Editing Malekith (section)

==On The Tabletop==
With ''[[The End Times]]: [[Khaine]]'' now out, Malekith has three sets of rules for 8e; his original self from the Dark Elves army book, his incarnation as the Phoenix King, and his ultimate incarnation as the Eternity King.

===Malekith the Witch King===
This is the original Malekith, for which you pay 510 points.

His statline is quite impressive; Movement 5, Weapon Skill 8, Ballistic Skill 7, Strength 5, Toughness 4, Wounds 3, Initiative 8, Attacks 4 and Leadership 10. He's also a level 4 caster who uses the Lore of Dark Magic.

He sports the rules Always Strikes First, Eternal Hatred, Fear, Hekarti's Blessing, Immune to Psychology, Murderous Prowess, and a unique rule of his own: Absolute Power means he must be the army's general and his Inspiring Presence is 18" (24" if he's riding Seraphon).

He wields:
* The Destroyer - Magic Weapon that forces enemy models to reveal what magical stuff they are carrying, and forces a D6 to be rolled each time a model with magic takes a hit; on a 4+, they lose a random magic item or a random spell (if a Wizard).
* The Armor of Midnight - Magic Armor that gives a 5+ armor save, a 2+ ward save against any non-magical attacks, and which negates the Killing Blow and Multiple Wound effects.
* Supreme Spellshield - Magic Shield that grants Magic Resistance 2 and inflicts D6 Strength 6 hits on the caster (and their unit, if any) of any spell that is dispelled by Malekith's Magic Resistance.
* Circlet of Iron - Arcane Item that lets Malekith add a single bonus dice to any of his failed casting or dispel attempts once per Magic phase.

Malekith can also be mounted on a Cold One for +25 points, a Cold One Chariot (replacing both crew) for +110 points, or on Seraphon (Black Dragon with +1 WS and +1 Attack) for +300 points.

===Malekith the Phoenix King===
This version of Malekith rides Seraphon and has a combined profile; Movement 6, Weapon Skill 8, Ballistic Skill 7, Strength 6, Toughness 6, Wounds 9, Initiative 8, Attacks 10 and Leadership 10. He's also a level 4 caster who uses the Lores of Fire and Dark Magic.

He trades Murderous Prowess for Martial Prowess and acquires a new special rule, The Phoenix King, which lets all friendly units within 12" make supporting attacks with one extra rank than normal (stacks with any other special rules that let them do the same). So your average 5 wide unit of non-spear-wielding Elves will attack in 4 ranks if they're near him.

He also trades the Destroyer and the Supreme Spellshield for Asuryath (Multiple Wounds D3 and Flaming Attacks).

This version of Malekith costs 825 points.

A word of warning: against Tyrion Avatar of Khaine, Malekith's sword Asuryath (which has Flaming Attacks) will give Tyrion a 2+ ward save (due to Fireborn). This turns what would otherwise be a balanced fight which Malekith should win, into Malekith being unlikely to survive more than 2-3 rounds before dying pitifully- and that's only because he's immune to the Multiple Wounds rule. Each time Tyrion hits (with his 6 attacks needing 3s but no rerolls), it'll wound (auto-wound, ignore armor, and Malekith gets no ward save), so it'll take at least 2 rounds for Malekith to die, 3 if he's really lucky (Word of Pain could potentially help, but not much unless you can cast it multiple times). But in all honesty, just do what you can to keep Malekith out of that situation.

===Malekith the Eternity King===
For a whopping ''1000 points'', this ultimate version of Malekith makes the following changes to the Phoenix King version:

* +1 Wound.
* Has both Murderous Prowess and Martial Prowess.
* Is a level 5 Wizard who knows every spell in the Lore of Shadow.
* Trades The Phoenix King for The Eternity King (as Phoenix King, but Murderous Prowess units within 12", and Malekith himself, reroll all failed To Wound rolls in close combat).
* Gains the Shadow Sorcerer (may re-roll the result of miscasts but second result stands) rule.
* Gains the Incarnate of Shadow special rule (Malekith or a friendly unit within 12" can, at the start of the Remaining Moves subphase, gain Ethereal until the end of that sub-phase and can immediately move up to 20").
* Upgrades Asuryath to Asuryath Reforged (Multiple Wounds D3+1).

Malekith Eternity King is definitely one of the most powerful single model in the game, combining an exceptionally brutal combat monster stat line with magic gear that provides both combat punch as well as survivability, as well as being a level 5 lore master of one of the best lores, with slightly built in miscast protection (you still suffer the effects) and boosts to casting and dispelling. On top of that he is an excellent army support, providing a large Leadership bubble as well as boosts to Martial and Murderous Prowess. Oh, did I mention the free Walk Between Worlds? This guy excels at pretty much every phase of the game. The only issue is that unlike the other 1000 point character, Nagash, you will find it harder to make back his point cost. The best way to do that would be having him murder characters, monsters and monstrous units; he is one of the best things for dealing with the other monster special characters such as Nagash, Glottkin, Karl Franz Ascendent etc.

He's not without weaknesses though, he stands no chance in combat whatsoever against enhanced Glottkin, aka the version with curse of the Leper on them and a 3+ ward (so use spells to get rid of them), he's vulnerable to debuffs, and keep in mind if you are putting him against Nagash, try to debuff Nagash as much as possible so you don't have to deal with Nagash's healing/debuff Shenanigans and stop Nagash from bringing in back-up by dispelling his summoning spells.