Dark Elven Sea Raider Theme

[SemprusOfClarGarond]

I decided that overall practicality is less important to me than having a cool and cohesive theme. I m thinking of basing my army theme around the concept of Dark Elves being piratical sea raiders. I did this not only because it appeals to me but I want to use Corsairs as my core choices. I am looking for suggestions on how to make this as practical as possible while still sticking to the theme more or less.

Corsairs- I want to make Corsairs my main core choice. In a previous post: http://druchii.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=73760 I mentioned exactly why that is. I feel that Dark Elves have the best killing power of any army. However, we rely too heavily on that and instead shun protection (yes, Witch Elf fans, I'm talking to you). So I would like suggestions on how to make Corsairs more deadly in CC. In my opinion, there are two ways:

1) Somehow add more attacks either via Frenzy or spells: This of course allows for more chances of our built in mechanics (ASF and Murderous Prowess) to come into effect. My idea was to take Tularis and put him in a unit of Corsairs. This would not only give them an extra attack but would give them a great hero to accept challenges with.

2) Increase durability: The longer they last, the more things they will slaughter. Eventually, they will kill enough to win by combat res (especially if I have tons of combat res via large blocks). So I was thinking having a Sorceress with the Lore of Beasts Signature spell sit right behind the unit safely out of harms way with the sole purpose of giving the +1 Strength and +1 Toughness buff to her corresponding unit. If the spell goes off, they are effectively Chaos Warriors with ASF and Murderous Prowess (assuming you give them an extra hand weapon). This certainly isn't bad. It's also a guarantee that I'll get that spell. So dishing out 80 points on a level one just to confer that buff is not too much of a waste either. I would then have a unit of Doomfire Warlocks that I would use for the direct damage spells and not even worry about using my Sorceresses for attacking the enemy.

Black Arc Fleetmaster and/or Lokhir Fellheart- Yes, as foolish as it may be, I might take Lokhir. He's actually pretty damn good. Giving a -1 to Leadership is pretty excellent when combined with the Kharibydyss. Causing Terror is pretty nice too as it protects me from Terror or Fear. He's not too bad in CC either. Show No Weakness could be nice but it's not reliable and only lasts for a turn. My BSB would be in this same unit as well.

Kharibydyss- This is a must have. Not only does it go with my sea theme but it would stack very nicely with Lokhir's -1 to Leadership thing. The only problem I have with it is the Leadership 6. WTF. This is a problem and I need some ideas to circumvent it. I know it should be running near a block of Corsairs and especially the one that has Lokhir in it. However, if it gets too far from that bubble (let's say because I have Frenzy of the Corsairs and they charge out of distance for General's Leadership bubble or any other number of reasons), it becomes 150% useless in my opinion. I can't stand expensive things with low Leadership. They piss me off and are the main reason that I switched away from WoC. I was thinking of having two blocks of Corsairs one with Lokhir and the BSB and the other with a Dreadlord general and have the Kharibydyss in the middle to benefit from both the General's (hopefully unmodified Leadership) and the BSB's re-rolls.

Reaper Bolt Throwers- At least 2 of them.

Cold One Knights- No one can dissuade me from using these guys for any reason. I think they are one of the best units in the game at the moment and they also have a 2+ armor save. I will probably either put another Lore of Beasts Sorceress on a Horse/Cold One or a Lore of Life Sorceress on a Horse/Cold One to either give them some more durability or revive dead Knights.

Doomfire Warlocks- I do realize this doesn't necessarily go with the sea theme. I might switch it out in favor of another Kharibydyss. These will be my direct damage casting unit since my sorceresses will exist just to buff my infantry and CoK's.

So overall, what do you think? Besides the possibility of Doomfire Warlocks, I would have a very durable army (for Elves) with the worst armor save being 4+ and with some casting luck, hopefully T4 blocks. I had much luck with the deathstar infantry/cavalry lists with WoC. Where those lists failed was with Leadership and losing combat resolution and then having an 800+ unit of Chaos Warriors get run down by some piece of crap Empire unit or something because they fail a Break test. Dark Elves have ways of getting around this with higher leadership Lords and lots of ways to confer Stubborn and Unbreakable. Not only that, but the Chaos Warriors, while having an excellent stat line, really didn't cause as much damage as they could have because they lacked things like ASF to take advantage of their high Initiative and lacked something like Murderous Prowess to make their base S4 attacks more efficient. So I think that I can make up for what Chaos was lacking while employing the same sort of tactics all while keeping to my "Black Arc Raider Theme".

