Overview:
Dark Elf starting teams mainly have the decision on which positions to perhaps not start the team with at all. Their players are expensive but they are also good though a couple of them are also somewhat fragile. Thankfully their rerolls aren’t too expensive so spending more on better players to start means you don’t have to save up much more for an extra reroll later compared to the average cost of a new player. Previous editions of the rules saw Dark Elf teams starting with 11 Linemen so they could afford 3 rerolls and max out on the fan factor. Now no money needs to be spent on fan factor you can get the better starting positional players from the outset.
High Armour Dark Elf Starting Roster:
| Quantity | Player / Item | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Lineman | 420k |
| 1 | Runner | 80k |
| 4 | Blitzer | 400k |
| 2 | Rerolls | 100k |
| Total | 1,000k |
This is the most often recommended starting roster for Dark Elves for a number of reasons. First of all you start with all four Blitzers getting some Block on the field straight away and they are also fairly fast and have AV8 rather than AV7. They are the key players for the team doing a lot of the heavy lifting and being flexible players. Dark Elves are the only Elven team that can have four blitzers so make the most of it and get them in at the start. Having a Runner from the start gives you that defensive problem (for the other team) of having to deal with Dump Off. Also with passing skill access you can perhaps get Leader early on to get an extra Reroll. The rest of the starting 11 is made up from Linemen to maximise the armour on the pitch to help negate early injuries. The AV7 of a Runner isn’t a problem as with only one on the team it shouldn’t be too tricky to protect him as you would do with any ball carrier. You could drop the Runner for an extra Lineman and save 10k for an apothecary, though a Dark Elf team with full positionals will only have space for 6 Lineman. Starting with 7 means eventually you will perhaps sack one or have to wait for one to get injured or die. It also means having to have an extra Lineman miniature or using a proxy in its place, though this is only an issue for tabletop players. This leaves you with enough money to get two rerolls and as mentioned a Dark Elf reroll doubled in cost isn’t much more than your average player cost.
Future purchases see you getting an Apothecary first as with nearly every other team. After that I would save up to get the Witch Elves, they are great players but their high cost makes fitting them into a starting team troublesome. If you haven’t taken Leader then you may want to get a third reroll between the Witch Elves. Lack of rerolls can be somewhat compensated by the skills you take on your players as well.
Witch Elf Dark Elf Starting Roster:
| Quantity | Player / Item | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | Lineman | 490k |
| 3 | Blitzers | 300k |
| 1 | Witch Elf | 110k |
| 2 | Rerolls | 100k |
| Total | 1,000k |
A slight variation on the above roster giving you a Witch Elf to start with at the expense of a Runner and a Blitzer. The disadvantages are that you have one less Blitzer and therefore Block skill, though you may not really miss the Runner. You also have the 7 Linemen issue as mentioned before. The benefits though are that you get a player who starts with Dodge which may save rerolls and the threat of Frenzy can be great as well, especially near the side lines. You do have to be careful though, with no Block and AV7 coupled with the high cost and no Apothecary to start with, you can expect opposing teams to look at fouling at every opportunity.
Purchases are the Apothecary and then the last Blitzer and then either a third reroll or the other Blitzer. This will mean having no Runner for quite a while though but I can’t see me preferring buying one over the other options, perhaps another reason to start with one as in the first example.
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December 5th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
I sort of think dark elves really need 3 rerolls to start since they have few of the ball handling skills.
7 Lineman, 2 Runners, 2 Blitzers, 3 Rerolls.
December 5th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Knew I was forgetting one, I’ll add that one to the article later.
December 7th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
I’m using another starting Roster:
1 runner, 6 linemen, 1 assassin, 1 WE, 2 Blitzers, 2 re-rolls.
I have play tested almost everything when it comes to dark Elves and believe me this roster has been the one with the best resaults. It is a bit risky with 3 AV 7 players and no apo, but he is usually the first to buy.
With this team I have all I need to actually win a bashing game. Stab the low AV opponents. The witch to push opponents off the field, 2 blitzers for their Block, and the runner to handle the ball.
it works!
