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.

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.

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.

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.

Ellyrian reavers are the fast cavalry of the HE army. As such, they have a very different role to play than silver helms or dragon princes, and I will try to outline how reavers can be used. This is intended for newcomers to either HE or WHFB, so please excuse me if I cover what may seem to others to be obvious ground. A lot of this advice can also be applied to DE dark riders.

First of all, reavers are fast cav. It is important that the rules concerning fast cav are understood in order to get the best out of this unit. I will not repeat the rules verbatim here (as we’re not allowed to, although I will refer to them) but direct readers to page 70 of the rulebook.

Roles that reavers can perform

Reavers are fast (obviously…). As their horses are unbarded, they can move very quickly indeed. Also, given the ability of fast cav to reform freely, they can move through narrow gaps left by terrain or even blocks of troops (move through in single file and then reform once through the gap). These things allow them to quickly get into a position within the enemy lines. Once there, they can perform many different tasks:

Marchblocking

Units cannot march if an opponent’s unit is within 8”. If you can get reavers this close to an enemy unit, it prevents them from marching and thus slows them down. This is particularly useful against fast moving units, such as other cavalry.

Make sure that your reavers are not within the charge arc of the enemy units, unless you want them to be charged, which brings me on to the next thing…

Bait

Tempt an enemy unit to charge you by deliberately placing your reavers within charge range (or better still, just outside of the charge range) and within the charge arc of the unit. As reavers are lightly armoured, the enemy might well see them as an easy target and charge. Declare your charge reaction as flee. Given the high Ld of HE, it is likely that they will rally and so you are now in a good position to follow through in the next turn, as reavers can move after rallying.

This approach can be used to either tie up an enemy unit for a turn (or more, if they carry on following the reavers around, such as frenzied troops) or to lead an enemy unit into a position where they can be charged by your better armed and armoured units, such as dragon princes or swordmasters. Make sure, however, that your reavers are at least 6” from your other units – if they are (heaven forbid) destroyed, you don’t want them causing panic.

War machine/character hunting

Given the speed at which fast cav can move, it is not unreasonable that they could well approach a war machine quickly and dispose of its crew. This can be risky as war machines could well decimate a unit of reavers if you don’t get there first.

Alternatively, reavers can be used to hunt for that pesky wizard that hangs around the back of all the other units, making a nuisance of himself. Don’t forget that reavers can shoot after marching and have 360 degree line of sight, which helps enormously when using this approach.

Outfitting reavers

Reavers are special choices and so the overall army composition needs to be taken into account, but assuming you have decided to include a unit, what should you include in the unit?

Size of unit and Command group

Reavers are usually put together as units of five. Fast cav don’t get any rank bonuses, so an extra rank won’t provide combat resolution and can’t take part in close combat. They are there to annoy enemy forces, not engage in close combat, so five is usually considered optimal.

A reaver champion (harbinger) has an additional +1 to his BS rather than +1 attack and so is more likely to hit with his longbow, if equipped. This is a personal decision but I don’t think the points spent on a harbinger are worth it.

A standard bearer will probably not be useful either. It is more likely (from what I have seen) that the standard will be a hindrance (100VP to the opponent if he captures it) rather than a help (+1 combat resolution). However, if you are using reavers as bait, a standard does make them more tempting.

A musician, on the other hand, is very useful, especially if the reavers are used as bait. The +1 Ld when rallying can be invaluable, and so overall I would recommend a unit of five reavers with a musician.

Equipping the unit

Reavers come equipped with a spear as standard. This can be swapped for a bow or the unit can have both spears and bows at extra cost. How you equip them is entirely down to how you want to use them. If you expect your reavers to get into close combat, take spears; if they are hunting take bows. Taking both is the best option, but of course there is the extra cost involved; personally, this is my favorite as it allows you to cover most options during the game and means your reavers can take on different roles.

Conclusion

Although eagles and shadow warriors can perform the same tasks as reavers, there are restrictions to them. Shadow warriors are expensive for what they do whereas eagles are a rare choice. Reavers are versatile and as long as you can guess distances well and use terrain to your advantage, a very useful addition to any HE army.

