Reserved.
Topic will be opened soon! nee to get some writing time in
( i would really like to run this one since DE is my main enemy )
*starts writing*
I will try to keep this short so this will be a 10 minute read. If it gets beyong that, it will be a really in depth topic. (which i'll probably get to someday, but it will be more situational and such.)

So, fighting against dark elves. Lets first think about their strenghts and weaknesses.

Strenghts:
Hatred
Needles to say, one of the biggest strenghts in the army in my vision. Against Tomb Kings with ws2 in general about 80% of their attacks will hit. With skeletons having toughness 3 and low armor. It becomes very hard to counter this in close combat.
Dark elf magic
a good lore. With lots of ways to get more powerdice on their side (power of darkness and offcourse the sacrificial dagger) making their magicphase very dangerous. Even with a level 2 wizard.
manouverability
Elves are fast, thats no exception with dark elves. But taking the hatred into account. its hard to stay away and choose your fight where the dark elves can close in quickly and hit with loads of attacks
shooting
They have some awesome repeater bowmen. Those bastards are real troublemakers when i encounter them in units larger than 15 models.
even their bolt throwers, shades and even their corsairs can shoot like madmen. However, these are less like to be encountered in large numbers or to be in range for noumerous turns to shoot.

Thank god for their weaknesses!!! they actually have some.
Low toughness
this kind of, explains itself. They dont have great toughness overal. And most of them dont have a decent armorsave. This offers some oppertunities.
Regular archers and screaming skulls can really hurt any elf on foot. Be sure to target their hard combat units as they tend to have only a 5+ armorsave.
low strenght
Their basic stats are pretty low strenght (S3). This is good. since we most of the time have tougness 3 their loads of hits have a 50/50 chance of wound with unmodified armorsaves. Higher strenght troops have great weapons, so we have the oppertunity to lower their numbers before they get to striking. However, when encountering the black guards and other elites, beware of some serious combat carnage even their hatred doesnt stop after the first round!!! try to avoid these basterds.
Hatred
Hatred is only for 1 round! so survive the first round of close combat. and your chances of winning get a LOT better! Just be as sure as possible when you enter a combat you will survive the first round with a non sacrificial unit to get any chance on winning a combat.
Also, they have to take tests not to pursue after killing a unit. This is easily countered by their high leadership and even a BSB to back them up. So, its a minor weakness.

Fighting against dark elves.
We can heal units, they cant!
So, how can we abuse this? Try to analyse his dark elf force. Is it ranged heavy? is it close combat orientated? You should work your way around this.
Shooting heavy, go get them, there is no other way, otherwise... you will be shot to pieces. Use a lot of ICFB if you have those at your disposal. vanguard your chariots. just get in there and face them like the dead people we are.
Close combat heavy however is a lot more tricky. They can come to us really quick. I play this one as a sacrificial game. Throw a tomb scorpion in front of a good unit to let it be charged in their face slowing them down so next phase you have an additional round of shooting. (especially against black guards)
If the force is nicely balanced between shooting,magic and close combat... i most of the time try to split their force and handle them according to the 2 concepts listed above.

This will probably end the first 10 minutes of reading post. not really 10 minutes.. but i have to start somewhere!)
More in depth will follow how to handle say, hydra's and the likes.
If you have questions/suggestions whatsoever. feel free to comment as 2 generals always know more than 1!
since we are overpriced and underpowered we need to join forces to stand a chance to defend our ancient relics!

cheers and keep on killing,
Loempiaketzer

reserved!

reserved 2!

Since DE is my second most played army outside of TK, here are my thoughts having played both with and against them with TK.

8th Edition is kind to DE since they have relatively high IN which coupled with hatred makes them almost as nasty in CC as HE; they have high movement, and are stronger in shooting due to volley fire, and ability to get extra casting dice (spell & dagger) give them a leg up in magic as well.

Giving a large block of Repeater crossbows shields makes them a viable CC unit and 8th edition DE armies I have see use these as their main core units (1 army I faced had 3 blocks of 25 to 30 Xbow plus a single unit of blackguards which pumped out an obscene amount of rolls in shooting) along with either a couple of Hydra or 2 Reaper bolt throwers.

DE have a good mix of characters and some great magic items.

Weaknesses

Downside for DE is their high unit cost means that you will normally only face a couple expensive units. Dark Riders, Shades, and harpies are very vulnerable to TK bow fire and SSC are a threat to large units.

While DE can pump up their casting dice, they are still limited on the dispell side which means incantations & bound items will wear them down.

