Tromm to you,

my fellow dawi brethren. Herewith I will present you with the tactica against our former allies, elgi, High elves, children of Asur.
This article came into being as a cooperation of Vanyon Ulriksson and myself. There is much to be said about elgi, but the basis is simple: mean, fast and magicky.
After playing many a game against elgi we have been able to put these basic guidelines for you, so you would know what to await.

Here is Vanyon´s introduction. (Vanyon´s text is in italics)
Hello, Targ asked me to do a tactics article on the High Elves since I have been playing a lot of games against them lately. Let me preface this by saying I have been playing Meniour and can only comment on the units he takes, but I will do my best to make it an interesting read.

I am going to start with deployment. With a standard, 3 block plus artillery Dwarven army, my deployment goes something like this. I place a unit, HE places an eagle, I place another unit, HE places an eagle, I place a unit, HE places a Bolt Thrower, I place my guns. The HE now can place the rest of his army as he sees fit. He can take advantage of my deployment to place key units directly across from mine; he can also place his fast units in the most desirable places. In short, he will out deploy you. This means that your deployment must be solid so there are no mistakes for him to exploit. You must have each unit where you want it and know what you want to do with it. Also, take a good look at your artillery, try and position them so that if he destroys one piece he cannot easily over run into another. Deployment - and movement - are vital to both dwarves and HE. If dawi get it wrong, they don't have the speed to recover. If HE get it wrong, they don't have the resilience to recover

Now let’s look at the unique rules you will be facing when you fight High Elves. “Speed of Asuryan” is a rule that applies to all High Elves, giving all elves in the army the Always Strikes First rule. With I5 or higher across the board, they will always strike first AND will be rerolling all of their misses. The other thing this ability allows them to do, is use the ASF rule no matter what weapon they are using. So High Elves armed with great weapons still get to strike first and reroll misses. This rule only applies to the actual elf and not his mount or any other creature in the army. In addition to the special rule there are some basic things about High Elves you should know. All of their infantry have a move of 5. They have Strength 3 across the board on rank and file, except for White Lions who are S4. Their Leadership is 8 on most troops, the exceptions being Phoenix Guard and Dragon Princes who have a 9.

Elgi units:

Core

Archers: The most important stat on the archers is their BS, which is 4. Their bows have a range of 30” and are S3. In my games against Meniour, he almost always targets my war machines with his archers. With the new rules in 8th edition, you always wound on a 6, no matter what strength your weapon is. Assuming long range, this means he will hit you on a 4+ unless you have some type of cover and wound on a 6. Even 2 small units of 12 archers each can easily inflict 2 wounds per turn on a war machine. Wounded war machines die quickly to Giant eagles as they cannot get enough attacks on the eagle to really hurt it. In hand to hand archers are armed with a single hand weapon, BUT, they will hit first AND reroll misses. That of course is after they get to stand and shoot you on the way in. So if you think your unit of 5 miners is going to run them off the board, you better be charging from the flank or rear. I usually target his archer units with my S4 Grudge Thrower, once I have his elite infantry depleted a little. Depending on deployment and where his elite infantry is, I may target them first to prolong the life of my war machines.
Once again, the range of 30" is hugely important. Here come your crossbows. They hit only on a 5+, but wound on a 3+. High elgi and their archer tactics are what makes me quite willing to think about crossbow dawi again.

Threat level: Medium to High

Spear Elves: Spear Elves and Sea Guard of Lothern have their own special rule. It is called “Martial Prowess”. This rule allows them to attack with an additional rank in close combat. So, in normal combat, they attack with 4 ranks, only 3 if they charged, and in horde formation can attack with 5 ranks, only 4 if they charged. Considering that all of these attacks will go first AND they will reroll all of their misses, this can be a significant amount of damage to a unit. When you consider that this unit’s purpose is not to do damage, but to simply hold you in place while some other unit kills you, you begin to see how even the meager Spear Elf can ruin your day if you are not careful. The most common formation I have seen with Spear Elves is 5 wide by 6, 7 or 8 deep. He wants to be steadfast so those swordmasters can chew you up. I usually ignore this unit until later in the game as I am confident in my infantry’s ability to beat them in close combat. One thing to look for if you get the first turn, and even if you don’t sometimes, is whether or not he has deployed this unit deep and in the rear of his deployment zone. If he has it might be worth it to drop a GT shot on it to force a panic check. If he fails, his unit and probably his mage, run off the board. There is nothing that makes a Dwarf general happier than 400 first turn victory points.
Normaly, our T4 and heavy armour will shake of spearmen hits, even with their re-rolls. BUT you have to look out for his mindrazor trick. If he has the Shadow magic mindrazor spell, he will try to cast it -either irresistible or to outsmart you and force your dispell dice on some other spells before he uses the mindrazor. Then you will be confronted with 3+ ranks of elgi attacks, which hit on a 4+, re-roll and wound on a 2+. The armour save modifier is not funny. Even our tanky characters should look out, unless equiped with MRoSteel.

