High Elves Compendium 2017 Discussion

[swarmofseals]

High Elf units in the compendium seem largely unchanged -- archers, RBTs, seahelm and spearmen are still a thing. The lack of a massive regiment bonus for spearmen is a little annoying, but fine I suppose. However, all of the named special characters are now gone. Teclis, you will be sorely missed!

I've been somewhat frustrated by the High Elf armies in the GHB2017, specifically with the lack of any faction-independent generic infantry battleline option. I want to field a more mixed force than would work with the allies limits, but I'm not keen on taking three units of reavers. Spearmen now provide the answer to this!

Time to start brewing some lists!

[chord]

Can somebody post a link to the skywarden on foot warscroll?  It's not on the website sadly.

A great update because it adds more generic battleline!

[swarmofseals]

5 minutes ago, chord said:

Can somebody post a link to the skywarden on foot warscroll?  It's not on the website sadly.

A great update because it adds more generic battleline!

It's the Seawarden on Foot, found here: https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Compendiums/warhammer-aos-high-elves-en.pdf

It only affects Highborn units now, so only spearmen, archers, RBTs and itself. It's still a fantastic combo with these units though as the banner is a powerful buff and the command ability is extremely strong. It's nice that the RBT now has the Highborn keyword on the warmachine itself, which clears up any interactions with the Sea Helm.

 

 

[chord]

oh I thought there was one that affects the swifthawks

[Aezeal]

Well at least you have your highborn keyword and command abilities that effect highborn troops... us wanderers lost the keyword on our compendium troops AND all command abilities that we had there

[Artobans Ghost]

5 hours ago, swarmofseals said:

It's the Seawarden on Foot, found here: https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Compendiums/warhammer-aos-high-elves-en.pdf

It only affects Highborn units now, so only spearmen, archers, RBTs and itself. It's still a fantastic combo with these units though as the banner is a powerful buff and the command ability is extremely strong. It's nice that the RBT now has the Highborn keyword on the warmachine itself, which clears up any interactions with the Sea Helm.

 

 

As to the compendium warscrolls. They seem to be a lot less than they used to be. When it says alternate warscrolls, where are they? 

Example - swordmasters or lion chariot. Luckily I printed off the original ones but I'm still missing a few. 

[swarmofseals]

6 minutes ago, Artobans Ghost said:

As to the compendium warscrolls. They seem to be a lot less than they used to be. When it says alternate warscrolls, where are they? 

Example - swordmasters or lion chariot. Luckily I printed off the original ones but I'm still missing a few. 

Most of those warscrolls were replaced long ago. You can get them on the GW website (search the store for the unit, the pdf for that warscroll will be available on that page).

[swarmofseals]

4 hours ago, chord said:

oh I thought there was one that affects the swifthawks

There is, it's the Skywarden. That hasn't changed.

[Artobans Ghost]

6 minutes ago, swarmofseals said:

Most of those warscrolls were replaced long ago. You can get them on the GW website (search the store for the unit, the pdf for that warscroll will be available on that page).

Thank you! I guess I havnt had to look for awhile lol

[swarmofseals]

Just now, Artobans Ghost said:

Thank you! I guess I havnt had to look for awhile lol

No problem! There are a couple that you might have difficulty finding because they were only sold as part of the Spire of Dawn boxed set. You should be able to find those warscrolls if you google image search for them.

[Davariel]

Everything seems pretty much as it was before for the High Elves other than all the characters we've lost - a big blow since the ones we have left typically only synergise with one unit. Spearmen (as a cheap battleline filler) and Bolt throwers (powerful shooting for their cost) still seem like the most attractive compendium options to me.

The Seawarden is an interesting option too - a core of cheap spearmen buffed by a Seawarden's banner could be a good base for a more defensive Highborn army. You could potentially make him your general too, depending on what else you wanted to run. He seems a bit fragile though.

Note that by taking the compendium stuff, you're giving up on any allegiance other than generic Order since the compendium doesn't seem to be available as allies. Of course, since there are no high elf factions with allegiance abilities, and most (all? you could maybe make a case for Swifthawks with the Spire of Dawn battalion?) don't have the troop variety to make an effective army, this isn't much of a loss.

Gah, typing that makes me realise just how bad off we are out of all the former WFB armies

5 hours ago, swarmofseals said:

 It's nice that the RBT now has the Highborn keyword on the warmachine itself, which clears up any interactions with the Sea Helm.

I'm not sure this is the case - the Seawarden affects the HIGHBORN keyword, but the Bolt Thrower only has the HIGHBORN REPEATER BOLT THROWER keyword (which might just make it less clear than before )

[BrAiKo]

7 hours ago, swarmofseals said:

It's the Seawarden on Foot, found here: https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Compendiums/warhammer-aos-high-elves-en.pdf

It only affects Highborn units now, so only spearmen, archers, RBTs and itself. It's still a fantastic combo with these units though as the banner is a powerful buff and the command ability is extremely strong. It's nice that the RBT now has the Highborn keyword on the warmachine itself, which clears up any interactions with the Sea Helm.

 

 

Why does this guy not work with the Spireguard / Sea Guard??  It's clearly the unit he is meant to pair up with.  Disappointing that this guy is still compendium and doesn't work with swifhawks the way he should; and he's still a current model...

