The month for High Elves has begun with a bumper release of online articles and painted High Elves models (not all are nice though and many looked rushed…) at the Games Workshop site. I went down today for the latest White Dwarf but it was sold out! Imagine that…but I manage to get my hands on the High Elves Magic Card Deck. A full review on that soon! Meanwhile check out the links and some selected images below.

1) High Elf Art

2) High Elves Painting Tips (Part 1)

3) High Elves Painting Tips (Part 2)

4) Island of Blood Box Set High Elves Painting Tips

5) High Elves Sample Armies

Lawrence King, who goes by the nickname HERO on the Ulthuan forums has shared part of his work in progress tactical article. This first segment focuses on High Elves Lords and Heros.

So 8th Ed brings a lot of new things. The entire game has changed and thus, my unit selection has to go through intensive revision in order to stay competitive. I’ll start with Lords and Heroes since I want to cover everything.

Archmage builds:
Lv.4, Annulian Crystal = 300
Lv.4, Book of Ashur (new item) = 330

The reason why these two will work is because they’re relatively cheap and have specific purposes. The Silver Wand and Seerstaff is no longer a good choice for Archmages because of the way magic selection works. I still roll 4 dice randomly pick spells, but for each double I roll I get to pick the spell instead of re-rolling to see what I get. Chances to me to get the one or two spells I really want is pretty high already. Another reason not to take these two items is because I can only take one Arcane item and both Annulian Crystal and Book of Ashur are superior choices. This also means that dispel scrolls cannot be taken if the Archmage already has an arcane item.

I’ll go ahead right now and explain to you why I think these two configurations is the way to do it. Annulian Crystal takes 1 PD from him and gives me 1 DD. This gives be a better chance to defend against his magic because he rolls 2d6 for power dice during his magic phase and I get the highest for dispel dice. By taking away one of his PD for an extra DD, I nerf his magic and buff my defense. The Book of Ashur is a fantastic choice because it’s basically Starwood Staff and Staff of Sorcery on one item. For 10 points less and the fact they’re both arcane items, this is as good as it gets. My Lv.4 Archmage now has +1 to cast and +1 to dispel. This gives me magic offense with +5 to cast and +6 to dispel because of High Elves’ innate +1 and this item. Beautiful.

Mage builds:
Lv.2 Mage, Seerstaff of Saphery = 165
Lv.1 Mage, Annulian Crystal = 140
Lv.1 Mage, Jewel of Dusk = 115

The Lv.2 and the Seerstaff is self-explaintory. You have a Mage with 2 spells that you can choose from any lore in Warhammer. This is a pretty solid investment. The Lv.1 Mages are there as magical defense and magic offense. The crystal’s purpose is already explained above.. which gives you more long term usability than say a single dispel scroll. As for the Lv.1 with Jewel of Dusk, this item is much better than the new item, Channeling Rod that gives the bearer +1 to channel an additional energy or dispel. You don’t want to ever rely on channeling to give you an extra DD, you want absolutes and results. The Jewel of Dusk is simply +1 PD to your power pool and the Annulian Crystal jacks him and supplies you with an extra DD.

Prince builds:
Prince as DP, Dragon Helm (new item), Vambraces of Defense, Halberd = 257
Prince as DP, Helm of Fortune, Guardian Phoenix, Blade of Sea Gold = 276
Prince on Foot, Armor of Caledor, Vambraces of Defense, GW = 242
Prince on Foot, Armor of Caledor, Guardian Phoenix, White Sword, Talisman of Loec = 250

I went with 2 types of build for each type of Prince; both offensively and defensively. The ones with Vambraces are obviously defensive.. with the first DP on the barded elven steed having a 1+ re-rollable, immune to fire and a 4+ ward. He’s also sitting with 35 points that you can add a weapon to. The Prince on foot is going with a 2+ re-rollable and 4+ ward with a humble Great Weapon. As for the offensive princes, the first one has a Helm of Fortune which gives him a re-rollable 1+ armor save and 5+ ward. The Blade of Sea Gold ignores armor saves and is great for punching holes in something like enemy knights. Since ASF with higher or equal I gets to strike first and re-roll hits, WS7 and I7 with ASF just became a little better at hitting his target. The only thing that slightly nerfs weapons that ignore armor saves is the fact that parry bonus now gives the unit 6+ ward in close combat. Things brings us up to next Prince setup.. which is a popular setup from 7th for those that like to play their princes on foot. The 2+/5++ save is pretty meager, but the White Sword and Talisman is a hero-killer. With +2 strength and KB, re-rolls to hit because of the new ASF rules and the talisman to force your opponents to re-roll his successful ward saves, the White Sword Price is a challenge machine.

