I played a 2500pt grudgematch against a High Elf Teclis army, with Teclis using Lore of Shadow, so here's the report. My List: Lords: Slann Mage-Priest, Cupped Hands of the Old Ones, Focus of Mystery, The Becalming Cogitation, The Focused Rumination. Lore of Life. Battle Standard Bearer Huanchi's Blessed Totem Heroes: Skink Priest Forbidden Rod Skink Priest Dispel Scroll Core:3x blocks of 25 Saurus Warriors Special: 9x Chameleon 9x Chameleon, 35x Temple Guard with Standard Rare: 3x Salamanders I don't remember his exact list, but it was a block of Seaguard, block of Swordmasters, some Boltthrowers, some horse archer scouts, some archers, an eagle, and Teclis along with an L2 of I think metal Deployment: I deployed in a standard, dead-center castle formation with my salamanders on the flanks. He deployed similarly, with Swordmasters dead-center, flanked on either side by his core choices and bolt throwers. Teclis was placed in the unit of Swordmasters, along with a BSB that made the entire unit Magic Immune. I scouted my Chamos 12 inches in front of the Swordmasters. I won the die-roll. LM 1 Chamos advance into short-range and unload on the Swordmasters, killing maybe 6-7. Everything else advances. Salamanders get 10s on the Artillary dice and manage to scorch some Seaguard. During the magic phase, my Throne of Vines is Teclis-scolled and deleted from my book, and Dwellers gets scrolled but not deleted. HE 1 He shuffles up and around a bit. Swordmasters move backwards, instead of charging the Chamo Skinks. Seaguard advance. Boltthrowers and Archers get some pot-shots on Salamanders and Skinks. His great eagle gets one of my Salamanders into combat, where they stay for the remainder of the game like morons. Magic phase, Teclis debuffs Temple Guard, scatters Pit of Shades way off-target. LM 2 Saurus fail their charges on Seaguard, Temple Guard fail charge on Seaguard. Chamo skinks move around Bolt Thrower number 1. Magic, I have to stab my skink for the Rod Dice. I get a Dwellers off on the Seaguard, kill about 16, they fail leadership and high-tail it backwards. Shooting, Salamanders continue to cook the fleeing Seaguard, Skinks eat the bolt thrower. HE 2 Swordmasters back up almost to the edge now, Seaguard rally, not much else. The Horse archer scouts have engaged a block of Saurus on my flank and manage to win by a poor combat resolution, but are now totally out of position with the rest of his army. Teclis debuffs my army, scatters pit of shades way off target. LM 3 This turn is another fight for positioning and dispelling debuffs, along with more strong shooting. Most of my skinks die this turn as well. HE 3 This turn was where things got weird. Teclis left the swordmasters, and moved behind the Seaguard, who pivoted about 45 degrees to try and box in my army and hide Teclis. During magic, Teclis attempted a Steed of Shadows to fly across the board and hide, but he didn't hit doubles, and my dispel scroll ate the spell up, leaving him stuck on the ground. LM 4 This is where the game fell apart for Teclis. Here's my best recreation of the board ---Swordmasters----------------Teclis---Bolt Thrower--- -----------------------Seaguard------------Archers-------- -----------------------------------------------------HA------ -Saurus---Sala-Temple G---Saurus-------------OR------ ------------Skink Priest---------------------------RC------ -----------------------------------------------------SH------ -----------------------------------------------------ES----- ------------------------------------------------------------- Left-side Saurus charge and get into combat with Swordmasters. Right-Side Saurus roll snake-eyes and fail their charge for the third time this game due to an inch. Temple guard hit Box-cars and slam into the Seaguard, with about 28 of the nasty beasts still left in the unit due to poor shooting against 3+ armor saves. Magic I just dispel the shadow remains in play stuff. It was a bad turn for dice. The Swordmasters fail to wipe out the Saurus Warriors, who make 6+ Armor and parry-saves like its going out of style. I have more ranks and take a stubborn test with my Slann BSB and of course pass. My temple guard rip through the Seaguards, who break and flee 6 inches to the board-edge. I pursue at 10 inches, and we have to call the judge because Teclis is now inbetween my pursuit. The ruling we got is as follows: If you roll higher than the flee, you always catch them. If a unit is in the way that did not panic from being fled through, you overrun into them, even if it stops you from making your full pursuit. The temple guard are now in combat with Teclis. HE 4 Swordmasters wipeout the Saurus, reforming into a rear charge on the temple guard. The horse archers flankcharge the Temple Guard, but can't hope to get enough wounds in. Teclis takes something like 8 Str 5 halberds to the face with a toughness of 2 and dies horribly. Temple guard reform, still with their rear facing to the swordmasters. LM 5 My opponent conceded after my movement phase, before the combat phase, based on my tactical prowess. -------------S---------T-------------------------------------- -------------W-S--S----E-------------------------------------- -------------O--A--K----M------------------------------------ -------------R---L--N----P--------------------------------- -------------D---A--K----L--------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------- This movement meant that the Swordmasters had to charge the Salamanders, and even if they wiped them out, they'd overrun into the lone Priest and get stuck. Meanwhile, I'd win combat with the Temple Guard and Reform, so that by the time they ate my Priest, it'd be a head-to-head charge, and he needed to be in the rear to have any hope of pulling this one out. Lizardmen win by something like an 800pt margin of Victory Points. All in All, I think Teclis isn't as scary as he could be for us, because there's a real paradox to running him. He's only viable in a list that ALSO has the Magic Immune Standard, but then you get into trouble. If you use the standard to guard Teclis, then your Special troop choices are open season for big spells. If you protect your Specials, Teclis dies to any sort of characteristic test in the game. My opponent tried to minimize this by clustering all three, but he hamstrung the unit of his most likely to score points because he was unwilling to expose Teclis to close combat. High Elves just ultimately lack effective ways to score points, which is namely due to their atrocious core choices. High Elf core is outrageously overpriced for what you get. I think the reason I really love Lizardmen is that almost all of our units are capable of scoring points effectively. I never feel guilty for taking more than the minimum 625pts of Core, whereas other armies, like High Elves, wince the entire way to hitting that 625pts.
Thanks for the cool report and congrats on the win! I think your end-evaluation is spot on. High Elves have many nasty combinations in their arsenal, but are generally failed by their hugely expensive core. Still, I think it's quite playable. I'm really interested to see how the new book, whenever it comes, changes the army.