# New to WHFB,trying to narrow a final choice



## maomolin (May 4, 2008)

Mywife(goingVampireCounts) and I are taking a break from 40k. I am trying finalize which army I should start out on. My preference is an army that can preform well only any role (shooty,cc,magic) provided I swing heavily in its direction.

I do like calvary and bow/x-bow archers,which lead thought of any of the elves, but I hear discouraging words about HE shooting capabilties (but outwardly looks very similar to DE shooting).

Any advice or help?


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## Ascendant Valor (Jan 3, 2009)

With what you say about High Elves, what's so bad with them? They do perform in any phase (especially if you gear them for a specific phase!), and can be well-balanced.

Dark Elves can have a better Gunline than High Elves, and can turn some nasty magic around. From what I can tell, their Balanced armies tend to be on par with the High Elves in just about all respects.

Wood Elves are great for a Gunline. They cannot perform well in the other phases as well as the other two races of Elves. Their Forest Spirits allow them to compete in the Combat phase, but their magic isn't spectacular. They are great at Hit-and-Run tactics (shoot, move back, shoot, move back).

Give us some more details to work with, maomolin; we'd love to help ya!


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## maomolin (May 4, 2008)

I hear their archers are overpriced (same as I hear for DE). Ilike the concept of long bowmen pecking away an armyuntilits useless. I would like an army that could change it up... keeping the same army but fielding a completely different list to be strongas close combat (much like HE spearmen / calvary). I tend to have fleeting ideas, moods if you will, on what kind of list I wish to run. Eldar can do much of that (as well as daemons) in 40K. Entering fantasy with a clean slate to work with, Iam prefering a shooty capable army that shouldI change the list around, be capable of assault-oriented combat


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## Erie Ed (Feb 21, 2009)

DE matches everything you said. I play DE and they perform wonderfully. You want good magic...well dark elves magic is probably best in the game, you want calvary DE calvary is pretty good, you want shooting the DE bolt thrower, archers, and the other units that have shooting are probably the best in the game...some of em don't suffer any multi shot penalties, and you want to own CC well the dark elves are pretty strong with black guard, executioners, witch elves, and the hydra, and chariots give you many options on how you want to play your army. Easy to paint, easy to pick up, many ways to play them...I'd say DE are your best bet.


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## maomolin (May 4, 2008)

thanks for the quick pair of replies. I am leaning more towards high elves at this moment. Cheap mage with seerstaff of saphery (curse of arrow attraction) with a dispel scroll will make for a cheap,yet effective leader. 

Dragons make for a beautiful centerpiece and HE can play with one very early on. Low core troop requirements and high special unit counts (plus 0-2 rare) pre-2k games are also an attraction. 

Are DE too popular? I have seen many tournament results with large counts of DE players (for good or for bad). High elf players seem much fewer (I could be wrong, please correct me if I am) and find roads less traveled to be stronger for me than ones people have constant interaction with.

I am still open to thoughts / opinions,but hope to show some of my leaning decision


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## Franko1111 (Jun 25, 2008)

How about bretonnia?

Got a lot of cavalry and long bowman with very surportive magic but its main focuse is to make the knight go better.

but if you don't Like the knights theme then I would go with high elves as they are a fun and veritale army and have all the things a DE army has exept Hydras and they have a few more


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## maomolin (May 4, 2008)

My only concern remaining with HE would be my desire for a strong count in core. Initial (mind you we are still waiting on our rulebook / mini's) thought would be to set up a strong unit of archers two units of spearmen and two units of Lothern Sea Guard. This would give me a strong amount of ranged firepower and the LSG can brace for assault. Spearmen/LSG/Archer/LSG/Spearmen formation would help reducing opponent manuvering along the flanks while the archers' long bows and the LSG's bow can pummel along either flank or straight ahead. Support this with a cheap mage (Seerstaff of saphery/ dispel scroll, "curse of arrow attraction") and a RBT with a couple upgrades throughout would put me around 1k. 

I had also thought of using a couple small archer squads with a sit-back and anooy the opponent with the peppering of arrows, wait for them to get to midfield and skirmish in some shadow warriors for more longbow harrasment. This and / or Ellyrian Reavers with bows for mobile harrasment and a nice hard charge (ASF is really powerful from the 40k perspective)

Let me know if I am over-doing it , 5th ed 40k has got me into having solid 'troop' count(perhaps dropping both of the LSG for other things) I do know I want to _Start_ out with 'shooty' within whatever army I decide to take, as my opponents locally are mostly assault oriented. I will then fill in with calvary / more balancing aspects to suit my mood for the day.


