In the spirit of the Greek character of old whom they were inspired by, they are rugged honour guard of near herculean strength, quite different from the usual stereotypes of frail and fragile elves. They tirelessly guard the mountain passes of northern Ulthuan, which is a harsh, unforgiving landscape, and are garbed in the pelts of vicious cats from whom they earn their namesake, behold, the White Lions of Chrace!

What they do
I'll start by explaining in more detail how the White Lions, or WL, play in the field, and first off is their woodsmen special rule, which allows them to travel through forests without any movement penalty, characters who join their ranks also benefit from this special rule. Thanks to this, they can utilize forest features in the battlefield with greater efficiency than our other units, save shadow warriors and units carrying the Ellyrion Banner. They also carry the pelt from a majestic white lion, this pelt adds to their armour save versus missile fire for a grand total of 3+, this is, for those who need a point of reference, means a rough 66% chance of saving any normal strength 3 arrow or bolt. Needless to say, it'll help them survive longer. And last, but certainly not least, White Lions benefit from the stubborn special rule. What stubborn does is allow any unit benefiting from it to always roll on their base leadership when losing a combat, that is to say that no matter how outnumbered or outranked they are, they will not receive any modifiers to their leadership value.

What are the implications of this then? With stubborn and elven leadership, a unit of White Lions is effectively considered to be a tar pit, staying where it engages combat until none are left standing, be that enemies or White Lions. Thanks to their pelts, they handle travelling through open terrain under enemy missile fire better than swordmasters, and the ability to travel undaunted through forests give them a great nudge in the field of manoeuvrability. Their high strength of six allows them to cut through more heavily armoured enemies with greater ease than other high elves.

Swiss army knife
"What's so good about all that? If I wanted to survive against arrows, I'd take PG, they're much better at it," the casual observer says,
"... and SM are much better at killing stuff, they have twice as many attacks!"
Ah, yes, that is correct, but SM cannot survive well against shooting without proper support, and although you may protect them by moving them into a forest, they will suffer from a movement reduction, the WL will not. And while the PG are more resilient, the WL are a bit more destructive. What I'm trying to demonstrate is the fact that the WL are sort of like the middle ground between SM and the PG. But they are more than a balanced middle ground, they also have their special rules, which allow them to do some things the other two Elite Infantries cannot.

Like tall dwarves, without the temper
Thanks to stubborn, a unit of WL, with enough numbers to withstand the initial assault, can successfully hold a unit of enemy cavalry. Thanks to Speed of Asuryan and a whooping strength 6, they might bypass their heavy armour and kill off a few knights before their lances impact, and this is disregarding their high weapon skill. Even if they lose combat, chances are quite high that they'll hold, and with high weapon skill and high strength, and the knights unable to benefit from their lances, chances are even higher that they'll continue to hold. If your BSB is in sufficient proximity, or if the unit champion carries the Gem of Courage, a unit of WL will be able to engage even tougher opponents and hold them in place until sufficient support arrives, or simply hold them until the rest of the enemies threats are dealt with. To use the WL in this fashion, holding dangerous enemies for extended rounds of combat without the intention of breaking them, is to use them as a tar pit unit.

Big block WL
If your intention is to break the enemy, White Lions can still do the job. By adding more units to provide rank bonuses, a banner for combat resolution, and a musician in case of a tie, they will operate much like a unit of Phoenix Guard, providing static combat resolution, but with a higher damage output. This might be an expensive way to gain static combat resolution, especially when you consider that spears can provide the same amount of static combat resolution at a lower cost. However, if you've got the points and you're finding that the WL could be more useful breaking the enemy and engaging other units in turn, instead of simply tar pitting them, then using them in larger numbers is not at all wrong. After all WL have a higher average life expectancy during travel than SM. Much higher if you utilize forests for cover.

The woodsmen special rule is something that should be utilized whenever possible. Thanks to it, you can hide the WL behind a forest feature, shielding them from any eventual enemy war machines or high strength ranged units. Then they may hide in it if necessary and move towards the enemy line without serious impairment.
It is very worth noting that if a unit is partially in a wood, enemy ranged units suffer a -1 to hit. This, in conjunction with their woodsmen rule, allows the WL to move along the border of a forest, without movement reduction, enjoying the protection it's branches and foliage offer against arrows.

Many sizes, all fit.
In the end, any number of WL can fulfil a role, however, certain roles perform certain tasks better than others. Fielding a 15 strong unit of WL as a detachment seems a bit off, and fielding 5 white lions to tarpit a war hydra seems like a downright bad idea. Balance the unit size with what intent you have for the unit, smaller sizes for units that need more manoeuvrability, and larger sizes for units that will be more prominent battle-line units. Fielding a smaller unit to help a block of spearmen to fight against tougher units is a very good option that comes to mind.

Bad ass Lumberjacks
And needless to say, what better irony than to field a regiment of arrow-resilient woodsmen, armed with axes against a host of wood elves? This might not be the best way to fight our tree-hugging cousins, but with all attempts at humour aside, the high strength and stubborn rule can help quite well against the tougher parts of an Asrai army. Not to mention the ability to walk through the inevitable forests that will exist at a Asrai war zone.

White Lions, are generally considered one of the most versatile units in the High Elven army book. And this is saying something considering that most elven units are quite versatile. They can act as a detachment much in the same way as Swordmasters, thanks to a higher strength that offsets the fact that they have one fewer attacks. They can operate well in larger regiments thanks to an improved save versus missiles. And thanks to their special rules, they can intercept and hold almost any foe. They are a frequent sight in tournament lists due to their special abilities and all-round reliability. As with all units in our list, using them to their full potential takes practice, and with so many things to do, having a WL unit perform all roles it could possibly perform might be impossible.

In the end WL:
- are the middle ground between PG and SM, with some added spice.
- can intercept and hold most units.
- can reduce armour saves and consequently aid spearment against tougher opponents.
- can fill any roll that SM or PG would fill, but differently.
- are excellent tarpit units.
- are great for flanking through forests.

[quote="GreaterDragon"]If I could add something to what you've already said coming from my meager knowledge of tactics it would be that I enjoy using white lions as flank protectors.
That is,they are effective at guarding the flanks of other high elf units.Here is an example of what I mean and something that I used at my last game:

The setup is somewhat like this:

 

You charge one opposing unit with one of yours,while moving the white lions to cover its flank,like this:

 

Now, the dragon princes can fight their battle without interference.Best case scenario,which is what happened with me is that the white lions get charged and hold,dragon princes break their unit on the 2nd round and flank charge the unit that is tied up by the white lions.

You can do this with any other unit,the units used here was just a real life example.I know the images might seem a bit weird but it works nice on the tabletop.
One last note is that I always give my white lions the lion banner,firstly because it sounds cool but most importantly cause I hate losing my stubborn cause I was outnumbered by fear causing enemies.

Hope this helps.