Thursday 21 October 2010

2000 Dark Elf Warhost. It's just not right man...

So folks, an article on the Dark Elf army I would run if I ran Dark Elves. It's, in my opinion just absolutely stupid. I say article, it's just to show you how stupid this army book is. Have a look if you dare.



Lord
Supreme Sorceress
Level 4
Lore of Death
Power Scroll
305

Hero
Sorceress
Level 2
Dark Magic or Lore of Shadow. I'm undecided.
Tome of Furion
150

Core
10 Repeater Crossbowmen
Standard
Musician
115

10 Repeater Crossbowmen
Standard
Musician
115

10 Repeater Crossbowmen
Standard
Musician
115

5 Dark Riders
Standard
Musician
Repeater Crossbows
131

5 Dark Riders
Standard
Musician
Repeater Crossbows
131

Special
8 Shades
128

8 Shades
128

8 Shades
128

Cold One Chariot
100

Cold One Chariot
100

Rare
War Hydra
175

War Hydra
175

1996

So this list. Err. Well, let's have a look. In there you have 68 repeater crossbows. That's 136 shots a turn. However 48 of those are at BS5. What else do you have? Well you have a level 4 death wizard, which is fun. You also have 2 Powers of Darkness. Oh and 2 Hydras. Now frankly, at the moment you're probably asking me "what the hell? Where are the harpies!? ". Well, I really don't think this list needs it. The only static element is the 30 RxBmen. And they have a pair of hydras and a pair of chariots to protect them.

Oh and Soulblight with Repeater Crossbowmen. Good times are had.

Oh and finally, Watchtower will hurt yes. But so will being charged turn one by a hydra. Unless your unit has the Banner of Eternal Flame (and even then...) you're in serious trouble holding that tower. While the rest of the army can happily mow down anything that tries to come near the tower.

Finally, this kind of army scares the shit out my skaven. I would be taking so much panic, get sweet FA from my templates and their magic is as good, if not better than mine. Yup, hard army imo.

8 comments:

  1. Yikes. If I could make an army with Corsairs and Cold One Knights I'd be all over the DE bandwagon.

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  2. "It's just not right man..."

    Avatar, eh?

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  3. I like it. I assume you'd put the sorceresses with the Shades so they can cast mean stuff first turn?

    I think you have to go Shadow on the level 2. Lowering the toughness of enemies before they get 25 crossbow hits is really strong.

    But boy, do I not like the 2000 points level.

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  4. Chumb, you can! Corsairs with the frenzy banner aren't *that* bad. But Cold One Knights are pretty good if you have a Cauldron. Won't be as brutal as this though.

    lehcyfer, it was just a general statement. But sure, why not :P

    Nikephoros, the Sorceresses would go wherever was most viable. All said the shades aren't a bad place to put them but they would be better scouting. So they'd probably be in the RXB unit. I agree with you on shadow as well. Mostly for the signature spell of pure awesome.

    Why don't you like 2k? 2.5k isn't too bad but I feel it can get a bit too crazy. And the game breaks at 3k.

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  5. Agreed that 3k is trash where warmachine spam gets totally nutty.

    I think with 2k I run into the same problem I run into with 40k at 1500 points, namely that my armies don't feel "complete" and that nagging flawed feeling makes me not enjoy playing them. Really it comes down to including the units that I think are fun.

    In 40k I play Black Templars. The main appeal of the army for me are assault terminators in a land raider. You COULD play a single unit of those at 1500, but you'd be a hopeless deathstar list that would lose in any really competitive setting. Same goes for Space Wolf players with TWC.

    Maybe I'm selfish, but I want to play at a points level where I can play the "good stuff" in the codex and still have a balanced force.

    With Fantasy 2k its less of a problem than 40k at 1500, but still a problem. The big issue is that in Fantasy a level 4 sorcerer is an obligatory choice for every army. And in most armies that means shelling out between 15-20% of your points before you even get to playing things you want to take.

    I think this is a problem that affects elite armies moreso than hordes. With a Skaven army you get all your cool toys at 2k. With a WoC army you only get 1 or 2 cool toys at 2k.

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  6. Yeah but WoC's toys are usually better than Skaven ones.

    See in 40k I understand your perspective, because you play BTs. BTs, as I understand, do need about 1750 or more to be played correctly. However, consider my Skaven army. At 2k I've taken all my effective slots. My army is full of effective choices. At 2k a WoC army has not taken all their effective choices, but their army is still full of them. If we bump it up to 2500 I'll be adding a unit of jezzails, and then filler. Whereas the WoC player can genuinely add things that help his force.

    It's much the same in 40k. Ever seen crons above2k? It's not pretty. See I think all codices are balanced at 1500, besides BT. Honestly, I think every other codex can run an effective army at 1500. Perhaps not orks. But can they run an effective army? ;]

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  7. At 1500 there is usually one decent build available per codex, but rarely more, and rarely are they fun to play. At 2k most recent codices have multiple competitive builds, and they start to get to utilize fun units. I honestly believe that 40k is balanced best at 2000, but we can agree to disagree.

    But yeah, Skaven get an effective army at 2k that is balanced and does everything you'd consider a fun Skaven army able to do. But not every army is like that, in fact its probably the exception not the rule. There are simply too many armies in Fantasy that have no competitive builds at all in 2k for me to think its an optimal point level. I'd argue that at 2,500 you could write a good list for nearly ever army book.

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  8. See I'd argue that it's more only a few armies can have truly competitive builds. Example, 2k or 2.5k isn't gonna make O&G or Ogres competitive. Same way 1500 or 2000 isn't gonna make crons competitive.


    Agree to disagree sounds fun. I like 1500 because it's very much "you can't have your cake and eat it".

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