2400pt not sure how to tweak it

[Xalfej]

Howdy to all of you~ I am a long time OnG / WE player, but my friend has asked me to help him to get back into fantasy with some of his new dark elves he has been painting. I am sure you guys get this kind of thread all the time from someone who is unsure where to start, most race specific forums do. So I apologize in advance and thank you for your time

I tried to put together a 2400pt list that used all of the models that he has, but if need be he wouldn't mind buying more or not using the less than effective stuff. I left annotated notes in parentheses to try and explain what I did as I go instead of having a lump of text at the end~

He has: 2 sorcs, 1 cauldron, 19 corsairs, 16 warriors, 40 witches, 2 hydras, 4 bolt throwers, 5 shades.

The list I created was:
LORD
Supreme sorceress, Shadow lvl 4
Pendant of khaeleth, ironcurse icon, sac dagger
( goes in warrior bunker, pendant to save points over talisman of preservation, also gives much better survivability to mistcasts)

HERO
Sorceress, Metal lvl1
dispel scroll
(scroll is always helpful, went with metal in case he runs into something with a big armor save)

Death hag
Cauldron + BSB
(seems super resilient, and from what I gather it is pretty standard. I really wish I had this in my OnG army xD )

CORE
19x Warriors
Full Command
(just a bunker)

12x crossbowmen
shield, mus

12xcrossbowmen
shield, mus
(solid shooting troops that can repel light cav)

5x harpies

5x harpies
(probably the best chaff to ever be put into a book)

25x Black Ark Corsairs
Musician, Standard, Sea Serpent Standard
(probably deployed wide to avoid getting a lot of models hit by enemy war machines. went with this over a second unit of witches to a. meat the core requirements, and b. have something that can take shooting and still get to the enemy.)

SPECIAL
25x Witch Elves
Musician, Standard, Banner of Eternal Flame
(again, deployed wide. buckets of attacks and he loves/has the models)

8x shades
2x hand weapons

8x shades
2x hand weapons
(seem to preform everything better than a small unit of the core crossbowmen)

RARE
War Hydra
(I've been on the hurt end of these enough to know to at least put 1 into a list. Should I try to get the second one into the list as well? )

Reaper Bolt Thrower x2
(seems like a solid war machine. enemy is most likely to shoot stone throwers or cannonballs at other targets than these so they should last as more than a pile of splinters for a few turns)

Comes out to 2400pts even

Thanks for taking the time to read~

[Miasma]

It looks like a very balanced list which will do well, my only comment of note is that the list only has two combat blocks, personally I would trim down the shades or maybe the bolt throwers to get the warriors up to 34-40 mark so that you can get that 3rd block.

It all really depends on what is played in your meta but to me this looks like too much support

[Dyvim tvar]

You almost never want your spear bunker in combat since that is where the sorceress resides. A few more bodies there would be good for dagger fuel, but should not be a temptation to get in combat. Standard of Discipline would be really good to have on that unit for LD 10.

[Daeron]

The list looks good but I would fine tune it a bit.
- Merge the RxB units into 1 unit of 16, with musician, without shields. Light Cav won't be so quick to run into such a unit that can stand and shoot them to death.
- Remove the banner of eternal flame
- Remove the champion from the Warrior unit. If someone challenges you.. you refuse the challenge with your Sorceress and she can safely move to the rear of the unit.

This saves you 119 points which I would use to:
- Increase the corsairs to 30. If you deploy them 10 wide, they now have a staggering 50 attacks!
- Increase the Witch Elves to 30. 10 wide gives 50 attacks with poison.
- Give the "Standard of Discipline" to the Warriors. With your Supreme sorceress in there, your army now gets LD 10!

Optionally, you can drop one Shade of each unit to bump the Warrior unit a bit. If you also swap the commander of the Warrior unit for another warrior, you should have a 30 big Warrior unit, which is more resilient.

[Samusin]

+1 for every of daereons points XD

[Xalfej]

Thanks you all for the help, and sorry for the slow response

I redid some of the changes brought up and showed them to my friend, he liked the revised list but has since really started to like the black guard unit. In order to get a block of those in I dropped some a little support and the lvl 1 sorc.

revised list is:
Supreme sorc
pendance of khaeleth, ironcurse, sac dagger

deathhag
cauldron of blood, BSB

16x crossbowmen
standard mus

20x warriors
standard mus

5x harpies

5x harpies

30x black ark corsairs
sea serpent standard, musician

8x shades
extra hand weapon

30x witch elves
standard, musician

20x black guard
banner of murder, musician, Kouran

1x reaper bolt thrower

1x hydra


This gives me the third combat block without having to risk taking the spearman bunker into combat. However, There is less protection from knights without that lore of metal sorc as a threat, and also one less bolt thrower. But I think Kouran in an unbrekable unit could be some threat to some of the more heavy armored units out there as well as ethereals. Or am I giving him more praise than he is worth? Also, should I still try to beef up the spears if I don't intend on taking them to combat?

~xalfej

[Samusin]

hmm I personaly like the chars like kouran (HE have something like that too) but to bad it does not pay out that much for its points I expierienced (althou I never used kouran before... maybe I'll try soon)

[Dyvim tvar]

I agree -- Kouran is way overpriced. Nice fluff, but he is ultimately a 1-wound character for over 100 points.