8th Ed. Advice for tackling High Elves

[Spiney Norman]

I have a game with high elves planned next week and this will be the first time I've played their new army book. Can folks give me any pointers to watch out for.

Its a 2K game so I don't have to worry about tooled up dragon lords, I'm currently thinking a core of Saurus and skink Skirmishers backed up with supporting salamanders and Cham skinks/ripperdactyls to tackle any RBTs as early as possible. If I can frog the arch mage's unit then hopefully the ripperdactyls might be able to drop him when the WMs are dealt with.

My main question is whether to try and stall his magic phase with scroll/cube priests or try and dominate the magic phase with a Slann. As an alternative I could field an old blood (on foot, cold one or carnosaur) as a lord choice. If I do choose the Slann then the question of lore comes up, but I've had good results using wandering deliberations against a variety of other armies so it might be interesting to see how it works with HE.

The Bastiladon seems a little superfluous since the Int bonus will likely count for nothing and I rather expect the laser beam to be dispelled without a second glance (expecting an archmage with the book), so perhaps stegs would be a better choice here.

 

[Scalenex]

LM vs. HE Comprehensive Tactica

A Core made up of Saurus and Skirmishers seems solid. I doubt you'd get much mileage out of Skroxigor.

HEs have trouble deploying really tight at 2000 points, so Chameleon Skinks ought to be able to hit RBT pretty well. I have yet to use Rippers myself so I can only guess.

I agree that Bastiladon won't contribute as much here as with other armies. The enemy you most want to blast (Dragon Knights) is resistant to Flaming Attacks and the Initiative bonus won't matter.

A regular Stegadon will provide all the damaging power you need to stomp on HE infantry. The Ancient's Steggy would help against the Phoenixes but it'd be hard to get the charge on them.

A Carnosaur is overkill against most HE units but it should be great against chariots and phoenixes if your Carnosaur can catch he more mobile enemies. Perhaps you can use your Carnosaur to play herd with these units?

I cannot say if you should take a Slann or not, but I would say your Skink Priests should take Heavens whether you take a Slann or not since HEs have a lot of flyers. You'll need Uranon's Thunderbolt or Chain Lightning to put the hurting on the Phoenixes, the lore attribute alone will sting against the lighter flyers.

 

[Spiney Norman]

LM vs. HE Comprehensive Tactica

A Core made up of Saurus and Skirmishers seems solid. I doubt you'd get much mileage out of Skroxigor.

HEs have trouble deploying really tight at 2000 points, so Chameleon Skinks ought to be able to hit RBT pretty well. I have yet to use Rippers myself so I can only guess.

I agree that Bastiladon won't contribute as much here as with other armies. The enemy you most want to blast (Dragon Knights) is resistant to Flaming Attacks and the Initiative bonus won't matter.

A regular Stegadon will provide all the damaging power you need to stomp on HE infantry. The Ancient's Steggy would help against the Phoenixes but it'd be hard to get the charge on them.

A Carnosaur is overkill against most HE units but it should be great against chariots and phoenixes if your Carnosaur can catch he more mobile enemies. Perhaps you can use your Carnosaur to play herd with these units?

I cannot say if you should take a Slann or not, but I would say your Skink Priests should take Heavens whether you take a Slann or not since HEs have a lot of flyers. You'll need Uranon's Thunderbolt or Chain Lightning to put the hurting on the Phoenixes, the lore attribute alone will sting against the lighter flyers.

Thanks, I actually hadn't connected that heavens would help against the flyers, its just one of the things I tend to forget because I never use it. Perhaps I will go for a carno lord and 2-3 skink priests rigged for magic defense. I'm thinking Saurus will be a better option than temple guard because the advantages that TG have over Saurus just don't seem to make much of a difference vs HE.

 

[Spiney Norman]

Here is an army list I have out together for my game on tues.

http://www.lustria-online.com/threads/2000-pt-carno-list-for-fighting-high-elves.12943/