OMG The End Times Khaine leaks!

Bat shit crazy powerful.

Have you seen this guys?  Absolute craziness.

I'll just leave this here..

Power overwhelming..

The one true king has returned..

..and his beautiful wife!

For one, I'm happy that Malekith reunites the Elves and is crowned as the true Phoenix King.  That's right, I said it.

PS - Fuck you GW for making this only 500 copies.  That shit literally sold out 5 minutes after I got the email.  So yes, I will torrent your shitty ass business model once someone puts it online instead of giving you my money.  Dipshits.

BR: 2500 DE vs. HE

Killin' er'body.

The list I used was:
2496
10 drops

LORDS:
Crone Hellebron = 310

Lv.4 Supreme Sorc, Scroll = 245
Life

HEROES:
Master BSB, 1+ RR, SoMight = 155

CORE:
30x Witch Elves, FC, Razor Standard = 405
5x Black Riders, Shield, RXB, Mus = 110
5x Black Riders, Shield, RXB, Mus = 110

SPECIAL:
28x Executioners, FC, SoDisc = 381
3x RBT = 210

RARE:
5x Warlocks = 125
5x Warlocks = 125
K-Beast = 160
K-Beast = 160

Opponent was HE:
2x units of Silver Helms core
shooty BSB
Light Wizard
3x units of 21+ White Lions, FC
3x RBT
2x units of Reavers
1x Eagle
1x unit of Archers
1x unit of Shadow Warriors

I got some pictures of the game, but they're not very detailed as to what happened.

Moving all over the place.

• The Witches were deployed in the beginning with their backs turned, so they don't need to Frenzy check.  After the first turn, they SR'd to turn around and move into the forest after the Warlocks.
• Flanks went hard on the sides with Dark Riders and a unit of Warlocks.  They shot at stuff, only managing to kill a few Reavers on the right.  Combined fire from the RBTs dropped the Reavers on the left.
• My magic was absolute ass, rolling 1345 with Life, and defaulting to 0 for the Regen.  With that in mind, everyone got into the Executioners unit and went for the house ASAP.  Kharis went around the house to stay within range and hopefully dodge some bolts.  I ended magic by throwing Throne on myself with IF and stopping the miscast.

His army advances, I pick off what I can.

• Magic is weak for me but for him, I let him have Speed of Light on the Silver Helms.  Nothing else happens as my opponent fails to get Timewarp.
• Riders moved up on the left side to shoot at the Eagle, but only managed to put a wound on it.  Combined fire from 2x RBTs at short range didn't kill a single Silver Helm and he charged it into my Warlocks in the trees.  Combat saw the Warlocks lose and flee 1" away from the board edge.  He fails to restrain and this Silver Helms goes diving into my Witches.
• His entire army center moved up.  I managed to clean up his far right RBT with good charge rolls, but next round he shoots and kills my loan Dark Rider and panics the Warlocks off the board lol.
• His remaining Reavers that were on the right moved up to threaten my RBT, but one of my Kharis jumped on him and that was the end of it.  Both beasts are now hanging out on the right side of the house.
• On his turn, his Eagle runs into my Riders but dies to ASF and good rolls.  I jump onto his RBT from there.

Combat is joined and the Blood Queen feasts.

• I get my Executioners out of the house on my turn and got off Regen after he stopped Shield of Thorns.  My Kharis move into flanking locations to anticipate the charge and that's it for my movement.
• The Silver Helms lose big on my turn and he flees like a coward.  His next unit of Silver Helms charge into the flank of my Witches while I rally my Warlocks.  Combat doesn't do anything as both units stay.
• His shooting drops to rest of my Riders while my RBT shoots down a few White Lions after some sad rolls.
• Magic has him throw a bunch of dice without IF at big Pha's, but I scroll that in a heartbeat.
• On his turn, his charges come in hard with a flank on my Executioners unit, and another charge from the front with two units of White Lions.  He fails Fear on his flanking unit of White Lions at -3 from Cry of War, even with the BSB re-roll.  Hellebron lays into the unit in the front and kills 7 White Lions.  Attacks go off everywhere but Frenzied Executioners dominate the opposition.  I think it was something like 26 White Lions dead from both units and a Champion slain by the BSB in a challenge.  Hellebron takes a wound from the attacks back and after good Regen rolls, my Sorc also takes one.  He rolls his break, the left unit breaks, the right unit decides to stay.

Chasing down the cowards.

• On this turn, the game pretty much ends.  White Lions get shot some more, Hellebron kills the rest of the unit of White Lions by herself, the Khari beasts charged in with nothing to eat because the Blood Queen's a psycho.
• Combat runs down the Silver Helms on the flank of the Witches thanks to the Warlocks charging, and I'm hot on his heels with what seems like an unstoppable army.  I threw dice and got Regen on them again with IF, and dispelled the miscast via throne.  He calls the game here.

Post-Game Thoughts:

• It's always a risky game to play with Hellebron, especially since I have everything in that unit of Executioners.  What if he had rolled a crazy kill spell or Fiery and lit my dudes on fire?  I hate putting everything in one unit, but with my spell selection being balls, I had no other choice.  I needed the Regen to keep Hellebrone alive and the only way I was going to do that is stay in the same unit.
• I think I could of kept the Witches a little closer frankly, they were in a great position by the trees and getting hard and then soft cover, but what if they lost combat?  I guess I looked across the battlefield and didn't think I was going to lose combat to White Lions.  I had high hopes that Hatred and Murderous Prowess would rip through a unit by themselves.
• Silencing those Warmachines and keeping my own up was pretty well-done by me.  I killed his chaff and reduced his units down to something I can coordinate attacks at more readily.  It sucks that one of my Warlock units paniced off the board, but what can you do.

High Elves: Another Perspective

Put 'em up, shut 'em down.

What perspective might this be?  From the other side of the table of course!  Played a few games recently against High Elves with my VC and I must say:  Don't take monster mash lists.

Here's the list I've been running:

2498
13 deploys

LORDS:
Lv.4 Vampire Lord = 553
Lore of Vampires
Quickblood, Red Fury, Beguile
Heavy Armor, Shield, Barded Nightmare
ToPreservation, Ogre Blade, OTS

HEROES:
Lv.2 Vampire = 228
Lore of Death
Aura of Dark Majesty
Heavy Armor, Lance, Barded Nightmare
Enchanted Shield, Scroll, PoFools

CORE:
40x Zombies (Standard) = 125
37x Ghouls (Ghast) = 380
5x Dire Wolves = 40
5x Dire Wolves = 40
5x Dire Wolves = 40

SPECIAL:
12x Black Knights (FC, BoSwiftness) = 357
5x Hexwraith = 150
Spirit Host = 45
Spirit Host = 45
Spirit Host = 45

RARE:
Terrorgheist = 225
Terrorgheist = 225

Having played very little with my VC in the new edition, I'm enjoy my VC quite a bit despite the rust build up.  One of the strangest things I've found with the new HE book is that people tend to gravitate towards the new and shiny.  Of course Frosthearts are great, but I don't think people should be running lists with minimal magic protection, a bunch of Frosthearts, and that silly Anointed running a Frostheart as well.  That's just way too much points investment with very little gain.  I honestly don't feel that Frosthearts at meant to be used as killy units.  They don't do jack shit in combat res compared to a lot of the other meanies out there, and their damage potential to points ratio is outright pitiful.

A lot of people don't realize that Frosthearts are not designed to be killy units.  They're a really strong support element for the High Elf army, and that's the key thing.  They're meant to be played with other elements in the book that takes advantage of the bonuses they provide.  Frosthearts are defensive, denial units, designed to be used in support with the rest of the army.  Alone, they're just bad for the points.  When you compare them to something like a Hellpit, Hydra or Chimera, they just fall flat in terms of expectations.

What else have I found out?  Monster mash lists run into really bad match-ups vs. a list like mine.  I out deploy their list every time; cavstars and Silver Helms just get baited around all day with good chaff, and the Anointed on Frostheart is just trash for his points.  For a lord hovering around the ~500 mark, the guy puts out no damage.  Three S6 attacks is hardly anything to write home about, especially when the bird has a max of 5 attacks on a good day and will frequently hover around 4.  Once the "damage" is dealt, you add up the points and notice that you killed nowhere close to the amount you paid for with the lord.

I'm jumping around a bit so I'll highlight the key weaknesses of the monster-mash list.

