NEW High Elves pics! AGAIN!

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Brace for impact.

Thank you all for all your support thus far!  I opened shop as a one-man writing team a little over 3 years ago.  It's been good times and smooth sailing.

Looking back through all my articles, I would say I developed as a writer quite a bit since I first started.  I read some of my earlier pieces and I'm like god, did I write this shit?  I've taken a little more time with articles these days, but I still make some mistakes.  Oh well.

Next month is High Elves and the month after is Eldar.  Be prepared to be spammed with rumors, reviews, games and battle reports!  To celebrate, I'll share with you my favorite 40K art to date.  There's just nothing manlier than an Assault Space Marine rearranging your face on the charge.

PS - I've been playing Age of Empires 3 on my spare time, the game's amazing.  I was really good at it too!

Sample Tau list

For the Greater Good!

I've only had the codex for a couple of days, but here's what I drew up:

Here is the list..

1993
14 kp

HQ:
Commander - 155
Shield Generator (4+ invul)
Flamer
Airburst Fragmentation
Targetlock
Multi-Spectrum Sensor Suite

TROOP:
12x Fire Warriors (Sash'ui) - 208
Devilfish
Twin-linked SMS

12x Fire Warriors (Sash'ui) - 208
Devilfish
Twin-linked SMS

12x Fire Warriors (Sash'ui) - 208
Devilfish
Twin-linked SMS

ELITE:
3x XV8 Crisis Team = 126
Twin-linked Missiles

XV104 Riptide - 185
Ion Accelerator

XV104 Riptide - 185
Ion Accelerator

FAST ATTACK:
10x Pathfinders (Shas'ui) = 121
Blacksun Filter

HEAVY:
3x XV88 Broadsides (Shas'vre) = 205

Hammerhead = 146
Blacksun Filter
Twin-linked SMS
Submunitions
Disruption Pod

Hammerhead = 146
Blacksun Filter
Twin-linked SMS
Submunitions
Disruption Pod

Aegis Defense Line = 100
Quad-Gun

The army explained:

The general idea is to deploy the Aegis Defense Line defensively and have the Commander and the Crisis Suits he joined "man" it.  The Devilfish holds the Tau Warriors inside, ready to deploy any time the enemy comes close to threaten points.  In the mean time, they join in long-ranged firepower support with Burst Cannons and Twin-Linked SMS.  Twin-linked SMS are all over this army and they're quite insane.  Heavy 4, twin-linked, S5 AP5 Ignore cover for each system.  The Hammerheads with their Blacksun Filters have Night Vision, and with Disruption Pod gives them a 4+ cover Jink if they move at all.

Pathfinders Scout and apply their tasty markerlights to everything, increasing everyone's BS at the target unit and/or stripping away their cover save.  This makes them really easy targets for the XV88s and XV104 Riptide's heavy weaponry.  Ion Accelator on the Riptides gives them a lot of flexibility.  Standard shots are S7 AP2 Heavy 3, you can choose to overcharge them for S8 AP2 Large Blast but Gets Hot, or you can Nova-charge them for S9 AP2 Ordnance, Gets Hot, Large Blast.  It's to note that the XV88s not only have twin-linked S8 AP1 rifles, but they also have Twin-linked Smart Missile Systems.. you know, those thing that are S5 Ignore Cover.

Anti-air comes in the form of heavy-focus fire and the Aegis Defense Line.  With the number of heavy ordnance you have flying around the battlefield, I have no doubt that Tau will deal with flying threats without much issue.  If needed, you can always change meta specifics for more crueler warfare vs. flyers specifically.  Almost everything in the army have the option to buy Skyfire, but it's a little heavy in points.

To top off the funny, the Commander can choose to forfeit his shooting in his round to allow his squad to shoot twin-linked S7 missiles that Ignore Cover.  Of course, should the enemy flyer come in on their turn, he can just Intercept with a BS5 Quad-gun.  Target Lock (essentially split fire) allows him to redirect his Airburst Fragmentation weapon to horde units that might threaten the Greater Good while the rest of his squad engages armored threats.  Airburst gives you a S4 AP5 Large Blast, Ignore Cover, Barrage weapon lol.  The amount of anti-armor in this list is gigantic, but the weakness to hordes have also been nullified due to no less than 5 templates:  1 from the HQ, 2 from the Hammerhead's Submunitions S6 AP4 Large Blast, and 2 from the Riptides S8 AP2 (or S9..).

