New player and super noob druchii general! But i hate HE

Discuss the art of war for the Dark Elves and the inferior races that dare to oppose them here.

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NewShade
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New player and super noob druchii general! But i hate HE

Post by NewShade »

(**moved this post in this section, i think i posted in the wrong subforum)

hey guys!

first, let me say that english is not my first language, so sorry for weird syntaxis or mistakes

New noob warhammer and super neo noob druchi player here! :mrgreen:

I hope i'm in the right section of the forum, if not, i humbly apologize and will move this topic in the right section :D

I started playing warhammer like three months ago, and i’m still learning the ropes. lost a lots of battels against my two friends, they both play HE mainly, and sometimes VC and Beastmen. We play with the 8th edition rules.

My main army is a WOC army with big bad monsters and hellcannons, and i was only able to get two draws against them (they are good, i’m bad, and in my opinion HE is probably the strongest army), and lost alll of the other battles. BUT i’m not here to talk about ruinous powers and chaos spawns!

My gf tried to play some skirmish, i taught her the basics of the game and she loved it! setting and everything! We explored the lore together, and she told me that in her opinion the best cool looking armies and badasses were chaos and dark elves.

Since one of my friends wanted to sell his old DE army, i bought it for my fiancee, added some units i was able to find among old players who didn’t play anymore, and now we can finally play together and also bring the pain to the much hated Ulthuan shores! We plan on challenge my friends who play HE.

So, since i will be testing the dark elves against HE to see how they play out, their strenght and weaknesses, can you guys give me some advice on how to best prepare for a battle against High Elves? The best builds, magic, combos, strategy and tips to be able to prevail against the magic supremacy and strenght of HE?

Am i wrong here, or are High elves slightly stronger than dark elves? Seems to me that their magic abilities are superior, and phoenix guards and special units are better than ours. But again, i only read the manual twice, and i’m absolutely not a veteran player. I’m sure they can be beaten and that druchii also have their advantages over them. Can you help me ?

Here is so far what i have been able to put together:

36 dreadspears
35 darkshards
around 60 corsairs
*all full command

14 knights on cold ones
9 shades

19 black guards, full command

2 heroes or special characters - don’t know how to call them, the ones with the little dragon on the shoulder and long hair

1 sorceress on foot

1 sorceress on cold one

3 reaper boltthrowers

2 hydras

1 assassin

If possible, i would like to use these units and save some money, and unless it is really necessary i’m not planning on buyng more units. Do u think i can work out something good from this list? Do i have a chance to beat the much hated HE?
I might be able to get a morathi model for a good price, do u think she might be a good addition for this army? Thank you very much for your inputs guys


:)
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Re: New player and super noob druchii general! But i hate HE

Post by Calisson »

Welcome NewShade to D.net! :D
This is the right forum for your questions.
Unfortunately, it is a couple of years late, the activity here is very low.
Fortunately, in addition to live replies, there are archives.
May I recommend you to have a look at the D.R.A.I.C.H. 8thEd (Druchii Art of War)?
You will learn a lot about tactics, without having to wait.

Myself, I have turned to the 9th Age, where DE have become Dread Elves, with everything a bit different, so I no longer can provide any relevant advice.
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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Re: New player and super noob druchii general! But i hate HE

Post by NewShade »

Thank you so much! aw, it sucks that i'm late for the party! i always played dnd, world of darkness, rpg stuff, magic and i only recently discovered warhammer fantasy. From what i saw, i think i prefer the old wolrd fantasy setting more.

But i guess i have a loooot of reading to do! do u know if there are more active communities or pages where i can find dark elves players? cheers fellow elf
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Re: New player and super noob druchii general! But i hate HE

Post by Daeron »

Ahhh, High Elves vs Dark Elves. I won't be able to reply in length, but I can say this: prepare for legendary slaughter.
High Elves have low toughness and generally not that terrific armour. This means just about any weapon can kill them, from halberd to stick. If your warriors were given rocks they could probably kill high elves with them from a distance, because that's how accurate our warriors are and that's how fragile the High Elves are.
Unfortunately, we mirror that weakness. And as a result, when these two armies face each other, many things tend to disappear, from civility to the armies themselves.