• The VC list I have above has 13 drops.  The typical monster-mash list I've seen runs with Dragon Prince buses, Anointed on Frostheart, Lv.2 Mage, 2x Frosthearts, and Silver Helms/Reavers for core.  Let me tell you something right now:  The current style of HE Monster-mash will get out-deployed, out-manuevered, and outplayed if you're a capable general.  I just re-direct all day, force my own combat scenarios and force the HE army to fight my rock solid units.  My VC Lord obliterates Phoenixes, caring not for your ASL and -1S because I just power spells through your weakling Lv.2.  Your other birds just eats tarpit after tarpit and I'll just scream to death any other unit not carrying BotWD.  A couple of days ago, I just looked at a bunch of Silver Helms and they disappeared from the battlefield.
• That's another thing:  Magic superiority.  God honestly, I don't know if monster-mash can survive with cannons and strong magic on the battlefield.  As if cannons aren't enough, a Lv.2 just can't compete with a Lv.4 in terms of casting potential.  I have better dice management, more spells to through and you're not going to stop all my spells regardless of how hard you try.  I understand that no other faction can throw out damage and cast spells like VC, but I find a solo Lv.2 to be outmatched completely in very circumstance in this match-up.
• Overall damage:  You don't have a lot of units that can hit hard and break lines.  A big unit of Dragon Princes will always see a bunch of re-directs, undead fodder, tarpits, followed by a flank-charge or rear-charge from my Lord's bus + Terrorgheists.  Once you accurately scale the amount of damage Dragon Princes can do, you realize that their subsequent rounds in combat are meaningless.  This is why you need to run characters in Dragon Princes and not run around flying in giant stupid birds.  A Frostheart's damage potential cannot and will not bail you out of combat once your DP bus has run its course.  The best way I can describe HE cavalry is this:  They're meant to be precision-based combat res generators.  They hit hard as hell in the first round of combat, but they're wet noodles in the subsequent rounds.
• I walk away this week with 3 wins and a draw vs. HE monster-mash.  I don't know why people insist on playing these kind of lists because it's just not good.  Frostheart's don't do enough damage, cavalry lists might seem like fun until they realize any unit not carrying the BotWD will just get blended/screamed to death, and these lists suck hard vs. Steadfast/Undead tarpits because they don't generate enough damage themselves.  Sure, they negate a lot of damage, but if they don't get themselves out of there they're completely worthless, and easy to gank/kill.

TLDR:  Don't run monster-mash with HE.  Stick to the basics; mixed army, combined arms, and a balanced approach.

I have a guide on Ulthuan.net

This guy looks cool, let's go with that.

I've been getting a lot of Emails asking if I have a consolidated knowledge pool floating around somewhere.

The answer is yes! and it's located on Ulthuan.net.  Clicky.  On this site, you will find many other army blogs because the generals that play them all play quite differently for the most part.  I'm just one of those generals.

Also keep in mind that a lot of Ulthuan.net plays under ETC restrictions whereas I play uncomped or with very little comp.  Be aware of this at all times when browsing because it'll change the way your lists are constructed significantly.

One more thing -- Is there any more High Elf stuff you want to see from me in particular?  Thanks!

Here's my latest army list.  I'm really excited to give the new Sisters a go!
2496
10 drops

LORDS:
Lv.4 Archmage, Shadow = 285
Book of Hoeth, Golden Crown

HEROES:
BSB Noble = 149
GW, Armor of Caledor

Lv.2 Mage, Heavens = 150
Scroll, Ironcurse

CORE:
30x Spearmen, FC, SoDiscipline = 315
15x Archers, Mus = 160
14x Archers, Mus = 150

SPECIAL:
25x Phoenix Guard, FC, BoEF = 415
24x White Lions, FC, BotWD = 392

RARE:
10x Sisters of Avelorn = 140
Frostheart Phoenix = 240
Great Eagle = 50
Great Eagle = 50

Shadow vs. High Magic

Shadow is best.

After my disappointing trial of High Magic over the last 4 games, I'm seriously thinking of switching back to Shadow.  Here is why:

Miasma - Better than Hand of Glory: Why? Because vs. your WS5 on WS3 units, the spell automatically means they hit you on 5s. With Hand of Glory, you're looking for WS7, which needs a +2 to WS. A third of the time, the spell won't even do anything defensively. Vs. WS4, it's even more apparent. Their WS4 vs. your WS8 changes nothing; your WS5 vs. their WS2 means something.  vs. WS5 like Chaos Warriors, a Miasma for 3 means you're hitting on 3s and them on 5s.

Enfeeble - ALWAYS good and stacks with Phoenix. We have nothing like this to compare in the High Magic lore. Wounding you on 5s and even 6s means the world of difference; keeping your armor save even in most cases. You can cast this into combat.

Withering - White Loins are S6 vs. everything, normally wounding on 2s. However, vs. beefier targets which our army already has an inherent weakness to, reduced Toughness means more wounds gets through and often times that's enough. Every combat unit benefits from lowered Toughness and every shooting unit does too.  Again, you can cast this in combat.

All three of these benefits the Elven race more than any other lore. All 3 of which can be cast in combat and all 3 of these will be useful in all phases of the game. Not so much with High Magic.  We're not even counting the usefulness of the must-stop Mindrazor on ASF Elves at this point.

Let's get off the WS3 S3 troops for a second and think about the wider picture. What I used above was just an example of how much more effective Miasma is compared to Hand of Glory.

• vs. WS5 Warriors, Miasma wins hands down. You can bring them down to WS2, allowing you to hit on 3s, them on 5s. Hand of Glory doesn't even have that option.
• vs. the WoC/Ogres matchup, Enfeeble will allow you to stay in the fight and minimize damage. It stacks with Phoenix; which is an integral part of our warmachine now.
• vs. any fatties, Chimeras, or T5 chariots, or other monsters, you need Withering to do the damage and force wounds that you otherwise wouldn't be able to accomplish.
• vs. any of the bigger guys who are by design, more difficult to deal with our army, Shadow fills in the gaps like it always does since the 8th Ed. book was released. High Magic does not offer this at all.

New test case:
You're in combat with Chaos Warriors. What are you going to do? Hand of Glory over Miasma? Withering over, wait.. that's it. The rest of the lore has magic missiles, direct damage and a heal spell on one model that might not even been wounded or is in the combat. What are you going to do now? Move something with Walk Between Worlds? Combat is what determines the outcome of GAMES, and takes the WIN.

Again, all of these are combat friendly, used in every phase of the game. Shit, you can compliment your S4 Maidens shooting even more if have Withering in the army.  And best of all, all of these are raises and eyebrow in the dispel phase rather than them just staring at your 6-dice Hand of Glory because you have nothing else to cast.  Shadow is useful in combat and don't eat up a lot of dice, allowing you to min-max your magic phase as long as you have Book of Hoeth.  We just don't have that many PD to throw now.  Book of Hoeth makes Pit and Skillrazor easier to cast as well, and we all know how much our opponents fear ASF + Mindrazor.

If you look at a Lv.4 with Book with Shadow, here are some numbers..

Miasma - You can 1-dice this most of the time, or push for 10+ needing a 6 on 2-dice to cast at 89% chance.
Enfeebling - At 10+, you need 2 dice for 89% chance to push.
Withering - At 13+, you need 3 dice for 89.5% chance to push.
Pit of Shades - At 14+, you have 3 dice at 82.47% or 4 dice for 96.69%
the big boy Mindrazor, at 18+, sees 4 dice at 76.22%, or 5 dice for 93.80%

When you compare this specifically to High Magic, the ONLY spell you should be comparing to is Hand of Glory, because it is the only spell that can change the outcome of the current fight (or rather, the fight that you immediately want to change). What would you rather have? 4 spells that can change the outcome of a battle and be able to at least cast them, or hold onto 3 of your DD/MM spells while you only cast Hand of Glory because you can't do anything else. Not to mention the result of casting is relatively the same result value as you would Miasma. People saying Shadow is more expensive than High Magic is a fact, but if you compare the numbers of how much it takes them to cast to their impact on the battlefield, you'll see each spell has significantly better value in a game based around close combat.

If you want Drain Magic, just take a support caster: Lv.1-2, take your pick and default to Drain if you don't pull Hand of Glory. You can also cover your ethereal bases by defaulting to Soul Quench.  That eliminates the last part of the argument to take High Magic over Shadow.  For next game I plan on taking Shadow/Heavens just to play around.

