Dark Elves of Darkreach

[Dark Horse]

Thanks, I completely missed the Duskwidow issue... I guess it was because I added 1 Nightshade and when I increased their number I forgot to look at her troop stat. And I assumed you gave Majestrix the book? 

 

I had originally envisioned using the raiders to be a hit and run unit with my original plan to have a musician in the troop but ultimately didn't have the points, so the Shadow Tactics doctrine seemed like a potential compromise. I also wanted to incorporate a dragon in this army along with a Shade Beast, though originally I wanted more Beasts, but again the available points just weren't there and I did want to keep the model focus on elves.

 

 

Darkreach

 - 999 points

Troop 1 (438 pts) Majestrix Latissula, High Priestess Book of Tactics Doomshade Boots Leila Mordollwen, Sorceress Familiar Avrix Dirthe, Champion Shadowguard x 4	Troop 2 (225 pts) Evshyvandra Duskwidow Abyssal Weapon Nightshade Warrior x 5 Shade Beast	Troop 3 (155 pts) Tierdeleira, Priestess Familiar Darkshade Raider x 3	Troop 4 (178 pts) Aazhaleek, Shadow Dragon
Troop 5 (3 pts) Luck Stone

Total Models: 19

Damage Tracks: 44

 

Shadow Tactics DoctrineSavage North - page 66
Shadow Step	Darkreach models of the elf race have the uncanny ability to hide in the shadows of others. Any Standard Base Size elf in B2B with a Base Size 2 or 3 enemy or friendly model gains the Dodge/1 SA.
Dark Senses	Non-elves are immune to the effects of the Assassin SA. Elves with the Tough SA always get to make Tough checks, even when killed by Assassins or First Strike/Pike attacks.
Shadow Vision	Darkreach models ignore the Stealth SA when targeting enemy models.

[Looter]

I do not mind the list myself looks kind of fun especially with Shadowguard with  Avrix.  Those two in combination they wreck stuff.  Now with your two units with Nightshad warriors, and Darkshade Raiders I would change them for a combination of shadowstep warriors, and more Shadowguard.  Higher MAV and the Shadowstep have quickstrike which can be devastating when used right.  Or if looking for range switch out the Raiders for Shiver Spikes which are quite mean but do not have the defense of the Raiders.  I will try and post the army I used not long ago against Humansquish, which was unfortunately accidentally perfect for neutering his ranged and resisting most of his melee through the doctrine you have above.

[Looter]

Darkreach

- 1000 points

Troop 1 (526 pts) Sinisthreax Avrix Dirthe, Champion x 2 Shadowguard x 6

Troop 2 (474 pts) Mornenion, Drake Captain Avrix Dirthe, Champion x 2 Shadowguard x 6

 

Shadow Tactics Doctrine Savage North - page 66
Shadow Step	Darkreach models of the elf race have the uncanny ability to hide in the shadows of others. Any Standard Base Size elf in B2B with a Base Size 2 or 3 enemy or friendly model gains the Dodge/1 SA.
Dark Senses	Non-elves are immune to the effects of the Assassin SA. Elves with the Tough SA always get to make Tough checks, even when killed by Assassins or First Strike/Pike attacks.
Shadow Vision	Darkreach models ignore the Stealth SA when targeting enemy models.

 

Sinisthreax Warlord Benefits
Chilled Toxin	All models in Sinisthreax's Troop have chance to poison their victims in combat. On any successful melee hit where the Attack Check is at least 3 higher than the target value, the enemy model becomes Poisoned in addition to taking any damage the hit dealt.

[Dark Horse]

1 hour ago, Looter said:

Darkreach 

 - 1000 points

Troop 1 (526 pts) Sinisthreax Avrix Dirthe, Champion x 2 Shadowguard x 6

Troop 2 (474 pts) Mornenion, Drake Captain Avrix Dirthe, Champion x 2 Shadowguard x 6

 

... Interesting composition.

[Looter]

To be Honest I think it was 7 Shadowguards in Sinisthreax's troop with 4 in the other, and armor of courage, a musician, and a tactician on an avrix but I only had a couple of minutes to remember and post before I had to go.

