Tactica Khan
comments or suggestion? mail me at Khaine@sol.dk
REGIMENTS.
The waried forces of the dark elves can defeath any enemy this being said they have some setbacks as do all races and a cunning opponent will aways try to exploit the shortcommings, the purpose of this tactics section is to maximise your strengt and minimise your weakness, first I will go through the troop types the dark elves has, if you don't agree with me on my opinions it's your problem not mine.
Warriors:
this is the typical warrior of your race, fast and skilled, their biggest drawback is their low armor save and their low strengt and thoughness, for 10 points they can't even be called cheap, even though they are expensive I always field at least one regiment of these, this is mainly due to my experiense that they actually can do some good if they have a full rank bonus and standard + musican, in one battle I played they even defeated a Lizardmen stegadon and ran it down, I know i was wery lucky but my point is that they normally can hold their own until help arrives.
Crossbowmen:
expensive, low range, bad save, but they can shoot twice, I only uses them as bait or to destroy chariots (kill their steeds and ignore them afterwards)
Spearmen:
Slightly better than warriors but also more expensive I see the spearmen as a primary defensive unit unless I fight somebody who can't break my regiment in the first turn of combat, or if I am fighting high elves I could use them offesively where my ekstra rank ensures me a greather chance in combat.
City Guard:
They have the traditional elven weakness low strengt, low toughness and bad armor save, my advice abouth these guys is to leave them home unless you want to fight defensively. Don't move them, let the enemy come to you.
Harpies:
Cheap flying troops with rank bonus, with their high toughnes and multible wounds they are good screening troops, even with this ability you should never use them as a missile screen if you want a hard missile screen then buy some beastman allies or a goblin, goblins are so cheap that your opponent never is going to shoot himself through to your more valueable troops. Use your harpies to deal with your opponents war machines simply fly high and drop down on them with their rank bonus and high toughness they are also ideal to deal with your enemies light troops such as gutter runers, shadow warriors (remember harpies is not dark elves so the shadow warriors cannot use their hatred there) etc. Also use them for flank attacks and to land behind your enemies and prevent them from marcing.
Black Ark Corsairs:
some of the most flexible units around, they can hold their own in combat and, their unmodified save helps them a lot against most opponents, alternatively they can be used as a defensively unit using repeating crossbows, but it generally depends on who you fight.
Scouts:
I simply love them (not the models though they are plain ugly) , their special deployment rules and abillity to skirmish makes them perfect to slowing down the enemy and sniping the enemies war machine crews, stopping chariots, characters on big scary monsters (Those who normally has a bad save) you probably won't kill the characters but you wil certainly scare him wich will make him attack the scouts, and spending a turn killing them but it is always better to lose a unit of scouts than a regiment wich you need to combat your enemies regiments.
Witch Elves:
are simply a must, with 3 strengt 4 attacks they can really make a ruin of your foes (my oppont call them bitch elves, it seems that all non dark elf players have that name for them), their strengt is obvious close combat and their weakness is that they are elves (toughness 3) and their save (don’t buy light armor, waste of points) at 12 points a piece they can not even be called expensive.
Black Guard:
expensive and almost useless, I have never found a role on the battlefield for them, wich cannot be fullfilled by my cheaper troops like witch elves
Executioners:
If you play siege this is the unit you want, if not well only take them against somebody wich uses doublehanded weapons so that your high I will make sure you strike first, do not use them against monsters they will die before they have a chance to kill the monsters.
Dark Riders:
Best light cavelery in the warhammer world, their free march move can easely get them where you want them to be. I would use them to take out war machines in the end of the game I would also use them to charge the rear of somebody fighting my main regiments, this will probably be enough to make them lose both rank and combat (if you got 5 or more models at the end of them combat phase when the scores are worked out)
Cold One Knights:
My Favorite unit, fast, hardhitting, good armor save, if this is combined with a good magic standard like the banner of might, it will make the knights beat even deamons and chaos warriors in hth combat (I'm speaking of expereince) just awoid war machines wich ignore armor, always give them a lance, and sometimes it is even worth givng them a repeating crossbow (if they fight in a single line, if you do give them a crossbow use them to shoot vulnerable targets). Remember only to take crossbows if you want to suprise your enemy
CHARACKTERS
General:
hmmm (my favorite comment) he’s expensive, he’s weak, but he have a LD of 10 and a high WS and BS and I, well nothing new there, I normally place him in my regiment warriors so that they can benefit from his LD, some protection is always a good idea to give him I often give him the black amulet and armor of meteoric iron and the executioners axe this makes him both hard hitting and well protected. the other way I arm him is to give him blood drinker a portion of strengt and place hime on a cold one with a standard of shielding for regimental banner now he have a save of 1+ a strengt of 7 in one turn and he reduces his opponents strengt permanently (he will be invelnerable to most enemies after he’s wounded them once or twice, easely done with strengt 7) one important note abouth the general NEVER place him on a monster if you place him on something big and scary like a dragon he’ll become target for every gun in your opponents army, also he won’t give any LD bonus to the rest of your troops, final note the monster can normally take care of it self without your general, want to give it a rider and pay from your characters section then use a witch elf hero.