Lv.4 with Book, Shadow
Lv.1-2 with Scroll, Heavens

That's my layout from now on.  Period.

HE BR #4 vs. VC

I buy them frozen.

Played another game vs. Lucas' VC and this one was a killer game.  Tons of action, a lot of laughs and some horrible dice.

Here's my list..

2500

10 drops

LORDS:

Lv.4 Archmage, High Magic = 285

Book of Hoeth, Golden Crown

HEROES:

BSB Noble = 149

GW, Armor of Caledor

Lv.1 Mage, High Magic = 110

Scroll

CORE:

30x Spearmen, FC, SoDiscipline = 315

15x Archers, Mus = 160

14x Archers, Mus = 150

SPECIAL:

27x White Lions, FC, BotWD = 431

25x Phoenix Guard, FC, BoEF = 405

5x Dragon Princes, Mus = 155

RARE:

Frostheart Phoenix = 240

Great Eagle = 50

Great Eagle = 50

His list..

~2500

~14 drops?

Ghoul King, Red Fury, Quickblood, Peripat, Dragonbane Gem

Lv.4 Master Necro, Scroll

Wight King BSB, Nightshroud, GW, Heavy Armor

Mortis Engine

Terrorgheist

Huge unit of Ghouls that had his BSB and Wight King

Bug unit of Zombies that had his Necro

8x Crypt Horrors or something like that

5x Hexwraiths

4x Vargheists

4x units of chaff dogs

2x units of chaff bats

My beautiful, unpainted models that I've had for 12 years.

My notes:

• Hey, what do you know!  I have pictures this time.. kinda.  Once the action started rolling, I stopped taking pictures and kept on the battle.  I will say that this is probably the last time I'm going to take High Magic.  That lore has been pissing me off like crazy.  I'll tell you guys why:  3x Direct Damage spells and 1 condition spell in the form of Drain Magic.  In a game where I roll all 3 DD and I had to swap my last spell for Drain Magic, I don't know what to tell you.
• First round of magic, I threw 5 dice at Fiery Convocation, IF, lose the spell and a wizard level, and light the Ghoul bunker on fire.  Inside is his Wight King and Ghoul King, but I flat out burn down half of the unit.  On his next turn, he doesn't dispel it and it further burns down half the unit.  He's literally down to 10 Ghouls in that unit.  I deploy the best I can to meet his chaff and I manage to shoot down a bit of the dogs but not all of them.  I move very little on my turn, letting magic do all the work.  He saves dice for his Peripat.
• Next round he makes bold moves and checks various locations with his chaff.  However, he makes the gamble in moving his Terrorgheist far up and gambles 5 dice on Van Hels while I scroll his Wind of Death.  However, I manage to dispel it and now his Terrorgheist is a little closer than he anticipated.
• I punish the mistake with a charge from my Spears and my Frozen Turkey.  I cause 3 wounds from the Spears, 2 from the bird (thanks to S7 from Winds), and I lose 7 of my Spearmen.  Combat res gets recorded and the thing pops into dust.  I move my Eagles around for max annoyance as well as charging and winning combat vs. a Dire Wolf unit.  Feelsgoodman.jpeg.  My magic phase also saw a miscast (again) on from my AM vs. his Lv.4 Necro with the new Vaul's Unmaking.  I find out he has a scroll wtf! and I destroy it.  They tricksies us.

The charge that killed the Terrorgheist.

• Next round his Vargheists charge my Spears.  I hold like real men.  Sadly, I lose combat by one and break like a bunch of stinking cowards because my BSB is half an inch away.  With Standard of Discipline, I break on a roll of 11.  They're caught, run down and I lose 315 points of victorious Spears.  Not feeling so good now.  Magic sees nothing happen from his casting but more of his Ghouls burn down.  I shit you not he's literally down to 4 ghouls now including his champ.  He reforms his Crypt Horrors to receive my Phoenix Guard's eager and surely charge.
• I do exactly that and charge his Crypt Horrors with my Phoenix Guard.  Look at my numbers, here's my Phoenix and watch me clear more chaff.  I SR to meet his Vargheist with my Archer units and shoot at them for no effect.  I feel good about my chances until I roll for magic.  Double 1s; awesome.  My Frozen Turkey is now thawing.  Don't worry guys, I make 2 channels but now I can't cast jack shit because High Magic has 3 DD spells.  Fine, I'll throw Hand of Glory, my only god damn spell with 4 dice.  Guess what?  I miscast again and 3 of my PG eat shit before combat even starts.  Feedback hits my Lv.1 and Lv.4 taking a wound each.  When combat does start, my Phoenix Guard roll a ton of hits but end up doing crap for damage.  The Phoenix also rolls like crap and it's not looking good.  His fat Horror things hit me back and auto-wounds my Phoenix with 5 attacks.  I'm sweating beads and I roll some dice.  I take 3 wounds on the bird.  Caw!  The rest of the attacks and stomps goes into my PG but 3+ ward and WS8 tells them no.  I barely win combat and he pulls another fatty.
• So, that kinda sucked big time, let's see what happens on his turn.  He places some more chaff around because he has a million more deploys than I do and reforms his Vargheists a bit.  They're march blocked, they fail and they only go 10".  His magic phase turns into crap as he miscasts Winds of Undeath onto himself  but they barely kill anything.  He raises some Ghouls with his left over dice before the fires rage again.  This time, only the Ghast remains.  Really?  Shooting from his Mortis Engine sees him scream into the bird and kills it.  I rage, but what can I do?  In combat, I barely win over the Crypt Horrors despite that not going as well as I hoped.  With my bird gone, I'm not feeling too confident.
• Next round sees a bunch of charges by me just to kill some chaff.  I clear it up with my Dragon Princes and I charge my Archers into the Vargheists' flank.  This is where things got a little hairy because the way I overran my White Lions put them far ahead where my opponent and I argued about the Ghoul King's unit getting a flank charge or not.  After arguing like huge nerds, I said fuck it, let him have it.  This kindness turns out to be a mistake later on.  Sometime during this, I combo-charge my Eagles into some Wolves and kill them, but yeah, my Eagles run around killing undead dogs.  Magic saw nothing amazing happen and my opponent stores 2 more dice.  Combat sees my Phoenix Guard utterly obliterate his Crypt Horrors due to some fantastic rolling and I reform to meet his zombie unit with Lv.4.  In combat, my Archers kill his Vargheists and I reform towards the action.
• Since I let the Ghoul King's unit get the flank charge on my White Lions, shit goes sour really quick.  A big magic phase saw him reach 12 die, dispelling the Convocation and getting off IoN twice on the Ghoul unit with nice rolls for bringing models back.  The unit regains like half its number in a single turn from being down to just the Ghast.  Hexwraiths charge the Dragon Princes and they flee because I'm out of position and I can't win vs. that just yet.  The Ghoul King single-handily tears the White Lions a new asshole and I'm unable to combat reform at the end because I took such a beating.  Stubborn stays.

Sure why not, charge my flank I says.

• The Phoenix Guard charge into the Lv.4's unit of Zombies and murder a bunch of them.  I miscast again, the forth fucking time in this game and it's really starting to get annoying.  His Mortis Engine makes me pick the one that feedbacks my wizards and I lose my Lv.1.  My Lv.4 has 2W left as he fails to wound him.  I kill an ass ton of units there, but next round he just brings them all back.  The Ghoul King eats more White Lions and that unit breaks and runs.
• The rest of the game is pretty strange.  I end up losing my Lv.4 to his Ghoul King once combat starts over there, but I keep both Phoenix Guard and White Lions alive to tie the game.  The Dragon Princes rallies and takes another charge from the Hexwraiths, but this time I hold and flank charge them with my Archers.  Combat res does them in and pops a unit I'm otherwise unable to hurt.  We count up points at the end and it's a draw.

I shit you not, that's all that was left.

