8th Ed. Vs. archer heavy opponents (High Elves).

[Slanputin]

I'm up against an archer-heavy army of High Elves, having faced them a few times before and been left somewhat sore. Anyone fancy throwing a few handy tips on how best to tackle such a force?
The most troublesome units being:

x3 Archer units.
x1 Bolt Thrower.
X1 White Lions.
x2 Mages.
x1 Archmage.
x1 Great Dragon.

Additionally they also tend to deploy Sword-masters, a White Lion Chariot, a Tyrinoc chariot and has a fondness for Nobles on horseback.

The army points tend to vary between 2000 - 2500.

Obviously my army is somewhat low on ranged attacks (Skinks and Salamanders being my best - although my Salamanders are cursed with frequent misfires), and my two Saurus units tend to deplete somewhat quickly under sustained vollys.

Any general ides on how to counter an archer/artillery heavy opponent?

Thanks

 

[NexS1]

i'd be thinking saurus with life's toughness buff, some chamos to take out the war machines/chariots and maybe a few terradons to take out small archer units or hold up har hitters for saurus to get into combat.

 

[n810]

The Sun Standard of Chotec should help any saurus or temple guard units.
anls heavens has some nice anti-shooting/getting hit spells.
also you can usually squeeze in an Ironcurse Icon on a character, note: it also protect his unit.

 

[Scalenex]

What they said, plus I wouldn't take any Skinks that aren't Chamo Skinks. Just like you should generally avoid taking big dinos against cannon heavy armies, you should generally avoid lots of brittle panic-prone small units against BS based shooting.

Lore of Metal is unorthodox but it will let you knock a dragon down, and it will also give you a spell to blast a Noble on horseback slumming with infantry. No look out sir. Transmutation of Lead is impairs CC fighters and shooters.

Light is probably a less unorthodox less risky option though.

 

[NexS1]

The Sun Standard of Chotec should help any saurus or temple guard units.

^ This

 

[Rettile]

you could try with an engine of the gods. Sometimes, usually when i give the lore of life to the slann, i use 2 of my units to cover the others and support them with extra toughness and regrowth. For example a unit of saurus warriors with extra toughness is very nasty for archers. The other unit could be the temple guard bunker, with regeneration and the sun standard. If they are supported by an EotG your opponent will cry, because if you get the right spells your units will be almos unkillable, and if he dispells you can still dweller one unit per magic phase...
for an artillery heavy opponent no steggies and field chamos in front of war machines: if you are lucky you'll destroy them, if you are unlucky your opponent won't shoot at your ranked units at least for the first turn

 

[Pofadder]

Imo a couple of units of chamo skinks mitigates BS based shooting rather well. Having more units of them means I use them as screens for my saurus warriors...That's a whopping -3 off the bat if accepting long range. Playing of Lore of Light means Pha's protection (especially bubbled) shines. The rest of the lore also works well against their ASF / rerolls with Speed of Light & Birona's

As previous poster mentioned you can still add an EOTG in the mix for Portent of warding (5++). Through screening and careful manouvering your Scar-vet cowboys (if you are running them) can go hunt those archer units or knight units, or war machines.

 

[Slanputin]

Cheers for the advice!

I usually take an EotG and clump at least one Saurus unit within the bubble, and combine it with a Light Slann provide protection whilst I push towards combat.

I'm currently working on a Terradon unit, so it'll be interesting to finally put them to use.
I'm lacking in the Chameleon Skink section however, so looks like that'll be my next unit
(unless this new release does come about and there's something more tempting..)

Btw, what exactly do you mean by 'cowboy Saurus'? I'm just imagining a Cold-One rodeo..

 

[n810]

He means a single Scar-vet on a Cold One geared up go out on his own.