Dark Elves Tactics

Well what more can be said about Dark Elf tactics that hasn't already been said in either the Dark Elf army book or in the article by Tuomas Pirinen(you can find this article on most Warhammer sites). I can at least give you an insight to what I have experienced during my time as a commander of the evil ones.

Almost every tactics article I have seen goes through all the different troop types of the armylist, so why should I be any different? The elves have some good stats combined with some avarage. It's great to have over avarage WS, BS, I and Ld. The BS increase is a natural part of any Elf, although it's a complete waste on your HTH troops. I especially like the high Initiative, you get to strike before most opponents, even their heroes and generals some times. On the downside, like so many have mentioned before, is the pathetic S 3 and T 3. This firstly means your elves will struggle to wound opponents with high T and/or high armour save. Secondly they can't stand up to a hit all that well, especially since there is only one regiment in the Dark Elf army with a decent armour(Cold One Knights). Finally, all elves are expensive in points. I always run out of points too fast. These things might be considered as major disadvantages, but everything is made to shape the style and feel of the race and its army. You can be sure your opponent will have similar problems to struggle with. All the armies have their special advantages and disadvantages, just as it should be, otherwise it wouldn't be fun to play.

General

Wow he costs a lot, sure he has some decent stats but he is not that mighty in HTH. Keep him out of to much trouble or equip him with a killer combination of magic items. I have never made him a close combat extpert(not yet anyway), cause I never seem to have any points left for magical items, I always want this regiment and that one too and that one..... . I wish he could cost less, just look at those cheap Human and Skaven generals, on the other hand look at the Undead or Chaos and you get a different view on the whole matter.

Battle Standard

Too expensive for my taste and he is very vulnerable. Like Mr Pirinen said in his article, I only use him to get two magic banners in one regiment.

Heroes

These guys also costs a lot, other than that there is not much more I can add. Witch Elf heroines on the other hand are just great. There is always the dilemma with how to equip them. I see no real use to give them an Ogre Blade or similar since they get a +1S on regular weapons, the only good thing I can see is that the weapon is magical. I usually buy an additional hand weapon, for the extra attack, but I would really like to try a halberd sometime(if I ever convert a model(yea right)). Of course you can find awsome magic item combinations but I usually just go for a potion of strength(oh how I wish there were more than one).

Champions

Buy them for your HTH regiments. Witch Elf Champions are very good fighters with S5 and A5(when they are frenzied anyway).

Sorceres

If you think your ordinary elves are expensive wait until you see these guys. I don't rely too much on magic, so I mainly use my sorceres to carry a lot of Dispel Magic Scrolls. This way I can at least be sure to counter my opponents spells a few times(never trust those dices). With the new magic system there lies much power in having many magic users, this allows you to store more magic cards. If you have enought of magic users or magic items where you can store cards, you will find that you can easily get control of the magic phase, because your massive amount of power/dispel cards. It is also a good way of keeping those special cards like Total Power. The great thing with Dark Magic users is that they can use dispel cards as power cards which makes it easy to choose which cards to keep and helps to power up those expensive spells.

Assassins

Excellent models and great fighters. Vastly superior to ordinary champions. Too bad my character allowance always gets eaten up by my general and a sorcerer or two, I never seem to have enough points left, but I always make sure I at least include one assassin in my army. Often I just give them additional hand weapon and heavy armour, because of their poisoned weapons I rarely give them a magical weapon, potion of strength is a much better alternative. I must say that on most occasions the Assassins let me down, with only one wound they are easy to kill and you will certainly miss one or two attacks, but they are always there to scare the enemy. Though every now and then they will make your day. In a recent battle I charged the Grand Theogonist, my Assassin leaped out and sliced him to pieces(Try to regenerate 6W. Not so Grand now, eh?).

Cold One Knights

Expensive heavy cavalry with really cool models(pity that they cost a lot of money). I only have my General and 5 Knights at the moment, including a standard bearer. This force is a bit puny, but it has given great support to my infantry units with devastating flank charges. The riders are a bit to weak, they could at least have S4(how many elf players have dreams of cavalry with S4), instead you have to rely on the cold ones to do the real damage(with their 2 attacks and S4 they are very capable of this). Don't take on other heavy cavalry with high armour save, unless you have some characters with high S or magic weapons that allows no save in the front rank, it's better to have your artillery take care of them. The Knights are very good against the Undead, where all units at least cause fear, since they themselves cause fear. One problem I have encountered are chariots, with a bit of luck they will mow you down. One sollution I have tried out was to give my Knights repeating crossbows, this will make them really expensive though. When a chariot charges you stand and shoot, with some luck you will kill one of the animals pulling the chariot, then you can charge in your turn instead. Undead chariots can even be harmed by the crossbow bolts. Watch out for invisible gyrocopters, they allow no armour save and can fry(steam) your precious knights very easy. On a final note, I always take the Blood Banner so I don't have to make those stupid stupid rolls. I would like to have two magical banners/standards and not include the Blood Banner, like Battle Banner and Standard of Shielding.