More notes:

• I am not feeling High Magic man.  Too many DD and conditional spells when I'd rather have 2-3 hexes or Mindrazor.  I'm really feeling that Shadow will be the lore to go to, even if I don't get the +1 to cast or the stacking ward.  I hate not being able to cast into combat and my opponent is throwing out Van Hels, re-roll wounds, raising shit left and right, seriously, enough is enough.
• The Ghoul King, F that dude.  He single-handily just tanks on my White Lions because he knows the unit has the Banner of the World Dragon and I honestly think he knows that by now.  I personally don't think he should of gotten the flank charge, but since it's a friendly game my care factor is low.  We're friends so it's all good.  If you notice, at the end I'm running away with 1 White Lion and my BSB, saving all the points from that unit.  Probably just as stupid if not more than his one surviving Ghast after 99% of the Ghoul unit burned down from Fiery Convocation.
• Miscasts suck, I don't know why.  Oh, and on the one turn that I needed the Phoenix to kick ass along side those Phoenix Guard, I roll double 1s for winds and the Phoenix ends up dying half a turn later.  Ugh, I don't know how I punished his Terrorgheist so hard just to fall victim to back luck.  Karma?  See!  That's why you need two of those damn birds.

WHFB Review: High Elves

Long live the Asur!

High Elves were my first army in WHFB and I've played them for 12 or so years now.  I will tell you right now that this is the best book they've had in the last 3 books.  As for the review itself, it will be written with Overall Design, Internal Balance and External Balance in mind.  Check out this earlier post if you don't know the meaning of these terms.

Overall Design

The game design for High Elves is a tricky one.  You have an army filled with T3 5+ dudes but you somehow need them to be "elite".  This poses a problem because the only realistic way of getting this done in a points-based system is by having them be expensive.  You can't have cheap High Elves, it just doesn't make sense.  Their entire fluff is that they're dwindling, everyone else is getting stronger and the only way they can compete is with superior units.

Now, let me come out and say that I thought army-wide ASF via Speed of Asuryan was the best thing to happen to High Elves in 7th Edition.  Please keep in mind that I'm talking about the 7th Edition High Elves book being played in 7th Edition and not 8th.  The reason why this is so is because you can outright justify an expensive army of elite units.  The rule was simple, elegant and rightfully justified the cost of the army to be high.  A lot of people looked at SoA in 8th and blindly hated it because it turned High Elf units into blenders. Well guess what?  That's not what it was originally intended to be.

The 7th Ed. book was designed in 7th Ed. where SoA was meant to be a damage buffer.  It was something that stopped incoming damage so the limited amount of High Elf models can cheat death and stay alive in close combat.  High Elves can't have the resilience of Dwarfs, or the numbers of Skaven, this is just not their way.  The elite units of Asur needed something else to mitigate damage and that was through striking first, killing the enemy before they can strike, and thus reduce that unit's damage.  The coming of 8th's Steadfast, stepping up, and the fact that a Skaven Slave can take down a White Lion meant that the book desperately needed a rewrite.  Well, that and the fact that High Elves sell pretty well.

Enter the new book.  What has changed exactly?  Mat Ward kept ASF on all the units and gave them all Martial Prowess (fight/shoot in one extra rank).  ASF now cancels with the ASL of Great Weapons so units like White Lions and Sword Masters are no longer the blenders that they were the previous book.  Because of these changes, Ward continues the ideology that the High Elves should be few in number, elite, and are a naturally defensive army.  You can see this through Shield of Saphery (High Magic's lore attribute) especially since each successful spell from High Magic increases your ward save by +1.  If you don't have one, you gain 6+ ward.  With a heavier reliance on High Magic to obtain defensive bonuses, players will need to take full advantage of their magic to negate that damage.  Works for me.

I give Overall Design a 4.5/5.  The main philosophies of the High Elves have all been translated smoothly onto the table:  Small in number, superior in skill, reliant on magic, and naturally defensive.  I even read the fluff and checked it for Draigo nonsense.  NP, all clear.

Internal Balance

In the previous book, High Elves had 3 Core choices:  Archers, Spearmen and Lothern Sea Guard.  Now in the new book, High Elves get Ellyrion Reavers and Silver Helms as well.  This suddenly opens tons of player options and so far, no list I've seen looks the same.  There is no obvious choice to make in Core and this is something every player loves.  Books should be made where the options are viable and every choice a difficult one.  There should be no auto-includes.

As we advance through the book and check out some of the old units, you will see plenty of old favorites.  Many of the units haven't changed at all, and for the units that got worse, their points cost was decreased.  For the units that either got better or haven't changed in usefulness, their points didn't move.  Finally, for the units that suffered previously, their points were lowered while their stats were improved.  All of these were done with only minor adjustment in points, no large leaps or uncalled for moves.  Teclis has been brought down in power but saw his points decreased slightly, and Book of Hoeth now has new functionality for a more affordable price.  Even units like the Sword Master gained the ability to Deflect Shots with his sword because you know, it's fluffy.  For the first time in a long time, I haven't seen game balance this good in terms of unit layout and pricing.

When we look at the new units, we have to evaluate how they fit in comparison to other choices in the book.  There is quite a bit of uproar on many gaming forums right now because no one can agree upon a single list.  Every new unit in the book seems to be balanced out nicely in points vs. their abilities.  The Anointed is a more expensive Prince with good unit buffing stats, but he's not as good in melee and lacks the Ld.10 a Prince can offer.  The Loremaster is a Lv.2 who knows all 8 signatures with the stats of a Noble, but he can't ride a barded steed or cast as well as Lv.4.  There is literally no obvious choice and that's something very rare when it comes to an army book.  Even the mighty Frostheart Phoenix who can give units -S and ASL have to compete with the havoc it's fiery brother can cause, especially when an Anointed can take him as a mount and erupt come back on a 5+ instead of 6!

Internally, this is the best book I've seen in 8th Ed. by far.  Not only will people have a different list, but they'll have a different list layout as well.  Different core, different special choices, and even different rare.  The only thing stopping me from giving this a perfect score is the fact that some magic items are "off": 4.5/5.

External Balance

Overall, I'd say this book is good and will probably fall into the middle-high tier with 8th Ed. books in mind.  There's a ton of options to make viable and competitive builds, but there are some definite hits and misses.  For one, the Banner of the World Dragon has the community in an uproar.  While not overpowered in the sense that it's just too good in all match-ups, it's a poorly designed item.  The BotWD can be taken on almost every Special choice because of its price, and it gives the entire unit a 2+ ward vs. magical spells, attacks and weapons.  Against someone like Daemons of Chaos who all have magical attacks, this one item basically shuts down their entire army.  Sure, spells like Dwellers Below still gets around it, but the fact that it's utterly imbalanced vs. some armies and useless vs. others makes it the one hit and miss in the book.

High Elves, in short, will go back to their roots with this new book in terms of external balance.  I can personally see 4 main archetypes rise up from the ashes sort of speak and these are it:  Monster mash with a Prince on Star Dragon, multiple Phoenixes and maybe even a Noble on Griffon.  Magic heavy lists running an Archmage or Alarielle, with special infantry blocks and Phoenixes as support.  Cavalry-centric lists with Silver Helms, Ellyrion Reavers, Dragon Princes led by a Prince on barded steed.  Lastly, we might see shooty heavy lists with Archers, RBTs, Sea Guard, Lothern Sky Cutters, and some other units.  Sure, we might see some cheese builds arise such as Alarielle in a unit of White Lions with the Banner of the World Dragon spamming High Magic, but realistically, you'll probably just get kicked in the throat.

Other than that, I'd say the book's designed well to compete vs. the rest of the 8th Ed. books.  That's basically what I'm looking at these days as the golden age of balance.  You can't really compare the book to something like Dark Elves where you triple their magic items at a quarter of the cost.  That's just a byproduct of an era of gaming no one wants to remember.  3.5/5 from me - with the Banner of the World Dragon docking a whole point.  What were you thinking Mat?

Conclusion

The best book of 8th Ed. so far in terms of the solidity of design, great internal balance and decent external balance.  Questionably Mat Ward's best work ever.. which makes me question the outcome of the last Daemons book even more.  Have it at folks!

BR #3 New HE vs. VC

Pretty sure this not Alarielle.

Played a game vs. my buddy Lucas today and his VC.  It was pretty bloody and pretty fun, and our lists were both middle of the line in terms of strength.  Until proven otherwise, from what I've played so far, HE feels very middle of the road in army strength.  Nothing too crazy has jumped out at me yet, well, aside from Banner of the World Dragon.

My list was this..

2498

10 drops

LORDS

Lv.4 Archmage, High Magic = 285

Book of Hoeth, Crown

HEROES

BSB Noble, Dragon Prince = 161

Enchanted Shield, Dawnstone, PoFool

Lv.1 Mage, High Magic = 110

Scroll

CORE

30x Spearmen (FC, SoDiscipline) = 315

15x Archers, Mus = 160

14x Archers, Mus = 150

SPECIAL

27x White Lions (FC, BotWD) = 431

9x Dragon Princes (FC, CShield, BoEFlame) = 306

RARE

Frostheart Phoenix = 240

Frostheart Phoenix = 240

Great Eagle = 50

Great Eagle = 50

His list consisted of..

