The 9th Age/Tactics/Dread Elves
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The fair use The 9th Age expy of the Dark Elves of Warhammer Fantasy. Beta update coming soon...
Why play Dread Elves
- very minitersitic
- greek
- Lots of strong Synergies between units, with many troops giving buff to other troops, turning a glasscannon army into a spicky, wooden, Railgun.
Tactics
The tactics are current as of second edition.
Army Rules
Universal Rules
Academy Training if more than half of models have this rule. Several parties, Reduces the rank bonus of units it engaged in melee with bt -1, in addition, to count as having one more full rank and unit Consisting of all Infantry models gaining +1" to charge distance while within 8" of another unit with this rule.
Hunting Bolas Enemies that break from combat from a model with this rule, Minimize their flee roll.
Professional Courtesy assassins can't be in the same units.
Scent of Blood The model gains Frenzy and Fearless in close combat and gains +1" when charging a unit that doesn't have a full health pool. Only available on your raptor models and some monsters makes them more likely to not pursue after winning combat and being caught out. It will also help them not lose combat from fear, which is unlikely due to your high discipline elves, but ensures you won't lose for a stupid roll.
Attack Attributes
Ruthless Efficiency Close combat attacks gain +1 to wound during the first round of combat. All of your elves to a model have this special rule. Dread Elves are scary close combat monsters because of this rule, anyone unlucky enough to be in melee with you will be getting trashed. Because this is a modifier to the wound roll, not to strength or resilience, even if your opponent is resilience 10 you're going from 6s to wound to 5s.
Artistry of Death Close combat attacks gain +1 to wound.
Armory
Kraken's Hide Armour Equipment The bearer gains +1 armor if on foot. Your characters can have a 2+ on foot before any armor enchantments or other defensive buffs. Your elves are far tankier than any elf should be allowed to be.
Repeater Crossbow Shooting Weapon range: 18", shots: 1, str 3, AP 0, becomes shoot(3) if in short range. Your standard shooting weapon, Ok range given your an elf, and hit more like a normal bow, but gets 3 shots when within 9". Walk up quick and start shooting with your nutty elven to-hit for a 14" threat range.
Repeater Handbow(x) Shooting Weapon range: 12", shots: X, str 3, AP 1, Quick to Fire, Accurate. Shorter range but has AP but is effective at all ranges even when moving. Available on your Black Cloaks and Assassin.
Blades of Doraic Close Combat Weapon Two-Handed, +1A, Magical Attacks. If the model's unit is currently affected by a non-Attribute Spell, then they also gain +1 Str.
Hereditary Spell
Curse of the Phantom Queen (Cv +8) Hex, Hexes an enemy unit, if they deal damage they take 1 S4 Ap4 Ap2 hit.
Unit Analysis
Characters
Dread Prince 240pts. A wild number of attacks at an amazing offensive skill and incredible agility makes him scary to look at, now add in the dread elf options to make him stupid tanky and the normal elf options for killing everything and you have one of the best characters in the game, now can even make parry attacks. But don't just think that you can throw him anywhere, he is still an elf with a pitiful resilience and bog-standard HP. If you play smart with him, there is no reason he won't do plenty of work.
Beastmaster 210pts. your monster support hero, and monster rider lord. not as point efficient powerful as a Prince but very tanky wearing a Kraken’s Hide and Can't be stomped. including himself when mounted on a Menagerie, He is very helpful in a monster list, giving your critters a boost in their Discipline Tests and improving their stomping.
Legion Legate 170pts. The kid prince with all the same options but with mildly worse attacks, offensive/defensive skill, and agility. Play smart with him and he will make his points back. When run solo mounted, A BSB isn't necessarily required for your high discipline elves, but his Academy Training is a greater help for armies and detachments without that aura.
Temple Legate: 310pts. Your battle-ready wizard, and is decent there. Must pick between Divination and make thier unit Distracting while wielding Blades of Darag, or Alchemy and make enemies with 4+ armour to be easier to injure when you have the blades
Warlock Outcast 380pts. Your Wizard master, a great selection of magic paths, and irresistible will make this caster a pain in the ass for your opponent. He still has Ruthless Efficiency so he can hold his own in combat, it'll take more than any common flankers to assassinate your wizard.