Threat level: Medium (Unless Mindrazor).

Lothern Sea guard: You do not see these guys very often on the field of battle. At first, they sound great, having the mixed cc/shooty role, but then you will think. Elgi cc units have to manouvre. Elgi shooty units have to get into range and shoot. Lothern Sea guard have only bows, so with that they have to come into the range of that organ gun they wish to kill. Also a hot exchange with thunderers would not make them happy. And thats it. 3 points more expencive than spearmen means, they are missing in most elgi armies.

Threat level: Low to Medium

Special

Sword Masters: These guys are natural born killers with jelly on top. WS 6 means that they will always hit our troops on a 3+ and we will always hit back with 4+, not something we face a lot in other armies. They wield great weapons so hit at S5. Rank and file models have 2 attacks each and the unit can carry a magic banner. Let’s not forget that they will be rerolling any misses on that 3+ as well. This is the unit I fear the most in Meniours army because it can dish out the pain. In all of my battles vs HE and ones that I have watched, Swordmasters are usually deployed in smaller formations. They can do this because of the additional attacks they get. This makes them more maneuverable than a horde. A common formation is 7wide by 2 deep. If not reduced in strength before they enter hand to hand, this unit will be attacking with 22 attacks on a re-rollable 3+ at S5. You need to hit this unit preferably with a full strength horde with great weapons or hammerers to even come close to matching the casualties and combat resolution. Seventy percent of the time, these guys are the first targets of my Grudge Throwers. If I get a direct hit the unit is usually depleted enough that my infantry blocks can handle them. Their weakness is they have T3 and only a 5+ armor save. So shoot the heck out of them.
They are the guys, who quite often have that Banner of Sorcery, so one more reason to kill them. Many elgi right now argue on the MSU approach of having only 7 in a unit, as with deploying in 2 ranks, the second rank looses half of its combat cappability. Anyway, they are unpleasant in both forms. Make a great OG target. Deployed in bigger units only if the enemy gets Flesh to stone spell. Rare nowadays as a horde of these guys is VERY susceptible to GTs and artillery in general.

Threat level: High to Extreme

Phoenix guard: Halberds, cause fear and 4+ ward save sound nice. But they are the elgi weakest special infantry. They cost the same like white lions or swordmasters, but have nearly no real advantage. The 4+ ward is nice, but out of purpose with elgi. That army is a fast hard hitting force and phoenix guard struggle to find their place there. Their S4 and fear are no real weapons against dawi and so unless your enemy is a master ward save maker, there is no need to fear them especialy.

A pointy eared opinion on Phoenix guard (by Tethlis): "Phoenix Guard: Be concerned if you see these guys with a combat character. They may not seem like much, but that's the brilliance of them. Running them 5-wide means horde formations can't make many attacks against them, and the Phoenix Guard can easily overcome enemy Steadfast. 24 Phoenix Guard + Prince, 5-wide, charge 40 great weapon Warriors in horde formation:

Prince does 3 wounds, Phoenix Guard do 4 wounds.
Warriors do ₅ wounds from their 22 Attacks, and that's even assuming the Prince isn't on a corner to soak up additional damage.

Phoenix Guard still have 4 full ranks, Warriors have 3. Warriors lose Steadfast, and are testing at -4.

That kind of unit is great for punching holes in regiments that thought they were safe from T3 models with only one Strength 4 Attack. Their perceived low threat value also means they're rarely shot at, since Swordmasters, White Lions, Eagles, cavalry and chariots are much more appealing choices."
Of course, you do not let elgi elite unit to get to your lines unmolested/undepleted as long as you have any choice in it, do you?
EDIT: After seeing some more uses of phoenix guard, i had to increase their threat level assessment. They can be nasty. For sure they are not a low threat. Medium at least. When guarding the book of Ashur mage - they are even High threat level, maybe.

Threat level: Medium to High /b

White Lions: Fast, strong, GWs,have a solid save against shooting(3+) and STUBBORN. Seen more often in the defensive armies - they wait for you there after your units got depleted and then kill you. Fullstop. S6 and re-roll misses is too much for any dawi. It HURTS. Unless depleted seriously before combat, they kill any dawi unit for breakfast and will have another one for afters... A standard for them is 30, need to be dropped to 15. So GTs or OGs are your answers (OGs lower their save better, but GTs can hit more...)

