I guess I should give my opinion on the new High Elves

Hi all,


So...new High Elves.

Things I like:

• The "old stuff" wasnt nerfed to useless. There hasnt been a mortar/flagellant/rocket battery moment. Sure we lost GW re-rolls, but the units affected are still good for their (now cheaper) points-especially with the addition of martial prowess...which brings me to my next point:
• Martial Prowess is the shizz. an extra rank of attack has lots of implications. The best one for me is not needing to deploy in horde. Not deploying horde = smaller frontage which = less return attacks + easier to move around the table and set up combo charges.
• Speed is king. Movement 9 heavy calv, flying chariots, dragons, phoenix, eagles, fast calv core, heck even griffons = High Elves all of a sudden have the best charge threat range of (any??) army. 
• CHOICE. The tournament player inside of me is hesitant, but this armybook was written to be themed. I dont read the fluff, but for those that do, this must be a good thing. (PS I do plan to read the fluff and to prove it I will write a review).
• Jedi Loremaster is a cool idea. yeah...I bought the model and the squid thing looks less stupid IRL.

Good thing  my swordmasters already have blue swords

Definitive proof I didn't jump on the bandwagon...

Things I'm meh about:

• Still no answer to skaven. Once again we (the collective) are waiting for the skaven armybook nerf. Stormbanner, warpgale, powerscrolled 13th, and no ranged answer to the Bell ruins the High Elf army....worse than the Banner of the World Dragon screws over Demons.  
• Dragons meh compared to Phoenix. This is classic GW play. I could spend lots of points on a prince + dragon, OR I could get (ie purchase) an Annointed on a Frost phoenix with MR(1), built in 4+ ward with opponents being -1strength and ASL Oh wait...I have the points to get the Giant Blade and a few tricksy items for fun...just waiting for the FAQ once the sales drop...
• "Elite". I'm sure this is part and parcel of the territory of  being an elf, but it still sucks when you don't have units that absolutely shred units in combat, or enough units to engage an army properly...good thing we now have chaff coming out our ears. 
• The "fluff match". Dark Elves vs High Elves. In the Dark Elf corner we have i6 elites re-rolling every round. In the High Elf corner with i5 elites no re-rolls. This equation is no longer as simple as I make it due to other factors, but it is still not cool that elf on elf, my money is on the bad guys.

HOWEVER, I'm no rager quitter and I am very much looking forward to seeing what builds drop out of the book.

I've done my crunching and my first list looks something like this:

Lvl4: Book of Hoeth. Either High magic (cos it's all the rage)...or possibly life

BSB: Armour of Caledor, GW

Noble: Eagle, HA, SH, Dhelm, Starlance, Crown of Atrazar (credit James M for the build)

4x5 Reavers: Spears and Bows

2x10 Archers: M

12 Swordmasters

21 Whitelions: FC

2x5 Dragon Princes: M

2 RBT

Frostphoenix

Eagle

2399

List FAQ:

• "OMG no Banner of World Dragon?!?" I learnt long ago that in warhammer you put boyz before toyz. The Banner helps in selective situations...an eagle helps in every situation. 
• "Bows on the reavers???" I had 60pts to fill in core. That could either be 6 more s3 shots, or 20 more s3 shots. My money is on the 20 shots, even if it pushes my chaff up in cost. 
• "Where's the l33t h4x0r Silverhelm with 7 characters bus?" the same place the 1800pt deathstar is...on the internet + I wanted to avoid characters in knight units...boyz before toyz. 
• "Only 1 phoenix-everyone knows you need minimum 4 to win". Ok...but my wallet doesnt extend that far and I quite like the models I already own.
• "Swordmasters?" Yeah I know right? High Elf armies tend to suffer from "only 1 thing can actually do any damage" syndrome. With the old book it was light coven + 1 horde of Whitelions. This approach always falls apart when you have to play scenarios. Swordmasters give me a another unit to play with and they provide a useful answer to cheap troop buses. Hand of glory and guaranteed that ws3 will be hitting on 5's. 

So there we have it. Now to purchase a Phoenix and a 4th unit of Reavers off Ebay...