Silent Assassin 180pts. about the same price as a captain but exists to murder in melee. You will be giving him paired weapons, beyond that, it's up to you how much you want to blow on him. Enemies can't avoid him because he teleports into any unit to get him to his target.
Character Mounts
Elven Horse Quick, tanks up your character, and better agility than most army's core troops. A great choice for any character.
Daeb Raptor Slower than the horse or Pegasus, but most certainly worth it. Attacks on par with your elite infantry and a boost to res to boot. Don't plan on your raptor hitting anything first.
Blackmane Pegasus Slower than the horse, but can fly. Less armor, but bumps your res up to 4. You won't be able to hide the character but is handy for a mobile character of any sort.
Raptor Chariot Look above, now add another raptor, more health, and impact hits. You won't be able to hide your character anywhere, but you'll move fast enough to murder things if you plan well.
Manticore A monster to ride on. Slightly faster than the raptor chariot with better attacks and the same downsides. It's up to you which one you run with, the manticore and the raptor chariot fulfill the same role, it really comes down to which models you like more.
Dragon It's a dragon, does what you expect. Pretty strong for what he is and decent value. If you play it be aware that every shooting weapon on the other side of the table will be looking at it and plan accordingly.
Core
Dread Legionnaires 200pts for 15 + 14ppm. Better offensive/defensive skill than most core and move at a significantly faster pace. thier Academy Training aura also makes them at least a one off must in many lists.
Temple Militants 265pts for 15 + 16ppm. A Flurry of attacks, getting Battle Focus, Fight in Extra Rank, and Blades of Darag. They are scary core troops in melee, the only issue is getting them into melee. Only Light Arm and 3 Res for defenses with Frenzy dragging them into unproductive matchups. Make sure you have the means to get them into melee if you're going to run them.
Raiding Party - Beast Breaker 170pts for 10 + 14ppm. Your kickass elf pirate beast hunters. Legionnaires Cannot be Stomped and efficient at eliminating enemy units that flee from combat. Also Synergizes with cav units that start within 8" by giving them Devastating Charge (Hatred).
Raiding Party - Corsair: 190pts for 10 + 14ppm. Your kickass elf pirates. Legionnaires with a +1 more armour Instead of a shield. Give them paired and given Throwing weapons(will cout towards Raiders) to dump truck everyone else. Expensive for a small unit but they provide an additional +1 Combat Score in addition to other bonuses that already acure from them flanking may be worth it to edge out that victory.
Shadow Riders 235pts for 8 + 20ppm. becomes core if unit size is 8 or more.
Core + Raiders
Legion Auxiliaries230pts for 15 + 13ppm. Are fully mobile, having March and Shoot to get into short range with repeater crossbow and well protected being Legionnaires with guns and can niminate an enemy to be -1 to hit a Legionnaire they charged.
Raiders
Black Cloaks 160pts for 5 + 40ppm. Your in your face scouts and very well-armed as a glass cannon with Poison attacks, they can be surprisingly scary flankers. Very numbers restricted but have only 3 small units can be enough for your mass shooting needs.
Special
Shadow Riders 175pts for 5 + 20ppm. Your misdirection annoyance cavalry. They still are given repeater crossbow so they can full-power shooting from stupid angles but eat into Rider allowance.
Warlock Acolytes 210pts for 5 + 40ppm. Small units of fast cavalry wizard conclave with great support spells, and aegis that imprvoves by each non-Attribute Spell they are affected by. You can run them to buff/hex other units and support the rest of your army, or switch to attack mode by placing some agents and hexes to boost up their defense and Strength.
Dread Knights 285pts for 5 + 35ppm. Each base is essentially better stats than 3 Judicators. They are expensive but will make their points back with their nutty amount of attacks and maneuverable unit size.
Obsidian Guard 220pts for 10 + 20ppm. elite anvils, being Heavy Armour and a Def and Off of 6 that's normally only seen on characters. Two attacks a model and halberds make them scary. They will be hitting most other units on 2+ and str 4 will help them grind through other units. they even anchor your forces more by having a Rally Around the Flag aura, freeing up your Battle Standard Bearer to be with somewhere else or spend points on something else.
Judicators 200pts for 10 + 20ppm. Pretty buff elves with hatred and having a ridiculous amount of bonuses to wound and AP despite still hitting at normal elf initiative. Overkill on lesser core units but murders elite small units that think their high armor and Res will save them.
