1k Elves 3rd Edition

Army lists and Tactics
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I’ve played WHFB back in the day. I decided to pick up KOW and start off using my old models. I through together this 1k list after quickly reading the rules through once in preparation for a first game with a friend. It comes out at exactly 1k. I’d love some feedback on the list as I’m a noob. Thanks.

Points: 1000
Unit Strength: 11

Palace Guard Regiment
Kindred Tallspear Regiment
– Blade of Slashing
Kindred Archer Regiment
– Piercing Arrow
Stormwind Cavalry Troop
Stormwind Cavalry Troop
Battlecat Regiment
Bolt Thrower
Army Standard Bearer
Elven Prince

3 Likes
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Hi Trodi,

Especially for a first battle, there’s nothing wrong with a combined arms list such as this one. There’s some infantry, some cavalry, a war machine and some characters.

As 3rd edition is just starting, there’s no tried and tested way to play any army. In any case, the 2dn edition “run&shoot” way of playing elves is no more. It could very well be that a combined infantry force is the way to play!

Good luck and let us know how it went!

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I also like to play combined arms with elves. My experience is that it is a fun style to play that opponents also find interesting.

You may want to experiment with an archmage in place of the prince. Elite on spells is really good. But this is a useful starter list that will teach you things about each phase of the game IMO.

I am a casual player without much tournament experience though, so bear that in mind.

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Welcome! The list looks decent as is, will serve you fine in your first game. I do think you’ll hurt for a second inspiring (had to check that the Prince just hits things), and an Archmage would be nice so you can experience some magic, even if it’s just blasting things. The only way I could loosen up some points was to combine the Stormwind, which is honestly how you’ll likely run them in future games, as a proper hammer.

Here’s a tweaked list if you’re interested:

Army: Elves
Points: 1000
Unit Strength: 12

230, Stormwind Cavalry Regiment
– Helm of Confidence
160, Palace Guard Regiment
140, Kindred Tallspear Regiment
120, Kindred Archer Regiment
80, Battlecat Regiment
90, Bolt Thrower
115, Elven Archmage
– Inspiring Talisman
– Lightning Bolt (5)
65, Army Standard Bearer
– War-Bow of Kaba

  • Stormwind regimented up for points efficiency, and I gave them self-inspiring since they’ll be operating away from your slow foot inspirers so often. Typically you want to go with Potion of the Caterpillar on your cav hammer, and Boots of Striding on your second one if you take two, but I decided the inspiration might be better? Plus you’ll learn how hindering works without it :stuck_out_tongue:
  • Archmage appears! He has the talisman so he inspires, and I went with LB (5) because it’s nice and straight forward. It’s also the most expensive option, so you could down shift to other powers if you prefer - the same points buys Mind Fog (2) + Bane Chant (2), for example, which isn’t a bad alternate and a little more toolboxy. Actually kinda digging that now, tho the lightning will do work in small games especially.
  • Army Standard got a warbow, because I always try to give my ASBs something to do besides stand around. Common items are Lute, Boomstick, Shroud, Wand, Warbow sort of in that order.

Hope that helps! My goal was to give you some Nv insurance and a few more tools to work with.

2 Likes
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I finally was able to play my first game. I ended up making the changes @Boss_Salvage suggested as I really wanted to bust out an old wood elf mage mini I had… I went with Bane Change / Mind Fog combo though. We played a 3 person game at 2300 points. (My 1k elves + 1.3k Orcs vs 2300 Basileans), kill scenario. Win.

Was a lot of fun. Casting Bane Chant on the Tallspears and the Palace Guard was really nice and the regiment of Stormwind calvary brought some decent damage. Archers didn’t output much damage. I liked the list, though I’m not sure if I would have had enough CS units without my partner. Hopefully I can play just a 1k game with this list next time to get a good feel for it.

2 Likes
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Happy to hear the list worked for you :smiley: Hopefully you can get that solo game in soon and get a better feel for the army on its own.