Well, I was browsing through the anti-hydra tactics discussed over here previously and I came across a rather interesting use of Reavers (or any fast cavalry for that matter) : Large Monster hunting.
The reasoning is as follows: Buy a unit of five Reavers with a champion and a musician. Move behind the enemy hydra/stegadon/Greater Daemon, ending your move in a long 1×5 line, with the champion at the front. Charge the enemy in the rear next turn. The enemy can’t challenge, and can only attack the champion, thus netting a maximum of 1 CR. The Reavers have 3CR, and thus win by 2 (Rear + outnumber). Hopefully the enemy breaks and the Reavers can run them down.

What I like about this is that even if the Reavers fail to break the Hydra, they tie it up for a few turns at least, and should they survive and break, the hydra must pursue, back to the enemy deployment zone. This could even work against a large block of infantry with hatred.
Obviously only usable if the enemy can’t challenge.

What do you think about this idea? Workable?

I personally like it. It is simple and relies on a formation not some special trick or magical item that you would waste extra points on.

I am writing this self help guide for all of us who sometimes get ahead of ourselves when preparing to play a game of Warhammer. It is a check list of sorts that (hopefully) helps the user improve their tactical skills in Warhammer. It will cover each gaming-related area of the hobby; building your army, deployment & battle.

This article is about the difference between the Tactical Mind & the Emotional Mind. The Emotional Mind is basing your decisions in Warhammer on what you think is cool or how you feel. The Tactical Mind is making decisions without emotions influencing you. Obviously it doesn’t mean you can’t have emotions, but they need to be recognized & funneled it into your gameplay, instead of subconciously affecting it.

Note: Much of this Guide will be reiterating the basics but it is often the basics that are forgotten at a crucial moment in battle.

Part 1: Building your Army

Making a good army is generally always a 3 step process;

• Gathering the models.
• Painting said models.
• Putting an army list together.

Now I have written the above steps rather simplistically but for the sake of my argument bear with me.

Generally people make mistakes in 1 or all 3 steps, and don’t know it or don’t care. Below each step you will see questions in italics. Ask yourself these questions when doing the relevant step for each unit or character & improve your Tactical Mind (probably Wink).

Step 1
In the gathering of models certain emotional attachments are often made to special models or units. Why can this be bad? It can be bad because the model/s can be overvalued in game just because it/they look cool. So avoid overvaluing a model because it has a nice sword, pose etc and thus avoid lavishing magic items on it or getting more to construct a ridiculously large unit. Why spending lots of points on items or large units is bad will be covered later in the article.

Is this cool looking model or unit going to detract from my armies tactical ability to win games if I have more of them, or make them central to my army battle line?

Step 2
Painting models well places an increasing value on certain models or if poorly painted does the opposite. It is simple psychology; if you spend more time painting the Hero or Elite unit then you’ll be more motivated to protect them with expensive items or tactics. Why can this be bad? It can be bad because it creates emotional reliance on those units. People get upset about losing the fully kitted out, well painted Prince on a Dragon and practically hand the rest of the game to their opponent because the game is “nearly lost now anyway”. Ask yourself these questions when doing step 2.

Does the fact that I’ve spent lots of time painting this mode or unit influence my game play?

Will I get upset if my incredibly well painted General/Mage/Dragon etc gets killed or threatened in the game? If yes, will it affect my game play?

There is also an opposite of this. It is when you don’t care about your troops & throw them away needlessly. Even Skaven Slaves have value in the game but a callous disregard for the poorly painted units could lead to blaze` sacrifices. So poorly painted massed rank infantry shamelessly pushed forward in clumps is not highly regarded by the player & is readily sacrificed, forgotten or just too bothersome to move. So the player has paid points for this unit, using a finite amount of points & doesn’t use them to their full capacity.

Are my less well painted/modeled units going to be ignored or used poorly?

