So today I popped into my local gaming store to pickup a copy of the new HE book. I had heard most of the rules and stats of the units from rumour posts on message boards already, and it seems they were pretty much spot on.
Some things did spring to mind after reading the units and magic items
- GW created elves to have inferior strength and toughness to other armies. So why is it that they feel the need to give them magic items to make up for this weakness? For example, there is a magic item which grants them +3 strength which essentially equals a dwarf character with a great weapon. They have armour which grants a 1+ rerollable save, and magic spells to give them 5+ ward saves. So what is the point of having an apparent weakness of low tougness in the army when the characters can offset it by other means?
- The special characters Tyrion and Teclis are rediculous. I'm glad most tournaments I attend don't allow them. I know you pay more for the abilities special characters offer, but by the time you upgrade a mage to level 4, deck him out with their magic items Teclics only works out to be about 100 points more, and for what he is capable of I would say it's most definately worth it!
- I'm not convinced at how good dragon mages are going to be. They only ride a strength 5 dragon, and are pretty vulnerable without an armour save. I'd be pretty happy to see my opponent field one of these as I don't think it would cause me too much grief.
- The ASF rule seems OK. HE are still going to be vulnerable to chariots magic and shooting so giving them a little more power in combat shouldn't be such a big deal.
- Their magic lore is insanely powerful. Had I be wanting to start a HE army I would most definately want to field three level 2's, or at least 1 level 4 and a level 2. Their magic just adds so much survivability to the rest of the army.
Overall I think most HE generals will be extremely happy with the new army book. As an O&G general I do feel a little ripped off with what we got in ours in comparison, but I guess it's a little early to say exactly how good HE are going to be.
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As a HE player previously, I can see why some of the 'compensations' have been made. Strong magic and items fit the theme of the High Elves, so no problem there, and I think you'll find their characters are have the same Strength value as most other S3 races. Its the T3 which is the killer: it means that whatever a character is armed or armoured with, most other character will be wounding 2+, and most archers can wound on a 4+, which is a massive disadavantage. As for the big armour save, virtually every army has a way to effectively armour their Lord.
From what I saw last night I think the army should be small but strong, which sits about right with how the High Elves should be.
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