Damage wise, we're looking at...
40x BS3 twin-linked S5 missiles that ignore cover
2x S10 AP1 BS4 shots from the Hammerheads, or 2x S6 AP4 pie plates
6x S7 AP2 shots from the Riptides, or S8 AP2 pite plates
6x S7 bs3 twin-linked missiles that ignore cover
3x S8 AP1 bs3 twin-linked shots from the broadsides
...a bunch of markerlights
...and not counting the Pulse Rifles from the Fire Warriors or the Burst Cannons from the Devilfish.

And no, I will NOT be going Tau :)  Eldar in June.
Let me know what you think of the list!

The Dragonlord and the Archmage

Trying to keep sane for one more month..

The two playstyles that I adhere most to when playing my High Elves is the Dragon Lord, and the Archmage.  Both playstyles can win you games, and they're both radically different from one another.  The Dragon Lord focuses on the Prince on Star Dragon.  With the new book coming, it's safe to say that things will be completely different than what we have now.  I've made an earlier prediction that we won't see a 4+ equivalent armor similar to Gromil, instead we'll have Lion Cloaks that'll give us +1AS.  The important thing to note is that all of our magic items will change.

What excites me the most is that the Star Dragon will probably see a statline adjustment to match that of the Greater Dragon from Storm of Magic.  We're talking about T7 here folks for 20 points more than the Star Dragon is right now.  Everything else is the same.  What further stands out is the fact that the normal Dragon, which is obviously the equivalent to the Moon Dragon is 300 points.  You know what's stopping High Elf players from taking this one?  The fact that he only has a 4+ AS.  Fear not, all the dragons in Storm of Magic have 3+ Scaly Skin and I bet all the money in the world HE will get the same treatment.

The only thing I'm not sure is how GW will work out the breath weapons.  I can perfectly see the Sun Dragon having S4 Flaming, but what about the Moon and the Star?  Perhaps S3 Breath ASL for Moon and Storm Dragon-equivs for the Star Dragons?  Doesn't sound right.  I'm thinking they'll just be more powerful versions of the same breath, or maybe we'll see GW invent something completely new and unseen.  All I know is, Forest Dragon is obviously Wood Elves, Black Dragons obviously Dark Elves, and well, only Frost and Storm are left.

Regardless, I'll be bringing my Dragonlord to the field again.  My list will have a Prince on Star Dragon, either Nobles on Phoenixes, smaller Dragons or maybe even Griffons, or if rumors hold true and we see a Warrior-Mage, I'll bring him on a Dragon too!  Add in 2x Phoenixes in the Rare slot and fill the rest with cavalry, Archers and Eagles, I'm pretty sure my entire army will be fast and mostly flying.  I can't tell you how excited I am to field this army right now.

Damn the Tau.. bring on the Eldar!

Give them to me.. NOW!

The current rumors point at May being High Elves and Eldar being June or July.  I must say, I've been pretty excited to get back into WHFB for a while now.  I'm getting my Vampire Counts up to speed and now I'm just looking forward to get some of those HE Phoenixes.  When Eldar drops by, I know for a fact I'll be getting the book and incorporating some Eldar into my Dark Eldar forces.

For all those who play Dark Eldar, have you ever thought which combination will suit you better?  Do you go Eldar primary with Dark Eldar support?  Or do you do Dark Eldar with Eldar support.  Personally for me, I think Dark Eldar primary is the best way to do it.  Here's why..

Dark Eldar gives you access to Poison weapons, something the Eldar will not have.  Dark Eldar is also bound to bring more lances; more specifically, moving lances.  If you look at Eldar's selection of units, most of them are designed with very specific modes roles in mind.  That's why they have Aspect Warriors in the first place!  The Elite slot provides you with dedicated CC in the form of Banshees and Striking Scorpions, and powerful anti-tank in the way of Fire Dragons.  Fast Attack, I'm god honestly hoping for the Nightwing, or the War Walkers to be moved to FA.  For now, Warp Spiders as a big support unit is pretty tempting, but mind you Dark Eldar also has access to Scourges and Reaver Jetbikes.

