2000 Tough Close Combat

[janohirmas]

Hey Guys,
I'm trying a new approach with my HEs and wanted to know your opinion:

Lords (670)
Alarielle the Radiant
Loremaster of Hoeth, Book of Hoeth, Shield of Merwyrm & Sword of Might

Heroes (149)
Battle Standard, Armour of Caledor & Great Weapon

Core (500)
2 x 10 Silver Helms, Shield, Standard and Champ

Special (541)
17 White Lions, Banner of the World Dragon, Full Command
11 Phoenix Guards, Razor Standard and Full Command

Rare (140)
1 repeater bolt thrower
5 sisters of Avelorn

The organization goes as follows.

Alarielle and BSB go with the Lions. Alarielle has 3 light spells and 1 HEs spell. If she gets apotheosis, in the HEs she stays with that if not, with the first one.
This leaves these lions with WS 2+ against magic attacks, spells and WS 5/4+ against normal weapons. So basically we have a full combat unit, stubborn, though and deadly.

On the other hand, the PG goes with the Loremaster, which is not as deadly but almost as resistant. Faster combat, ASF S4 with armour piercing. The LM goes with S5 Armour piercing attacks, also ASF and with 4+ parry save.

The Silver Helms are there for combat support, and the RBT and the sisters to try to take down any regen unit or large target that might be lurking somewhere.

I would like to know your opinion on this list, so I can improve it. I am worried about:
- Little diversification (two heavy units which are most of the army points)
- Too much magic, I know I should not trust magic, but with both of these, I will always have something to do on the magic phase.
- No Ellyrian Reavers nor eagles.
- I use to put the frostheart + dragon and I'm biased towards it, but it's not necesarilly the best choice.

[SpellArcher]

I feel the magic-heavy is viable.

I'm not keen on the Core. Given you have infantry characters janohirmas, sizeable cav units are not that effective IMHO. The characters also push you towards infantry blocks, which are a bit slow. I suggest dropping one unit of Helms for Archers because slower armies benefit from shooting. I'd split the second unit of Helms in two for that light support you feel you are missing. You could equally take 2x5 Reavers.

The Lions look good. Ideally I'd take more but this is 2000pts. The PG though are not big enough IMHO and I feel you lack the points to increase them. The obvious switch is take a Frostheart instead for exactly the same points. He will put fear into opponents in a way these PG won't. I would normally put all three characters into the Lions to benefit from World Dragon (without this they can be Death sniped for example). If facing Dwellers Archers are a bunker option.

I'd swap the Sisters for a second RBT, it's more flexible overall. You have Loremaster with Flaming spells vs Regen. I suggest taking all Light spells with Alarielle. You then have a 90% chance of rolling Banishment which is very desirable at S5.

[Prince of Spires]

interesting idea.

I agree with SA that the PG bunker is perhaps a bit too small. At least for a full command + razor banner unit. I personally often run a unit of PG 15 strong with FC and the razor banner (for a nice even 300points). This gives you 16 ASF attacks which reroll against anything except some very specific characters, with S4 AP. The unit just blends stuff that is not heavily armoured. But it does take advantage of everything that makes elves strong. High I, 3 ranks of attacks, for infantry good movement. I fear that 11 would get ineffective too fast.

As for your shooting, I don't think it's reliable or strong enough to do much. The sisters will get 2 wounds per phase against ideal targets (so, long range, no moving, t3, no armour). Which is either not really the stuff you want to shoot (as in softening up hard targets) or not reliable enough against fast disruptive units. The same for a single RBT. I would either group all that shooting in a single group (either all sisters or 2 RBT) or simply drop the shooting altogether. With Allarielle and a loremaster, you have enough ranged threats in the form of magic missiles not to have to worry about it.

Of course, if you do drop the shooting, then you could swap those points out for more PG and an eagle for instance.

Rod

[RE.Lee]

Agree with the above about the size of the PG unit. I'd drop them for some more WL (I like to go 7x3) and shooting. Personally, I'd also change the BSB to a mounted one with a Star Lance (+thw, Golden Crown, Dragon Helm - a great build!) - he'd give a Silver Helm unit some bite. The second SH unit could be dropped for an archer unit that could act as a secondary bunker.

Good luck!