Remember, when facing the end times that would destroy the world, these two factions decided to finish their ever-lasting civil war that nearly depleted their armies before joining forces against their impending doom... Only to find that their armies were nearly depleted.

With both armies being excellent at hitting, both being easily wounded, and both having weak armour (or expensive armour) it isn't exceptional for one army to be tabled or nearly so. Both have the option to kill the other completely.
The challenge is to tip the balance in your favour. And for that, we have a few terrific options, and magic is one of the most fun ways to do it.

Yes, the High Elves have "better" magic all around, but ours seems to be fine tuned to specifically hurt the high elves where it matters.
And... We have warlocks (the most broken unit in the game). If you want magical superiority, just get a unit of these!

As for the Sorceresses - Let's check out Dark magic:

* Power of Darkness - It's a mediocre spell, but very interesting in this match up. +1 Strength is all you need to make your dreadpsears go from underdog to top dog in many engagements (if you consider their cost and numbers)
* Doombolt will wound on 2+ and leave little armour. Unless they have magic protection, it will be devastating against just about ANY High Elf unit. Just shout Doombolt before the match, and I bet you'll see some twitching in your opponent's eye from the horror and pain they suffered at this spell.
* Chillwind will rarely be an effective spell. The short range won't help a lot. But then again it might just do a tad of damage and be funny that way.
* Word of Pain will turn ANY combat around. Taking away the weapon skill will make their army fluff their hits. Keep in mind they will often lose their re-rolls thanks to your always-strike-first and equal initiative. Lowing their weapon skill is very effective. If you can risk the strength and initiative loss, their most elite unit might just lose to just about any unit they face.
* Bladewind is one of those spells you probably trade away in this game. It's just not effective for the cost.
* Shroud of Despair - While psychology is generally a strength of the high elves against us, this spell can occasionally surprise them. It is not sufficiently reliable to build a strategy around it, but it can surprise them.. and surprises tend to have very nasty consequences in these match ups.
* Soul Stealer - Not the most effective spell but usable. The small footprint and low toughness of High Elves make this a fun extra to have. Just don't expect it to turn a fight around.
* Black Horror - It's not a bad spell, but in terms of reliability I generally favour Doombolt. Black Horror does have a thing going for it: it sticks around and high elves generally don't have a lot of strength and rely on weapons to boost their strength. This means they are quite vulnerable to this spell. I have seen characters disappear by it. It's a decent spell to put in the game early on and try to mess up their formation or board control.

So here's the thing with Dark Magic: some of its cheaper spells are the best ones and they can tip around fights that are otherwise equal or slightly advantageous to them.

Another terrific lore is the Lore of Shadow, which also is focused on flipping the balance.
* Miasma - Remove their hits or make them hit later than you. It's beautiful.
* Steed of Shadow - probably not great, but it can help a character or sorceress escape in case of trouble.
* Enfeebling foe - It's beautiful. Especially if they have a Strength 5 attack (great weapon or lance), this affectd both wound and armour role.
* The Withering - And suddenly you can stub their toe to kill them.
* Pendulum and Pit of Shades aren't terribly effective but they might draw out dispel dice.
* Mindrazor - I've rarely seen this spell work as hoped. It's a decent spell! But costly.

Lore of Metal has a similar role, capable of turning any combat around, but its weakness is the signature spell which is effective against a limited amount of units. It can be fun, but it can depend on the spells you roll.

There is firemagic if you want, which is excellent for shredding High Elves. I definitely recommend it for smaller games. But it doesn't scale proportionally in larger games. Overall effective but it doesn't allow a lot of "tricks".

I haven't used lore of death or beasts a lot, so I can't commend on those.

Well that's magic for now. I'll come back some other time to discuss units! :D
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Re: New player and super noob druchii general! But i hate HE

Post by Vulcan »

Take two units of warlocks. They're cheap. :twisted:

Elven archery is legend, but that legend is generally overblown in WFB. Thus, our do-gooder cousins rarely take very many of them. Repeater crossbows, on the other hand, will devastate high elf infantry formations. A largish (20+) unit of Darkshards will rain shots down on HE infantry and trim a rank or two off the unit a turn. And once the range closes, you can assume a 5-wide formation and fight every bit as well as Bleakswords.