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## karlhunt (Mar 24, 2009)

Uh... You got a new HE book about a year ago, with DE getting theirs about 6 months ago. The down side to both elf armies is that they are, in my oppinion, not that good in the CC phase with their core. I do LOVE the Lothern Seaguard, but the Dark elves loosing the chance to have spear totin' archers is really dissapointing. 
Now High elves have a better base range than the DE but DE get twice as many shots per man once they are in range. It's a tough call. CC between the two I would give to the DE. More melee options and all together stronger melee fighters, HE do have the ASF but that will ony cary a S3 attack for so long. I certainly agree that Dragons make a nice unit to have. What I would recomend is find somone in your area that plays each army and watch them play a few. True people throw their own twist to their armies but the way they play them tends to play to their strengths.
Which ever one you do decide to play, the RBT are almost mandatory. They can do enough damage to the enemy to make up for your smaller numbers. Use them to thin the ranks of the enemy before closing for CC.

One thing I almost forgot, HE have the unique rule that they only require one core unit below 2000 points. That leaves a lot of extra points for your melee monsters, like sword masters!


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## maomolin (May 4, 2008)

karlhunt: I mean my/my wife's personal copy is what we are waiting on.

Sadly, I have played nearly every army in 40k and been successful with any of them I have picked up. This wide range of play experience puts me in a unique position that I could pick any army and be successful. I just do not like getting bored with an army. Orks are automatically ruled out as I have thrown crap uncarringly in a list and won multi-player games with it (assassins gameformat, with me being the common enemy). I would run skaven but worry that there will not be alot of chance for variety. I hear they are getting a new army book soon this year, may be a great time to pick up on them (I do play nezumi in L5R and other similar settings).
_
It's a tough call._ I agree, hence why i am trying to get some help. I am very very leary to dark elves... they seem to be very popular choice at least inobservation around the net and 'locally' (Indiana), with good reason. This makes for a bad choice locally, as it will lower my score, being such a monotonous eyesore in tournaments, after all, we are home to a Gen Con, close to Indy GT, Chicago GT, Columbus 'Ard Boyz, and St Louis... many cities that will see the same people across all of them and certainly a spam-flux of dark elves cannot be a pleasant score for everyone. Additionally, I think the more popular an army is the more it gets played and the more people have experience in dealing with. I will then value an army that is potent but atypical. Dark Eldar, for example, after loosing my first two games, I have won my next consecuative 14.

hope this helps you guys help me (again, thanks for your guys' quick input, I do take it all in consideration)

One last thing: I am the creator of a store thats due open in a couple weeks... its a several hour drive for a local store at the current time with Warhammer fantasy being played... I cant just go and watch what people are playing and how.

What about skaven. I know hey are due a new army book, but itll be a little bit before I have a substantial army anyways. Are they highly popular or nearly nonexistent? Is his an army like Grey Knights that will sit in perpetual suck?


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## Erie Ed (Feb 21, 2009)

just remember Fantasy != 40k


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## squeek (Jun 8, 2008)

To answer a few questions you have posed, DE are popular at the moment, HE less so and Skaven generally not so popular. However this of course varies from group to group. The general trend of army releases in 7th edition has resulted in each new army being well-rounded and fairly competitive as a minimum, many would argue that recently they have only released very competitive armies. This would suggest that Skaven will be quite a good book when it comes out.

It is also worth point out that you cannot make a direct comparison between army selection in 40k and army selection in Fantasy. The reliance in 40k on Troops is not the same with Core in Fantasy. Most players try to minimise their core choices and allocate more points to special and rare choices, these being more powerful than core in most cases.

In reality core is where most armies get their SCR from, special provides the killing power and rare provides the big hitters. So if you take High Elves as an example spearmen can give cheap blocks to give you good SCR, Dragon Princes are fantastic for tearing through infantry blocks (with support and so on) and rare gives you things like RBTs to provide extra punch to your list. If you want a particularly shooty list then archers are fine, but RBTs are what provides HE armies with their ranged power. They are able to take out high toughness opponents like Heavy Cavalry and Monsters as well as having volley for thinning out weaker troops like skirmishers.


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