Editing Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/High Elves (section)

====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 need to have them, go ahead. Just make sure you're really getting your points worth.

'''- Lords  -'''

* '''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 (4 base +3 from Sunfang, and a magical Flaming Attack at that) and a breath weapon, he can pretty much wreck an entire unit on his own and with his 1+ armor, 4+ ward, and Magic Resistance (2) he will just not die (and even if he does, the engagement necklace from the Everqueen means one wound that would kill him is negated on a 2+, essentially giving him +1 wound, or a one time immunity to killing blow. He loses his magic resistance after use, meaning that last wound is slightly more vulnerable). However, he's kinda stuck in the role of the hammer, and at that level of points you can 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 (that dragon can't join a unit though, which makes Tyrion worth considering far more than he was in 7th edition). He's fun, but competitive lists tend to prefer generic options or the Everqueen. Something of note is that he can join a unit of Silver Helms or Dragon Princes which really ruins someones day in larger games (remember that now with Silver Helms being core, your anvil can suddenly drop onto the heads of the enemy rather than just hold them in place in an all cavalry list). His super-horse also has +1 M,WS,S,I and A.  Be aware, he has taken a VERY SLIGHT nerfing (ie; his immunity to fire is now on a 2+ ward save meaning if he rolls a one he gets roasted. As cavalry he's no longer immune to killing blow so KB units such as Grave Guard can suddenly wreck his day again. He's also 10 points dearer). Weiging in at 410 points, he'll eat up a big chunk of your Lords points, but with the changes due to the End Times, you can now field him and the Everqueen in a 2000 pt game (and hopefully they don't start banging mid-game). One final change to him in this edition: he no longer HAS to be General of the army he's in, but if he is his inspiring presence has a range of 18". If your strategy is wedge Tyrion in your enemy's ass while a mage hides in a bunker and faps to the scene, you might wanna keep him as a minion but if your whole strategy is to run your enemy down with a wall of equine death he should be the one in charge.

* '''Teclis, the Loremaster of Hoeth:''' All those lifeline steroid pills must be getting to him, he got nerfed again. Not nearly as badly as last time, but he's weaker. He is still a powerful mage because he can either know all spells in High Magic, or have one spell (of your choice) from each normal Lore. The Moon Staff is now a one use item that either lets you add an extra die to each cast attempt from him for a turn OR negate a miscast from him (after use Teclis reduces his Strength and Toughness to 1 for the rest of the game, which is pretty funny but bad news). The scroll he carries is still nice, letting him auto-dispel an enemy (non-IF) spell as well as having a D6 roll-off against the mage who cast the spell, with a win resulting in them losing that spell for the rest of the game. Despite his ''awesome'' sword, he is still a cripple of an elf with no save to speak of so at least cram him into something that won't see cc and can protect him at the same time (<s>not</s> easy). The War Crown of Saphery, which used to let him dispel a miscast each turn and thus overpower him more than almost anyone else in the game, now grants him an additional wizard level making him one of the four Level 5 wizard options in the game. All together Teclis has gone from being mandatory in a "best possible" High Elf list to being an expensive character who's return on his points is still pretty damn good. Still, he's great for picking spells now that the magic item that used to let you do that is gone from the game. If you are using Storm of Magic rules, Teclis is still the powerhouse he once was and is just as facerollingly unfair as before.

* '''Alarielle the Radiant:''' The Everqueen is back people, and she is a Lord level wizard who can choose how many of her four spells are rolled from High Magic, Life Magic, and Light Magic. Mostly a defensive character, she uses her female status to make her unit protective of her to the point that they are immune to Fear and Terror (which is fair play if you ask me) and all her units' attacks count as magical ('cuz why not). Also she heals one friendly character within 12" for 1 wound each round during the movement phase, but needs to target anyone else if available before herself since she's nice and all. Her and her unit get a 5+ ward save against non magical attacks too, which is jolly decent of her (breaks everything if buffed with High Magic lore and combined with a character with the Banner of the World Dragon). She has only one attack but against the Forces of Destruction it's Heroic Killing Blow on top of her elven ASF. It would be really laughable if... lets say she slays a Greater Demon with this, but highly unlikely. She has Lileath's Blessing like other High Elf casters so she'll add +1 to High Magic spells if you're looking to bump up that Ward Save with Shield of Saphery via High Magic spam. She also has a nifty little passive called Chaos Bane since her very existence makes Daemons take SAN checks (so the Everqueen is more or less the God Emperor of Fantasy in all the ways Sigmar isn't) which means that during the beginning of her Magic Phase, before you roll for winds, every unit with the Daemonic rule within 12" of her takes D6 hits at strength 4 calculated as per shooting. Seems nice, but it comes with the drawback that she casts at a   -D3 to any spells since Daemons give her a sad. She's got a one use item called the Stave of Avelorn which lets her cast a spell a second time regardless of whether she bummed it up or not. Finally, taking her gives Nobles, Lothern Sea Helms, and Handmaidens of the Everqueen special options.  The Noble or Lothern Sea Helm you would use as your Battle Standard Bearer (which you are always going to have) can take the Banner of Avelorn for 40 points, which gives you +4 on every cast of Life and Light magic that targets the unit the Banner is in (that last part if very important, remember it when deciding where the BSB will march) which is very nice if you're looking to get off two of the best defensive/counter lores without losing many power dice each casting. The Handmaiden can take the Horn of Isha, which is a one use item used at the start of the Movement Phase that gives all the models in the unit that used it a +1 To Hit bonus on shooting or melee (so one turn of those arrows from the amazons get a little bit pointier) for 50 points. With all the rules the Queen is toting, she is High Elves' new Teclis but on defense rather than offense. She's also right alongside Teclis in Storm of Magic overpowering. Keep in mind she's not a /win overpowered goddess. Lists that use the Everqueen should have one giant horde to stick her in with multiple wound characters in it. Even a unit of Spearmen with the Everqueen can be buffed to Phoenix Guard levels on the cheap. Everqueen lists are vulnerable to flank charges however, so keep that in mind if you decide your Special choice should be the Alarielle horde. A Sea Helm in the unit with her will solve that issue pretty quickly however.

