Ratings
1 not a sound investment
2 will see sometimes
3 a likely choice
4 what you will see a lot (main stays)
Kindred tall spears (3)
The elven anvil, elves don't do proper anvils because at speed 6 that probably wouldn't be ok, but at def 4+ with phalanx, nerve21/23 on a horde this isn't bad. Punchy with 30 attacks hitting on 4s rerolling 1s (elite)it takes crushing strength and bane chant really well. It's issue is infantry hordes are unwieldy terrain will often means it hits on 5s.
Palace guard (3)
These guys are the elite hitters, the troops are really good chaff that hit hard, the regiment is a mainstay fairly resilient def4+, 15/17 but 12 attack output isn't amazing even with 3+ Elite natural cs.
Kindred archers(4)
You can leave home without them, but you need a reason to. Elves struggle with unit strength this horde is great for that, add piercing to their bows and hitting on 4+ they can wreck the world. In truth they are like 5-7 damage a round on most things against a good player who uses cover but the spikes in dice people remember and they can down infantry regiments or monstrous hordes in a round if you spike with a cheeky bane chant.
Thrennian sea guard (2)
This unit is in my humble opinion caught between a rock and a hard place, they are spearman with 5 less attacks in horde ( that are 50 points more) and archers (that are 30 points more) that hit on 5s with 5 more attacks than archers. However in reality as stated above spears like cs and archers like piercing, so what banner do you give these? Then the shooting, playing on a bowling green against new player doesn't 25 shots hitting on 5s is great, but playing against experienced players those 6s to hit compared to the archers 5s will mean you are hitting half the time. However I think as regiments in very specific builds of music type there may be a place for regiments naked of items.
Kindred glade stalkers(2-3)
Sorry I'm on the fence, another archery unit that gains +1 to hit in melee, pathfinder and vanguard and loses a point of defence. Often this means first turn (if you roll it) the unit can shoot with no penalty which is sweet however the drop in defence is massive and pathfinder unnecessary to gain cover most of the time as you will want to stay still and are unlikely to want to run. If they switched one of the rules for nimble would be vastly better. Competing with regiments of sea guard I'm afraid or some sort of gun-line builds.
Hunters of the wild 3(I think)
Massively under utilised by myself to date, this unit is primarily a bucket of none elite attacks with pathfinder. I think their issue is do I want to invest 190 points and the cs item on a 14/16 unit and it's probably no, they maybe a few points over because of the largely unnecessary vanguard but 25 attacks from that frontage should always be a consideration to your lists.
Forest shamblers 2-3
This monstrous unit is a cheap anvil often seen with brew of haste to utilise its vanguard and charge t1 as above. I think that use is a trap normally. This is a more genuine anvil than the spears as it's fearless def 5+ and pathfinder helps on a small frontage. However the offensive output is perhaps challenging at best, I genuinely prefer these as regiments-/14 5+ for 125 points is really good for speed bumps.
Silver breeze cavalry 2
This shooting unit has 1 problem its prohibitive cost(145). Speed 10 shooting with nimble is cool, however there are really bad in the flanks as they are treated as horse archers not genuine fast cav. I dunno 11/13 4+ seems seriously fragile to me if they were mellee 4+ or thunderous charge(tc) 1 I'd find these more palatable.
War chariots 3reg 1 horde
Chariots are what I would take instead of seaguard/glade stalkers if you are going an msu type build, regiments contribute little but enough and are not trivial to shift while offering some alpha or counter punch threat. In truth their output is poor but they terrify other chaff.
In horde I rate them between 1-2 this is because the base size requires both nimble and pathfinder to function against a half decent player and we know tc units have enough issues without that base size issue.
Stormwind cavalry 3
These are not a strong 3, but like the chariots speed 9 units can't be lower, they don't have the bows the chariots do but at def 5+ and melee 3+ they can do considerably more damage and are more manoeuvrable than chariots. Sure they still have all the cavalry problems and need to have pathfinder banner probably but decent cavalry for sure.
Battle cats 2
Cheap chaff, not bad at it, if they had the path finder they feel they should have id probably take them even if nimble got dropped, but not being able to march is troublesome for chaff and a prince on a horse is cheaper. They occasionally make my list just as an extra scoring piece.
Windborne (legendary silverbreeze) 2
I feel rough giving these a 2 as they are flavour of the month, however keeping this 170 point 11/13 unit alive and not wavered is hard, amazing ability in a windblast that damages, but a mage on a horse with windblast is arguably more resilent and when did you see that? The issue is good players mitigate windblast and bad players often accidentally do, may be cool in a list that also surges but I haven't looked in depth at that. Really wanna like these guys but generally I see a couple of spells or shots wiping up 170points.
I wanna give them 3 I really do, but the rational part of me said I couldn't.
Drakon Riders 4
Lastly and definitely not least drakon riders. These are the weight lifters of the army, fast, nimble, hit hard and hard by elf standards resilient. If you haven't played against them, then you will and if you haven't played with them, what are you doing. I personally horde them always but its very possible to take them as a regiment also especially in MSU builds. Nothing else to say these are the main stay of the faction.
In the next instalment ill do warmachines, monsters and characters, I may even look at allies and formations. till then keep rolling.(my drakons below)
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