High Elves

So, I had to try my luck with creating an elven warband (oh God why). I played High Elves in Warhammer, so it brought back some memories. And I believe it will work out quite well. Probably quite OP, as all Elven warbands (the Druchii is on paper one of the strongest, but can be countered easily, so several warbands can out-perform them), but not as OP as the Shadow Warriors one. Atm. we play with both the Druchii and the Wood Elf (Asrai Warfarers) warbands, and have no real trouble with them, so I've build the warband from some of them, combined with some other special warbands.

First of all, I wanted the special units from Warhammer. White Lions, Swordmasters, Shadow Warriors. But I left out the Dragon Princes, the Reavers, etc. - cavalry, that doesn't fit in the Mordheim setting. I'm planning on using these for my Lustria campaign - the second run of it, where Orcs, Amazons and Skaven will join as well! And mayhaps some more (suggestions welcome)

Anyway, I'm rambling. Here's the warband and their equipment list.

Feedback much appreciated!

P.S. the "Long-lived" rule is not up for negotiations atm. It works astonishingly well in our group, so we're going to keep it for now.

Sorry for the delay, I saw this a while ago and I went over it and then went over the High Elf list that my group uses and started thinking of all kinds of tweaks and stuff for making a new list. Then I got distracted doing that and completely forgot about this one for a bit.

Initially, the only things I would suggest are mentioning the White Lion in the 'how many of everything' section and making the elf racial max T be 3. Oh yeah, I think you should go ahead and make the elven greatsword +2 strength. Unless you had a particular reason for it being only +1 S?

The thing I got distracted with is making a list for elves that makes them like Mercenaries. There is the basic elf list and then you choose where they are from - Hoeth, Chrace, Naggarythe, Saphery, etc. Things like if you come from Saphery, your leader is a wizard, if you come from Naggarythe your leader and champions get access to Infiltrate and so forth. However, once I started doing that I realised that I just don't know enough about the elves to pull it off.

Long lived is fine and I will probably steal it. Something to reflect the rarity of the elves would also be good. Perhaps a similar mechanic to hiring hired swords or something?

Just by-the-by, the list my group uses is this one.

1 Lord
0-3 Noble
0-1 Mage

Titles are a prefix to the hero type.

Averlorn
Lords and Nobles get the title 'Ranger'. All Rangers can move at normal speed through forest and bushes. They take gear from the 'Ranger' list.

Caledor Lords and Nobles get the title 'Dragon'. Caledor warbands ithilmar armour gives the wearer a 4+ save against fire.

Chrace
Lords and Nobles get the title 'Lion'. Lion heroes get access to lion pelts, Strength skills, and lion henchmen.

Cothique
Cothique warbands get some sort of bonus to boat speed, and perhaps Scale Sheer Surfaces (all that climbing in the rigging).

Eataine
Eataine warbands get +1 to rare trade rolls and start with an extra 100 gold.

Ellyron
All heroes start with Riding: Elven Steed. Mounts may be purchased half price at start.

Saphery
The Lord gains the title Mage and is a Wizard. They start with one spell and take gear from the Mage list.

Tiranoc
No idea.

Yvresse
No idea hear either.

Lord 0 wrote:

Sorry for the delay, I saw this a while ago and I went over it and then went over the High Elf list that my group uses and started thinking of all kinds of tweaks and stuff for making a new list. Then I got distracted doing that and completely forgot about this one for a bit.

I know how you feel - and np!

Lord 0 wrote:

Initially, the only things I would suggest are mentioning the White Lion in the 'how many of everything' section

Right ^_^ fixed!

Lord 0 wrote:

making the elf racial max T be 3.

We've never had any real trouble with the Elves being T4. You can still crit them and they can't get much more (except of course the Resilient 'imbalance'). If it proves to be a problem, that will be one of the things to change though! I've suggested it before, but my group is really not a fan of it.

Lord 0 wrote:

Oh yeah, I think you should go ahead and make the elven greatsword +2 strength. Unless you had a particular reason for it being only +1 S?

Even though it would only mean a 5gc increase, I find that the idea of Swordmasters is not slow-wielding Elves, but fighters with speed and finesse. A double-handed sword with Parry would not match that image, which is why I made them +1 S. Also the Elven Greataxe would have to following, effectively making it a Greataxe as we know it from the Marauders of Chaos list - a comparison I would not like to make!

Lord 0 wrote:

The thing I got distracted with is making a list for elves that makes them like Mercenaries. There is the basic elf list and then you choose where they are from - Hoeth, Chrace, Naggarythe, Saphery, etc. Things like if you come from Saphery, your leader is a wizard, if you come from Naggarythe your leader and champions get access to Infiltrate and so forth. However, once I started doing that I realised that I just don't know enough about the elves to pull it off.

I know. I thought about it as well, and found a warband in here who matched that quite well (High Elves Warband), but I couldn't resist the urge to create my own and btw., Nagarythe is the Dark Elf homeland

Lord 0 wrote:

Long lived is fine and I will probably steal it. Something to reflect the rarity of the elves would also be good. Perhaps a similar mechanic to hiring hired swords or something?

A limitation on hired swords is definitely in place, which is why they only have access to the Elf Ranger and the Elf Mage. Something to reflect the rarity... Can you elaborate?

Lord 0 wrote:

1 Lord
0-3 Noble
0-1 Mage

Titles are a prefix to the hero type.

Averlorn
Lords and Nobles get the title 'Ranger'. All Rangers can move at normal speed through forest and bushes. They take gear from the 'Ranger' list.

Caledor Lords and Nobles get the title 'Dragon'. Caledor warbands ithilmar armour gives the wearer a 4+ save against fire.

Chrace
Lords and Nobles get the title 'Lion'. Lion heroes get access to lion pelts, Strength skills, and lion henchmen.

Cothique
Cothique warbands get some sort of bonus to boat speed, and perhaps Scale Sheer Surfaces (all that climbing in the rigging).

Eataine
Eataine warbands get +1 to rare trade rolls and start with an extra 100 gold.

Ellyron
All heroes start with Riding: Elven Steed. Mounts may be purchased half price at start.

Saphery
The Lord gains the title Mage and is a Wizard. They start with one spell and take gear from the Mage list.

Tiranoc
No idea.

Yvresse
No idea hear either.

I like these ideas. High Elves are very 'I'm from here', so it would reflect that part quite well. My only own objection as why not to do this, was that it was too difficult to balance. I love the Saphery though - I was considering something alike, to reflect that High Elves are quite magical. The Ellyrian appeals to me as well, considered implementing some Elven Steeds and Ithilmar Barding. Not an idea that is fully gone though!

+1 to the suggestion that Elves should have a racial max of T3. It's fluffy and helps balance the warband.