The Struggle For Glory - Army Lists and Battle Reports

[Elessehta of Yvresse]

I like it Eli, I really should start sorting my lists out, I've been playing so much 1500, that I don' even have a 2500 point list yet ^_^'

[Caradryal]

The list looks good Eli

No changes I would make at fist glance and the additional drops are always a bonus. The shadow archmage is definitely scary and I'm considering utilising one over the loremaster in my list to make the ranged units more dangerous.

We will definitely have to have a rematch in October when I am back

As for the list I used in the battle please follow this >>link<< to my new Ogre blog.

I details the list used in the battle as requested by John and I'm looking forward to his and Jimmy's thoughts. Any comments you have Eli would bee appreciated too. You can see the items and upgrades there too if you wish to add them to the bat rep.

Sorry to somewhat hijack your thread!

Caradryal

[Elessehta of Yvresse]

I made a 2500 list too~ Wanna play some time?

[Malossar]

I'm not a fan of your Cav prince. I think it's absolutely vital to have the Other Tricksters Shard within the unit somewhere. It turns the bus and the cav prince from an OK unit to an Awesome unit.

I'm not convinced you need the spears. Sure ranks to break steadfast but I'm kinda open to being stuck in combat for a round or two.

Consider the following: Our combat troops are pretty damn killy, even our phoenix guard. Therefore they should remove steadfast in 2 rounds of combat. What are we weak against? Combo charges and shooting! If you're plugging a unit into combat that could potentially result in a combo charge... you shouldn't be in that combat anyway. The second round of combat means you're not getting shot at.


I don't see the spears doing a job that archers couldn't do better. Especially since you're bringing shadow magic, withering only gets better with more shots.

[Elessehta of Yvresse]

The spears give Eli another target for MINDRAZOR! They can march up one flank, while the rest of the army is deployed on the other, this can force an opponent to counter and split up part of the army.

[Malossar]

The spears give Eli another target for MINDRAZOR! They can march up one flank, while the rest of the army is deployed on the other, this can force an opponent to counter and split up part of the army.

Other than the secondary mindrazor target... I don't see the wisdom in the latter part. Marching spears up a flank on their own? That screams "FREE 300pts!" to me. Why would i need to split up my army to deal with a lousy unit that is only good when a spell that should be cast on another unit is cast on it? They're an after thought at best now.

Not to mention that Archers now have Martial Prowess meaning they can do a pretty sizeable amount of damage on their own with mindrazor while also supporting the main army elements as they advance and providing better synergy with Shadow magic in my opinion. You can never have enough chaff and chaff clearers. Archers are much better than spears at getting the cav bus to where it will be needed most earlier in the game rather than getting redirected.

[Elithmar]

I had this battle against Caradryal’s ogres quite a while ago now, on the 20th of July. However, I was on holiday for a while so I’ve only just managed to do the report. I decided to use the list I used in my first game again, just because I love high magic. It’s not really the best lore for this list, but I went for it anyway.

I hope you enjoy the report.

1500pts vs Ogres
Lists
High Elves
Level 3 High Archmage, Book of Hoeth, Talisman of Preservation
Noble, Battle Standard Bearer, Barded Elven Steed, Dragon Armour, Sword of Might, Enchanted Shield, Dawnstone
5 Silver Helms, Shields, Musician
5 Ellyrian Reavers, Bows and Spears
15 Archers, Musician
15 Phoenix Guards, Standard Bearer, Musician
15 White Lions of Chrace, Full Command
5 Shadow Warriors
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower
Great Eagle

Ogres
Firebelly, ???
BSB, Sword of Striking, ???
5 Ironguts
8 Ogres
Sabretusk
Sabretusk
2 Mournfangs
2 Mournfangs
Ironblaster

Deployment


The ruin in the bottom left was an Altar of Khaine. The shadow warriors were in a Wildwood.

Spells
High Archmage – Soul Quench, Hand of Glory, Fiery Convocation

Firebelly – Fireball, Piercing Bolts of Burning

Ogres turn one


The wildwood failed to wound my shadow warriors, but they were soon dealt with by a 2D6 fireball by the firebelly. The leadbelchers dropped two silver helms and the ironblaster misfired.

