Ulthuan | Part 1 - Lords and Heroes

Prince

There is only one realistic way to field a Prince and that's on top of his Star Dragon. The reason why this is the only viable option is because he cannot compete on the battlefield against the other Lord-level characters of his peers without it. Compare him to the likes of a tooled up Chaos Lord, a Bloodthirster or an unkillable Dreadlord and there's absolutely no way. For example, if you put him a mount in a Dragon Prince setup (you'll see me mention this repeatedly) in Dragon Armor, Shield, Barded Elven Steed, you'll give him a lovely 2+ armor save like most Knights. The bonus? He's immune to flaming attacks of all sorts. This is lovely and all, but compared to other Lords whose armor value is at 0+, this falls kind of short. You can improve this with say... Enchanted Shield with Vambraces of Defense for a lovely 1+ re-rollable and 4+ Ward, but then he doesn't have enough points to pack a punch via Star Lance. This is a problem you'll see the in High Elf book time and time again. I apologize, I shouldn't say "problem". The High Elf army is designed to be specialized; even more specialized than other specialized units of the same type (Chariots, Heavy Cavalry...etc). The Prince has to be either built offensively or defensively. A mixture of both is simply ineffective in terms of how he functions on the battlefield. An offensive Lord is exactly what his name implies: Offense - Go out, kill something, break them in combat, and then run them down. A defensive Lord is someone who can tank, prevent damage, save combat res, and accept challenges from other Lords or Heroes without a problem. A mounted Prince with Star Lance on a barded steed is nice (also take Helm of Fortune and Guardian Phoenix), but having a Star Dragon who can aide in the attack with 6 WS7 S7 is much nicer. Oh, and the Prince on the ground? Forget about it. I've never seen a Prince on foot do any good in the game. Everyone knows he's packing White Sword, Talisman of Loec, 2+/5+ save (that is the optimal build for footsloggers). He's too easily avoided and the lack of mobility not only limits my ability to threaten the enemy, but gives him the +1 on me if his Lord is on a flyer or on a mount. That's the thing about Lord-level characters; they have to be a threat on the battlefield or else they're not worth their points.

Here are my two Star Dragon builds:

Defensive Prince on Star Dragon
Armor of Caledor, Vambraces of Defense, Amulet of Light or Gem of Courage with Lance or Halberd.

As you can see, this is the defensively built Prince on Star Dragon. This offers him a 2+ re-rollable armor save and a 4+ Ward on top of it. Since Armor of Caledor is Dragon Armor, the entire unit (yes, including his mount) is immune to all sorts of fire attacks. With 20 or so points left over, the Prince can go for an Amulet of Light to make all his attacks and the Dragon's attacks Magical. You'll see this in areas where the metagame fields a lot of Ethereal or Wood Spirit armies. The Gem of Courage is available for him so you can opt to take a Leadership test with 3-die, choosing the two lowest. It's a one-time use item, but it's useful for when you Lord actually loses combat and you need an Ld.10 Cold-blood to stay in the game. Sometimes I see players opt to use the Talisman of Loec. I don't understand this reasoning because the purpose of this build is defense. Taking a wound off your Lord so you can swing with your mundane Lance or Halberd is beyond me. Your job is to stay in the game and break things via your Dragon because your Lord is there to take the hits. This is another reason why you see the Halberd more in this type of fight. A S5 weapon is better-rounded than a Lance when you're going to be there for another turn.

Offensive Prince on Star Dragon
Star Lance, Armor of Caledor, Guardian Phoenix, Talisman of Loec.

He only has a 2+ armor save followed by a 5+ ward, but he's packing a S7 Lance that ignores armor saves. He's also using a Talisman of Loec because once he runs into the opposing faction's Lord in a challenge; he'll be taking a wound for the ability to re-roll all hits, wounds and making his opponent re-roll ALL saves of any kind. That means successful ward and regen saves will have to be re-rolled (no armor saves allowed). This build sacrifices the survivability of the defensive Lord setup for something that can hit like a truck from 20" away. You're looking at 6 WS7 S7 attacks from the Dragon followed by 4 WS7 S7 attacks with no armor saves from the Lord. You'll sure kill a lot, but you have to use him very wisely. A careless mistake could mean the death of your Lord and a ton of VPs for your opponent.

