Picked up the book on Sunday and have had my nose in it ever since.

I wanted this army to feel like Wood Elves but have the clear differences that have drawn me to them emphasised - things like powerful characters, especially mages, and large units of elite infantry and heavy cav. But with Harpies and Dark Riders and crossbowmen (why they're not crossbow elves sort of drives me crazy) should mean that tactically the adjustment should be pretty easy. And Hydrae are not Stubborn, but at M6 and Skirmishing I should be giving the charge rather than taking, so the role will be quite different.

I'm normally pretty good at writing lists, but this one might be more convoluted than the Joker's bank heist. I just wanted some of everything I like.

So here it is.

Lvl 4 Suprema Sorceress.
Focus Familiar, Powerstone (at 20 points no less ), 2 scrolls
Dark Pegasus. (405 pts. ouch!)

Lvl 2 Sorceress.
Tome of Furion (+1 spell), Seal of Ghrond (+1 Dispell Die). (180)

Master BSB.
Heavy armour, sheild, lance.
Hydra Banner. (+1 attack on the charge, including mounts... yah buddy!)
Cold One. (210)

Hag with Cauldron of Blood. (200)

2 x 10 RxBs with shields (110 ea)
5 Dark Riders with RxBs (105)
2 x 6 Harpies (66 ea)

5 Cold One Knights with full command and The Standard of Slaughter. (+ D3 combat rez), champ has Ring of Hotek. (235) BSB goes here.
14 Executioners with Full command and Warbanner. (223)

Assassin (90)
Rune of Khaine (+D3 attacks), Touch of Death (Killing Blow), Cloak of Twilight (Bound Steed of shadows). (165)

Hydra (175)

I wanted Bolt throwers and Warriors but I needed to fill core slots and maintain a firebase. So I had to settle for RxBs w/ no CR and no D3 wounds. Well... them's the breaks.

This list falls back on the first principle of WE stradegy, win through kills. Between the Cold ones who are producing 15 st 6 rerollable attacks on the charge and execs doing mostly the same with CoB buffs and KB, and both with banners producing combat rez (CoKs in particular potentially generating a static +5), breaking on the charge should be pretty easy.

Lore of shadows can be particularly nasty on the Lvl 4. Unseen Lurker can go a long way to fix Stupidity if it has to, or just get that charge off all the faster. Its a real shame that Shades of death is RiP or those two could combine rather nicely. And the Focus Familiar with Crown of Taidron could be a fun suprise too. All in all, this will be some good practice in tactical casting trying to get of big spells when the're needed.

Assassin goes with the Execs but I'll wait to reveal him unitl either the second round of combat if I charge or if I get charged, basically any time my Great Weapon Strikes Last rule would be an issue. He pops out and opens up the enemy front rank to reduce attacks back and I should retain at least 10 attacks of my own at st 6 with KB. Its a lot to invest just to make one unit better, but with high armour saves and regeneration so prevalent out there they bring something important that the rest of the army doesn't.

And I no what you're thinking, I could use the cauldron to give anything KB, but since execs already have it I can give them +1 attack instead and get better results. And with ther Cauldron there they are stubborn too, so that just keeps chipping away at the Black Guard's advantage.

I'm trying it out this weekend against a Dwarf army and hopefully some others. any suggestions you have before then would be greatly appreciated.

I played today with dark elves against HE and got beaten with solid victory.

Black guard was awesome, killing a 14 swordmasters and a bsb on the charge. They had ASF banner. Then they got magiced and shot to death...

Corsairs are brilliant with the armour piercing standard. 12 Corsairs destroyed 21 HE spearmen.

Armour piercing on RxB is great.

Cold ones are still stupid...

The druchi sorcery rule is a very powerful rule, and the power of darkness is a really good spell.

Pendant of Khalet and ring of hotek are really nice items. The ring of hotek can be a game winner.

Assassins are so much better than in the last edition. Cloak of twlight is a good suprise and forces your opponent to use a scroll or you WILL kill your target. I like flying assassins...

What size Corsair unit did you use. With the points I have available 10 Corsairs with BoM could be a real possibility.

I had a unit of 15 corasairs, but some where killed by a tiranoc chariot. The corsairs also had an assassin with additional hand weapon, rune of khaine and twilight cloak, but he flew to assassinate the HE archmage before the corsairs engaged with the spearmen.

The assassin destroyed the tiranoc chariot that charged the corsairs before the crew could
attack. With poisoned attacks, armour piercing and str 4 a poison attack is the same as killing blow to modles with armour save 5+.

While I'm not against discussing the Dark elves, I'm afraid discussing particular army lists is too off topic in a wood elf forum.

I'm locking it for now, but feel free to discuss the dark elves strengths and weaknesses in General discussion, and especially relating how the new druchii book affects our army.

If you want to discuss particular army lists, I suggest http://www.druchii.net.

EDIT: After talking abut this with the rest of the mods, there are news about this.

I'm moving this to the off topic section, rather than locking it forever.

If there is something WE related (how would you defeat this army with your WE, for example), GD or Quartermater's can be appropiate. Else, post it on Off Topic, please.

Elhänn.

You've got a nice magic heavy list, and it suffers from what most magic heavy lists do, low unit count.

If it were me . . . I'd add banners to the crossbowmen. Shields on Crossbowmen is great, as you now have a 4+ save in HTH, make them an all around utility unit with the banner and they can really pitch in, squeezing more possible uses out of them will help your low model count.

I would also drop the Hag Queen in favor of another unit or two. Although it sounds like a fun model to field. However tactially I think the other units would serve you better.

I would thinkg the cauldren of blood would be more effective when field with more Khainite units.

The cauldron is there specifically to boost the Execs. In my last game against Dwarves my Execs waded through shooting to enter combat with only four models plus Assassin and with the Cauldron boost they were dishing out 8 St6 KB attacks + 8 st 4 KBs from the assassin, and were Stubborn.

Here is My revised piece.

Lvl 4 w/
Focus Familiar, 2 scrolls, powerstone. (405)

Lvl 2 w/
Tomb of Furion. (150)

BsB w/
Cold One and Hydra banner, HA and shield. (210)

Nothing changed.

Core;

2 x 10 Dark riders w/ musicians. (92 ea)
15 Corsairs w/ full command and Frenzy. (200)

special;

5 CoKs w/ full command and standard of slaughter, champ has Ring of Hotek
14 Execs w/ full command and warbanner.

Assassin w/ AHW, Rune of Khaine, touch of death and Cloak of Twilight. (171)

Hydra (175)
RBT (100).

what do you think?

I like that better, You have more of a battle line and its nice to have at least one RBT battery to keep Full save nights, dragons, and steam tanks from moving around with total impunity.

Your Dual Dark rider units can also help you with fast armies like WE.