***Notice I didn’t include any Star Dragon builds? That’s because the cost to play them is in 2500 point games. Since we don’t know what’s going to be the “popular” points to play at yet, I’m going to just make builds for 2k. Besides, the Star Dragon build with Armor of Caledor and Vambraces of Defense will hardly change.***

Noble builds:
Noble as DP, BSB, Battle Banner, Halberd = 218
Noble as DP, BSB, Helm of Fortune, Guardian Phoenix, Halberd = 188
Noble on Foot, BSB, Armor of Caledor, Guardian Phoenix, GW = 168

Notice a trend here? I don’t take the noble other than BSB purposes. If I want combat potential, I look at Caradryan and Korhil because they’re both better choices for the cost. I’ll explain why in a bit. So anyways, the noble on the horses have a 2+ save with the Battle Banner and a 1+ re-rollable, 5+ ward without. The survivability here is absolutely huge. If you don’t take magical banners, your noble will be a hell of a lot more survivable. In 8th Ed., the BSB is a HUGE player in how things turn out. That’s because the BSB allows re-rolls of ALL leadership related tests within 12″ of it. If your general is in range, you’re using his leadership and re-rolling any failed tests. Another thing that makes me sad is that the noble on the horse cannot really join infantry units (unit type) and feel safe. Sure, ranged attacks like Bolt Throwers, magic missiles, bows and guns go into the unit, but indirect weapons such as Stone Throwers or Cannons or something that’s magical template will be able to hit him with confidence. But what about Look Out Sir! you say? When models are the same unit type and in a unit, characters get a 2+ Look Out Sir. If he’s on a horse, this is reduced to a 4+. I don’t know about you guys.. but that doesn’t give me confidence in knowing that my Battle Banner can be sniped out from under me. That’s a BSB, a character and a 80 point banner to lose in one cannon shot.

Special Characters:
Teclis
Korhil
Caradryan

I’ll only cover 3 special characters because I either have little experience playing the others, or think they suck. It’s probably because I think they suck that I have little experience playing them. For example, I’ll start with Tyrion really quick: He’s the fastest elf at I10, has WS9 and rides a M10 mount. That’s nice. Last edition, he had a 0+ armor save, 4+ ward and 4+ regen. This Ed, the max armor save he can have is 1+ and he can only make a ward or regen roll, not both. Sure, the MR2 and S7 is nice.. but not 400 points nice. Maybe if they re-do some of his rules in the FAQ, put him on a normal cavalry sized base and errata the fact he has regen and ward, we can look at him again.

As for Alith, Eltharion and Dragon Mages, I don’t think they’re worth their points. Alith just doesn’t add enough combat potential, Eltharion and Stormwing is poor man’s version of Prince on Star Dragon and Dragon Mages are overpriced for what they do.

Well, first thing’s first. Let’s talk about Teclis and he offers us in 8th Ed. First, his price makes him playable at 2k points because of the 25% rule. Since all casters pull from the same pool and Teclis generates +D3 power and dispel dice every turn, this helps immensely. Teclis was a greedy little bastard to begin with when it comes to magic, so this works heavily in our favor. In 8th, you’ll only see 1-2 casters in most lists simply because the bonus to cast and dispel much more important on big casters. Annulian Crystal, move aside. +D3 possible dispel dice per turn with his +5 innate dispel is huge. To make things even better, Teclis still has his uber forget scroll when no other Archmage can take a arcane item and a dispel scroll. Now comes the big winner: Teclis scores IF on any doubles and his Warhelm of Saphery dispels his first miscast every turn. Now how magic works in 8th Ed is that when you IF, you lose control and miscast. Also when you IF, it doesn’t matter if you hit the casting value or not, the spell will go off regardless. So let’s say you want to cast the 20+ version of the uber Beast spell and turn yourself into the Dragon. Now you can on a roll of 1,1 and 2 if you throw 3 dice at it. If you lose control because you throw double 6s, good for you. The spell still goes off but the warhelm prevents the miscast. See where I’m going with this? Either the Book of Hoeth and Teclis need a errata or they’re going to be absolutely hated. The fact that the entry for BoH and Teclis both state that IF goes off on any doubles on “any successful casting roll” means that by RAW, they must hit the 20+ need to cast.. but then again, the BRB specifically states that IF causes the spell to go off whether or not it hits the casting value or not. We will definitely need a errata on this one!