Teclis

First things first; Teclis is a Lord-level, Special Character. That means everyone knows what he's capable of. Not only does Teclis know all spells from any of the 8 Lores + High Magic, he can cast any spell with Irresistible Force on the roll of any doubles. That means he's the most powerful offensive caster in the game; he simply cannot be stopped if he gets the spell off and manages to score a double. Not only this, but Teclis gets to ignore the first miscast he makes in every round of magic he casts. This means you can confidently throw 5 dice out on any big spell that you want without fear of ill effects happening to your mage. As if this wasn't enough, Teclis has his Moon Staff that grants him +D3 Power and Dispel dice in each phase of magic. He also has a Scroll of Hoeth that acts exactly like a normal dispel scroll plus if Teclis beats your roll on a roll of D6, the spell is erased from your caster's mind. Teclis is by far the most powerful caster in my eyes. So what's the downside of such a beast? He's Toughness 2 with no saves of any kind. Most players will go out of their way to make sure Teclis dies a horrible death. Otherwise, Teclis will cast spell upon spell with impunity upon your enemies' forces and there's nothing he can do about it. Take Teclis over an Lv.4 Mage if you can fit the points; he's superior in every single way. Remember: If you take Teclis, make sure you protect him with the best of your ability. The enemy is coming for him.

Teclis, being the best offensive caster-lord in the game, should be used exactly as that. He should always take offensively orientated Lores of magic such as Fire, Death, Shadow, Metal or High Magic. All of these Lores have a purpose and should be studied thoroughly in the rulebook.

Lore of Fire is great against just about anything. I find it to be most effective against horde armies that like to move across the battlefield. Key spells that should be cast is Burning Head, Fiery Blast, Conflagration of Doom, and Wall of Fire. These spells can cause some serious panic checks or stop your opponents from advancing all together.

Lore of Death is great against low leadership armies and if your army plans to be in close combat with the enemy. Spells like Steal Soul, Doom and Darkness and Drain Life can be absolutely devastating. Lore of Death is probably the most powerful close-distance magic lore in the game. If you sense that you’ll win combat in the next combat phase, just throw on Doom and Darkness and watch him take leadership rolls with a -3 modifier. Its fun times, really.

Lore of Shadow is amazing vs. low initiative units and Unseen Lurker can be a game-winning when used properly. The two big spells that should be cast here is Unseen Lurker and Pit of Shades. A carefully placed Pit of Shades in the center of a Dwarf or Lizardman infantry block is insanely devastating. It’s also a great way to kill Slann and Dragons because of their low initiative value. Unseen Lurker is a great way to throw your dangerous units into combat early, or to force a flank charge when your opponent least expects it. The best unit choices for Unseen Lurker are normally Dragon Princes or Sword Masters since they best on-demand damage.

Lore of Metal is the bane of heavily armored armies and can stop a War machine dead in its tracks. This is a very powerful and well-rounded lore because it offers magic item protection, war machine protection, a solid 2D6 S4 magic missile, a CC debuff, a character sniper and a 2D6 big spell that absolutely murders heavy armored units with no armor saves. This is probably my favorite Lore because it compensates for the lack of anti-armor that High Elves have. Since our basic Spearmen can stop most basic infantry dead in their tracks, heavily armored high toughness units are our primary targets. Also note that this Lore is incredibly powerful against Tree Spirits that Wood Elves can field. Because of the fact these spells are both magical and flaming, those tree spirits get no ward, no regen and flaming makes flammable Treeman take double wounds.

