can go down to a pistol+CCW to get Regeneration.

• Banshee: You'll be needing Strider because this unit's all about combat. After all, they get an energy sword as a default weapon and for 20 points you can buy Fear. If you're planning on focusing more on shooting you can try a tri-sling for 3 extra shots (without Rending) while those more keen on melee by weight of die would look at the mirror swords so you can throw 6 attacks without any shooting or Rending. Buy an execution sword if you plan on throwing the banshees at a hero or bruiser, as it's the best use for Deadly 3.

• Reaper: One of your few Slow units, but they're well-protected and have very long-ranged weapons to compensate. If the base missiles don't satisfy, you can give any of them shot missiles for some serious punch. You can also buy either a shard cannon for short-range mass fire with Rending or tempest missiles for Indirect blasting - it's not like you're very mobile to begin with.

• Dragon Warrior: Equipped with the heavy flamethrower, meaning you're throwing out a lot of attacks. If you're set on killing tanks, you're going to want the fusion rifles or pikes - the only difference between the two is just range. Just beware the price tag because these things don't come cheap.

• Scorpion Warrior: Another melee warrior, but you have Scout and Stealth to set you up in better positions and the option for a biting sword if you feel Poison will be more worthwhile than Rending. Scorpion claw gives what amounts to another pistol shot, and you can still make one of them go full-melee with two energy swords.

• Spider Warrior: Ambush and Teleport mean that they can pretty much be wherever they want, though they lack Fast. The web spinner is pretty much a shardgun with AP 1, which you can then give one guy either a second one of or buy the web spinner rifle for slightly longer range. Spider blades give you two weapons with AP 1, which should really only be for self-defense.

• Hawk Warrior: Your laser blaster has twice the range and more attacks, but it lacks the shardguns' Rending. With Ambush and Flying, you'll have plenty of space to move around for the sake of getting all your shots. For guns you're stuck with spending 5 points for either AP 1 or Poison on your laser blaster. You could also grab an energy sword for token melee, but there's not really much reason to do so when you all have long-range guns.

• Wraith Suit: Heavyweight with 2+ defense and Tough 3, but lack Slow. Wraith cannons provide you with high AP right out the box, but you could also give the squad distortion guns for a lot of attacks with Rending. If you're more keen on making these tanky boys more melee-focused, you're stuck with either twin energy swords or energy swords and shields for Regeneration.

• Jetbike: Jebikes are fun because they have Strider and Very Fast, meaning they can pretty much be anywhere you want. While you can use them to charge with Impact, you're going to be stuck with CCWs. It's better to view them as mobile weapons platforms, as your only other options see you sacrifice your weapons for twin shardguns or a long-range shard cannon.

• Jetspear: Better jetbiker with a laser spear to lean into Impact a bit harder and twin shardguns. You could give one guy an energy sword to make ongoing combat slightly less torturous or a star lance for AP 4 on the charge, making it pretty much able to nail anything.

Army Building

Tactics

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Grimdark Future Tactics Articles
General:	General Tactics
Alien Hives:	Alien Hives - Soul-Snatcher Cults
Aliens:	Dwarf Guilds - Eternal Dynasty - Jackals - Orc Marauders Robot Legions - Saurian Starhost - TAO Coalition
Battle Brothers:	Battle Brothers - Custodian Brothers - Prime Brothers
Elves:	Dark Elf Raiders - Elven Jesters - High Elf Fleets
Havoc:	Havoc Brothers - Machine Cult Defilers - Wormhole Daemons
Humans:	Battle Sisters - Feudal Guard - Gangs of Hive City Human Defense Force - Human Inquisition - Infected Colonies Machine Cult - Titan Lords - Rebel Guerillas
Ratmen:	Ratmen Clans - Vile Rattus Cult