I really need some help against this army... 3/4 times I get tabled by dark elves. I cant seem to get anything done against them and so i need some tactical recommendations desperately. Thanks in advance

I have found that pounding the range combat units with bow fire and, pounding the combat units with Catapult fire (4 time in a round if you have 2 and they dont dispell.) this dose really good for minimizing their strength. I also use tomb swarms to tie up combat units. 4 swarms is hard for them to kill with any quickness.

I find a tomb scorpion can take out 10 dark riders or crossbowmen. Drop those hydras with your smiting catapults afire!!! If his mage isnt with a unit of fighters, take it out with a scorp. I love it when the mage and xbows are in one unit!!!

Ushabti are good against the hydra also.

Hope these help.

Jay

With the three Elven armies all having a high reliance on shooting and magic, I suspect that the Casket of Souls might be useful. Their leadership is rather high, but if the Light of Death does go off, you'll probably cause two wounds per unit, on average.

That can silence a bolt thrower pretty quickly, and other units that operate outside of the general's sphere of influence - harpies, light cavalry, etc. - won't enjoy it either.

But the the Casket of Souls greatest utility against Elves stems from its -1 to casting (every bit helps) and its added "Catch-22" to their Dispell plans. Dark Elves, especially, haven't very many ways to add to their Dispell pool. Bound items, MWBD's, Incantations, and a Casket can all add up fast. We can easily be slinging 8-10 dice each turn.

I try to remove one unit at a time when I fight darkelves. I first start with the unit the Mage is in. Magic is huge for the dark elves so screwing up their placement of the Mage helps. Once the Mage leaves that unit I may take the time to finish it off if it is weak enough. If it's still got a lot of guys left I move on to the unit the Mage went to. Keeping the Mage moving seems to help.

If the army is strong on cc then I try to take out one unit at a time or make them so small they arnt really a treat.
I never saw a point in shooting at corsairs due to the armor save but blowing up a weaker unit right next to them still makes them panic.

Also be mean and if you cause a unit to panic during the magic phase shoot it again during the shooting phase with the SSC. Try to make them run some more.

Thought this could use an update and seeing as I just played them over the weekend some ideas are still fresh in my mind.

Firstly the glaring weakness of any elf is they're toughness 3. That means out S3 shooting is wounding them on 4+. Unit of archers + smiting = dead elves. Work on other units before settling on Corsairs as they're a bit more resistant to shooting with their sea dragon cloaks.

The other obvious deployment Dark Elves love to field are the dual Hydras. We know flaming attacks cancel out regeneration for that phase so ensure your SSC wound the beast before commiting mass fire to bring it down. A unit of chariots with flaming attacks is a great back up unit for not only shooting but also getting a flank charge on such a beast. If you're worried about wounding it a well timed desiccation can really swing the favour. Warsphinxes are great at holding up the Hydra as even they are wounding the beast on 6's only giving you time to hold it up for a turn before smashing the chariots into the flank.

The Cauldron of Blood is often seen in the lists and it should really be the last thing you worry about. Yes it buffs the enemies and makes them harder to kill however the character can't charge you seeing as it's a warmachine so relax. Secondly the crew is loaded with poisoned attacks and a 4+ ward save so think twice before commiting that Warsphinx into it. Just ignore it and focus on everything else.

Lastly be mindful of deploying your units in a such a way to not leave any holes or areas that shades can take advantage of. They're quicker than us and can put out some decent firepower at BS5 so get rid of them asap otherwise they'll tear a hole into the backlines and get rid of our SSC + casket. Light of Death is a great candidate to remove them seeing as they're generally fielded in smaller units.

Must takes:

Archers
Chariots
Warsphinx
SSC
Casket

Hope this info can help someone. :)

I have a big problem with pegasus lords and heroes. This is their build:
- LORD 1+ rrollable as, dragonbane gem, the item that halfs the strength of shooting (this is really great item since the october FAQ and they are now T4 elves). lance
- HERO - 1+ as, pendant, dragon helm, potion of foolhardiness, lance

SSC are out of play due to their 2+ ward against flaming.



Only thing to do would be death snipers or banishment, and CoS. And of course he knows thats the stuff that can kill him so he dispels it all the time.

They are so god damn fast and each inflict minimum 5+ wounds on me.


Any suggestions?

Just pointing out that killing blow also works on characters on monstrous cav. If you don't believe ik, you can look for it in the faq for yourself. It might not be the air tight start you were looking for, but good to remember nontheless. Sphinxes, knights, cursed blades.

Stalkers are a bit random, but if you can roll a few 6s you're in business :)

Wow thanks man!!!