The Renegade Dark Elf could be considered the best of the “regular” players on the Chaos Renegade team, with AG2+, decent speed, decent armour and most importantly, access to Agility AND Mutations in Primaries. The Goblin does, of course, have this combination too, but lacks General Primaries and most importantly, only comes with AG3+, meaning you’ll need Two Heads or Extra Arms to grant you that very nice 2+.

The biggest benefit of the Elf, is that you save yourself a few skills by having that base 2+, meaning you can go even further with building an all-rounder or more specialised player. An AG3+ runner is going to want all 3 of Big Hand, Extra Arms and Two Heads to have the same 2+ rolls, whereas the Elf really only needs Big Hand for the re-roll and to mitigate the negative modifiers.

Compared to the regular Dark Elf Lineman, for 5k more you’re getting PA3+ and the aforementioned Mutations access. This is honestly well worth the cost but again comes with the stipulations of only being able to buy 1 at a time and Animosity. He’s also going to have a pretty big target on his back, something he shares with the Skaven too. AV9+ is decent, but he’s going to need the horde of Human bodies to protect him and while he can get Blodgestep very easily, Tackle players will be looking to take him down and then he’s an easy target for a foul.

Build List:

• Random Skills
• Blitzer
• Runner/Receiver
• Leaper

Renegade Dark Elf Base Stats:

Randomised Skills:

Agility has some great skills to roll into and you can really build the player from there depending on what you get.  There’s actually very little I’d consider to be bad in this category, even Sneaky Git could work although 75k is quite a chunk to lose. Safe Pair of Hands is probably the worst of the bunch due to the Thrower already having it more than anything, but the rest you absolutely could make work, even Leap as you could give the player Very Long Legs.

The rest aren’t bad either, but I’d go for the Agility category and build your player from there.

Blitzer | Renegade Dark Elf Build

Primaries: Block, Dodge, Side-Step, Two Heads, Horns, Defensive, Claw
Secondaries: Mighty Blow
Characteristics: MA, ST, AG

Renegades are short of some pretty good Blitzers with the Rat Ogre and Minotaur as options, but both can be bogged down and have their negative traits to consider. The team overall lacks a typical “Blitzer” role and it’s not too hard to turn the Dark Elf into one. He doesn’t quite have the range of the Skaven, but

Block and Dodge are easy choices here, along with Side-Step for that illustrious (or annoying if you’re on the other end of it) Blodgestep. This will give you someone who can work the flanks without worrying too much about being surfed and can shimmy about to their heart’s content to bother the ball carrier or just be a nuisance in general. It’ll give you opportunities to get into gaps or make an escape path much easier. Two Heads can really help here, as you essentially get to ignore a single tackle zone when dodging, making that MA6 work a little harder. You can also cage dive on a 4+ which isn’t too bad, with the added benefit of being ST3, so marking the cage (assuming no guard) will give you a single die block most of the time. You could also add horns to make you ST4 on the Blitz which is pretty good I think!

Defensive is a good consideration as well and turns them into a disruption piece as well. Block/Dodge/SideStep/Defensive is a really potent combo against Guard-heavy teams, if you can worm your way into a cage, you can really cause problems by switching Guard off, turning easy 2 dies into 1s and forcing them to commit more players into a single area where you can hem them in.

You’re not shy of Mighty Blow on a Renegade Team, but you can never have enough of it! Claw is a consideration as well, and is cheaper SPP-wise.

All of the Characteristics are pretty good, MA7 gives you some decent speed and ST4 is always nice to have, plus with Horns, it turns you into ST5 on the Blitz. AG1+ alongside Two Heads can be hilarious as well and along with Side-Step, it means you can pretty much get anywhere you like.

Runner/Receiver | Renegade Dark Elf Build

Primaries: Block, Dodge, Two Heads, Side Step, Foul Appearance, Big Hand/Monstrous Mouth
Secondaries:
Characteristics: MA, AG

The combination of Agility 2+, Agility and Mutations Access makes for a pretty decent runner. Not only that, the Elf comes with PA3+ so there are passing options available should you come unstuck. MA6 isn’t quite as great as the MA7 of the Skaven, who can get mutations to do the job just as well, but the base 2+ means you can give the Elf more skills for keeping hold of the ball.

The Renegade Elf has the easiest time getting Blodgestep too which makes him a nightmare to get down, plus you can run along the sidelines safely. I rate Foul Appearance on this player as well, stopping 1 in 6 Blitzes on your Ball Carrier is well worth it and gives them some good defensive utility on your opponent’s drive.

You can then pick between either Big Hand or Monstrous Mouth depending on how you’re playing, or both if you make it that far. Big Hand is better if you’re using them as your backfield reunner to retrieve them ball and you can also pick up a loose ball on a 2+ no matter the tackle zones. Monstrous Mouth is best if you’re using the Thrower or another Runner player and you want to move the ball around with hand-offs.

Leaper/Cage Dive | Renegade Dark Elf Build

Primaries: Wrestle, Dodge, Leap, Very Long Legs, Two Heads, Side Step
Secondaries:
Characteristics: AG, MA

If my maths and memory is correct, I believe the Renegade Elf is the only AG2+ player with access to both Agility and Mutations, giving it the unique ability to gain both Leap and Very Long Legs in the same build (the 2023 NAF version of Slann/Kislev has Pogo Stick now instead of Leap, but that’s objectively better anyway).

Leaping sadly has taken a hit in the current version of the rules, as currently leaping into a traditional cage will net you a -3 to your Agility test, which Leap itself only negates 1 off, bringing your average AG3+ player to need a 5+ roll to attempt it and a 4+ for A2+. However, with Very Long Legs, you can turn this into a far more respectable 3+, which is the best you’re going to get as both Leap and VLL at most can only bring the negative modifiers to -1. The only way to get it to a 2+ is to go for an AG increase, which could well be worth it.

If you’re doing this build. then Wrestle and Dodge are probably worth getting first before you start on the Leap + VLL skills. If only to give you some general utility so your 75k Elf isn’t going to waste for 90% of the game. They make for a decent sacker anyway and you could always bring Two Headers further up the line, which does mean you can Dodge into cages on a 4+ anyway.

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There’s a lot of utility with the Renegade Elf, even as the most expensive he’s definitely the best player on your team that isn’t a Big Guy and like the Skaven has quite a lot of scope. Sadly you can only get one, so consider what you’re doing with the Skaven and build around that. If you have a backline sacker Skaven, consider a runner/retriever Elf for example.

That’s it for the Renegade Dark Elf build! Check out our guides for the Renegade Human Lineman, Renegade Human Thrower, Renegade Goblin, Renegade Skaven, Renegade Orc, Renegade Troll, Renegade Ogre, Renegade Minotaur and Renegade Rat Ogre.