Elves and their roles part 2

Sorry for long delay my laptop broke
So had some interesting feed back after part 1, and I thank everyone for that.
Some people want more tactics (they will come), others want a nicer layout and I will try, and the juiciest bit for me is some people disliked my comments.   I love debate so feel free to challenge what I say, however I'd prefer it if you didn't try and put me down at the same time they are merely my considered opinions.

So without further a do let's move to part 2 and look at the characters and monsters.

A reminder of my ratings system
1 not a sound investment
2 will see sometimes
3 a likely choice
4 what you will likely see lots (main stays)

Bolt thrower 2
The humble bolt thrower is strong by the standards of warmachines, it has less spectacular but more consistent damage.

Dragons breathe 3
This was a real staple prior to cok 19, loses some shots now but I still think it will be common just likely one instead of 2. Personally i've never used them but that's because of models and playstyle, they are a real bug bear of low defence armies


Army standard bearer 4

Don't know many armies without one, elves don't have loads of characters that inspire individual types of troops so this guy is very likely and he's very likely to be carrying the lute of insatiable darkness, probably was a 3 in cok 18 but his stock has risen since there is no longer a black iron crown.

Mage 3
You saw them a lot in cok 18 I think will be less in cok 19, but natural heal 3 the potentially for either damage spell with items and elite and the ability to to still be inspiring or cast 2 spells a round means they are still going to be present, it just makes me sad they cant take surge.

Prince 3 (should be a 4)

The most under pointed chaff in the roster. 75 points on a horse with crushing one and 3 elite attacks def 5 + is a no brainer and if you have the unlock slots he makes several options like battle cats seem hugely unappealing 

King 2 or 1
He's ok on a horse, bad on foot, decent with the wings of honeymaze but compared to other rosters a little poor for the same points. I don't see a reason to take him but have seen others

Noble on war chariot 3
Decent chaff, that also contributes at range, wish he was crushing 1 thunderous 1 instead of tc2  but that's being greedy I guess. 8 attacks in a flank 3 + elite and tc2 with nimble is definitely a valuable contribution to line breaking

Master hunter 3
Underused I usually take 1, sometimes 2, have this guy as a vanguarding ASB with the inspiring talisman, he can get to warmachines, contribute at range, inspire forest shamblers or baby sit archers, lastly he's fast enough to be the inspiring to the second flank of drakons, this guy is made of win.

Forest Warden 3
find him interesting with the surge spell in cok 19, he was a good cheap unit strength before and isn't awul in the flank of something, I personally don't find him compelling, but with dragons breathe going down in shots, this guy with diadem and vanguard is always fun


Drakon kindred lord 2
Mobile unit strength and inspiring that's not trivial to remove, but contributes very little, 2 more attacks and id be very interested

Dragon kindred lord 3-4

Again has lost breathe but the elves don't have many hard hitters and this guy can, boots of levitation, chalice of fury, vicious or brew of haste, likely to see one, I think 2 is less likely now as the breathe is a diminishing return on before

Treeherder 2
I wanna like them, and they can stick around in heal builds, but basically I don't think they contribute enough for 260 points, probably gonna see them with medallion of life when you do, and not terrible, but why when the dragon is not that much more, especially now the forest warden has surge.

Green lady 2-3
A solid army leader, elite heal 8 and very high defence and nerve with fly also make her very good piece of chaff if needed. However Id nearly always take a prince on horse or master hunter and mage with the extra heal item for less points or equal points and more output and options.  My fundamental issue with her is you are paying for defence and fly for someone I want healing, if used as chaff I then cant heal and not contributing in what is in an already elite army. I've seen people try the formation and ive tested it, but it lacked something and I actually think it was just a 100 points to expensive because of her.

Latheal silverheart 1 (should be 3)
You never see her but is the best surge caster in faction with a lightning bolt 5 to boot, I've used her a lot in practice and any sort of improvement to forest shamblers in the future and she will be everywhere.


Elf tactics soon incoming soon, although;
i've actually moved away from elves at the moment, 25+years (7 year gap in middle) of playing them at every level you can imagine and I want to try something new.
I enjoyed them in COK18, I won 2 out of 3 tournaments I attended at 1 day level (12-24 players) and finished 11th at clash of kings, but had I not rolled 5 or 6 sets of double 1s in the last game would have come 3rd. (that's not taking away from my opponents play at all)
In Warhammer I played them at ETC level, was world number 1 ranked high elf for a while(that's not to say im the best its just an arbitrary achievement I attended to accomplish and did), uk number 1 for many years, podiumed at a couple of larger events and won a lot of small events or finished in the top spots. (this isn't meant to sound arrogant its merely meant to show why I feel I can share my Opinions).
Hopefully after a break and when I feel they offer something fresh for me to try ill do that, but right now i'm moving to Trident realms, which ill tell you now are so far below elves in power level its not even real. Anyone that thinks this game has good cross faction balance i'm here to tell you it doesn't. However its a challenge I was after and I will take it, but I may give these guys a run out at masters in January frankly so I just don't make an embarrassment of myself using TR.
PS I don't hate TR they just needed around another 5-7 units buffed in COK 19 to make them even a viable competitive faction imho, the models fluff and play style I really enjoy and cant think of many cooler things than a kraken or trident king can you ?