A lot of the threads I saw here reregarding dark elves is out dated or for 7th. Now that its been 8th for a good while I was wondering what you experienced Liz generals do to handle really nasty DE lists? (Games generally at 2500) Like.. -dreadlords on Pegasus with awesome reverse ward saves -dual hydras -their fairly cheap but hard hitting cav -many power dice magic phases ...and all the other nasty tricks they can pull off. General strategies on using our units or any advice on taking them on? Our best players at our league are 2x DE players and its tough playing them.
Well, the thought that DE are outdated is a complete fallacy, they are extremely powerful, but pretty tricky to play (So say my friends) And army composition plays a huge deal in how they play. As for your questions well: The Pegasus rider can be a real headache, I actually find Sallies work wonders against him. The -3 armour and Strength 3 means if you get a wound, you're a lot more likely to get it through. Other than that, Waves of skinks or singling him out with a unit of saurus, I find if you have the static combat res, you can overwhelm them. Dual Hydras: Skinks, skinks, Chameleon skinks and more skinks! Done and dusted, no problems! The Cav, Again, Salamanders are a pain for them. Ive also found Kroxigors to be really effective. The magic phases can be harsh, I tend to let a slann and a dispel scroll do their best! But Lizzies have so much to help with, Cupped hands can blow up their wizards and cripple them. Diadem of power is great, Cube of darkness the list goes on! As for nasty tricks, Its usually just the Hag banner, the ASF one. And as I run light or life, I can usually either take the pain, or match it back Hope this helps somewhat!
Thanks man. However I don't know about the Hydra being dealt with just skinks and chamo skinks. From all the games I've seen the DE players play the Hydra normally gets into combat or does what it needs to do. I haven't really seen anyone take out the 2 hydras reliable before >_< Which is scary...because they are so strong...
Hydras are very succeptable to fire as they can't regenerate if wounded so I take them out using salamanders with 4 handlers each. If I have room and no other threat in range, I sometimes support the salamanders with a flanking charge on the hydras as well - Cold One Cavalry is good for flanking.
Skink BSB on Ancient Steg with banner of Eternal Flame 4d6 Flaming/Poison shots and Flaming Impact Hits END Hydras! But on the flip side 20 Frenzied Witch Elves with 3 Poison Attacks each will end a Stegadon.
20!!! Try a horde of 40 witch elves, now thats a pain :/ but yea shoot a hydra with a salamander to negate regen and then shoot him up with some skinks
Well from my experience, skinks deal with monsters pretty easily, poison is the bomb for that reason. I've taken out giants with skins
Both but Camo Skilnks are best for war machine, monster and lone character hunting because they can scout.
What do you guys find to be a good amount of Chamo skinks to run? I will definitely be running 3x units. (2500 points max unit allotment for special) But how many per unit? I've seen 5 which allows easy placement and I've also seen 6 and sometimes 10 per unit. What are your guys thoughts on this?
I like to run my chamos in units of 7. 14 poison shots seems to take care of most things pretty quickly.
I happen to play both LM and DE as my main armies, so i might have some insight here 1) Hydras are nasty, and cheap. Even chammo skinks will not do the trick, since only 25% of their shots will get through the 4+ AS and 4+ regen. you will need to either keep it busy with a block of sauri or your equivalent of the "unkillable dredlord" (oldblood with 1+ AS, 4+ ward, stubborn and a great weapon). Both options cost way more than the hydra, and this is a loss you will have to bear. If you use magic buffs you can easily create a unit that is tough enough to grind down a hydra. kroxigors and stegadon(ancient) are options too. If all that fails, anything with the flaming banner, or a slann with fire magic makes short work of it. 2) their "unkillable" roadblock dredlord WILL keep one unit busy for a whole battle. he costs almost 300 points, and if you charge him with a normal skink cohort, he will not have time to grind it down. you have now bogged down his 300 point unit with a 100 point skink unit!. As mentioned above, remember that a scar vet with 1+ rerollable save and 4+ ward is actually MORE durable against S3 and S4 attacks. You can do the ame trick against him! 3) magic: His magic is nasty as hell, but you can have one just as nasty. Lore of fire can actually be worth it here, since DE HATES to lose models. Direct damage will really hurt their small and expensive units. Remember that your slann can force him to ignore all 6s rolled with magic. that is a HUGE gimp 4) cavalry: your cavalry is just as good, and still few ppl use it. Cavalry is not much to fear tbh. Sauri will beat them in the long run. As a DE player i am incredibly afraid of all fighting units. i want to keep them at arms length and bombard them with magic and missiles before i swoop in for the kill. You can one-punch-KO him if you just keep barrelling forward. Use skinks to prevent him from slipping away and force him to fight your (preferably magically enhanced) sauri. he will NOT like that. best of luck! (not if you ever play me though)