BSB and General

[Lodoss1980]

Hi All,

I am very new to the dark side of the elves. The last couple of days I have been looking at a lot of army lists.
However I am not really sure what our 'normal' BSB and Generals are and how they are used (placed and equipped etc.).

Can someone enlighten me?

Thanks a lot!

[Amboadine]

Hi. First thing we would need to know is do you want a fighty lord or a sorceress for your general and at what points level, as these make the difference in what I would purpose.

BSBs typical come in the form of a fully armoured master on a steed or pegasus, occasionally on foot. Generally with a ward save of some kind, depending on the points value. Don't see many people using the magic banner option.

[Thraundil]

A universally strong and versatile BSB - at most points levels - is the cloak of twilight + dark pegasus combo. He checks in at 213 points; steep for some games, but the heroes selection is one of the very strong points in our book. He is highly mobile, hits like a TRUCK on the charge, and competes with only warriors of chaos characters on his ranged ward save. If you can take him, take him. Almost always. He gets to pick his own fights, and those that he picks he wins.
In general; keep the BSB close to your important lines of battle. If you expect a LD test, have him nearby. I once lost a game in turn one because my lvl 4 was out of BSB range, failed a LD test and was turned into a herald of nurgle, essentially breaking my entire right flank.

As for the general slot; the common choice is a supreme sorceress, as it gives you general and lvl 4 caster in one. The second choice being a combat dreadlord, and these come both on foot or as cavalry, usually in a big unit to protect him, and he is tooled up to inflict maximum amounts of pain. A dreadlord on a pegasus can be very strong too; he doesnt gain as much, statwise, from the pegasus as a master does, but he can take more magic items, turning him into a strong duelist and grinder alike. However, since he MUST have a proper ranged ward when on a pegasus, he can never become as straight up killy as a foot lord.

[Askador]

Dreadlords are very flexible. They are good on foot, on Pegasus or on Steed.

They always have a 1+ Armor. (On foot with enchanted shield) and need something to get some S. Most common item here should be the Ogre blade. Ive seen some Peoples give him a 2hand Sword but im not a friend of it.. i like the Rerolls on hit.
Build i usualy play are:
Dreadlord, Heavy Armor, Seadragon Cloak, Pegasus, Cloak of Twilight, Ogre Blade, Charmedshield and luckstone.
Or on foot: Obsidian blade, Dawnstone, The other Tricksters Shard, Enchated shield, heavy armor, SDC.

The one on Pegasus kills Monsters, Charakters, War Maschines and flanking attacks.
The one on foot only works with the CoB because of the rerolls on Wounds. He kills everything with good armor and all kind of Charakters including Deamon Princes. (with some luck)

In my opinion the Commander and Hero Section is the most important in our book. A Dreadlord can really win games for you.

For Masters. There are good options for them already in the posts above.
What also works is if you take 4 or 5 Masters just with full mundane Armor and a lance on steed. Put them all in a unit of Warloks in the first rank and you have a really Hammer unit. You can even put a Mage on steed in the 2nd rank and support them with Magic. Dark or Beast lore is nice here.
One Master on steed with lance costs around 100 points has 1+ armor and S6 when attacking because of the lance. The unit has a 4++ Ward save against shooting and if you give the Sorceress a Ring of Hotek they have a 2++ against magic and is light Cavalery. Your enemys will just love this unit

[Archamedius]

The guys posting above me have some great, well accepted points.

Here is a list to the Character Compendium Thread that discusses many many different options for character loadouts and their uses. It is a bit long so it might take some time to wade through, but it is well worth the read.

http://druchii.net/viewtopic.php?f=3&t= ... c3e5278365