A big unit of Ghouls with a Ghoul King and Lv.4 Master Necro with Peripat

3x units of Dire Wolves chaff

A big unit of Grave Guard, Wight King BSB and Banner of Barrows

One Terrorgheist and Mortis Engine

A unit of Vargheists, I think 4-5 strong

My notes:

• OK first of all, I was overwhelmed by his magic.  The Peripat is insanely good and the Mortis Engine's +2 to cast was bonkers most of the time.  Most of the magic phases saw a good number of dice, but his ability to store 2 and use 2 in any of his casting and dispel phases was great.  Definitely overpowered my Lv.4 even with the Book of Hoeth.  VC guys take note:  This combo is super strong.
• My Archers do a good job at killing chaff.  He makes the mistake of Vanguarding and moving too far up and gets 2 of his 3 dog units eaten alive by my Archers.  By letting Soul Quench go through, the dogs were dead rotten meat.  His Terrorgheist flew up but was unable to allocate a decent target aside from my Archer unit.  He screams at it and kills a few and that's OK with me.  Because I have a more mobile army, I relocated most of my units on the far right and basically left my Spearmen to hold my left flank.  With this one maneuver, I moved to kill with the full weight of my White Lions, Dragon Princes and both Phoenixes in a wide, sweeping arc of combo-charging death.
• Once again, the Frostheart Phoenixes prove to be awesome.  Despite a minor mistake that left my Dragon Princes way out of position, I still managed to double charge his Grave Guard unit with my both my Frostheart Phoenixes.  I guess the Princes of Caledor let their arrogance get to them and in doing so, were a turn late to save my White Lions from his Ghoul King.  Together, they inflicted heavy, heavy casualties onto the unit.  Throughout the magic phase, I did not roll a negative modifier for Attuned to Magic once, and most of the time I was rolling with 4+ Ward and +1A.  Two of my Phoenixes chewed through 30 or so Grave Guard in 2 rounds of combat.  S6 stomps are ridiculous and the -S modifier continues to impress me.
• Banner of the World Dragon stopped the crap out of Curse of Years.  He was rolling ridiculously hot and I think I lost 2 White Lions total in 2 rounds (I failed to dispel it) of it being on.  The Dragon Princes were a bit unlucky, on the turn that I failed to dispel it again, 3 of them went down.  I have to keep remembering to take stacking High Magic ward saves and the Dragon Armor's natural 6+ ward save.  Lucas was kind enough to remind me a couple of times.
• I miscasted a crap ton this game, I think 3 times.  All of the wounds generated from these were saved by the Banner of the World Dragon due to the miscast being magical attacks.  Sadly, the only thing worth noting is that I had Fiery Convocation dispelled on a crucial turn due to him having so many DD from Peripat.  The rest of my magic was unimpressive except for Hand of Glory making my White Lions' unit WS7 vs. WS3 Ghouls.  This negated a ton of damage.
• Well, his Ghoul King got into combat with my White Lion's unit and to my surprise, revealed absolutely zero magic weapons and continued to eat through 8 Lions per turn.  It was horrifying, but thankfully Stubborn kept them in the fight.  The unit eventually got whipped out, but not before my Dragon Princes and Phoenixes charge into the flanks and pop the unit due to combat res.

Things to try next time:

• I really want to try bringing only one Frostheart Phoenix just to see how it feels.  Although 2x is the sweet spot, I think one will be decent since my meta doesn't have a ton of cannons so far.  I'm just afraid that if the Frostheart dies, I'll be missing a vital support tool for my army.
• Putting an Ironcurse Icon onto my Lv.1 supporting Mage carrying High Magic has a chance to improve his unit's ward save to 5+ vs. Warmachines.
• I think I'll drop the Dragon Princes into MSU units for 5-6x with Mus and that's it.  The bigger unit was definitely fun to play with, but I'm not so sure how excited I am to take them again.  I will miss that BSB though, the protection of 1+ re-rollable combined with Dragon Armor is great.  Potion of Foolhardiness is also a must-have I think in that circumstance.  Perhaps a Star Lance, Enchanted Shield + PoFools for more damage.  That remains to be seen.
• I want to give Phoenix Guard a try, but it's just so damn expensive that I have to drop the Phoenix or replace the White Lions.  What kind of banner should I put on the PG?  As of now, I'm thinking of just putting the Banner of Eternal Flame on them and call it a day.  Put the Archmage in there and have him spam High Magic to bring the unit up to a 3+ ward.  Sounds good, will try definitely.

Going back a little:

In the first game I had with my Star Dragon, I think I definitely want to keep the Star Dragon focused on killing bigger units.  This might sound kinda low-tier, but I think I'll be sporting the Star Lance on him for a couple of games.  Sword of Might is good when combined with OTS on the Star Dragon, but that's meant for more killing rank and file.  Besides, the thought of 10 S7 attacks coming their way when they'll hopefully be at -S and ASL is just shit your pants worthy.

The real question:
Alarielle - Is she worth it compared to a Lv.4 AM with Book of Hoeth?  Here's what I'm going to do with her:  Put her in a unit of White Lions and take 1 spell from High Magic (defaults to Drain Magic), 3 from Light.  BSB tots Banner of Avelorn for +4 to cast from Lore of Light.  The White Lions have Banner of the World Dragon.  She gives the White Lions 5+ ward vs. non-magical attacks and I always have Drain Magic so I have a chance to pump up that ward.  Otherwise, I have a 2+ ward vs. all magical attacks, weapons and spells.  The unit will also have a Lv.1 supporting Light mage in case I get Banishment.

I played 2 games with High Elves today!

Banner banned already?!

The first game was against this really nice guy who took a like-wise monster-mash list, and the second game was a against a friendly Ogres player.  To my surprise when I walked in the store today, my order arrived Friday night and I was able to get the Phoenixes together.  I went with double Frostheart Phoenix although I'm thinking about getting a third Flamespyre now.

As always, my BRs will consist of notes and confirmations rather than a play by play report.  I decided to go this route with these so you guys can take more tactical/strategic knowledge from these.

So my first game was..
2500 points, Pitched

I had..
Prince on Star Dragon
2x Frostheart Phoenix
30x LSG FC, 2x 11x Archers w/ Mus
A big unit of Dragon Princes w/ BotWD
BSB Noble with Dragon Princes
and a Lv.2 Mage running High Magic

My opponent had..
Engine of the Gods
Ancient Steggy
2x units of big Saurus Warriors
A Old Blood on Carnasaur
2x units of Salamanders
A unit of Skinks and some lizardy flyers

Notes from Game #1

• The Attuned to Magic special rule really helps our Phoenixes' a great deal.  I kept rolling +1 attack on my Frozen Turkeys and their damage output went up considerably.  Never did I roll a 1 or 2, and only once did I roll the +1 Initiative.  On the turn that I did get 4+ Ward, I didn't need it because I was already ahead in points and unit advantage.
• The Banner of World Dragon did not see much play in this game due to very little magic being thrown out.  Sure, the Old Blood on Carnasaur had a magic weapon, but the Dragon Princes never saw him in battle.  They were too busy killing a ton of Saurus Warriors on a direct charge from the front.
• The Frostheart Phoenix is worth every point, to a point where I think they might be too good.  I know if there were cannons running around on the battlefield we would be having another type of discussion, but their abilities are so damn good!  I combo-charged my Prince on Star Dragon into the EotG and went to town with it.  It's a shame I managed to fluff all my attacks on the first go, but the fact that my Star Dragon can swing before his Steggy was impressive.  In fact, he's the only one that did any damage despite my Prince having a Star Lance with ASF re-rolls.
• Blizzard Aura is absolutely amazing.  You will see that in this first game and in the next game, the Frostheart Phoenix does serious work.  Once he's in combat with a unit, their fighting effectiveness goes to shit.  Saurus Warriors that need 4s and 4s to wound your Elves, Stegadons need 5s to wound your Phoenix, and forget about the Star Dragon.  Pseudo-T8 makes him nearly untouchable with his high WS and T factored in.  One of my Frosthearts even took a flank charge from the Old Blood on Carny, did 3 wounds to the dino and only saw 1 back.  With S7, he needed 4s to wound, I passed 2 5+ Ward saves and he only did 1 wound which got healed back by Apothesis next round.  Overall, I think the Frostheart Phoenix met my expectations and then some.  The Attuned to Magic helped me in most cases and the Blizzard Aura was amazing.
• I will probably be taking 2x Great Eagles in every list still.  I mean, why not?  They're great re-directors and give me extra cheap drops that I can use to better position my heavy hitters.  I'm not entirely sure on the LSG, but I'm pretty happy with my Dragon Princes doing work on his Saurus.  I will need to see more tries with such a beefy bus before I make any more judgement.
• I talked to a couple of guys who are running tournies and leagues in my area and it's confirmed:  Banner of the World Dragon will be banned.  In a sense, I agree because it allows for some really stupid imbalances (Daemons), but I don't think the banner itself is overpowered.  It's mainly the fact that Daemons can't touch it that's causing it to be banned, nothing else.
• My Prince on Star Dragon build was: Prince, Star Dragon, Heavy Armor, Great Weapon, Enchanted Shield, Star Lance, and 4+ Ward.  It comes out to 622, but I'm not sure if it's completely needed to take a Star Dragon.  I guess at the end of the day, it really depends on your meta.  If a lot of WS3 troops running around, and S5, then I would probably look at the Star Dragon.  Otherwise, the cheaper Moon Dragon might be a solid option.

