Special Characters in 8th Ed

To take them or not to take them.. that is the question.  The RTS player in my head screams an overwhelming YES!  In this post, I'll highlight the three SCs I take the most and why I take them.

Korhil
Ld. 9 Stubborn, Immune to Poison, Woodsman.
WS6, I7, 4 attacks with S6 Killing Blow and ASF.

Korhil is a challenge monster and his high WS, ASF and Killing Blow will leave most characters headless on the ground before they get the swing.  He has really crappy 4+ armor, so he's really a glass cannon that adds a nice Ld.9 Stubborn onto whatever unit that he's in.  Woodsman, sadly, is wasted when he joins a unit of Phoenix Guard, but that's just the price you pay for someone like him.  At 140 points, he's one of the biggest steals in the game and can really deter enemy characters from assaulting the unit that he's in.  Put him on a corner of a unit to minimize the amount of attacks he'll be taking back and challenge every chance you get.  Challenge puts him out of combat, can score you a +4 overkill (or kill the enemy hero/lord), while maintaining his awesome Stubborn in effect.  The strength of this character is that he's designed to be in a challenge.  If you're not doing that, you're doing it wrong.

What's wrong with this picture?

*Note that the Steam Tank only inflicts D3 Impact Hits rather
than D6 like other chariots (This will combine with the D3
Impact Hits per SP listed below).

Equipment
The Steam Tank is armed with a main cannon in the hull and a
steam gun in the turret. The Engineer Commander is armed
with a repeater pistol (see page 47).

Special Rules
Impact Hits (D3 per SP), Large Target, Terror, Unbreakable,
Steam Points (see page 51)

Page 51 – Steam Tank, Movement phase
Change to “Each SP allows you to move the Steam Tank 3".
To charge with a Steam Tank, first declare the charge as
normal, and then specify how many SP you are using to charge
with. The charge range of the Steam Tank is equal to 3" per SP
that is spent. In addition, each SP spent on the charge adds D3
to the number of Impact Hits inflicted by the Steam Tank in
the Close Combat phase. Note that you do not add the roll of
2D6 to the charge range when a Steam Tank charges, and that
the target unit may make a charge reaction as normal.”

High Elves in 8th - FAQ Review

You can find the FAQ on this page:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?categoryId=1000018&pIndex=1&aId=3000006&start=2

Let's go over the big ones really quick (my comments in bold blue):

Q. The Speed of Asuryan special rule states that “all High Elves
have the special rule Always Strike First, regardless of the weapon
they are wielding.” How does this interact with a great weapons
Always Strike Last? (p43)
A. The army book will take precedence in this situation. For
example, a Sword Master would strike first with his great
weapon. If his Initiative value is equal to or higher than his
opponent’s, he will also benefit from a re-roll to hit.

Enough said.

Page 89 – Choosing an Army
Add “Elite Army
The High Elves are few in numbers, but their armies are
trained and equipped to standards so high that they are the
envy of all other races. To represent this, they have no limit to
the Duplicate Choices of their Special and Rare troops.”

The few, the proud, the elite.

Page 58 – White Lions, Special Rules
Add “Forest Strider”. Ignore the Woodsman special rule.

Yes, White Lions and Korhil now have the Forest Strider rule.  This means they can pass through terrain without harm or any other weirdness.

High Elves in 8th - Tactics

Fellow Princes, we are less than one week away from 8th Edition and there is still a lot to cover.  In this blog post, I will talk about the different tactics we'll use to maximize our army's potential.  I will also cover some units that are not featured in today's list and how we'll use them.

First, the list:

2478

LORDS:
Teclis = 475
Lore of Shadow

HEROES:
Noble (BSB, GW, AoC, GP) = 168
Caradryan = 175

CORE:
20x Spears (FC, War Banner) = 225
20x Spears (FC) = 205
20x Spears (FC) = 205

SPECIAL:
20x Phoenix Guard (FC, Banner of Sorcery) = 380
20x White Lions (FC, Banner of Eternal Flame) = 340
8x Dragon Princes (FC, Banner of Ellyrion) = 305

Before we dig into the list, let me tell you about this dilemma that I have:

What do I take for my core choices?  Right now, I have the following choices at 2500 points:  The choice I have listed above; 60 spears total broken up into 3 units of 20 with Full Command.  My second option is the 30x LSG unit with Banner of Eternal Flame and another unit of 20x Spears in Full Command.  The bonus of the first is that I have 3 units top play with instead of 2.  Body count is 10 higher and each spear unit is fighting in 5x4 formation and have a lot of attacks going back against the enemy.  The advantage of the LSG combat formation is that they have bows that can shoot from 24" away and do a decent amount of damage.  They only have 10 less guys than the Spear regiment, but each LSG is 13 points and each dead is very costly to my army.  Personally, I think the 3 units of Spears are the way to do it.  More bodies means more combat efficiency and more units gives my opponents more to shoot at than just 2.