Reapers are also good against most everything HE. Mutlishot will rip holes in their infantry, while single-shot will go through even heavily armored knights. However even DE ballistic skill makes them a tad unreliable; take them in pairs at the very least.

Mindrazor can be a beautiful thing when it goes off. A careless Bretonnian general offered a small unit of Darkshards the flank of a mid-sized knight lance at close range. I'm guessing he judged Darkshards' close combat ability by the non-existent capabilities of his own peasant archers or he would never have done it. At any rate, I charged in, ran him out of dispel dice, and had drawn his dispel scroll earlier in the game. One Mindrazor later and the 10-strong knight unit got wiped out without ever getting an attack in.

I've also deleted whole Dwarf blocks with Witches on Mindrazor. It's disgustingly good when it works. But expect your opponent to know this and plan accordingly. Don't depend on the enemy general to let you get it off when you need it. I had fully expected to lose those Darkshards in the earlier example, but their sacrifice would have pinned the knights down long enough for a more robust unit to charge in on the other flank. Getting the Mindrazor in just spared me the trouble.
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Re: New player and super noob druchii general! But i hate HE

Post by NewShade »

Daeron wrote:Ahhh, High Elves vs Dark Elves. I won't be able to reply in length, but I can say this: prepare for legendary slaughter.
High Elves have low toughness and generally not that terrific armour. This means just about any weapon can kill them, from halberd to stick. If your warriors were given rocks they could probably kill high elves with them from a distance, because that's how accurate our warriors are and that's how fragile the High Elves are.
Unfortunately, we mirror that weakness. And as a result, when these two armies face each other, many things tend to disappear, from civility to the armies themselves.

Remember, when facing the end times that would destroy the world, these two factions decided to finish their ever-lasting civil war that nearly depleted their armies before joining forces against their impending doom... Only to find that their armies were nearly depleted.

With both armies being excellent at hitting, both being easily wounded, and both having weak armour (or expensive armour) it isn't exceptional for one army to be tabled or nearly so. Both have the option to kill the other completely.
The challenge is to tip the balance in your favour. And for that, we have a few terrific options, and magic is one of the most fun ways to do it.

Yes, the High Elves have "better" magic all around, but ours seems to be fine tuned to specifically hurt the high elves where it matters.
And... We have warlocks (the most broken unit in the game). If you want magical superiority, just get a unit of these!

As for the Sorceresses - Let's check out Dark magic:

* Power of Darkness - It's a mediocre spell, but very interesting in this match up. +1 Strength is all you need to make your dreadpsears go from underdog to top dog in many engagements (if you consider their cost and numbers)
* Doombolt will wound on 2+ and leave little armour. Unless they have magic protection, it will be devastating against just about ANY High Elf unit. Just shout Doombolt before the match, and I bet you'll see some twitching in your opponent's eye from the horror and pain they suffered at this spell.
* Chillwind will rarely be an effective spell. The short range won't help a lot. But then again it might just do a tad of damage and be funny that way.
* Word of Pain will turn ANY combat around. Taking away the weapon skill will make their army fluff their hits. Keep in mind they will often lose their re-rolls thanks to your always-strike-first and equal initiative. Lowing their weapon skill is very effective. If you can risk the strength and initiative loss, their most elite unit might just lose to just about any unit they face.
* Bladewind is one of those spells you probably trade away in this game. It's just not effective for the cost.
* Shroud of Despair - While psychology is generally a strength of the high elves against us, this spell can occasionally surprise them. It is not sufficiently reliable to build a strategy around it, but it can surprise them.. and surprises tend to have very nasty consequences in these match ups.
* Soul Stealer - Not the most effective spell but usable. The small footprint and low toughness of High Elves make this a fun extra to have. Just don't expect it to turn a fight around.
* Black Horror - It's not a bad spell, but in terms of reliability I generally favour Doombolt. Black Horror does have a thing going for it: it sticks around and high elves generally don't have a lot of strength and rely on weapons to boost their strength. This means they are quite vulnerable to this spell. I have seen characters disappear by it. It's a decent spell to put in the game early on and try to mess up their formation or board control.