The big thing that Eldar will bring is the Farseer.  It gives you plenty of spells to cast, magic protection (hopefully a 24" Runes of Warding), and access to the Divination lore.  Best of all, you take this HQ on a Jetbike and now you can take your scoring Guardian Jetbikes as a bodyguard.  This automatically frees some of your Wych slots in exchange for Banshees perhaps.  Should the Nightwing make an appearance, DE players might also think about dropping their Voidraven for a Nightspinner in the heavy slot to go with your Ravagers.  Should all else fail, you'll always have War Walkers in that slot.  I hear they go quite nice with Prescience!

High Elves in May and Eldar in June.  Keep an sharp eye on this blog in the next couple of weeks, it will be exploding with info as these are my primary armies.  Oh, and also look out for Vampire Counts stuff and a Tau army book review.

My predictions on the HE army book

Put on that designer's hat and eat some crow!

Here's what I think we'll see in the book.
Keep in mind that the rumors are already out and about, and people say those are actual playtesting rules.  Whether or not they're several iterations of the rules bundled together, or all the rules from who knows when remains to be seen.

Now that we know the general direction of the book, I would like to make some predictions:
Special Rules for the army is Martial Prowess, 6+ Parry regardless of the weapon you're holding, and ignore ASL/negative shooting modifiers.

Based on these rumors, I'm willing to bet we'll see Martial Prowess and 6+ Parry in 1 rule (Martial Prowess), and Ignore ASL/shooting mods with another Special Rule, Elven Weapons/Dexterity?  That's two army-wide special rules.  If the Elven Weapons rule applies, I'm willing to bet it'll be standard across all three Elven armies:  Dark Elves and Wood Elves included.

Assuming we get all three of these special rules, I'm expecting the cost of the army to not change much at all. Sword Masters are supposedly getting "stances" similar to Wardancers, White Lions are supposed to get some kind of bonus vs. monsters (see Empire's Monster Hunter dude), and Phoenix Guard will be Unbreakable with MR and a ward save (not sure if 4+ anymore).  There's a rumor out there that Spears and LSG will be able to take Heavy Armor, and that Archers will have Light Armor.  With this in mind, I'm guessing the prices will stay the same, or 1 point cheaper at max.  If there's some special rules missing, we'll probably see 2 points reduction max.  If anything, heroes will see their points reduced more than anything.  None of our army-wide special rules really benefit the heroes, not even the Parry save one because most will have better ward saves.  I expect the prices to fall to make room for more expensive/better mounts.

Another rumor that's been circulating is that there'll be an Ithilmar Armor; something similar to Full Plate Armor, Chaos Armor or Gromil Armror, so 4+ AS.  I don't think we'll see this because it conflicts with Dragon Armor, step on other army designs, and I don't think we'll need it.  I expect Lion Pelts to be an option, and it'll act the same way as DE Sea Dragon Cloaks (+1 AS, +2 vs. shooting).  That way, we can get Dragon Armor and take Lion Pelt and obtain the same bonus.  What I do think will happen is Ithilmar Barding, which is simply a barding option that allows our steeds to move at full movement.

Our core choices will be expanded, so I'm willing to bet we'll see Ellyrion Reavers in core, possibly Silver Helms and Shadow Warriors.  Out of all those choices, I'm betting on Ellyrion Reavers the most.  In terms of our Dragons, I fully expect them to be normalized with the Storm of Magic book.  Sun Dragon will have Lesser Dragon stats, Moon Dragon will have normal dragon stats, and the Star Dragon will be a Greater Dragon, complete with T7.  All three will see 3+ Scaly, prices will be similar, and who knows, different breath options as well since it already exists in the Storm of Magic book.  The HE Griffon will probably also see a statline to match that of the Empire's Griffon (-1I, +1S and W + points reduction to 170), but it might just keep the I5 for -1S because the Empire book did say specifically that their Imperial Griffons are bred to be bigger and better.

Magic item wise, everything that's in the 8th Ed. BRB will replace similar items in the HE book.  Guardian Phoenix (5+ ward) is gone,  Armor of Caledor (2+ AS) is gone, you know, everything similar will take a hike.  Certain magic items will be rolled into returning Special Characters.  Imrik will once again pick up his Star Lance, Armor of Caledor, Dragonhorn, and the White Sword might go on that rumored Swordmaster Mage.  Book of Hoeth will probably disappear and/or get rolled into Teclis.  What will remain are those magic items unique to High Elves.  Vambraces of Defense, Banner of World Dragon, Battle Banner, Ring of Corin, you know, things that are truly unique.

