cornixt:
Back in 5th ed, Brets could take 75% of the army as characters compared to only 50% for all other armies
Uzkul Werit:
Those Swordsmasters aren’t that good. They’re still only T3, remember.
minty:
Why is it that they only need to take 2 core choices? This firmly invites cheesy players :/not so much tallhat, watch this, in a standard 2000 point game you have
- Tallhat
Tallhat
2 units of cavalry, since both there cav are special thats 2 gone
2 chariot, these are no longer 2/1 so thats 4 gone
now 2 units of elite infantry, so the same as before, and there core infantry still the same since those helms used to be core
in 3000 points they start gettting the short end of the stick in the rare department:mad bad for me since I play both HE and DE, but only in large games
Willmark:
The reason I think GW did this was so you could theme the arm a bit more. one complain by many HE players was that armies tended to be the “United Nations Army” in other words: one army from one province, one army from one province, one army from one province, , etc…
Servius:
Well Lets see…
Speed of Asuryan: I believe this rule should have stayed with Always Strike at Initiative Order as it was in the Playtest and not made always strike first. though they did make it only account for the Elves themselves and not mounts.
Valour of the Ages: While at first glance the Reroll of all Psychology tests caused by Dark Elves seems to be a drop from being immune to panic caused by Dark Elves. but this is all psychology. not just panic. so Terror caused by Manticores, Hydras, and Dragons may be rerolled… I only partly agree with this… should have stayed with Stoic. 
Intrigue at Court is gone: Well I disagree with this loss… I really believe a fluffline that literly caused another race to exist should be represented in the rules… While i agree with some people that it was too restrictive. I believe that when a Prince was taken that it shouldnt have been in effect but when he wasnt present in the Army is should have been there.
Honours: The Honours have been removed, and then placed in the magic list in various items Such as the Seer’s Staff (Seer) and the White Sword (Sword of Hoeth and Swordmaster Honour Hybrid)
Their Magic List has been expanded, and is now the largest in the game. most of the items are quite useless in general or tournament play while others are plain awesome. There are even some items from war of the beard in the list though not as good. Also Albion Treasures were not reprinted and it Remains to be seen if they will be legal.
I do like how the core is arranged now. With Spearmen, Archers, and Lothern Sea Guard as the only core choices and with a drop in costs for spearmen to 9 base and lothern as well it leave you some more options. Though expect many armies to take 2 or more units of Lothern now as they are worth the extra points. Also these three units are the only one who can be made first among equals for the banner.
The Special Choices be 6 and +1 every 1000 points past 2000, coupled with most units being moved into this category, makes the army much more elite driven and more viable to most players… the major complaint before was that their core choices sucked and that they couldnt take the units with enough oomph to make the list completely viable to them. GW wanting to for go the problem of people complaining about core prices if they made options to take specials as core simply added more slots, In my opinion a very thought out solution to an enduring problem.
Dragon Princes- Pretty much the same but now they are immune to breath weapons and all flaming attacks.
Silver Helms - Slight points reduction and receive their armour stock.
Swordmasters - Not many changes other than 2 attacks each. really not to impressive, as stated before Magic and Chariots will be their bain.
White Lions - Definitely The Best Special unit in the Book, Stubborn, Great Weapons, Move through Woods, and Lion Cloaks.
Phoenix Guard - Good unit the addition of a Ward Save makes them a viable choice for some awesome models though i dont see many people taking them over swordmasters or white lions.
Elylian Reavers - Pretty much unchanged but cheaper options.
Tiranoc Chariots - Again the same mostly
White Lion Chariots - 6 WS 5 Strength 5 Attacks and cause fear need i say more…
Shadow Warriors - Great addition to them in Nagarythe Hatred - Hatred against all enemies and always have Hatred against Dark Elves.
Rare Units… At 2000 Points this is just right. getting bigger invited problems but very rarely are games this large where i play.
RBTs and Eagles are the only Rares not Minus DoW. and neither are 2 for 1 rare choices.