 

The way it works is if the opponent has a ranged army the Shadowguards form an stealth wall for the non stealth units, if it is melee heavy the higher DV Avrix is an anvil the Shadow guards hammer the opponent on.   Mornenion is used as a mobile DV boost to make the Avrix in his unit just sick, then move often with avrix to charge for a quickstrike to cripple enemies early especially if you can get cleave to work on the attack.  It was almost as simple an army as I have ever made but it was crazy dangerous.

[Dark Horse]

What model do you proxy for Mornenion since they never made one, and the mounts for the Drake are quite "different"?

[Looter]

To be honest I proxy most of my armies since I mainly have dwarves and the new bones stuff.  For morenian I use a simple warhorse.  Humansquish is the guy with the minis

[Reinchard]

I've put to test the following roster with a considerable success - 2 wins against angel-heavy Sisterhood, 2 wins and one loss against orc-heavy Kargir.

 

Troop 1 (709 pts) Sinisthreax Armor of Courage Shadow Blade Nanuranidd, Sorcerer Shadow Demon Arachnilith x 3 Shadowstep Warrior x 4 Shadowguard x 3 Shade Beast x 2

Troop 2 (123 pts) Shade Beast x 3

Troop 3 (84 pts) Phase Cat

Troop 4 (84 pts) Phase Cat

Total Models: 20

Damage Traoks: 53

Dark Reaches Doctrine

 

We have 5 cards - good enough for 1k game. The main drawback here is a lack of Spy and that did cost me that lonely lost game, when Tundra Stalkers with ranger+run got to my flank and activating first on the second turn swarmed one Phase Cat and Nanuranidd. Ok my fault, I didn't encircle him with Soldiers good enough.

 

The other variant for the roster would be to swap Shadow Demon for Zalash (too much competition for our Elite slots being few in number) and one more Shade Beast for the band.  We get necessary Spy and Assassin rules, but Demon still seems to be much more enduring, albeit Roar appeared not that effective (Sisters shake off Negative States, orc player just rolled DIS well :) )

Swap rule from the doctrine may be effectively used a couple of times, but that is far inferior to such things as Summer Blossom, Rampage etc. In order to maximize a number of models with Blink I take Shadowsteps. Shadow Blade helped me once, but Sinistreax is well too soft and gets damage easily. Darkreach magic is strange indeed - Sinister Shadow seems the most effective, but brought me only a couple of wounds on enemy leaders or mosters at most. The effect here is more of the psychological one, forcing the opponent to consider initiating Melee. Poison template was useless against Sisters and I've taught Kargir player to move in anti-blast order good enough. These elves might need something more straightforward like inferno or storm. I'd maybe drop magic here for melee, taking both Demon and assassin.

 

Where elves truly shine is Displaced. If you screen your cats and dogs with cheap models or terrain and doesn't allow the enemy to swarm them and overwhelm with a high number of dice, you get the upper hand in the prolonged HtH grinder. Cats are just perfect as solo - very enduring and heavy hitting as well.

[Humansquish]

Unfortunately your list is illegal. You can't have more solos than leaders.

 

I do really like the Phase Cats & Displaced for Darkreach.

 

If you want to do damage with magic I suggest taking Dramorian. Ice Tome is really effective if you have follow up melee.

[Reinchard]

Yes, my fault, thanks for the correction!  I've thought somehow that number of Solos shouldn't exceed the number of normal troops and took band to be the one.

 

Then I'll just swap one beast from the main troop for Duskwidow for the band.

 I'm aware of the effectiveness of Ice, having played a lot with Moandain, but was about to try something special these elves can perform. Shadow spell seemed to me to have a real potential.

Edited January 16, 2018 by Reinchard

[Reinchard]

It has been a while since previous attempt and I've got a feeling, that I miss darkreach somewhat :)

Troop 1 (632 pts) Sinisthreax Abyssal Weapon Armor of Courage Dramorion, Sorcerer Nanuranidd, Sorcerer Shiver Spike x 2 Shadowguard x 4 Shadowstep Warrior x 4 Nightshade Warrior x 2	Troop 2 (446 pts) Mornenion, Drake Captain Armor of Courage Zalash, Assassin Shadow Demon Shadowstep Warrior x 3 Shade Beast x 3	Troop 3 (84 pts) Phase Cat	Troop 4 (84 pts) Phase Cat
Troop 5 (3 pts) Luck Stone

1249 pts

Models: 26

DTs: 65

Cards: 4+1  Dark Reaches Doctrine

This time I had two successful games against Reven based on Kiakara and orc mobs, backed up with Gurms and Gondas. One with thematic bugbear unit, the other more like plain orc limit.