High Magic is a great lore for Teclis for many reasons. For one, it’s the High Elves’ own Lore and features a large repertoire of useful spells and abilities. Every spell has a use and dependable. Drain Magic is fantastic against armies that rely on single-die casts such as Vampire Counts, Courage of Aenarion makes every unit within 12” Stubborn for break tests, you have your standard 2D6 S4 magic missiles in the form of Fury of Khaine, and you have the awesome Flames of the Phoenix which is absolutely devastating to large infantry blocks with low toughness. Vaul’s Unmaking is the last spell in the Lore and it has the ability to destroy any magical item that the opposing army might possess. This includes their precious Drakenhof Banner, their Runefangs or their Pendant of Kaeleth. As long as the spell it goes off (and it will, with IF), that magic item is gone.

Tyrion

I'd first like to say that Tyrion is a pretty solid choice as a combat Lord choice. He’s not as good as Prince on a Dragon, but he has a lot of things going for him. Tyrion has a 0+ armor save, 4+ ward and 4+ regen. Tyrion is as durable as an unkillable DE Dreadlord but he can also hit back with 4 WS9 S7 flaming attacks that ASFs each round. His trusty mount also factors in 2 WS4 S4 attacks. The thing to note here is that Tyrion has the same charge distance as a Dragon. When he's by himself, he can literally charge 20" across the field in 360 LoS and join combat with anything he pleases. You might think that it’s wise to run Tyrion solo, but the only problem here is that he doesn't cause Fear or Terror, not Immune to Psychology and he's only US2. He’s not going to break anything by himself. Why he's still on a Monster sized base is beyond me, but the fact of the matter is that Tyrion can charge a long way.

I have to admit, I have been experimenting with how to field Tyrion in my last couple of games. I view him as a weaker version of the Prince on Star Dragon. He's not immune to fear, terror or panic and is subject to combat res more so than the Dragon because of his small unit size. For a Lord choice, he works like any other Lord choice in a CC-oriented fashion. You can compare him directly with a Chaos Lord in terms of how killy he is, so you must use him as such. For this reason, I've found greater success using Tyrion in combination with Dragon Princes.

You take Tyrion in a unit of 7x Dragon Princes w/ Full Command, Standard of Balance, Helm of Fortune on the Champion and a BSB w/ Lance and Battle Banner. This would be considered rather "deathstar", but that's the way you want to play him. Tyrion's forte is close combat and there's no greater honor than to place him on the opposite side of your opponents Lord and charge him outright. With this combination, you’re making the unit 5x2 so you can maximize your maneuverability and at the same time, hit hard on the charge. When you hit the enemy, you’re going to be hitting with 4 WS9 S7 attacks from Tyrion, 3 WS6 S6 attacks from the Noble, 7 WS5 S5 attacks from the DPs, and whatever’s left from that takes +D6 more combat res in your favor. If you want, feel free to beef the unit up to 6x2 wide. Also note that the Champion is there with a 1+ re-rollable armor save just in case something silly (like a Ghast) decides to challenge.

Archmage

Let's just start off and say that you would only take the Archmage if you're not taking Teclis for some reason. The Archmage is a good budget Lord-mage because of the amount of items you can take with him. I find the most cost effective build is Silver Wand, Ring of Fury, and 2x Scrolls/Power Stones. This gives him 5/6 spells on the roll, a bound level 3 2d6 S4 magic missile and a slot for either scrolls or power stones depending on what you need. There are other builds with him, but over the time that I've used him in my games, I find that this is the most cost effective. The other choices in the arcane and enchanted items section is better served for lesser Mages. There is one item combination that some people find worthwhile and that’s the unkillable Mage combo. This is achieved when he takes the Folariath's Robe with the Talisman of Saphery. How this combo works is that the Folariath's Robe makes it so nothing can hurt you except magic weapons and attacks. The Talisman of Saphery makes all your opponent's magical weapons count as mundane. So theoretically, nothing can hurt you except for magic or magical attacks such as Daemons or Ethereal creatures. You can use this combo to in combination with a high resilience, combat res unit such as Phoenix Guard and prevent damage caused by the enemy's heavy hitters. Simply issue a challenge and soak up the attacks. Simple.