High Elves turn one


The sabretusk fled from the charge by the silver helms (I got the diagram wrong for the ogres turn – that was where he finished his flee though), who redirected into the ogres. Magic was a wonderful 2/2 and everything was either dispelled of failed. Also, my eagle claw failed to do any wounds to the mournfangs. In combat, the BSBs were locked in a challenge. An ogre took a wound and the helms were finished off. However, the high elf BSB dealt two wounds to his opponent. The high elves lost by one and the BSB held.

Ogres turn two


The mournfangs on the right failed their charge whilst the ones on the left charged the white lions with the sabretusk. The ironguts ran over the reavers (but not before receiving two wounds) into the eagle. The leadbelchers did three wounds to the phoenix guards, the ironblaster misfired again and 6 white lions died, as well as a mournfang. The ogre BSB actually got two wounds past the elven BSB’s armour saves, but I then saved both of them on the 6+ ward from dragon armour – phew!

High Elves turn two


Lions finished off the mournfang, eagle did a wound to the firebelly and stuck and the BSB broke from combat.

Ogres turn three


The mournfangs ran over the eagle claw and the ironguts finished off the eagle. The phoenix guards fled from a charge by the ogres, but were then run down by the ironblaster as I rolled snake eyes for their flee. The leadbelchers killed a lion.

High Elves turn three


The white lions charged the ironblaster, but it fled. The BSB rallied. The archmage killed two leadbelchers with soul quench and boosted the archers up to BS6 with hand of glory, but they still only did a single wound to the leadbelchers through shooting!

Ogres turn four


The mournfangs charged the BSB, who fled. The archers did a single wound, through stand and shoot, to the ironguts. In combat, I killed another irongut, leaving three. The firebelly was left with one wound. After all of the ironguts’ impact hits, attacks, stomps and the firebelly’s breath weapon, only three archers and the archmage remained. They managed to escape though.

High Elves turn four


The archers shouldn’t actually have rallied. We thought it was less than 25% for snake eyes, but after the game I checked and realised it’s 25% or less. Anyway, it didn’t affect the game at all really. The archmage made him and the few remaining archers WS7. The BSB rallied.

Ogres turn five


The mournfangs chased the BSB out of the danger zone and chased away the lions too. The ironguts predictably ran over the archers and the ironblaster and a sabretusk finally ran off the board.



So in the end it was a massacre to the ogres, with the victory points being 1200-362. Very well done to Caradryal and thanks for a fun game. I’ll comment on the game soon, but in the meantime please leave and comments you have.

Thanks for reading.

[Elithmar]

@Mal, I know what you mean about the spears. I wanted to give them a chance but I'm really having a hard time justifying their inclusion. They'll probably have to go.

I made a 2500 list too~ Wanna play some time?

I'm presuming you were talking to Caradryal here but as he's away at the moment... I 'wanna play some time'!

[Elessehta of Yvresse]

BSB broke from combat, dude, they die holding the banner ^_^'

and yea, I haven't played any big games other than the one against WoC, keen to try one.

[Elithmar]

BSB broke from combat, dude, they die holding the banner ^_^'

...

Wow, I can't believe we missed that. In that case, it was a 1470-362 win to Caradryal!

[Malossar]

You lost this game in deployment. Looking at the map really should have gone refused flank and deployed everything on your right flank.

Caradryl took advantage of your deployment and quickly overwhlemed you. Use the building! I'm not sure if you're a fan of basketball but try the "pick and roll" offense, where a big tall burly player sets a pick (or screen) allowing the ball carrier to roll around the defender into the lane to hopefully take the ball to the rim.

I find this strategy translates (better than any ancient tactic) extremely well in warhammer fantasy. Setup on the flank with a nice big piece of impassable terrain (like the building) allowing it to set a screen on your opponent. You then smash forward and dismantle the ogres like a surgeon.


This is a common theme in all of your games. You're trying to play a set deployment and strategy and it isn't working. You need to loosen up, observe the field before pulling the trigger. remember we're elves, we are a scalpel army not a slugehammer. When you charge a small silverhelm unit in the rock that is an irongut unit you're handing your opponent points.


I hope you don't take this as overly critical for that is not my intent. Tough love maybe?

~Mal

[Elessehta of Yvresse]

Using terrain to your advantage, this is important.