Dark Riders

Can't help you here. I got no models so I haven't tried them. They seem to be very good and I hope they will be released very soon, I suffer badly from batteries of Empire Cannons and the like. Never trust Harpies to be able to take care of those crew members by them selves.

Executioners

Cool models shown in pictures in the Warhammer rulebook but nowere near my local store. I want them in my army just because they look so intimidating.

Why does the White Lions of the High Elves cost the same as Executioners. I don't begrudge the High Elves some decent regiments but Executioners and White Lions have the same stats, have the same basic equipment and both can inflict D3 wounds. Other than that the White Lions will beat up the Executioners everytime with all their other special rules which cost 0 points(not even 1 point more????? my oh my, they are even unbreakable at times).

Black Guard of Naggaroth

Another set of excellent models. I always bring them along to a battle because they look so awsome. They really could use another point of strength but never the less they can chop opponents pretty good. I usually use them in a defensive role with 4 - 5 ranks with musician, standard bearer with Banner of Defiance. Black Guard are also a great offensive unit, buy Standard of Shielding so they will have a better chanse of survival, they will be able to hold of most other infantry units. Often I put the Battle Standard here for some more magical aid. By the way are those really halberds on the models, compare them with the plastic human halbadeirs.

Crossbowmen

Well I only really used them until I got some Spearmen, to be able to field City Guard. Corsairs and Scouts are much better. I still use Crossbowmen on occasion when I have some points left over, it is never wrong to have more repeating crossbows on the battle field.

Warriors

These are the only Dark Elves available in plastic so they are a must to boost your army, and not break your economy. I don't think they are especially good fighters. To give them a small chanse of surviving S3 attacks i always buy shields for them. They are your cheapes troops so you could use them as a sacrificial unit. To bad that they are the only plastic models for Dark Elves since they suck. I hardly ever use them anymore.

City Guard

Nice regiment with different equipped ranks. They are mainly a defensive unit but they suffer from the fact that they are elves with only S3.

Witch Elves

Superb regiments, great models and a mighty force on the battle field. I never buy them light armour, there are to many attacks that have at least -1 save modifier so 6+ save is of almost no use. The Witch Elves really can dish out some serious damage, but beware of missile troops and to get charged yourself. Ruby Chalice is almost essential, it makes you harder to hit with both missiles and in HTH. This is the only unit I consider cheap in the Dark Elf army. Get lots of them. They are also good against armies with lots of models that cause fear/terror, but you have to make sure that your Witch Elves get frenzied pronto. Who am I kidding they are the best regiment you've got, usually your opponent knows this(if he doesn't he will suffer and learn his leasson) and will do everything in his power to stop them.

Scouts

Another regiment I don't have any models for. Can anyone tell me where I can get hold of these figures. I really want them in my army, I feel that I can't use the army to it's fullest without them.

Black Ark Corsairs

These are one of my favourite regiments. The models are really cool with their Dragon Cloaks. At first I though what use is unmodified armour save if you can't hurt the opponents in return(Most things with high stregth also has high toughness.) but over time I have noticed that the real advantage the Dragon Cloaks give is that you still have troops left for next round when counting rank bonus. Most times I buy them both additional hand weapons and repeating crossbows, but if I field them as one large regiment I drop the repeating crossbows. I use them either to support my main units or as a regular missile unit, on a long row. Don't take on heavy cavalry, if your opponent have Standard of Shielding your S3 attacks won't do anything. In one battle ten of my Corsairs beat a unit of 15 Hammerers that included the Dwarven Battle Standard with Rune of Courage. I owe it all to the Dragon Cloaks, I admit I was really lucky with my armour saves and two attacks helped a lot to make up for their puny strength. Since the elves only have T3 you can count on your opponent to always be able to wound you very easy but the Corsairs are blessed with unmodified armour save, just watch out for "no save" weapons of any kind.

Spearmen

I don't use them in Spearmen only regiments, I see no use they are just to weak. City Guard is the way to go.

