Glory to Athel Loren

Last Thursday (10^th of October) my Wood Elves went up against the new and shiny dark elves lead by Nicholas Jebson, he was using the army list he had posted to his blog earlier (First Musings on Possible Dark Elf Lists) and I was using my Skitterleap list.  

My list Included

Level 4 Life mage @ 250 points

Treeman Ancient w/ Annoyance of Nettlings @ 350 Points

Wood Elf Noble BSB w/ Hail of Doom Arrow @ 140 Points

Wood Elf Noble w/ Starfire arrow and Pageant of Shrikes @ 125 Points

20 Wood Elf Glade Guard w/ Standard Bearer,Musician and Banner of Eternal Flame         @ 268 Points

20 Wood Elf Glade Guard w/ Musician @ 246 Points

20 Wood Elf Glade Guard w/ Musician @ 246 Points

3 Treekin @ 195 Points

1 Treeman @ 285 Points

1 Treeman  @ 285 Points

                                                         

Total Points: 2390 

Nick's list included 

Supreme Sorceress: 320
LVL 4 (lore of dark magic), the cloak of twilight, dark Pegasus

Sorceress: 150
LVL 2 (lore of metal), tome of furion, dark steed

Master Battle Standard Bearer: 132
halberd, heavy armour, sea dragon cloak, dragonhelm, opal amulet

9 Dark Riders: 210
spears, light armour, shields, repeater crossbows, dark steeds, full command

5 Dark Riders: 105
spears, light armour, repeater crossbows, musician, dark steeds

5 Dark Riders: 105
spears, light armour, repeater crossbows, musician, dark steeds

20 Bleakswords: 210
hand weapons, light armour, shields, full command

30 Har Ganeth Executioners: 435
great weapons, heavy armour, full command, razor standard

10 Shades: 190
hand weapons, repeater crossbows, full command

5 Shades: 80
hand weapons, repeater crossbows

Repeater Bolt Throwers: 70
Repeater Bolt Throwers: 70
Repeater Bolt Throwers: 70

5 Doomfire Warlocks: 125
hand weapons, dark steeds

5 Doomfire Warlocks: 125
hand weapons, dark steeds

TOTAL: 2397 

The table was set up and we rolled for deployment, which I won but handed over to Nick. Deployment followed.

I won first turn and the game began

Turn 1 Summary

• 1 Unit of Doomfire Warlocks was wiped out by GG3 (Glade Guard unit 3), the remaining unit was reduced to 3
• The Treeman Ancient (aka Mr Huggy) was taken down to 2 wounds by concentrated Repeater Bolt Thrower fire.
• The second Treeman (nearest the Shades) was taken  down to 4 wounds by Repeater Crossbow fire
• The lone Wood Elf Noble kills a shade from the smaller unit of 5

Wood Elf Turn 1

Dark Elf Turn 1

Turn 2 Summary

• Mr Huggy charges Dark rider unit 3, said unit flees as a charge reaction
• The Level 4 Wood Elf Life Weaver restores Treeman Ancient to full wounds
• A Treeman and 3 Treekin walk right up to the 3 Repeater bolt throwers in preparation for a charge next turn. 
• With a Treeman right in their faces all 3 repeater bolt throwers fire at said Treeman and all 3 miss
• The 9 Dark Riders with the level two sorceress loose all but 2 Dark Riders and the sorceress due to Glade Guard fire, they promptly flee off the board
• The remaining 3 warlocks are killed by Wood Elf shooting
• The larger unit of shades looses 5 of its members but passes its break test.
• The smaller unit of 4 shades looses two of its members to the lone Wood Elf Noble

Wood Elf Turn 2

Dark Elf Turn 2 and Wood Elf Turn 3 (user error on my part)

Turn 3 Summary

• One of the Treemen, the Treekin and the Treeman Ancient all charge the 3 repeater bolt throwers which are all wiped out.
• The unit of 5 shades are wiped out by Glade Guard fire.
• The remaining shades kill the lone Wood Elf Noble
• One of the glade guard units is reduced to 8 models due to a combination of word of pain and bladewind.
• The Executioners charge the wounded Treeman and reduce him to one wound, he kills 7 Executioners, looses the combat by one but stays in the fight

Dark Elf Turn 3

Turn 4 Summary (Final turn)

• The unit of 8 Glade Guard kills the remaining Shades
• The wounded Treeman is wiped out by the Executioners
• The bleakswords are reduced to six models due to a combined barrage by the 2 full strength glade guard units and the Treeman Ancient

Wood Elf Turn 4 (Dark Elves didnt get a fourth turn)

In the end the game was won soundly by the wood elves, proof that you can still indeed win games with them, thus vindicating my decision to focus solely on them.

