Opinions on the Dark Elves Warhost of Naggaroth box?

[RGilbert26]

Evening all, just bought the big ole box and thought I'd enquire what other people thought of it as I've been thinking about getting it for a while now and finally decided to take the plunge. Once it's all painted I can finally get to use my Dark Elves Sorceress

Currently thinking of running the Corsairs as a block of 20 and then having 10 Spearmen/Swordsmen and 10 Crossbowmen. Obviously I'll add another 10 to each soon

Also, should I go for Horsey Chariot or Dino?

[Reldane]

Okay firstly are these units ones that you want, although it is good value for money its not necessarily a must buy. firstly the Fleetmaster is at best quite poor and at worst untakeable being an elf hero in a lord slot and at lord cost, I would doubt you will get much use out of him. if you like the model run him as a master/dreadlord instead, if you don't then the box set probably isn't for you.

with dark elf core, I would suggest 1 resonable sized unit (20+) of your choice of Dreadspears, Corsairs with add hand weapons or witch elves and a couple of ranged units, either 5 elf units of dark riders or 10 elf units of darkshards (crossbows). throw in a Sorceress and maybe another character and that should give you a good start

Dreadspears: cheepest per model unit in the book, spears let them fight in an extra rank if they didn't charge that turn. their not great and are still nearly twice the cost of most basic men, but come with the two dark elf army rules always strikes first and Murderous prowess
Corsairs: the add hand weapon gives them an extra attack (front row only) and their sea dragon cloaks give them reasonable survivability
Witch Elves: very kill, with a lot of attacks, poison and rerolls (being very high initiative) they are very strong, but no armour makes them very easy targets for shooting
Darkriders: always give them crossbows, they are very very good fast cavalry (almost certainly the best in the game) reasonable armour save with a shield and a volume of shots other races envy. but fewer shots per point than Darkshards
Darkshards: fill the air with bolts, but without the maneuverability of the Darkriders. they also have 24" range and playing into a longer ranger shooty army can take some getting used too.

Edit: corsairs and witch elves are nightmarish to rank up

[Scion_of_Terra]

Corsairs with their 4+ armor and dual hand weapons make for a nice combination of damage output and resilience. Buy another box of 10 and make a 30-man horde for a decent anvil unit. Alternately, make two squads of 10 handbow-armed corsairs - they have a very short range, but 2 ranks of five can put out 20 shots a turn for cheap.

I would say commit to a block of 20 warriors of the same type. 10 warriors with spears or hand weapons isn't going to do anything for you. Any of those configurations is going to be a good bunker for a sorceress.

And by the Golden Throne of Terra, build the Cold One Chariot. The single-shot bolt thrower is a worthless gimmicky points-sink, while the dino dudes are arguably one of the best chariots in the game. Stupidity on Ld9 isn't awful, and its profile is excellent - 3+ save, scythed wheels for that +1 impact hit, ASF on I6 and S4 (S5 on the charge) from the drivers, and 4 S4 attacks from the dinos. It makes a fantastic, reasonably-priced hammer to the anvils you get from corsairs or spearmem.

[Mr Mystery]

Not true.

Bolt Thrower chariot has several hidden uses. You can pull enemy monsters and chariots into different charge arcs. And a highly mobile Bolt Thrower should never, ever be sniffed at.

[Reldane]

Bolt Thrower chariot has several hidden uses. You can pull enemy monsters and chariots into different charge arcs. And a highly mobile Bolt Thrower should never, ever be sniffed at.

Shooting happens after charges in Warhammer, and whilst you could hit, wound and pull a monster d6 into the path of an overrunning unit. its not too likely to be honest. the maneuverability is something worth considering, however a chariot can't march so it isn't as much maneuverability as it may at first look added to which it is only range 24" unlike the Reaper bolt throwers 48". In my opinion at over twice the cost of the Reaper bolt thrower it isn't a very attractive option.

[Mr Mystery]

I'm meaning ruining the monster or chariot's flank charge. Frontal charges are risky affairs for lone models these days, as they cannot front rank wipe and be safe, plus you may find the enemy getting a Parry save to further tips the odds. It may not put off the charge, but could make it much more survivable (and remember, you can't fight in ranks to the flank or rear....)

And a mobile Bolt Thrower is horrendous for Knights to face, as they're incredibly prone to enfilade shots. As the rest of the army would likely struggle against highly armoured units, that cannot be underestimated. Even if it's unlikely to remove the unit from the game (you have to be luck to take out five), a single shot can render the unit pointless in combat by reducing it's outgoing attacks so low it cannot even draw a combat against your standard infantry block.

Being mounted on a Chariot, light/medium as it is, it can still thrash most flanking units if it gets the charge (yes many ifs and buts. This is Warhammer, where nothing comes guaranteed).

[Reldane]

the bolt thrower on the Scourge runner chariot doesn't penetrate ranks, so side, front or rear it can only ever kill one knight. It also lacks the 6 shot option and so isn't very strong into any rank and file units. Added to which the penalties for moving and shooting, and potentially long range make it a lot less reliable without the high beastmaster (which makes it very pricy).

Edit: Okay unsure about whether or not it penetrates ranks; I had assumed that penetrating ranks was a special rule, rather than just a property of the bolt thrower.

[Chronowraith]

Penetrating ranks is an inherent property of Bolt Throwers. So if the weapon says it fires like a bolt thrower, it penetrates ranks as per the BRB. It would have to state something like, "Fire like a bolt thrower but it cannot penetrate ranks" or something along those lines.

The Scourge Runner to my knowledge does not contain any special text but I don't have my book in front of me to confirm.

That aside, I personally would rather have the Cold One Chariot as it will cause far more damage over the course of the game. Large units of Knights are relatively rare these days unless you fight against Brets and DE have other ways to deal with knights and heavily armored troops without relying on a somewhat gimmicky model.