Got two skirmish games in with a single core of elves today. Prior to this I've been a waiqar player, so going from a trundle-bus to these shifty speedsters was quite enjoyable.

first game was 100 points with no upgrades. My opponent plays Daqan, and was using Hawthorne instead of kari. Second game was 125 with upgrades.

My scion went down fast to his spearmen(they rolled well). They lack staying power with an average 2 armor, but make good blockers, alpha range strikers, and that immobilize is great, if not for Hawthorne his spearmen would have been stuck for 2-3 turns on the scion. Second game the scion engaged Hawthorne, got some rune love and lasted 3 turns while blocking his oathsworn(stuck behind Hawthorne). Raven taberds are a good idea on these; speed 1-3/initiative 2 charge!

Archers worked well, but I made a mistake by shifting towards the spearmen and they caught me in melee. Damage is low from these guys, so staying back and running circles around enemies seems best. 3 rerolls at 2 ranks is fun, and packing CQT to keep ranged attacks and fire runes seem to fit nicely. Second game they hid behind the scion and rained arrows and fire down on everything. The surge shift worked well to keep them out of the way. Damage is comparable to Kari.

Leonx riders are some cool cats. They have so much unpredictability in their dial and the bonus charge speed makes them really bounce around. However, they go down really fast when engaged. They didn't survive either game. Moment of inspiration is really good for these units, same with raven taberds(I haven't tried it yet, only played 2x1). The surge mortal strike or extra damage goes off nearly every attack. Their damage output is a bit lower then oathsworn but flexibility makes up for it.

Saving the best for last, Alliana is excellent. With only 3 Hp she is a bit fragile, but timed right, very little gets away from her. With no upgrades, she did alright, not great, but very fun. Then I added packleaders spear and ambush predator... holy ****! She one-shot a golem on turn 3 without even rolling her dice [(PS+AP = lethal 6) + mortal strike], then finished off some spearmen, and scuttled around an obstacle to face off with Hawthorne in three turns. Also enjoyed doing a shift charge with her.

Summing up, Elves introduce a fast, tricky faction and playstyle. I'm looking forward to trying larger units and the overgrow mechanic. I'm very pleased with the faction and will be getting more.

Yea I think tempered steel will be a must for the derpwood archers.

@Jukey

Sounds of a lot of fun.

What is your first impression about balancing with the other two factions?

You wrote, you are a Waiqar player, so in your experience, please give me your first thoughts.

1 hour ago, Rhargar said:

@Jukey

Sounds of a lot of fun.

What is your first impression about balancing with the other two factions?

You wrote, you are a Waiqar player, so in your experience, please give me your first thoughts.

Since I only played skirmish sized games, got no experience with larger unit interaction. But here's my thoughts.

A waiqar 4x3 powered by maro is going to shrug off the archers and devour any leonx foolish enough to engage directly, so it's going to take a careful approach to successfully take on the trundle-bus. Deathblighters will also take a toll on leonx, scion and Alliana if left to do its thing.

Likewise, the Daqan are heavy hitters and they shrug off immobilize and stun tokens like nothing. Even a 2x1 spearman can clear a tray of leonx with a decent roll. 4x1 oathsworn will wreck archers if they catch them.

Waiqar gain strength in heavy tarpits and nullifying attacks, but engaged at range they'll have trouble catching the elves. Daqan like to inspire and knock units out with early activations. Blocker scions will be good for keeping oathsworn at bay until they've been picked away by archers.

Elves are lower on the damage output than most units in the other factions, so hitting on flanks and range seems to be key. Accuracy generation is a nearly every attack thing so figure upgrades beware.

neither game I played was more than a few points of difference in remaining units, so I think it's well balanced as far as I've seen.

Planning on trying a 3x2 archer with a support scion and 2x3 leonx in the next game to see some larger unit play.

Hopefully we get command pack for elves soon, as that was what opened up the base factions. Thanks for the first impressions, haven't even built mine yet ?

My store hasn't called me yet, still waiting on mine

Great read. The batrep and tactica sound like the Latari are a good solid addition to RW without being broken. And the on-the-move play style is different enough from what's currently out.

6 hours ago, Hawkman2000 said:

Great read. The batrep and tactica sound like the Latari are a good solid addition to RW without being broken. And the on-the-move play style is different enough from what's currently out.

I want to see how Hunters guile help out.

It turns out with two army boxes you can just barely make a 200 point army with all the neutral upgrades from other factions. So I did. It's absolutely crushing my undead opponent.

Scions are amazing tarpits for the archers and the hero can easily pick off line siege units. The leonx are fun too because of how easily they make adjustments compared to oathsworn. Worth noting though that they don't have the melee staying power that daqan and waiqar though so you need to time and aim charges well.

Do you think disengaging with the Leonx riders would be a valid play? If I have one complaint about the game so far it's that once a unit gets into melee it seems like it's in it till one side dies.

43 minutes ago, Murnaz said:

Do you think disengaging with the Leonx riders would be a valid play? If I have one complaint about the game so far it's that once a unit gets into melee it seems like it's in it till one side dies.

Disengaging is more of a thing with elves I believe. That's mostly because they can disengage farther out. Leonx could do it as an unexpected move and then charge with earlier initiative or something but I have yet to attempt it.

When we get the infantry upgrades it'll make wind rune archers really good at disengaging and scooting away.

2 hours ago, Murnaz said:

Do you think disengaging with the Leonx riders would be a valid play? If I have one complaint about the game so far it's that once a unit gets into melee it seems like it's in it till one side dies.

I've favourably disengaged in many games, before elves. To do fun stuff like : Clear LoS for Kari, trigger an immobilize token when they try to reclose while I clear banes, etc. There are many times you probably should disengage or rally instead of swing in this game.

1 hour ago, Darthain said:

I've favourably disengaged in many games, before elves. To do fun stuff like : Clear LoS for Kari, trigger an immobilize token when they try to reclose while I clear banes, etc. There are many times you probably should disengage or rally instead of swing in this game.

And they can disengage at 3 too.

Playing elves in a tourney tomorrow. Probably not competitive since they're behind the power curve, but should be fun and educational. If I win 1 game I'll be happy.

3 hours ago, Darthain said:

I've favourably disengaged in many games, before elves. To do fun stuff like : Clear LoS for Kari, trigger an immobilize token when they try to reclose while I clear banes, etc. There are many times you probably should disengage or rally instead of swing in this game.

Good points. I guess I was most taken aback when I saw that the Oathsworn Cavalry had no way to disengage (unless I'm missing something). I guess it makes sense thematically though that they are "Oathsworn" to stay in there until the end, not sure if they were going for that though.

20 hours ago, Murnaz said:

Good points. I guess I was most taken aback when I saw that the Oathsworn Cavalry had no way to disengage (unless I'm missing something). I guess it makes sense thematically though that they are "Oathsworn" to stay in there until the end, not sure if they were going for that though.

The Cavalry are missing the shift so it's kinda hard to disengage yeah.

Also without the shift, they're boned if they hit an obstacle ! Last game I played the 1x2 block of horses hit a rocky outcrop and had to reform to an unfavourable angle to get moving again.
Playing as elves, this was amusing