‘Warhammer: The Old World’- The High Elf Arcane Journal Is Very Thematic – Not Very Competitive
Take a look at what the new Warhammer: The Old World High Elf Arcane Journal brings, and doesn’t bring, to the tabletop.
Its only been a couple months since the Empire got their big release with their Arcane Journal and already the next one is upon us. We’ve gotten our stinking human hands on the High Elf Arcane Journal, which comes out in less than two weeks. Now the Empire journal was a bit of a disappointment, but we had high hopes for the High Elves.
The High Elves are not in nearly as dire as straights as Empire, or some of the other armies in the game are. They have a fairly decent list and can win games. You can argue they don’t need a lot of help competitively. And that’s for the good, because this Arcane Journal ain’t giving them that. The book does have a lot of thematic rules, but it’s got to be one of the least competitive books out there. But don’t just take my word for it! Instead lets dig into what the book has to offer.
The New Units
Like all the AJs the High Elf book gives you access to a bunch of new units. In this case it really is a bunch as you get 8 new units and two new mounts. While that’s not shabby in quantity, I sadly think most of the new units are in fact pretty shabby in quality. Since the Armies of Infamy are based around them pretty heavily I’m going to look at the units first and then the armies that draw on them. This isn’t how the AJs are laid out, but it makes the most sense to me.
Chracian Chieftains
The first new unit we’ve got is the Chracian Chieftain, they are a new mid-range character unique to the Chracian Warhost AoI. This is basically the High Elf version of the Bret Baron falling in between a Prince and a Noble. They have an OK stat line and don’t have any unique rules, though Furious Charge helps make up for only having 3 attacks a little.
The Chieftain can also take 75 pts of magic items. They can be mounted on the new Chieftain’s Chariot which is just a slightly cheaper and slightly worse version of the White Lion Chariot. And that’s it.
I don’t really see a ton of point to this guy. The army can take Princes so you have access to a better flighty guy. All this gives you is a slightly worse and slightly cheaper version of things you can already take, which isn’t all that exciting.
Sea Guard Garrison Commanders
This is the new Sea Guard character and unique to their AoI. They are also a mid-tier 75 Pt magic item character, and get the rough end of the stick with only 2 wounds. However they are the best fighting character Sea Guard get and do have BS 7 . They allow a Sea Guard unit they join to gain Evasive and Fire & Flee which might be useful but have no role outside of the AoI.
Storm Weavers
Able to be taken in all the current High Elf lists this guy is a very expansive wizard that is worse than your default mages. They max out at lvl 3 and can only take 75 pts of gear and don’t get any re-rolls. They can ride a Unicorn which I guess is… fine. The one advantage they do have is access to Dark Magic which HEs don’t normally get. So there could be some nice combos here (possibly giving a unit +2 attacks and hatred, kind of spicy).
Ship’s Company
These guys are for the Sea Guard AoI and are basically just a different version of normal spearmen and archers. Not a lot going on here, as spearmen they are worse since they don’t have martial prowess, cost more with light armor, don’t have close order and can’t get shield wall. As archers I guess they are a bit better since 1 unit per 1000 pts can skirmish and their rules are better for shooting. Still nothing super interesting here.
Lion Guard
These guys are a more elite version of White Lions locked to the Chrace AoI. They are a little more expensive and a little better than your normal White Lions. They don’t do anything unique. Now they do have Furious Charge so if you get the charge off they are brutal. But in ToW it’s kind of rare for infantry to get to charge anything important.
Chracian Woodsmen
This is really the most interesting unit in the book and sadly it’s locked into the Charce AoI. These guys are slightly lighter, wilder, White Lions. They are Skirmishers and get Vanguard, but can also swap that for Scouts or Ambushers. That makes them very versatile. In combat they hit hard with the great blades and they can also take warbows. This gives you a unit of skirmishing archers with S4 attacks, a 4+ save vs shotting, minuses to be hit and one that can still fight in combat. Not shabby at all.
War Lions
This unit can be taken both by the Charce AoI and a Grand Army. But you likely won’t. This is a unit of the lions that pull the White Lion Chariot, but they just aren’t amazing. They are a small unit that do get some decent rules but are stuck with a single wound and not saves. They are also only S4 with no AP (though 6s to wound do ignore some armor). It’s nothing super exciting and the models are a pain to get.
Merwyrms
The Merwyrm is a classic model that I’m glad to see come back, sadly it’s lacking on the tabletop. It can be taken in both the Sea Guard list and the Grand Army. It’s got pretty normal behomoth stats with a lot of 6s. It is stuck with only 4 normal attacks, buffed up with D3 impact hits and d3+1 stomp attacks.
The big issue is this baby will run you 225 pts. For that it’s slow, at M6 without Swiftstride. It’s only got a 5+ save. It’s a little harder to hit from long range and gives enemies it b2b -1 s, but that’s it. It doesn’t have crazy attacks, and things like cannons will blast it away. It’s also not Unbreakable, and only LD 8. It can lose combat with ease. It just isn’t worth the points and doesn’t bring anything new to the army. Compared to the Giant Chaos Spawn its a joke.
