High Elf Tactics 101
So you want to know how High Elves play? I am assuming that most people reading this will be at least familiar with the High Elf army book. I will try to make this useful for people fighting elves too, as in that old Sun Tzu saying "Know your enemy, know yourself, and you shall never be defeated...".
Note: Individual unit strengths and weaknesses are listed under the appropriate unit in the High Elves link above.
High Elf strengths :
Speed, that plus one move makes a big difference for infantry, and your cavalry generally has 9 move which is more than most too. Design your army with the thought that you should be the one charging. Citizen Levy, means you can concentrate your archer units more, and allows more units to be closer to your general, another rank of spearmen makes them much more effective too. Magic, you can pick any spell lore.
High Elf weaknesses :
Point costs, few troops, few characters. Low strength, need magic items to boost wounding-power. Low toughness, you die easy. Commanders only have 3 Toughness. No unique units that no other army duplicates (well maybe Swordmasters, but they aren't very special).
If you want to beat High Elves, take a big rampaging character, lots of flying monsters, and troops with as high a toughness as you can get, charge.
Elven comparisons :
Dark elves have Repeater bolt throwers, witch elf hero's, hatred. Wood elves have better bows, BS 5 troops, dryads, wardancers. Both Dark and Wood elves have better skirmishers, flying units. Cold ones better than Dragon princes, more attacks and toughness. Black guard better than Seaguard, unmodified 5+ save, repeater crossbows. Things are reasonably even though, so no cause for alarm.
Against Dark elves you want to have units of Shadow Warriors, and judge your bowmen to out-shoot their crossbows, you must kill their Bolt Throwers, and conversely keep yours alive. I have yet to see witch-elves and their blood cauldron be useful. But watch those witch elf heroes, they will slaughter you in combat, often with obscene magic weapon combo. At least Ravening Hordes doesn't have Shadowblade, he used to have a great chance of killing your general first turn, real nasty...
Wood elves are different, here you want to get into Hand-to-hand, otherwise you will be outgunned. This is because people usually field archer-based armies. Dragon Princes can be much more effective here as their 2+ armour save, Vs that great Elven strength of 3, means they are less likely to die. Just make sure you take something to combat the hawk-riders and treemen.
Army design choices :
I've tried most of the combinations possible to make with High Elves. I have tried shooting based armies. These are top heavy with RBT's and archers. The problem is you generally can't kill enough units, and end up trying to kill a damaged, but still fearsome, melee unit with small units of archers. Pure cavalry armies fair better, but you tie up a lot of points in individual models and units. This can work, especially against low S enemy, but you will lose real fast against an offensive magic army.
My current combination is an infantry based army (cheaper cost compared to cav), with some faster manoeuvre elements designed to slow the enemy (lets more shooting happen), take out warmachines, and negate flank bonuses. The goal is to weaken the oncoming enemy, and then finish it with co-ordinated charges - preferably rolling a flank, so that moral might make a few units flee too. What do I like? White Lions with the General - they aren't actually all that good in combat, but it means your army won't flee easily, as this unit can last more than one round of combat (saying a lot for elves!). Reavers, Shadow Warriors, and a Hero on an Eagle - they can get to the enemy quick. Then they stop marching, and kill warmachines or archer units. Then pad out the rest of the force with some shooters, and another unit to support the Lions in combat. I am tending towards anti-magic. A level 2 mage, plus a couple of level one mages. This gives you a reasonable number of dice, and if you take the Staff of Sorcery you still get a reasonable chance to dispel. These are the ideas I am currently utilising, but check out my tournaments to see how this generalised force does.
General Tactics :
Deploy forwards, your archers will be in range sooner, and if you get some big terror causing monster land nearby, you will have room to flee. Have a mobile reserve to support charges by your infantry. Chariots are harder hitting, but Dragon Princes are a little more durable. Reavers are cheaper, and move a lot faster. Try grouping your missile troops offset to one flank. Then sweep your other troops on to the same side, hopefully your enemy wont be able to transfer his troops to the flank you attacking on quickly enough. It is more important in 6th edition to negate the rank bonus people get, otherwise big units start on a +5 combat resolution (+3 ranks +1 standard +1 outnumbering). Always take a magic item to help against flyers, or have some troops set up behind your bolts throwers. If they charge them, the crew can flee, and hopefully the enemy wont destroy your bolt throwers before you charge the next turn. This also works as a general response to fast armies. If you can deploy something either behind or to the side of something cheap, say archers, fleeing (so that he cant redirect a charge) and causing a failed charge will enable you to counter-charge, simple huh? but it gets more difficult when trying to guess various ranges.
Design your hand-to-hand units to charge and win in the first round of combat, don't impede your movement. Repeater Bolt throwers are more damaging than 10 archers, if you want to shoot, take them instead. You can just about guarantee that you will be outnumbered, so try to slow down some units with skirmishers, and attack the others at 2-1 odds. Their characters will usually be better than yours, so think carefully before attack their general. Take at least one flyer, if they have some and you don't it will go badly, as you must protect your Bolt Throwers, and if they don't you can attack their war-machines. Think what you want your mage to do, I suggest all-out attack (powerstones, Fire Lore, Death Lore) , or all-out defence (Staff of Sorcery, Heavens, Lore of Metal), don't waver in-between. I almost always have my general as a HtH fighter (Commanders now suck with 3 toughness), I don't try to get him into combat against other characters unless I have to, but it is nice to have the option if some over-pumped deathmaster is slaughtering your troops.
