How to deal with the Banishment Barrage

I recently saw a HE player pull this one out, and it got me thinking how I personally would deal with it.  This is pertinent, since he's been running it the entire league and I'll probably play him eventually (we're confined to two lores of magic for the duration, so it's not like he can swap out to Shadow or something).

Anyways, the meat and potatoes is two lord-level casters, and at least one hero-level caster.  One of the lords is a loremaster of light, and the other takes the item that lets him pick a spell.  The hero then rolls but usually defaults one spell to Shem's Burning Gaze.  This gives him two banishment spells at S6, and at least two (and probably 3) Burning Gazes. 

The Banishments are the scary part (especially for undead and daemons).  With a 10 to cast at 24", or a 13 to cast at 48", it's not hard for a level 4 to pull off and send 2d6 S6 shots winging down range, especially with the HE's crap that gives them more power dice and what-not.  Now multiply that by 2: 4d6 S6 shots hammering a unit a turn, with the rest of his dice spent of Shem's, and can be reliably cast even if he rolls snakes for winds of magic.  Your first thought might be to get some MR, but Banishment also has you reroll successful ward saves.  These guys get buried in the usual archer bunker, with the usual Swordmasters, Whitelions, and Pheonix Guard to advance and chew things once they've been suitably softened up.

I can't see mournfangs or even scouting maneaters surviving more than 2 turns of fire from this, so my thought was a big unit of leadbelchers (big.  Like, 10 or 12+ big) with a BSB bruiser with the Runemaw attacted.  A bunch of gnoblar screens (remember, they aren't tall enough to provide cover, so you can shoot elves over them without penalty.  Of course, they can do the same to you...) to slow things down, and with a few fair-sized ogre blocks hanging back to go at anything that threatens the lead-star.  I've found that Ironblasters are actually quite good at killing eagles, and with gnoblars and kitties an ogre player should be able to win the deployment game.

Suicide hellheart firebelly. March up, launch the firebelly and cause three miscasts, and then try to breath on the bunker. With any luck you'll take out one or more mages or panic the archers off the table.

Ogre gunline. Heavens SM, sniper maneaters, leadies.

Lore of Death. Not as good without the deathfist build, but still perfectly able to snipe out characters.

Gorgers. Take a handful and make the back field a dangerous place for T3 elves.

Sadly I don't have access to heavens or death (remember the two lore restriction?  ).  A unit of snipers protected by the Rune Maw, at least until I'd popped a mage or two though... I like that idea.  I thought about the Hellheart, but that HE item that lets them destroy an item of their choice had me a bit worried.  It's a bound spell they get to use once for free.

I played against a similar list... except for one of the Lord level casters was Teclis.. so it was even worse.  Of course, I was playing Vampires against him, so I just got rocked for about three turns before I called it... (And held back from punching his face).

I would NOT suggest magic means of killing this unit... you can't out-magic the masters, too many items they can take, not to mention dispell scrolls that destroy spells... and don't forget the shard for whenever you get maximum power dice or more then he can generate... (Although this will rarely happen).

Best advice I could say was his suggestion of the Hell Heart, jump up and breath on those SoBs... I'm surprised he doesn't put them with Phoenix Guard.. a much more solid unit to hide mages.

I don't care what people say, HE are quite literally broken, in a game where magic is supposed to be more random, they're always guaranteed to massacre you with it.  Magic banner giving +D3 casting dice.. Teclis giving +D3 casting AND dispel dice.. it's nuts, and impossible to counter WITH magic.  Gun line seems good, or try sniping them with Ironblaster.  But I'd say choke him with the hellheart.  Good suggestion.

I would suggest something like:

Tyrant (100 pts of magic - include the OTS) + 2 Firebellies (both level 2, give one the RRR + Dispel Scroll, the other gets a HH)

BSB (Runemaw) + Horde of 14x Guts (Full Command, Standard of +1 Move)

2 Units of 4x MFC (musician, HA, IF)

2x Ironblaster

Should be right about 2500 pts (I see 2495...)

