Any advice on High Elves?

[Longstrider]

Hey all. Just wondering if anyone has some advice on matched play with High Elves (or possibly a variety of Highborn with Wanderers for battleline). They're split up into so many little subfactions that, without bringing in Compendium stuff, it seems it'd be pretty hard to get relevant synergies going. Phoenix Guard obviously leap out instantly as a rock unit, and certainly anointed phoenix riders are another thing, but what about anything else?

I'm not keen at all on the old Spearmen or Archers, so that's where the Wanderer battleline comes in - I think it'd be easy enough to have Eternal Guard look coherent with the right paintjob.

Thanks for any advice - I'm toying around with starting a new army for AoS now that matched play is here and we've had a bit on a takeup at the local store. Always wanted to have a properly painted army of Elves, so it seems like now's a good a time as any.

[darkspear]

If you are mixing with wanderers, let the wanderers take charge of the shooting.  You can also take Sisters of the Watch which is an ex High Elf unit.

I find Dragon princes very resilent,  due to 4+ armor and rerolls for 1 and 2's.  for infantry, sword masters still deliver lots of damage. what I did is I send my dragon princes to charge and tie up an enemy unit while sword masters charge in the assist when the opportunity arises.  The same trick works with phoenix guard/sword masters combo. in terms of abilities, HE are quite shafted due to the lack of common keywords.  only part of your army will get to benefit from your command abilities (depending on your choice of general)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GraemeD]

Since the splitting up of the different keywords, which I agree has made an old style high elf army a big challenge, ive been running a mix of Phoenix Temple and Wanderer units. Sisters of the watch with a nomad prince as the general is good (and outright cheeky against chaos) while the phoenix temple side takes care of itself with its keyword synergy not relying on command abilities. The army looks ok, though ive went for a dark red armoured look. Only the glade guard look a little out of place. 

[Longstrider]

I too was thinking of Phoenix Guard as a rock unit, but Eternal Guards can also be pretty hard to shift - they're much cheaper too, though they take more effort. Then again, Phoenix Guard with an Anointed nearby are going to fight to the last, and I like the Phoenix models themselves. That would eat my character slots though - I don't see why you'd take Phoenixes without having Anointeds on them too. And if one has phoenixes presumably there ought to be some wizards too so they can get the armour buff from nearby spellcasters.

In terms of offensive melee, seems like there's arguments for White Lions, Swordmasters or Wildwood Rangers - but the former get no benefits from any leaders. nor do the Swordmasters for that matter, but the Rangers are the most expensive of the three.

Glade Guard shooting isn't the greatest, but it's a great alpha strike and then remains passable. I've got 20 of them, so they'll get some use. Are Sisters of the Watch worth the points though? They're quite expensive (and in money, as well), but the models look nice. It seems that really I'd want Sisters and Glade Guard both parked near a Nomad Prince, but that starts adding up too.

So I guess what I'm thinking of at the moment is:
Static shooting: Sisters and/or Glade Guard
Static melee: Eternal Guard or Phoenix Guard + Anointed. Eternal Guard may just be the way to go, since they're cheap.
Offensive melee: Wildwood or White Lions or Swordmasters who just hope to survive into combat, or possibly Dragon Blades or Wild Riders?
Utility: Sisters of the Thorn (though, again, pricey)
Characters: Spellsinger, Anointed, Nomad Prince (this latter for the shooting blocks?) Maybe I should just put up with the compendium and dip into High Elves for a Highborn buff?