PS: Where can I find one of those Dark Elf ships as seen on page 411 in the BRB?

[Wolden Spoons]

Sounds like you covered most of the things I would have thought of, possibly I would also include Harpies and Shades.

Fluff wise (sorry puppies!) I read that Black Arks recruited Assassins to train their warriors. So another possible include there.

[Calisson]

Piratical sea raiders would use predominantly infantry and non-carnivorous cavalry. K-beasts and harpies would be able to travel alongside.
Here is my first attempt with these principles: 2500 "Moby Dick" corsair list

[Jvh792]

I love it. I want to do the same with my army. But I use Dark Riders in my lists. I use small supporting units of Corsairs.
Kharibdyss will be fine if he is 6.1 inches from everything.
I am huge fan of bolt throwers in small point games. But if you play for fun, maybe don't bring 4 to a 1k pts game like I do.

[Relamus Sarethi]

I'm planning on running 30+ corsairs in horde with rhb I'm happy to trade of the extra hth attacks for 40 shots and the flexibility of be able to not be chaffed up as easily and being able to influence the game with having to charge.

To increase their survivability I' pm thinking of a level 2 sorceress on life for the 5+ regen and keeping the kharibdyss close means being able to pop wound back on that from lifebloom.

To increase hitting power death hag with witch brew would give you frenzy - I'm not sure I'm keen though... But I will try it.

[T.D.]

Lot of good ideas in this thread.

I like the fluff and the modelling aspect of Piratical raider lists - and we certainly have enough choices now to make them viable

[Artfactial]

You indeed have a ton of good points for the theme already.
Tularis is a wonderful option for giving your corsairs frenzy.
In my list I always go with a well defended Corsair Captain (Master) with Crown of command for a stubborn pirates that can hold up some rounds of combat before the bigger things come in.

Dark Riders have been a standard part of the raiding fleets in previous fluff and Shades have been included in the newer ones.
Both invaluable units for redirecting and harassing.

[Haagrum]

I like the concept - I've gone for a similar approach with quite a few of the lists I've drawn up since the new book came out.

As far as the inclusions go, I think other posters have covered this pretty well. I won't try to sell you on taking a Fleetmaster, other than to shamelessly leave this link here: http://www.druchii.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=73070. However, I can see a Scourgerunner Chariot fitting into the theme as well, with or without a High Beastmaster, since someone needs to be around to keep the horses fit on the Ark and to control any Kharibdyss you might be taking along.

One other thing to consider for the theme would be the choice of magic lores. A Black Ark Fleetmaster would be wise enough to keep one or two Sorceresses around, if only to help subdue and control the weather (or a Kharibdyss, or one of the sea beasts pulling our smaller ships) where it was necessary or advantageous. Given that our fleets are mostly predators of opportunity that need to cover their approaches and strike hard at targets on land and sea, I'd think that Shadow, Heavens, Fire and Dark Magic would all be good thematic choices. Beasts and Death could also fit, particularly if you take a lot of light cavalry options and/or believe the Fleetmaster would be using his hired spellcasters as assassins. Life, Light and Metal might be a bit of a stretch thematically, although every long-range raiding force needs its healers to keep the fighters going.

Best of luck with assembling the raiding fleet!

[kaloomte]

Heavens or Beasts might be fluffiest here (control either the weather or your sea beasts--and corsairs
can always use bonuses to strength and toughness). Perhaps fire too. Regardless, I like the concept. And I just
saw Calisson's Moby Dick list--very cool.

[Shearov]

I've been thinking up a raider themed fluff list too, just doing the fluffy story at the moment.

I've loved playing with Warlocks at the moment, so thought about how I could include them and stick to some fluff. My idea was that they need souls to live on and it says (I think) that the more pure the soul the better. They won't find many of them in Naggaroth, so they offer their services to the corsairs / raiders in return for an All-You-Can-Sacrafice buffet of souls after any raids.

I think it's a perfectly reasonable 'excuse' for them to fit fluff lists.