Put all characters in the horde o' guts - BSB can hide in the 2nd rank.

He's going to get maybe one turn of casting before you slam into him (and you have a dispel scroll for that phase).  The MFC's will get armor saves vs banishment (5+ vs STR6) and can be kept close to the Tyrant for any potential panic test.  MFC's chew through pretty much any HE unit, although use caution against White Lions.  OTS is goldent against Pheonix Guard.  You've got up to 3 fireballs a turn (remember to use Kindleflame!) and double breath weapons as well to help deal with any chaff/redirectors.

Although I would expect to lose a unit of MFC during the first turn, once you hit combat you should roll over him.

He can't use those magic missiles against you once you reach close combat.

-Snark

Interesting tactic, although I'd watch out for deployment tricks.  High Elves ALWAYS have tons of units to deploy, and I can easily seem him out-deploying you in this type of a game, especially when you're only running 6 placement units.  The standard list I play against is 2 squads of 7 swordmasters, Lothern Sea Guard, 2 squads of bows, PG for wizards, White Lion block (30 of these... nasty), 2x Eagles... but this is slightly highers points then you're playing.  He will easily bea ble to bait you into placing your units first then place all of his units as far away as possible. 

It has been my unfortunate experience that the White Lions run up front to completely wreck face.. those guys are good.  And he'll probably use them as a front shield for his Mages if he's smart... 3's to Hit - Re-rolling and 2's to wound.... that's a lot of dead Ogres...

On the other hand, having more units gives you +1 to go first - which can negate a round of his banishment/burning gaze spam.

Going first gives you the chance to fireball - fireball (kindleflame) - fireball (kindleflame) those white lions... they are still T3.  Also, don't overlook how effective your 2x Str 4 breath weapons can be in the shooting phase.

Basically, you have to weigh the options between clearing chaff and thinning the only real close combat threat (white lions) - and you have to get into combat ASAP to protect your mournfangs from the magic missile spam.

Although that sounds like a lot, it really shouldn't be too difficult to do with M7+ on your combat units.

-Snark

Interesting tactic, although I'd watch out for deployment tricks.  High Elves ALWAYS have tons of units to deploy, and I can easily seem him out-deploying you in this type of a game, especially when you're only running 6 placement units.  The standard list I play against is 2 squads of 7 swordmasters, Lothern Sea Guard, 2 squads of bows, PG for wizards, White Lion block (30 of these... nasty), 2x Eagles... but this is slightly highers points then you're playing.  He will easily bea ble to bait you into placing your units first then place all of his units as far away as possible. 

It has been my unfortunate experience that the White Lions run up front to completely wreck face.. those guys are good.  And he'll probably use them as a front shield for his Mages if he's smart... 3's to Hit - Re-rolling and 2's to wound.... that's a lot of dead Ogres...

If deployment is a real issue for you, find the points to fit in a couple of sabertusks. Take the full 3 and he has placed 3 units before you are down to placing your first real unit on the board.

High Elves play the same dummy drop game, only better. They can see your 3 Sabretusks and raise you 4 Great Eagles as a counter. Unless you bring Gnoblar squads, you're not out-chaffing them with Ogres.

The key here is to stuff his magic phases, or at least limit the damage as best you can. The Hellheart might not blow them up, but it will disrupt one magic phase, as will the Dispel Scroll (and if they blow up one of those items, at least you make them pick which one). Once combat is joined, Ogres can do what they do best.

The gutstar with the rune maw should work in this case. The trick will be to kill his eagles with prejudice so blast them with magic, with ironblasters, with everything and stop him from redirecting your main unit. Then just smash into the enemy as fast as you can. Subtle as a brick, ogres.

Hellheart is also a good purchase against someone with 3+ mages.

Do you really prefer ironguts over ogres against high elves?  You know you're going to be taking severe casualties from troops that hit first and negate your armor save.  Seems like both the parry and extra bodies would be more warrented, especially since the trade is only going from wounding on a 2+ to a 3+