High Elves: Brainstorm #1

Getting pretty excited man.

With High Elves rapidly approaching, I wanted to make a blog post every day until the book comes out this weekend.  These posts will hopefully capture your interest in the army and expand your mind along side mine.

Like I said before, I'm looking at 2 key playstyles with High Elves in their new book.  Those playstyles are the Dragon Lord and the Mage Lord.  To give an idea of the direction I want to go in, I'm going to post up some rough hypothetical army lists.

Dragon Lord
Prince on Star Dragon ~625
Lv.2 Mage, High Magic, Scroll ~160
Noble BSB, Dragon Prince ~175
11x Dragon Princes, Banner of World Dragon ~410
Core of Archers and Ellyrion Reavers ~625
2x Ice Phoenix ~480
2x Great Eagle ~100

Mage Lord
Lv.4 Archmage, High Magic, Book of Hoeth ~315
Lv.2 Loremaster, 2+ AS, Scroll ~250
Sea Helm BSB, 2+ AS, Luckstone ~150
30x Sea Guard, Eternal Flame ~625
+rest of core with Archers and/or Reavers
30x White Lions, BotWD ~470
5x Dragon Princes, Musician - 160
Ice Phoenix ~240
4x RBT ~280
2x Great Eagle ~100

Both of these lists are above the 2500 points window, but that's because I want to give you the best case scenario.  The prices I've listed are pretty ballpark, some we know like the 12pt LSG, the White Lions are rumored to be 13pts a piece, and I'm using a lot of the old values for our heroes/lords.  The Loremaster is complete guesswork, but to give you an idea, the current Prince is 150 points with full SoA benefits.

Alright, let me take you behind the scenes of these two lists and show you what I want to do.  I'll start with the Dragon Lord.  I'm sure as the week goes on and people all around the world gets their books, I'll be able to get a better picture on the points allotment and will adjust as we go.

Huge High Elves info dump

Boom.

By me.. with special thanks to my lovely wife and her iPad.

Now I'm not sure why GW has decided to post a free sample of the book that contains almost every rule, but here it is.

I'm writing this as fast as I can because I have a plane to catch at 6am.. Please excuse the rapid, frantic testing..

Holy crap new HE rumors!

Dragons with wizard levels what?!

The source claims he has the book.  I will be updating this thread with new info as I find it!

Source #1

- Imrik is in the book and it rides a dragon with next attributes:

15,9,0,8,8,1,7,9 Saves:2+/5+, S5 template, Lvl 2 mage

- All dragons can choose Lore of Fire

- Banner of the World Dragon remains

- Book of Hoeth is renamed (same cost). Gives irresistible force with doubles and Loremaster

- There is an expensive weapon that gives +3S

- Dragon Mage wears dragon armour

- No dragons on rare units

Source #2
From sample army book

Teclis - down 25 points - can take all spells from a lore of magic or can take 1 spell from each lore
Tyrion - up 10 points but now cav -

Seaguard - drop 1 point

Bolt throwers - drop 30 points - no stat changes

Eagles - same points but can now be taken in units and have 2 upgrades available - Swiftsense and Shredding Talons

Flame Phoenix - WS5, S5, T5, W5, A3, L8 - 225

Frost Phoenix - WS6, S6, T6, w5, A4, L9 - 240

Star dragon - WS, S,T,W - all 7
Moon dragon - all 6
Sun dragon - all 5

Huge HE picture dump

Pics removed

HE rumors trickle in

Damn I'm good.

Source #1

I don't know if this has been said, so...

Sea Helm provides his chariot with a 4+ invul save. If he joined a unit, it can make a free regroup after it has been charged (!)

Annointed is a pricy Lord with a 4+ invuln save

Frostheart Phoenix gives enemy units in b2b -1 strength and always strikes last

Flameheart deals d6 s4 hits to a unit he flies over , and d3 hits per every aditional rank the unit has. It can ressirect with full life.

Skycutter has s5, t4 and 4 wounds

Can have a s5 bolt thrower

Less then 100 points

Shadowwariors drop in points

Swordmasters, white lions, archers drop in points. Wl and sm more then archers. Lion chariot and bolt thrower drop significantly in points.

Loremaster is quiet expensive

Allarielle is a S4 mage, grants her unit a 5+ invul against non magical attacks, can heal herself or anither character, may grant +1 to hit for 1 turn (cc and ranged), all allied witards which use lore of life or lore of light get +4 on casting

Some confirmed HE rumors from the WD

Get hype!

