Caledor themed 2400 point army (advice wanted!)

[Nighteyes]

Hi everyone,

Sorry this might be a bit of a longish post!

I'm getting back into WHFB and have decided to build a high elf army, having previously ran with Lizardmen before. Before buying and painting models I want a fairly firm decision on where my HE army is going, so that I'm not wasting money buying models and units I'm never going to use. I'm looking for consistent theme right from the start. Right now I have no HE models, and will not buy any until I know exactly what sort of units will be in a future (hopefully tournament ready) army.

The direction I'm committed to is Caledor themed, with the majority of my army mounted, and a dragon. I have an army list of units I'm thinking about building towards;

(Lords)
Prince on elven steed with barding. Dragon armour, shield, star lance, dragonhelm, potion of foolhardiness. 235pts
Notes - This would be the general, and live with the dragon princes. I'm thinking the potion and star lance would synergise well if they charge something that absolutely has to die in the first round of combat. He's got reasonable survivability, and not too crazy on the points cost.

(Heroes)
Noble on elven steed with barding. Dragon armour, shield, lance, BSB (with world dragon banner). 178pts
Notes - BSB is essential in 8th ed, and with the world dragon banner I'm hoping it will keep the dragon princes alive for them to get stuck into combat. His attacks along with the prince and dragon princes should be fairly effective on the charge against most opponents.
Dragon mage, level 1, dragon armour, gem of sunfire, dawnstone, enchanted shield. 410pts
Notes - With a Caledor theme I absolutely need a dragon, and I think the dragon mage model is stunning...! I'm not all that bothered with magic in WHFB (too random) so I've just stuck with level 1. Sunfire gem synergises well with dragon and lore of fire, and this mage is pretty survivable and the dragon isn't bad, even though its only a sun dragon.

(Core)
10x Archers with musician. 110pts
10x Archers with musician. 110pts
Notes - I didn't want 100% mounted, incase of watchtower scenario for example, but also having played lizards with almost no shooting phase I am keen to have a little bit of firepower in the army. Plus again for the Caledor theme it would make sense that the mounted knights would bring a few peasant archers along for the experience of war!. Musician for swift reforms. Light armour seems like a waste of 20 points so they just have their robes to protect them......
5x Ellyrian reavers with musician. 90pts
5x Ellyrian reavers with musician. 90pts
5x Ellyrian reavers with musician. 90pts
Notes - These would be just spear wielding. Bows seem like a waste of points. Would want these to stall blocks of infantry up-front and annoy war machines. I used to play against a dwarf player who rocked 2-3 war machines per game. Against lizards they were brutal and very annoying... Against elves with lots of small reaver units - maybe not so much.
12x Silver helms with full command and shields. 306pts
12x Silver helms with full command and shields. 306pts
Notes - I really want these guys to be a core of the army, I could even consider dropping the reavers for even more silver helms if you guys think that's a good idea... Though I do like the reavers and I've got plans for converting them up from wood elf glade riders...

(Special)
10x Dragon princes with full command, banner of swiftness (prince & noble to go here). 335pts
Notes - The models are amazing, and with the prince and noble in here, with movement 10 (the standard banner), marching 20 and massive magic resistance these should do pretty well as a fast offensive unit kicking out lots of high accuracy high strength (on the charge) attacks. Plus their armour save is pretty solid. A nice character bunker.

(Rare)
Eagle claw bolt thrower. 70pts
Eagle claw bolt thrower. 70pts
Notes - These are here to support the archers and give a bit more strength to the ranged attack.

So there you go. Its exactly 2400 points. Magic items and stuff aren't really that important at this stage, but getting the right sort of units is. Does this look like it could be competitive? I know by focusing on mounted units I am losing out on some of the best HE units out there... Any suggestions would be good. I'm keen to figure out a direction for a new army before I start buying models.

Thanks

[matrim]

With only one lv1 caster you're taking a big risk don't forget DM has to take flaming sword so gem of sun fire won't be that useful may be replace it with Dispel Scroll And seriously consider making him lv2.
And give BotWD to DP unit and kit out the BSB with a magical weapon, just in case your target survives the attack or charges first you won't have any high strength attacks to inflict damages. I'd rather give the S lance to BSB and take Ogre/ Giant blade with prince.
You don't have any high S attacks and rely heavily on getting charges in that is a significant risk as well. Looks like a fun army to play though.

[Ladril Caledor]

Great to see a Caledor list I prefer to put the BotWD on the Dragon Prince unit rather than the Noble, for two reasons. First, the Noble can't take magic items if he takes a magic banner. Second, if you put it on the unit they have to wipe out every single Dragon Prince to remove the banner, rather than just killing the Noble.

My other concern is that just one level two isn't really enough magic. I'd suggest a mounted Shadow mage to sit in the back rank of the Dragon Princes. The World Dragon banner will protect him from miscasts and snipes, and his magic will help this list deliver a bit more pain as there aren't many high strength attacks.