Now that Teclis is done, let’s talk briefly about Korhil and Caradryan. Both of them haven’t really changed since last edition except for two main rules: Stubborn and MR3. Stubborn now gives the unit Steadfast regardless or not he has more ranks. What Steadfast is (new USR) is that any unit with more ranks than the enemy will always take a leadership test without combat modifiers when making a break test. This means that you can use the BRB and your general’s leadership as well. So basically, Stubborn just got better. Good for Korhil, and the fact that he still has that lovely S6 Killing Blow.. that only got better because he gets to re-roll to hit because of ASF and I7. Caradryan’s MR3 no longer gives units dispel dice vs. magical attacks, but now gives them a 6+ ward save for each level of MR. MR1 will give units without a ward save a 6+ and MR3 will give them a 4+ ward vs. magical attacks. This includes missiles or direct damage attacks.. not buffs or hexes. The cool thing about this is that it also stacks with the Phoenix Guard’s natural 4+ ward, so Caradryan in a unit with PG will have a 1+ (or 2+, I don’t know if it’s capped) ward vs. magic. Besides, I’d probably just stick them with a Banner of Arcane Protection if I wanted MR. You know what’s funny? Korhil works better with Phoenix Guard and Caradryan works better with White Lions. It’s true. White Lions with a 3+ vs. shooting and 4+ ward vs. magic is pretty damn good and Korhil’s Stubborn makes Phoenix Guard even more annoying. Not to mention both character and their units have Stubborn and the two dudes add damage and killing potential.

Great write up Lawrence, and a really nice run down especially the potential Lord and Hero builds we can choose from. I’ll bw looking forward to the rest of his tactics article which will likely be published on his blog.

Games Workshop’s Adam Troke written an official 8th edition tactica for the High Elves.  It looks like a pretty good summary, and would likely give you a good idea on how the High Elves would fair in the 8th, at least from the eyes of Games Workshop.

The Children of Asuryan

Adam Troke knows a thing or two about the High Elves – he is the author of the army book, after all, and you would be hard pressed to find a more staunch defender of Ulthuan.

The armies of the High Elves are finely trained and superbly disciplined fighting machines. On the battlefield precisely ordered regiments of Spearmen and Archers, bolstered by cavalry, chariots and ranks of elite infantry form a glittering host. The heart and soul of any High Elf army are the regiments of citizen soldiers, the Spearmen, Archers and Sea Guard who answer the call to defend their island continent. The term citizen soldier could be considered deceptive to those who are uninitiated – for every High Elf devotes a portion of their time training in the art of war. What is twenty or thirty years spent mastering bow, spear and sword to an Elf whose life will span centuries if not millennia?

While the Spearmen and Archers form the centre of the High Elf battleline they do not fight alone, for the Elves of Ulthuan have many elite regiments whose prowess overshadows even the skills of the citizen soldiers. The likes of the Sword Masters of Hoeth, warrior aesthetics whose skill with their great swords is without match and the White Lions of Chrace, a ferocious band of warriors who form the bodyguard for the Phoenix King and act as his envoy upon the battlefield. Elegant Repeater Bolt Throwers hurl spear-sized projectiles into the enemy while brotherhoods of elite knights such as the Silver Helms or the legendary Dragon Princes lead shield-shattering charges into the foe.

Most fearsome of all, however, are the Dragons – gigantic monsters whose history and destiny is inexorably intertwined with the Elves of Ulthuan. These mighty creatures lend their wisdom and incredible power to the High Elves, sundering enemy regiments with claws and gouts of flame.