[Caradryal]

I made a 2500 list too~ Wanna play some time?

Of Course! I'm always up for playing you or eli

I won't be around til mid October now though but I'll PM you both when I am

[Elithmar]

Thanks a lot for taking the time to write all that, Mal - it's really helpful! I'll have to try to keep that in mind in future games. I didn't really understand the bit about basketball but the rest made a lot of sense.

Hopefully I'll be getting in a game on Thursday. I'm going to take two lists but I'm leaning more towards the loremaster list at the moment because I'm more familiar with it and I like the flexibility of lots of units:

Loremaster, Sword of Might, Shield of the Merwyrm, Book of Hoeth
Noble, Battle Standard Bearer, The Reaver Bow, Potion of Strength
5 Silver Helms, Shields, Musician
5 Ellyrian Reavers, Bows and Spears
15 Archers, Musician
15 Phoenix Guards, Standard Bearer, Musician
15 White Lions of Chrace, Full Command
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower
Great Eagle
5 Sisters of Avelorn

Level 4 Shadow Archmage, Book of Hoeth
Noble, Battle Standard Bearer, The Reaver Bow, Potion of Strength
17 Archers, Musician
10 Spearelves, Standard Bearer, Standard of Discipline
5 Ellyrian Reavers, Bows and Spears
24 Phoenix Guards, Full Command, Razor Standard
5 Shadow Warriors
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower
Great Eagle

[Elithmar]

I had a game against a Daemons player with a Nurgle themed army on Thursday, at my local GW store. Sorry for the wall of text, but I couldn’t remember all of the details from the game so I didn’t feel I could do a proper turn-by-turn report.

1500pts vs Daemons
Lists
High Elves
Level 4 Shadow Archmage, Book of Hoeth
Noble, Battle Standard Bearer, The Reaver Bow, Potion of Strength
17 Archers, Musician
10 Spearelves, Standard Bearer, Standard of Discipline
5 Ellyrian Reavers, Bows and Spears
24 Phoenix Guards, Full Command, Razor Standard
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower
Great Eagle
5 Sisters of Avelorn

Daemons
Epidemius
Herald BSB (Naked I think – didn’t see him rolling for anything)
~24 Plaguebearers
~20 Plaguebearers
3 Plague Drones
3 Plague Drones

Deployment


I think there might have been three woods, but I’m not sure where they were. The only one I’m certain about was the one on the left.

Spells
Shadow Archmage – Miasma, Withering, Pit, Mindrazor

Summary
My plan going into this was to hold up Epidemius’ unit all game (I don’t know how tough he is or if he’d do a lot of damage in combat, but I heard my opponent saying that he was quite hard to kill so I wanted to just avoid him – perhaps this was a mistake as I could stop the tally from getting too high and I’d get a load of points for him) whilst I shot down the plague drones and took on the other plaguebearers with my phoenix guards – I was confident that I could win that fight, even if it took a few rounds. Well, let’s see how it worked out.

I got the first turn and ran my reavers straight up to block Epidemius’ unit. The eagle flew up behind them but couldn’t get too close because I’d deployed it a bit far back. I think these early moves were a mistake: I should have held my redirectors back for a while as I wanted to stall them for as long as possible and couldn’t waste them on the first turn. Also, the plague drones were nearby so they could help chase them away. In addition, I got miasma off on Epidemius’ unit on the first turn, reducing them to M1 – so charging my redirectors actually meant they moved further!

In the next few turns I got withering off on a unit of drones and pit of shades killed a few plaguebearers from each unit – oh, yeah, I rolled a hit each time for pit! Unfortunately, he passed his initiative test for Epidemius.

Despite withering on one unit of drones, my shooting did little to them. In about turn three, my phoenix guards charged the plaguebearers with the BSB and killed them over a few rounds. There was a point when I’d killed enough of the front rank that Epidemius’ unit could charge in, but luckily they failed. I still had my eagle at this point, so I blocked that unit in the next turn, whilst I finished off the herald’s unit. The phoenix guards reformed to face the plague drones behind them.

