Warhammer Fantasy - High Elves - Gildoren's High Elf Sea Patrol Army List Chapter 1
Warhammer Fantasy - High Elves
Gildoren's High Elf Sea Patrol Army List Chapter 1
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| Eagle ships patrol the coasts of the High Elf home island of Ulthuan and maintain the vast trading empire of the Asur, |
Well, back in 2004, Games Workshop released a wonderful tome written by Gav Thorpe called Storm of Chaos. This was the culmination of three Chaos themed Army supplements for Warhammer Fantasy the first two being Hordes of Chaos and Beasts of Chaos.
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| Archaon the Everchosen of Chaos duels with Valten the Sigmar Reborn on the plain in front of the burning city of Middenheim. |
In the following article, I've updated the list, while trying to keep it themed, balanced and inline with the 8th edition High Elf Warhammer Armies book. The introduction of additional rules/skills is meant to offset the unavailability of elite infantry and cavalry choices within the list, however please do remember that this list is about narrative game-play anyway. You will need a copy of the 8th edition Wahammer Armies High Elves.
In the original 2004 list, there were stats and rules for the Merwyrm as well as two themed spells called Writhing Mists and Mistress of the Deep of which one had to be selected instead of knowing Drain Magic. There was also an honour (at that time the High Elf characters recieved a set of special skills for their characters) called Master of the Mists which allowed a free round of pre-battle shooting for all missile armed troops and bolt throwers. Also the entries for the Ship's Company and the Sea Rangers were slightly different to what I have outlined below, however I have tried to maintain cohesion with what is available within the 8th edition High Elf Army Book.
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| Lothern Seaguard units are multi role combat troops, Royal Marines of the Warhamer World |
In the original list from the Storm of Chaos, the Ship's Company did not count towards the minimum core total but were equipped differently and could not take standard bearers. I replaced these with core Archers, in the main (forgive the pun!), for simplicity and model availability - all High Elf players have access to Archers, right? However, I also felt it was logical that they only had access to bows rather than long bows due to space constraints when aboard ship, this aligns nicely with the Lothern Seaguard who are armed with bows as standard anyway. In addition to that, I felt that the number of Ship's Company (and Bolt Throwers for that matter) available on the battlefield should be restricted somewhat, after all, there would still be a requirement to crew the ship.
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| Old model Shadow Warriors work well for Sea Rangers. |
The Sea Rangers were originally just a straight lift of Shadow Warriors from the army book. I always felt that the Hate (Dark Elves) rule was too specific for this list and I saw them more like a ranger/pathfinder unit that could infiltrate ashore, scout and ambush the enemy. I also left them armed with long bows, feeling it was justified by them being few in number and elite.
I replaced the Merwyrm rules with that of the Kharibdyss - seemed themed and appropriate, plus you could use the model to represent the Merwyrm.
The 2004 pre-battle shooting rule has been replaced with "Naval Support". My thinking here was to replace to original rule with a thematic rule that was not too powerful in each phase but could prove significant over the whole game.
I was in two minds as to introducing the alternative spells but you could represent them by renaming Pha's Protection as Writhing Mists and The Curse of Anraheir as Mistress of the Deep and allowing them to be chosen as a signature spells instead of the normal signature spells for the relevant Lore. I feel this fits better with how Magic in 8th edition runs.
Lastly, Sea-Lord Aislinn (the 'pernicious') is also mentioned. I would recommend designing your own character to represent him using the Sea-Lord entry as below.
Army Special Rules:
All are relevant from the entries in the High Elf 8th edition army book with the following additions:Naval Support: The Sea Patrol army can call on their warship to support their army on the battlefield. This represents the ship mounted bolt throwers being able to target enemy forces near the shoreline.
In each friendly shooting phase, the Sea Patrol army can make D2 (+1 for each unit of Lothern Seaguard in the army) BS4 bolt thrower shots with a to hit penalty of -2 for very long range. These shots may target any enemy unit that is visible to a friendly model on the battlefield. Targets can benefit from cover as normal. Bolt throwers must fire six smaller repeating bolts unless the the enemy unit is a large target, in which case, it may opt fire a single bolt.
Lords:
Sea-Lord: Same stats and equipment as a Prince in High Elf army book.
May ride a Great Eagle or Griffon.
May replace two crew in a Lothern Skycutter.
Has the Naval Discipline and Windrider skills.
Storm-Weaver: Same stats and equipment as an Arch Mage in High Elf army book.
May ride a Great Eagle.
May use spells from the Lore of High Magic or from one of the Lores of Magic in the Warhammer Fantasy Battles Rulebook.
Heroes:
Sea-Helm: Same rules as Lothern Sea-Helm in the army book.
Mist Mage: Same stats and equipment as a Mage.
May use spells from the Lore of High Magic or from one of the Lores of Magic in the Warhammer Fantasy Battles Rulebook.
Core:
Lothern Seaguard: Stats and equipment as per High Elf army book
Sea Master may take a magic weapon worth up to 25pt.
One unit of Seaguard may take a magic banner worth up to 35pt.
*The Sea Patrol must include at least 1 unit of Lothern Seaguard.
Ship's Company: Stats as per Archers in the High Elf army book.
Replace Long Bows for Bows at -1pt per model.
May take light armour at 1pt per model
May not take a standard bearer.
*The Sea Patrol can only field 1 unit of Ship's Company.
NOTE: Moranion's Wayshard: Both Lothern Seaguard and Ship's Company are elligble units in a Sea Patrol army.
Special:
Lothern Skycutter: Stats and options as per Skycutters in the High Elf army book.
Sea Rangers: Stats and equipment as per Shadow Warriors in the army book.
Sea Walker (Champion) may take a magic weapon up to 25pt.
Replace Hatred (Dark Elves) rule with the Ambush rule.
Bolt Thrower: As per Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower in the High Elf army book.
*A Sea Patrol army can include 2 Bolt Throwers for every unit of Lothern Seaguard in the army.
Rare:
Great Eagle: As per stats and options in the High Elf army book.
Merwyrm: As per stats and rules for Kharibdyss in the Dark Elf army book.
We are going to look at the individual minis within this army list in Chapter 2 and the performance of the list in Chapter 3, over a trilogy of Posts, so please let us know what you think of the list, and any improvements or comments below from you own play tests would be welcome.
Go with the grace of the Asur.
Gildoren
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Images:
Image 1 from Warhammer Chronicles 2003 by Games Workshop plc
Image 2 from Warhammer Storm of Chaos 2004 by Games Workshop plc
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