SAWS 2014: Army List

The annual SAWS tournament held at Great Escape Games in Sacramento, CA is upon us. In fact, when this entry is actually posted, it will be the first day of the tournament. SAWS is a five round, two-day GT that usually has around 60 of the best players in the California/West Coast region.

This year I am playing Dark Elves to get some more practice for Bragging Rights in June. Although my Bragging Rights list is much, much different from this one. This year, do to the crazy composition system, is based on lots of infantry rather than cavalry and is heavily reliant on magic in certain match-ups (I'm playing shadow) and shooting in others. The list is as follows:

Dreadlord (257 pts) (General, HA, SDC, Shield, Sword of Anti Heroes, Dragonhelm, Black Amulet)
Supreme Sorceress (305 pts) (Level 4, Lore of Shadow, Dispel Scroll, Talisman of Preservation, The Other Trickster's Shard)
Master (159 pts) (BSB, GW, HA, SDC, Ring of Hotek)
Darkshards (326 pts) (22 models, full command, shields, Banner of Eternal Flame)
Corsairs (320 pts) (25 models, full command, Lichebone Pennant)
Witch Elves (273 pts) (18 models, full command, Razor Standard)
Dark Riders (95 pts) (5 models, musician, shields)
Har Ganeth Executioners (405 pts) (30 models, full command, Banner of Swiftness)
Doomfire Warlocks (150 pts) (6 models)
Repeater Bolt Thrower (70 pts)
Repeater Bolt Thrower (70 pts)
Repeater Bolt Thrower (70 pts)

The premise behind this list is lots of models that put out a ton of attacks that can either push through lightly armored troops (hopefully combined with the withering) or crush armored units in protracted combats (via the executioners or a well-timed six dice mindrazor). I hope to draw out dispel scrolls early by using the withering each turn to recued toughness, thereby letting the shooting units take a large toll on my opponents. This list is more difficult for me to play because it requires me to be careful in how I move so that I don't present flanks to my opponents and it is also a little more susceptible to enemy magic like Final Transmutation and The Dwellers Below, but can handle the current trend of magic missiles and other magic quite well.

I will try for best match-ups in units with executioners going into armor, witches going into lightly armored (or no-armored) monsters and like units, and the corsairs going into other infantry units. My hope is to whittle down the main combat blocks of my opponent to allow my combat troops to really shine.

I only have two vanguarding units (the small Dark Rider unit and the Warlocks) and so will have to be careful about enemy warmachines and shooting. But because I have a Level 4, I am less concerned about sacrificing the warlocks if it means that the enemy no longer has any warmachines. I see a lot of combinations of withering followed by doombolt on turn 1 at the most dangerous warmachine my opponent brings. Hope this list works well, as I haven't had any opportunity to practice with it.