Threat level: High to Extreme

Silver Helms: This is your traditional heavy cavalry, 2+ armor save, armed with a lance, dangerous on the charge but not so much in the following rounds. This unit is fast like the dragon princes and is able to get to your flanks and add lots of casualties to combat resolution. They are incredibly resistant due to their high armor save but still T3 like all elves. In my battles it is common to see the BSB and General in this unit. When armed with GW’s these 2 characters hugely increase this unit’s combat effectiveness. This unit will sometimes be used as a bus to deliver a tank character who will charge out and tie up a key unit. It can be used as a redirector or a war machine hunter but is usually used in a more direct combat role, either on a flank or rear. Once again the Organ Gun is my weapon of choice vs. this unit.
Their most important role is to be a fast character bunker. If your enemy has mounted artillery hunters, they will find their home here. I can recommend depleting the unit with OGs and then targeting characters with cannons. That way he should be one very unhappy elgi.

Threat level: Medium to High

Dragon Princes: I face a small unit of 5 Dragon princes in each game I play. Dragon Princes have regular elf stats with 2 exceptions: they have 2 attacks and a Ld of 9. This 5 strong unit is used as a redirector or a war machine hunter. Your opponent will try and tempt you to charge this unit as it has swift stride and will almost always successfully flee. With his Ld of 9 rallying is not a big concern. On the charge, they have a good chance of destroying a war machine as they have 2 attacks each at S5 due to lances. Even if they don’t destroy it, they will tie it up for the rest of the game as your crew will have a hard time getting through their dragon armor (2+ armor save with horse and barding). In my battles I like to use an organ gun on this unit as its small size means I can sometimes destroy it in a single shot or at worst 2. They are still T3 and I have found the organ gun to be my best choice for them.
They are quite common in the elgi double cavalry approach. One unit of these and one silver helms. One of them gets to your flank where needed and will cause trouble. Try to force them to come from the front...

Threat level: Medium to High

Ellyrian reavers: fast cavalry, so vanguard. A fast and manouvrable unit, with the bow option (used rarely). Can be used as an artillery hunter, but not very effective against our engineers boosted war machine crews. With our tight formations there is little use of them against dawi and you will see them rarely.
If it is there, shoot it. If he engages, your GW troops or even shield warriors should kill it with ease.

Threat level: Low

Shadow warriors: Scouts, with longbow. Simply a very overpriced archer. Can do some redirecting and spamming duties, can attack unprotected warmachines, but even 5 of these (unit minimum size) is a hefty 80 points.
Usualy overlooked. You can kill them, but unless they realy threaten you, just ignore them.

Threat level: Low

Tiranoc charriot: Very fast and hitty. D6 Impact hits are not nice, but S5 only. It is used in conjunction with elite infantry or cavalry units to simply cause as much mayhem as possible. It is very fast, so solid use as a redirector.
Against dawi it is not much used as we have our proven ways of handling it (artillery) and it is quite expencive.

Threat level: Low

Lion Charriot of Chrace: Nice, hitty and overpriced. It´s 4 wounds mean, it gets shot from us. Very fast. Should it get into close combat, it can cause some mayhem as there are white lions crewing it.

Threat level: Medium

Rare:

Repeater Bolt Thrower: The last unit I have faced is the Repeater Bolt Thrower. This has a range of 48” and can fire in one of 2 ways. It can fire 6 shots with no multiple shot penalties. Each of the shots is S4 Armor Piercing. It can also fire 1 shot like a normal bolt thrower at S6 with the ability to go through ranks and does a d3 wounds per model. The damage done by this unit is usually small and I ignore it for the most part unless I have nothing else to shoot at. It commonly shoots at my war machines in an attempt to add wounds to them.
Not very dangerous, but still nasty. If you have artillery fire to spare, kill it.

Threat level: Medium

Great Eagle: Nearly mandatory in elgi armies. Greatest redirector unit there is. Very effective for its point cost.
Vanyon has done a whole treatise on it, so here it is:
Meniour uses these guys to do 2 things. The first is to attack my war machines. A Giant Eagle is WS5, T4 S4 A2 W3. In my experience, a GE attacking a warmachine with a full crew of 4 will get beaten, but only after it has tied that machine up for at least 2 turns. A GE attacking a crew depleted by archers will destroy it in 1 or 2 turns and then follow through to your next machine. Remember, his eagle is 50 points, if he kills even 1, 170 point runed grudge thrower he has recouped his points 3 times over. If he fields 2 eagles he can effectively shut down your artillery from turn 2 onwards if you do not deal with them. I try to shoot them with either organ guns or quarrellers if I have them. They are flyers and have a 10” fly move or a 20” march, so the Anvil of Doom can mess with them as well if you have nothing else to do with it. The other thing Meniour uses eagles for, is to block a unit or force it to charge out of position. He will fly the bird up and plop it down in front of a unit but at an angle. This prevents your dwarf unit from moving unless it charges the eagle. But, in 8th the attacker is responsible for closing the door on a charge if he can. Because the eagle is at an angle you now have to wheel your unit to face the eagle and if it flees you are now facing the wrong way and must spend a turn fixing it. I will include a diagram for this.