Step 3
Now if a gamer has slipped up in step 1 or 2 then step 3 might also be at risk of emotional attachment. The most expensive models & better painted ones often garner more attention when assigning equipment in building the army list. This might lead to overprotecting the unit or model with expensive items, sacrificing other units to protect them in game or purchasing more troops for the elite (pretty) unit than the effective. Balance in an army is an effective way to win battles. Why? Because most players cannot gear their army specifically to yours & vice versa, making Warhammer very similar to Russian Roulette if you load most of your points into one aspect of the game. The phrase “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” comes to mind as there is always a list that can do what your army list can. Then it all comes down to luck, just like Russian Roulette.

Are there models I have that make me want to spend extra points on them?

Why have I spent 40%+ on Characters & what was I smoking at the time I wrote this list?

Summary of above
So how it is exactly that valuing certain models or units but not others is bad? In a game of Warhammer each side has an equal amount of points to spend on troops, characters & both magical & mundane items. So it is necessary to spend these points in the best way possible. If a unit is the crux of your game plan then any opponent can identify it & neutralize it. Singular units & models are also vulnerable to bad luck, which can also ruin your game plan. The reliance on “Uber units of Doom” or incredibly expensive combat characters is generally the act of “The Emotional Mind”.

By this I mean in a game of Warhammer a player can revert to the “Rule of Cool” instead of the practical, that is, they grab some characters & elite units, then, spend lots of points on them. This splurging of points leaves few points for the Core troops & Support troops, which then causes all sorts of difficulties for the player later on. Difficulties such as fewer troops to soak up casualties. Fewer units to prevent the opponent from identifying your deployment game plan & to discover theirs. So what we all should be aiming for is a balance between quantity & quality of units & different roles for our characters, other than just the combat character.

Conclusion
Good Tactics starts with you. As Sun Tzu said;

‘Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril’.

So mastering yourself & your emotions can lead half way to victory, or maybe even further……

So the idea of this section is:

Know thy self implicitly, recognize attachments before the game & don’t let them get the better of you so you start on the right foot before every game.

A debate at Ulthuan.net between Seredain and Prysitha explores this issue very well. Seredain writes:

Prysitha,

You do make an excellent point. In MSU armies especially, SH sometimes really can’t justify their slot, and a unit of 11 hardly fits with the theme…

It just so happens that I do use scouts and elite infantry, but have the slots to spare because I prefer the concentration of force, using fewer and more powerful units, the 2 main fighting units being supplemented with fighting characters- one infantry (WL) and one cavalry (SH). For the cavalry this means, however, that a smaller unit relying on kills isn’t necessary with the BB’s +D6 CR: I just need to ENSURE victory in round 1 (which is why I use a character- I want to KNOW my knights will win every time against basically anyone), and have enough elves left over to cover the BsB and take out enemy rank bonuses for the rest of the battle. So, numbers are the key for me.

Even on kills, though, the maths is interesting. 11 SH’s (285 pts inc. SB and Champ., unit strength 22) will clear the front rank of average infantry easily enough, as will 8 DP’s (280 pts inc. SB and Champ., unit strength 16), especially if they have a character. But what about eilte infantry or decent cavalry?

Let’s use the rock solid example of 25 Dwarf hardcore infantry (5×5) with SB and Champ. (WS5, T4, AS 2+),
charged by our cavalry and HERO, with 6 models in the front rank (we’ll forget about horse attacks)-
11 SH: 6 attacks, 4+ to hit, 3+ to wound vs AS 4+ (US 24 inc. hero).
8 DP: 11 attacks, 4+ to hit, 3+ to wound vs AS 4+ (US 18 inc. hero).

Our knights kill on average:
DP- 5/6 hits, 3/4 wounds= 1/2 kills.
SH- 3 hits, 2 wounds= 1 kill.
Hero- 2 Hits, 1/2 wounds= 1/2 kills.

The Dwarfs kill (on average):
0 DP’s (1 wound at AS 3+)
0 SH’s (1 wound at AS 3+).

Our knights’ combat res=
DP’s- 1/2 kills, 1 banner =2/3;
SH’s- (1 kill + 1 banner + 1 rank + 1 outnumbering) =4;
plus BsB- 1/2 kills + 3/4 for Battle Banner =5.