8th Ed. First Impressions

So I finally got in some games today with Warhammer Fantasy 8th Edition.  I played against a good friend of mine and he played as Tomb Kings.  First, I would like to say that he's an excellent Tomb Kings player that really knows his stuff.  I really wanted to see how 8th Ed. will treat HE, DE and TK, so I brought both my Dwarven and High Elf army to test the waters.

Now I know most of you think Tomb Kings is pretty borked this edition.. and this might be true unless their magic phase works like this:

They still generate PD and DD during their magic phases.
Their normal Priests have a +2 to dispel and their High Priests have +4.
Their incantations work exactly the same as their army book suggests it does.

That's what we played today and we had a hell of a good time.  Keep in mind that the FAQ should be coming out in the next couple of days and we're really hoping for them to rule in this direction.  By using the above and not the +PD on every bound cast, Tomb Kings played very true to their 7th Ed. playstyle.  You had to carefully choose which incantations to let slide and which ones to dispel.  Even though my High Elves had a +5 to dispel on Teclis, he was sweating at every attempt to dispel because a single roll of 1 or 2 could mean that he stops entirely.  Imagine failing to dispel Smiting on one of his Screaming Skulls and for him to cast Urgency on a big units of Chariots that goes smacking into the side of your spears.  Yeah.. that's the way Tomb Kings should play, and they're a damn good army when played right.

High Elves in 8th - Strategy

Now that you have an army, what do you do with it?  Let's go over my unit bucket really quickly and I'll go over the various strategies I plan on doing with them.  Keep in mind that there's a ton of units that'll have all kinds of great expectations, but these will probably fade once the games start rolling in.  Units such as Sword Masters, Lothern Sea Guard and Ellyrion Reavers all look pretty good on paper, but nothing says what works and what doesn't than spamming games.

Let's go over my units:

Teclis - Between Banner of Sorcery and the Moonstaff of Lileath, Teclis can generate an average of 11/12 Power Dice for himself at the beginning of every turn.  What you do with this is strictly up to you.  For me, the general options are:  Throw a giant spell like Purple Sun of Xereus out, full blown with 6-7 dice because even if you roll double 6s, you ignore your first miscast.  Once that thing hits the table, it will cause absolute havoc for your opponent.  You can also choose to cast more cautiously, throwing 3 dice at medium cost spells and up to 4-5 for high cost ones.  With an average roll, you should be able to IF these spells without dropping your concentration or anything else too drastic.  Just keep in mind you always have that Scroll of Hoeth in your inventory and use it when it matters.  Also keep in mind that just because Teclis is awesome at casting, doesn't mean you have to sit in the unit and cast without fear.  He is still the most fragile mage in the game with T2 and 3W with no saves of any kind.  Don't be afraid to run him out of the unit and cast some support spells because keeping him alive means absolutely everything if your army is focused on him.

Archmage [Book of Ashur or Hoeth] - For 330 points, the Lv.4 with Book of Ashur is now one of the best buys in the book.  The fact that the mage gets +6 to dispel before any dice are thrown is just gigantic.  That, combined with the fact that he also gets +5 to cast means that most low-medium spells are cast much easier.  Since you can now switch out spells for anything that rolls a double when you're randoming spells, getting the spells you need is much more reliable for a Lv.4.  The Book of Hoeth on the Archmage is also a pretty solid buy.  Having IF on any doubles as long as you reach the casting value lets you break through magical defenses if you throw enough dice at it.  Just be mindful of what spells you're trying to cast and always cast the big ones first if you can.  Casting a lower level spell and having the chance to lose concentration and not being able to cast anything else is bad.

High Elves in 8th - Making a list

With 8th Ed. on our doorstep, we must prepare ourselves for the trials of fire ahead.  The absolute worst thing you can do when going into a new edition is to march forward blindly and seeing where fate takes you.  I don't know about you guys, but I don't like it when my Elves die.  In fact, it offends me because it's my fault they're dying.  The entire point of spending ridiculous amounts of time taking them out of their cases and putting them on the table is to kill some face, and I intend on doing that to the fullest.

Now, I already listed the units that I think will be superior in 8th Ed in my previous articles.  I don't want to go over and explain everything all over again, but I will for the sake of time (and memory) write them all down here.  Just like my competitive Blood Angels unit bucket, I also have a competitive HE bucket.  It looks something like this:

Teclis
Archmage, Book of Ashur [or Hoeth, depending on lore]
Korhil
Caradryan
BSB, either on foot or mounted, with a good amount of protection
Prince, Star Dragon, Great Weapon, AoC, Vambraces, in larger games
Lv.1 Mage with Annulian Crystal
Lv.2 Mage with Seerstaff of Saphery
30x Spears in FC
30x LSG in FC
24x Phoenix Guard in 6x4 in FC
24x White Lions in 6x4 in FC
11-12x Dragon Princes in 6x2 in FC (varied size depends on BSB)
Lion Chariots
Great Eagles