Originally Posted by
Desert Rain
Here are some of my thoughts about the new rules and how they might effect our units.
First of all the Sea Guard gets a significant bonus. They will fight in an extra rank, for a total of 4, or even 5 if you have enough models for a horde unit. They will also be able to fire in several ranks, thus negating one of their biggest downsides in 7th edition.
With the new requirement for a minimum 25% in core units they also help us out since they are more expensive than the Spearmen and the Archers.
If you want to go for the benefits of the horde rule Spearmen might be the better choice since they are our cheapest troops. It still remains to be seen if it is worth it though. Archers get a boos with the shoot in 2 ranks rumour since you can field units of 10 without them taking up a lot of space, thus giving you a tighter deployment which is good.
I think Horde rule is not for us as I'd prefer more ranks so I have stubborn troops. Whilst stepping up hurts more than it helps, high elf spearmen can hold their own against any equivalent priced troops.
Of our elite infantry units it seems that Phoenix Guards are getting the biggest boost. We have, as you all know, ASF on all our units and it seems that if you have both ASF and higher initiative you will get to re-roll to hit rolls. Since Phoenix Guards have I6 they will almost always get those re-rolls. They also get to double their number of attacks thanks to the fighting in 2 ranks rumour, thus making them much better at killing stuff than they are now.Their 4+ ward save also makes them less vulnerable to the high amount of return attacks that will come their way.
Completely agree. You forgot that fear is now better for Phoenix guard since the fact they don't outnumber the enemy matters not (I think) - being 5s to be hit sometimes is nice protection too!
Both Swordmasters and White Lions will get a significant boost as well, Swordmasters will be able to put out an insane amount of attacks. Unfortunately this comes with a big downside, since the opponent almost always gets to strike back at us, and our fragile but expensive Swordmasters and White Lions doesn't like that very much.
Swordmasters only get +1 attack per extra rank. I think these guys are still best in small units, acting more as elven detachments. White lions meanwhile have the smae role they always did - to stare down cavalry. They can safely do this in units of 14 now, and are the best choice bar none to guard a flank.
Since it seems that you need to have a rank in your unit to cancel out the opponents ranks if you hit them in the flank our cavalry units gets a lot more expensive if we want to do that. This might lead to some people starting to use Silver Helms in this role since they are cheaper to buy ranks to.
With the reroll to hit our cavalry got a major boost. 12 man units of silver helms are a distinct possibility, as are 6 man dragon princes (no point having a 2nd ranks with only +1 attack per model).
Chariots, and especially the Lion Chariot seems pretty tempting in the new edition as well. With S7 auto kills gone you can play them a bit more boldly if the enemy has access to such high strength weaponry in his army. The impact hits, and possible "crush them" attacks will help us deal with large enemy blocks quickly which I believe that we need to do in order to not get bogged down in long wars of attrition which we will be hard pressed to win.
Also the % change means that tiranoc chariots don't take up a valuable slot. I think my army will definatly have 3 of these, as they have a small footprint, low cost, and can easily support charges frmo cavalry or infantry
Shadow Warriors and Reavers doesn't seem that tempting to me, with skirmishers being nerfed out Shadow Warriors seems even poorer than they are today. Reavers seems to get a free 12" move at the start of the game so perhaps they can be useful. The viability of these 2 units are something I'm uncertain of at the moment.
Agreed. The eagle looks better as a war machine hunter and silver helms are better at threatening flanks. But until we see scenario rules I'll reserve full judgement
Great Eagles and Repeater Bolt Throwers are as good as they've ever been. A slight nerf in the Eagles ability to march block doesn't make them any less worthwhile to take.
Repeater bolt throwers were the worst war machine apart from the mortar. Now they're the worst war machine period. The only argument for taking one over an archer unit (which at least filled out core)was the smaller footprint, and now fire in ranks removes that from consideration. I just can't see what they can do that something else in the army can't do better - their average of 2 wounds per turn (assuming T3 enemies with little armour) compared to, say, a cannon killing a chariot or equivalent most turns (at least, mine do) is atrocious. Slap them down to 65 or make the multiple shots penetrate ranks and ignore armour. Until then, its too weak.
Eagles lose marchblocking but gain crush them, which will make a difference in taking on war machines. Their charge range also increased on average.
This is all for now, I'll write my thoughts about characters and magic later.
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