Speaking of plague drones, when I charged with the phoenix guards, I left a gap for the plague drones to charge my spearelves bunker. I think it took them two turns, but they destroyed the unit with ease. Then one unit went into my archers (should have popped the potion on this turn to get S8 stand and shoot and then S7 attacks in combat. As it was, I used it the turn before) and I think the other got rid of my eagle claw on that flank. The archers managed to hold them up long enough for the phoenix guards to charge them in the rear, although my BSB was already dead. The phoenix guards finished off both units of drones and we called it – only Epidemius’ unit was left and I would just have stayed away from it, so nothing else would happen in the game.

I never look forward to Daemons magic phases; even though my opponent had no magic in his army, that table is pretty intimidating. Luckily it didn’t do too much, although Khorne decided to throw rocks at my units twice – I’m glad he’s such a bad shot.

In the end, I had my phoenix guards, archers and an eagle claw left. My opponent had Epidemius and his unit of plaguebearers. It turned out it was a draw, which I was very happy with. It always feels like an uphill battle against Daemons, so I’m pleased to get even a draw.



Thanks for reading. Please leave any comments you have on the game or on my list.

[Elithmar]

OKay, here are some changes to the army list and thoughts on the game:

Level 4 Shadow Archmage, Book of Hoeth
Noble, Battle Standard Bearer, The Reaver Bow, Potion of Strength

I'm happy with my characters. Shadow is awesome, especially with the Book and I just need to think more carefully about when to pop the potion.

18 Archers, Musician
5 Ellyrian Reavers, Bows and Spears
5 Ellyrian Reavers, Bows and Spears

So, the bunker is gone. Really, ld9 with a re roll is good enough at this level, where you can't have everything. It means I can have extra bows and another unit of reavers, so I think it's a good trade. I ordered 10 more reavers at the weekend but if I don't have them by the next game, I'll just drop a unit of reavers and add more archers.

24 Phoenix Guards, Full Command, Razor Standard

They were great and will be better with shadow magic. I say will be, because magic didn't actually help this unit at all in this game.

Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower
Great Eagle
5 Sisters of Avelorn

My shooting struggled to do much against Nurgle troops. Still, it's great against some armies, so it'll stay for now. I thought the sisters would be great for removing regen, but my opponent didn't take it on any of his troops! You may have noticed that I didn't mention the sisters in the report, which is because they hardly did anything! They killed about two plaguebearers all game and then they panicked when fled through by the reavers, failed to rally and went off the board. I'm not even sure that they'll be that good against regen because there are so few of them. I'll review their performance in a few games, but I might drop them.

I'm not sure I need the eagle with two units of reavers. However, I had some extra points so it'll stay for now. Eagles are always great.

Characters: 415
Core: 380
Special: 435
Rare: 260
Total: 1490

Any suggestions for the last ten points? I suppose the obvious way to use them would be on another archer. Please leave any comments you have on the list or the game. Am I getting better at playing? I appreciate any comments, even just saying that you read the report!

Thanks for reading.

[Elessehta of Yvresse]

Cloak on Beards on the Archmage, Fear is cool, and Terror in Dawi is amazing, oh and it destroys items.

[Ferny]

I think this new list looks pretty solid. If you do take RBTs I wouldn't drop the sisters, even if they are only 5. There are some match ups where they don't do a lot but others where they're well worth their relatively small points investment for one unit. At 2,400 I only run 6 (plus reaver BSB, 18 archers and that's my shooting!). I don't massively rate HE shooting but it's useful to deal with manglers, stray fanatics that just *have* to die and of course chaff. And the only magic weapon I'm packing is the reaver bow so I need to kill hexwraiths with magical shooting/magic missiles before they hit combat or else I'm stuck there until my unit dies or they crumble. HE shooting has the benefit of also being able to knock some wounds off (possibly kill with the volume you're using) monsters, which is great. Even knocking wounds off is good - we go first and if we can kill them before they attack (and certainly thunderstomp) then you've saved loads of elves. So I'd say keep them.

If you can afford the points the enchanted shield would make a big difference to your BSB AS and its soooo cheap. Still not a combat character but that much safer against backliners. Unless you're rocking a halberd which I know Tethlis is having success with, trading AS for killy power.

[Elessehta of Yvresse]

A banner for the archers would increase your fortitude.

[vespacian1]

I'd give the bsb dragon armor, or heavy armor and a great weapon.
How did you like tr mounted bsb with 1+ rerollable and som? I've been debating between that build and a less survivable build with the star lance. It'd be great to hear your feedback.

