I do play DE, and with the newer edition, I wanted to delve back into them.
Now, I have a fantastic conversion of a lord on foot, who looks pretty suitable for Malekith. (This model I also have a dragon riding variant, a cold on riding variant and the one of foot is detachable from the base so fits in a chariot...huzzah!).
Now, I've been trying to piece together how to use Malekith successfully.
Stat wise, he is pretty fucking tough for an Elf. He is also a lvl4 wizard. And comes with some rather neat Items.
His sword destroyer smashs magical items from opponents hands and spells from mages heads on a 4+ at the beginning of close combat.
His armour (heavy armour) gives him a lovely save against mundane weapons and makes multiple wound attacks count as a single wound, so basically, he can take 3 cannon balls to the face before he goes down.
He carries the spellshield (counts as a shield), a really nice item to prevent people thinking of casting spells at him. Giving him and his unit MR2 and every spell cast at him and his unit that is despelled, the caster suffers a str6 hit for every dice used to cast. This will probably make other wizards (reknowned for being rather weak) think twice about casting big spells at him.
He also carries the Circlet of Iron, giving him an extra power and dispel die each turn to play with.
Unfortunally MUST use the lore of dark magic. However, this means he can rack up alot of power dice and cast his spells with relative safety and success.
He comes on foot, on a cold one, in a chariot or on his dragon (which pushes his cost to 920 points!)
So, as with my DE, I've found the most profound (and maybe slightly unfair) way to use malekith is sat in a big unit of BG along with 2 Masters, one of whom is the BSB.
This is my setup for the unit:
Malekith - 600
Master BSB with Heavy armour, Sea dragon cloak and the Hydra banner - 188
Master with Heavy armour, Sea dragon cloak, Shield, Biting blade and the Ring of Darkness - 133
Assassain with Cry of War, Manbane and the Rune of Khaine - 150
20 Black Guard including Full command, Banner of Hag graef and Kouran - 391
Ok, it's a whopping 1462 points. But here's what it can do:
Malekith provides 4 Str5 attacks, destroys a magic weapon/item/spell and magic level from anything he combats. He provides the entire unit with MR2 and his Criclet of Iron provides another dispel dice and causes mages to hurt themselves. He can also neutralise shooting with his Chillwind spell, and whatever other spells he rolls.
The Bsb master gives the unit +1 attack on the first round of combat.
The second master's ring of darkness forces shooting units to Halve their BS. In a challenge, enemies are at half WS, the biting blade gives him a little extra hurt.
The Assassain is another one caperble of fighting in a challenge with a high number of attacks all at a high str, his war cry means that any unit charged by this Deathstar is at WS1 if it fails a leadership test, potentially very very nasty.
Kouran makes the whole unit unbreakable and adds his str6 attacks to the unit, his armour also prooves useful in challenges.
BG, str4 with re-rolls to hit at WS%, unit's banner allows for the WHOLE unit to have the ASF rule.
So, in short, the front rank has (on the first round of combat):
5 Str5 re-roll to hit attacks (destroying magic items)
4 Str4 re-roll to hit attacks (with an extra -1 to armour saves)
4 Str4 re-roll to hit attacks
4-7 re-roll to hit attacks (nearly always wounding on a 3+)
4 Str6 re-roll to hit attacks (always at str6)
6 Str4 re-roll to hit attacks
All with ASF.
Units shooting at the unit are at half BS.
Unit has MR2.
On the charge, has a chance of forcing the opponent to fight at WS1.
Unbreakable.
And in my army...a Hydra on each flank, and sometimes a Cauldron thrown in for good measure.
Thoughts?