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Played this list tonight against The Herd. Scenario: Kill. Result: Win. Was a fun, great game. We had 7 pieces of terrain on 4x4 (4 obstacles, 2 woods, 1 blocking). My take aways:

  • Mind fog wasn’t great for this opponent (units with - / 18 etc.). I’m going to try out lightning bolt sometime.
  • Kindred Archers feel like expensive chaff (maybe just get rid of them)
  • Worrying about being hindered reduced Stormwind Cav effectiveness to a degree (will look into boots/caterpillar)
    • There is a lot of terrain to deal with.
  • Considering removing the ASB and reallocating points elsewhere (Warbow looks to be a great 5pt item)
2 Likes
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Victory! Now to add objectives to your next game :wink:

Your conclusions seem about right - mind fog is meh, kindred archers are shruggable (maybe more useful if they were holding a backfield objective or something), strider boots or pathfinder potion are great on your cav hammer, and while the ASB is undeniably useful, giving him something to do besides stand within 6" of stuff is preferred.

How’d you like the single bolt thrower? It’s not a well loved war engine, and I dunno if one does enough to warrant all its positioning woes when it comes to LOS and stuff.

Here’s a side thought that might appeal:

Army: Elves
Points: 1000
Unit Strength: 13

230, Stormwind Cavalry Regiment
– Sir Jesse’s Boots of Striding
160, Palace Guard Regiment
165, Therennian Sea Guard Regiment
165, Therennian Sea Guard Regiment
80, Battlecat Regiment
115, Elven Archmage
– Inspiring Talisman
– Lightning Bolt (5)
85, Army Standard Bearer
– Lute of Insatiable Darkness

My brother likes sea guard, and while they pay for having both shooting and fighting, I kind of dig the flexibility. If you don’t actually have the models, guessing you could mix archers + spears in a pinch! Also got the ASB bane chant of his own, freeing the mage up to just laser stuff all game long.

Another thought on the previous list might be to swap the archers for a troop of silverbreeze? They were heralded as the new shooting core for elves, and while its fewer shots, they’re better shots as well as a much faster and useful (as chaff, as flankers, as war engine hunters?) unit. And a simple swap, with just a little points rejiggering.

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In the 2 games I had with the bolt thrower, I rolled better than average and so it helped a good bit for its points.

I played the sea guard list tonight. Scenario: Smoke & Mirrors. Great game, I lost, but likely would have had the victory if we had a turn 7. All in all, great fun.

The sea guard are definitely better than archers and it adds flexibility over the bolt thrower. However, if you move, you hit on 6s. If my math is correct, a bolt thrower, regiment of archers, and a regiment of sea guard should all do about 2 wounds against defense 4 (if you don’t move). You just can’t bring much of an arrow punch. The flexibility of a troop of silverbreeze is likely a smarter option. The bolt thrower still seems like a good cheap option to provide some area control and force enemy to waste time hunting it. Might be fun to swap in a regiment of drakon riders instead of shooting as well.

1 Like
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I would argue that the Sea Guard is way too expensive for what they can do. You pay too much for a rather bad shooting stats, which gets almost impossible to hit with once you move, shoot something in cover or something with stealth. To get something close to effective, you have to stand still and shoot, which means you won’t have the unit engaged in close combat or moved up to objectives. All in all you pay a LOT of points for something that doesn’t really do a good job in either melee or ranged combat.

I would suggest using tallspears if you want close combat, and look into silverbreeze cav for ranged combat. Honestly though, compared to v2, the elf in the current version lost a lot of their effective ranged combat, so whilst you might still be able to pluck out small units (chaff and soft regiments), you need to look into more hardhitting close combat to take out the tougher units. The reason I like she silverbreeze cav, is that they can both take out smaller units with shooting, but also manouver up on flanks and rear of enemy units to get a nice close combat phase with an additional banechant on top of them.

Bolt throwers still work, although I personally don’t use them much anymore as they mostly worked great together with the v2 archer horde and master hunter to pluck out enemy units quickly. They still work though, so keep experimenting with them (and other combinations of units).