Played first game using the NEW High Elf book yesterday - a 5000 point per side battle involving Dark Elves, Ogres, Orcs and High Elves. Appreciate that no VCs were involved but thought I'd share my thoughts with you on the way the HEs operate in 7th ed.
Armies looked something like this:
High Elves
Prince on Star Dragon with Star Lance, Dragon Horn, Armour of Caledor
Level 4 Mage
2x Level 2 Mages
Korhil
BSB
3x 21 Spears
12 Spears
10 Archers
2x 14 Swordmasters
18 White Lions
10 White Lions
15 Phoenix Guard
2 Tiranoc Chariots
1 White Lion Chariot
6 Dragon Princes
6 Ellyrion Reavers
6 Shadow Warriors
5 Shadow Warriors
2 Eagles Claw Bolt Throwers
2 Great Eagles
Evil Alliance
L4 Dark Elf Archmage
Orc Warlord on Wyvern
Skarsnik and Gobbla
Black Orc Boss
L2 Goblin Shaman
Ogre Tyrant
Bruiser
Butcher
16 Dark Elf Crossbows
15 Warriors
6 Cold One Riders
Reaper Bolt Thrower
4x 4 Ogre Bulls
4 Leadbelchers
3 Maneaters
20 Goblin Archers
20 Night Goblin Archers
25 Night Goblins
25 Savage Orcs
20 Black Orcs
10 Spider Riders
3 Trolls
Anyway, as you can probably tell, such considerations as force organisation charts went out the window when we chose armies. The only self-imposed restriction was to be (fairly) light on magic so we could see what the HEs were like in combat.
I'm not gonna try and write a full battle report but suffice to say that the HEs are generally not as scary as everyone has been screaming. The trick to beating them really seems to be with static combat res, shooting and impact hits. Bad news for VCs as we are generally lacking in 2/3 of these depts. Guess we will just have to make sure we outnumber their (relatively) small elites units and generate maximum rank bonus. Suddenly ASF really isn't that bad.
Unfortunately there are exceptions to this. Swordmasters are truly awful. On a number of occasions during the game I felt like throwing huge chunks of gorgonzola at them and I was playing on the HE team! Some highlights included receiving a heavy cavalry charge from the Cold One riders and promptly wiping them all out before the Druchii could strike; and receiving a charge from a bruiser and 3 Ogre Bulls and breaking the Ogre unit (unfortunately the Ogres were too close to benefit from the Bull Charge rule, otherwise the result would prob have been different).
The result of the game was a resounding win for the High Elves, although much of this was due to poor play from the evil team as much as anything else. For example, allowing the free-roaming DE Archmage and Goblin Shaman to be killed early in the game left the HEs to dominate the magic phase as well as combat.
Some other highlights of the game: The Wyvern-mounted Warlord charging the HE prince and twatting him; Lion Chariot routing 16 Dark Elf crossbows and 3 Trolls in consecutive turns; Gobbla munching on Korhil and two unit champions; Tyrant-led Bulls receiving a Dragon Prince charge and mashing them in combat; 4 Leadbelchers opening fire on 21 Spearmen and wounding just 5, suffering 5 wounds themselves from their misfiring guns; 10 White Lions taking 3 turns to rout Spider Rider unit.
Anyway, to sum up: having actually played with the new rules some of my fears regarding the HEs have been allayed. Most HE units still struggle to hold their own against superior numbers/high T opponents if left unsupported. Therefore VCs should prob (eventually) be able to grind them down with our superior numbers, providing we can cast IoN to keep ourselves in the game. However, Swordmasters are simply TOO good for just 15 points each, and as such expect to see lots of them in future. Not really quite sure how to deal with them as HE antimagic tends to be very good and VCs completely lack any form of shooting. A Coach or Spirits may do some harm to smaller SM units, as would a Lahmian with Innocence Lost. Another thing that I noticed was that there is very often little advantage to be gained in charging a ranked-up SM unit in the flank/rear: the combat res gained being offset by the large number of WS6, S5, ASF attacks you are gifting your opponent.
