The Empire gun line can indeed be seen as problem for ye very fragile High Elf army. I personally (being an ex-Empire general), have used this tactic many times against such armies as the High Elves Embarassed, Hordes of Chaos, Vampire Counts and Bretonnians Twisted Evil. But from reading the current 7th Ed. High Elf book it seems that the gun line could cause a lot of grief for some but as noted earlier...... can be dealt with ruthless cunning. One has to remember, that shooty heavy armies will lack the ability to bring high amounts of combat resolution, so should be easily dispatched in combat.

When coming up against such an enormous amount of firepower, I think the High elves should be looking to use as much speed as possible to negate the amount of rounds in which the enemy can spend shooting at your fragile troops. Therefore, when composing an army, I personally would consider taking as many Ellyrian Reavers, mounted Mages, Shadow Warriors, Dragon Princes and Chariots as possible and within legal limits.

As noted earlier, the spell "Howler Wind" is a great advantage for any army facing an army full of shooty death. Its ability to negate all shooting of a STR4 or less will be a huge thorn in the side of the enemy. I noticed earlier that someone mentioned it being a remains in play spell and that enemy players could easily dispel it in their turn. Well, there are possibilities for this too. Drain Magic........ as far as I am aware, this spell can be cast any time during the H/E magic phase, so why not cast it after you have successfully casted "Howler Wind" thus increasing its difficulty to dispel by 3 in the opponents magic phase. Also, the "Annulian Crystal" could come in handy at this time, by stealing a power die from enemy and placing it in your dispel dice pool. Also, "Rain Lord" comes in handy for war machines and anything with the armour piercing ability and also not to forget the ever ubiquitous "Master of Stone" as previously mentioned for taking out those ever annoying war machines on hills. Also as previously mentioned, the "Seer Staff" is something to look at and think about taking on a Mage, allowing him to choose his spells. Ohh! and don't forget to take him on a mount to keep up with the cavalry if you plan to use the "Howler Wind" trick with a few units of cavalry to smash the weak links of the enemy line.

Ok now, the use of a whole bunch of Cavalry units is a great plan in my eyes. It uses speed, armour and packs a punch the will leave those pesky units of handgunners and crossbowmen in tatters. The core units of the army in my opinion would be made up of H/E Archers with no hope of including any form of command group (mainly to save points for other units and items). The Archers are far better at shooting than their manling counterparts and can out-range the pesky handgun by some 6", which helps considering the majority of ranged units have next to no armour save, thus whittling down the amount of shots taken by your cavalry units.

Then with the inclusion of Ellyrian Reavers, which would be my choice of mainstay cavalry unit for this force, mainly due to the flexibility they offer with having 18" movement (and charge), fast cavalry (for manouvrablilty), bows and spears to harass the smaller units whilst they move to engage the enemy. The only downfall with this unit, like the majority of elven units is their fragility. But when used in combination with Mages and scenery, casualties may be able to be kept at a minimum.

Tiranoc Chariots and Dragon Princes are a must in some form or another. Being able to take down smaller units (and in the case of the Dragon Princes, taking down elite enemy formations), thus opening up holes in the enemy line. These units would be more eligible for the role of the hammer and just elegantly breaking the enemy.

Shadow Warriors would be a great unit as well, one or two units would become quite an annoyance for shooting units, especially with the scout ability, which would more than likely place them in some form of cover making them harder to kill from useless human shooting. Plus their formidable elven archery skills could help pepper the enemy artillery and also deal with other skirmishing units that enemy could wish to utilise.

Now on to Great Eagles. Great speed and ability to deal with enemy war machines by turn two. The enemy will be left with a lot of options for targets when these babies are added. He/She will either have to choose to shoot at the big birds in the hope of annihilating them from the table, thus allowing your other units to last that little bit longer, or ignore them and lose some vulnerable artillery next turn and have these annoying raptors having free reign behind his/her lines.