[Ambrosius]

Just wanted to pop in and say I'm enjoying this thread. I rarely play anything but 1000 or 1500 pt games, so it's nice to see someone sharing their experiences at this level.

[Elessehta of Yvresse]

Oh Eli, you're so popular!

[Elithmar]

Elessehta and I were going to have a 2500pts game today, with me trying out skycutters. However, in the early turns of the game, we had some technical difficulties which resulted in the game being lost. With plenty of time left, though, we started a 1500pts game. I still crammed in two skycutters and some sea guards for a proper Lothern/Eataine themed list.

1500pts vs High Elves
Lists
Elithmar
Loremaster, Sword of Might, Shield of the Merwyrm, Book of Hoeth
Noble, Battle Standard Bearer, The Reaver Bow, Potion of Strength
19 Lothern Sea Guards, Shields, Standard Bearer, Musician
5 Ellyrian Reavers, Bows and Spears
5 Ellyrian Reavers, Bows and Spears
19 Phoenix Guards, Full Command
Lothern Skycutter, Eagle Eye Bolt Thrower
Lothern Skycutter
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower

Elessehta
Level 4 High Archmage, Book of Hoeth, ?
Dragon Mage, Dragon Armour, Golden Crown of Atrazar, ?
20 Sea Guards, Shields, Full Command
5 Ellyrian Reavers, Bows and Spears
8 Dragon Princes, Full Command, ?
5 Shadow Warriors
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower

Deployment


The statue in the top left was an Idol of Gork, the walls were Blazing Barricades and the two hills were scree slopes. When I vanguarded my reavers into the wood, they found out that it was just a normal forest.

Spells
High Archmage – Drain Magic, Apotheosis, Walk Between Worlds, Tempest

Ele turn one


Magic was 10/6. First of all, Ele cast drain magic on the sea guards and then apotheosis on the dragon (clearly they wouldn’t do anything, but he wanted a ward save). Unfortunately, he miscast apotheosis on two dice and rolled double ones, killing 6 sea guards and wounding the archmage. As if that wasn’t enough, they then fled! The shadow warriors managed a wound on the skycutter with the eagle eye.

Eli turn one


8/6. I started off with fireball on the shadow warriors, but Ele dispelled it. Then he failed to dispel shem’s on them, which killed one. With no dice left, Ele couldn’t dispel spirit leech on the dragon. I got exactly five wounds, killing it. I got two dice back and then cast earthblood, healing the skycutter.

The reavers and sea guards destroyed Ele’s unit of reavers, whilst the eagle claw and eagle eye dropped two dragon princes between them. Finally, the reavers on the right rolled four sixes when rolling to hit, killing two shadow warriors. The skycutter crew couldn’t kill any shadow warriors. Quite a good turn!

Ele turn two


The dragon princes charged the normal skycutter; they needed a 6 and failed by 1. The sea guards rallied. Ele cast drain magic on the phoenix guards (to get a ward save) and walk-ed the dragon princes backwards. I dispelled tempest and he failed flaming sword. The eagle claw failed to wound the sckycutter, but the shadow warriors got it once.

Eli turn two


10/5. I tried spirit leech-ing the dragon mage, but he saved the wound with the golden crown. I was about to try fireball on him when Ele kindly reminded me that it’s flaming. How could I forget? Instead, I cast iceshard at the sea guard, followed by earthblood to heal the skycutter. Ele dispelled wildform on the phoenix gaurds.

The eagle claw finished off the shadow warriors with some good ‘to hit’ rolls, whilst the reavers rolled two sixes to wound the eagle claw! However, Ele then rolled two sixes for their armour saves – crazy rolls! The other reavers dropped one dragon prince and it took both skycutters and the BSB to kill the dragon mage.



Ele doesn’t do it often, but at this point he conceded. I doubt I would have done differently – this was a pretty rough game for Ele, with some bad luck on his part and some good luck on mine. With that game having finished pretty quickly, we went on to another one, which would hopefully be more fun.

I’ll post thoughts on my list and the games after the next report. In the meantime, please comment on this game or the lists. Thanks for reading.