Harpies

A great(well thats the plan) way to take out enemy warmachine crews or charge chariots before they can charge you. I have also used them to hunt lone characters that has left their regiments, they should be of lower level like level 1 and 2 wizards. Just don't use Harpies when you are up against the Undead, you have to be very lucky if you are ever going to be able to charge anything. One of my opponents really really hates my Harpies and in one battle his Wizard Lord spent most of the battle using magic to try and tie them down. This was fine by me, my Harpies was worth 120 points while his wizard was worth over 400 points. My Harpies didn't do anything the whole battle but it is not to bad to tie up a 400+ points wizard.

Cauldron of Blood

Awsome model. Sadly enought I don't have the money to buy it(but I will, this I swear). It's nice to have some kind of saving throw for your witch elves but I have a feeling that the witch elves guarding the cauldron will not be alive for very long.

Repeater Bolt Throwers

In my opinion the best warmachine around. They might struggle against high toughness monsters(T7 - 8) and what can they do against Steam Tanks(or similar T9 - 10), NOTHING!!! No, keep to those heavy cavalry or massed infantry. Some of my oponents(mostly with lots of heavy armoured knights) think that the RBT's are way too good. I don't think so.

Special Characters

I have only used a Special Character(Shadowblade) on one occasion as I think they should only be used in special senarios or battles. One of my opponents use at least one special character in every battle and refuses to do otherwise. He plays an Empire army and you can't guess how many times Karl Franz himself has led that 2000 point army(sure call for the Emperor as soon as there is a chance for a little skirmish). He defends himself with: -You can't play with ordinary human generals, they suck and only have Ld of 9. And now he has just bought the Grand Theogonist(sigh). You can guess what I will be facing in every battle from now on. I used Shadowblade just to eliminate whatever special character he would bring along that time, it worked too. Im not totally against the use of special characters because the are really cool and I think they add much too the feel of the army, but there has to be a limit. It's really sad that the Dark Elves special characters are so attached to their equipment, if this wasn't the case they could be really really good. By the way, will Malekith's model ever be made?

Battle Tactics

A Dark Elf army can adapt many different styles of play in a battle. I feel that I am a bit hampered, in what tactics to choose, by the fact that I don't have access to all the different regiment types the army book offers. On most occasions I use a defensive strategy where I sit back and fire away with everything and when the opposing regiments gets close enough I charge them with all I got. This has acctually worked tremendously well. The RBT's are the right machine for the job to weaken the enemy while he advance, the Repeating Crossbows have a bit low strength but can shoot most regiments with low armoursave and T3 to bits. On more than one occasion I have won the battle in the final round by making flank charges with my Cold Ones and Witch Elves, with Assassins popping up to kill of enemy characters or just to get 2 - 3 kills to add to the combat resolution. There are of course drawbacks with this kind of defensive tactics. If you remain to stationary your opponent will easily correct his warmachine fire to hit you every time, this will mean your elves will be very dead since they only have T3. To remedy this I use my Harpies to take out the warmachines(What a surpries,eh?). Another negative effect is that your Sorceres might become useless since Dark magic does't have too many long range spell(mostly 18").

If you want some tips on how to play offensively you have to find it elsewhere or wait until I can get my hands on some of those Scouts and Dark Riders. Sure I have tried to play offensively with the army I've got but not too often, my regiments alway seem to end up mostly on my half of the table with one or two regiments on the opposing side probably because im not totally commited to offensive style yet. I have never tried a full out attack and only leaving my RBT's behind, but as soon as I get hold of those other regiments I will try something of this kind.

Dark Elves are a though opponent for most armies to beat. The diversity of troops and the quality of them will mean they will not give up without a fight. Though Dark Elves tend to be few in numbers they are not as few as a Chaos army but they are definitely fewer than a Skaven or Ork/Goblin army. You should know your weaknesses and try to minimize their impact on the battle. You have one of the most poorly armoured armies around. Sure you have expensive Cold One Knights and those Corsairs but most of your elves will have 6+ or 5+ armour save. Not that many attacks your opponent throws at you have no save modifiers. Even Wood Elves with Long Bows have -1 save modifier.