Game #2 was..
2000 points, Pitched

I had..
Lv.4 Archmage, Book of Hoeth, Crown, High Magic
Lv.2 Mage, Scroll, High Magic
BSB, Armor of Caledor, GW
24x White Lions, FC, BotWD
30x Spearmen FC, SoDisc, 2x units of 10x Archers w/ Mus
2x Frostheart Phoenixes

He had..
Tyrant, Fencer's Blades, Greedy Fist
Lv.2 Butcher in a unit of 5x Leadbelchers
A big unit of Ironguts
A decent unit of Bulls
2x Mournfang
Ironblaster

Notes from Game #2

• A smaller game for sure, and the first thing I noticed was how much I can fit in such a small game!  I took all the things I wanted to pretty much because I was so impressed by the Frosthearts from the previous game.  The thing to take away from this is how much we can fit with in a 2K game and still play moderately competitive.  I'm sure the Frosthearts take all the glory though.
• Much like the first game, I did not see one poor roll with my Attuned to Magic.  Multiple times I was seeing +1 Attack, +1S and 4+ Ward.  Two times I got the 4+ Ward and my opponent just said nevermind and attacked something else.  That works for me!
• This is the first game I got to try out High Magic in all its glory.  Sure, I didn't have the Loremaster, but after this game, I'm not sure if I really need one.  Here's why:  My Archmage was extremely greedy with the spells he wanted to cast.  I rolled into Fiery Convocation but I decided to swap it out for Drain Magic, along with Soul Apotheosis, Hand of Glory, Tempest and Arcane Unforging.
• First thing's first, I'm not sure how much I like Arcane Unforging being a direct damage spell.  I charged into combat with my White Lions early and I barely casted this thing.  Being direct damage severely limits this spells use IMO.  The 24" is solid and I can see this being used on enemy BSBs a lot, but not being able to use it in combat makes it a lot weaker than I originally anticipated.
• Hand of Glory is freaking amazing vs. WS3 units when you're WS5+ on your Elites and good stuff.  I got this spell off a good amount of times because I squeezed out so many casts and rolled a 3 on the D3.  WS7+ gives you a damage buffer against all enemies trying to hit you and that's fantastic.  To make things even more exciting, the fact I got to throw out so many spells stacked up a good amount of Ward saves on my White Lion's unit.  With the +5 to cast from my AM and Book of Hoeth, I managed to throw out a good amount of spells every turn.  In 3 of my turns, I had 2 5+ wards and a 4+ ward on my unit of White Lions.  That's a ton of reduced damage in combination with WS8 vs. WS3 troops.
• Again, the Blizzard Aura does serious work.  The Phoenixes are huge because of their threat range and their ability to support any combat the way only a flyer can.  My White Lions managed to pull out a 9" charge on his Tyrant's Irongut unit and my opponent just took it.  Once the Phoenixes came in as support he knew he was a goner.  Yes, both Phoenixes, Hand of Glory on the White Lions, -1S ASL on his unit, and +1 attack on both birds.  Man, it was so good.
• With the Lv.4, almost all of the spells from the High Magic lore is playable with 2 dice, especially if you have the Book of Hoeth.  I even managed to stop a high-roll on one of hi spells by turning one of my dispel dice of 1 into a 6.  Bam, IF dispelled, sorry.  I'm a little unsure about Soul Quench, Tempest, Arcane Unforging AND Fiery Convocation being all direct damage-ish spells, but I definitely need more games to confirm my findings.  I just think I'll severely limit my magic phase if I can't cast these spells into close combat.  Less casts equates to less wards being stacked up too.

Additional Notes:

• Now that I've seen the Lv.4 AM in action with the Book, I'm not so sure on the Loremaster.  Spell flexibility is one thing, but like a lot of people have said before; I didn't have the dice to throw them.  Realistically, you're only throwing spells with your AM.  High Magic is great because of the low costs, the +5 to cast and stackable wards, but I'm unsure about a full half of the spells being DD.
• I will be adjusting some of my lists to not incorporate the Loremaster in the same list as my AM.  I will hopefully fill that void with either an Anointed, or a Prince to go with my Dragon Princes.  After the AM's performance, I'm not sure if I even need the Lv.2.  I might take a Lv.1 with High Magic just for another a another Drain Magic.  From what I've seen of the spell, I think it's amazing.
• Everything about the Frostheart Phoenix is true.  The guy is an utter beast and is arguably the best support unit in the High Elf army.  I absolutely cannot see me playing without this guy and I know I'll be taking 1-2 from now on in every game.  However, I'm going to try out the Flamespyre Phoenix in my next game vs. Vampire Counts (maybe, want to build it first).  Don't worry, the competitive crowd isn't in yet and we're just trying out new stuff.  I am super excited though!
• Surprise surprise, it looks like BotWD will be banned in major tournaments in my area.

High Elves: Brainstorm #5

Where are my dragons?!

Disaster has struck.  I will not be getting my book or minis anytime soon because of GW stock shortages in North America.  I don't know what the case is, but it seems like the same thing happened with Tau.  Damn the luck.  Regardless, here's the final part of the book review as we close to release date.  I'll probably release one more article tomorrow detailing army lists because I won't have my frozen turkeys to put on the table! FFFFFFFFFFFFF

Special Characters

Tyrion - 3/5
Well, I don't have much to say here.  He's still really well armored, fast as all hell and can take a lot of damage.  The real solid thing is that he's now off a monster base and his rules have been cleared up.  With a 18" IP, he's a pretty solid general on the battlefield.  However, you're paying an awful a lot of points for someone who puts out barely enough damage over a S7 Prince.  A little bit of a shame for the greatest warrior in the known world I'd say.  Sure, he doesn't really die, Sunfang needs to do a little more than just shoot out a S4 breath attack once a game.  D3 wounds or something man.

Teclis - 3.5/5
I am a bit sad.  Why?  Because my favorite SC in all of Warhammer have been nerfed into the dirt.  I'll say it flat out:  I'd rather see Teclis stay the same and be banned in every single comped game than to see him like this.  Overall, not bad terrible because they lowered his price and made him a Lv.5 Wizard.  His staff has completely changed so instead of being a one-man magic phase, he's now a second-string Slaan who becomes even punier after one round of good magic.  His spell flexibility has changed a lot; gaining either Loremaster High Magic with +6 to cast due to Lileath's Blessing, or 8 spells from each of the 8 lores.  Oh, and he also keeps his Scroll of Hoeth so you can have two scrolls in your army if you take him and a supporting mage.  Overall, not bad.. but for 450 big ones, I will pass on Teclis in this edition.

Alith Anar - 3.5/5
For his new points cost of 250, Alith is worth looking at.  His BS7 and S7 D3 wounds no AS Quick to Fire Moonbow at 36" is something really special.  Shadow Crown gives him and his unit Swiftstride, Stone of Midnight provides Alith with a 4+ Ward and enemies shooting at the unit suffers -1 to hit.  The only thing I wish is that they gave him a Great Weapon, or in fact, gave all Shadow Warriors Great Weapons.  As fast as he is with that I9 ASF, he's still swinging with a regular hand weapon.  Boo..


