I'm looking into starting an Elven army, and I was looking for advice on what I should collect? I have only Legolas so I have a long way to go, so what should I collect to make a nice competitive army for SBG? Appreciate any help as I don't want to collect pieces which are not really any good! We tend to play around 750 point games. Thanx guys

With legolas, you'd want a lothlorien/wood elf army. So to get you started ide say...
Rúmil
A galadhrim or wood elf command box
2-4boxes of galadhrim warriors (1-2 if boxes of 24)
1-3 boxes of wood elves (1-2 if boxes of 24)
You could add more specialized heroes at this point or wait, whatever you want to do.
A box of galadhrim knights
Some guards of the galadhrim court (maybe 2 blisters?)
A blister of sentinels

This is what I would get to start myself off if I were new. Depending on what core you want for your army, be that wood elves or galadhrim at least two boxes will give you enough men to be able to customize your army according to your wishes. The list I gave you is ranked in a way for galadhrim to be your core.

Having said that this is only a light guide to buying a galadhrim/wood elf army. Honestly ide say start with what you like but if not I think this is a decent starting point

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Fight! Fight to the last man!

If this was to be our end then I would have them make SUCH AN END as to be worthy of remembrance

Are Galadhrim the way to go then? I have no idea at the moment which are better! What are high elves like? And warriors of the last alliance? I love the model of Erestor and Glorfindel, are they useful?

Well with legolas, he can only have wood elves or galadhrim in his warband, so if you want him leading troops they would have to be wood elves or galadhrim. High elves have good defence values but at a cost of troops. Usually they can only manage 2 warbands in 500pts which is a maximum of 24 soldiers and two heroes. A low model count that can be easily outnumbered. Having said that their soldiers are fantastic as well as their heroes. I have no experience with erestor ,though he seems quite good, having said that Glirfindel is a total tank!! Able to cleave his way through a large number of orcs. My personal favorite high elf hero is Gil-Galad, he is the only elf able to reach def 8. And an amazing profile.

Comparing high elves to galadhrim is...kind of hard. High elves have higher defence and higher points cost with powerful heroes. While galadhrim are slightly cheaper with good mid range heroes. A note about the galadhrim/wood elves is that in their list they have 5 troop choices, as opposed to 1 troop choice in the high elf list.

Warriors of the last alliance are high elves.

Between galadhrim and high elves, both have their advantages but ide say that at lower points cost the galadhrim are better(but I might be biased ) but at higher points cost they even out.

_________________
Fight! Fight to the last man!

If this was to be our end then I would have them make SUCH AN END as to be worthy of remembrance

So if you we're playing a 750 point game, what would your army look like? Any pieces, I haven't got any yet!

Hi, I collect the Elves, mainly High elves, but with some mix of Wood Elves and Galadhrim in too. From my experience, the wood elves (Lothlorien and Mirkwood) are more focused on ranged combat, with heroes like Legolas and Haldir, with multiple shots per turn, where as the high elves have heroes that are focused on close combat, some with 3 attacks, and all with a very high defence and point cost

If you want to see what a 750 points wood elf army, look at this: viewtopic.php?f=37&t=24130

Hope this helps.
LordElrond

People always say that archery is poor in SBG, so why would wood elves be better than the high elves?

Elves are the acception, because they have the best shooting profile in the game. Wood elves are better that high elves because they have a cheaper points cost and thus can have more men on the field. It really comes down to defence, a high elf is two points more than a wood elf, but he also has two higher defence.

So the difference between wood elves and high elves is armour.
In combat high elves will take wounds on a 5-6 with strength 3-4 hitting them, and will be wounded on a 6 by strength 2 shooting and on a 5-6 by strength 3-4 shooting. While wood elves will take wounds in combat on a 4-6 from strength 3-4 hitting them. And in shooting, strength 2 shooting will cause wounds on 5-6 and strength 3-4 will cause wounds on a 4-6.

Hopefully you can follow that and understand the difference armour can make.

_________________
Fight! Fight to the last man!

If this was to be our end then I would have them make SUCH AN END as to be worthy of remembrance

Yeah I followed that Thanx. So keep wood elves back, but use high elves in close combat?

Yes, but you can also give your high elves bows, as they still have defence 5, so they are still as effective in close combat as swordsmen. Also, if your battles are anything like mine, you will find that, at some point, there will be a massive brawl in the centre of the board, and of course, you cannot shoot into close combat, so high elf archers can also be used well in close combat, but you pay extra points for their bows, I only charge with them when I am in dire need, or when the enemy is fully engaged, so I cannot shoot.

Hope this helps,

LordElrond

Something else that might be of interest in this discussion is that if you are playing Eregion and Rivendell and have Gildor in your army you can take Wood Elf warriors at an additional 1 point base cost and and they will have 8" movement instead of the normal 6" (Gildor makes them Noldorian Exiles).

The other thing you might want to take into account is that in the next few months GW should be releasing the Rivendell Knights with new Elrond sculpt. These are mounted High Elves that aren't effected by the 33% bow rule.

But keep in mind that the rivindell knights are in their own army list, and so if you want to have them and high elves in the same army the high elves can still only have 33% bows.

_________________
Fight! Fight to the last man!

If this was to be our end then I would have them make SUCH AN END as to be worthy of remembrance

Couldnt you just ally? take 100% bow armed knights with their captain, and then have a rivendell captain with his troops including his 30% bow armed that would follow the warbands to my understanding. But to be honest we still use legions at my GW so I'm not an authority, but I am curious about this.

Oh and shameless plug, I have a ton of High Elves in my trade post, check it out

Sorry about that, I meant that the knoght contingent can have full bows but if you include high elves in the list they have 33% bows while the knights still have 100% bows.

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Fight! Fight to the last man!

If this was to be our end then I would have them make SUCH AN END as to be worthy of remembrance

Phew good to know, had me worried!
I wouldn't take bowmen on foot over horse anyway, building a nice mobile barage that when the orcs are too close can still charge in and cause a mess seems very effective in theory. I get giddy thinking of the chaos that these knights coupled with a well picked Wood Elf army can wrought. Mirkwood Sentinels are awesome. For High Elf on foot I never leave without my spearmen. Their expensive money wise but worth it.

Sorry if I wasn't clear, I was attempting to say that the Rivendell Knights don't suffer from the 33% bow limit not that it makes all the High Elves that way, and yes they would have to be allied in from the way I understand it. But I digress though they are expensive point wise and I really want to build a list with Lindir and Elrond and see how it would come out.