December 7th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
That is exactly the same starting Roster i want to use for our next saison.
The other Teams are Goblins, Skaven, Lizardmen, Undead and Khemri. Beside the Khemri´s i think i there will be enough fodder for the Assassin.
December 8th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Ei Coach, i have just started with the following roster:
2 runners
3 blitzers
6 linelfs
2 rr
basically swapping a blitzer for the second runner.
As soon as i can/must sack a lineman to get the 4th blitzer.
Finding this to work nicely for me, using the two runners as dumbp off specialist i really gave my DEs a boost in offence, where i was struggling a bit.
Thoughts?
December 8th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Not sure why you would need to sack a Lineman in order to get the last Blitzer. Personally I prefer to have the other Blitzer over a second Runner, the extra armour and Block skill is more useful in my eyes. Being that all elves are AG4 as well any of your players are as good as a second Runner for the ball carrying one to Dump Off too as well. I don’t think he brings anything useful to the table over even taking a Lineman for instance.
If you want the Ball to be in the hands of your Runner the following turn then you can either hand off or do a quick pass to him. Though having someone else carry the ball means they will probably score instead and that spreads the SPP around which is also a good thing. Just cause the Runner has Dump Off doesn’t mean he has to be the ball carrier, or that you should let people be hitting your ball carrier either. Anyone on the Dark Elf team can happily sit in a cage or behind a screen with the ball.
December 10th, 2009 at 11:11 am
I don’t like the 2 runners start either. Elves are already great at scoring, no need for fancy stuff like double dump off to start.
December 26th, 2009 at 9:11 am
Another roster I have great succes with is:
2 Runners
2 Blitzers
1 WE
6 Lineman
2 Re-rolls
Thats gives me 990. I save the last 10.000 to have at least a 50% chance of getting an apo after the first game, which by the way is essenciel for this team.
After a few games with both my Runners getting nerves of steel, is almost impossible to still the ball from them. And them being AV 7 it nice to have a extra player to be able to do the same job. (If you are using your runners for the ball handeling).
VoidSeer, I disagree, I like having to players with dump off to back each other up. But thats the way I like to play DE. Thankfully there are many ways to play them. They are one of the hardest teams to play and propably the most unforgivning but they can adjust to any playstyle out there and boy oh boy are they great when you get 4 blitzers and 2 WE with one or two skill rolls.
January 20th, 2010 at 4:33 pm
@Konstantin
I have nothing against double dump-off play, per se.
The question is do you get it from the team creation, or do you try to set it up later?
From my point of view, a second runner has too many drawbacks at TV1000. It introduces another AV7 player with no apo. It does not help defense, which is the real issue early on. It will also get the SPPs I’d rather see on lineelves. Skilling up lineelves are the main focus to have a healthy DE team.
January 29th, 2010 at 11:44 am
I prefer 1 runner, 1 witch, 1 blitzer, 8 linemen, 3 re-rolls
January 29th, 2010 at 9:15 pm
What are your reasons for preferring that starting line up? You are starting with 3 less players with Block from the start which is the time when Block is probably at its most effective.
March 17th, 2010 at 1:13 pm
How about?
3 Blitzer, 2 Runner, 1 Assassin, 5 Linemen, 2 Reroll
As much as I love the witch elves, blitzers seem much more important
March 17th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Indeed, that is why I would start with all 4, having 2 Runners and an Assassin to start with puts more AV7 players on the pitch and they don’t really add as much. The 4th Blitzer starting with Block is far more useful, especially as Block is at its best early on in team development while less opposing players have it.
April 3rd, 2010 at 4:35 pm
I’m thinking of using a different starting roster to those mentioned here. I’m a new BB player but I see many good things in this line-up. It is a positional player heavy roster and is somewhat inspired by the DE guides written by Coach on this site (so thanks a mil for those!)…
4 Linemen 490k
2 Runners 160k
4 Blitzers 400k
1 Witch Elf 110k
1 Re-Roll 50k
Hear me out before you cry blasphemy and you might be left wiser (or not.)