Some rumored HE rules

Damn that's a nice helm.

Some rumors on the new High Elves..

GENERAL SPECIAL RULES:

-NO ASF or Valor as we know it today.

-Elven Dexterity: units with this rule can use parry save when wielding any weapon, even if mounted (some units may use it against shooting or even if mounted).

-Special rule for rolling an additional dice on chase an remove the lowest result (or four dice removing two lowest dices to swift stride).

-IaC: more than fucking around, there are chances that the general may somehow help, dependin on region/power chosen it benefits some units.

SPECIAL RULES ON WEAPONRY:

-Elven Weapons: no penalties on two-handed or moving&shooting (there may exist extra bonus on elite units). (Translator says: in the beginning I thought of SW, but maybe maidens are also here).

-Ithilmar armor: no penalties when moving, +1AS on heavy armor (only on elite units).

-Dragon Armor: 3+ armor save against flaming attacks.

-Lion Pelt: Can also be used in CC.

MAGIC SPECIAL RULES:

-Elven Mages: +1 to dispel and can repeat channelings.

-High Magic: More powerful spells and representing the 8 lores of magic. It is said that there is one that gives life back to a dead character and other one specific against Chaos and "Bad" armies. They will be the most powerful sorcerers until Lizards get renewed after summer. Some rules will be shared with them.

SPECIFIC RULES ON UNITS:

-Martial Prowess: Elves fight and shoot with a extra rank (not specified, but this could be armywide).

-Spears and LSG: heavy armor and shield option.

-Archers: Light Armor.

-SHs: Heavy armor. Cheaper.

-Ellyrian Reavers: Same.

-T-Chariot: Same, cheaper.

-SMs: Parry save against shooting, Swords of Hoeth, Paths fighting.

-White Lions: Lumber Axes, Stubborn, Forest Stride.

-Phoenix Guard: Know their destiny (unbreakable), Magic Resistance, Ward Save. (maybe something about flaming attacks).

-SWs: Stalkers (?), Night Warriors (?).

-DPs: Caledor Proudness, all the rest remains the same.

-Lion Chariot: Same, cheaper.

-Flying Chariot: RBT on top of it, crew with elven weapons.

-RBT: cheaper, better.

-Dragons: Will of the Dragon (mix of 5ed. rule plus communion with rider that makes them share some rules). Super Dragon (Caledor Dragon?) may be wizard too.

-Phoenix: May be consecrated to Asuryan or another God (Phoenix alone or in a shrine?)

-Fire Dragons (MC): same as dragon princes, beast mounted is better than eagle but worse than a hypogryphe. Fly, 1+AS. Rare.

-Maiden Guard: Avelorn Mirror (?), Deadly in CC (?) (Translator says: I think no one knows what they'd do. I thought they would not exist, thought this was a wishlist... Maybe it's just a unit upgrade after all...).

-Warrior-mage (different from dragon-mage): Hoeth disciplines, fighting magic (guy was convinced one of them would be Belannaer).

REMEMBER: All this are rumors. Cheers

++++++++++++

My thoughts:

Personally, I don't think we'll see this Ithilmar armor.  I think instead we'll see Lion Cloaks being the same as DE cloaks.  +1AS in general, +2 vs. shooting.  I do think we'll see Ithilmar Barding options on our steeds though.

Martial Prowess on all of our units, combined with 6+ Parry regardless of weapon, and ignoring ASL/moving and shooting modifiers will be great.  The delta damage range for attacking in extra ranks is much greater than the consistent ASF damage, but we can also see some rubber lance syndrome at times.  In addition, the 6+ Parry just adds another layer of protection for our units, and it's defensive in nature so it'll work nicely with the High Elves' current design philosophy.

With these rules, I expect to see no more than a 1 point drop on our units.  That means 8 point Spears ,14 point elites.  Heroes will most definitely get cheaper because of the loss of ASF and the fact most of army-wide rules do not benefit them at all.  However, the mention of Intrique makes me think they'll have province buffs of some kind of mitigate this.  If that's the case, then they'll probably only see a few points shaved off than current.