So here's the thing with Dark Magic: some of its cheaper spells are the best ones and they can tip around fights that are otherwise equal or slightly advantageous to them.

Another terrific lore is the Lore of Shadow, which also is focused on flipping the balance.
* Miasma - Remove their hits or make them hit later than you. It's beautiful.
* Steed of Shadow - probably not great, but it can help a character or sorceress escape in case of trouble.
* Enfeebling foe - It's beautiful. Especially if they have a Strength 5 attack (great weapon or lance), this affectd both wound and armour role.
* The Withering - And suddenly you can stub their toe to kill them.
* Pendulum and Pit of Shades aren't terribly effective but they might draw out dispel dice.
* Mindrazor - I've rarely seen this spell work as hoped. It's a decent spell! But costly.

Lore of Metal has a similar role, capable of turning any combat around, but its weakness is the signature spell which is effective against a limited amount of units. It can be fun, but it can depend on the spells you roll.

There is firemagic if you want, which is excellent for shredding High Elves. I definitely recommend it for smaller games. But it doesn't scale proportionally in larger games. Overall effective but it doesn't allow a lot of "tricks".

I haven't used lore of death or beasts a lot, so I can't commend on those.

Well that's magic for now. I'll come back some other time to discuss units! :D




thank you so much for your tips and all this info! I have a lot do digest now and ponder about lol.
I guess you are right, DE and HE are very similar, and they kinda mirror themselves. I might go for an army with two sorceress, one with shadow and one with dark magic, i think they might be a good sinergy what do u think?


Damn it, i don't have warlock and now looking around in fb marketplace, shops ebay etc... they are all SOOO super pricy! a guy here sold them like a week ago an entire unit for like around 30 euros... shiz...! i hope i can find another good deal
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Re: New player and super noob druchii general! But i hate HE

Post by NewShade »

Vulcan wrote:Take two units of warlocks. They're cheap. :twisted:

Elven archery is legend, but that legend is generally overblown in WFB. Thus, our do-gooder cousins rarely take very many of them. Repeater crossbows, on the other hand, will devastate high elf infantry formations. A largish (20+) unit of Darkshards will rain shots down on HE infantry and trim a rank or two off the unit a turn. And once the range closes, you can assume a 5-wide formation and fight every bit as well as Bleakswords.

Reapers are also good against most everything HE. Mutlishot will rip holes in their infantry, while single-shot will go through even heavily armored knights. However even DE ballistic skill makes them a tad unreliable; take them in pairs at the very least.

Mindrazor can be a beautiful thing when it goes off. A careless Bretonnian general offered a small unit of Darkshards the flank of a mid-sized knight lance at close range. I'm guessing he judged Darkshards' close combat ability by the non-existent capabilities of his own peasant archers or he would never have done it. At any rate, I charged in, ran him out of dispel dice, and had drawn his dispel scroll earlier in the game. One Mindrazor later and the 10-strong knight unit got wiped out without ever getting an attack in.

I've also deleted whole Dwarf blocks with Witches on Mindrazor. It's disgustingly good when it works. But expect your opponent to know this and plan accordingly. Don't depend on the enemy general to let you get it off when you need it. I had fully expected to lose those Darkshards in the earlier example, but their sacrifice would have pinned the knights down long enough for a more robust unit to charge in on the other flank. Getting the Mindrazor in just spared me the trouble.


