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Over the weekend i feilded a crossbow heavy list that actually faired pretty well. So i made a few tweaks and came up with this incarnation to use this weekend.

Supreme Sorc - 380
Level 4 - Lore of Death
Dark Pegesus
Power Scroll
Pendant of Kahleth

Sorc - 175
Level 2 - Lore of Fire maybe
Focus Familiar
Tome of Furion

Master - 150
Heavy armor, Shield, SDC
Xbow
BSB
Guiding Eye

29x Xbows - 334
Shields
Mus. and Std.

24x Xbows - 279 (both 24x units start out deployed 12x2, and form up 6x4 later for combat)
Shields
Mus. and Std.

24x Xbows - 279
Shields
Mus. and Std.

24x Corsairs - 265
FC

2x Reaper Bolt Throwers
2x Reaper Bolt Throwers

5x Dark Riders - 117
Xbows and Mus.

Assassin - 121
Extra Hand Weapon
Manebane

Its hydra free, which is practically a sin, but the reapers proved effective at handling big monsters and thinning out hordes. Questions, comments, thoughts, opinions?

That's... erm... a bunch of crossbows. I see what the intent is, but at the same time this looks incredibly one-dimensional and the lack of responses to various threats outside of mass pincushin fire can really hurt.

What kind of advice are you looking for? There are certainly ways that would introduce more participation in other phases of the game beyond magic and shooting, but it involves hacking away your huge amounts of shooting to do so.

Multi-charges, denied flanks, or mass infantry will be your downfall. With three long, thin crossbowmen units you will be practically forced to spread out so any decently-armored flankers (monsters, chariots) or scouts can set up on your far side and start locking things down. Your RBTs can certainly help against these things but with a 50% chance to hit with a big bolt and only 3 of the S4 bolts on average hit at long range, I wouldn't bank on it too often. Your Crossbows can only stand-and-shoot one unit so in a multi-charge you are going to get locked down. If you get locked down by something little and cheap (Skaven Slaves, Men At Arms, Mauraders, Goblins, etc) then the heavy hitters will knock out your Crossbows with ease.

Further, the Crossbows by themselves aren't that deadly. They're certainly our best overall troop choice and they're great at softening things up for our heavier hitters. By themselves they're just decent, which could be said for a fair amount of DE units since we rely on synergy so much. A squad of 24 will shoot 48 bolts and (on average) only hit with 16 against anything beyond 12". Of those 16, 8 will wound T3 infantry. Anything with a decent armor save or toughness is going to shrug it off and anything that is pathetically weak will have the numbers to shrug it off. Anything that is beyond 12" at the start of their charge (fairly likely even with M4 + 2d6 charging) will have you hitting on 6's, meaning only 8 on average will hit and even fewer wound.

Couldn't say it better Kirbinator.

What else do you have available?

Thanks Kirb, I knew i could count on you to provide some real criticism.

It is a pretty one-sided list, and its tailored mainly for facing off against my gaming circle. VC, skaven, and lizards are my main oppopents; lots of horde formations, typically with screeners. Scounts are rare on our tables, as are fliers (im usaully the only one with em). Flanking has never been a problem for me as my oppopents prefer the 'rush em and crush em' kinda tactic. Even monsterous units are kinda rare outside of lizards (my friend like to field three of em, did manage to kill two with reapers tho). Since im the only 'shooty' army, thats how this list came to be. I suppose the advice im looking for is how to further tweak this list to deal with these foes.

I've got an opponent here who couples the pincushion attack with lore of shadow. Dropping your target's toughness by D3 helps make the most of those cratefuls of dice you'll be throwing. Also helpful is the flaming sword spell.

I suppose Death can get it a bit too with the soulblight, though.

Well, this list seems very boring to play against. Almost like you were playing 40k. You need some CC troops.
Also, a
Sorceress can only have a single arcane item.

Solbo wrote:Almost like you were playing 40k.

Eh... more specifically if you were only playing 40k and using only massed Tau Firewarriors out in the open and two railheads that you did not move the entire game. You can't really say that gunline lists are like playing 40k since the best 40k armies tend to have a balance of various types of shooting and decent close combat ability.

Well, i have an imp guard army and all it ever did was form a gunline, then fail to do anything and in the end get choped up by ork boys!

First, I would dump the Assassin. They have been weakened a lot in 8E, to the point that I rarely bother.

With those points, I would condsier either a Cold One Chariot or scrape a few points from somewhere (make 3 units of 25 RXBs perhaps) and get 5 Cold One Knights. Drop them last during deployment to counter whatever unit looks like it will give you trouble and need a heavy hitter to deal with.

OR, scrape a few more points up and put a Hydra in. You still have enough Rare points to include one with your two RBT batteries.