Las Vegas Open Dark Elf list

[Calam]

Hi. Anyone have a link or that can share what the army list the DE player who won the lvo overall was using? I have a friend who plays Dark Elves and looses a lot, so we wanted to compare lists and see what we've been missing. I say we because I've been unable to help him and most of his lists seem viable to me. Thanks.

[Mr Mystery]

Depends what he's fighting against, and how he's wanting the army to work.

If he's charging off into combat willy-nilly, then pretty much any Elven unit is going to get it's pointy head kicked in!

Give us your friend's list, and I'll see how I might be able to help. This is likely gonna be more beneficial than netlisting, as that exercise is horribly subjective!

[Calam]

I don't have exact numbers with me but

Large unit of witch elves 30ish
Cauldron of blood with hag queen I think it is,
Black guard 20-25
2-3 units of 14 crossbows
Sisters of slaughter 15 - 20
Bolt thrower 1-2
Hydra
He's tried out a few Generals but always has at least 2 lvl 2 mages




The main thing he has a problem with is my WoC list, I normally have a large block of Chaos warriors with sword and board flanked by two smaller Marauder units a 5 man knights unit with a lord or champion on a deamonic mount and some hounds or Marauder horsemen and a lvl 2 sorc

He just can't seem to find a way to deal with the high arm on the knights or the warriors, the marauders normally die a horrible death but the knights and warriors carry the day.

We didn't want to copy the list just was curious as to how different his list was by comparison as My friend is the only DE player our small group has and we have nothing really to compare it to locally.

[Mr Mystery]

Sounds like it might just be a 'perfect storm' type affair for the WoC.

Witch Elves typically lawnmower lightly armoured troops (Lawnmowering is the appropriate term), but have a nasty tendency to bounce off anything with T4 and a decent save, such as Warriors of Chaos, who add to the pain by having a respectable WS and decent number of attacks.

I'd try getting the Banner of Armour Piercing on the Witch Elves, as that goes a long, long way to mitigating your armour (Chaos Armour and Shield = 3+ save, or saving 2 in 3 wounds. With armour piercing, that goes down to 1 in 2 wounds) and letting the sheer volume of wounds the Witch Elves can inflict pick up the rest of the pace.

Oh, and why not let him play around with the Spell Lores. I had a unit of 20 Witch Elves hit my Ogre Horde unit (18 Ironguts)....when the Witch Elves had Okkam's Mindrazor on them. Bits of Ogre everywhere, I'm sad to say!

Likewise sneaky spells can lower toughness of target unit, again making Witch Elves all the more effective.

Either way, I'm not sure Netlisting is going to help your buddy out :)

[Chronowraith]

Agreed. Shadow Magic is still the best for Dark Elves. Take a low level dark mage and a higher level shadow mage and... all is good.

[Mr Mystery]

And heading into the nitty gritty subjective stuff, how is he using his army?

For instance, the Bolt Throwers. What's he trying to kill with them, and is he favouring single or multi shot? I favour multi shot against anything short of a Dragon, or should my oppose be daft enough to present their flank, right up a unit of Knights!

Crossbows - For me, they'd get to play not with the Marauders, which Dark Elves can more than handle in combat, but the Warriors. The armour piercing really helps there, and the sheer volume of fire works wonders!

Marauders - Yeah they can play with the Hydra. In the flank.

[Calam]

He may just be unlucky as I've only seen him pull Okkams Mindrazor once. I know he uses Dark Magic, and mixes the other from I believe shadow and Metal.

His crossbows are normally forced to deal with my hounds (I buy them vanguard) or Marauder light cav early in the game and he's had to waste a round of bolt thrower shots on them depending how unlucky his shots are.

He multi shots the bolt throwers but normally targets my knights to try and force as many saves as possible.

I guess it doesn't help him much that I give the WoC the mark of nurgle, and more times then not draw wither Fleshy abundance or Curse of the leper to support the big unit of warriors (I stopped using festus with them as it seemed to make them way to hard to kill for a fun game).

I wasn't sure if a unit or two of dark riders would help him, I know I'd love fast cav that can multishoot and move that fast. I feel like I force his hand with my maneuverability early in the game and keep him from bringing the units he wants to bare all at once.

[Chronowraith]

Warlocks. He needs Warlocks.

Additionally, he needs to focus his target priority a little better. Warhounds and Marauder Horsemen should only be targeted if they are the only viable targets. Even blocks of 10 DE crossbowmen should be able to mow down warhounds. Marauder horsemen aren't much tougher but might be more harrassment than warhounds. The hounds are placement fillers and redirection chaff so they really don't pose much of a threat except against other chaff, warmachines, or chasing down light cavalry.

[YourSwordisMine]

His entire army is nothing but Hammer units. He has no Anvils to take the brunt and hold the line allowing his Hammers to be used where they need to be used, as side chargers. Yes, Black Guard have ItP and Stubborn with Halberds; but they are still only T3 and Heavy Armor. They are gonna melt.

I'd recommend 1 or two large blocks of Spearmen to take the brunt. DE are short on Anvil Units and really, their Spearmen or Bleakswords are about it.

And yeah, Warlocks... But then, every DE player uses them ad nauseam...

[Mr Mystery]

And yeah, Warlocks... But then, every DE player uses them ad nauseam...

And for good reason! Surprisingly good melee fast cavalry, with magical doodads just in case. There is literally nothing there not to like!

[marful]

I'm curious too as to what the top armies lists for the LVO were.

[Chronowraith]

Looks like Dark Elves, Warriors of Chaos, and Dwarfs were placed 1, 2, and 3 respectively.

As a note, that's the old Dwarf book.

[Learn2Eel]

Me and a few others were recommending a few new units to a veteran Dark Elf player that visits our LGS on weekends. One of us mentioned Warlocks as a fantastic unit to add, and he said "Warlocks are sh*t". I wish I was joking...

You've got a Fast Cavalry model with a 4+ ward save against 98% of units in the game, two Strength 4 Poisoned attacks, Always Strikes First, re-rolls of 1s to wound in combat, Movement 9 and Leadership 8. They are already well worth the cost that they are, but then you throw in that they are a Level 2 Wizard unit that always knows a good magic missile and one of the best hex spells in the game, Soulblight. They are downright ridiculous and are pretty much an auto-take for competitive Dark Elf lists. It's not enough that they will smash pretty much any other chaff unit either with their magic missile or their combat attacks, but they can impose a very serious penalty on any unit within 18".