Fear the Cavalry

In the years I've been playing Warhammer I've collected and painted many different armies, starting with Lizardmen in the days of Karnac's Reptilian Raiders (anyone remember them?), but one race that's stuck with me for a couple of years now are the High Elves, in various different guises. My current army is an all-cavalry force, which began life a couple of years ago when I decided that I needed a change from the Lothern Seaguard army I had been using.

Click to see a gallery of Rob's Seaguard army.

As the Seaguard army was all infantry I thought a complete role reversal would be very cool - which meant cavalry, and lots of it! I'm a sucker for themed armies too, and I'd never seen an all-cavalry High Elf force before; with Silver Helms being core choices I knew it could be done and, more to the point, be very effective when chariots and Ellyrian Reavers were added.

Click to see the gallery of Rob's Cavalry army.

I'm an obsessive tournament player, so whenever I create an army I ensure it works on the battlefield before I begin painting it. A few months of intensive playtesting did the trick, taking on my Dragon Slayer clubmates, and after a few tweaks I felt I had an excellent force. First of all, I had to make sure the units of Silver Helms were big enough to soak up casualties before they charged, so I opted for one big unit of twelve with two units of eight on either side, ranked up four wide. This meant my main unit had three ranks, and with the War Banner giving +1 combat resolution they rode into battle with at least +4 - easily a match for any infantry unit, and when combined with a charge from a chariot or a character, they could be devastating. Add the Ellyrian Reavers to storm down the flanks and an Eagle to harass the foe and you have a very sound army, very fast and manoeuvrable and also very exciting. No plodding infantry for me - these guys were charging on turn two or I was a Dutchman!

To complement my regiments I decided to use characters (mounted of course) that could support them rather than take on the world, choosing Great weapons for the General and the Heroes and a Level 2 Mage to provide some much needed magical power. To boost this I also gave the General the Radiant Gem of Hoeth, making him a Level 1 Mage; an excellent item and one I never leave home without! Needless to say, I almost always take the Lore of Fire with him, a great lore but mainly because he sometimes rolls Flaming Sword of Rhuin. I also gave him the Armour of Protection to provide some survivability - and just in case he became a target for the biggest enemy on the battlefield!

With the release of the new army book I had the option of some nice shiny new magic items, and I found I just had to take the Ring of Corin, giving it to one of my Heroes - this particular bauble ensures I can get rid of some pesky enemy items as it casts the Vaul's Unmaking spell, so goodbye Cursed Book and Double-Doin' Doo-Dahs! Note that I also gave the Level 2 Mage the Channeller honour, which means he can cast a spell using four dice, so if I really need Drain Magic or Flames of the Phoenix I can have a good go at it.

I have to say the all-cavalry army works brilliantly on the battlefield, very manoeuvrable and hard-hitting, and when combined with a smattering of the new magical prowess of the High Elves it can really hammer home what the High Elves are all about. They may be few in number, but boy can they pack a punch, as a goodly number of my opponents have found out!

Read about how I painted my army...