Both times I've ended with less points left than enemy, but since we play scenarios with objective markers, Blink SA swap provided by doctrine helped enormously to seize objectives around the table. Combined with Phase Cat maneuverability this gives an edge.

To be honest I've expected my opponent to take 12 berserkers as usual, so took assasins, since my opponent rolls wonders on their Tough :(

Against cheap horde, though, the lack of mass-destruction magic (Fire/Storm) is tangible. Toxic cloud yielded 3 wounds at an average, so most useful was Beguile. Ice shard and Freezing burst were most effective from Ice tome. Roar from daemon came in handy as well.

But the true key factor was terrain, so that having defence organized between forests, swamp and impassable elements I managed to channel horde into narrow corridors and chew it piecemeal.

 

 

Edited November 18, 2020 by Reinchard

[Looter]

On 11/18/2020 at 2:02 AM, Reinchard said:

It has been a while since previous attempt and I've got a feeling, that I miss darkreach somewhat :)

Troop 1 (632 pts) Sinisthreax Abyssal Weapon Armor of Courage Dramorion, Sorcerer Nanuranidd, Sorcerer Shiver Spike x 2 Shadowguard x 4 Shadowstep Warrior x 4 Nightshade Warrior x 2	Troop 2 (446 pts) Mornenion, Drake Captain Armor of Courage Zalash, Assassin Shadow Demon Shadowstep Warrior x 3 Shade Beast x 3	Troop 3 (84 pts) Phase Cat	Troop 4 (84 pts) Phase Cat
Troop 5 (3 pts) Luck Stone

1249 pts

Models: 26

DTs: 65

Cards: 4+1  Dark Reaches Doctrine

 

I like how mobile this army is with not just blink but fast units and a good spread of damage types.  The 4 unit cards are also good for keeping an opponent on their toes with the phase cats being able to move in and out of combat to not only attack, but to pull back for regen if needed.  Good army.

[Looter]

 Here is an army that I ran last week against the two Orc factions.  It did quite well even though it was a bit of a gimmick that did not quite land as flawlessly as I hoped but overall the prevalence of Solid spell casters and archers along with a number of very successful summons of the Shadow Demons, and Shade beasts led to quite a few favorable transactions for this force.  Sinisthreax performed the worst for his points not earning back his points but he did summon the very cuccessful Shadow Demons, so he was still quite useful.

 

There is not much to say tactics wise both forces moved up and began to fight in pretty standard ways which was pretty much a draw when our time to game ran out.  I was quite impressed with the Shade Beasts landing a number of Displacement rolls that essentsially negated all damage done multiple times.  The spell casters were the MVP's of this with Ironskin and Adrenalin working well, and the attack spells landing enough to damage and stun enemies and the Tierdeleria, and Dramorion putting in some good work in melee stifling a number of attacks with their high defense.

 

Overall a good army for a run at this level.

 

Troop 1 (416 pts)
Sinisthreax
Magic Weapon
Dramorion, Sorcerer
Armor of Courage
Familiar
Leila Mordollwen, Sorceress
Familiar
Shiver Spike x 2
Shadowstep Warrior x 2

Troop 2 (321 pts)
Tierdeleira, Priestess
Familiar
Armor of Courage
Shadow Demon
Shiver Spike x 2
Shade Beast x 2

Troop 3 (321 pts)
Tierdeleira, Priestess
Familiar
Armor of Courage
Shadow Demon
Shiver Spike x 2
Shade Beast x 2

Troop 4 (295 pts)
Tierdeleira, Priestess
Familiar
Armor of Courage
Zalash, Assassin
Magic Weapon
Shiver Spike x 2
Shade Beast x 2

Troop 5 (84 pts)
Phase Cat

Troop 6 (163 pts)
Battle Totem
Luck Stone

1600 ptsModels: 26DTs: 65Cards: 5+1