The Awesomeness of Being Totally Wrong

Hello, Nikephoros here with an editorial about critical thinking.  

I love, and I mean I absolutely love, when I am proven wrong about something in a competitive game.  Most people would think the opposite; that I would always want to be right, and get the validation of everyone telling me how right I am.  Maybe some folks do prefer that.  Personally, I love when I’m wrong about a conclusion. 

Why?  Simple really.  Let’s say I think a Unit A is great and Unit B sucks.  I play with A, and I win a lot simply because I’m a pretty good player.  Then one day I try using Unit B on a lark.  And I find out that not only does Unit B not suck, it is infinitely better than Unit A!  That’s the best feeling ever.  It’s akin to being one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, then having a coach ask you to change one small thing and after you do, you become an even better quarterback. 

Armies in 8th: Dark Elves Part Four: Lords and Heroes

CMON

Hello, Nikephoros here for the final installment of the Dark Elves in 8^th review.  This section will cover the Lords and Heroes for the DE, who have some pretty great options and builds.  Few army books have characters who are worth their points, so it’s definitely nice that the Dark Elf characters can pull their weight.   As always, I skip over the named characters because I don’t find them interesting and they are usually non-competitive.  There are occasionally some exceptions though, so be prepared…

Armies in 8th: Dark Elves Part Three: The Cavalry

Wizbangs

Despite the title, not every unit in this review will be cavalry.  I only titled it as such because the previous article was titled ‘The Infantry’ and this is everything else.  Titling it ‘The Not-Infantry’ might have been somewhat trite.  One of the things that make the Dark Elves unique is the oddball units that are scattered through the armybook.  It gives them a non-traditional aesthetic that is quite appealing.  Even better, many of the units are aggressively costed and help make the book quite competitive on the table top. 

Armies in 8th: Dark Elves Part Two: The Infantry

Cult of Khaine

Dark Elf infantry has a reputation as being underpriced and overpowered.  While I certainly agree that some units are very points efficient, I feel this generalization ignores that there are several units that are not quite on the same level as the top notch units.  Fortunately for the Dark Elf general, you aren’t at all obligated to take the chafe in your lists.  It would be nice to have an 8^th Edition army book where all the choices are at least viable, but be careful what you wish for: a new army book is likely to take away many of the very things that make the power DE units so good.

Armies in 8th: Dark Elves Part One: House of Pain

Hi everyone, Nikephoros here to bring you the next installment in the Armies in 8th series, the Dark Elves. 

The Dark Elves were nearly universally considered to be the most powerful army book in 7^th Edition.  In those days, the War Hydra had no rival on the battlefield, their magic was among the best, if not the best, and they had magic items- like the Ring of Hotek- that could completely dominate the game.  They killed their enemies by using ASF Blackguard or Shade units to wipe out the front row (or two) and not suffer any casualties in return. 

Armies in 8th: Magic Part 11: Lore of Darkness

The first installment of the army specific magical Lores and the text is blue, odd... Well Zenos sent me in his Lore of Darkness thoughts quite some time ago so I'm going to be posting them and adding my thoughts in blue! That's his army in the picture as well (shiny). So thanks to Zenos for the e-mail, thoughts and pictures. Darkness magic is pretty easy to cast with it's ultimate clocking in at 11; very nice. With the addition of Power of the Darkness no matter what Lore you pick, DE magic can be very potent in terms of throwing a ton of spells at you. Darkness is focused primarily on damage (who'd of guessed with those crazy Elves!) but oddly doesn't have a signature spell. This is made up for with Power of Darkness but means there is no spamming spell. So, let's get to Zenos' thoughts.

As a Dark Elf wizard your basically given two signature spells. Chillwind is classified as the signature spell for Darkness.

Bonus Spell - Power of Darkness: The heart of the dark elf spell casting list. This simple spell allows you to generate additional power dice over the course of your magic phase. In the new edition this is a fundamental boost over a lot of your opponents as your able to continue to replenish your pool of power dice and continue to cast, useful and game altering as soon as your opponent is out of dispel dice. (Coupled with magic items like the Sacraficial Dagger your producing a battery of power dice to fling spell after spell) And when you literally run a battery of spell-casters for DE, this is what fuels your magic phase. You can run as many Sorceresses as you can buy and Power of Darkness will be able to fuel their heart's desires. It is also ridiculously easy to case and therefore easy to dispel but when you've got ~10 spell-casters with it and spells which damage your opponent, you will simply overwhelm their ability to stop your magic phase.