Battlestanderd
WHY, why would anyone buy a battlestandard? with a T of 3 and one wound he dies extremly easy and gives your opponent victory points, the dark elves don’t really need the standard as they have a high ld, the only reason I sometimes uses a battlestandard bearer is that I like the model.
heroes:
I almost always bring at least 1 hero along (witch elf of course) I place her on a dark pegasi gives her a portion of strengt and a jade amulet and then targets my opponents war machines, arcer units (diving down from above, NEVER EVER charge arcers frontally youll die faster than you are able to say "pincushion"), though characters I have used my witch elf hero to almost anything when she have swallowed her portion of strengt she delivers 7 strengt 8 attacks (I always gives her an exstra hand weapon). other uses for heroes is to give your regiment an exstra punch in close combat (espesially if they are witch elves). the ekstra point of LD is of course also very usefull.
assassins:
why do I love them? theres two reasons for that 1. theire effective 2. they are cheap (with a ws and a bs of 9 strengt and toughness 4 and I & Ld 10 I really mean they are cheap), I normally uses them to attack wizards and weaker enemies like champions and heroes do not try to kill a lord theire too well protected though there are exeptions. my assassins have over the time killed: an unkown (large) number of necromancers, 3 deamon princes (final blow), Teclis (piece of cake) several high elven mages, 2 high elf lords, Tyrion (I was VERY lucky) and an unknow numeber of less important models. Though assassins normally are dangerous they are often overated do not overestimate them (my opponent are really scared of assassins, though thats mostly because i’m lucky)
sorcerers:
one word: expensive they are really expensive but they can win the game for you if you are a bit lucky, I normally buys several lower level sorcereses and the only real reason for wich I take them is to dispel my opponent’s magic, but they have one games for me in the past so they are always worth taking (I simply love the look on my opponents face when he sees the black horror run over his main unit, i’ve once killed 1 savage orc lord a savege orc shaman lord and 15 savegeorcs with it, my opponents face told it all)
champions:
take them to boost your regiments close combat ability. never give them magic items unless it helps the entire unit they simply die too easy.
Ok. here comes my tactics
Mixed (a mix of offense and defence seems to work best for me so here it comes) I normally build my army around two core units witch elves and warriors, just in front of these I place two small units of crossbowmen or scouts. on one flank I place my cold one knights and on the other flank would place my dark riders, I would place my bolt throwers on some hills behind my army (if I have any hills) and I always places my harpies just in front of them to make them a missile screen in the case that my opponent gets the first turn. my witch elf hero on dark pegasi is placed out of sight from any enemy.
turn 1. move dark riders towards enemy, try getting rid of his war machines being carefull to avoid his regiments (don’t want to be charged) if he don’t have any war machines simply stop them from charging. the harpies flies high so do the witch elf hero, unless my opponen’t also have a flying monster in wich case I wait for him to fly high so that I can strike first (witch elf heroes strike hard but they die easely) rest of the army waits
turn 2-3. charge warmachines with harpies dark riders and maybe a witch elf hero if he has no war machines simply land the harpies behind a part of his army the dark riders make the other part of the army charge them whereafter they choose fire & flee if it goes well the part wich charged the dark riders are quite a part away from the rest of the army, continue to slow down the rest of the army and when you dark riders get close to your own lines then simply move them behind them the part of the army wich followed your dark riders is probably just in front of you crossbowmen (wich of course have spend the last few turns shooting at the enemy, when you enemy charges your crossbowmen make them flee, with a bit of luck they should flee behind your main regiments now your opponent should be stranded in front of one of your main units cut of from any support from the rest of his army.
turn 4. charge with your main unit and witch elf hero and your dark riders, your enemy should be crushed under that onslaught afterwards fly high with your witch elf hero, if you crush one or two regiments in this way you should easely be able to win. as you troops are better and outnumbers him (if fighting chaos warriors you should be able to kill one third of his army with such an attack –chaos warrior armies are hideously expensive and thats why very small)
Offensive
Well theres not much to say about an offensive army, take as many cold one knights, witch elves and corsairs as possible, also take a quite large unit of harpies to attack the flank of your enemy as you main units engage him in front, but their primary objective should still be to take out war machines espesially those who are good at killing knights (hate rep. bolt throwers when they are used against me) take witch elf heroes too mounting them on a dark pegasi would be a good option as they can help destroying war machines and more important charge the enemy in the flank or rear.
Defensive
A lot of bolt throwers and missile troops, but don’t forget scouts and dark riders to slow down your enemy, take a few units of offensive troops to take care of the weakened enemy as he gets close to your battle line. in this kind of combat is the power to rule the skies the most important of them all so take as many flying witch elf heroes and harpies (a shame we only can bring one unit) as you can, you don’t want any flying beastie to drop down on your bolt throwers, it is worth investing in a sky arrow to pluck an enemy from the sky.