[swarmofseals]

57 minutes ago, Davariel said:

Gah, typing that makes me realise just how bad off we are out of all the former WFB armies

I'm not sure this is the case - the Seawarden affects the HIGHBORN keyword, but the Bolt Thrower only has the HIGHBORN REPEATER BOLT THROWER keyword (which might just make it less clear than before )

I think the RBT thing is clearly a typo! Honestly though, I think that High Aelves are one of the most competitive of the old factions. The seawarden is one of the most powerful support units in the game. The damage that a block of 30 archers can put out when the double shot is combined with the seawarden command ability is pretty incredible. The Frostheart Phoenix is a great warscroll. The Dragonlord is pretty solid now, and can actually be quite broken when multiple Dragonlords use their horns. Dragonblades are quite solid and get even better when supported by the Dragonlord horns. Phoenix Guard are really good. The Loremaster is a very nice caster, and the Archmage isn't bad either. Add on top of that plenty of serviceable warscrolls like the Spireguard, High Warden, and Reavers and you've got plenty to work with.

5 minutes ago, BrAiKo said:

Why does this guy not work with the Spireguard / Sea Guard??  It's clearly the unit he is meant to pair up with.  Disappointing that this guy is still compendium and doesn't work with swifhawks the way he should; and he's still a current model...

I have no idea what you are getting at here. Spireguard have replaced Seaguard. Seaguard don't exist anymore. There is a warscroll (the Skywarden, who is a variation on the Skycutter) that fills a VERY similar function to the Seawarden. The Skywarden works for Spireguard. 

[BrAiKo]

18 minutes ago, swarmofseals said:

I have no idea what you are getting at here. Spireguard have replaced Seaguard. Seaguard don't exist anymore. There is a warscroll (the Skywarden, who is a variation on the Skycutter) that fills a VERY similar function to the Seawarden. The Skywarden works for Spireguard. 

What I'm getting at is that pretty much every (high) aelf infantry unit has a corresponding hero on foot that synergises with that unit (sure the Loremaster doesn't have particular synergy with Blademasters, but visually and mechanically it's obvious he's the hero version of that unit).   

Spireguard do not have this despite the model existing and being currently available. Yes they have the Skywarden on Skycutter as you pointed out, but the 'on foot' version is inexplicably Compendium.  Not sure you want to park the 16" Move Skywarden next to your Spireguard all game (which is the role the on foot version would fill).  This is particularly an issue in Skirmish.

[GammaMage]

I'm not sure why you think the Seawarden is a current model that's still available. All the models in the compendium are older ones that you can no longer buy.

[BrAiKo]

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-AU/Skycutters

Currently available above.  Much in the same way death hags on foot, abhorrent ghoul kings on foot etc are all still available.  There he is with a 360 degree photo. 

And I don't want to be negative, I just want an excuse to buy a skycutter box for the Sea/skywarden on foot but GW aren't giving one  

[someone2040]

Yeah, I have no idea why the Seawarden scroll hasn't transitioned to the Swifthawk faction.

If I had to fathom a guess, it's because the initial round of transitions didn't include the Seaguard/Spireguard models, they were relegated to compendium until the Spire of Dawn set came out.

Why they haven't bought it out since (and even continue to push it into the Compendium) I don't have a clue, it doesn't really make sense. Maybe if enough people poke GW about it they'll redo the rules.

[GammaMage]

Ah, my apologies, I didn't realise that that was a detatchable model like the Death Hag.

[tolstedt]

I had a list that utilized Prince Imrik's command ability which would now work with the reduced price of dragons.  Five dragons all doing massive damage with their jaws!  The prince is dead.  Long live the prince.

On a side note, is there a location with the old compendium books so everyone can use the old warscrolls?

[hot_boy_ronald]

On 8/26/2017 at 0:40 AM, swarmofseals said:

The Dragonlord is pretty solid now, and can actually be quite broken when multiple Dragonlords use their horns. Dragonblades are quite solid and get even better when supported by the Dragonlord horns.

For the Dragonlord horn, is this just 1 extra attack on all weapons (instead of 4 attacks, its 5) or does the creature attack an extra time entirely (4 attacks, then 4 attacks again)? 

 

Thanks

[swarmofseals]

42 minutes ago, hot_boy_ronald said:

For the Dragonlord horn, is this just 1 extra attack on all weapons (instead of 4 attacks, its 5) or does the creature attack an extra time entirely (4 attacks, then 4 attacks again)? 

 

Thanks

1 extra attack on each weapon. It's still pretty gross though. It's not hard to fit two or three Dragons into a list, so you could potentially be looking at +2-3  extra attacks per weapon per model, all of them rerolling hits. That also counts for your Dragonblades. It's a horrific amount of damage. Even in its simplest form, consider this:

Double Dragon

2 Dragonlords, one is the general with Legendary Fighter and the other has a Quicksilver Potion. Both have warhorns. Use command ability, toot-toot, and charge in. Activate the general, and then use the potion to immediately activate the other Dragonlord. The result, on average: 38.25 rend 1 damage, 24 rend 2 damage. Considering these models only cost a total of 680 points, that's disgusting.