High Elf Tactics

written by Richard Kottmeyer

The High Elves play like the geography of Ulthuan.  They are primarily a defensive army, luring the enemy into narrow passes, or solid regiments of spearmen.  Their strength is in their defense, their positioning or deployment and their ability to counter-attack or respond quickly to a pending threat.  Like Ulthuan, once the defensive barriers are broken, the high elf army becomes terribly fragile.  Expensive troops with toughness 3 are not geared for slugging it out with their chaos brethren.

This is an army which is all about holding back, luring the enemy into bad positioning and then striking back with incredible quickness.

Specific Strengths

Citizen Levy, basic regimental spearmen with an extra rank of attacks. Archers firing in two ranks. Infiltrators with BS4. Lotheran Seaguard!!!!! One of the best regiments (both spearmen and archers!) . Outstanding elite support units especially the unbreakable white lions (with general). Custom armored knights (Silver Helms) from fast calvery to heavy shock troops. . SPEED, especially with new heavy armor. . . .you have the fastest armored troops in the game! . Repeater Bolt Thrower-Everyone knows this.. Variety and Balance of troop types

Specific Weaknesses

Point Cost, especially of characters = few characters, few troops . Low Strength hth troops.  Only One troop can hit with st. 6 and they strike last! . Limitations on elites (I like it personally as it adds balance)   White lions, swordmasters etc. must be support troops not core infantry.. Low Strength Missile troops.  Str 3 will have a hard time against MANY opponents., RBT is also a low strength weapon that often will fail to wound T4  and T5 troops.. Lack of any Flying troops.  This ties up character points.  You must control the skies!

Basic High Elf Strategies

Deep Defense. . . . .the traditional way people play HE and extremely risky and foolhardy.  You place all your troops as far back as you can in your deployment zone and just shoot, shoot, shoot the enemy.  Infantry bears the brunt of the enemy charge, who is hopefully weak enough to crush.  The PROBLEM with this approach is it relies totally on one element, shooting. Once shooting is over, one mistake and the troops are fleeing off the board. There is no where to run and reform and the zone you have left yourself allows for very little maneuverability.  After all, why would an army whose troops clearly move faster than nearly any enemy not use that advantage?

New Strategies

Forward Defense . . . . .Deploy defensively as far forward as you can. Place your archers in citizen ranks (or sea guard if your really clever) at the front of your deployment zone, side by side with blocks of spearmen. Use calvery as a mobile reserve, able to handle threats to warmachines or able to dash through the infantry line to attack the enemy's flanks once engaged (fast calvery).  Variation A:  Calvery Lure- Place archers forward in deployment with calvery just within their charge range of the archers. What you are trying to accomplish: 

You have left yourself plenty of room to maneuver.

If Your archers, stand and shoot, they will likely be broken. And where will they go. . . .in front of the FAST CALVERY that has the movement to move around them and hit the enemy.   PLUS, do you think the enemy is likely to pursue fleeing archers if that OBVIOUSLY leads to calvery being able to charge through   their ranks the next turn?????

Using The first option of spearmen alongside archers is interesting too.  Your opponent often will have fast troops as an  initial charge (calvery, boar riders etc.)  All that matters is that his army doesn't ALL move at the same speed.   If he has fewer units advancing on your lines, his choices are limited.  Does he hit a weak archer unit that he can destroy only to be attacked by a huge block of spearmen, or does he attack the spearmen knowing the archers are in range to flank (what else can they do in hth?)  And if your spearmen or archers panic, well then the mobile reserve (the calvery) can prevent pursuers from catching the spearmen and archers by being just behind the battle line (forcing fleeing troops to move through them and attacking troops to stop and fight).

2) Reverse Battleline (The Counter-Puncher):   This deployment is simple and wonderful for the fleet footed elves.  Archers in front, spearmen immediately behind the archers, elites behind the spearmen and clavery in the rear.  You will stand and shoot with the archers.  Of course, they tend to break leading units into the 3 ranks of spearmen.  Yet spearmen are not wonderful against big burly troops, they too will break, forcing them to charge (if they pursue) nasty white lions (they attack last so they are the best to take a charge with), the white lions are usually pretty good at handling troops which are too tough for spearmen.  Finally, you place the calvery in the rear.  You can tell if things are going your way, in which case the calvery has plenty of turns to move to flank.  Otherwise, the white

lions, too, will flee.   This time let it be a foot race,  do not make it possible for the fleeing troops to move through the calvery.  The calvery charges.  If the white lions are destroyed, the enemy is a sitting duck.  If not, the calvery should have the movement to attack a flank.  Charriots held in reserve to mop up are particularly amusing.

