Advice for beginner

[Vindicte]

Hi all,

Would you have any advice for a beginner to play HE? It seems this army needs a bit of finesse and a lot of strategy in order to win, and right now I think I lacks both.

Also, I'm currently trying to make a efficient army list to tryhard until I get the grip over it, would you have any recommandation?

Right now, I have this:

High Elf Realms - Arise, arise, riders of Caledor! Death! - [1999pts]

# ++ Main Force ++ [1999pts]
## Characters [893pts]
Archmage [375pts]: Hand Weapon, Sea Guard, Wizard Level 4, Illusion, Warbow, The White Sword, Lore Familiar
• 1x Lothern Skycutter [90pts]: 3x Sea Guard Crew, Cavalry Spear, Hand Weapon, Shortbow, Swiftfeather Roc (Wicked Claws)
Prince [518pts]: Hand Weapon, Shield, General, Pure of Heart, Star Dragon (Dragon Fire, Full Plate Armour, Wicked Claws), Full Plate Armour, Sword of Might, Dragon Helm, Seed of Rebirth, 2x Opal Amulet

## Core [505pts]
Ellyrian Reavers [90pts]:
• 5x Ellyrian Reaver [18pts]: Elven Steed (Hand Weapon), Hand Weapon, Light Armour, Cavalry Spear, Shortbow
Ellyrian Reavers [90pts]:
• 5x Ellyrian Reaver [18pts]: Elven Steed (Hand Weapon), Hand Weapon, Light Armour, Cavalry Spear, Shortbow
Silver Helms [325pts]:
• 12x Silver Helm [24pts]: Barded Elven Steed (Barding, Hand Weapon), Hand Weapon, Heavy Armour, Lance, Shield
• 1x High Helm [6pts]
• 1x Standard Bearer [31pts]: War Banner

## Special [384pts]
Dragon Princes [192pts]:
• 5x Dragon Prince [37pts]: Barded Elven Steed (Barding, Hand Weapon), Full Plate Armour, Hand Weapon, Lance, Shield
• 1x Drakemaster [7pts]
Dragon Princes [192pts]:
• 5x Dragon Prince [37pts]: Barded Elven Steed (Barding, Hand Weapon), Full Plate Armour, Hand Weapon, Lance, Shield
• 1x Drakemaster [7pts]

## Rare [217pts]
Sisters of Avelorn [217pts]:
• 12x Sister of Avelorn [15pts]: Bow of Avelorn, Hand Weapon, Light Armour
• 1x High Sister [37pts]: Ruby Ring of Ruin

What do you think of it?
I don't know if the archmage illusion is an easy setup to begin with, would battle Magic be easier and/or stronger?
The Idea of the big unit of Silver Helms is not so much to deal damage but to take charges with another unit (the dragon probably) and to hope I can force a flee reaction due to unit power after combat res. Maybe not a good idea, once again I don't know. Would it be better to switch this unit for 24 seaguards?

Maybe m'y way of thinking isn't optimal, I'll met you tell me what you think and advise

[HoS]

An issue with going "full try-hard" while trying to learn is that the second you bring what is perceived as a "hard" or "tournament" list people are going to want you to follow the rules of the big/mainstream tournies. That would mean you are overspending on your Prince riding a Star Dragon by 18 pts. Retool him so that he is worth no more than 25% of the nominal total points of the army list.

Prince and Illusion Archmage with the White Sword is, of course, a very potent 1-2 combo.

I am a little confused about the Sisters:

You have the rest of your army as cavalry so they are likely to be left to fend for themselves more often than not. But 12 of them with no Horn of Isha is a much less potent threat than Sisters normally are. As a bunker for a Ruby Ring of ruin it seems very expensive, seeing as you only have 1 caster. They can just play their casters towards your archmage to stay in dispel range and then use their fated on your Ruby Ring every turn. You will get some stuff through but you won't really affect their battleplan much, IMO.

Reavers, Silver Helms, Dragon Princes, mmm yummy. If you run into Orcs and Goblins running fanatics you are going to be in for a super bad time, but otherwise I love this part of the list.

[Velmates]

Just a quick thought: if you want to start learning the game and possibly play with others who are just beginning, make a more beginner-friendly and fun list. Your list looks like a tournament-trimmed list that some lists, especially beginner's lists, struggle against. Resulting in frustrating games. Just my experience as I tended to go for "hard" lists as well but switched to softer ones in favor of nice evenings.

[HoS]

Just a quick thought: if you want to start learning the game and possibly play with others who are just beginning, make a more beginner-friendly and fun list.

I second this advice, as well.

[TyrrenAzureblade]

I'm going to dissent with the opinion that you should make a beginner-friendly list. If you want to play this game as sweaty as possible, and your goal is to get into tournaments because that's your favored way of playing, I say you jump into the deep end. The only problem you may run into is finding opponents that are going to want to play that way. But maybe you won't, depending on your local club, or gamestore. And to add to that, if you do find an equally sweaty tryhard, there is the possibility that they may not be interested in teaching a player that's new to the game. Have you any experience in Warhammer Fantasy Battles' previous editions? If you haven't, you may find your experience being like trying to tame a wild animal. It is however said that failure is the best teacher, and if you don't mind losing constantly to experienced players' optimized tourney lists, and that doesn't frustrate you into quitting, you might find yourself learning a lot really quickly. If you can find the opponent(s), the patience, and the gumption, do it.