Harpies 160pts for 8 + 10ppm. Dirt cheap and fast, defenseless, and insignificant. Don't expect them to do much, but make great meatshields by being in inconvenient positions for your opponent.
Gorgons 160pts for 1 + 100ppm. A single or 3 model unit with a good amount of attacks, very fast, and will not break in combat. Effective at dealing damage especially to Standard and Large with their Petrifying Stare circumventing a lot of their defense. Give them Paired Weapons or halberds to make the most of their attacks and watch out for supernal, if combat doesn't go their way they will crumble.
Thunder Pack 290pts for 3 + 70ppm. Tamers riding Rinos. Only as fast as Ogres but have light troops for high maneuverability despite being lumber battering rams that would terror rout or leave impact markets on whatever they charge. As if you wanted that small Dread Knight unit to be as cheap as possible but inflict maximum damage.
Raptor Chariot 200pts. Cheaper than a unit of dread knights but gets you essentially two dread knights with impact hits. A handy unit and certainly a strong choice, but it will be out on its own soaking up a lot of shots.
Divine Altar -Effigy of Dread 200pts. War Platform that can only is bonded for life with a Scoring Infantry unit. gives a -1 Res to enemies in btb context, softening them up for your low Str elves, or even your Burly elves.
Divine Altar - Crucible of Slaughter 300pts. an Immovable Scenery Piece and have to give up the Effigy of Dread but give a lot of benefits. Channel (3), your guys in 18" get fear, enemies can't use Rally Around the Flag for Fear Tests and you can discard veil tokens to increase the range.
Destroyers
Hunting Chariot 200pts A quick chariot with a harpoon on it. This is the biggest "fuck you" to any monster your opponent could possibly field, especially flying monsters. If your opponent wants to monster mash this is a great choice.
Repeater Battery 200pts A mobile shooting platform, fire 8 anti-infantry shots that can be constantly wheeled around to a better position.
The Menagerie
Kraken & Hydra better reviewed together. Both are gigantic beasts that cost around the range of 400 points each. They have the same movement and defensive stats, but the Kraken will be harder to hit with distracting and hard targets and the Hydra is more survivable with Fortitude (5+). The Kraken has fewer attacks than the Hydra, but the hits are at strength 7 and multiple wounds (d3). The Hydra has more attacks, epically at lower health, has decent strength, and a breath attack to harass nearby enemies. The choice is up to you which one to run, the Kraken is better at killing big single models, it's a monster hunting monster, the Hydra is better for stomping big units.
Mist Leviathan 265 pts. like a Manticore but more important in granting you tactical superiority. lets you win ties for picking deployment zones and gives nearby friendly Infantry a bonus to movement (but they can't March and Shoot), giving you early set up for changing and flanking.
Magic Items
Weapon Enchantments
Crippling Frost 95pts. great weapons only. +1 str/ap and cause a model part during a duel to lose -1 Attack for the Round of Combat for each hit inflicted. A great choice will be very consistent for your character and will scare any character not faster then a elf from getting too close to him.
Lacerating Touch 50pts. Paired Weapons only. +2Ap, +2Attack, and fear.
Transcendence 50pts. Lance only. For each unsave wound infected, user gains +1Str/Ap (max +2).
Mastery of Slaughter 40pts. Spear only.
Pride of Gar Daecos 35pts. Halberd. only. +1 Attack and Divine Attacks.
Armor Enchantments
Seal of the Republic 40pts. Foot only. Heavy Armour only. Does nothing at the start of the game, but for each unsaved wound the wearer deals in melee they gain +1 armor for the rest of the game. Another win more option, but you need the armor for first turn shooting, not for turn 5 combat.
Banner Enchantments
Banner of Gar Daecos 50pts. Replace Ruthless Efficiency with Artistry of Death.
Banner of Blood 50pts. Can't be taken by core. Gain Petrifying Stare and enemies must reroll successful Discipline Tests.
Academy Banner 40pts. gains Academy Training.
Artefacts
Moithir's Mirror: 65pts.
Mask of the War Crow: 50pts.
Ceinran's Gambit: 40pts. Wizards only.
Ring of the 9th Legion: 40pts. Legion Legates only.
Ring of the Obsidian Thrones: 35pts.
Beastmaster's Whistle: 30pts. Beastmasters only.
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