Shooty & Magicky 'ard High Elves List

[DarkAngelHopeful]

WARNING!: Long Post

Dear BoLS Readers,

Here is my Shooty & Magicky 'ard High Elves List. Let me know what you think.

Lords

475 pts Teclis

Heroes

159 pts Noble with BSB, Heavy Armor, Great Weapon, Shield, Long Bow, Banner of
Arcane Protection

185 pts Lvl 2 Mage, Dispel Scroll, Seer Staff of Saphery, High Magic

Core

675 pts Lothern Seaguard x 50, full command, shields
350 pts Lothern Seaguard x 25, full command, shields

Special

405 pts Phoenix Guard x 20, full command, Skeinsliver, banner of sorcery

Rare

600 pts Repeater Bolt thrower x 6
150 pts Great Eagle x 3

2999 pts total

First off, I realized I couldn't fit everything I wanted into my army and this is going to be a very small, elite, shooty/magicy army.

Here's the plan, Teclis and the BSB go in the unit of Phoenix Guard, they are going to be my center. The Phoenix Guard will serve as body guards to Teclis and the BSB. With the unit's banner I get +D3 PD in my magic phases and with Teclis that's +2D3 per casting phase and I believe because of Teclis +1D3 DD in the dispel phase. Also, the BSB's banner will make it so my Phoenix Guard take their ward saves against any magic at a 2+. They should be a pretty durable unit.

My 50 man Lothern Seaguard unit is going to be on one side of my Phoenix Guard. They are going to deploy in a 2 rows of 20 and the last 10 on the back. That way they can fire 45 shots per turn until the enemy gets too close, then they are going to quick reform into 10X5 with the musician. The lvl 2 mage will probably go in this unit.

The 25 man Lothern Seaguard are going to hold the other side of the Phoenix Guard's flank. They will deploy 10 wide with 5 on the back and shoot until the enemy gets too close, at which point they will quick reform with the musician and prepare to fight.

The RBT's will hopefully be on a hill behind my 3 units. If not, then they will just have to be placed accordingly per battle.

The Great Eagles are going to go warmachine and archer hunting.

I plan on using either the left corner or right corner as my deployment zone. I will be turtling up with my units. Using the side of the board should refuse that flank to my opponent. I'm not too worried about being run off the board as I'll have Teclis for General's Ld and my BSB near by to re-roll. They should stand there ground pretty well.

I should get first turn most of the time as I will be finished deploying before my opponent most of the time and I have the skeinsliver giving me +1 as well, for a +2 to go first. This is going to help me get more shooting and magic in.

So, basically, I move forward 1-5 inches depending on how far back my enemy has deployed and I cast some spells at the enemy and shoot. I will take the re-roll shooting spell from High Magic and the pheonix flames spell. Depending on the situation Teclis will most likely take Life or Shadow. I'm leaning towards shadow. That way I can cast the spell that lowers Toughness and focus fire on the unit wounding it on 2's hopefully. I hope to cause panic with shooting and cause units to run.

Then, I will start walking backwards while shooting and casting spells until the enemy units catch up with me. At which point I will reform and prepare for the charge. Meanwhile, when they do charge at me, I can stand and shoot and then they hit my wall of spears. The RBTs will focus on anything that's a big threat, including enemy war machines if I need to.

We'll see how it runs. I'm sure it will get modified as time goes by.

What do you think?

[Old_Paladin]

The major thing I would change out is your seaguard; for a force you want focused on shooting, you're spending a lot of those points on fighting ability.

Trade them all out for around 800 points on archers. In a hoard formation high elf archers are pretty good fighters (up to 30 attacks, good weapon skill, ASF, good init [likely getting re-rolls to hit]). It'll add more bodies, meaning more shots.

It also frees up a few hundred extra points, that you could use to add bulk up the size of the P--Guard, or add in a count-charging unit of Swordmaster or Whitelions.

[DarkAngelHopeful]

Thanks for the advice. I'll probably try it both ways and see what works best. Unfortunately, all of my grand plans can't be put into motion until I leave this sandbox.