I had a really fun time with 3 great opponents. I felt bad for Adam (tau4eva) because he had a first round bye, which really kills your enthusiasm. I brought the following list approximately:
1 Empire General on Pegasus with full plate armor, shield, and Runefang
1 Empire battle standard bearer
1 Wizard lord, level 4, with Life magic
1 Wizard, level 1, with Fire magic
1 Warrior priest
2 Helstorm rocket batteries
1 Helblaster volley gun
2 cannons
1 mortar
30 free company, full command
30 swordsmen, full command
40 halberdiers, full command
10 handgunners
10 handgunners
12 knights, full command
I think that was everything. In retrospect I likely would drop the knights. They just underperform a lot. If they don't kill their charge target on turn 1, they are strength 3. Ugh! Humans. I think I'd take some flagellants just for fun instead.
Overall, I had a lot of fun and my shooting was very very successful. The helblaster never blew itself up! One helstorm killed 15 marauders in one turn. I didn't really get the Life magic spells I wanted in any games... I guess I needed more offensive stuff with this army, because my units weren't rocks at all, so toughness really didn't matter for them.
My first game was against Warriors of Chaos. The highlights of this game were his helmouth cannon thing absolutely annihilating my warrior priest and swordsmen, a helstorm rocket landing and killing 15 marauders, and my BSB killing his chaos warrior BSB in combat, assuring me 200 extra victory points and basically winning me that game. Pretty sweet! He was a great opponent and his army was very well painted.
My second game was against Lizardmen. Lizardmen in 8th edition are just solid as a rock. (So are Chaos Warriors). I had a tough time shooting because they had a 4+ ward save vs shooting from the Jar Jar shield thing on the Engine of the Gods. The first few turns were pretty great for me - I killed the engine and most of his temple guard. After that, though, he got off a Dwellers Below and killed my L4 Wizard and most of my halberdiers. That turn my shooting was awful and it was pretty well over. I lost but it was still fun to play with someone who comes to the shop regularly.
My third game was against Chaos Warriors again. This player (Jeremy) had a huge unit of Chosen (I think 40 warriors), a huge unit of nurgle chaos warriors (-1 to hit shooting, -1 WS in close combat... tough on me) and a smaller unit of Chaos warriors. He also had some kind of altar thing.
This was a great game. Luckily for me we had a mission where reserves were possible. His huge unit of Chosen were sent to reserves and I lost a helstorm rocket battery, halberdiers, and free company. This means they could come on turn 1. I forgot to bring my reserves on turn 1! The rockets wouldn't fire but it meant that I couldn't fire them turn 2 either. Bad!
I had a lot of effective shooting, whittling down his nurgle unit pretty well. I then got off a charge on the nurgle unit, and my knights did next to nothing. He had a few characters in there that killed lots of the unit. Eventually my general charged in on the pegasus and slew his nurgle hero on palanquin! That was pretty sweet for my general; he hadn't done much all day but get shot at. It was also pretty epic in my head thinking about this human general facing off against this nightmare fuel and being able to win. (Gogo Runefang).
Eventually his Chosen made it to my lines of handgunners. I had stupidly not brought my wizards out of the handgunner units, so he was able to mop them up and won on victory points 11-9. If I had pulled the wizards out it would have been a tie. This also brings up a tough thing about 8th edition: victory points don't account for a unit who has been half killed. Chaos Warriors are super tough and if you use a few huge units it makes it really hard for your opponent to get VP.
Jeremy's army was extremely nicely painted. I've posted some photos below. Awesome tournament! With Foodhammer and The Big Game coming up I don't think I'll play in January's fantasy tournament but we'll see.
Flagellants are a great choice. Being unbreakable is pretty powerful.
ReplyDeleteI would change your level 1 to Beasts and give him the Ruby Ring. He still retains the Fireball spell you lose from Lore of Fire, but you also get the all important Wyssan's Wildform, which makes your Human troops strength 4 toughness 4, and is one of the better spells in the game (and it's a signature spell).
That sounds cool. I didn't even think of detachments, either, because I have played Empire so little I didn't want to make it complicated.
ReplyDeleteI don't think deployments are worth it. You usually want more deployments, not less.
ReplyDeleteer, detachments
ReplyDeleteAhh, and I'd want more deployments so I could deploy all war machines last with most of their army in play. EPIPHANY!!!
ReplyDeleteSounds like fun! The BSB on the Chaos Warriors is outstanding! I would have travelled just to see that! I have yet to run into the Empire, though my Ogres have learned to fear big guns, hopefully, we can get a game in sometime before I move.
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ReplyDeleteWhen are you moving? I think at our 11 person tournament there were represented:
ReplyDelete1 Empire
1 High Elves
2 Vampire Counts
2 Chaos Warriors
1 Skaven
2 Lizardmen
1 Tomb Kings
1 Dark Elves
I've posted my thoughts before, but I've played O&G, TK, and now Empire in fantasy, and Empire is rapidly becoming my favorite. Not so much because of playstyle, but a lot because of their fluff - they're just humans stuck in a world of rat people and chaos abominations and giants that have mouths in their stomach.
But they're not guard, either, because they have leaders that inspire them and stuff. I dunno. Twinkle in my eye or something
Good to see another decent tournout for a Fantasy tournament (more than 40k recently). Nice to see some of those fully painted armies. Think I am done with tournamnets for now though.
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