All in all the list is ok by me. though i believe that always strikes first causes problems for alot of armies.
Khan!:
Hang on, I was just thinking: why would chariots be the bane of swordmasters? It seems to me that there is very little point in charging HE at all at this stage, unless your unit has lances or impact hits - but even so, won’t the swordmasters strike the chariot before impact hits? Or do impact hits ignore initiative order?
To be honest, I think that this Speed of Asuryan rule is the stupidest decision that GW has ever made, particularly because it doesn’t seem to have affected the points cost of anything. It seems like the best way to deal with High Elves now is just to gun them down, which really irritates me because I like to get stuck in. I guess I have to reserve judgment until I actually play a game against them, but for now this whole business just smacks of unbalanced elf fanservice. I hope that I’m wrong, and obviously it won’t stop me from playing games against High Elves (eat blunderbuss!), but I have to say that I’m disappointed.
Lord Zarkov:
Impact hits strike before things that ‘always strike first’ therefore it ignores SOA and will rip apart those squishie T3 5+ sv expensive elves before they get to strike; with scyths you’re killing nearly 4 elves on average, therefore only allowing 3 attacks back, if that doesn’t kill you (which it shouldn’t) you then get the crew and steeds. Do two wounds more than the elves and you then win combat; hit them in the flank and you’re doing even better; or add a character to knock up a few more kills/push you over US5 and you’re doing quite well.
wallacer:
Apart from assassins and chariots, Speed of Asuryan probably will result in less emphasis on who gets the charge in against Elf armies.
Khan!:
Ah, thanks Lord Zarkov. Yes. Clearly chariots are the thing to use in killing elves after all.
Willmark:
Intrigue at Court is gone: Well I disagree with this loss.. I really believe a fluffline that literly caused another race to exist should be represented in the rules... While i agree with some people that it was too restrictive. I believe that when a Prince was taken that it shouldnt have been in effect but when he wasnt present in the Army is should have been there.As I have always contended and was a huge point of contention of asur.org: I would have been fine with I@C had it been in the High Elf list from the beginning or at least early on, rather then simply inserted in 6th when it never existied before. Later word leaked out that it was added because the book "designer", Jake Thornton thought it would be "cool" to add. Further still it leaked that almost the entire design team was against it and it wasn't play tested all that well. Sound half ass to me.
Servius
So what do you have? A severely neutered list and a lot of pissed off people out there. So when 7th rolls around naturally it is the first thing gone? I@C. If you want to argue it based on fluff, then strong cases can be made for the Empire and Skaven having their own I@C rules as well...
Impact hits strike before things that 'always strike first' therefore it ignores SOA and will rip apart those squishie T3 5+ sv expensive elves before they get to strike; with scyths you're killing nearly 4 elves on average, therefore only allowing 3 attacks back, if that doesn't kill you (which it shouldn't) you then get the crew and steeds. Do two wounds more than the elves and you then win combat; hit them in the flank and you're doing even better; or add a character to knock up a few more kills/push you over US5 and you're doing quite well.This is one of those wait and see things because you know that someone will ask if this is so. Look for this in a future White Dwarf FAQ or GW website near you ;).
Lord Zarkov
Lastly if this is the case then you can imagine that numerous spells, bolt throwers and monsters will be making said chariots kindling before they get within a mile of said swordmasters...
Uzkul Werit:
The list itself is fine. But like most others, I have a bone to pick with ASF. Yes, I know they’re Elves but why would they be any quicker than Dark Elves. They’re trained militia but so are most armies core units. Now if they only got it when being charged in the front, fair enough …
Hammerhand:
The list itself is fine. But like most others, I have a bone to pick with ASF. Yes, I know they're Elves but why would they be any quicker than Dark Elves. They're trained militia but so are most armies core units. Now if they only got it when being charged in the front, fair enough ...I should imagine the D Elves would get an equivalent similar rule, they just haven't been updated yet. (Executioners who always strike first....OUCH!)