As for Eltharion and Alith Anar, I would say these two aren’t really considered in our competitive builds. Eltharion is only useful on Stormwing, and for you to drop points into Stormwing you might as well get the real deal in a Star Dragon. Alith Anar is a fun Lord to play with from time to time but only if you feel like annoying your opponents. If he had a Great Weapon or something that can make up for our overpriced and pitiful Shadow Warriors then yeah, I’d play with him more. But since he doesn’t, he falls short of being competitive.

Next, I’ll touch upon the necessities of our Heroes and how they work with our army.

Noble

I'll be honest here: I will only take a Noble for a BSB. There are two ways to build this BSB, the cheap and effective way, or the slightly more expensive but preferred way. The first method is to take him with an Armor of Caledor and have him stand there on foot with a Great Weapon. The second method is to take him in the Dragon Prince setup; Dragon Armor, Shield, Barded Elven Steed. There is no other way to take a BSB in my opinion and ours is one of the game’s best. Why? Because even with a 2+ save, he’s the only one that can’t be sniped by Rule of Burning Iron (Immune to Fire attacks).

The reason why I prefer the mounted version of the BSB is simple: He can pack a 2+ armor save and at the same time, carry two of the greatest Magical Banners ever made; The Battle Banner and the Banner of World Dragon. First, I will talk about the lesser of the two Banners, the Banner of World Dragon. This unique Banner makes whatever unit that's carrying it completely immune to the effects of magic. It doesn't matter if it's hostile, friendly or bound, the unit is completely immune. This is most often used with Dragon Princes because immunity to all things fire, immunity to all things magic, as well as sporting an 2+ armor save against everything else, these things will only die to very little. This automatically makes an already hard to kill unit, even harder to kill.

As for the other more expensive Banner, I almost always take the Battle Banner. This is mainly because changes games. There's nothing better in a High Elf army than breaking the enemy via combat res once they’ve reach your lines. The Battle Banner offers +D6 combat res to whatever combat it's engaged in on top of all existing combat scores. If you have 3 ranks, a Standard and a BSB holding the Battle Banner, you are up at least 6 combat res before you even started combat. Keep in mind that the Battle Banner's +D6 effect works on top of the fact you have a BSB. The power that this banner offers is limitless, as the mounted Noble can offer its assistance charging into the flank of an enemy unit with a unit of Dragon Princes, or hold the line with a block of Phoenix Guard. This flexibility is once again why I prefer mounted BSBs over footsloggers. In terms of whether the mounted BSB should have a Halberd or a Lance, I find that Halberd works better when working in conjunction with rank and file while a Lance works better when charging with Dragon Princes. If you plan on fighting something more heavily armored units with good combat res, consider using the Halberd should your Dragon Princes fail to break them the first round of combat. S3 is just no good at generating res.

The other alternatives to the BSB are a Noble on a Great Eagle sporting a Reaver Bow or Star Lance. Both of these builds feature an Enchanted Shield for a lovely 2+ flying mount. The only downside that I find in this is the price invested for the risk involved. One serves as a War Machine hunter and the other serves a Chariot killer. I don't know about you guys, I don't like risking a T4 2 wound Eagle with no armor save and a T3 Elf flying across the board into hostile territory. Something about that just doesn't seem right to me. If I wanted something to fly across the field, it'll be my T6 7 wound terror-causing Dragon with a S4 breath. I’d rather keep the Reaver Bow back in my lines and have a 1+ armor save on my barded steed.

Last but not least, there’s the wannabe Mage Noble totting the Radiant Gem of Hoeth. This should only be used on a mount because you have no other way to giving yourself a 2+ armor save. The talisman makes him an Lv.1 Mage so he can choose something like Lore of Beasts and opt to go for Bear’s Anger. This also gives the army another dispel dice to use against enemy spells.