In the picture below you can see what I mean. The red block is my longbeards, they are getting ready to be charged next turn by the swordmasters represented by my slayers. On the left I have my GW warriors in horde formation. What I would like to do is pivot them so they can flank charge the Swordmasters after they are in combat. However, I have this silly flying chicken, represented by my gyrocopter in the way. I cannot move the way I want to without contacting the chicken, so what do I do?

My first option is to swift reform the GW and hope I can get them through that way. You must remember though, that you have to reform around the center. You cannot simply move the ranks on the left and place them on the right. A legal reform to a 5 wide formation would leave me with this, as seen in the next picture. I would have liked to change facing during that reform BUT legally his Flying Chicken blocked it as I cannot reform into contact or within 1” of his model. Trust me, the positioning of that Eagle was no fluke of luck, Meniour knows exactly where to put them to block that unit. Reforming to a smaller frontage is always an option. Since you are intending to attack a flank there is no need for a huge frontage, but this is a snapshot of a larger battle. There could be other concerns out there. Also remember that as a Dwarf, no matter what formation you take, no model may move more than 6” total during a reform as it is considered a maneuver. Going from 10 wide to 4 wide and changing facing may not be possible. You will have to measure it to find out.

This next picture shows what happens if I decide to charge the eagle and get rid of it once and for all. You will see that a majority of my troops were on the eagles’ front facing so that is the facing I MUST square off against. After that it looks like this. Now the eagle would have a chance to flee of course, but according to the rules it will flee from the center of my unit so will end up fleeing at an angle away from my intended target.

You can see below where the units have ended up. Now there is a solution for this. Once his unit flees, you can attempt to redirect into the swords, if they are close enough. Even if you fail the charge you should be in a better position for your supporting charge in a later turn. What I am trying to say here, is do not think you automatically have to deal with the eagle. Think out of the box and ignore it. He wants you to devote energy into destroying it, it is a throw away unit. If his 50 point eagle keeps your 400 point GW horde from killing his Swordmasters it has done its job for the entire game.

So, there you have it. Quite a large post on eagles, but I made large mistakes in my first 4 or 5 games and felt that I had to deal with them at all costs. This almost always meant that my units were out of position and was exactly what Meniour wanted from the start. I am sure that sitting in front of his computer he was smiling and saying “GOTCHA AGAIN”. In my more recent battles, they have not been as big of a problem for me, a nuisance yes, but not a problem. All in all they are a very useful unit in the High Elves army list.

Threat level: High (If skilled player with pointy ears)

Elgi characters:

Noble: A basic hero, but only T3 and W2. Usualy seen as a BSB. Can have a shield, so can have a solid armour save. Nasty, but not game winning. Sometimes seen on a great eagle - search and destroy task force -easily shot.

Threat level: Medium

Mage: Classical, upgradable to lvl 2. Has access to some nasty items. Used as a second caster.

Threat level: Medium

Dragon Mage of Caledor: Interesting, but rarely taken. Low level elgi hero on a drakk. Good target practice and you kill him in CC with your GW hordes (If your cannons have not bagged him already).

Threat level: Medium

Prince: Very nasty, but expencive and T3 only. Seen with a nasty magic bow (Bow of the Seafarer- the pocket balistae) or GW armed for destruction and artillery hunting (Mounted). He usualy has the GW also in the shooty variant. He is expencive, but if he bags 2-3 pf our warmachines, he earned his keep. Seen VERY rarely on a dragon. If he has a dragon, shoot him fast. HIGHLY redommended.
Do not forget - speed of Asuryan means he is always strike first even with a great weapon!

Threat level: High

Archmage: The main threat. With many elgi magical trinkets this mage has huge options for many an unpleasantness. If he rolls even reasonably for the winds of magic, there are hard times ahead. He knows many a spell and as he is usualy a lvl 4, he adds +4 to all of these. Used quite often with many small spells and one killer spell(Final transformation, Dwellers...). Kill whenewer possible.
This guy can realy decimate your force, if left to do it.

