Background

In my first two entries in this series I looked at the Dwarves and the Empire - both factions that were fleshed out quite well in the Core Set and have only gotten stronger with each Battle Pack expansion released. Alas, there is a third faction in the forces of Order that was only peppered into the Core Set, the High Elves. Because of the small amount of cards currently available, this will be a shorter entry in the series. High Elves, or the Asur, technically speaking, live on the island continent of Ulthuan. Of the three Order factions discussed so far, the High Elves probably most closely resemble tropes established long ago by Tolkien. They have the best mages and sorcerers (just like in Tolkien) and utilize only traditional weapons such as spears and swords. They don't use any modern kind of technology, instead relying almost entirely on their magic to pack the wallop other factions might require guns for. One nice departure from Tolkien is the addition of dragon riders. They aren't common, but we do already have one unit that depicts a dragon, and it looks likely we'll see a bunch more in the future, but I'm jumping ahead already!


Looking for Heals!

There's really only one thing you need to know about the High Elves right now - they are already the best healers and un-corrupters in the game. In one way or another, they have at least 5 cards that could be considered to heal - quite a big portion of their total 12 cards. In addition to this they have some good utility cards that can be used to augment one of the other Order faction decks to help compensate for some of their deficits. Card draw, by design, isn't as big a concern in Warhammer: Invasion as it is in other games. In fact it can even be a liability when you realize that you lose when your deck runs out. Because of this we don't have many card effects that allow you to actually draw cards during your turn. One of the Core Set High Elf cards, Silver Helm Brigade, offers you this. He's also a good price for his power to boot! At 3, you get a power, 3 life, and card draw when he takes 1 or more damage. In a faction full of heals, this means you can really control how much card draw you get throughout your turn by keeping this guy in the game for the long run.

Speaking of heals, this card sums up High Elves - they are pure concentrated restoration. Because of this and their limited card options currently, they work great to compliment the strengths of the other two factions. While they work much better in conjunction with the big beat stick units found in the Dwarves, they still can have some use when added to an Empire deck. The Dwarves just have more units that could benefit from long-term heals. On the other hand, cards like the recently-released Gifts of Aenarion which cancels all damage done to your capital this turn would be redundant and likely dead weight in a Dwarf deck. However, it's a card that could be crucial in an Empire deck to give you a chance to regroup for a turn. Of course you do need to worry about resource matching with some of these units that need two or even three High Elf resource matches or will cost you possibly double your face value. This is a danger with dual-faction decks in general, and it's also why Alliance cards exist.


When thinking about the High Elves, you are really thinking about the future of the game itself. Fantasy Flight Games has been experimenting with larger expansions to their LCG format with both A Game of Thrones and upcoming Call of Cthulhu releases. We're seeing bigger products than Battle Packs coming down the line, as this is really the only way to bring in new factions in this game. We need capital cards and a way to get burgeoning factions up to date and on even footing with the existing factions. When looking at the description of the Assault on Ulthuan deluxe expansion it really looks like a good deal! You're getting two new capital cards and two brand new decks. I'm personally most excited for this release as we'll get a much better feel for the flavor and theme of both Elven factions. There are already some subthemes developing for the High Elves including two cards that deal specifically with attachments. The only attachment we actually have so far is the one from above - the ring. I like the idea of a faction that focuses on attachments that aren't weapons, so I'm looking for some more unique attachments and ways to control them with Assault on Ulthuan. Beyond that, we'll have to wait and see and keep hoping for new High Elves previews from FFG.

Check back soon for my first study of the orders of Destruction when I look at the evil that is Da Bad Boyz of Warhammer - Da Orcs!

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