Other Strategies

There are litterally scores of strategies you can use but each should have the following in common:

Tight concentration of troops (high elves perform best close together. . ..this is the benefit of citizen levy).  Keep them all near the general.. Quick reactions. . .your troops move so quickly they can react to almost any potential threat. 3) Whittle them down. . . . . . High Elves are not particularly high strength troops, nor do they have the toughness to last a slugging fight. Arrows/bolts to start, large blocks of spearmen with elites to further break the enemy down and charriots and calvery to mop up.  . Flyers to protect your speedy troops. . Coordinated vs individual attacks.  Your not dragon ogres! . Protection for beaten units.  You don't get VP's if you beat a unit but don't destroy it.  High elves often must use several units to win combat vs a truly tough opponent. . Clever use of infiltrators.  One advantage of elves is that they move really fast while tying up their opponent's speed with shadow warriors.  . Protection in case units do get behind enemy lines. . . .You need some fast moving unit to be able to intercept and protect the sacred RBTs or the rank bonus of the spearmen from enemy flankers.  . Destroy the Enemy's ability to shoot!

How to Play Each Unit

Regiments

Dragon Princes of Caldor - If you need heavy calvery, why NOT take them as they get a free standard and 1/2 point magical standard.  In a tournament, they remain expensive a unit costing over 200pts.  Much better in larger battles where you can buy a battle banner for 50pts.  With only St5 on the charge and a lack of rank bonus, the knights are support troops, not shick troops that will break hardened enemy lines.

Silver Helms - Your bread and butter infantry.  Very versitle.  You can use them as fast calvery or armor them anyway you want.  A 3+ armor save knight at 35 pts is often a steal compared to a 2+ knight at 43.  Like Longsword, I prefer the flexibility of fast calvery especially with my style of play that says put the horses behind the infantry and archers.  MOVEMENT is everything in a reserve.

Ellyrian Reavers - Extremely Cheap Fast Calvery!  Armed with bows and spears they cost the base cost of a Silver Helm.  Very good against lightly armored T3 heavy armies like wood elves or skaven where mobile missle fire will greatly help.  Skirmishing allows you to cover a greater amount of land if your job is to fend off troops behind enemy lines.  March Move Deployment is often wasted going forward or flanking.  I LOVE Reavers against WE , ratmen or dark elves that can infiltrate.  You know that march move, especially if skirmishing can guaranty the infiltrators will get a good whooping before they can cause any trouble to your artillery crews or flanks.  If deployed on the flanks, these units will quickly reach enemy flanks or artillery. Best yet, put the ruby chalice with them, take shields, bows and skirmish in front of charriots.  BS5 troops will need 6's to hit and you still get a 4+ save.  What FUN!!!!!   Roll them charriots. 

White Lions -   You can only have one unit.  Base St 4 (teach them to rise horses!).  Double handed axes give high elves their only St 6 regiment, but they strike last despite really interesting attack modes.  BEST used as flankers!!!!!!!  Most rnf only have one attack.  White Lions can use Lion Leaping to effectively take the first turn!    They can take a charge too. WS 5 along with Lion Rampant (-1 to hit) assures that only the best chargers stand a chance to hit., most non-characters will need a 5+.  For Example, ALL basic Brettonian knights will require a 5+.  That should take the sting out of their charge!  Ruby chalice would be devastating if you deployed the unit forward against a shooty army that would ITCH to cause one shooting wound to the Lions before the calvery charged. Use Lion Ramport  before counter-attacking multi-wound troops with Lion Claw.You will strike last, but with WS 6 hopefully some of the lions in the front line will live.  If they do, Ws 6 vs most multie wound troops should return the punishment nicely.   Lion Claw is the least useful skill because you must survive a slaughtering by multi-wound monsters to be able to use it (you strike last).  Perhaps if those dragon ogres were foolish enough to take double handed weapons (against high elves unlikely!).  If you put your general in the unit the unit is unbreakable.  Nice choice for a defensive army.  Put the white lions behind the spearmen. . . . .if they flee, the lions will last a long time, no matter the odds, allowing your reserve to brutally attack the enemy's flanks.  White Lions are great fun against  wood elves. . . .with 4+ save vs missles and the ability to move through the woods unencumbered.

Phoenix Guard - Strength four infantry. . . .a good troop if you need another St4+ infantry unit, but I would buy Sword Masters first.

