Dark Elves vs Empire tactics neeedd

Khaelir · Post by **Khaelir** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 7:35 pm

Hey there,
I have an all or nothing match coming up against empire (mighty empires) and must win the next match against the pesky humans.
I don't know their special rules or what they are good/bad at.
What are some good units to use against them? What should I watch out for? any ideas for Magic?
Thanks in advance for your replies

Senluthan · Post by **Senluthan** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 8:03 pm

can i recommend D.R.A.I.C.H tactic about Empire?

http://www.druchii.net/viewtopic.php?t=63571

Leonates80 · Post by **Leonates80** » Sun Mar 07, 2010 10:35 pm

Hi!
I play Empire on daily basis almost and I find Hydra and all sorts of infantry very effective - I usually field unit of 20 corsair with assasin and banner of seaserpent - combine that with BG and COK and you (usually) got yourself a win - Hydra can soak a lot of firepower, so can corsair - give yourself a COB and RoH to negate magic and basicly you got a win ready - If I lose to Empire is usually thanks to bad rolling - they are easy to outmnouver, easy to beat in combat , they just shot a lot but if you take precautions you can take them head on

Khaelir · Post by **Khaelir** » Mon Mar 08, 2010 8:26 pm

all right thanks for the replies

Bounce · Post by **Bounce** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 1:45 am

I can't say that this is much help as I have lost more than I have won against Empire but what i see as dangerous is.
Cannons- Practically they can auto destroy chariots and Bolt Throwers as well as heroes out by themselves.

Knights- With a 1+ save these guys are cheap and hard to kill. Remember that they are only S3 and T3 and thus can't handle a long term battle with a unit of decent size.

Detachments- Nothing worse than getting the charge and then being autoflanked and losing your ranks.
To avoid this I have found if you charge a unit with a detachment gave a unit of harpies nearby and have them charge the detachment. This can be a very good use of a much deplted unit of Harpies. A single Harpy can give you an additional +4 to combat res.
On the other hand if you have the Standard of Hag Graef getting flanked just gives you more guys to kill

Crossbows and handgunners- Fairly cheap but effective at killing our elite infantry. they are also difficult to get rid of as they can easily take on a unit of harpies or Dark Riders and can even damage Knights.
Magic Missiles will deal nicely with them though.

Remember Psycology is your friend. Empire is very subject to psycology and has lower leadership then us. hence Terror causers and Fear Causers can work wonders. Try to enforce panic checks where possible.

Hope that helps somewhat.

Vulcan · Post by **Vulcan** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 2:24 am

Always remember, we have cheap units we can use as 'detatchments' too!

10 Corsairs or 10 Spearmen costs a minimum of points and can be used to guard the flanks or be a meatshield for an elite infantry unit. In fact, the RHB corsair might be the ideal unit for this. Check the RHB Corsair D.R.A.I.T.C.H article for the details on this.

Against the Empire, don't bother with RXBs. As has been noted, they are highly cannonball-degradable. Hydras are much less so and spend much time in CC where the cannons can't fire.

Jebnus · Post by **Jebnus** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 3:02 am

Watch the Steam Tank if he/she fields it, I use magic on it most of the time.

+ It could help if you set a point limit and maybe some ideas on what he/she could possibly field!

Just my $0.02

Bies · Post by **Bies** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 5:21 am

keep in mind only magic with an actualy strength value ever affects a steam tank.

Jbtheslipperking · Post by **Jbtheslipperking** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 11:50 am

Have played some matches against empire, mostly 2250p. They really hate the dragon - really hate it. Most empire armies today got steamtank, 2 cannons, war altar and 1 dice magic - annoying to dispell. 2 RBT is a must cuz of steam tank - single bolts until you make 4-5 wounds, then its not mobile annymore. At least 2 harpie units for war mashine hunting and to charge detachments as noted by Bounce. 10 corsairs with SSS banner is very good as screening in case he got lots of shooting. A screen with warriors or corsairs with an assasin ( w standard manbane and r-stars ) will be very effektive agains hes cav, assasin kills 1-2 with stars on stand and shoot and 1-2 in close combat. Also 1 or 2 units of DR with xb and 5 shades for warmashine hunting. A small unit of exes against cav can also be nice. If you don`t like lord on dragon, another nasy surprise is lord with exec axe in BG-unit with always strike first banner. Will take out steam tank in 1 round with abit of luck. ( 5 atacks with couldron - autohit - wounds on 2+ and makes D3 wounds for each wound = 8 wounds on average in first round ). Im betting he won`t see that comming.

Jebnus · Post by **Jebnus** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 12:21 pm

Bies wrote:keep in mind only magic with an actualy strength value ever affects a steam tank.

Yes this is true but my other units beside my BG are the only thing that can put up with it/ want to throw at it, I use my RBT when I don't bring my sorc. My Empire friend only has about a 1.2k point army so we never do anything bigger. But like I said x2 RBT or my sorc. is what I use (Keep it mind what you said, I never said it works out all of the time

)

Bies · Post by **Bies** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 2:21 pm

A lot of the advice here is very good and will work but you need to be careful of "cheese" btw I'm a regular 2500pt empire player. If your opponent goes Full Competitive it will be Arch-Lector on War Altar, 2-3 mages, knights, cannons and steam tanks.

Ranked infantry is easy as all hell to beat, artillery will hurt, esp. if he gets the first turn but Dark Riders, Harpies etc. can deal with them quickly at least.

watch out for the knights and stanks and mass magic missiles.

Khaelir · Post by **Khaelir** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 7:00 pm

thanks for the great information and the point limit is 2000 by the way

Bounce · Post by **Bounce** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 2:20 am

Mass magic missile?
I have myself never seen an empire army with more than 2 mages and even then only a couple of magic missiles which shouldn't be too hard to dispel.
Being limited to the general lores makes life somewhat difficult for Empire as the main lores aren't very good unless I am missing something?

Bies · Post by **Bies** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 2:05 pm

Bounce wrote:Mass magic missile?
I have myself never seen an empire army with more than 2 mages and even then only a couple of magic missiles which shouldn't be too hard to dispel.
Being limited to the general lores makes life somewhat difficult for Empire as the main lores aren't very good unless I am missing something?

OK well hardcore competitive Empire build

Archeletor - Waraltar (immediately gets Bound Spell lv5 any spell of Lore of Light - Burnging Gaze? Cleansing Flare?)

Mage - lv2 - Fire magic (4 offensive spells) - Ring of Volans (random bound spell cast at casting level 1 use only - again goes fire) Rod of Power (can save up to 3, 2 is the average to use as PD or DD)

Mage - lv2 - Fire magic, Ring of Burning Fire (counts as burning head lore of fire spell) powerstone

Mage - lv2 - 2xDS

Personally I mount them all. Now odds are you won't come up against it but you can. Thats 8PD up to 10, 7DD up to 9, 5 Bound spells and 6 regular spells.

Thats not the craziest magic phase ever but more then enough to cause problems.

The main lores are ok they have many situational spells which can be helpful. But on average army book specific lores are better yes.