Dark elf nobles

How to beat those cowardly High Elves?

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Ysul
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Dark elf nobles

Post by Ysul »

Im wondering how to equip my noble. I already plan to give him heavy armor or Armor of Midnight, (if I take heavy armor, I will also take the Sea Dragon Cloak) and putting him on a chariot. So Im basically wondering how I should equip him with weapons.
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Fingol darkwater
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Post by Fingol darkwater »

Moved to tactics.

I'd personally consider mundane weapons before anything else.

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Post by Ysul »

Thanks. I was think halberd, so I get the strength modifier, and I can still strike first if I had higher initiative (which in most cases I will). Or another hand weapon so I can deal out a decent amount of attacks, especially on the charge.
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Post by Saint of m »

I feild a lance with my guy, but The halburd is always a nice touch. I think the eaisiest way to do that is to use one of the standard bearers for the darkriders for most of your stuff, and possibly one extra blackgaurd for chariot or dragon (give or take if the bits order gets organized beter.)
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Post by [llct]kain »

Propably a search in this forum for the famous "Hunter Noble" is worth the effort.

The equipment and the mount highly depend on the rest of your army and the special role role that the noble has to fill.
For example the noble on the chariot would be quite good on flanking a unit with US5 - but expensive, so I would keep him as cheap as possible
so only mundane equipment.

In general I prefer the Hunter Noble, just a Dark Steed, Heavy Armour, Seedragon Cloak, Lance and shield (perhaps for some more points the enchanted one).
That gives you a very fast hero that will hit with S6 and a realy good save - and the hero will be realy cheap :-)
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Post by Mr. anderson »

Ysul wrote: Or another hand weapon so I can deal out a decent amount of attacks, especially on the charge.


That won´t work if you want to put him on a chariot because mounted models cannot use two hand weapons.

For the rest: My nobles always only go off with mundane equipment. Chariot, Lance, full armor and that´s it, probably with a crossbow for coolness' sake... If I can spare the points.

Generally a two-wounds character is not good enough for magical equipment, unless the character is either doing something only this character can do (waving around a huge banner for example) or has a very low risk of being killed (when blasting apart the enemy from a distance of at least 18", for example... Sorceresses come to mind here).

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Post by Vorchild »

I like my nobles on dark steeds with just mundane equipment and a lance as the weapon of choice. Keeps them cheap and still extremely effective with very good saves.

In general I prefer the Hunter Noble, just a Dark Steed, Heavy Armour, Seedragon Cloak, Lance and shield (perhaps for some more points the enchanted one).


See, others agree. ;) That's definitely one of the most optimal uses for this hero.
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Post by Dalamar »

I like my hunter noble on pegasus with lifetaker... makes those lone mages dead quickly enough and I have a weapon to deal with banshees and the like before they cause too much trouble. And pegasus gives him much needed maneouverability that even dark steed lacks
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my noble

Post by Cougar_roger »

in a unit or exes with armor of darkness for a base 2+ save and heartseeker to reroll misses.
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Re: my noble

Post by Vorchild »

cougar_roger wrote:in a unit or exes with armor of darkness for a base 2+ save and heartseeker to reroll misses.


See, this is what I really don't get. Why would you equip him that way in the new rules in a unit like that? First of all, even including the addition of the steed, you can get the same AS cheaper (HE, SDC, shield, dark steed) than you can get the armour of darkness. More importantly, it frees up your magic items allowace (which is sometimes very important in composition and campaigns) and you get a discount on the unit of execs since on a steed he'll count as 2 models. So, in the end you save your magic items allowance, gain a character with greater all around potential, gain an attack from the steed and save the points difference between the mundane and magical equipment and the cost of the exec. You get more and pay less.
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Post by Dalamar »

Personally I don't like mounted characters in units of infantry... might be advantageous... but it just doesn't look right. Same with infantry characters in units of cavalry.
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Re: my noble

Post by Cougar_roger »

Vorchild wrote:
cougar_roger wrote:in a unit or exes with armor of darkness for a base 2+ save and heartseeker to reroll misses.