Sword Masters - St5 and they do not need to fight last.  Initiative 7 helps if you last after you charge.  Great targets for enemy missle fire.   WS 5 ensures many tough opponents will be hit on a 3+.  Some of the best flankers for the High Elves.  In effect, they count as skirmishing for missle fire.

Lothern Sea Guard - The BEST basic regiment for the High Elves. Use them in two ranks to shoot the enemy then reform them to  charge with 2 ranks of spears and defend with 3 ranks of spears.  These are archers to deploy forward.  Just keep them away from enemy flying troops that give them no time to reform.  The can even allow your army to advance under the cover of bowfire then reform at the last minute to either a) charge or b) absorb the charge as the pivot around which the other High Elf elites will maneuver to attack.

Elven Spearmen - 3 ranks defending/2 charging.  No reason not to try to charge whenever you can as opposed to taking a charge.  Expensive to get into 4 ranks deep.  NICELY ARMORED.  4+ save always helps!  Great thing is these troops will be able to charge almost any enemy infantry.  After all, a similarly armored enemy is -1 to move and usually has a movement of 4 to begin with.  Spearmen should wait till the enemy infantry gets close and CHARGE.  Their initiative will punish the enemy in future rounds. Shock calvery beats them (same WS, too heavily armored), but T4 opponenets such as orcs watch out.  with 3 ranks they have decent odds of doing equal damage to you! 

Shadow Warriors - Infiltrating is important to the High Elves as they want to postpone the enemy advance.  Potential 5+ save gives a rare bit of protection for infiltrators against enemy missle fire .  Only skirmishing foot troops allow for a cheaper screen than reavers.  On the bad side, besides infiltrating this unit is not very elite.  WE scouts at least have an extra point on BS. 

Elven Archers - BS 4 longbowmen can hurt lightly armored, lower strength targets.  Buy longbows.  In a tournament where you might face equally talented shooters, I tend not to like unarmored shooters.  Therefore, I prefer the 4+ armor save of Lotheran Sea Guard! 

War Machines

Repeater Bolt Thrower - The Kabab.  The best war machine for taking out T3 knights.  Now 100 pts which is more in line with othe war machines. Wonderful range using the HE marvolous Bs.  Take in pairs to make sure one hits every round even at long range.  Pick targets wisely and use volleys. Always go for low tougness targets in ranks.  

Chariots - One of the only high strength items the High Elves have to offer.  Can't field many as war machines, especially because you will want a few RBT.  This is the tragedy of making them war machines.  Now you must pick, strong artillery or strong charriot strikes.  Charriots are vulnerable to massed archery and x-bow fire.  You only have 2 crew so equip them with armor.  4 horses will allow a few stray missle hits.  The trick with charriots is to screen them and pick your charges.  I like my charriots behind my battleline ready to sweep out on a flank or wait to charge a weakened opponent that breaks through.  ALWAYS buy extra horses.

Monsters

You have every point cost of flying mounts for characters, but three should be mentioned specifically.

Pegasus - A horse with wings that should not be expected to battle.  This is the fastest way to get your mage where you want him on a battlefield.  Just remember, the pegasus should never fly high as it can easily die and lead to your wizard pumleting to his death.

Great Eagle - An unbound St5 monster with WS 7 which is often more than most lord level characters.  Stop enemy warmachines and shooters with these guys. They are also quite good at attacking lone enemy characters.  They will do wounds before getting butchered in the counter attack.  If they survive their 3d6 fleeing helps enormously.   Still if you take a pair and can do two wounds to some generals such as the wood elf general, the skaven general etc.  So many uses you almost need a pair.

Unicorn - Good WS St. 6 charges.  Sure he is 90pts but you get 2 St 6 charges along with a 4+ natural dispel.  Of course, High Magic Users use power as dispels but a little extra protection never hurt.

Special Rules

Citizen Levy - highly misunderstood when it comes to archery.  The beneift of having archers in two ranks has to do with concentration of forces.  Your archers now can concentrate on a singe target, where a long line often must choose multiple targets or has some archers shooting at long range or unable to shoot at all.  Secondly, the archers are now able to be closer to the general and standard bearer and finally, the archers in two ranks are now able to be placed comfortably next to infantry units who can handle any fast calvery or airborne strikes against your archers.

Dark Elf Emnity - Automatic rerolls of psychology tests are nice especially for panic and fear, BUT are you really going to deploy a force that is more than 12" away from the battle standard bearer with dark elves?  Your infiltrators vs thiers, your reavers vs. dark riders?  Your best off in a classic tight defense.  Dark Elves certainly retain the advantage against their cousins.