If anyone has any ideas, please share them as at least one of my regular opponents is now expressing a very real desire to collect a Hoeth-themed army. At this point my best strategy may be to simply not play against him!
Roll-on Easter!
Armies looked something like this:
High Elves
Prince on Star Dragon with Star Lance, Dragon Horn, Armour of Caledor
Level 4 Mage
2x Level 2 Mages
Korhil
BSB
3x 21 Spears
12 Spears
10 Archers
2x 14 Swordmasters
18 White Lions
10 White Lions
15 Phoenix Guard
2 Tiranoc Chariots
1 White Lion Chariot
6 Dragon Princes
6 Ellyrion Reavers
6 Shadow Warriors
5 Shadow Warriors
2 Eagles Claw Bolt Throwers
2 Great Eagles
Evil Alliance
L4 Dark Elf Archmage
Orc Warlord on Wyvern
Skarsnik and Gobbla
Black Orc Boss
L2 Goblin Shaman
Ogre Tyrant
Bruiser
Butcher
16 Dark Elf Crossbows
15 Warriors
6 Cold One Riders
Reaper Bolt Thrower
4x 4 Ogre Bulls
4 Leadbelchers
3 Maneaters
20 Goblin Archers
20 Night Goblin Archers
25 Night Goblins
25 Savage Orcs
20 Black Orcs
10 Spider Riders
3 Trolls
Anyway, as you can probably tell, such considerations as force organisation charts went out the window when we chose armies. The only self-imposed restriction was to be (fairly) light on magic so we could see what the HEs were like in combat.
I'm not gonna try and write a full battle report but suffice to say that the HEs are generally not as scary as everyone has been screaming. The trick to beating them really seems to be with static combat res, shooting and impact hits. Bad news for VCs as we are generally lacking in 2/3 of these depts. Guess we will just have to make sure we outnumber their (relatively) small elites units and generate maximum rank bonus. Suddenly ASF really isn't that bad.
Unfortunately there are exceptions to this. Swordmasters are truly awful. On a number of occasions during the game I felt like throwing huge chunks of gorgonzola at them and I was playing on the HE team! Some highlights included receiving a heavy cavalry charge from the Cold One riders and promptly wiping them all out before the Druchii could strike; and receiving a charge from a bruiser and 3 Ogre Bulls and breaking the Ogre unit (unfortunately the Ogres were too close to benefit from the Bull Charge rule, otherwise the result would prob have been different).
The result of the game was a resounding win for the High Elves, although much of this was due to poor play from the evil team as much as anything else. For example, allowing the free-roaming DE Archmage and Goblin Shaman to be killed early in the game left the HEs to dominate the magic phase as well as combat.
Some other highlights of the game: The Wyvern-mounted Warlord charging the HE prince and twatting him; Lion Chariot routing 16 Dark Elf crossbows and 3 Trolls in consecutive turns; Gobbla munching on Korhil and two unit champions; Tyrant-led Bulls receiving a Dragon Prince charge and mashing them in combat; 4 Leadbelchers opening fire on 21 Spearmen and wounding just 5, suffering 5 wounds themselves from their misfiring guns; 10 White Lions taking 3 turns to rout Spider Rider unit.
Anyway, to sum up: having actually played with the new rules some of my fears regarding the HEs have been allayed. Most HE units still struggle to hold their own against superior numbers/high T opponents if left unsupported. Therefore VCs should prob (eventually) be able to grind them down with our superior numbers, providing we can cast IoN to keep ourselves in the game. However, Swordmasters are simply TOO good for just 15 points each, and as such expect to see lots of them in future. Not really quite sure how to deal with them as HE antimagic tends to be very good and VCs completely lack any form of shooting. A Coach or Spirits may do some harm to smaller SM units, as would a Lahmian with Innocence Lost. Another thing that I noticed was that there is very often little advantage to be gained in charging a ranked-up SM unit in the flank/rear: the combat res gained being offset by the large number of WS6, S5, ASF attacks you are gifting your opponent.
If anyone has any ideas, please share them as at least one of my regular opponents is now expressing a very real desire to collect a Hoeth-themed army. At this point my best strategy may be to simply not play against him!
Roll-on Easter!