Thank you su much for the input. Do u think i sould deploy all of three of my bolt reapers? In a game of 2000 points or more? And what about hydras? With their regeneratiing ability and thunderstomp they might be able to crush some elite unit like dragon princes and such. Plus fire weapon breath of course.
I guess i really have to buy those damn warlocks but now they seeems so pricy every time i find them! !mad! !eek!
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Re: New player and super noob druchii general! But i hate HE

Post by NewShade »

good news fellow dark fellas i was able to find a guy who is willing to sell me 10 doomfire warlocks for 35 euros, AOS already painted (not pro level).. It's a good price , what do you think?
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Re: New player and super noob druchii general! But i hate HE

Post by Daeron »

Vulcan wrote:Mindrazor can be a beautiful thing when it goes off. A careless Bretonnian general offered a small unit of Darkshards the flank of a mid-sized knight lance at close range. I'm guessing he judged Darkshards' close combat ability by the non-existent capabilities of his own peasant archers or he would never have done it. At any rate, I charged in, ran him out of dispel dice, and had drawn his dispel scroll earlier in the game. One Mindrazor later and the 10-strong knight unit got wiped out without ever getting an attack in.


I could be mistaken, but as I was reading the lore it states the LD is used "when rolling to wound". The way I read it, it does not apply to armour save. Although this will still make it effective against any kind of unit, it does not help against armour if I understand the rules correctly (who knows, it's been a while).

NewShade wrote:Do u think i sould deploy all of three of my bolt reapers?


You can't go wrong with 2 Bolt Throwers.. or 4! But beyond 2 it depends on what you planned for the other units.

NewShade wrote:good news fellow dark fellas i was able to find a guy who is willing to sell me 10 doomfire warlocks for 35 euros, AOS already painted (not pro level).. It's a good price , what do you think?


That's a tough one. I'm still a little taken aback by the price hike on them. Didn't they used to be 25 euros for 5 in the GW store? Now they are 32.5 :(
I can't really decide this for you. But I can tell you this: 5 warlocks are very handy to have, and having 10 is ... well... .... .... Well.... going to make your opponents cry. :D
It made my opponents cry.
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Re: New player and super noob druchii general! But i hate HE

Post by NewShade »

That's a tough one. I'm still a little taken aback by the price hike on them. Didn't they used to be 25 euros for 5 in the GW store? Now they are 32.5 :(
I can't really decide this for you. But I can tell you this: 5 warlocks are very handy to have, and having 10 is ... well... .... .... Well.... going to make your opponents cry. :D
It made my opponents cry.


Seeing that nowadays even on ebay and marketplace people are selling warlocks with prices like 30 or so euros for 5 ... i think 35 for 10 its a good price, and the shipment is included. Don't really know since i'm not an expert, but i'm going from what i could see around on the internet and Gw site/ebay etc... they are super pricy now!

I'mt still reading and getting to know all the tactics and capabilities of DE. I was wondering if it is only me or if its an eternal dilemma for DE players: are blackguards of Naggarond worth it, and, most of all, are they better or worse than executioners?

I'm scrolling through the forum and i can see that people have mixed opinions about both
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Re: New player and super noob druchii general! But i hate HE

Post by Vulcan »

I did a lot of conversion work in my DE, so my Warlocks were reasonably cheap. WE Glade riders for horses, legs, and torsos; corsair arms with the mail trimmed off and one weapon removed; corsair heads without the helmets. All bits acquired from e-bay lots. Paint in suitably dark Druchii colors and away you go.

35 Euro for ten isn't bad, especially if they're pre-painted.
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Re: New player and super noob druchii general! But i hate HE

Post by Bobba Looba »

NewShade wrote:good news fellow dark fellas i was able to find a guy who is willing to sell me 10 doomfire warlocks for 35 euros, AOS already painted (not pro level).. It's a good price , what do you think?


Euros you say.. where in europe are you located? Near the Netherlands maybe? Always looking for F antasy players in my area.
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Re: New player and super noob druchii general! But i hate HE

Post by NewShade »

Bobba Looba wrote:
NewShade wrote:good news fellow dark fellas i was able to find a guy who is willing to sell me 10 doomfire warlocks for 35 euros, AOS already painted (not pro level).. It's a good price , what do you think?


Euros you say.. where in europe are you located? Near the Netherlands maybe? Always looking for F antasy players in my area.


Unfortunately man I am from the land of pizza pasta and mafia :lol: too bad!

