High Elves are Strong Because of Spearmen, Not Their Archers

[yuzhonglu]

If you look at the stats, Bretonnian and Dawi archers are just as cost effective as HE archers. And TK archers are pretty decent, too.

But what both the Dawi and Bretonnia lack is a shielded high morale anti cav tier 1 cheap-♥♥♥ unit. It's the spearmen that make high elves such a strong early game archer force, before Sisters.

And you can use spearmen effectively all the way into the late game, where they'll hold the line effectively against dreadshards, tier 4-5 chariots and cav and Black Guards of Naggarond.

[The Coal Man]

the stats may be similar but im fairly sure HE have like 30 more archers per squad that dwarves, which means 30 more arrows every volley and a large damage boost

[A.Pot]

You are forgetting the range. Dwarf Quarrelers and Peasant Bowmen have a range of 160 and ammo of 22 while High Elf archers have range 180 and ammo of 24.

[DaBo81]

Spearmen may hold the line but it's the archers that win the battles.
I know you don't like dawi, but dwarf warriors are a solid unit too that's also there to mainly hold the line.
TBH early dawi and high elf armies are quite similar and it's only as you climb the tiers that they differentiate.
Bret archers are good too but I've played campaigns where I haven't bothered using them much, I consider high elf and dwarf ranged units to be core troops though.

[Punchmeat]

Iidk man i've seen people crush far more often with all archer builds than all melee builds.

[Nate]

the archers are the reason, not the mediocre spears, have you seen how quick 6-8 archers kill things? especially with some spells helping?

[Pervy]

Originally posted by yuzhonglu:

If you look at the stats, Bretonnian and Dawi archers are just as cost effective as HE archers. And TK archers are pretty decent, too.

But what both the Dawi and Bretonnia lack is a shielded high morale anti cav tier 1 cheap-♥♥♥ unit. It's the spearmen that make high elves such a strong early game archer force, before Sisters.

And you can use spearmen effectively all the way into the late game, where they'll hold the line effectively against dreadshards, tier 4-5 chariots and cav and Black Guards of Naggarond.

How offen do you see 6 spearmen groups solo a lord?
Comepared to how offen you see archers doing that?

[lPaladinl]

Also ignoring that High Elf Archers are decent melee combatants with decent armor and melee buffs like all other High Elf units. Especially if you grab the armored variant.

Their Spearmen are more comparable to standard sword infantry stats-wise, most spearmen are weaker by comparison. Then you factor in Martial Prowess which gives them a further boost.

And then you have Lothern Seaguard which give you the best of everything. Anti-charge, Anti-Large, Shielded, Potent Melee Infantry, Potent Ranged Infantry.

A full stack of just Seaguard works well, if not expensive, because you can have your front line shoot at your foes and quickly switch to melee to rip apart the enemy melee line before melee even starts, giving them a massive advantage even if it's just a few seconds of arrow fire.

[Sardorim]

I disagree.

Have you seen those Sistah's?

[solidap]

The armored archer variant are probably the best missile unit in the game for trading with other missiles, aside from a few of the Wood Elf archers, which are way more expensive. Then these relatively cheap archers get amazing upgrades in the very first military technologies tree and have even more waiting for them, on top of the insane bonuses that high tier Lords can give them (I think the female version can give the best)

And we haven't even talked about the Sisters yet...

[Xaphnir]

Originally posted by yuzhonglu:

But what both the Dawi and Bretonnia lack is a shielded high morale anti cav tier 1 cheap-♥♥♥ unit.

The ♥♥♥♥ do you think dwarf warriors are?

Originally posted by Coleron:

the stats may be similar but im fairly sure HE have like 30 more archers per squad that dwarves, which means 30 more arrows every volley and a large damage boost

10 more on ultra, 90 for HE archers vs. 80 for quarrellers.

[Guts]

PepeLaugh nobody tell him about silverin guard

[Ashley]

High elves are weak because they don't have trebuchets or hawk riders.

[Scrotum Scratcher]

this argument is flawed in so many ways, im not even going to bother...

[Ashley]

Originally posted by Scrotum Scratcher:

this argument is flawed in so many ways, im not even going to bother...

Flawed as in flawlessly perfect no doubt ha ha.

[Commisar Jon Fuklaw]

Originally posted by yuzhonglu:

insane rambling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlWmCXihec4

/thread