Warhammer Armies: High Elves

Games Workshop

(rules addition 112 pages)

When Games Workshop released the forth edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle a few years back, they deiced to set a new trend for the game and launched a series of ‘Armies’ books for the game. Each of these books contained almost everything that you needed to play your army to its maximum potential, with lots of tactics and history of the races discussed in full.

That was four years ago, and now to coincide with the new version of Warhammer Fantasy, the people at the studio have been very busy updating all of the armie books for the system, and it is only fitting that the first of these to be released should be the one that was the first for the old system, the High Elves.

From the very outset the new High Elve army book is an improvement on its older counterpart. With an extra sixteen pages, the book seems a lot thicker than most of the old army books, and it is packed with lots of full color photographs of miniatures. On the whole the layout of the book is very similar to the old version, with some of the old text being imported straight into the book. The Chronology and History of the High Elves remains the same and in fact one of the only things that is noticeably missing from this new version is the Battle Report that was in the original.

The artwork in this book is up to the very high standards that Games Workshop have set with their other products and it contains some of the finest illustrations of Elves that I have ever seen. The full color cover features an excellent rendition of Tyrion the champion of the Everqueen and Prince of the High Elves, sat astride his mighty steed Malhandir, and about to give the order to advance into the fray. Geoff Taylor as done an excellent job here and one can sense the mood of the general as his troops make their way into the heat of the battle. The rest of the interior art is as I said excellent and the books features some of the old artwork form the first book, and lots of great new black and white illustrations that help give the book an edge over its predecessor.

The photographs of the miniatures are clear and show just how well GW’s figures can look, when painted with skill and patience. Some of the new troops are covered by these photographs and a slightly toned down version of the painting guide is included at the end of the color section. Also for the first time and in keeping with most of the other army books we get to see what the Runes of the High Elves look like as a full page is dedicated to them, they can add an extra bit of personality to troops and characters when painted onto weapons, banners and equipment.

Onto the rules themselves. This is where the main changes have taken place. Some of the new rules allow the High Elves to do things that no other race in the Warhammer world can do. Now most of the rank and file troops under the command of the High Elf commander can fight in deeper ranks than normal troops, thus giving them a vast tactical advantage when it comes to combat. The new skill ‘Citizens Levy’ goes back to a time long ago when all the High Elves were trained in the arts of war, and as such troops armed with Bows or Spears gain the advantage of fighting in ranks up to three deep ( the norm is two!) and given the fact that Elves are excellent bowmen it with a Ballistic Skill rating of 4 as the norm, this new skill will make a lot of Generals think twice when deploying their troops against an High Elf army.

Another new rule is Elven Enmity. The bitter war that split the High Elves from their kindred the Dark Elves left bitter seeds in its wake and the distrust of the other race as always been a factor in Warhammer Fantasy. Now most of the High Elves don’t suffer from Hatred against Dark Elves, as this in turn would debase their beliefs and could lead to them becoming what they despise the most. High Elf troops now look on the Dark Elves With pity and as a result the rules for Hatred against them have been replaced. When fighting against Dark Elves the troops now can re-roll any break tests that occur in hand to hand combat or psychology tests as long as either the Army General or Army Standard Bearer remain on the battlefield. This allows the High Elf army to fight with a greater passion and almost down to the last man. They will not give ground unless the General is dead and the Standard is down

A new rule as also been included for troops wearing heavy armour. Because of the unique metal that High Elf armour is made from ‘Ithilmar’ all troops wearing this armour no longer suffer the movement penalties that normal troops get from wearing heavy armour and as a result they can move without restriction.

The original army book only gave the player the option of fielding three special characters (Tyrion, Teclis, and Eltharion). Now this oversight as been more than rectified, as the player now can include another six to this retinue.

For the first time a female High Elf as been added to the army, in the shape of Alarielle the Everqueen and her body guard of Hand Maidens. Alarielle is the embodiment of the Elven goddess Isha and dose her bidding on the mortal plain. She co-ruled the High Elves home land of Ultuan, and after the war with the Chaos, she retired to the land of Averlorn to live with her lover and champion Prince Tyrion.

The Everqueen does not use weapons of any kind and she wears no armour for protection, but she is still a formidable opponent to fight against. She is a master of the arts of Magic and is treated as a level four Elven Mage Lord, in accordance with the rules. She also has the ability to grant boons or bane's ( in a similar way to the Lady of the Lake grants favors to Knights in the Brettoinan army), the Boon of Isha give any one unit within command distance (12 inches) a +1 to hit against there enemies during the shooting phase and any one unit +1 in the combat phase.

In addition to the Everqueen, we find her bodyguard of Handmaidens. These warrior women fight for the Honor of the Everqueen and to protect their queen with their lives. They have a very high Weapon and Ballistic skill and can use the Citizens Levy rule and are completely immune to psychology as long as the Everqueen is still with the unit.

 Overall a vast improvement on the original rules and well worth a look at.