Characters

Lord - Good leadership often tempts players to use the Lord character as a hth fighter.  I far prefer him to be a leader of troops, and a hth fighter ONLY when the front lines have failed.  As such, I tend to always place him in the second battleline.  Horn of Urgok is essential on him or another character as my reverse battleline guarantees some fleeing.  You can let him have cheap hth capability but don't go rushing to get him in combat.

Heroes - One of the most popular ways to get rid of icky monster/flyers and enemy war machines.  Heroes make sure you dominate the skies.  They are also helpful in frontline units of infantry.  A hero with a block of spearmen can often help break the mightiest of foes.

Champions - Important for spearmen who rely on rank and numbers.  A few extra wounds can spell victory, otherwise challenge a character and leave more spearmen to be able to fight back.  Champions often hold key magic items that protect units prior to enterring combat.  I tend to have most heavy combaat units take one.

Mages - THE GLORY OF ULTHUAN.  High Magic users can dominate the magic phase.  Even a level 1 high mage's spell is hard to dispel.  Using mages effectively can often make or break a high elf army.  Warning!  In a tournament, do not take a level 4 wizard and expect to be able to sufficiently protect the air and your main combat troops with heroes and champions.

Special Characters

Alith Anar - Interesting character.  Imagine him leading swordmasters of Hoeth, who now skirmish with a ruby chalice on the champion.  Gross! Against Chaos and Dark Elves he is essential as he makes the entire army hate the entire enemy army!  If fighting a hated enemy I would let him skirmish, if not, your asking for the General to flee.  If Alith Anar gets caught in HtH combat with a character, it is not likely he will survive to freely move even if in combat.  His moonbow only cuases one wound. . . .good for rnk, but large monsters will not be slain, nor will characters.  Stone of Midnight is fantastic, making it highly unlikely he will take wounds in hth..  Unless he is facing an enemy he causes hatred in, I just don't prefer him to a generic general.

Eltharion - 467 pts is a lot for what you get.  At that rate, you could buy a Mage Lord 328 on a griffon. 

Everqueen - Holy Smokes.  Well, don't get her charged for one thing (if you avoid that it is unlikely she can be attacked!).  Boon of Isha is a fabulous skill allowing the critical tipping of the scales in battle.  Chaos Bane makes banishment look tame.  Handmaidens are incredible.  WS 5 and BS5, they are every bit the archer wood elves are and fight as well as most heroes. The unit acts as if it were under the crown of comand and a non-dispelable horn that allows the handmaiden's 3 ranks of spearmen to attack twice for 6 attacks total (that will impale many a knight) and the whole unit has a 4+ special save.  If that weren't enough, the Everqueen has 7 High Magic Spells, so she can virtually pick what she casts .  Three of them are one-shot spells but they cost no power.  Imagine being able to unleash three spells in a single turn.  Certainly, such an unleashing of magic would be hard to dispel.  Finally, she can heal wounds on character figures.  Nice but with the frailty of high elves, you usually die when you start taking wounds.  Good to protect the general with armor of fortune and the mages of

Ulthuan.  Really evil to cast apothesised characters.  Or do they start with full wounds?

Belanner - WOW!  A mage lord/general for 550 pts.  Now you have room for heroes and champions!  This guy is unreal.  First, to charge him you lose a few inches of space, meaning if you are infantry you are going to fail the charge and leave yourself open to a counter-charge, calvary won't be nearly as effected with their 12+ charges.  Cloak of Stars. . . .with -2 to the strength of attacks, a lance now hits at 4 or even odds for wounding and afterward a 6 wll be needed to wound 2 vs 4.  Missle fire is able to be largely ignored as well.  RBT, HA. . . .again a st2 hit.  One critical battle Bellanner can go first and attack with an additional d6 attacks (on average 7).  Ewwww. . . . .Book of Phoenix is extremly fun to play with.  If Belanner is a mage to you, why not take the Verse of Flame Eternal and cast a spell for free every round like an improved Ariel wand.  I tend to use the verse of destruction and Blade of Bel-Korhadris together.  With 7 st 8

attacks most any character or monster daring to charge Belanner is finished. If life were not difficult enough, Belannor's High Magic starts at a 6+ to dispel :).  Most versitile special character for High Elves!

Korhil:  Absoultely wonderful to take with white lions because he does not hit LAST.  Therefore, you can get 3 st7 attacks that cause d3 wounds on any charge.  FAQ question may I use Lion Claw when charging or MUST I use Leaping?  Additionally, Korhil protects the general, keeping him from being harmed. . . .Great with the LD based general.  Guestion:  If Korhill protects the general from being harmed, can the general even attack in hth?