1 RR is very scary for a starting team so I make buying a 2nd one my priority after obtaining an Apothecary as my first purchase. However I find that a single RR can be overcome with good use of Dump-off and Block from the positional players.
I’m a DE player who likes double Dump-off and a previous poster mentioned that having this in a starting roster is unnecessary. I agree to some degree but my problem with starting with only 1 Runner is the question of when I’m going to buy the second one. Not for ages/Never is the answer to that question, as mentioned in a guide by Coach. Before then is the Apothecary, the extra RR and then maybe more RRs or a 2nd Witch Elf. The way I see it, you decide how many Runners you are are going to field in your DE team at its conception. 0, 1 or 2 all work but I find buying Runners along the way to be detrimental unless replacing an early casualty (and even then…) as all the other options for money spending are far more advantageous for most DE teams.
I also find that Assassins in a starting roster are a waste as they don’t tend to get much SPP anyway so trying to capitalise on early games is a risky tactic: AV7 and no Block/Dodge means they’ll get hammered on and not gain the SPP you wanted them to. Also coaches hate Assassins so you can guarantee they’ll try and hurt them. Assassins can be obtained later if you know you’re going to be facing low AV teams.
With this roster I can build 1 Runner to be a passer (Pass > Accurate > Sure Hands > Nerves of Steel) and 1 to be a blitzing ball carrier to support my Blitzers (Dodge > Block > Nerves of Steel). Both Runners make good use of the 7MA and Dump-off and this way I get a reliable 2+ pass and 5 Blockers (6 if I build my Witch Elf to Block) foregoing the need for excessive re-rolling. Up to team development as to which one gets built first, just try to level at least one of them up in the first game. With the addition of Leader on a Lineman I’m a lot a safer.
The way I see it, DE RRs are cheap are therefore not necessary in the starting roster. 100k isn’t much for an RR, some teams have it so much worse. And sure DE don’t have specialised skilled players with Pass and Catch but through good use of an early Block heavy roster (when it counts) and strategic use of Dump-off I don’t see 2 RRs as being entirely necessary. This way you get your positional players out there on the pitch early in order to gain SPP. The Linemen and maybe the Witch Elf can then get Wrestle and you have players to suit every block Nuffle can throw at you.
This roster is risky as early losses (of games and mushy AV7 players) can punish it. But after glancing through your league, you find you can pull this off then it pays off a lot. No excess Linemen will need to be cut and you can specialise each individual one as he’ll probably see a lot of playing time.
It must be stressed that the Blitzers are the key to making this line-up work. Do not get them all bogged down as the opposition will capitalise on this and make you pay. Throw your blocks wisely and pick your fights, watch out for enemy players on the sidelines so you can chuck a frenzying Witch Elf at them and keep your Runners close so as to make use of double Dump-off. If you support the Runners adequately with your Blitzers and adapt depending on your opponents roster (DE’s major strength) then this roster can do very well.
Thanks again to Coach, you’ve more or less taught me to play DE, been playing BB for only 6 months or so now but I hope this helps.
April 3rd, 2010 at 5:57 pm
That line up can work, though with only 1 reroll I think against better coaches you are going to be in trouble the first few games. It won’t realistically be until game 4 that you get the second reroll (unless you take Leader) and if you don’t pick up wins with those you can drop a lot of points. I don’t really see how it has any advantage over the 4 Blitzer and 2 Reroll roster. Lose the Witch as well and thats another 110k to find from somewhere.
April 3rd, 2010 at 7:08 pm
If the Witch Elf goes down it is indeed very scary… My issue with the 4 Blitzers, 2 RRs roster is that you only have room for 1 Runner and I don’t realistically see myself picking another up for 80k. So probably stuck with 1, which isn’t a catastrophe but it’s quite different.
But yes the roster I mentioned would need to prioritise getting Leader asap on a Lineman.
April 12th, 2010 at 7:21 am
I’ve had a lot of luck with this roster so far:
2 x Assassin
3 x Blitzer
6 x Lineman
2 x ReRoll
Assassins are great against low armor and low movement players because of Stab and Shadowing respectively and at the very least never cause a turn over.