Here's something from the net:
OK, here we go with Stunty’s Top Ten Aspects of War!! **audience claps** These are what I think is most important in a game of WFB, and the later you get down the list, the more important I feel the point is to the game!! Hope you enjoy....
10) Use dice that like you – If your dice roll 20 1’s in a row, get new dice!! And for those who don’t like this point, bite me, I forgot point 10.
9) Know Your Enemy – Talk to people who play the same army as your opponent. Ask what strategies they use, and what they hate being used against them. Read the army book. Talk to people who play the same army as yours and ask them for their experience again your opponent’s army. Do whatever you can to learn about your enemies troops and their strengths and weaknesses.
8) Don’t expect anything – Don’t expect good results from any dice roll or any specific phase. Not shooting, not magic, not Ld or anything. Take the 20 1’s together on the chin and don’t lose confidence, get rid of the dice later, but still keep your plan in mind. At the opposite end of the scale, don’t give up till the time is here to calculate VP’s. It ain’t over till the fat lady sings!!
7) Combats – There are two basic types of combat troops. Special and rock hard infantry. Special troops are fast, and can usually decide when, where and with who a combat is going to be with. These troops are all Elf combat troops, cavalry, chariots and Skaven (this is just a few of them). They usually have “special needs” though, like to charge the flank or rear to win (bloody Elven arsebandits), or they need to break the enemy on the charge or they’ll be swamped. Rock hard infantry are usually slower, but they can take almost anything the enemy throw at them and still keep on smilin’. BO’s, Dwarfs and Saurus are an example of this type (probably the best examples). They usually have low M, high Ld or unbreakable and T4.I feel combat is important, as it’s taken in both turns (yours and your opponents), whereas shooting is strictly your turn only, as is magic.
6) Good use of Terrain - Terrain can be used well in a game, and it can cause some horrible mistakes. For example, you can funnel the enemy through one smaller path between terrain by putting a Helblaster, knights or Flame Cannon (or some deterrent) at the exit to the wider easier path. Or harder troops that have to go in between terrain one unit at a time can be charged and beaten by two or three units at your leisure before you take on the next unit. These are simple cases, but you can think of ways to exploit terrain on your own during games. Terrain can work for your army or against it.
5) Deployment – Slow, rock hard infantry doesn’t want to go marching diagonally across the table for 6 turns to get where it wants just cause you didn’t think during deployment. When you’re making your plan, mark down troops that play a major role in your plan and those that play a minor role. Minor role troops can be placed first and wait to place major role troops after your opponent has set up some of his troops too. Fliers can get out of deployment bloopers quickly, so place them first.
4) Surprise!! – Change your army list as much as possible from game to game (unless your practising for or playing in a tourney). You haven’t found the perfect list, and got news for you, you never will. But keep changing it so you keep your opponent on his toes. Variety is what makes WFB exciting, go use some of that variety!!
3) Strategy and your Confidence in it – Strategy is thought of at the same time as you write an army list, and minor adjustments are made when you see the terrain and deployment. However, stick to the majority of your plan, see it through till the end. If you can’t see an overall army plan as a whole, make goals for each unit, like “this unit will help take care of fliers, and if he takes no fliers, cavalry". When you gather your army the morning of the battle, go over what each unit’s goal is. Have confidence in your plan, as it will stop you being indecisive in the game, leading to a mistake that might lose you the game.
2) After Game Lessons – Whether you win or lose, ask yourself the following questions after a battle. Did I make any mistakes? Did my opponent notice & exploit them? Did he make any mistakes? Did I exploit his mistakes to their full potential?? What can I do better in my selection? What units was I happy with, disappointed with? What units of his did I underestimate? My favourite saying is “When you lose, don’t lose the lesson”. Sometimes loss can teach us more than winning. And be sure to share your experience with others and listen to new ideas.
1) Psychology – no, not fear, terror, stubborn or even stupidity (unless it's your opponents!!) This starts with the pre-game taunt. Usually I taunt someone all week if I know we’re having a game. ICQ, phone, notes made of chopped up newspaper headings (like a ransom note…me and my O&G opponent used to get very bored at work, OK??) any way you can. Previous victories over him can be mentioned, or that embarrassing incident how your Gobbos beat his Chaos Knights is good fuel for the fire. The next thing is use units he absolutely fears. People literally wet themselves at the sound of “Organ Gun” or “Hellblaster”, so use them. Not that those units do much, but his attention will be so distracted from the real threat, he might make a terrible mistake. Remember, anything goes, and you want him thinking you are strong where you are weak and weak where you are strong. Anything to make him lose confidence in his plan and army and make him indecisive in the game is good.
These aspects of war are mostly all pretty army universal, anyone, no matter the army, can do them. Hope this was what you were after Swordmaster.
[This message has been edited by Ugly Stunty (edited 01-12-2000).]
He makes some good points, the Psychology thing is a bit nasty - appearing confident is very useful however. The other thing is analysing your losses, why did something happen? did those fanatics paste your cav, then throw something cheap in front first. Elves do get it a bit rough, you really have to put some effort in to win. Something else, never play "to the death", play limited rounds, because chances are there will be some mean unit which you will want to avoid or try-up. Undead are a classic example, they will just keep getting bigger in an infinite length game.
It will be interesting to see how the new army book will affect things, I'm hoping we will get some more damaging troops or it may get a bit messy trying to deal with the spate of high toughness and good armour save units out there.
Conclusion :
You are normally outclassed. So use your brains.