The guy who sold me the warlocks also asked me if I was interesting in 30 executioners. Are they worth it? Already painted and at a pretty good level, 45 euros for 30. Are exec worth it or am I already good with my black guards?
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Re: New player and super noob druchii general! But i hate HE

Post by Vulcan »

It's a good price for them, even better if they're the old minis. The new ones are rather ugly, in my opinion.

Black Guard and Executioners do different jobs. Black Guard are good at holding against a bigger unit; Executioners butcher high toughness and heavily armored targets. Against High Elves, Black Guard will hold against Silver Helms or Dragon Knights. Executioners will slaughter them if they survive the charge. Executioners will also deal with heavily armored characters without needing a combat character.

Against rank and file, Black Guard will do better with two attacks to the Executioner's one. But Corsairs and Witches can do almost as well for way less points per unit. Really, the big benefit of the Black Guard is being Stubborn... and that gets let down by their fairly poor armor save.
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Re: New player and super noob druchii general! But i hate HE

Post by Daeron »

Executioners are easier, generally. They are cheaper, and attack at strength 6 with killing blow, and re-roll 1's to wound. Their only weakness is the limited number of attacks and no re-rolls on the hit. Against HE's they gain a re-roll in the first round thanks to hatred.

That said.. Black Guard might be interesting against High Elves specifically. They always have re-rolls to hit. They have only Strength 4 attacks, but the murderous prowess helps out. S4 gives -1 to armour saves which is enough to make any high elf (except dragon princes?) fearful.

To show you this... Let's look at a few scenarios.
Say you have at least 14 models (7 wide, 2 deep). Then Executioners will have the following attack results against HE infantry with heavy armour:
Image
(chance per wounds done)
But after the first round of combat, they lose the re-rolls and this becomes:
Image

Black Guards retain the same combat power in every round (and they attack simultaneously):
Image

So against infantry, Black Guards are a tad more reliable. Now let's look at synergy:
* Lore of Metal is interesting to combine with BGs. You can reduce armour saves from the enemy, or give them armour piercing to great effect. Just adding armour piercing will make them absolutely dreadful.
* Lore of Shadow - Mixed bag: Executioners benefit from reducing the enemy's Weapon Skill. Black Guard benefit from reduced weapon skill or toughness.
* Lore of Darkness - Black Guard benefit more from power of darkness and both benefit from word of pain

Black Guard can handle by themselves very well in holding the line because of their leadership, immune to psychology and stubbornness. But they can use a tad of backup in the offensive.
Executioners handle themselves very well in the offensive, but can use a tad of backup in holding a line or soaking up damage.

Now let's look at cavalry with a 2+ armour save.
Executioners - 1st round:
Image
Executioners - Subsequent rounds:
Image
Black Guards - Every round
Image
So the Executioners are a tad more reliable against some opponents. That said... if the Black Guards can kill 4 cavalry models, the general controlling the cavalry won't be happy. That's a big loss. And the next round, the magic synergy with the Black Guard might slaughter the cavalry outright.

Since you have Black Guards, I'd recommend to just use them. They are a good starting point. Back them up with some magic and they should be a blast. If you have 2 Sorceresses, let's assume one on Dark Magic and one on Shadow, then you have 3-4 spells that can make them win any combat.

Looking at the models you have, you could risk a defensive playstyle.
* A big unit of Dreadspears
* A big unit of Black Guards
* 1 or 2 units of 14 dark shards
* 2 (or 3) bolt throwers
* 1 unit of 9 shades
* At least 2 sorceresses.

Personally, I'd recommend at least 2 fast cavalry units (dark riders or warlocks). Depending the points left, you can either add a Cold One Knight unit or a Hydra or a Kharibdyss for fun.

If you're playing smaller games, like 1000points:
* 254pts - 18 dark shards with banner and musician
* 140pts - 2 Reaper Bolt Throwers
* 245pts - 1 Sorceress Level 4, Dispel Scroll
* 80pts - 5 Shades
* 150pts - 5 Cold One Knights , no command
* 125pts - 5 Warlocks
Something along these lines could be fun! Very shooty. Shadow, dark magic is probably best. I would recommend shadow.
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Re: New player and super noob druchii general! But i hate HE

Post by NewShade »

:twisted: sounds awesome ! From what i understand, Blackguards are more "resilient" and able to hold a unit in place, and won't run away. Executioners can kill easily and dash out damage, but they will also probably get killed. Do you think it's possible in bigger matches like 2000 points or more to have both a unit of blackguards and executioners?

I'm thinking about getting the execs anyway and store them away for future matches, and have a full de army that can face any opponent.

Now i am in the process of studying both DE codex and HE and trying to figure out which unit can beat which and where and how to attack.

I guess a unit of executioners attacking a unit of HE cavalry is really bad news for the HE player. Blackguards can probably hold their own against any unit, am i right? Can they face off a phoenix guards unit?
NewShade
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Re: New player and super noob druchii general! But i hate HE

Post by NewShade »

Hi there fellas! Hope this isn't already an undead thread! Some quick updates!

1) I was able to get my hands on a beautiful morathi on Pegasus. Any advice on hot to use her and avoid sniping /magic targeting? She will for sure be a clear target for the enemy!

2) me and my friend will be playing a small campaign between each others, and I will use my druchii against Empire and Orcs and Goblins.

Any advice on strategy tips?

I was thinking on going cavalry and magic against empire, both cold ones and warlocks, and use shadow magic to shut down his cannons and artillery machines, and also use shades to put some pressure on him. I don't know if bolt throwers and hydras are useful against the humans.

Against orc and goblins i think I will use a lot of infantry and just rip through goblins and orcs with my always strike first. Maybe hydra? Since they have poor leadership... Might also make use of death magic to get their leadership even worse and shadow magic to just win the combat phases. Still don't know if bolt thrower are a good choice!


Have a good and dark day druchii
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Daeron
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Re: New player and super noob druchii general! But i hate HE

Post by Daeron »

We're still here :D

I'm not experienced against Empire or Orcs and Goblins, and they can make wildly different armies. I think I only got 1 game against Orcs and Goblins, and I was surprised by the power of their magic and just how insanely many models they can put down compared to us. They aren't as fragile as they may seem. I think they need pretty big volumes of attack, by shooting or combat or both.

For Empire, I have even less experience. I have fought only once, a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. From what I remember they can outgun Dwarfs by sheer volume of fire. Since we're fragile against any form of shooting, that's a concern. I have no idea if it's possible to move against a gunline in such a manner that enough fighting units remain to get the upper hand.
What you could try is to position all combat units on one flank to force your opponent to move all shooting units to get in range or arc of fire. Deploy them last so that they don't see it coming.
Then move your firing units into firing range and gun down your opponent's shooting. The idea is to keep the combat threat alive so that your opponent has to deal with it, but in such a way that you can take away his support fire or even gain the upper hand in shooting.
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Re: New player and super noob druchii general! But i hate HE

Post by Vulcan »

In many ways, gunlines are beaten in the 'setting terrain' phase. If you suspect that your opponent is shooting-heavy, you put LOS-blocking terrain in the middle of the board within charge range of both deployment zones. That way you can advance into the terrain without getting shot at, they get one round of shooting at you under cover, and then you charge into their shooters.

If they don't bring a gunline, you may well have screwed yourself though.

Avoidance armies can work well. Another good strategy is to use lots of disposable chaff units to drag out your deployment. Make him commit to deploying his shooters before dropping any of your heavy hitters, so you can take advantage of terrain and his own units for cover.

Warlocks, with their 4++ save, can make decent portable cover as well. And in a pinch, any chaff unit can be used to put cover onto a critical line of sight for one round. Small units of corsairs can also come in handy for the role.

I tend to use ten units of chaff - two each shades, dark riders, warlocks, harpies, and small units (10 models in one rank) of either corsairs or witches. Works wonders for dragging out deployment, providing mobile cover, and generally complicating my opponent's life and interfering with his battle plans. 8) Having a highly mobile master on either dark steed or dark peggy can be icing on the cake as well.
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