Caradryain - Mark of Assurain is autokill based on LD when Caradryian dies. Excellent against big low ld monsters such as giants.  Against most foes, he will not be able to auto kill them, but when he does it is a spectacular sight to behold.

Tyrion - No changes. . . .and an extremely capable hero who can quickly react to enemy threats behind lines, break throughs, war machines or lone characters.  He is best used racing forwards like a flyer.  Remember with M12 he can march the distance a flyer can fly.  Sunfang is wonderful for taking out enemy shooters, who are usually unarmored with the mighty firebolt.  Should anyone challenge Tyrion  his sword certainly is the match for most enemies and he maintains a wonderful armor save and special save. All heroes who gallantly advance on their foes must worry about somehow being run down or killed.  Tyrion automatically comes back to life.  This is especially useful with the Everqueen's ability to heal a character.  I use Tyrion when fighting an enemy with few flyers and smaller units such as chaos.

Teclis - Great New Changes. . .Biggest drawback is that Teclis will not ride anything!  Teclis' ability to pick High Elf spells allows a degree of predictability unfathomable to most races.  Great fun to give him Drain Magic and use his scroll to basically destroy enemy wizards, especially skink shamans!  Chaos should hate the fact he is guaranteed banishment. Likewise, the dwarves moan over his being able to pick the Tempest.  I always chose the Coruscation of Finreir to keep Teclis away from most threats.  Level 5 will dominate magic.  Biggest drawback is a staff that can leave him at tougness 2 if it destroyed by the ring of corin.  Moon Staff is wonderful under the right circumstances, especially when used with the bnner of sorcery in one ULTIMATE magic phase.  Best to use the staff After enemy flyers are eliminated and Teclis is safely on the pillar!  A 100pt sword for an unarmored mage, that can not ride a monster who may very well lose half his strength and toughness.   Hmmmm. . . .leave the sword in its scabard.

Imrik - If you are playing a LARGE battle I like Imrik to control the skies. Even nasty monsters must cower to Imrik's dragon when he hears the sound of the mighty Thunderhorn (d6 extra dragon attacks).  That extra point of strength for the Star Lance greatly helps against enemy flying monsters, treemen and the like. 

Tournament Army List

General with longbow, heavy armor and shield (Leads White Lions) Black Amulet Executioner's Axe

13 White Lions with shield and Standard Banner of Might (Nothing is more fun than the banner of might with Ex Axe and White Lions attacks are particularly nasty if they hit!). 

White Lion Champion Black Gem

Lvl 3 Mage  (Usually in White Lion Group but may wander) Cloak of Mist and Shadows (I figure with black gem/ring of corin likely there won't be a magic      weapon to get him or he will know and get away!). Skull Staff, Ring of Corin (If the enemy is slow and without a great number of flyers. . . .venture out to scout enemy defenses.  Tear down COC for skaven, special save items for general's/wizards for your Hero, etc).

Hero with longbow on a Griffin Armor of Meteoric Iron Flail of Skulls or Potion of Strength DragonBlade (Auto hitting is very nice as is the kaboob with the potion of (strength) and give heavy armor and shield (5wound big monster that flies is going to do the following:

1.Enemy war machines (if great eagles are not allowed)  Use eq package #1 2.Enemy shooters  (if great eagles are not allowed)  Use eq package #1 3.Return to break enemy rank bonus and add combat resolution! 4.Using potion of strength and dragonblade, charge the nearest enemy general or wizard.  3 autohitting St9 hits ought to do the trick when combined with 4 st 6 hits. Of course be sure to use that nice ring of corin to eliminate special save magic items!

16 Lotheran Sea Guard with Standard Banner of Defiance

2 Tiranoc Charriots (scythes, longbows, spears, shields, heavy armor, 2 extra steeds) Standard of Shielding  (Banner effects both charriots and little can stop

2d6 + 4 St7 hits!).

2 Great Eagles (I don't think they are large monsters.  If so,  take 10 swordmasters as reserve.  They can attack infiltrators, or help the lotheran sea guard in a prolonged battle)..

Biggest fear with this army:  A big nasty hero helping out the war machine battery!

You may have to adjust a point or two but this should be pretty darn close!

Deploy relatively forward so your hero is always within 24" in case he needs to return to handle something nasty that is threatening your charriots or units.

Psssst.  . . .even with countercharge, High Elves' charriot impact hits will crunch Bret Knights.

Great Eagles are worlds of fun vs. PCB. . . .who will pursue them endlessly!

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