Eltharion the Grim - 3.5/5
Overall, not bad I'd say.  Stormwing now comes with ASF and Eltharion is still a slightly buffed up Prince.  S6 no AS from Fangsword, MR1 and counts as Lv.2 Wizard that can use any of the 8 lores.  His helm gives both him +1AS and 5+ ward to him and Stormwing.  Not the best, but definitely not the worst.  Griffons have improved slightly because of their points and such, and Stormwing is definitely a stronger Griffon with his stats as well.

Korhil - 3/5
I can't say I'm too happy with what they did to Korhil.  Everything stays the same minus the fact that he's now 10 points more expensive.  I was really hoping he would get something to compensate the fact that he's a SC with only a 4+ AS and is supposed to be in close combat.  I don't get this philosophy.. at least make him dangerous enough to threaten everything with HKB or give him a dodge save.  Even with Stubborn, I can't justify ever taking him over someone more armored.  A shame because I really like the model/character too.

Caradryan - 4/5
Saw a minor points decrease, a few nerfs, but generally makes up for it with the fact he can take a +1A Frostheart Phoenix named Ashtari as a mount.  He's now MR1 but gains ItP and 4+ Ward via Witness to Destiny.  His Halberd still kicks ass with D3 wounds S5 Flaming, but his suicide trick is now D3 wounds no AS instead of D6.  I guess GW was tired of him purposely dying to a Chaos Lord and making back double his points.  Regardless, his ability to take a Ashtari in the Hero slot makes him a great choice.  With MR1 on Ashtari's 5++, we're looking at a solid 4++ vs. MMs.

Alarielle - 4.5/5
I'm going to flat out say it:  She's really damn good.  She gives the entire unit 5+ ward vs. non-magic attacks.  Her entire unit is Immune to Fear and Terror and deal magical attacks.  And she can mix and match her spells from Life, Light or High Magic.  She still needs to roll for those spells.  Let's face it, she has a bunch of other special rules that changes the army dynamics immensely.  She unlocks a magical banner that gives spell cast from Lore of Light and Life +4 to cast.  An item that gives +1 to hit on all shooting and CC for the remainder of the turn.  Can once a game pop her staff to allow her to cast a spell she already cast that turn.  And she heals a friendly character every one of her movement phases.  Just loaded with rules, some for fluff, some for use, but all of which are all quite good.  Shit, she even has HKB vs. Forces of Destruction with her beastly 1 attack.  For a little more than an AM with Book of Hoeth, she's definitely the best SC in the book.

Magic Items

Blade of Leaping Gold - 1/5
Trash, really?  You wasted one of our magic slots for this?  At 70 points, I can't even buy any good combo pieces off it and take protection for my lord-level character.  +3 attacks and 6s ignore armor, whatever man.

Star Lance - 4/5
For 30 points, this is a strong buy.  The fact that you can use a GW after you charge is only icing on the cake.  +3S no AS and you get your nice ASF re-rolls, this is a mounted Noble/Prince's dream weapon.  Solid for the points and allows you to stack on more defensive gear.  Something you actually need in today's meta.

Reaver Bow - 4/5
It's really cheap and it's good.  Shoots from 30" away, is a +1S bow with Multiple Shots 3.  Pop a Potion of Strength and have it it man.  Everyone can be like Alith for a turn, sorta.

Shadow Armor - 1.5/5
Light armor sucks man.  5+ AS, Scouts, Strider.  I'm really excited.  Still better than Blade of Leaping Shit.

Armor of Caledor - 4/5
2+ AS, 6+ Ward, Fireborn 2+ ward vs. Fire.  Not a bad item and it will see play on every single important walking dude.  This gives us two 2+ AS to put on our guys, and arguably the BSB's/Loremaster's best friend.  Solid all the way through.

Shield of the Mermrym - 3.5/5
Strong defensive choice, gives you a 4+ Parry and is dirt cheap.  You can't use a 2H weapon with this, but if you're taking a combo piece like +3S Sword + this, it's not a bad idea.  Allows you to equip things you otherwise wouldn't because it's a ridiculous way to offer a pseudo-ward in close combat.

Golden Crown of Atrazar - 4/5
I don't know about you guys, but I like this little piece.  It's incredibly cheap and gives you a 2+ ward vs. the first wound taken.  Great if you don't want to spend points on a more expensive ward, and allows you to escape KBs, multiple wounds or some other unforseen action on your mage for example.  The price is the big seller here.

Moranion's Wayshard - 2/5
It's pretty expensive for something I'd rather see in the Wood Elves book.  Gives a unit of 30 Spears or Archers Ambush and he must be in that unit.  Sure, I guess you can do something crazy with it, but that demands that you do something crazy.

Khaine's Ring of Fury - 4/5
It's cheap, it's good, and it has Soul Quench Bound Level 3.  A great offensive tool that when cast, activates the Shield of Saphery Lore Attribute.  Sounds like a good deal man.

Gem of Sunfire - 1.5/5
A pretty limited once per game item.  Sure, all of your flaming attacks (including your mount) does +1 to wound, but are you Tyrion?  Or maybe someone who's in a unit with the Flaming Banner?  This just screams Dragon Mage to me and you all know how I feel about that flying poopsicle.

Cloak of Beards - 2.5/5
First of all, why are you not +1AS?  It gives you Fear, which is cool.  Terror vs. Dwarfs, which is great, but I hate it when you hate on a particular enemy.  In turn, Dwarfs gain Hatred vs. you because you're wearing his grandfather's scalp on your face.  Seems a little mean when you can just challenge someone from the Dwarf army and if he's stupid enough to accept, at the start of the CC phase just roll a 4+ for each of his runic items to be destroyed.  Sounds beardy.  GET IT?

Book of Hoeth - 4.5/5
This is a really great item.  You will see this on every single Loremaster or Archmage from now until the next book.  It allows you re-roll a dice from each one of your casting and dispelling attempts.  Do you know how many spells you can push out now and escape broken concentration at the same time?  It's just insane how much versatility this item has.  The best part is that you can fit this in with a 2+ AS on the Loremaster or 4+ Ward on the AM.  Coincidence?  I think not.

Banner of the World Dragon - 5/5
One of the best magic items in the game.  Can be taken on all of our Elite choices pretty much and allow for absurd polar imbalances vs. particular armies (Daemons of Chaos).  Your entire unit gains a 2+ ward vs. all magic spells, attacks and weapons.  Yes, you can tank whatever magic weapon your opponent brings with even the puniest of Elves.  It's extremely powerful vs. armies that have a lot of magic missiles, magic attacks and magic weapons, but it's pretty worthless if your opponent takes none of those.  A poorly designed item I'd say, but it'll see play in almost army list that's not banned because of its points-efficiency and matchup potential.

High Elves: Brainstorm #4

Lost it at the eyes.

Alright, here we go.  Onto the Specials and Rares!  I'll probably end up talking about Special Characters and Items tomorrow along side some sample army lists that I want to try out.  I'm really liking what I see so far and I'm pretty eager to get my army onto the tabletop ASAP.

Specials

Sword Masters of Hoeth - 2.5/5
I can't really say I like what they did with the SM.  Taking away their re-rolls on Great Weapons while keeping all their other stats the same is really bad for them when Martial Prowess is factored.  They will forever be used as MSU units.  Being WS6 I5 and striking at I with 2A S5 is still good, but without their re-rolls they'll be missing a lot more.  The points drop is the only thing that's giving them any validity as of now but I can't see them being used outside of pseudo detachment units.  Take a unit that you know will hold Steadfast and then flank charge 5-7 of these the next round.  Even without re-rolls, you'll still be able to add a good amount of combat res.

White Lions of Chrace - 4.5/5
These have always been solid units and with Martial Prowess, these will remain top dog.  The reason why this is so is because they lose nothing with their 1 attack base unlike Sword Masters.  WS5 S6 hits all the right targets and striking in 3 ranks allows them to actually deal more damage than their previous re-rolls.  The delta for damage is definitely greater, but there's a chance you might fark your rolls.  Stubborn is pretty king for an Elite unit and Lion Cloak protects them from getting shot.  I can see a unit of 3x3 w/ Champ to be really popular.  Cheap, tiny ass footprint, puts out high quality attacks, and doesn't die to a sneeze like Sword Masters.

