New to WHFB

Introduce yourself to the forum and tell us a little about your journey to the land of the Dark Elves...

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Kellion'esh
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Joined: Sat Jul 07, 2012 9:04 pm

New to WHFB

Post by Kellion'esh »

Hello.
As the title sugests, I am new to WHFB. I am here to learn everything that I can about the Druchii.
I am not new to gaming, however, as I collect Dark Eldar and Night Lords in the 40k universe. Dark Elves appeal to me. I like Dark Space Elves so I hope that I will like Dark Elves just as much.

Cheers, Kellion'esh.
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Saintofm
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Post by Saintofm »

So Dark Elves in 7 words or less:

Not as crazy as Space Elves.

Longer explanation.

Think a mix of Rome and the darker aspects of ancient Greek society they don't teach you in 6th and 7th Social Studies and English, and you have the dark elf fluff.

Gameplay wise it's a mix of fast and stong attacks.

Being elves they move fast and hit first, and are more likley to hit most foes a god chunk of the time. Also like elves, 90% of them get poked with a sharpened stick and they die.

However most of there armor save value is going to be a 5+ (heavy armor, cold ones which act like barded steeds, and or a combination of Light armor and shields or light armor and sea dragon cloak).

The main exception to that is the hydra as it has decent protection, but is a over powered unit designed to get as many kills as possible.


Unit overview:

Spearmen can be played a few ways. Their basic comand option (champion, banner, musician) is 10 points cheaper than most other basic units (which depending if the book has gon 8th ed, this might be cheaper by another 5 points). They can take up to 25 points worth of standards (so there are some options there). At Eternal hatred, they can rerole their missess. You have a 50/50 chance of hitting something against most troops, hatred tips the scales in your favor.

Outside of that they are still cheap, for all intensive purposes. Even when you add the sheilds they are not much more expensive than the typical empire state troop (last edition or this one).

Due to cheapness they are often given to the sorceress with the sac dagger as unlike other units, it won't be much of a sacrifice to kill a few of these guys.

Corsairs and witch elves are all about getting in lots of attacks. The main difference between the two is one can be upgraded to be frenzy and has armor, and one has poison attacks, frenzy, and no armor.

Dark riders are fast cave so in a strait up fright (war machines and shooty units aside) so harass and bait frenzy units.

Harpies are your standard flyer so also week in a standup fight, but agaisnt lone wizzards, war machines, and the occasional shooty unit.

Crossbowmen are to be taken in numbers between 10-20, optional sheilds, and light armor standard. They get lots of shots. They are a support unit like all shooting, meant to whittle the enemy down, and with the number of shots they can get, yes. But don't count on much in a strait up fight (shooty unit thing, although do to armor they might list).

The crossbows, trade distance, strength, and move or shoot (the heavy weapons equivalent in this game) for 2x multiple shots and armor peircing (goes through a layer of armor, perfect for lightly armored foes).

Coldone knights with full comand and 7-10 guys, living tank. However like most heavy cavalry they do their most damage on the charge and can get bogged down after that.

Cold one chariots go well in groups or supporting hydras or knight. They do impact hits, doing woinds simply by ramming into someone, and that's how most chariots work.

Chades are best with base equipment or 2 handweapons addition. Do not give them great weapons (not worth it in 8th ed). have them parked close to the war machine you hate the most, pelt it one turn charge it the next. High weapon skill and high balistic skill means they will hit something.

Executioners are a glass cannon. While heavy armor gives them the standard 5+ save for most elf units, they are armed with Great Weapons, meaning they will hit last. They have their uses as Strenth 4 with the +2 strenght modifyer great weapons give means they have S6, which can wound most monsters on a role of 3 or 4. However they need to set up so they get lots of attacks, so either 4 7 wide ranks or go with the horde formation and at least 30 with ranks of 10. Horde formation works wonders on spears, witch elves, and corsairs as it also gives them lots of attacks.

S6 also has it's advantages as S4 and higher go though layers of armor, with S6 going though 3.

They also have killing blow, which on a wounding role of 6 on normal infantry, beasts, and cavalry you ignore armor and regeneration.

TO get around ASL most players put in a Death Hag (witch elf charecter) battle standard bearer with the banner of Hag Greif (Always Strikes first, what it says on the tin.) the Two rules cancel each other out so it's at normal speed. The unit can take magic banners up to 25 points, so give them the classic war banner or murder banner (one gives an extra combat point, the other armor piercing so another layer of armor).


Black Guard are imune to psychology so ignore most psychology (namely fear, terror, panic) and can take a wider variety of magic standards. They have halburds so +1 strnght at their high initiative. Their main drawback is they are limited to 20 guys, so untill that is lifted they are not as useful as they could be. But once they get into combat, they rerole failed rolls to wound every turn which, which adds to their killing potential.

For rarer units, the hydra is the main tank. There are a few pages dedicated to to this guy so go there.

Bolt throwers, if they had one more elf they would be more useful, as is they are easy to kill. But if you take enough of them they can be useful (like real artillery pieces).
Who needs sanity? I have a Hydra
Kellion'esh
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Joined: Sat Jul 07, 2012 9:04 pm

Post by Kellion'esh »

Thank you very much, Saintofm. This is extremely helpful as all I really knew prior to this was that Witch Elves like screaming 'For Khaine' and taking skulls.

I do have one question; what benefits does a musician give?

When I go to GW tomorrow I shall pick up the army book so I can have a real look through the stats and fluff.

What makes a good core for the army, something that is good for smaller games but can be expanded upon later?

Cheers.
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Calisson
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Post by Calisson »

Great summary, saintofm, added to the D.R.A.I.C.H.

Welcome Kellion'esh to the forum! :)
Winds never stop blowing, Oceans are borderless. Get a ship and a crew, so the World will be ours! Today the World, tomorrow Nagg! {--|oBrotherhood of the Coast!o|--}
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