One other problem is the strength of your own attacks. Mostly it is only S3. Repeating Crossbows and ordinary elves strength will have a hard time wounding most opponents. Only Skaven and Undead have the same pathetic saving throws and toughness as yourself, though I must say that the Undead have quite a few regiments with high T and multiple wounds. Wood Elves have Dryads and Treemen with high T and save. Orcs have T4 while Dwarves and Chaos Dwarves have T4 and mostly 4+ or 5+ armour save. Lizardmen all have at least 6+ unmodified save and Saurus warriors have T4. Empire and Brettonia have mainly knights with 2+ armour save. Chaos either have high armour save, high toughness, multiple wound or any combination of these. High Elves with their new and improved army list(Wow. I liked them before, but now they are really cool.), their Spearmen have armour save of 4+, the Swordsmasters you have -1 to hit with missiles and White Lions have 4+ armour save against missiles. This will spell trouble for your Repeating Crossbows, sure you can lay down massive hails of bolts but will you hit, will you wound, will your opponent make his save(with no modifiers). This may sound as I am complaining but I am just making the point that you shouldn't over rely on your missile troops. To do real damage you need to beat your opponent in HTH and run them down as they flee from you.

Against Dwarves

The Dwarves are always a very tough opponent to beat, even their name implies that they always fight. Their strengths are very high leadership, WS4, T4, high armour save, runes and superb warmachines. To balance things out the Dwarves have M3, low I, , no cavalry, no character on monsters and no magic(other than runes and magic items of course). Your elves have much higher stats in both movement and initiative, you have to exploit this to the fullest. You will almost certainly be able to get around the flanks of the Dwarves with your higher movement and your cavalry. Most of the times you will also be able to charge first. Your higher initiative will allow you to go first in HTH on most occasions, this very important. If you can just kill off two or three Dwarves, then you will at least have two or three elves that are not dead at the end of the turn.

To counter the Dwarves T4 bring on the strongest hitters you've got. Cold One Knights, Black Guard and lots of Witch Elves are essential. You might even use Executioners, since there will almost certainly be Dwarves with two-handed weapons in the battle, with their effective strength of 6 they negate both high toughness and high armoursave.

Because the Dwarves have high toughness you will notice that your warmachines and your missile weapons will not be very effective. Even the RBT will struggle to penetrate the tough skin of the Dwarves, they will not be nearly as effective as against opponents with lower toughness, but they are still usefull. The repeating crossbows only have S3 and no saving throw modifiers, they won't do much good agains the metal dressed Dwarves. Sure they will kill some Dwarves and I never leave home without 20 or so repeating crossbows, just so I can roll a lot of dices in the shooting phase, it's always fun to see the look on your opponents face when you roll all those dices. The only Dwarf unit with no armour are the Slayers, not even their high toughness will save them from volleys of crossbow bolts. With the Slayers there is another problem, they never break, so it feels quite useless to shoot at them cause you need to kill every single one of them(I don't mean that you should shoot at them. The less amount of Slayers to reach your troops the better).

One of the greatest threats to your precious Elves are the much disliked warmachines(not by the Dwarves I think). Watch out for them, especially the Flame Cannon. Everything under the Flame Cannon template will be hit by a S5 hit, this means your Elves will be very badly burnt(just wait until I get my Skaven force ready, then we will fry some stunties). I also dislike the Gyrocopter(not as a model, only when they are used against me), they might not be equally effective as the other warmachines, but when invisible it is a real headache(Can't the elves, with their pointy ears, hear the invisible Gyrocopter? ; )  ). The Gyrocopter steam allowes no armour save, this means your Knights superb armoursave and your cool Dragon Cloaks are useless, and you will see some dead elves. Luckily after the flying Dwarf reveals himself he is rather easy to shoot down for an easy VP. Just pray to Khaine that the Gyrocopter does not crash into any of your regiments. You need to take care of the warmachines as fast as you can. Scouts, Dark Riders, Harpies and flying monsters are well equipped to do this. I wouldn't use characters to engage dwarven warmachines since you'll never know if they will detonate and blow a nice hole in your stomach.

Dwaven missile troops are not a big worry they couldn't hit a barn, but watch out in HTH they are not as pathetic as your own crossbowmen. When fighting the Dwarves you need to be patient, it will take a long time to break them(those regiments that are breakable. Dwarves can use runic banners to make most of their regiments unbreakable(this cost alot of points of course)) with their high leadership. Use magic to destroy them, sure they will dispel many of your attempts but sooner or later they will fail a dispel roll. If you don't want to wait for them to fail their dispel rolls, use Forbidden Rod(Boring). Don't panic when your missiles bounce of the Dwarves like rain on a window or when you notice that not even your Witch Elves can't slaughter the first rank of their Dwarven opponents, stay true and put your trust in Khaine(hmm I don't know about that) and you will prevail. I wish I could say that time is on your side but with T3 and lousy armoursave it's not. Hit them from all sides, cavalry in the sides and harpies in the back, and hit them first.