Phoenix Guard - 4.5/5
Still rock solid units.  Has Fear because they don't talk about the 4+ Ward is still there.  They only got better because of their Martial Prowess extending to the third rank.  This gives them more damage potential than they had last book while maintaining all the great things that made them a solid anvil.  No Unbreakable means that every character can join them, and no change in points cost makes them outright better than they were before.


Dragon Princes - 4.5/5
I've always liked these guys and I like them even more now that they have improved in almost every way.  They retain all their stats but their Dragon Armor now gives them 6+ Ward as default in addition to their 2+ Ward vs. Fire.  Add on the fact they now move 9 because of Ithilmar Barding and are cheaper to boot, you're literally looking at a 9 point WS5 I6 2A S5 on the charge Elf with ASF.  Why 9 points?  Because Dragon Armor alone costs 20 points on a Prince.  How's that for math?  I'll probably take these guys in 5-6x and call it a day.

Shadow Warriors - 3/5
Scout Skirmishers who hate on Dark Elves, carry Long Bows and do their jobs well for the points they got decreased to.  Overall, solid units but I see them as backseat riders compared to our other Elite infantry.

Tiranoc Chariots - 3.5/5
Much better than before, especially now that you can take them in a squadron of 1-3.  Chariots have always been an odd thing with High Elves.  They're flexible in that they can shoot, charge into combat, but can't really do all that damage outside for Impact Hits because they're still Elves.  The chariot, however, does most of the heavy lifting but with their defensive stats, if they get stuck in combat, they're pretty much toast.

Lion Chariot - 3.5/5
I want to give these guys a 4, but I just can't.  They went down in price sure, but the point decrease and Stubborn doesn't justify the fact that the White Lions on top lost ASF.  If the chariot was T5 or the AS was 3+ or maybe even both, then these chariots would be quite nice.  However, the fact that you're paying a fairly expensive price for a single chariot that has Stubborn but can't handle damage in return.  I'm a little disappointed.  Still a pretty solid choice with all things considered.

Skycutter Chariot - 4/5
First of all, the thing flies.  The Eagle Eye Bolt Thrower isn't the best thing in the world because it only shoots from 24" at S5 D3 wounds no AS, but the fact that you get a movement penalty when shooting the thing is disappointing.  Regardless, you're playing for a flying chariot that can negotiate the battlefield and apply constant threat.  It's mobility will allow it to get those flank shots and the price tag on this bad boy is what's really helping its score out.  The Warhawk pulling it so no slouch and the High Elves on top can still put out some decent damage when M10 S5 Impact hits gets in there on-demand.  A good choice for sure, probably the best chariot in the arsenal.

Rare

Great Eagles - 5/5
The best re-director in the game for High Elves have not changed one bit.  If anything, they just gave him more options than ever before, allowing you to take huge units of them due to 1+ and giving them all special abilities.  Want some ASF for that Eagle?  Why not.  What about some Armor Piercing?  We can do that too.  Although the ASF is what's really going to be amazing, I'm not sure if I want to drop 10 points on something that's just going to annoy/redirect most of the time.  I love these things, and so should you if you plan on playing High Elves.  A lot of people argue that Ellyrion Reavers will replace the Great Eagle as redirectors, pfft, not unless they fly imo.

Flamespyre Phoenix - 4.5/5
Although I'd rather see more dragons flying around in High Elves, I can't say I'm disappointed with the Phoenixes.  The Flamespyre Phoenix is a solid bird with decent stats and good abilities.  His special rules are nice and so is his 2+ ward vs. Fire and ability to resurrect.  I'd say he's one of the best designed monsters in the game with all things considered.  He's a threat on the battlefield when flying over units, when in combat with units, and when he dies with a unit nearby, he's always a threat due to that 3-5 on the Phoenix Reborn (large blast S4 flaming) or if he just comes back to life!  Great rules and balance on this unit that matches the fluff perfectly.  If you take the Anointed with him, he becomes a great points denial unit that will come back on a 5+.

Frostheart Phoenix - 5/5
I'm not going to lie to you and say these guys are a little better.  These guys are ridiculously good for their points because for 15pts more than a Flamespyre, you get +1WS/S/T/A/Ld.  S6 and T6 is huge because it puts them in the sweet spot for damage and resilience.  Combine this with the fact that you're flying around with a Ward save and this is pretty significant.  Sure, you lose the ability to resurrect, but you gain something infinitely more worrisome for your opponent:  Blizzard Aura.  Blizzard Aura is absolutely huge:  It's a meta-changer and one of the things that will carry the High Elves to victory on many battlefields.  The ASL element of the aura is fantastic; stripping away ASF on blenderlords or other high-profile units, but it's the -S that really takes the cake.  With the Frostheart in contact with an enemy unit, you're essentially looking at +1T High Elves with better armor saves (which negates the High Elves' only true weakness).  Not to mention the bird himself is harder to wound with his virtual T7.  Regardless of who you're pitting the bird against, I have high expectations for this unit changing the battlefield much more than any other unit in the book.  Well, that and one more little thing we'll cover later.

Eagle Claw RBT - 3.5/5
Went down in points and you can still take 4 of these.  You can either shoot a normal Bolt Thrower shot or choose to Volley with 6 shots at S4 AP.  Overall, not a bad pick but I'd rather see these guys go down to 50.  S6 shooting is powerful, but compared to a cannon for a few points more and it's not even close.  Still good though, and will probably see play in more shooting-based armies.

Maiden Guard of Avelorn - 3.5/5
At first, I can't say this unit impressed me. Flaming, magical S4 shots sound great on paper, but they're expensive and die to a soft breeze much like Sword Masters. The key here is to not go too expensive on these girls but use them to deal damage and strip Regen. The 24" is a limitation, but the BS5 more than makes up for it. A unit of 15 will do a good job clearing up any chaff and put out good damage vs. Forces of Destruction with their -1AS. Not a bad unit, but they will take up points in your list so you have to be careful not go crazy.

High Elves: Brainstorm #3

Core, core, core!

Let's talk about Core really quick.  No bullshit, right down to the nitty gritty.  If one thing's for certain, it's that there's tons of discussion regarding our Core right now.  This is a very good sign as it shows tons of flexibility in regards to playstyle and function.

Spearmen - 3.5/5

Pretty solid option still.  If anything, they are overlooked a lot because they're exactly the same as the last book.  I've always liked Spears.  They give a lot of bodies that absolutely shred other core-based infantry in the game and can be buffed to levels that upset a lot of people due to the amount of attacks they put out.  Compared to similar Core, High Elf Spearmen are amazing.  Not to mention they can take a magical banner while no one else in core can.  Keep that in mind!

Archers - 4/5

Went down in points, cheap, and throws out a good amount of shots.  With Martial Prowess now affecting Archers in 3-ranks, a unit of 5x3 lets loose 15 S3 shots from 30" away.  This is a great way to clear enemy chaff and they're an absolute staple to the High Elf war machine.  Always have some kind of archery in your army lists unless you're going for a pure melee approach.

Lothern Sea Guard - 3/5

These guys also went down a point and still retain the same function as before.  Sadly, they can no longer take a magical banner and much like archers, cannot take the Banner of Eternal Flame to threaten regen units from far away.  Honestly, LSG are a pretty decent unit.  They double up on shooting and function like Spearmen once they reach close combat.  You can feel comfortable with putting them in a unit of 6x5 and comfortably count 18+3+3 in terms of shots from 24" away while attacking back in 4 ranks in close combat.  Due to their flexibility and points drop vs. the unchanged Spears, they're not a bad choice.

Ellyrion Reavers - 4/5

Take these guys in 5s and never look back.  They are cheap, Fast, Vanguard cavalry which can shoot, block, obstruct charge lanes, and kill chaff.  As solid as these guys are, I can't rank them above Archers.  Archers gives you more shots, more bodies and can keep chaff without ever having to commit.  Reavers, on the other hand, should be used like Eagles that travel on the ground.  They're cheap enough that you can also  employ double flee mechanics.

Silver Helms - 4/5

I graded these guys assuming you don't take them as a Prince bus.  As a bus, I would probably give these guys the max.  With Martial Prowess extending to the third rank, you can now take a decent sized cavalry bus that can chip in more damage than they did before.  With the points of these guys coming out of Core, you can now run a Cavalry Prince with a lot less points commitment from the rest of the army.  Any bit of 2+ armor in core is good, but Ithilmar Barding, ASF and Lances.