2500pt Caledor Critique

[Scarlet]

After awhile away from Warhammer I have the intent of finally completing my High Elves. They are Caledor Snow themed. Feedback is welcome, the points are not quite exact.

Characters
Archmage: Level 4 Wizard, Book of Hoeth, Ring of Fury, High Magic (runs with Phoenix Guard)
Dragonmage: Level 2 Wizard, Dragon Armour, Enchanted Shield, Gem of Sunfire

Core
50x Lothern Guard: Full Command, Shields

Special
12x Dragon Princes: Full Command, Ranger's Standard
10x Phoenix Guard: Full Command, Banner of the World Dragon

Rare
2x Bolt Throwers
Frost Phoenix
2x Great Eagles

Theory Hammer
The infantry are deployed in the centre with the bolt throwers flanking the lothern guard and the phoenix guard behind them. This forces over half my army (pts wise) in the centre but with little for the enemy to do except attack a massive horde. The Dragonmage and Phoenix on one flank and the Dragon Princes on the other, Eagles as needed. Combination of High Magic and mass ranged to force the opposition to move forward. The mass unit of Lothern Guard was chosen as it means it is a single target for magic buffs. Hand of Glory or Flaming Sword both make this a very scary unit for almost all infantry to deal with meaning either a huge turn in the shooting phase or forced soaking of dispel dice leaving room for other spells.

[matrim]

10 PG with BOtWD doesn't feel right With Lv4 high joining them their natural 4++ will almost always be 3++ making 2++ from banner not that important. Yeah it'll save you from miscast and magic misiles but that 50pt could be used in bringing more bodies in the unit. As soon as a strong unit or charecter engages them they'll die... Not everyone carries a magic weapon, thunder stomp is not magical, and 11 St4 attacks won't kill that much.

I doubt you want your DM in CC since he is not really kitted for surviving long, DPs are better then SH but still S3 after first round of combat.

You don't have a BSB or Dispell Scroll

Did you consider having a Metal mage in there? Enchanted blades does pretty much the same thing as flaming sword and signature is better suited against high armour. You already have 2D6/4D6 St4 magic missile, at least with metal you may get other useful spells unlike fire. And you may have enough points for a BSB.

You must have a vision so play tets it and see what happens.

[Bengarion]

If it is Caledor themed then the Dragon Mage is okay but I find that they are not worth it. Not tough enough in combat and not much better than just have a level 2 fire wizard in a unit of archers. I would drop the Sea Guard down and add in some archers and silver helms. You need to increase the number of Phoenix Guard and I would have two seperate units of 5 DPs to enhance the effectiveness of their two attacks. The rare is fine.

[John Rainbow]

From a fluff perspective this looks great. From a competitive standpoint... not so much. I can't see 10 PG being useful at all. They are too expensive to be a bunker unit and too small to be useful. LSG are ok as a choice but I don't think your ideas of buffing them will work as the buffs you have really don't help them all that much. They already get rerolls a lot of the time so hand of glory is not all that good and what they really need is help beating armour which you can't provide.

[Scarlet]

Matrix: I do agree and on second (well about 5th thoughts) it does seem like the 50pts could be spent better elsewhere. It was picked as a reaction to miscasts more than to add protection to the Phoenix Guard but economics wise. High Magic doesn't tend to use that many dice (if I do still go with High Magic). I personally have never found a BSB to be needed for High Elves (As Goblins I always take one). The extra combat res shouldn't come into play as High Elves always gang up and while the re-roll leadership is nice it is a lot of points for a BSB. Similar with dispel scrolls. Generally if a spell needs to get through it gets powered up an inevitably gets irresistible force (that might have more to do with my bad luck). I always think of using Metal magic as the anti-armour is so much fun, particularly on characters running around but the spell cost is very high meaning not many spells getting through, hence why I thought High Magic. Also I wanted to avoid "overpowered" lores like Death and Shadow.

Bengarion: I had a feeling the 2x Dragon Princes to benefit from the attacks would come up. I presume you have tried this and what are your opinions on Command Groups? Currently the Dragon and Phoenix are on one flank and the DP's on the other. Is it needed if both DP units are on one flank to have full commands on both? Also why would you reduce the strength of the main block to add archers? I understand they are slightly cheaper and have a longer range but is there anything more to the benefits of this?

John: The PG were literally picked as a mage protector not as a combat unit. A lot of points but everyone I play against is remarkably adept at killing mages, hence the need to strongly protect them. Deployed with a 3 frontage or 2 frontage you can actually ensure the mage survives till the end of the game (a rare occurrence round here). I am worried about taking a larger unit as if they enter combat I imagine you would want a frontage of 5 which forces the mage to the front and allows for an easy kill. I did toy with the idea of putting the mage in a silver helm unit as the armour save would protect from shooting and they could avoid combat but template weapons due to the lack of models was a concern. The bonuses were focused on shooting not combat. +D3 BS and/or +1 to wound I find is a big buff to archery. Effective shooting forcing the opponent to close in as quickly as possible (losing some of their army coherency) allowing for easier group charges front the flanks. Hence why I went only long range core as an extra round of 50 buffed bow shots would actually hurt. I do agree, about all I have for dealing with high armour are bolt throwers. Would taking some WL or SM in place of DP's or the PG be suitable for this?

General: While I do think the Dragon Mage is over priced I think the versatility of the unit is amazing and I have always had it be useful and arguably be worth it in his support of everyone else. While the combat isn't high strength, against core infantry and some special infantry 4 dragon attacks, thunder stomp and a 2D6 breath weapon is pretty nasty and if joint charged with an infantry block would cause a bit of a headache to most units. The flaming sword is almost wasted on him and is far more useful on other units, the other spell he would get is at the least a fireball for clearing chaff or something slightly more powerful. Also having him in a flank means that anything coming down that flank must be prepared to take a charge due to the high movement. While it isn't a scary dragon it still can cause a bit of threat and zoning.

Thanks for the advice so far, I'll have a think and re-tweak soon.

[Bengarion]

The Dragon Princes in my view work best as a small but powerful shock unit, best for clearing enemy chaff rather than smashing into a solid unit, so if you want large heavy cavalry I would advise using Silver Helms to fufill this role. I usually run one unit of five with a muscian (155pts). As for the Archers I would have them primarily because your 50 Sea Guard are very unflexible. Not to mention the benefit of having more units to deploy (sandbag) 50 Sea Guard will not get to fire a lot of their shots and will only be able to shoot one target. Also just a little advise with regards to your dragon/phoenix flank strategy. I would try to avoid preplanning your deployment too much, as you should put these units in the most preferable position and deploy them late on to see where your opponent puts his artillery which will almost certainly target these. Hope that helps (just my opinion mind).