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

===Core Units===
* '''Dreadspears:''' Basic Spearmen...well Spearelves. Good M, WS, I and LD, average everything else. Spears, shields, light Armor. 9 points a pop. With ASF and Murderous Prowess, they can be a pretty nasty unit especially on the defense. Probably going to be one of your mainstay units if you focus on offense and best in units of 50-60. 

* '''Bleakswords:''' Same stats as Spearmen, but swords and shields instead of spears and shields. Better in smaller units, and not as generally useful as Dreadspears, but still a pretty solid unit. A 5+ Armor Save followed by a 6+ Ward Save can give them okay durability, but they're not going to stand against everything. Elites and generally everything S4 and up will crush them provided they're able to strike back. Very good tarpit with Flesh to Stone or Glittering Robe, as it mitigates their shitty toughness and armour respectively. Consider getting Darkshards with Shields (they have the exact same close combat prowess and 'survivability', but can contribute at range) if you can spend the extra 4pts per model.

* '''Darkshards:''' The other mainstay core unit, and again they kick ass. Between good range, Armor Piercing and Multiple Shots, these guys shred light to medium armored units like they're not even there. Have them concentrate fire with Bolt Throwers and Shades (if you have them) to damage your enemy's important units. You should always give them shields, as they will be absorbing a lot of S3 and S4 return fire. Flaming Sword of Rhuin is great on these guys, as it gives them +1 to wound. This means you can wound T3 infantry on 3s and Ogres, Saurus etc on 4s. Also, flaming attacks. This doubles the amount of wounds they inflict on flammable units (e.g. Treekin) and negates regeneration saves (e.g. Trolls), so if you see Chaos or Greenskins or Wood Elves, this is worth considering, as with the armour piercing and the wounding on 4s with FSoR you can shred through whole units of them.
 
* '''Black Ark Corsairs:''' Don't let the 9 point cost fool you: they need to take either an extra hand weapon or a handbow for an extra 2 points. But that's not so bad as they're back to being a reliable Core choice again. With 2 hand weapons and a 4+ Armor Save, they're rock solid and can be quite difficult to damage under a lot of circumstances (in fact they're slightly tougher than Bleakswords but with an extra Attack if you get them another hand weapon). They work in either smaller aggressive units of 15-20 or in hordes of 40+ depending on which weapon choices you want to get. 

* '''Witch Elves:''' Witch Elves are the first in the series of nasty flanking units, AND NOW THEY'RE CORE UNITS, KICKASS! The benefit is you can stock up on these lethal ladies and still have points free to allocate to Special choices. They have an absurdly high volume of attacks (30 Poisoned Attacks for 2 ranks of 10, remember supporting attackers only get 1 attack, think about this when using Corsairs, Black Guard, Sisters, etc), high Initiative, ASF and are cheap. As for upgrades, you can't go wrong with Witchbrew. Be careful with them though, they're about as hard to shoot to death as Goblins (more resistant to Panic though, thanks to Frenzy) but thanks to 8th ed they're no longer easily led out of position. Use them by all means, but be careful. Also, there's the fact that they are half-nude women sooo... yeah, I guess at $60 for a ten pack ($70 in Aus), sex must really sell. These are also counterparts to the Corsairs, the Corsairs not hitting quite as hard but being the most durable of all the Dark Elf Core infantry. 

* '''Dark Riders:''' Actually they are incredible now. 20 points each once you get shields and crossbows. And you don't lose Fast Cavalry when you buy shields. So move 9, 4+ armor, with spears and crossbows... and of course the Vanguard move. You can easily get away with taking nothing but these guys for your Core choice as they can outmaneuver damn near everything. Don't take a full army of them against Dwarves or Wood Elves though, you will get shot to pieces. Fantastic against Skaven due to low movement speed but watch out for Warp Lightening Cannons or Plagueclaw Catapults.