They have a long-standing alliance with the dragons and some of the best elite infantry in the game, such as the Phoenix Guard вЂ“ they get a perpetual magical ward that makes them very tanky (by elven standards, at least). Think of that cool bit at the start of the Lord of the Rings, where glittering ranks of elves take an orc charge and chop them up with cool efficiency, and youвЂ™ve a sense of their flavour. On the tabletop, the High Elves are a flexible and disciplined army. вЂњ really fun to play if you want to get that flavour of being a master manipulator,вЂќ says Hall. You can then spend this influence in the diplomacy menus to manipulate relations between other factions: вЂњYou could make two rival High Elf and Dark Elf factions go to war, to weaken them both,вЂќ suggests Hall, but youвЂ™re not limited to toying with third parties if you want to trade with someone but your relations arenвЂ™t quite good enough, you can spend some influence to improve them.

High Elf spies enable them to see whatever their trading partners see, and they can earn вЂinfluenceвЂ™ by using their agents or resolving events called Intrigue at Court dilemmas. Thousands of years later, this has given their descendents a certain sense of entitlement they look out only for themselves, and yet, because they also consider themselves the rightful rulers of the world, they stick their noses into everyone elseвЂ™s business anyway. Long ago, the Elves were the favourite (but not the first) creations of the Old Ones, the original gods of the Warhammer World, who also built them an idyllic island called Ulthuan. вЂњThe High Elves are quite an insular race,вЂќ says game director Ian Roxburgh.

Warhammer 2 vortex map