minimumdifficulty
Sergeant
Dark Elf Army Impressions
After playing the mod for a decent amount of time, almost all of it with the Dark Elves, I've had a few thoughts about their army composition.
Infantry: Executioners and Black Guards get two handers/halberds respectively, so they do have some decent hitting power. However, as with any shieldless unit, they are very vulnerable to enemy ranged attackers. Consider keeping a 2 to 1 Guardmaster (the highest level infantry that get shields) to Executioner/Black Guard ratio. An alternative to addressing the archer vulnerability of the top tier infantry is to split your infantry into two groups, one of Guardmasters/Spears (defensive role) and one of Executioners/Black Guards (shock troops, to engage the enemy only once they've contacted your first infantry group. Overall, in my experience, the main purpose of the Dark Elf infantry is to slow up the enemy and give your crossbows time to pincushion them.
Archers: This is the strength of the army. While the Assassin line ends up being the highest level common unit available to the Dark Elves (and good at melee and range to boot), the Repeater Crossbowmen (elves?) are the true stars. They are easy to train up, have a very reasonable upkeep, and are equipped with the best ranged weapon in the game. Repeater Crossbows may not hit as hard as firearms, but have a much higher rate of fire, while still hitting harder than bog standard bows. Have the bulk of your army be these guys (mix in some Assassins to help out in case enemy melee attackers reach your archer line) and watch cavalry charges wither under a hail ofsemiautomatic rifle crossbow fire.
Cavalry: Not much to say on this topic, as I haven't used these troops too much, but Dark Elf cavalry seems pretty average. Cold Ones are tougher (but slower) than regular horses. I'd use these guys for disrupting the enemy archer line/chasing down routing foes (bog standard cavalry work). The riders do feel a bit squishy to me, so I'd be hesitant to deploy them against infantry formations. In other words, they're more of a pursuit rather than spearhead unit. I would compare them to Vaegir cavalry in Native; decent, but definitely not top tier heavy cavalry.
Overall, the Dark Elves are a hard-hitting if somewhat fragile force. Consider mixing in Chaos infantry and cavalry elements for a stronger backbone. I apologize if the previous sentence completely broke the lore.
After playing the mod for a decent amount of time, almost all of it with the Dark Elves, I've had a few thoughts about their army composition.
Infantry: Executioners and Black Guards get two handers/halberds respectively, so they do have some decent hitting power. However, as with any shieldless unit, they are very vulnerable to enemy ranged attackers. Consider keeping a 2 to 1 Guardmaster (the highest level infantry that get shields) to Executioner/Black Guard ratio. An alternative to addressing the archer vulnerability of the top tier infantry is to split your infantry into two groups, one of Guardmasters/Spears (defensive role) and one of Executioners/Black Guards (shock troops, to engage the enemy only once they've contacted your first infantry group. Overall, in my experience, the main purpose of the Dark Elf infantry is to slow up the enemy and give your crossbows time to pincushion them.
Archers: This is the strength of the army. While the Assassin line ends up being the highest level common unit available to the Dark Elves (and good at melee and range to boot), the Repeater Crossbowmen (elves?) are the true stars. They are easy to train up, have a very reasonable upkeep, and are equipped with the best ranged weapon in the game. Repeater Crossbows may not hit as hard as firearms, but have a much higher rate of fire, while still hitting harder than bog standard bows. Have the bulk of your army be these guys (mix in some Assassins to help out in case enemy melee attackers reach your archer line) and watch cavalry charges wither under a hail of
Cavalry: Not much to say on this topic, as I haven't used these troops too much, but Dark Elf cavalry seems pretty average. Cold Ones are tougher (but slower) than regular horses. I'd use these guys for disrupting the enemy archer line/chasing down routing foes (bog standard cavalry work). The riders do feel a bit squishy to me, so I'd be hesitant to deploy them against infantry formations. In other words, they're more of a pursuit rather than spearhead unit. I would compare them to Vaegir cavalry in Native; decent, but definitely not top tier heavy cavalry.
Overall, the Dark Elves are a hard-hitting if somewhat fragile force. Consider mixing in Chaos infantry and cavalry elements for a stronger backbone. I apologize if the previous sentence completely broke the lore.