I find Caledor armies work best if you really build around the dragon in terms of painting. Choose colours for the dragon and build the rest of your colour scheme around it. For example I run a gold dragon, red and gold army and white and gold characters. Also good if your banners and shields match your your dragon as much as possible.

[Nighteyes]

Thanks for your reply!

With only one lv1 caster you're taking a big risk don't forget DM has to take flaming sword so gem of sun fire won't be that useful may be replace it with Dispel Scroll And seriously consider making him lv2.

Thanks - yeh I realised that about the warrior mage rule after I posted the list... Its an interesting spell he has to take - I would have thought fireball would have made more sense, but actually I can see flaming sword working rather nicely when cast on silver helms or DP's for an extra little bit of killing power on the charge... You are right though, he probably should be level 2. But that would be it for magic - I've personally never had much luck with magic (and that was running with lizardmen!). The dice always seem to abandon me during that part of the game or crucial spells get dispelled at the worst moment.

And give BotWD to DP unit and kit out the BSB with a magical weapon, just in case your target survives the attack or charges first you won't have any high strength attacks to inflict damages. I'd rather give the S lance to BSB and take Ogre/ Giant blade with prince.

Okay, this sounds like a good idea. Things like magic items I'm not really too bothered about right now - its more about getting the right sort of units together.

Looks like a fun army to play though.

This is the main objective! When I play WHFB I really don't mind losing, but as long as its a fairly close game and I have fun, and feel like I've got a shot of winning. Having played lizards for quite a while I found them to be not so much fun, too slow and not very manoeuvrable with rubbish cavalry and actually pretty underwhelming troops..... Yeh they have amazing magic but you end up spending all your points on magic casters, and then when you roll snake eyes for the winds of magic you look like a bit of a fool!!

[Nighteyes]

I find Caledor armies work best if you really build around the dragon in terms of painting. Choose colours for the dragon and build the rest of your colour scheme around it. For example I run a gold dragon, red and gold army and white and gold characters. Also good if your banners and shields match your your dragon as much as possible.

Thanks for this suggestion, it makes a lot of sense. I haven't painted for about a year now, can't think of a better way to get back into painting than by doing a dragon! I might need a bit of inspiration on the colour theme... I had been thinking red and purple, with white and gold for trims... Might look a bit too 'vibrant' though

[matrim]

The DM is an interesting caster with +2 to cast spell you effectively get a Lv4 in your magic phase. FB and Flaming Sword are the best spells you could get from that lore 48' magic missile followed by 20+ magic missiles with 30' range.

Let me explain; if you put your archers together you'll have unit of 20 with banner and musician, additionally you can drop the musicians from reavers which would give you 3 more archers or 2 more and a champion. So during your magic phase you can cast the FS on them for a very effective shooting period (aka 20+ magic missiles). Having a large unit will give them good combat resolution so your opponents won't try to charge their chaff into your squish archers, and in case of big units you'll be steadfast at least for one turn which should allow you to get one or two counter charges. Also as said earlier one large unit will ensure you get the full potential of the FS spell.

I know you said you're not interested in details at this level but it is part of list writing. Would you consider Eltharion on stormwing to support this list? He doesn't really fit in your theme but he's a really good fighter and another Lv2 to have around. He can chose any of the eight lores from BRB, and could be a good support caster pressuring your opponents to save their dispell dice. His cost will need to come out of from the prince and may be one of the cav units though... Eltharion is 490 points

[Nighteyes]

Thanks matrim. That's sound logic looks like good synergy between a dragon mage and large archer block. Makes perfect sense. These are all tactics I never could consider before when playing the lizards as they never had any decent ranged attacks or decent fast units... They were more of a grind fest (in more than one way! Lol)

Its not that I'm not interested in list building as such, but it would probably take 6 months before I even have a 1200 point army together to start gaming with. Just wanted to make sure every model I paint is going to be usable in a final army build (I'm so slow at painting and I'm going to really take my time putting this army together). There is nothing worse than painting up a big unit of something and then finding out it sucks on the table

[Nighteyes]

Would you consider Eltharion on stormwing to support this list? He doesn't really fit in your theme but he's a really good fighter and another Lv2 to have around. He can chose any of the eight lores from BRB, and could be a good support caster pressuring your opponents to save their dispell dice. His cost will need to come out of from the prince and may be one of the cav units though... You'd get 390 points if you drop the prince, one unit of fast cav, musicians on fast cav and 2 SH.

That's an interesting thought......!

[matrim]

Yep I know what you mean good luck with painting.

[Nighteyes]

I think with fantasy totally up in the air currently with the soon-to-be-released 9th edition I'm going to shelf this idea, for now, and see what happens with the elves in the future..... I'm really hoping that 9th edition fantasy will still allow me to put together a predominately horse mounted 'elf' army (I guess high/wood/dark elves might not even exist in this new WHFB) with a character riding a dragon..... Of course if all the gaming groups and tournaments decide to shun 9th edition... Interesting times!

In the mean time I have plenty of other figures to paint, including a necromunda gang I've been meaning to put together for a while......