Against the Empire

The Empire strengths are their Knights, Flaggelants, warmachines, huge variety of troops and that they are cheap. Individually they are not that amazing(not amazing at all I would say). Ordinary humans have no real advantages or disadvantages with rather mediocre stats. The only real problem when fighting the Empire is to forsee what kind of army your opponent will bring.

Empire armies have many different regiments to choose troops from. Most of theese regiments are just basic humans armed differently. There are a few regiments that stand out from the main ranks. The first are the cavalry, the Empire has access to many different kinds of cavalry. There are the knightly orders ,wich are the main attack force of most Empire armies, heavy cavalry 2+ armorsave and increases in WS, S and I. They are a tough opponent for most regiments. Then we have Outriders with their annoying guns(I really don't like them). Well this is not a Empire tactics article so I don't want to go through their army list completely. In any case the Empire also has access to light cavalry(Kislev Archers, Pistoliers). One notable thing is that it is only cavalry in the Empire army that may take magic banners, not one single infantry unit. To deal with the cavalry use your RBT's, the humans only have T3 wich means they will die in abundance. If you want to try to take them on in HTH use troops with high strength, use massed ranks and flank/rear attacks. Since they are the fastest troops the Empire can muster they are very likely to reach your ranks before you shoot them up too much, so be prepared and have a hero or two standing by with things like Gromril Blade wich don't allow any armour save. Under those tin cans are very weak flesh.

In fair HTH your basic elf will beat a regular human. The infantry that stands out the most in the Empire army are the Flaggelants, maniacs who never break, armed with flails and increased S and T and ridicully low points cost. Shoot them up before they get to HTH(where they are very dangerous), they have no armour so repeating crossbows are enough to shoot them to pieces. The second human infantry that have some real HTH abilities are the Rieksguard, they are basic knights on foot. Their major disadvantage is their low movement(same as Dwarves). Witch Elves with 3 attacks at S4 will chop up most of what the empire can throw at you. Black Ark Corsairs with two handweapons are also good at disposing of weak humans.

The Empire can also choose troops like Dwarves, Halflings and Ogres. The Ogres might be a bit tough but the only have two attacks and costs quite much. Halflings are the only Empire troops to rival the Elves in aiming, but fortunatly they don't have longbows or crossbows. The other missile troops of the empire are not that good at shooting, but if they hit you will certainly see a dead elf. Both crossbows and handguns have S4 and handguns also has an extra -1 saving throw modifier wich means your ordinary elves armour will not save you(Dwarves have these weapons too).

The Empire, just like the Dwarves, has a wide range of powerful gunpowder based warmachines. The most powerful of these are the Great Cannon, the Hellblaster Volleygun and of course the Steam Tank. Anything that get hit by a Great Cannon is DEAD(well almost anything), so deal with the quickly. The Hellblaster Volleygun will make a real mess of your elves even at long range, it is of utmost importance that you kill their crew very fast(you can kill them slowly, but do it first thing in the battle). The usual ways to deal with warmachines are sufficient, Harpies, Scouts, Dark Riders and flying Monsters. Watch out for batteries with heroes attached. It is quit risky too drop down with a dragon near some Great Cannons, if all the crews don't flee or get killed they'll turn those huge cannons right at you and you don't have a dragon anylonger.

Another tactic I have used are to have a Sorcerer Lord use Witch Flight to teleport into HTH with warmachine crews. In one battle my Sorcerer took out 3 Great Cannons crews and 1 Hellblaster Volleygun crew in HTH, and all the time using magic from behind the Empire lines to hit them in the back. Like I said before watch out for attached heroes and think twice about doing this if your opponent has some reserve troops near his warmachines.

The Steam Tank is a whole other matter. A mobile cannon with T10. Lucky for your elves they have high initiative or you would be run over as well as shot at. You have nothing in your army list that can even dent it(well maybe some monster or a Witch Elf heroine with a two-handed weapon). Dark Magic do have one spell that at least has an even chance at wounding the tank but you can not count on picking it when you pick your spells. I have never done it but you can buy Deathsword or some other high strength weapon to destroy it with.

Don't count on your opponent to roll misfire for his warmachines. You have to deal with them yourself. Sure in some battles all your opponents cannons blow up on the first turn but in others not a single one will self destruct. My Empire opponent has never rolled a single misfire for his Hellblaser Volleygun when he has played against me(he has however rolled a high amount of 10's).

The War Wagon is a huge chariot with five strangely equipped crew. Don't worry to much about it, just shoot the horses and it will become a sitting duck(rather a wooden tower with strangely equipped humans).

Take care of their knights and warmachines and you will have a plesant battle on your hands.

Againt Undead

To come....

written by BFB