[Elithmar]

Ele, I don't want the archmage in combat so fear won't really be useful. I think I'll go for the extra banner like you said in your second post. Fortitude is important if I'm playing scenarios; that would bring me up to 5 which is okay for 1500pts.

I would like to give the BSB some better protection like Ferny and vespacian suggested, but I'm just holding back really because of WYSIWYG. I've got a model for my BSB which I really like, but it's got no shield and I can hardly claim he has anything past light armour.

vespacian1, the mounted BSB was a real tank but he can't really kill anything that matters. I'd just go with the star lance if you want to take on heavily armoured units or anything with a decent toughness. A mounted unit doesn't want to be in a combat for too long anyway.

Thanks Ambrosius, it's gratifying to know that people read and enjoy my thread.

Oh and Ele, it won't last.

Thanks all for the comments and sorry I was slow to reply.

[Elessehta of Yvresse]

You say Yvresse but there is so much Caledor in that list.
I need to quite the dragon and finish painting him, redesigning my 1500p list now.

[Elithmar]

The second list your brought was quite fun - very fast, certainly. You say Caledor, but those are paladins of Mathlann, not dragon princes. Then you had shore riders, rangers of Yvresse and your sea guards. Anyway, there aren't any Yvressii units in the book, so you have to make your own.

[Elithmar]

This was the second game Ele and I had yesterday. I brought along the Lothern list again, whilst Ele brought loads of cavalry. Let’s see what happened!

1500pts vs High Elves
Lists
Elithmar
Loremaster, Sword of Might, Shield of the Merwyrm, Book of Hoeth
Noble, Battle Standard Bearer, The Reaver Bow, Potion of Strength
19 Lothern Sea Guards, Shields, Standard Bearer, Musician
5 Ellyrian Reavers, Bows and Spears
5 Ellyrian Reavers, Bows and Spears
19 Phoenix Guards, Full Command
Lothern Skycutter, Eagle Eye Bolt Thrower
Lothern Skycutter
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower

Elessehta
Level 4 Beasts Archmage, Barded Elven Steed, Fencer’s Blades, Golden Crown of Atrazar, ?
Noble, Battle Standard Bearer, Barded Elven Steed, ?
Noble, Additional Hand Weapon, Shadow Armour, Potion of Strength, ?
13 Silver Helms, Shields, Full Command
5 Ellyrian Reavers, Bows and Spears
8 Dragon Princes, Full Command, ?
5 Shadow Warriors
Tiranoc Chariot
Great Eagle

Deployment


We rolled Meeting Engagement. All of my troops started on the battlefield, but Elessehta had to wait for the reavers, shadow warriors and the shadow armour noble.

Spells
Beasts Archmage – Wyssan’s Wildform, Amber Spear, Curse of Anrahier, Savage Beast of Horros

Ele turn one


The reinforcements arrived and the cavalry advanced.

Eli turn one


The reavers moved towards the shadow warriors as the skycutters repositioned. Shooting took down the Tiranoc chariot.

Ele turn two


My BSB downed his potion as the cavalry of the enemy sounded the charge. The stand and shoot of the BSB and sea guards killed a good number of dragon princes. The archmage cast wildform on the silver helms and curse on the sea guards. I was saving my dice for savage beast, but that went off irresistibly. The miscast blew up troops on both sides. The combat was pretty one-sided – the potion of strength couldn’t even enable my BSB to kill the archmage. The silver helms pursued into the eagle claw. The reavers in the South shot down two of my reavers.

Eli turn two


Both units of reavers charged the eagle, but the smaller unit failed. After that combat, the eagle was left on one wound and one reaver had fallen. The troops in the North turned around to face the cavalry. The eagle eye killed one dragon prince, but it couldn’t wound the next.

Ele turn three


The silver helms charged the phoenix guards and the dragon prince ran as far away as he could. The archmage cast wildform on the silver helms, but that was all. The loremaster challenged the archmage. However, it didn’t go his way and the archmage and his horse managed two wounds. The phoenix guards were steadfast. In the South, the reavers finished off the eagle, reforming.

Eli turn three


The diagram is wrong here. The skycutter with the eagle eye went into the rear of the silver helms and the other skycutter charged the dragon prince. Both skycutters did six impact hits so one killed the dragon prince and the silver helms fled from the other combat, off the board. My reavers charged Ele’s and each side lost three models. IU won by one, but the reavers (Ele’s ) wouldn’t flee.

