500 point starter vs HE advise plz!!

[Lord Foster]

New to the hobby. I copied a list from SuperhappyTime i hope that isn't taboo but im wondering if its able to take on High elves. Be honest and any advise is Appreciated.

Army list
Sorceress L2 Dark
10 corsairs/Ahw
10 darkshards
5 cold one knights

High Elf player is the buddy that introduced me to the hobby would like to go down hard at least for my very first game

[Lord Foster]

Another option i made myself after reading some posts about how much better dark riders are over darkshards

Master: dark steed, heavy armor, sea dragon cloak, lance and shield

5 Dark riders full command rxb and shields
5 Dark riders full command rxb and shields
5 doomfire warlocks no champion

[Marchosias]

This thread would rather belong to the army list section but it does not matter that much I suppose. Anyway, welcome on the forum.

500 points battles are always quite rock-paper-scissors. You can hardly bring a list that can cope with everything (it is often difficult even at bigger point levels). So I suggest agreeing with your friend that you will both bring balanced lists.

Take your list 2 for example. It is a very strong force, probably the nastiest thing you can do. If your opponent brings foot fighters he will be unable to catch you and you will win decisively (not from shooting but from whittling him down somewhat and then slamming in his flank). On the other hand, if he has lots of shooting you might be unable to close in. He could bring a lvl2 high mage with ring of fury, 2x 15 archers and a bolt thrower. Depending on terrain, you might then be forced to just hide away and hope for a draw. In a tourney, this would be perfect - sometimes winning massively, sometimes drawing and never losing is a good thing. For the first battle, however, I am not sure such a polarized game is what you seek.

Therefore, I would advise to go with the first list and let your opponent promise that he will not bring an all-shooting or all-mounted army.

For the list, you should try to give the knights a standard bearer waving the gleaming pennant. It helps to mitigate their stupidity. Otherwise, you should be fine. If against an equal number of foes, your corsairs should do fine against any foot soldier except phoenix guard. They would probably die to swordmasters as well but they would at least kill quite a few before that. Knights are your only anti-armour unit so this is their primary role but they can charge something in the flank, too. Even in the front if this something is not swordmasters or white lions.

In theory, you can replace the corsairs with witches. The girls die more easily to shooting but they do not panic from it as they are frenzied. And their offensive power is much bigger. In bigger games, the poison helps against a wide range of nasties corsairs would just die to. Here, it is mostly a matter of prefference I think.

[Lord Foster]

Ok ill make sure to post lists more appropriately. as per your suggestion i put the gleaming on the knights but to fit i needed to take my sorceress down to level 1 but i gave her the dispel scroll. My buddy loves his magic and hes got a lot of shoot and Phoenix Guard. I do have a box of witch elves buy with full command. Thanks for the tips ill put lists in the Army List section from now on

[Marchosias]

Downgrading the sorceress to lvl1 is quite a big price. Not really that much when it comes to forcing spells through - just throwing all your dice on doombolt every turn is a dull but effective strategy - but because it kills (almost) all player input in the magic phase. You only need to decide if you want to risk a miscast and throw many dice or if you better leave some unused and risk your spell being dispelled. Therefore, I would suggest the following:

sorc, lvl2 dark: 115
10 corsairs, ahw, standard, musician: 130
5 COK, standard, gleaming pennant: 165
bolt thrower: 70
total: 480 - you can add some command models or a corsair, should not make a huge difference. Other possibilities are sceptre of stability for some antimagic or potion of toughness for the sorceress. It only helps her for a round but the fights should not last long.

This way, the sorceress can only go in the corsairs but she can always hop out of them. A lone sorceress is quite hard to catch if you have no shooting left and even if you do, she might be able to stay in hard cover or out of line of sight.

[Lord Foster]

Thanks for the advise ill run this for my first match you've been a great help