Starter lists for Empire of Dust and Elves

From time to time, the question pops up which is a great starter army for factions. Yesterday, this question popped up again, so I spent some time conjuring a duo of armies.

First army (2300 pts?) – I want to 3D print an army for a new player
byu/DrDisintegrator inkingsofwar

the best answer to this is: whatever you like to paint/play of course. Kings is fairly well balanced and it’s easy enough to build an army using the Companion. That said, I understand it’s daunting to come up with something from scratch.

That’s why this blog post delivers on two starter armies @1,000 points for Elves and Empire of dust.

Caviat: Kings of War is balanced annually. The below lists have been selected today using the current rules. After the 2026 rebalancing this army may (or probably will) no longer be 100% valid. If you come across this post after this moment, I would suggest rebuilding the armies using the Mantic Companion, so your armies are 100% current.

the below armies have been selected as decent starters, not as tournament-winning lists.

Empire of Dust

This army expands from the Sands of Ahmun starter set. The army features a unit of skeleton warriors (an ultimate anvil) and then a couple of units that are tougher than you’d think but do not do that much damage.

Using the Surge mechanic, the army can hunt for flanks. The idea is not to charge, but reposition in a way that the unit faces a flank facing. Then, using the surge spell, the unit can actually charge said flank.

If this trick fails, the army can win by attrition as well.

Both the mummies, the revenant cavalry and the chariots will not rout a decent enemy by themselves. Used together or with double attacks due to a flank, they might actually kill something. All are very tough for their cost, with defense 5+ (except the chariots, but they have higher nerve) and can last in a grind.

The reanimated behemoth is a very tough critter to kill with defense 6+ and 17 points of nerve. I included this model as a centrepiece, but be aware that its damage is quite lacking. I chose the behemoth over the undead wyrm (the other titan, which is IMHO is better) because it’s a lot more forgiving for a newer player.

The two spellcasters (The high priest and the army standard with the tome of darkness) have two roles: inspiration and surge. Keep them hidden behind your armies, so they cannot be singled out and have them do their tricks.

The army is very resillient and can do something in all phases. I think it’s a good starter for Empire of Dust.

Elves

This elven army is what I think to be one of their archetypes. The army has two seperate parts:

The infantry consists of a horde of spearelves. First of all, it’s more powerful that you would think with 30 attacks at elite. Moreover, phalanx means that cavalry have a hard time shifting it. Following the spearelves are two troops of palace guard. 10 attacks @CS(1) with elite will do quite some damage. Combine them for major carnage. People will underestimage these, and they will win you games. That said, keep them away from anything with bows.

The cavalry constist of two troops of silverbreeze. These will do some shooting damage, but their major contributor will be that they can hide anything else behind it and their high movement and nimble will allow them to move anywhere you want. Don’t be afraid to sacrifice them to block a powerful enemy unit for a turn, so your other units can kill it.

the Stormwind are amongst the best cavalry in the game, provided you can keep them out of terrain. I debated upgrading them with the Boots of Striding, but didn’t want to include that item in a starter army.

The army is led by a single character. Ideally you’d want two, but due to the high points of Elven characters, I just made do with one. He inspires and has two spells: lightining (for hurting enemies) and bane chant (for upgrading your infantry). If the choice exists, I would go for Bane Chant anyday. The lightning is to have some fun until that time.