The Chracian Warhost
We’ve seen the units, so now lets turn to the Armies of Infamy. The first one is the White Lions based Chracain Warhost. It is by far the stronger of the two. It’s got a decent roster, with the new units of the Chieftain, Storm Weaver, Woodsmen, War Lions and Lion Guard all allowed. You do lose all the High Elf cav and flying units as well as Phoenix Guard and Swordsmasters. As compensation you can place a Woods, similar to Wood Elfes, and gives some spearmen or archers move through cover. You get better Ambusers and also can give Spearmen or archer Lion Cloaks.
These are really some pretty sad upgrades to be honest. You don’t have any real reason to take Spearmen or archers so I don’t know why you would. Ambushers suck, so buffing them also sucks. The wood is nice, but that ends up being your only real buff.
Even if the buffs were decent the issue here is that this is an infantry based list in a game were infantry aren’t good. It can still take chariots and dragons so it has some power. It’s also very thematic with the new units giving you great modeling options, but it just doesn’t have much power.
Sea Guard Garrison
This is the second army of infamy and if I’m being honest… it’s junk. This army has a very very slimmed down list. You lose access to princes and lvl 4s. You also lose access to all the High Elf heavy cav and infantry. It does still have acess to 1 Dragon mage, but the best wizard it gets is the new Storm Weaver which caps at lvl 3. Its keeps the various flying unit, but um, those aint great. It’s mostly going to be made up of Sea Guard and Bolt Throwers I guess.
For all these drawbacks, losing Lords, losing lvl 4s, losing have cav, it gets… the option to redeploy a unit before the game starts. Oh sure you can give some Skycutters and Shadow Warriors Ambush, but that’s actually a downgrade for them. You can also give a couple units of Sea Guard drilled for free… which is super minor.
I just don’t really get what they were doing with this army. It’s so very very restrictive and gets basically nothing for it. It could be cool thematically but its just terrible on the table.
Special Characters
Like the other books High Elves also get two named characters. The first is Korhil Lionmane. He’s the Captain of the White Lions and can go in both the Charce AoI and a grand army. He’s… fine. He can be mounted on the new Chieftain Chariot, has 4 attacks, a decent weapon (with killing blow, though he does not have strikes first) and furious charge. He lacks a ward or regen save and isn’t better than a dragon lord, but is decently cheap for some good damage output.
Ishaya Vess is the Sea Guard character and she can go in their AoI or the Grand Army as well. She’s a more interesting choice than Korhil. She’s got a very OK weapon and fine stats. She does have a 3″ larger command range which is fine. Her big thing is that she gives any unit of Sea Guard she joins an extra point of AP. This is a pretty nice buff, and works both in combat and shooting. Combined with the Razor banner you can get some crazy numbers there. There are some nice plays with her and if you want to run Sea Guard in any list she’s a big boon for a large block.
Magic Items
Lastly we’ve got your standard run of new magic items. While I think this is one of the weaker line up of new items we’ve seen there are still a few good ones. Here are some that stand out for me:
-Bow Of The Seafarer- Act’s like a S5 bolt thrower with AP -3 and D3 wounds. Would be good even if it didn’t have the bolt thrower rule. This is great for plinking off some wounds from high value targets and High Elves have high BS.
-The Star Lance- this one just kind of confuses me. 45 pts for a lance that is S+3 and Ap -4 is… OK I guess, I don’t think it’s worth it, but it will let you do some damage. But why does it have Strikes First? It’s such an odd addition when most of the models that would want to take it already have that rule and the few that don’t have very high I anyway.
-Sacred Incense- Gives the Character and their unit -1 to be shot. Always a useful item.
-Banner of Lothern- this one stands out for just how bad it is. 55 Pts to let half your third rank attack if armed with thrusting spears. You are really going to buy a banner to get like 3 extra spear attacks?
-Ring of Fury- This one is pretty solid. 25+ super common item that lets you cast Hammerhand as a lvl 2 bound spell. This could easily be spammed on champions to add a lot of extra damage output or given to characters on chariots to up what they can do.
Final High Elf Arcane Journal Thoughts
Well, there you have it. In terms of power level I think this might be the weakest of the AJs and it’s bit sad seeing it come on the heels of Empire which I also thought was a bit of a miss. It does have a lot of thematic things in it and modelers and narrative players may be very happy with this book. Both the new armies will look amazing on the table. The new units have some cool potential and are thematic to their lists. They almost all offer nothing new or interesting and mostly fall into, slightly better or slightly worse then existing units. There is fun to be had here, but not much power.
From a competitive stand point I don’t think either AoI makes the cut. Both are dead on arrival by being infantry based lists in a cav and monster dominated game. I think the Grand Army can draw a little extra power form the book. Storm Weavers might allow for a cool combo. A few of the magic items might see play. But that’s about it, and that feels, pretty sad really.
Let us know what you think of the new Arcane Journal, down in the comments!
