Hey, what's up folks! How's it hangin? lol... I've been painting a lot of Dark Elves lately for Genghis Con coming up on Feb. 17 or so. For those who don't know, Genghis is going to have a 40k GT with 5 games this year (first time ever, instead of just 3) and then on Sunday there will be the Fantasy Tournament. I don't play a lot of Fantasy (as in, 5 games total this entire edition) but I'm hoping to have a competitive list that can take care of my blunders.
First, I want to complain just a little bit. Dark Elves troops are cool, but they're all very squishy. They have no real resilient units out there, though they end up costing quite a few points. I've had issues with this in the past, and figured maybe MSU was the way to do things, to minimize the times I lost things.
However, MSU doesn't really work as well with this army, since to be effective in combat, your blocks of infantry need to be able to slug it out for more than a single turn in order to finagle your way into a flank charge or whatever it takes to totally. Killing most of a unit isn't worth anything in this edition, and feeding a deathstar your units piecemeal isn't fun at all. So you've got to have some big units. But then the issue comes in: what do I do about stone throwers? It's a tough thing to contemplate, honestly.
So, I've been just kinda working on hammering out my basic list, with a lot of random stuff- what I guess I'd consider a balanced list. The only thing I really didn't like very much were the Dark Riders, which I have painted, but don't really add a whole lot to the list. In fact, people just kill them for easy Victory Points. They don't do much in combat, they take a lot of maneuvering to get into position to kill war machines. They can't even kill small shooty units, because Stand and Shoot will kill them too easily.
Here's my new list (at 2250):
Supreme Sorceress w/ Lvl. 4, Pendant of Khaleth (reverse ward save), Sacrificial Dagger, Lifetaker (bow that always hits on a 2+, and shoots 3 shots), Ironcurse Icon (unit gets 6+ ward vs. warmachines)
Master w/ Armor of Eternal Servitude, BSB, Mundane Gear, Cold One Chariot
10x Repeater Crossbowmen w/ Musician/Standard, Shields
10x Repeater Crossbowmen w/ Musician/Standard, Shields
10x Repeater Crossbowmen w/ Musician/Standard, Shields
35x Dark Elf Warriors w/ Shields, Musician/Standard, Flaming Standard (Sorceress goes here)
20x Black Guard w/ Musician/Standard, Banner of Murder
Cold One Chariot
Cold One Chariot
Cold One Chariot
War Hydra
War Hydra
(with about 50 to spare)
First, I want to thank Nikephoros for the idea. He didn't actually advise me to take Chariots per sey, but he has been making lists a lot lately involving the Chariots on his blog, and has influenced my thinking about them.
That being said, I'm not sure he'd really like this list. But there are reasons this list could work well, I think, despite what looks like a random smattering of units. I have some T5 guys, some blocks of infantry, a Sorceress, some shooting... etc. Lots of things, without any real specific focus, which I think is what Nike would not like.
Here's the thing: I think the Chariots are simply far superior to the Dark Riders. They can actually survive if they charge an MSU shooting unit similar to my Crossbowmen. On top of that, they can hurt just about anything in the game, and when two (or preferably three) of them charge a unit, that's what... 3d6 +3 S5 hits that occur before actual swings happen. On average, that's going to be 13 S5 hits, before the 6 S5 WS5 reroll to hit swings, before the 6 S4 swings. Against T3, that's generally going to kill like 15 dudes. Against T4, it's still going to kill like 10 or so. Enough to seriously ruin their ranks. A block of 20 guys will break that turn, most times. Bigger blocks of infantry will be susceptible to Hydra's flame templates, spells, and my own blocks of infantry.
There's also the potential of facing off against a deathstar unit, and tying them up with either my big spear block or Black Guard, while the chariots and hydras get the flank charges. And if I need to warmachine hunt, a 14" march move on the first turn ensures that they'll be in range to charge warmachines consistently Turn 2, just like Dark Riders could. Heck, Chariots can still even shoot.
The thing I like most though, is their T5 W4. That's a lot of effort the enemy needs to put in to actually killing 100 points of model. And whereas a single T5 W4 model isn't super crazy hard to deal with, I have 6 in this list. With a couple solid blocks of infantry, and a good spell caster.
The chariots simply add something to the list that was not there before- speed I had, but speed that could actually deliver a strong punch I was lacking. I needed to get the strong (resilient) combat presence from somewhere- and the Dark Riders really weren't adding much to the list as it was. It's almost like a free 300 points, lol.
Also of note, is the lack of my Cauldron of Blood in the list. Instead, my BSB that I'm spending 200+ points on is going to be actually actively doing something, and hopefully killing lots of face. Here's a question: if someone shoots the chariot, would I get the regen save that my magic armor conveys every time against it? Can't find my rulebook, heh.
So, what do you think? Fail? Awesomesauce?
As a sidenote- anyone have any good ideas on how to get my hands on Cold One Chariots? They aren't on the GW site, and ebay doesn't have much. I'd be willing to use other faction's chariots, and just use my Cold One models from the Knight kits to supplement it, but what army's chariots would best fit Dark Elves?
Also, any ideas on how to spend my extra 50 points? Extra crossbows make me sad to paint, but that's probably what will happen if I don't get any better ideas.