* '''Alith Anar, the Shadow King:''' Alith used to be overshadowed by the other Lord level choices available, but this edition has him in his own role and if it's what you need he's perfect. He's got a glorious bow granted to him by a goddess (functions as a Bolt Thrower (so subtract the price of one from his cost to figure out what ELSE you're getting from him) that he can shoot even if he moves, and ignores Armor saves) and has a nice statline. Hatred isn't as useful in 8th, but against Dark Elves it's always nice to put just a little more pain on them; speaking of, if you know you will be fighting Dark Elves he's Khaine's gift (one without drawbacks!) to elfkind due to his ranged attack causing -1LD to Dark Elf units he hits until the end of the phase. Since Bow of the Seafarer was removed in 8th edition you can no longer kit out a Prince to be a better shooty lord, so Alith has taken on that role entirely by himself and as a result a more viable option in competitive lists. Alith causes a -1 To Hit for whatever tries to shoot a unit he's joined, and the unit also has Swiftstride so think about where you're putting him (advancing wave of White Lions that you just CANNOT shoot is nice, as is Shadow Warriors you can't catch). Keep in mind that if you deploy him outside of your deployment zone you may want someone else to be your general, otherwise his inspiring presence is wasted for half the game.

* '''Elatharion the Grim, Warden of Tor Yvresse:''' He's nice, but perhaps too expensive for his own good. Hatred VS Orcs and Goblins isn't very useful unless you will actually be playing against them, and his extra boost in personal combat against Grom the Paunch of the Misty Mountain even less so. He's also a Level 2 caster who can grab any lore from the Rulebook (Beasts and Death work well), but that's a job you generally want to split between combat Lords and Wizards (never mind that, for his cost, you can grab a Prince AND a level 2 Mage, with 35 points left for equipment before Eltharion becomes the cheaper pick). He can also ride his enhanced personal Griffin Stormwing and get a free lance. Stormwing has stats exceeding a Sun Dragon and has ASF plus the 5+ Ward Save Eltharion's helmet grants him (How the fuck does that work? Magic. Elf magic.) but has no Scaly Skin which is a big deal when a Sun Dragon is only 40 points more. He's really a good enough Lord who's mostly overshadowed by how much you're paying for him and how other choices crunch better. On the plus side, his badass sword (+2 strength, no armor saves allowed), badass helmet (+1 armor save and 5+ ward save), and finally the badass medallion (gives Magic Resistance (1)) make him an easier pill to swallow if you're going for a themed list. Consider him on foot instead of simply throwing him on the gryphon if you do want him.<br />'''Alternate View'''<br />Compared to other sources, based on the princes profile he should be worth around 391 points (compared to his 295). Still, your mileage may vary if he's point effective or whether a vanilla prince with a few upgrades would be better.<br />'''Even More Alternate-er View'''<br />To achieve an equivalent level of power on vanilla Lords and Heroes would actually come to almost 450 points (Excluding his griffon), so he's a cheap way to have a wizard and a combat beat stick, especially in a low point game. Plus everyone loves a good sword-swinging wizard (Let's call him pointy-eared Gandalf).

'''- Heroes -'''

* '''Caradryan, Captain of the Phoenix Guard:''' Caradryan is a good fighting hero that got 5 points cheaper in 8th but lost 2 points of his magic resistance. Mark of Asuryan was changed from dealing D6 no armour save wounds to the single model that killed him to instead dealing D3 no armour save wounds to the unit or the same to a single enemy in a challenge (so his aftermath special ability has been halved in exchange for it being able to affect the unit when he cops it outside of a challenge). His magic weapon is FANTASTIC against trolls and other regenerating monsters due to having Flaming Attacks, it also hits on +1 strength and causes Multiple Wounds (D3) against anything. He himself is not too expensive, especially since he discourages tricked out Lords/Heroes from coming after him due to his dying ability. Not the greatest Hero in the world, but really fun and a god-tier bodyguard. Also, has the option to now ride a named Frostheart Pheonix, Ashtari. Costs 10 points more than a generic but with an additional attack and is thus a GREAT option. Combine that with his dying ability and you've essentially got a flying tank that weakens things around it carrying a nuke (one that doesn't hurt your own men), and it's on a dead man's trigger. 

* '''Korhil, Captain of the White Lions:''' Korhil's main advantages are as follows: He's cheap (but 10 points costlier in 8th) 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 lost Woodsman, gained Forest Strider which is the same thing by another name. It lets his unit waltz through deadly Forests like they're a peaceful park. He's reasonably killy on his own merits with S4, with +2 strength from his magic weapon, with Killing Blow, with ASF, with an extra hand weapon. Pelt got a slight nerf, grants +1 close combat and +2 shooting to his armor, and instead of being immune to poison in all forms they have to roll To Wound to hit him. Not someone who will turn the game around, but he certainly helps if your strategy is an elfhorde and you didn't bring along Alarielle. See his bio in the fluff section for themed lists, basically he can show up anywhere High Elves are as long as the Phoenix King approves of whatever your army is doing. NEVER FORGET his axe DOESN'T have ASL unlike white lions, so you still get your re-rolls. Korhil may also be mounted on a Lion Chariot, upping his Armour Save by +1 and making the chariot stubborn and a very deadly force on the charge. Plus, the chariot does not have to take a dangerous terrain test when moving through a forest, which is quite huge for a chariot.