Thoughts About Our Last Game

Was thinking about our latest game. K was at a disadvantage to begin with. I have been working on ironing out the wrinkles in my high elf list for months. I have been playing against the Empire a lot lately and just getting crushed. I have tried everything against the empire. Even a mostly Cav list. I just kept getting dominated. I think the empire is just a bad March up for the high elves. K murders my infantry and Cav with his war machines(1 cannon, 1 mortar, 1 rocket battery) he shuts down my magic with his 3 extra dispelled dice. I was very happy to fight the tomb kings and with my list.

Now as for the game. I think The warsphinx is going to be great. Not all armies have a cannon they can just knock it down with. In fact, it looks right now, the best answer for the high elves to deal with it, is to avoid it, and let archers shoot at it for a few rounds. 2 units of 12 Archers would deal 2 wounds before the save. 2-3 rounds of shooting would leave it almost dead.

K Chariots would of done almost double the wounds they did, had my spearmen not had +4 toughness. I think with the right set up they can be fielded in numbers from 3-6, but much larger, i think they will just be a point sink. It's not like you can do point denial with them, granted, Always Strike First hurt them badly!

The Tomb King Archers and Cats didn't really do anything the whole game. I think the Cats will be ok, they just scattered badly in this first game. The Archers on the other hand just don't seem to be really worth anything. Almost always hitting on a 5 is great, until you think about most archers, in most cases, will hit on a 5. Is it really that big of a deal? They can't even stand and shoot and with my high elf infantry having an average charge range of 12, that hurts a lot.

Well that's all for now, more thoughts to come.

Back and Forth

I have been jumping around lately, and it's more then likely been hurting me. I love playing different Races case they can be so different but I think it has held me back. Trying to stick with just 2 to keep jumping back and forth to. I have been really happy with the progress of the Beastmen to keep wanting to push on with them. I don't want to give up on the High Elves just yet. Between K and I, we have come up with a few new twists with them. Almost everywhere I read people keep saying you need the "Book" or Telics to win. I hate this!! I think both are cheese and I refuse to use cheese. K and I kept looking at different things we have done with the HE and keep come back to a few things. 1) The Core Sucks!!! Plain and simple. Make the best of it. Right now I am running a unit of around 35 Spearmen with Full Cmd. Two units of Archers, 12 and 14. 2) Phoenix Guard are great. Now I know that is not a surprise but they are one of the few things that have never changed in my army. 3) There are only a few armies that can truly excel while using Cav, and I think High Elves are one of them. While I may prefer Infantry, I still like to win. All infantry is a sure way to get yourself frustrated.

With all that, my army has change a good bit since first playing 8th.
Lord, GW, 2+(Re-role-able)4+ Ward, Barded Warhorse, Crown of Command
Archmage, Lvl 4, x-spell, 4+ Ward
BSB, GW, 2+(Re-role-able)

35 Spearmen Full Cmd
14 Archers
12 Archers

24 Phoenix Guard, Full Cmd, Banner of Sorcery

Here is where things get interesting.
13 Dragon Princes, Musician, Champ w/ Unit gaining Magical Attacks
15 Swordmasters
or
13 Dragon Princes
15 White Lions full Cmd

Not sure what to do with the last bit.

High Elf Army List

The new High Elf army list I have been taliing about is as follows:

Archmage Lvl 4 Seerstaff of Saphery

Prince W/ GW, HA, Barded Horse, Helm of Fortune, Radiant Gem of Hoeth

Noble BSB W/ GW, Armor of Calador, Dawnstone

3 Units of 20 Archers with Musician

29 Pheonix Guard Full Command, Banner of Sorcery, and BSB

2 Bolt Throwers

11 Silver Helms Full Command and Lord

6 Shadow Warriors

High Elves

After a few crazy weeks, I am back with a little more high Elf info. I now have 2 High Elf list that i like to run. Getting away from my dragon based army, I wanted to see what a shooting based army would do. Well, with the new rules i have to rethink using Sea Guard and spearmen so much.

Being able to attack in 2 ranks with the archers makes it less of a big deal that the Sea Guard has spears. The big difference now comes with the difference in armor save and range of bows. I am finding it to be a better idea to ditch spearmen all together and go with archers and the Guard. Most of the time my spearmen get butchered Point for Point. In that case I might as well just sit back with archers and shoot them. If i want a unit that can move forward, just take the Sea Guard.

The Pheonix Guard has become my second favorite unit in the high elf army. I just love having a unit of 30 of them sit there FOREVER. K talked me into a good size unit of them, and I think he regrets it everytime he faces them. They are under priced. To get a 4+ Ward save cost around 45 Points. I can make a Noble with a 4+ Ward and a 5+ armor save for 134 Points. That's a whole 2 wounds worth. Or for 1 more point i can get 6 Pheonix Guards with Full Command. Really makes me wonder why people go Charracter crazy.

With the shooting and magic army, i have now begun to use some cav to off set the lack of movement and to try and keep things out of charge range. Running a Lord with a Great weapon, Lvl 1, and 2+ re-role-able alongside a unit of 11 Silver Helms with Full Command.

This is a big change from what I was doing with the Dragon army, but it is growing on me!