‘Warhammer: The Old World’ – Inventive High Elf List Goes 5-0 At Brawler Bash

Lets take a look at a bit different type of High Elf list that won big at a Warhammer: The Old World event last week.

Last weekend saw the Brawler Bash take place in North Carolina. This is a great event that runs a mid sized GT. While it’s not one of the biggest events it is pretty competitive and some of the best US players showed up. Only one list went 5-0, to effectively be the Best General. And it’s not Brettonians! Instead it was a High Elf list that is a little different. The list was run by Zach Thompson, of the YouTube channel DMV Spicy Dice Boys (they do some nice batreps). The event was a 2500 pts kill em all style event with no comp, basically an ‘Ard Boyz. I chatted with Zach a bit about his list, so lets take a look.

The High Elf List

High Elf Realms 

Zach Thompson (dapz)

313 – Archmage, Blood of Caledor, Barded Elven Steed, Wizard Level 4, Illusion, Full Plate Armour, Ogre Blade, Lore Familiar

228 – Noble, Battle Standard Bearer, Battle Banner, Blood of Caledor, Barded Elven Steed, Full Plate Armour, Spelleater Axe, Charmed Shield

313 – Prince, Shield, General, Pure of Heart, Tiranoc Chariot, Full Plate Armour, The White Sword, Dragon Helm, Seed of Rebirth

105 – 5 Ellyrian Reavers, Cavalry Spear, Shortbow, Scouts, Skirmishers

105 – 5 Ellyrian Reavers, Cavalry Spear, Shortbow, Scouts, Skirmishers

70 – 7 Elven Archers

70 – 7 Elven Archers 277 –

10 Silver Helms, Shield, High Helm, The Loremaster’s Cloak, Standard Bearer

382 – 8 Dragon Princes, Drakemaster, 2x Opal Amulet, Standard Bearer, War Banner, Musician

185 – 5 Dragon Princes

90 – Lothern Skycutters

90 – Lothern Skycutters

Allies

100 – Paladin, General, The Knight’s Vow, Falcon-horn of Fredemund

120 – 5 Mounted Knights of the Realm, The Knight’s Vow

50 – 10 Peasant Bowmen, Skirmishers

How the High Elf List Runs

As you can see it’s a pretty interesting list that isn’t just your standard Dragon list. Zach shared a few notes on the list:

“Notes:

• I brought allies for a falcon horn since I expected a million flying monsters. Peter the paladin was the MVP
• Prince on chariot usually went with the dragon princes. So I lost counter charge. Everyone was always charging me so I was just trying to tank everything.
• DPs do minimal damage with s3 ap0 lol. But they are ws5 2+/6+ save with glittering robe cast. So they really absorb a lot. People hit on 4s or 5s.
• The unit has close order / rank / banner / warbanner / bsb / battlebanner avg2. Avg static res of 7.
• All my active combat res from prince on chariot with white sword or spectral dapple ogre blade mage
• When I am vs solo characters on dragons like game 1 and 2. I accept their challenge with my champion in the DP unit (not even my monster slayer prince) I tank as much as possible with 2 opal amulets and break the dragon with double outnumber.
• Rest of my army was support. Archers I rarely even shot to save time, silver helms, 2nd DP unit, and realm knights there to help clear chaff.

• Huge weakness of my list is terror checks. (I didn’t playtest enough and there is a 25pt lion banner which I am replacing the warbanner with which auto passes terror)
• The TK opponents had me taking 4-6 terror checks and a fear check before I could even fight the combat. Very scary.”

So while this list is a different take we are still looking at a pretty big 1000 pts death star unit that does much of the heavy lifting here. It’s still a pretty cool load out.

How the High Elves Played At The Event

Zach managed to go 5-0 at the event, the only one who did so. Another player, Phil, who he beat, managed to squeak out best overall with 4-1. the list faced three TK’s over the event and Zach’s favorite pictures, of which he sent me a few are “of me getting sandwiched by all the TK necros and huge combats.” Zach also shared a few more thoughts on how things ran at the event:

• “Mvp in order Paladin falcon horn Ogre Blade mage Ld10 prince to pass terrors.
• Impetuous didn’t really screw me up like I thought it would. Or the lack of counter charge. Drilled was awesome. It’s a lot of fun.
• I ended up playing chaos/empire/ 3 TKs. Total of 7 necrosphinx and 4 bone dragons, 2 chaos dragons, 1 imperial Griffon.
• My character saves are prince 2+/5+ Mage 3+/6+ Bsb 2+/6+ I failed lookout sirs vs my empire gunline opponent and had to make saves on my characters early or die!
• I did Land 3 monster slayers vs Phil in game 5. That’s probably relevant. (However Phil killed about 50 more vps over the whole event to snag best general, it was that close!- ed)”

Thoughts On The List

Overall I think this is a pretty cool and different list. It’s nice to see something other than Brets win events (even if they did tag along). Now it’s only a list that can work at an event with no comp and allies allowed, which are a little rare, but it’s cool. I really like the idea of taking a small allied group to get the Falcon Horn to shut down fly. Zach also mentioned that he liked Knights of the Realm more than Silver Helms.

Putting a Prince on a chariot with the White Sword in the unit is also pretty inventive and we don’t see that very often. It’s a good use of the light chariot (Zach got that idea from “my Australian friend and SBOT winner Denarius.”) The whole unit is obviously very tank-y and took a ton of charges as it clear from the pictures. It’s kind of rare to see a cavalry unit that is so unconcerned with charging. Glittering Robes is a great buff on this unit and I’ve long though it’s an underused spell.

It does seem a little reliant on getting off some spells, like Robes and Doppleganger and feels a bit like a flubbed spell could screw over the list. At this event it also didn’t go up vs a very wide verity of lists. I’d be interested to see how it fares vs a VC scream list or how it goes vs a Peg Knight Deathstar. None of that is to take away from Zach’s five wins, those are impressive! And I do like that this list is a bit different and has some inventive and different touches to it. So congrats again to Zach on a well played event!

Let us know what you think about Zach’s list, down in the comments! 

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.