These then are the armies of the High Elves, a host of elite warriors whose skill at arms and preternatural agility makes them the finest fighting force in the world. Well led, there is no foe that they cannot overcome for they are the scions of Asuryan and their skill, intelligence and grace is beyond the comprehension of mere mortals.

On the Tabletop

There’s no army more elite than the High Elves in all of Warhammer. Their warriors are all experts in their own field of combat and used with care and precision they are capable of besting any foe. But such skill does not come cheaply and the High Elves are among the most costly warriors in Warhammer and, for all their prowess, they are individually fragile.

Strike Fast

The High Elves all have the Always Strike First special rule. This reflects their unnerving agility perfectly and means that they will simply always get the chance to wreak havoc on the enemy.

Fleet Footed

High Elves are universally swift – even their horses are faster than those of Men. This is especially handy when you’re marching into position. Dwarfs and Men have nothing on the Asur when it comes to getting about quickly.

High Stats

Elves aren’t shabby when it comes to Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill and Leadership. This means they generally find it quite easy to hit the foe and, should the unthinkable happen, their Leadership value means they won’t just turn tail and run.

Anti-hordes

The High Elves can chew up hordes of Goblins, Skaven, Empire State Troops, Skeletons, Zombies, Bretonnian Peasants and so on without even breaking a sweat. Because they strike first (and will invariably have a higher Initiative so get a re-roll to hit) and they fight in so many ranks (two as standard, plus one for spears, another for the Martial Prowess special rule and another for a horde if you’re so inclined) they will cause untold carnage on the enemy. A large block of Spearmen will absolutely ravage a unit of Skaven or Goblins and emerge on the other side largely intact… which is just as well because such a unit will often have to kill two or three such foes before the battle is over!

Magical Domination

The High Elves have their pick and choice of magic – their own lore of High Magic and the eight Lores in the Warhammer rulebook. This gives you a massive arsenal of powers to choose from. I recommend using High Magic first and foremost – since Drain Magic and the Shield of Saphery are so useful (the 5+ ward save from Shield of Saphery can really make a difference for your fragile troops). Lore of Life provides a couple of great spells including a 5+ Regeneration save and a potential +2 Toughness for a friendly unit. Imagine how resilient a block of Spearmen would be with Toughness 5 and a 5+ Regeneration save!

Watch out for:

Being really fragile

The High Elves are expensive in points but they’re not especially tough or well armoured. In fact, the converse is true. This means that they’re especially vulnerable to being shot at and they sometimes struggle to survive in protracted combats. As such use their speed and hard-hitting nature to keep them alive and make sure you're always fighting on your own terms.

Overspending

There’s a massive temptation to overspend on elite stuff such as Sword Masters, Dragon Princes, Lords and Heroes. Resist the urge. Make sure your army has a good, reliable character or two but don’t get carried away. Unless you include plenty of Spearmen or Lothern Sea Guard you're going to get swept away by hordes of enemies, no matter how great your warriors are.

via Games Workshop.

It looks like the 8th Edition Rule Book has been pre-released at certain Games Workshop stores for all to see and trial. With that Desert Rain, High Elves Chapter Master at the Warseer has written a brief 8th edition High Elves tactics or tactica article. Not everything is 100% confirmed, but do enjoy the read and I love to hear what you think?

Now that we basically have confirmed rumours for most of the new rulebook and test games are being held in the GW stores I think that it’s time to start a new tactica thread for the High Elves.

As we all know 8th edition brings a lot of changes, and some of them benefit us, some of them don’t.

Here are some of my thoughts about the new rules and how they might effect our units.

First of all the Sea Guard gets a significant bonus. They will fight in an extra rank, for a total of 4, or even 5 if you have enough models for a horde unit. They will also be able to fire in several ranks, thus negating one of their biggest downsides in 7th edition.
With the new requirement for a minimum 25% in core units they also help us out since they are more expensive than the Spearmen and the Archers.

If you want to go for the benefits of the horde rule Spearmen might be the better choice since they are our cheapest troops. It still remains to be seen if it is worth it though. Archers get a boos with the shoot in 2 ranks rumour since you can field units of 10 without them taking up a lot of space, thus giving you a tighter deployment which is good.