Dwarfs’ combat res.=
vs DP’s- 1 banner + 3 ranks + 1 outnumbering =5.
vs SH’s- 1 banner + 3 ranks =4.

The result is a win for the Dragon Princes of 2/3, and for the Silver Helms of 5. Especially if the dwarfs have their general nearby, the difference between those results becomes enormous: the Dwarfs will take a break test on Ld 8/7 against the DP’s, but on Ld 5 against the Silver Helms. If there’s no general near, then the dwarfs will test on Ld 4. Watch them flee, laugh, then run them down.

Interesting, eh? Remember both units have the same character and cost roughly the same points (the SH 5 pts more).

Prysitha wrote:
Putting a character into the Helms unit make them THAT much more expensive. Also, if you plan to put a character into the unit to make it effective, putting the same character into the DP will make them even more effective.

In certain situations, then, this isn’t true. Out there are hard-as-nails units of massed armoured infantry which can shrug off the extra attacks which Dragon Princes give you. But, for roughly the same points, the combat res. from the rank and numbers of Silver Helms will go through any toughness and armour…

Use your Dragon Princes to slaughter mobs of anything or flank the hard bastards, but if you want to crack the hardest units front on you’ll always need a powerful character and he’d be better off with Silver Helms (unless you can afford 10/11 DP’s and don’t mind wasting all those attacks in the rear rank). Those dwarfs tend to put their unbreakable/stubborn units on their flanks. Just watch the look on your opponent’s face when you decide not to flank him and just run over his centre! For the same points the DP’s+hero COULD do it, but the SH+hero would take all-comers. In a game of dice, fixing the odds is a good idea. In my 2500 pt all-comers list I like the feeling that my block of Silver Helms can run over basically everything, and they even gain Ld 9 from the BsB. Joy.

My reply slightly edited as it was not clear before:

Seredain is right on the money with his analysis.

Let me put it to you in another way. Most people who play this game for a while, do their very best to never rely on dice. If you can get a benefit without rolling a dice it is a CONFIRMED benefit.

In this case an extra rank and outnumber as per Seredain’s analysis, is worth its weight in gold! This means you are up against your opponent with two kills, and your opponent has to kill you back 3 of your SH to break even.

The problem with DP as I have playtested is while they have a huge ass amount of attacks they can bring to bare, the moment they start taking casualties you lose your effectiveness very quickly as its 2 attacks each.

Let’s use a unit of 5DP full command (200pts) vs a unit of 7 SH FC (201pts)

What I am saying is that most of the time a unit of CAV will take 2 hits (magic/shooting) before they hit another unit.

So the reality of it is there is no real difference between the attacking potential two, as a unit of 5 DP taken 2 hits is the same as unit of 7 SH taken 2 hits.

Wait, that is incorrect as you have 5 horses vs 3 horses and we all know the horses do the killing!

In other words as a DP as 2 attacks each, the attacking potential drops very quickly when each DP dies. And a DP dies as easy as a SH. T3, 2+AS .

By only seeing the 2 attacks each as the main thing, you rely too much on your dice, and to me that is a risk i rather not take.

Finally, I will rather a bigger unit of SH to escort my character rather than the DP, a bigger unit takes more hits before it gets to its panic from shooting.

You see the main issue here I’m finding out from my play testing is that HE units need to be self sufficient, as we just don’t have enough units to gang bang anyone these days.

ASF helps alot making each unit self sufficient, but I am finding MSU in our new list is just not enough.

I think we need to be extra careful and consider the use for each units not more than ever. DPs have their role, but i would not weed out SH completely. It is perhaps we are not playing them correctly.

Army Playing Strategies

• High Elves Army Analysis and Playing Strategies – By Lord Brrrrp
• Playing Cavalry Oriented Lists with 7th Edition Rulesby Captain Sarathai

Do check it out as it is very extensive and a great read for beginners and experts players alike in understanding new rules and foundation the New 7th edition High Elves book was built upon.