10mm High Elves for Warmaster

Nice range of models!

10mm High Elves

This is another 3D printed army that is exceptionally close to the original Warhammer 6th Edition High Elves army composition. This is really exciting since I’m a big fan of that specific time and rules, so the allure of building a High Elf army is strong. Thankfully, I did manage to get my hand on original Warmaster High Elf miniatures 7 years ago so I’m set. I know their “official” name is Noble Elves, but I’ll just call them High Elves because that’s what they are to me.

High Elf Spearmen

The staple of High Elf armies is a strong core of Spearmen. Theoretically, of course, since these troops were severely underpowered and expensive in WFB. Nevertheless, for a Fantasy army with good rules (namely buff the spearmen so they can actually fight well) these troops are a good backbone to anchor your force around. I like the shields a lot and the pointy helmets even more. I think they really did justice to how these troops should look.

High Elf Archers

Masters of the bow, the Archers are a good support choice for your block of spears. While bows traditionally are not that strong in fantasy settings compared to crossbows or handguns, the elite High Elf rating of the troops usually means they will hit more often, hence provoke more wounds, especially against lightly armored foes. So naturally, these should be firing against other archers, light cavalry or light troops. Again, superb design on these, with the recognizable elf diadems.

High Elf Light Cavalry

Ah, the Ellyrian Reavers! High Elf cavalry is usually expensive and the light cavalry choice usually is as well. Lightly armored, armed with spears and bows, these excel at getting around the enemy flanks and either harassing the main force or eliminating the support choices. Spears means that they can pack a punch especially against war machines or other archers and bows means they can maneuver and still apply pressure and cause wounds. The only reason why these guys were never truly fielded was because of the other amazing choices this army has or due to point limitations.

High Elf Heavy Cavalry

The old Dragon Princes cavalry options! Excellent Heavy cavalry with good armor and lances, which usually packed a good punch, although not overpowered in the sense of the Vampire Counts Blood Knights or the Chaos Khorne heavy cavalry. These guys were amazing but only due to the Battle Banner (which gave them extra points in Combat Resolution so that they usually won engagements even from the front) as no High Elf was fielding a Mounted Cavalry general (it was either a full Level 4 Mage or Lord on Dragon options). A nice touch on these minis is how the horse helmet kind of resembles a dragon head (or is it my imagination?).

High Elf Blademasters

Another staple of any High Elf Fantasy army, the Blademasters (or Swordmasters of Hoeth in the case of WFB) are two handed sword armed elves. Usually their rules either give them Always Strike First or a high enough initiative that they do strike first anyway, against anything but enemy heroes. Although awesome looking and tough on paper, this heavy infantry choice again didn’t fit either the very shooty or very fast variants of the High Elf army (a problem with all High Elf infantry really). Of course, in a game with good composition rules, 1 unit of these is pretty much mandatory as a “rule of cool”.

High Elf Chariots

The High Elf “Tank”, the Chariots are pretty good for their investment if you can ram them into the enemy units for their awesome impact hits (and additional crew attacks). Faster then the usual chariot due to the Elven steeds, these can be amazing damage support for a cavalry force, and they are pretty safe because the enemy will usually target your cavalry instead of them (unless he is sure he can take a frontal charge from your heavy cavalry in which case the Chariots become a priority). The models look good and I especially like the curvature on the chariot frame as it does give it a very elvish look.

High Elf Bolt Thrower

Ah, the Elven Gatling gun! (not to be confused with the Skaven Gatling guns). This amazing piece of machinery is probably the best war machine you can buy in any fantasy system that has them. Able to fire either a single high strength spear or a volley of low strength ones, the high elven ballistic skill means they will usually hit with devastating results. You can either kill dragons with a pair of these or wreck havoc on anything but the most armored troops. The enemy has to either dedicate specific troops to taking care of these or accept that you will limit their tactical choices with ruthless efficiency. The triangular shape is not my favorite as the old GW design was perfect, but it’s not bad also.

High Elf Eagles

To round up the tactical options, the Eagles are here! Flying troops with high strength, many attacks and multi wound profiles, the Eagles are by far the best fliers out there. Able to take out even small units with enough of them, their only doom is again the plethora of amazing options that the High Elf army has, so they rarely get taken as the Bolt Thrower simply outclasses them in raw damage output. Nevertheless, good models, good unit, and again, any good comp system will make sure you can actually use them.

High Elf Dragon

Lastly, the staple monster of any WFB list (but especially High Elves), the Dragon! While the model is very dynamically posed, I really want to praise the rider model which I think looks amazing and complements the figure. The winged helmet really binds the Dragon Rider aspect for me, and I think this would look great painted in dark red colors. Dragons are usually something extremely scary, as a flier with high strength high number of attacks that also is hard to take down with regular troops. Plop something like this on your enemy flank on turn 1 and watch him maneuver his whole army just to make sure he can deal with your devastating charge on turn 2.

Characters

A nice range of heroes is also provided. We have the classic Mage and Commander, with mounted versions also, and I was a bit surprised to see a double sword wielding hero as also an archer hero. My favorite by far is the heavy cavalry commander and the mounted Archmage, but all options look good. Also, as a bonus, we have eagle mounted heroes, which is a very nice touch as they can also be used as mounted Eagle cavalry (if the army list permits).

10mm High Elf Army

Closing thoughts: A really nice army drafted by someone that clearly either loves the universe or is familiar enough with it that it stuck to the classical choices of the High Elf Fantasy army composition. I was a bit disappointed to not see the Lothern Seaguard (elves that have both spears and shields and bows) but to be honest nobody really used them anyway and no White Lions option (Two handed axe wielding elves with lion pelts that act as the kings bodyguards) but the army doesn’t really lose anything with these as it has all the tactically useful options already.

The source for these amazing miniatures is here: Forest Dragon ! I’m going to be reviewing more of their army selection soon (done with the Vampire Counts and Noble Elves for now) and I hope you enjoyed this article!

If you don’t like High Elves, you can find some good Dwarf selections here: 10mm Dwarfs or the Forest Dragon Vampire Counts here: 10mm Vampire Counts