Of our elite infantry units it seems that Phoenix Guards are getting the biggest boost. We have, as you all know, ASF on all our units and it seems that if you have both ASF and higher initiative you will get to re-roll to hit rolls. Since Phoenix Guards have I6 they will almost always get those re-rolls. They also get to double their number of attacks thanks to the fighting in 2 ranks rumour, thus making them much better at killing stuff than they are now.
Their 4+ ward save also makes them less vulnerable to the high amount of return attacks that will come their way.

Both Swordmasters and White Lions will get a significant boost as well, Swordmasters will be able to put out an insane amount of attacks. Unfortunately this comes with a big downside, since the opponent almost always gets to strike back at us, and our fragile but expensive Swordmasters and White Lions doesn’t like that very much.

Since it seems that you need to have a rank in your unit to cancel out the opponents ranks if you hit them in the flank our cavalry units gets a lot more expensive if we want to do that. This might lead to some people starting to use Silver Helms in this role since they are cheaper to buy ranks to.

Chariots, and especially the Lion Chariot seems pretty tempting in the new edition as well. With S7 auto kills gone you can play them a bit more boldly if the enemy has access to such high strength weaponry in his army. The impact hits, and possible “crush them” attacks will help us deal with large enemy blocks quickly which I believe that we need to do in order to not get bogged down in long wars of attrition which we will be hard pressed to win.

Shadow Warriors and Reavers doesn’t seem that tempting to me, with skirmishers being nerfed out Shadow Warriors seems even poorer than they are today. Reavers seems to get a free 12″ move at the start of the game so perhaps they can be useful. The viability of these 2 units are something I’m uncertain of at the moment.

Great Eagles and Repeater Bolt Throwers are as good as they’ve ever been. A slight nerf in the Eagles ability to march block doesn’t make them any less worthwhile to take.

This is all for now, I’ll write my thoughts about characters and magic later.

But wait there is more! EmeraldW shares a confirmed view from the BRB on our ASF (Always Strike First).

Just read the rulebook and I just want to bring some clarity to what people have been talking about with elves.

First we reroll to hit if we have EQUAL or higher Ini. Very important.

Second it makes it clear that Great Weapons “grant” the ASL rule. As stated in the ASL section.

SoA gives ASF, Regardless of the weapon being used.

ASF and ASL “Cancel” each other in the BRB.

High Elves then have ASF. Great Weapons “Grant” ASL. Normally, they would cancel. However SoA says they have it no matte what weapon they are wielding. Great weapons essentially remove ASF from High Elves, but SoA prevents this. As a result, ASF cannot be removed from High Elves and as such ASF with great weapons.

It is quite clear based on the rules, intent of SoA and how previous editions have worked with regards to High Elves and great weapons. Further, this is based off of reading the rules straight from the 8th BRB and using its own language.

High Elves ASF with Great Weapons.

It is looking promising overall with significant boosts in our hand to hand combat! High Elves (Swordmasters etc.) will become a regular blender of armies! LOL. What I’m a little concerned is the high cost of our High Elves units. From what I understand, blocks of infantry will rule the day, and if our cost per unit Elf does not drop, I’m not sure how well we will fare as we will pay for every elf that falls.

A special treat for you. I have compiled the most comprehensive High Elves Tactica ever! Written by non-other than PapaElf, one of the most experienced High Elves general from the Ulthuan.net forums.

Check them out below and enjoy! They can also be found in the Strategy and Tactics section.

• 7th Edition High Elves Tactica – Introduction – By PapaElf
• 7th Edition High Elves Tactica – Part 1 – Maneuver – By PapaElf
• 7th Edition High Elves Tactica – Part 2 – Melee, Magic, Psychology – By PapaElf
• 7th Edition High Elves Tactica – Part 3 – The Strategic Purpose of your Army – By PapaElf
• 7th Edition High Elves Tactica – Part 4 – How to Outmaneuver the Enemy – By PapaElf
• 7th Edition High Elves Tactica – Part 5 – High Elf Order of Battle – By PapaElf

All articles reproduced with permission by PaperElf, additional source material for these articles can be found in the General’s tent at Machiara’s web site, Battle Glade.