I do want to take some time to address two issues around this game. One being that Nick had appealing luck. On his first spell of the game, cast by his Supreme sorceress, he rolled three ones. Then of course there was the bolt throwers missing 3 point blank shots at a Treeman. Nick’s dice rebelled against him and it cost him dearly. However it should be noted that i only dropped 30 shots in four turns, so make of that what you will.

The second point is that of the Doomfire warlocks. Now to be fair I didn’t let them have a chance to do anything, one of the units got wiped out in the first turn and the other got reduced to 3 models before it could even blink. That being said I still think that in a magic heavy list they are more of a hindrance than a help considering that they are vying for scarce and valuable power dice that other more versatile spellcasters should be getting first pick at. And if you do give your more versatile spellcasters those dice then all you have is a expensive unit, with a poor armour save, decent ward save and low toughness. Yes they have decent combat capabilities but you still have to get them into combat and I don’t think (unless you take say 30 of them) that they will live long enough get there. So to recap my view on Doomfire Warlocks, a overall good unit as long as they aren’t in a magic heavy list.

Until next time.

Rex

Dark Elf Warlocks

With the release of the new Dark Elf book there has been much excitement around the new Warlock unit. The Warlock unit acts the same way as Horrors of Tzeentch, in that the unit counts as a level 2 spellcaster that gets 1+ to cast for each rank of 5 or more models. The unit knows two spells, Doombolt and Soulblight, and has a 4+ ward save except for wounds caused by model with mark of Slaanesh or demon of Slaanesh. The unit is found in the rare section and costs 25 points a model. So sounds good so far right? A fairly durable (by elf standards) unit that has access to two good spells.


Generally Speaking this is a good unit, it can fulfill the role of a offensive spell caster without taking up needed Lord or Hero points. However in a army list with Lord and Hero level wizards this unit becomes a bit of a issue. Back in the days of 6th edition warhammer, wizards generated their own power dice that only they could use, as well as having a power dice pool that anyone could draw from. But because in 8th you only get 2d6 power dice this unit vies for power dice that your more dedicated spell casters need.


Let me use the example of my good friend Nicholas Jebson's first impression Dark Elf list. The key points i want to focus on are his level 4 Supreme Sorceress, level 2 Sorceress, and the two units of 5 warlocks. Now this is a good example of too many casters all vieing for a limited number of power dice. With a level 4 and 2 all needing power dice to cast their spells this leaves very little left over for the warlocks, and if the warlocks aren't being used to cast spells then they aren't filling their role which means that you are paying 25 points per model for a dark rider with a ward save.


The warlocks are defiantly a good unit and fill the role of offensive spell caster without taking up points reserved for heroes and lords, but you don’t want them taking from your limited power dice pool when said power dice could be used for more useful spells and magics. 

 
Regardless of my musing i will be facing the new dark elves on Thursday, so i will be able to see if my concerns about the warlocks are well founded. Until next time
Rex

Edit: Well it seems that i was wrong in saying that without their offensive spell caster role that warlocks were a dark rider with a ward save. Nick has responded with a well written post on the upsides of the warlocks (A Counter Blast For Mr Foote)

The Path to Skitterleap

With the submission of my Skitterleap list on the weekend it has been effectively set in stone, so here is what that list will look like.

Level 4 Life mage @ 250 points

Treeman Ancient w/ Annoyance of Nettlings @ 350 Points

Wood Elf Noble BSB w/ Hail of Doom Arrow @ 140 Points

Wood Elf Noble w/ Starfire arrow and Pageant of Shrikes @ 125 Points

20 Wood Elf Glade Guard w/ Standard Bearer,Musician and Banner of Eternal Flame         @ 268 Points

20 Wood Elf Glade Guard w/ Musician @ 246 Points

20 Wood Elf Glade Guard w/ Musician @ 246 Points

3 Treekin @ 195 Points

1 Treeman @ 285 Points

1 Treeman  @ 285 Points

                                                         

Total Points: 2390 

As a addition to this at the time of writing this post i am 6 glade guard away from a fully painted 2400 point army, which is good news all round.

The general plan for this list is that the glade guard and heroes shoot things, the tree men/kin hit things and the mage does magic things. Really thats all tactics wise, nice, simple and unable to be derailed by a opponent doing something completely unexpected.    

Until next time.
Rex