I face DE peg spam regulary. What works is take a WD Slann, searing doom his flyers to bits, Take 3 pimped up Oldbloods, ots/dawnstone/aod + topreservation/steghelm + featherfoe torch/stuff. Mainly sit back, put the OBs into skink cohorts. The champion can take the first challenge and then the OB can decimate the peg guy afterwards. OBs are also safe from bolters in cohorts. Slann can also be guarded in cohorts by a champ+OB. 2x5 CO to area deny fast cav and/or go get bolters. Witch ferries can be double fleed my skinks. Terradons have proven quite good as well with rock dropping and being fast cav. Be sure they are near the general so they dont panic and flee.
I've never gone up vs this kind of dark elf list, but... surely a stegadon will hold up in a prolonged fight vs a tough elf character who only has 3 str 4 attacks to offer? I'd have thought this would be useful for tying down his characters. Can you explain this to me please?
Speed is one issue. The peg knights are far quicker than the Steg, so he can avoid the combat if he wishes. Also, consecutive rounds of bolt thrower fire pose a big danger to the Steg.
Some interesting points being made here, i personally think that the two strongest lists in the competetive meta right now are the warlock, pegasus, bolt thrower and dark rider DE army and the prince, unkillable BSB and bloodcrushers from WOC army. I have lost some games in tournaments against both, but charging my heroes is an interesting strategy. I might also take champions on some units simply to catch their charge, it should be good! A really good player will never allow their pegasi to be killed by bolt throwers, or magic for that case (but players have less control about magic, so ok) so i really think you are right saying that you need to have a combination of answers. Nice suggestions.
How exactly do you presume to take a Slann and 3 Old Bloods? Certainly not going to happen in a 2500 list. Since you plan to pimp them up, that would mean running at least a 5000 point game.
I agree that the Steg can hold their own, but the true strength of the Steg is not in spending turns against a single model he can't even thunder stomp, but to be smashing light infantry units to smithereens. DL with re-rollable 1+ AS (3+ against Steg) and 4+ WS will have no problem outlasting the Steg. The point is to free your monster up ASAP so that it can do its real job.
Easily? Ob/co,gw,ots,aod,ds + Ob/co,gw,sh,top + Ob/co,gw,fft,dh,toe + Slann/wd,ds,bc,bs --> 1183 points So you can fit them even to a 2400 point game. It even fits into an etc game.
Yet again, another example of why 50% Lords and 50% Heroes is a bloody stupid rule... 50% Lords and Heroes combined, I don't have a problem with. But potentially taking 75% of your army as characters?!? Mental. I saw one 'army' (and I use the word advisedly) that consisted of 2 units of 9 Knights of the Realm, 1 Unit of 3 Peg Knights, 2 Paladins, 1 Level 4 and FOUR Bretonnian Lords... all of them fairly well tooled up. It instantly made me want to add the Sword of Anti-Heroes into my list somewhere. (You could make a 40 strong unit of Skink Chiefs if you wanted though...)
Since it was entered in the BRB Errata, it is arguable that the rule is official even outside of end times.
The sword of anti heroes was already standard equipment in my orc list before the upped the limits on characters. It almost never disappointed when the limit was 25%-25%, so it only became a better bargain. And thx for all the sugestions so far. I will ask the dark elf player for a rematch soon, after i am done with a dung load of term papers.
After playing for some time now with 50% of lords.. I think it actually is quite a good thing for our lizards, compared with the 25% rule. You can tool up an Ob to deal with almost anything (a scarvet you cannot). Since lizards dont really have anything else than slanns, saurus characters and skinks. Having more saurus characters is good. I too also though that 50% rule is stupid but.. Nah. In etc environment its quite ok. Just to say ir out loud, My favorite warhammer is this "patrol" comp games where basicly all lords, superheroes and big monsters are banned with other various restrictions so unit sizes and points. Alot of fun when its basicly core vs core ^^