WHFB: Dark Elves new Army Book

The latest Dark Elves book lands:

£30, so not to be sneezed at, I think it needs a bit more editting but in and of itself is a nice book with good production values. Its the fourth Dark Elf Army book now:

Yup, got the lot.

Key differences are, in no particular order:

No Eternal Hatred for the Dark Elves by default. Only Black Guard and a few others and its even worse than it was before, like every round of close combat…

Hurrah I hear all my opponents cry….

Oh dear, but we do get Always Strike First like other Elves, and then we have Murderous Prowess, which means we get to re-roll all To Wound rolls of 1 when making close combat rolls. Every round. Hmm, now where were those Executioners with Killing Blow ?

Assassins are now proper characters (heroes) again…well whoopy do pass the ammunition and the rubber swords.

Interestingly, the mounts of the heroes/Lords now confer on their riders their special rules such as Fast Cavalry, so that unit of Dark Riders I’d planned with a Sorceress I’d laboriously converted is now possible. The WHFB Errata confirm this.

Sorceresses can use any of the eight lores of magic which is interesting so yes light and so on are now within our remit. Oh and Dark Magic is interesting especially with that special quirk when we roll any doubles…

Warriors are more expensive, no surprise there. But at least we now get the simple bloke with sword and shield option ! Doomfire Warlocks are a new option as Fast Cavalry, and Shades get to have command squads which will be interesting. COK are more expensive, meh. Black Guard, owwww…..Executioners as commented previously are going to be lethal….

Sisters of Slaughter, the ref is out on them so far, could be the nightmare of the enemy, or an easily killed unit. Should be good against massed ranks (which they ignore in combat resolution). CoB are different better and worse so not nerfed. I am not convinced by the model. A new unit – Bloodwrack and their Shrines, the fluff as presented is wafer thin but having all the old stuff there is abundant evidence of a Gorgon in the back story of the Dark Elves.

Now that’s enough, as I don’t want to spoil the surprise for the rest of the Byakhees later on this month…suffice to say the new book will disrupt their ideas of what my army is like which is something a lot of us had concluded was a bit too predictable….