Im half way through painting my High Elves force and I need some help.

My list looks like this atm:
Warband 1 12/12
Erestor
12 High Elf Warrior with Shield; Spear;
----
Warband 2 12/12
Elladan and Elrohir with Elf bow; Heavy armour;
3 High Elf Warrior with Shield; Spear;
4 High Elf Warrior with Elf Bow; Elven Blade;
3 High Elf Warrior with Elf Bow; Spear;
1 High Elf Warrior with Elf Bow;
Total cost 500.

Thinking Erestor is gonna be my leader, 10 shots and two of them which I can might.

Im concerned if putting Elven blade on the archers is so great. I personally want as many shields as possibly but should I take out some of the spear and shield for pure elven blades and just give all the archers spear?
Since I lack experience I need some suggestions.
Also, should I take Elven cloak to Erestor instead of the bows to The twins?

Half of bowmen with spears, and half with elven blades is optimal i would say. Elves need a little more killing power, which two-handed weapons give, but, still, winning fights is priority, beacuse you can't die if you win them. So, IMO, 4 blades in a force consisting of ~26 models gives it a good balance. BUT, and this is very important, you should swap two warriors/bows on twins and a warrior to get horses for the twins!

I'm not entirely sure but I think Elladan + Elrohir count as 2, so you can only add 11 more units to their warband.

About the rest: I have some thoughts, but I'm sure more experienced people can help you better on that.

Its 8 archers and 3 spearmen with shield, so it´s 11 and one of the twins count as one model therefore 12 model total!

When ever I play elves I always give my bowmen spears or leave them with just bows and I'd advise you to do the same too. I have found that bowmen with spears can stand and shoot before moving up to fill the back ranks as reserves. The elven blade is a front line weapon which conflicts with the way you would usually deploy bowmen to get the most out of shooting. I suggest sending a group of dedicated swordsmen to serve as a front rank instead of making the bowmen pull both rolls.

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"Draw your sword with a heavy heart, but swing it with a heavy hand"

Yeah I was concerned if it was worth it giving the archers blades. But what I thought of was often their is no target to shoot and I want as many shields as possibly!

But I think Im gonna swap out like 3-4 from the first warband for some with elven blade and just give all archers spear!

A) You will want to mix shields and spears equally between War Bands, so they are not separated in some matches.
B) I never take Elven Blades, as Elves have high enough Fight, and -1 to dual roll is not worth the gamble of losing the fight for extra punch (unless I greatly outnumber my foe...)
C) I don't recommend Horses for E&E: if attacked while Mounted, they only get 2 attacks each. When Charging, they still only get 3 attacks.
D) Both Spear and Shield on a model are nice, but a bit of a luxury... I would recommend the more classic 12 Shield, 4 Shield & Spear, 8 Bow & Spear divided evenly, with a Bow for Erestor and Bow & Armour for E&E. Exactly 500 points.

I used to think that way about two handed weapons too. Then I discovered that def 6 str 4 armies will paste high elves in prolonged engagement, shields or no, because they kill when they win while the elves don't. You can take a banner and use spear support to mitigate the risk but if you don't play aggressively you'll wide up watching your battle line crumble. That is also why I am a big fan of spear and shield for supporting so they can support first then shield if the guy in front dies. Which admittedly does happen.

Also Erestor can't take a bow.

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"Draw your sword with a heavy heart, but swing it with a heavy hand"

I have not given The twins any horses and you cant give Erestor bow.
However, isnt it better to put the archers together in one warband than split them up?
And in a scenario where the force is split I got 3 spearmen with shield plus The twins.
Maybe not optimal, but can work, or should I split them up?

I think im gonna switch like 2-4 spearmen with shield in the first warband against elven blades, as Wan Shi Tong said, to go against S4 D6 gonna be pretty rough.

A separate archer war band cannot shoot much after shields clash--and your main force will have 12 less warriors.


I hadn't considered Elf Blades that way: I'm curious to test if the -1 really is worth the extra killing power after all. I've seen so few two-handed weapons used over the years.... And I agree: shields on second row make sense, especially if they lose fights from the -1. But elves using two handed weapons cannot be equipped with shields, right? So a D5 front row means even normal troops kill on 5+.


My bad: I meant Elven Cloak. Though the 10 points could give 10 shields to spears.

You should have a couple of two handed weapons in each warband, not necessarily a full front raw. Just a couple of models ready to sweep in when the odds are in your favor to deliver a killing blow. A model with 2hw can now be supported, so it's not the great sacrifice it once was.