UPDATED WITH MORE INFO!
Just rehashed stuff for the most part.
from Jossy's blog.

Source #1
Well this is more than a rumour roundup, its more a confirmation of what we will see in the new book. I've left the extortion rates in another post (read - prices)

Gone: Speed of Asuryan...

It is replaced with Always Strike first!
Martial Prowess and Valour of Ages remain

Deflect shots: Models with this special rule have a 6+ ward save against non-magical shooting attacks that do not have a template

Swordmasters of Hoeth and Loremasters of Hoeth have this rule

Loremaster of Hoeth:
M5 WS6 BS4 St4 T3 W3 I7 A3 Ld9
L2 mage. Does not role for spells, instead it automatically gets the signature spell of all the 8 battlemagic lores

White Lion Chariot is stubborn, but only the charioteers get ASF

Dragon Mage stats are unchanged.
Reckless special rule grants them +2 to cast spells from the lore of fire instead of extra dice. Can wear Dragon Armour

Known magic items:
Khaines Ring of Fury
Gem of Sunfire
Banner of the World Dragon

Magic
2 Signature Spells:

Drain magic, 7+ to cast. Cast on any unit (friend or foe) as an augment/hex within 18". All RiP spells are immediatley dispelled, and the effects of ALL other spells on target unit immediately cease! Boosted to effect all friend/enemy units within 18" on a 14+

Soul Quench, 8+ to cast, 2D6 St4 18" range, 16+ 4D6 St4

Spells:

1. Apotheosis, augment 5+ to cast, target immediately regains a lost wound. boosted 10+ regains +D3 wounds. Target gains fear until next magic phase.

2. Hand of Glory, augment, 5+, 18" range, WS, BS, I, or M (you choose) increased by D3. Boosted 10+ increase all listed characteristics (roll one D3 for all)

Lore Attribute: Each time a spell is cast, the caster and his unit gain +1 to their ward save (to a maximum of 3+). Models with no ward save gain a 6+

Known army composition:

Rare
Flamespyre Phoenix
Frostheart Phoenix
Sisters of Averlorn
Eagle Claw bolt thrower

Special
Swordmasters
Lothern Skycutter

Core
Silverhelms
Ellyrian Reavers
Spearmen
Archers

Lords
Loremasters of Hoeth
Annointed of Asuryan

Heros
Dragonmages
Mages
Sea Helm
Handmaiden

Flamespyre Phoenix comes back to life on a role of 6+. It requires a marker to be left in place so this either happens at the end of the turn/next magic phase or every turn. It deploys within 6" of the marker. Gains special abilities based on WoM rolls (owners turn determines). One result is 4+ ward save. Has flaming attacks and a special rule 'Wake of Fire', which means units it fly over take damage (in the battle report in WD it did 6 wounds to leadbelchers). It has at least 4 wounds.

Frostheart Phoenix are just old Flamespyre Phoenicies

Both types can be ridden by an anointed of Asuryan or by Caradryan

Theres a special character/unique Phoenix called Ashtari. I think its the mount for Caradryan

The Flamespyre kit can build a foot version of an anointed of Asuryan

Lothern Skycutters
3 variants: Eagle eye bolt thrower, trio of Lothern Sea Guard, or mount for new character type Sea Helm. They are pulled by a Swiftfeather Roc, which is a huge giant eagle.

Maidenguard are rares with magical flaming bows. They have the wychfire special rule (lets hope its not like DoC). They are not handmaidens!

Handmaidens are now new character option in hero

Shadow Warriors are still special and still have the skirmish rule

Mat Ward is the author of Warhammer High Elves new army book!

NEW High Elves rumors from WD!

Straight from the WD it seems..

Source #1 - Source says from the WD

Some rumours for you all.

New Sea Guard character type. Can ride flying chariot
Hoeth Loremaster is a Lord choice and is L2 mage that knows all signature spells from battle magic.
Phoenix gets buffs based on winds of magic. If it dies, comes back on a roll of a 6
Reavers and Silverhelms core
Bolt throwers are rare
High Elf lore attribute "Shield of Saphery" grants 6+ ward save, if you have a 6+ ward save already it increase by +1
White Lions and Swordmasters still have ASF...
Phoenix can be ridden or unridden. Flame Phoenix is anointed of Asuuryan, Frost is anointed of Caradryan
Sisters of Averlorn, magic bows.