New to DE, appreciate input

[Lord Ulrich]

So, I have been thinking about dark elves as my next project, but unlike my last few armies I am going to have to build a little more slowly, and buy towards a focussed first list (I have a bad habit of going all in with 5-7,000 points bought very quickly on past projects.

So, I play in a pretty competitive meta, and compete in alot of GTs. However, I'm not looking to min-max and go with a full cheese list, i really just want something fast and fun (but not douchey-avoidance), and really different from my other armies. I play WoC (which I love, but there is no finesse about that army), dwarves (i love the fluff, and perform well, but sooo slow and static), and VC (large bricks, again overall slow and methodical).

I have played against elves alot, but I have no experience playing as them, so i really appreciate any input on this list ...


Dreadlord: The Black Amulet; Ogre Blade; heavy armour; shield; Sea Dragon cloak; Cold One
Supreme Sorceress: Talisman of Endurance; Dispel Scroll; Lore of Dark Magic (maybe shadow instead?)

Death Hag: Talisman of Preservation; Witchbrew; Battle Standard (gives frenzy to my exec's)
Master: Cloak of Twilight; heavy armour; lance; repeater crossbow; Sea Dragon cloak; shield; Dark Pegasus
Sorceress: Level 2 Wizard; Lore of Beasts


10 Dark Riders: shields; repeater crossbows; musician; standard bearer
5 Dark Riders: shields; repeater crossbows; musician; standard bearer
5 Dark Riders: shields; repeater crossbows; standard bearer
24 Black Ark Corsairs: extra hand weapons, musician; standard bearer

26 Executioners: Draich Master; musician; standard bearer
8 Cold One Knights: Dread Knight; musician; standard bearer (Banner of Eternal Flame)

5 Doomfire Warlocks

[Haagrum]

Welcome to D.net, Lord Ulrich!

Glad to see you're not looking to run the netlist du jour or a flat-out WAAC list. A few comments on the suggested army:

1. Death Hags can only take magic weapons, not talismen. You may want to reconsider her as your BSB. Otherwise, she's a good choice to join your Executioners. If she's going to stay as your BSB, consider giving her the Sword of Anti-Heroes or the Fencer's Blades - the former will help against death star units (particularly if she issues/accepts challenges to avoid being squashed by the unit), and the latter should help a little with her survivability. The Chillblade, Ogre Blade and Obsidian Blade may be surplus to requirements if she's with the Executioners.

2. It's a personal thing, but I never take Cold One Knights without the Gleaming Pennant or the BSB in the unit. With your Dreadlord in the unit, Ld 10 is great - but some extra insurance against Stupidity never hurts. That said, a unit of 8 seems like a slightly odd number - why only that many? I see that the Dreadlord is mounted, but that only brings it up to 9 models. I'm sure there's an answer which I'm missing, or there may be no particular reason, but I was curious as to the numbering.

3. Corsairs are under-appreciated, but they have never let me down (especially with Shadow, Dark Magic or Beasts lores to back them up). I hope you have as much good fortune with them as I have.

4. Dark Magic is a great spell lore, and definitely worth taking, but it requires your Sorceress to be reasonably close to an opponent's army. I'd sink the extra couple of points into a 4+ ward save for her, particularly if she's going to be using Power of Darkness (an under-rated spell if ever there was one).

5. Dark Riders are wonderful. In smaller units, however, it may not be worth taking a standard on them. Musicians are better generally for Fast Cavalry shenanigans, although in the unit of 10 I can definitely see the value in taking both.

6. Executioners are brutal, but the loss of re-rolls to hit has hurt them a little. I see that you're compensating for this by adding a Death Hag with Witchbrew, which is a good solution (at Ld 9, more attacks and ITP are almost never a bad thing). Enjoy going the chop!

[Calisson]

I can oly second all the excellent advice from Haagrum,
starting with: Welcome to D.net, Lord Ulrich!

[Lord Ulrich]

To answer the question of why 8 COKs, it was a points thing. I thought of 10+ dreadlord, but just ran out of points. Executioners and Corsairs are frail enough I didn't feel comfortable trimming points there, and I am in love with dark riders so prefer not to trim there. I could drop the brolocks for points as I am the least married to them, but I know the fear other players have of them, so beyond their obvious strength they are also an important distraction/psychological tool.

With no defense I may well have to drop the brewhag, as my opponents will be mostly smart enough to dorect attacks and remove her from play. I am a bit worried at a unit of only 5+ save with no rerolls and only one attack though.

Oh, and I don't think I said in my initial post but I am really not a fan of witch elves either thematically or in the over abundance of them being the core of 80% of dark elf lists I see, so I don't intend to be fielding them in my lists.

[Lord Ulrich]

So, taking some of that input here is a slight reworking. Switched the bsb to a master, put the sorc on a dark steed to make her mobile (should I do the sup sorc instead?), and found points to get up to 10 COKs and an extra exec.

Dreadlord: The Black Amulet; Ogre Blade; heavy armour; shield; Sea Dragon cloak; Cold One 282
Supreme Sorceress: Dispel Scroll; Talisman of Preservation; Lore of Dark Magic 255

Master: Cloak of Twilight; heavy armour; lance; repeater crossbow; Sea Dragon cloak; shield; Dark Pegasus 193
Sorceress: Level 2 Wizard; Lore of Beasts; Dark Steed 125
Master: Talisman of Endurance; Sword of Might; heavy armour; Sea Dragon cloak; shield; Battle Standard 157

9 Dark Riders: shields; repeater crossbows; musician; standard bearer 200
5 Dark Riders: shields; repeater crossbows; musician 110
5 Dark Riders: shields; repeater crossbows; musician 110
24 Black Ark Corsairs: musician; standard bearer 284

27 Har Ganeth Executioners: Draich Master; musician; standard bearer 354
9 Cold One Knights: Dread Knight; musician; standard bearer (Gleaming Pennant) 305

5 Doomfire Warlocks 125

2,500 points

[flatworldsedge]

Edit - a little out of date, must have hit go at the same time!

Kudos for taking a list with some principle and prejudice - like not taking the Witch Elves - that's cool. Playing the army you want, the way you want, is well worth the odd defeat now and again.

In terms of the Brewhag, I think she gives a big kick in potency to the Execs. In terms of making her any tougher, there's not a ton one can do. Add some MR with a magic banner, or Warriorbane if you don't want to get the Fencer's Blades, keep your Beasts sorcerer nearby to add toughness, or switch one out for Life. For just a bit more than the cost of the Talisman you're dropping from her you could add five Harpies to screen? Sure there's a solution in there somewhere!

Anyway - welcome to Druchii.net, and enjoy!

[Ajattaro]

I really like the list too, it looks really fun yet powerful. These are two characteristics I want in my every list too. I know that list I posted isn't something too personal, but I like every unit in it, except warlocks... I think they are ridiculous and look stupid. I need to find other variants for the models.

But onto the list. I think you should put your lvl4 on the horse and keep the lvl2 on foot. Then you would get them in the right places due to your lore selections, which are great. Eight levels of magic is a lot though, but you surely have use for all the spells. Your mounted sorceress can hide in the fast cavalry.

I think you should try brewhag, but then you might want to use cloakmaster as BSB. With soulblight, wyssans and word of pain you should keep her safe. I would not use her as BSB though. But I think you should try it.

You might need something to deal with war machines. A unit of harpies or shades would be nice in this list. Also large unit of DR might want to have champion for challenge gimmicks. With ward save your SS is durable enough to charge into combat with certain enemies