Mage

Our Mages should always be equipped for utility and support. In more Magic dominant armies, level 2 Mages assists the primary mage (either Teclis or an Archmage) by casting back-up Magic. This is why I recommend Seerstaff of Saphery as the primary item of choice because of its ability to pick spells from any given Lore. By picking the most potent and useful spells of the Lore, you automatically raised your threat level on the battlefield. Not only does he have to deal with your primary magical damage dealer, but now he has a backup mage to dispel. This draws dispel dice and thus giving you magical supremacy should he run out early. Other notable mentions for level 2 Mages consists of Jewel of Dusk (+1 PD for that mage) and Silver Wand + 2x DS/PS. For base-level Mages, they are simply used as a “scroll caddy” and therefore shouldn’t be given anything other than 2x Dispel Scrolls at any given time.
Very rarely do I see a Mage equipped with Staff of Sorcery. This gives that particular High Elf Mage a +2 to dispel, which is pretty handy at times. You have to then settle with the fact that you just spent 40 points on +1 to dispel rather than 2 more scrolls.

Korhil

Korhil is one of the best heroes in the entire Warhammer range for many reasons. For 140 points, he offers Stubborn leadership 9 to be applied to any unit he's in and 3 ASF WS6 S6 attacks with Killing Blow. He also has immunity to poison, a better armor save than Heavy armor and has all the other great White Lion characteristics. He's better than any hero-level Noble (on foot) that High Elves can build and should be taken in any game that requires one. There is absolutely no downside to taking him.

Korhil is best used in any infantry block that's required to hold. Two of these pop into my head immediately; Spearmen and Phoenix Guard. White Lions are already Stubborn on an 8 and doesn't require Korhil's support and neither does Sword Masters because of their ability to generate enough combat res via killing the enemy. Korhil's high strength and weapon skill is awesome support for low-strength rank and file troops whose sole purpose is to hold the enemy. A full rank of 20 Spears or Phoenix Guard will generate very little combat res from killing the enemy and therefore needs their ranks and numbers to keep the fight going. This is where Korhil fits in; killing and making sure the unit holds even if they lost combat.

Caradryan

For 175 points, Caradryan is one of the best heroes in the game. First, he causes Fear. This means that whatever unit he joins is automatically immune to fear and enemies being charged by or is charging the unit he's in must first pass a fear test. On top of that, he offers the entire unit MR3; giving the unit a healthy defense against magical attacks. The most important facet to Caradryan is that he's the perfect bodyguard. He can accept any challenge without fear because of Mark of Asuryan. Win or lose, he's going to inflict massive damage to anyone in direct contact with him. The fact that he has 3 WS6 S5 flaming attacks that do D3 wounds against US2+ models already makes him quite powerful in hand to hand. What really makes him amazing is the fact that should he fall (past his 4+ Ward), he immediately deals D6 wounds with no armor saves to whoever (targeting the model) killed him. This immediately makes him a treat to any Lord-class character that could double, or even triple his cost.

Caradryan is the perfect bodyguard for any unit that's willing to house Teclis. Any Lord-class character will think twice before approaching that unit because he knows that he cannot afford to be stuck in a challenge with Caradryan. In the end, there's no ideal unit to place Caradryan because he's so effective in anything. The most appropriate choice for him is in a large unit of White Lions or Phoenix Guard. The White Lion's 3+ save vs. shooting in combination with MR3 makes the unit extremely durable vs. ranged missiles. Phoenix Guard also benefit for having their Captain join the ranks because 4+ Ward and MR3 is no joke.

The Dragon Mage shouldn’t even be considered because of two reasons. The Sun Dragon’s S2 breath is worthless and the bare naked Mage on top dies too easily to randomized shooting. You’ll get better results from much cheaper mages sitting safely in your battle lines.

By HERO