Ele turn four


The shadow warriors charged in to finish off my reavers. We called it there, as it was clearly a victory to the (my ) high elves.



Obviously I was very pleased to get two wins in a row. I was also very pleased with how well the skycutters performed, although I know they won’t always do six impact hits each.

Thank you very much to Ele for two fun games (for me – he didn’t really enjoy the first one ) and for making the diagrams for this game. Thank you for reading. Please leave any comments you have. I’ll post my thoughts on the lists and games soon.

[Elessehta of Yvresse]

Phoenix Guard are so hard to beat, if I had just charge Van out into them and shuffled the Silver Helms away, he could have challenged and maybe held a turn or two, while the SH chased a Skycutter, silly me always giving the game away on a foolish charge. The amount of time we took for these two games we could have restarted that big game ^_^
Maybe next time.
I need to protect my Chariot better, I seem to lose them way too easily.
Miscasts, I did it like two turns in a row I think, and damn I hate them, one was on two dice, damn Wildform. Sure it helped but still annoying.

[Elithmar]

Yeah, I love phoenix guards. Maybe charge out the BSB instead though. He'd be less points and I'm guessing he was better protected.

I think in the second game I should have held the reavers back. I thought they could go and get rid of your light troops but really they would have been great for double fleeing one of the cavalry units in turn two, so they couldn't both charge in or they'd both hold back and I'd get an extra turn of shooting. Even where I vanguarded them to, they would have been better in turn one turning around and taking out the reavers before moving on to the shadow warriors and eagle.

Game one went pretty well but I probably should have done what Galharen said in turn two and charged one skycutter into the dragonmage and one into the dragon princes so that, after the overrun, I'd have both units to take on the dragon princes. S5 impact hits are very nice and your S3 dragon princes probably wouldn't do too many wounds back, so I would have likely broken them. Oh well, it turned out very well in the end anyway.

[Elithmar]

List thoughts

Loremaster, Sword of Might, Shield of the Merwyrm, Book of Hoeth
Noble, Battle Standard Bearer, The Reaver Bow, Potion of Strength

As always, the loremaster's spell selection was amazing. He killed a dragon! The book of Hoeth makes him even better, but I feel I don't have enough magic defence. I really want to add a dispel scroll, although then my magic phase would take a hit. I think I'll try it out for a few games though. It also means I can give him a proper 4+ ward rather than just the parry.

The BSB was pretty good too. With the potion in the second game, he killed quite a few dragon princes with the stand and shoot. I'm still not 100% convinced the points for the potion are best spent though. I think this is definitely the best type of BSB for this type of list (although a sea helm in a skycutter could be interesting ).

19 Lothern Sea Guards, Shields, Standard Bearer, Musician
5 Ellyrian Reavers, Bows and Spears
5 Ellyrian Reavers, Bows and Spears

Sea guards are a fluff option really; archers would be better and I could have more of them. However, they're alright so they can stay. Reavers are just great, but I need to work on using them to their full capacity.

19 Phoenix Guards, Full Command
Lothern Skycutter, Eagle Eye Bolt Thrower
Lothern Skycutter

Phoenix guards are always great - the thing to think about here is the skycutters. I think it's either two or none with them. The eagle eye was handy for chipping away at the dragon princes in both games. I think it works well because this is a sort of 'sit back and shoot, then counter attack' list. It doesn't have to move at first so the eagle eye is more accurate and then in can charge in with my infantry or the other skycutter when the enemies get close. The only thing you lose is the extra crew, so I think this is the superior option for skycutters. However, it is more expensive so I can only really afford the one eagle eye. Talking more generally about skycutters, S5 impact hits were really nice and combined with the eagle's and the crew's attacks, they make quite a decent combat model. As long as they don't take took many wounds, I can heal one back each turn with earthblood and keep them alive a bit longer.

I have only tried these against other High Elves though, so I'll have to see how they do against other armies. I don't expect them to last long against, say, Empire or Dwarfs.

Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower

Not much to say. It's a great unit.

TL;DR, nothing will change in the list at the moment. I'll continue to test the skycutters on UB and then I might even have to get a couple eventually.

Thanks for reading. Please leave any and all comments you have.