Uzkul Werit
Willmark:
The list itself is fine. But like most others, I have a bone to pick with ASF. Yes, I know they're Elves but why would they be any quicker than Dark Elves. They're trained militia but so are most armies core units. Now if they only got it when being charged in the front, fair enough ...Example best trained troop type in the Empire: Swordsmen, maybe been training for 10 years... core militia in the high elf army maybe training for 100-500 years... nuff said.
Uzkul Werit
Don't get me wrong I'm not a fan of ASF, would rather they brought back the full citizen levy rules from 5th edition.
minty:
High elves get ASF because there not just trained malitia, the units are formed when they first begin there training, and they always fight together, aswelll as putting in alot more work than the other elves at this, so thats GW justification for this, but it does give the army a unique zing. I guess, and if you can whether the storm of attacks, those elves are now just as fragile, but most of em are more exspoonsive
dark elves are apparently getting hatred against everyone, hope not though, that’d majorly suck, somethign cool for us would be nice two,
why do my armys get the short* end of the stick
*pun intended
wallacer:
I’ll just wait and see how it plays, I guess.
One thing I like about it is that it gives people an incentive to take infantry with a decent armour save (dare I even say, elite infantry)
Uzkul Werit:
Dwarf Warriors train for just as long and what do they get? Relentless. Where I wouldn’t expect them to have ASF, Relentless is hardly equal.
Willmark:
Dwarfs don’t live anywhere near as long. Fluff says they live several centuries while an elven lifespan can be millennial, or maybe two. Besides they all can’t have they same exact rules.
Tallhat:
What I mean is that it is a strange move for GW to in reality be moving away from the way compulsory choices work. I dont like it I really dont. Whats next? That we can use 25% on allies and 25% on unridden monsters? This is a step backwards it really is.Why is it that they only need to take 2 core choices? This firmly invites cheesy players :/not so much tallhat, watch this, in a standard 2000 point game you have
- Tallhat
Tallhat
2 units of cavalry, since both there cav are special thats 2 gone
2 chariot, these are no longer 2/1 so thats 4 gone
now 2 units of elite infantry, so the same as before, and there core infantry still the same since those helms used to be core
in 3000 points they start gettting the short end of the stick in the rare department:mad bad for me since I play both HE and DE, but only in large games
minty
- Tallhat
Hammerhand:
What I mean is that it is a strange move for GW to in reality be moving away from the way compulsory choices work. I dont like it I really dont. Whats next? That we can use 25% on allies and 25% on unridden monsters? This is a step backwards it really is.I don't think it is. The choices are still compulsory, it's just the no of choices that has changed. Now we are used to the core/special/rare system, they can play with it without causing too much confusion and let's GW tailor the armies to be more reflective of the race.
- Tallhat
Tallhat
eg- HE have a large variety of specialist troops, and their fluff says that certain provinces of ulthuan favour certain specialists (eg chrace) Therefore, to allow you to represent this with your army, you need to be allowed more special choices. This makes no difference if you still have to take the same number of core choices, and seing as the specialist nature of the HE,s they wouldn't have as many core units anyway so this has been reduced.
Compare them to the Empire, who are based mostly on core troops supported by a few specialist ones, therefore the Empire should have to take more core units than the Elves to stay 'fluffy'.
Big Step forward IMO, it means they can make the army more tailored to the fluff without sticking in loads of rules.
AGPO:
Jebus is an awesome word. I use it all the time.What really worries you opponent is when your 36pt Chaos Warrior Chaosen Chamion of Khonre has better stats then his hero...
I once defeated a High Elf Lord with my Chaos Dwarf Warrior Champion. It was fairly epic for me.
Pyro Stick
ASF is fluffy... FOR ELVES! Not High elves, just elves in general. Why don't you just make them better shots than wood elves and be done? I seriously hope they bring out the new DE soon, or it'll be like Dark Elf/High Elf games in early 6th ed before the High Elf book was released. Jesus those games sucked!