See, this is what I really don't get. Why would you equip him that way in the new rules in a unit like that? First of all, even including the addition of the steed, you can get the same AS cheaper (HE, SDC, shield, dark steed) than you can get the armour of darkness. More importantly, it frees up your magic items allowace (which is sometimes very important in composition and campaigns) and you get a discount on the unit of execs since on a steed he'll count as 2 models. So, in the end you save your magic items allowance, gain a character with greater all around potential, gain an attack from the steed and save the points difference between the mundane and magical equipment and the cost of the exec. You get more and pay less.


Not sure I'm following on the discount thing. I mostly play pitch battles and haven't played comp or campaign so I havent run into that. I currently don't have a noble on a steed model and wouldn't see the point now with a model coming out in a few months. I like my nobles fighting in my units where I know he makes a difference in CR. Maybe when the new models come out I'll use that noble to mix things up but for now my noble does just fine with that configuration.
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Post by Vorchild »

Personally I don't like mounted characters in units of infantry... might be advantageous... but it just doesn't look right. Same with infantry characters in units of cavalry.


I get that. I have the same opinion myself. My current solution has been not to bother putting mounted characters in infantry, but I'm thinking that maybe there's an excuse there for a modelling project. It wouldn't be too hard to put two small bases together (for a 20x40 base rather than the 25 x 50 cav base) which would help, and I'm sure there's a way to make the guy look less bulky compared to the infantry.

Not sure I'm following on the discount thing.


The discount relates to both the equipment, but more importantly to the model count of the exec unit. A model on foot takes the place of only one model in the unit (so you'd have, say 19 execs plus the noble for a unit of 20). A model on a horse takes up two models in the unit, so you'd only need 18 execs to get the same unit of 20 (in size, ranks, and US). You'd also get an extra attack out of it.
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Post by Dalamar »

Vorchild wrote:It wouldn't be too hard to put two small bases together (for a 20x40 base rather than the 25 x 50 cav base) which would help, and I'm sure there's a way to make the guy look less bulky compared to the infantry.


It wouldn't be too hard... but against the rules unfortunately.
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now that you explain it that way...

Post by Cougar_roger »

it makes sense to me now.

So then the steed moves at the rate of the unit?

It never occured to me to put a noble on a steed and put him in a unit. Interesting.

I will keep that in mind when the new models come out. Besides, that particular noble is probably one of my better painted models.
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Post by Dalamar »

unit always moves at the rate of the slowest member of it. so yes, unit of infantry with cavalry model in it will still move as fast as the slowest guy.
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Post by Mr. anderson »

Actually I really like having cavalry models in my infantry units, as they for one thing make up for two models but the other, more important thing is that they (if mounted on cold one) make the unit immune to fear. The fact that the whole unit is affected by stupidity is not too bad because my general always is somewhere around, giving everyone LD10. That way I risk absolutely nothing when fighting undead and small units become surprisingly effective. I remember one particular game against Vampires when my battle line was held together by 12 black guards with a BSB on cold one. I won because they held out until the last man and although they finally all died I got enough time out of this sacrifice (which lasted for 5 turns of combat) to move my cold one knights and dark riders into the back of the undead army. So characters on mounts really really are worth it when in infantry units.

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Post by Vorchild »

Dalamar wrote:
Vorchild wrote:It wouldn't be too hard to put two small bases together (for a 20x40 base rather than the 25 x 50 cav base) which would help, and I'm sure there's a way to make the guy look less bulky compared to the infantry.


It wouldn't be too hard... but against the rules unfortunately.


It may be against the rules, but a little simple math can keep things proper which would be in keeping with the spirit of the rules as opposed to the strict letter. I mean, honestly, its 5mm which is less than the typical width of a movement tray, so its hardly going to give the unit as a whole an advantage or disadvantage and can easily be kept track of.
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Post by Bounce »

I have found with nobles, magic weapons just aren't worth the points. At first an extra 3 attacks or no armour saves sounds good but you will get just as good results with a lance. Which seems kind of silly. I think our magic weapons could do with several upgrades to make them worth taking.

There are also many things wrong with having cavalry and infantry in the same unit. Any tactical advantage would be off set by your opponent marking you down for being cheezy.
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Ysul
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Post by Ysul »

Thanks for the tips. Il try out the lance.
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