Druchii.net

Hi all,

Im a complete noob to using Dark Elves in 8th Ed games, although I have been beaten by them too many times!

I have just finished painting my COB, 10 WEs and Hellebron and I am totally in love with the old crone and her girls.
So much so, I want to build a list around Hellebron for fun but competitive games with friends.

So, the question is, what is the most fluffy/effective way of using Hellebron in an 8th Ed list?

Many thanks for your help in advance

Hi,

welcome to the Druchii side of things.

Regarding fluffy <-> effective. These things usual are mutually exclusive. So I will answer from my experiences effective-wise (friendly games, no tournaments):

I never used Hellebron, but the Death Hag, because I play without names characters, but the lessons should be the same.

1. The Witchbrew setup: Use the Death Hag in a unit of Executioners. This unit profits the most from frenzy, because their additional attack is S6 and because of their Murderous Prowess they almost never fluff their ToWound rolls. The Death Hag should strife to be in a challenge as often as possible, so she cannot be killed. Hellebron of course will kill nearly everything in a challenge.

2. On a cauldron: Usually with a large number of Witches as your main combat unit. This unit will probably crush nearly everything and will have more ranks than their opponent. The bigger problem is getting it into the combat you want. In this case the rest of your army should be really good at chaff and anti-chaff duty to keep the path clear. I like to give them the Banner of Swiftness to improve my chances for a successful 2nd turn charge.

Hellebron of course is much more deadly in combat than a Death Hag, so you probably want to have her challenging the best character the enemy has, so I could also imagine putting her in a mediocre bunker with the aim of delivering her into the hero bunker of the enemy and then killing all characters with Hellebron.

Well, you really want a bigger unit of witches to get the most out of her. If you do 24, you can use the cauldron frontage to get a 30 unit "footprint", which will allow you to line up in horde formation. Then they can carve a path through pretty much anything your opponent puts out. Just make sure you have ways to clear out the chaff units in front of them so that you control where they go, otherwise a savvy opponent will send you chasing wild geese, and you won't get the most bang for your buck.

Always try to deploy them last too, so you can set them up to succeed.

Hope that helps.

Aside from fluffiness, there's no actual reason or need to put Hellebron in with a unit of witch elves. She confers no additional advantages to them that she doesn't give to other units. You can certainly field her in a unit of witches and she will do well with them, but equally she goes well in a unit of blackguard (benefiting from their stubborn is very handy) or any other Dark Elf unit. She doesn't actually benefit much from the Cauldron of Blood, as she already has super-frenzy from her frenzy and witch brew, and with S10, she doesn't need the re-rolled failed wounds upgrade (re-rolling failed ones from murderess prowess is more than sufficient).

Thanks for all the advice guys.

I had been planning of fielding Hellebron in a block of 30 WEs on foot beside the COB to prevent cannon sniping with a Death Hag BSB on the cauldron, but I am being drawn to placing her in a block of Executioners for the frenzy and ITP she will give to them.

I will have to give both set-ups a try and see which one feels right.

Consider Tullaris as a cheaper alternative for the executioners. He's very fluffy and lots of fun, while also being quite a lot cheaper... That said, Hellebron's damage output potential is unrivalled.

I generally throw Hellebron in with the Witches for some badly-needed armor-crushing ability. Tullaris and/or a standard Brewhag do fine for the Executioners.

Thanks Vulcan, I think I will give that a try and see what happens

Try to play her with shades (Great Weapon), I have seen it in some ETC lists. You have shooting, magic (if SS is in there) and no one would be so mad to engage her. The OTS in a character would help her in challenges (for example a BSB master with OTS; Hellebron in a corner and the BSB in base contact)