Threat level: High to Extreme.

High elgi magic and items:

Vanyon´s experience:
Let’s talk a little about HE magic. HE’s have some really useful items available to them to ensure they remain the masters of magic in the Old World. One of these is the Banner of Sorcery. This item allows HE’s to roll a d3 additional power dice each turn. The easiest way to counter this is as soon as he uses it, ask him which unit is carrying the banner, then destroy the unit. Yes, it is easier said than done, but if you can do it you will once again me master of the magic phase. Another useful item I face often is some staff that allows the HE mage to ignore the first miscast in a game. My opponent calls this his planned miscast and it is just that. He will 6 dice one of the powerful spells and hope for the IF because he knows he can ignore the roll on the miscast table. There is nothing you can do about this, so smile and save your spellbreaker rune for the next turn. High Elves have access to every lore in the BRB, as well as High Magic. My opponent has tried each lore in the book except death against me and has done pretty well with them. I think a smart player can play with any lore of magic and make it useful. Most of the spells in the High Magic lore are similar to others in the other lore’s. There is an exception that deserves note: Vauls Unmaking. This spell allows the mage to target a unit, the owning player must then state all of the magic items in that unit and the mage gets to make one of them mundane. So if he targets your Runelord and selects your Runic Talisman, you lose your Master Rune of Balance and your Spell Breaker Rune. Not something you want to have happen. I would definitely dispel this spell if he tries to cast it within range of your RuneLord.

Popular magical combinations:
Lore of life: Usualy played with the Book of Ashur, as the Throne of Vines mitigates most miscasts.

Lore of Shadow: Very popular because of pit of shades and mindrazor spells. Pit of shades is autokill for our WMs and anvil. Mindrazor turns humble spearmen into re-roll hits S8 monsters. Not a very nice thing to meet, trust mee. (Last time he got it, it cost me 20 hammerers in one round of cc!).
If he has those spells, do not forget to place your characters far from each other, so he can not luck out with the pit and get both in one go.

Metal: Plague of rust, Enchanted blades, Glittering robe and Final transmutation. Very popular again. Has a combination of cheap spells, which are easy to cast on 2 dice and more often than not will require 3 your dice to dispell. Plague of rust takes your armour, permanently! Enchanted blades are GREAT for his multitude of archers and not too shabby on his combat units either. Final transmutation is great for horde thinning. Also can kill characters if lucky (Thats why it got lmited in the ETC environ).

Items:
Banner of Sorcery: +D3 power dice - here goes our magical phase superiority...(There has to be a factory at the Tower of Hoeth producing these things, there are so many...)

Book of Hoeth - IF on any double - usualy seen with Life magic - to have the Throne of Vines spell (immunity to a miscast at a 2+).

Ring of Corin - Vauls unmaking spell - Bound spell, pwl3 - when your dice are out, your spellbreaker used, there it comes.

The Seerstaff of Saphery - the bearer chooses his spells.

Staff of solidity - Immunity to first miscast - seen on most elgi archmages (with folariath´s robe) outside of the life ones. Used for a planned miscast cancellation.

Jewell of the dusk - +1 pwdice.

Folariaths robe - immune to non magical attacks, but model can not attack in HTH, nor shoot.

Pendant of Vengeance - successfull Anvil of Doom strikings have to be re-rolled. -1 for failed Rune table. (especialy elgi made against us -will be seen in tailored lists.)

With the nowadays common magic items availability the elgi have access to 3* 4+ ward saves, one of them is 4+ ward and armour re-roll.
Charmed shield: Most elgi machine hunters have it. So pepper them with crossbows or OG first.

Some parting words from Vanyon:
[font=Arial]Now, I know you are expecting to find the end all, be all, strategies to defeating High Elves. Unfortunately I have lost more than I have won. The one thing I can say is that Synergy is very important to High Elves. Against Dwarves and their slow movement, they can set up combination charges against your units and get the best performance out of theirs. If you can throw a wrench into this you will likely win. Against the highly mobile army I usually face, I have discovered that I need a very good shooting phase to even things out. If I don’t get it, I get beat. I do not field hammerers and do not have a single unit that can stand toe to toe with Swordmasters and win, if I have not been able to reduce their numbers with shooting. As all of you know, sometimes your GT’s miss, despite all of the points you spent on runes. So I hope this helps some of you. [/font]

[font=Arial][size=medium]Vanyon[/size][/font]

P.S.: Stay tuned on. We plan to bring more on the sneaky elgi. Newest magic tricks, special characters and elgi tacticas for you! :buba: :prankster2: