I'm currently involved in a tale of 4 Gamers event, leaving my beloved Bretonnians behind to build a very different army, the fearsome Dark Elves. We are in the first month and first couple of games have gone my way but I have a tactical problem, and so seek your wisdom.
Next match is against the cursed tomb kings and the army consists of casket of souls supported by two big blocks of skeletons. My current force is:
Sorceress - level 2 with lifetaker and book for additional spell.
1 block of 26 warriors.
1 unit of 10 RXB
1 unit of corsairs (24). Sea serpent banner.
1 unit of 5 cold one knights.
The Tomb King player, in both of his games has settled in a corner with the casket blocked in by skeletons. How would you break this?
I was wondering about using harpies as a shield (so dropping either RXBs or CoKs) for my army to advance behind for at least one turn and if there is space to fly into the casket to tie it up. Not sure if he can just ignore them though. I could also run the sorceress ouside of the speaman bunker to give the casket another target but that seems a little reckless.
Any ideas greatefully received. The more elegant the better
There is Good. There is Evil. There are Dark Elves!
Harpies would normally be your best chance but the Casket of Soul's guardians are pretty tough so its not a 100% guarantee. Failing that, it depends on how quickly you can get to the cursed thing.
Shades would be especially good if there is room enough to deploy them. While they are unlikely to do much against it with their shots but they are competent enough in melee to deal with it.
A unit of Dark Riders acting as medium cavalry are fast enough to get their soon and more than capable of destroying it on the charge. Shields will give them more chance of surviving the inevitable bowfire from skelly archers but remove their vanguard move. It is up to you to decide which is the best choice.
If your opponent really blockades his unit in with warriors, you will have no choice but to kill everything in front of them. Witch Elves eat light infantry for breakfast but units big enough to have their full quota of attacks back can do some damage. Blackguard likewise are exceptionally dangerous to units like skeleton's and while not as potentially damaging, stay in the fight much longer.
I would also suggest using units like chariots to either support or finish off the Casket. It has been my experience that most people make the mistake of deploying their casket (or warmachines) between two units, thinking that the gap is small enough to stop any units from attacking the warmachine without having to fight through at least one of the units infront. Its a terrible shock for them when you roll a chariot through that gap and destroy his crew with impact hits alone!
Other than that, i dont think you should have too much trouble with the undead. They have some hard hitting units as well as some nasty tricks (beware the magic item that prevents you from using your General's leadership), but most of their "key" units are weak and suffer from instability, which works well when we hit them!
Anyway, that's my experience. I generally play at 3k so my experience in smaller games against TK's is somewhat limited!
Good luck and let us know how it goes for you.
Kindest Regards
D
P.S. If you really want to eliminate the Casket, take Shadowblade! No much he can do about that!
In the House of Valentine, Every Night Is Death Night!
Thanks Dante, no witch elves (and havent painted BG yet) but have a nice painted shade unit. If I drop the COK and RXB units I can add in the chariot and shades, and give my warriors flaming banner or banner of murder). Should I step out the sorceress and go for irristible force on something nasty (pit of shades or purple sun).
There is Good. There is Evil. There are Dark Elves!
Is the casket of souls a War machine? Id be tempted to put the banner of swiftness on the warriors and try to get the Sorc in to range straight away. Dark Magic might be best here.
I would avoid exposing your Sorceress on the off chance of getting one powerful spell off.
True, she may cast Purple sun and it scatter 30" across the enemies battle line and devastate his army. Or she may fail to cast it (or have it dispelled) and a group of carrion or tomb scorpion then proceeds to eat her! She is a lady and therefore shouldn't die in such a manner!
I like to use magic in combination to my armies talents, rather than expect it to be devastating on its own. For example, i commonly use Lore of Fire: it is not the most damaging of lore's but all of its spells are pretty useful, combined with a low casting value forces your opponent to let some spells through.
That way, with only one dispel scroll at his disposal, your opponent will be forced to keep it for that one spell that could make a massive difference to the entire game. That leaves you open to whittle away units with fireballs, win combats through flaming sword, pick people off with burning head and reduce movement through fulminating flame cage. All the time with your opponent hanging onto his dispel scroll, fearing the big flame storm template being placed on his battle line!
That is how i try and execute my magic phase anyway: i think it is much better to get a few spells of and do something that try to get the one big spell off and see it dispelled or the death of my mage. In my experience, when you try and cast purple sun, it misfire's anyway and lands on your mage, who had inevitably gotten a miscast and therefore wiped out most of her bodyguard!
A COB 5+ WS can always help protect you from the worst effects of miscasts, so not is all lost if you do blow your mages head off!
As Dirty Mac suggested, Dark Magic can be powerful. Although on the surface of it, the lore lacks the sheer destructive power of the new Lores, it has low casting values that, when combined with the Power of Darkness, can see even a poor role on the winds of magic turn produce a powerful magic phase.
I would be adverse to dropping the RXB's, they are just too valuable, instead i would consider reducing the size of the Corsairs. In my experience they work well in a ten man unit, with additional handbow's (there is an article written by Dalamar that goes into more detail on this). That way, you can still retain your overall army and include some shades or a chariot.
And don't let anyone tell you otherwise....Chariots Rock!
Kind Regards
D
In the House of Valentine, Every Night Is Death Night!
Thanks Dante, I love the idea of a chariot. My whole point in choosing dark elves (aside from the lore which is very powerful) is the different units to the Bretonnians. I am a bit loath to re-equip corsairs with blows. I was thinking three attacks at about eight wide would really wittle those skeletons down and force the TK player to invest all his magic in resurrecting. I'm going to have to hack through about 40 to get to his casket.
Loving the ideas though. Certainly lore of fire was great aginst VCs (mind you so was lifetaker - took those hex wraiths right out the game .
There is Good. There is Evil. There are Dark Elves!
