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Full blown 3000pt game with Empire. When I saw him pull out two mortars and a hell volley blaster, I knew how this was going to go... but I decided to just try it out.

Lists are as follows.

Eltharion w/ Stormwing (Lore of Metal 5th and 6th spell, pretty much ineffective the whole game due to lack of targets with armor saves)
Mage lvl 2 w/ Fire, Annulian Crystal. (Fireball was the only spell he used)
BSB w/ GW and Armor of Caledor
Noble w/ Great Weapon, Shadow Armor, and Mask that gives Terror

30 Spearman Full Command with Warbanner
30 Spearmen Full Command
15 Archers

24 Sword Masters w/ Full Command and Wailing Banner (causes terror, see the theme here?)
15 White Lions w/ Full Command Flame Banner
8 Shadow Warriors

3 RBT's
2 Great Eagles

All the points I dumped into causing terror are useless. He passed every leadership.


1 General with 2+ Save, and Sword that gives +2 to strength
Arch Lector on Pope Mobile
BSB
Lvl 2 Mage with Fire (Fulminating Flame Cage, Sword of Rhuin)
Lvl 2 Mage with Life (Flesh to Stone and Earthblood)
War Priest

25 Great Swords
10 Knights of the Inner Circle
5 Knights w/ Great Weapons
25 Flagellants
50 Halberdiers
30 Swordsman
5 Pistolleers
2 Mortars
1 Hell Volley Blaster
1 Great Cannon

So terrain saw a building surrounded by a wall on my left, with two forests, one in the middle, and one on my right, and a hill on his deployment zone (where his mortars conveniently went...).

I deployed my archers to rush the building and get into it. My white lions started in the center forest (Fungus), two spear blocks lined up next to them, with the Sword Masters anchoring the line. I had two bolt throwers in between the archers and White Lions, and my third on the far left to duel with the cannon. Great Eagles where one on each end of the table to try to get to the war machines, or redirect cavalry. Eltharion plopped right behind an eagle (with the right forest blocking line of site for the cannon), my BSB went into the Lions, and Mage went into the Spears without the magical banner.

I put my Shadow Warriors and Noble into the right forest, ready to run at his gun line.

He has KoIC on my left flankt, Flagellents, Halberdiers, Swordsmen, Greatswords, GW Knights, and Pope Mobile. All the Warmachines are set up behind the line of troops on the hill or in an area with clear line of site. His General goes with the Greatswords, Lvl 2 with Fire in the Swordsmen, BSB and Priest w/ Halberdiers, and Lvl 2 with Life behind the line.

He finished first, so got +1 to the roll. We roll, and I get a two... and that sets the trend for the game.

His Pistoleers make their vanguard move rushing my line, and end their first turn 2 inches from my great eagle on the left. KoIC rush across the table hoping to turn my flank. All his blocks do a general advance. Magic phase, he gets Flaming Sword on the Cannon, and then attempts to Flame Cage my spearmen. Irresistable Force, followed by Dimensional Cascade. I lose 1 spearmen, he loses 7 Swordsmen, 3 Great Swords, and the Wizard. I dispell all his Lore of Life attempts. And so we get to shooting. Mortars open fire, and one block of spearmen lost 13 guys. Sword Masters lose 8 guys. White Lions lose 5 guys. Cannon fires at my Bolt Thrower and aces it. Pistollers open up and wipe out my Great Eagle. Turn one is done, and I'm almost down a quarter of my army already.

My turn, my General declares against the Pistoleers. They opt to flee, but he catches them, and ends up in the clear line of site of the Cannon... Shadow Warriors charge his GW Knights. My archers rush the building and get in. I ram my White Lions, Non-Flame Caged Spears, and Sword Masters forward, tryingt o make it riskeir for his pie plates.

In Magic, Eltharion can't do anything cause he only has line of site on war machines. My Fire mage throws a fireball at the Halberdiers killing a couple. Shooting, my archers pepper a few flagellents, and my two bolt throwers muti-shot into the halberdiers dropping a handful. Close combat see's my Shadow Warriors kill two knights, and lose 3 in return. With Eltharion nearby they pass their test easily.

Turn two, he throws his swordsman forward, his Popiness moves towards Eltharion. Rest of the foot units do a slow advance. His KoIC attempt to charge my remaining eagle, but I flee and he fumbles the roll just stumbling forward enough to get into LOS of my bolt thrower. Magic doesn't see a lot. The Popemobile gets the ASF +1 attack buff onto the swordsmen. I dispell everything else. Shooting again is feircesome. Lots more elves die, but all tests are made. Two strokes of luck in that a mortar blew itself up, and the cannon shot at Eltharion hits 1/4 inch away. In close combat, SW's eat one more knights, to the loss of two.

In my turn, my White Lions and Spears charge his Swordsmen (WL's in the flank). I declare Eltharion on the Cannon and roll 5 when I needed a 7... Swordmasters tried to charge his Greatswords, and... come up one inch short. In Magic, I fireball the Halberdiers again killing a few more. Shooting see's me kill a couple knights with the bolt thrower. This turn and the next I forgot the archers where in the building, so they didn't do squat. Close combat, I kill one more knight, and he kills one SW. My Lions and Spears decimate his swordsmen. They flee, are caught, and it allows both my units to get an overrun into his halberdiers. Things are starting to look a bit up for me now.

Turn 3... Popiness charges Eltharion. KoIC botch another charge. Flagellents start moving towards the building. Greatswords move up behind GW Knights. Magic see's flesh to stone on Greatswords. Swordmasters eat the remaining mortar and Hell Volley. Down to two and running. Cannon takes a long shot at a Bolt Thrower and destroys it. In close combat the Arch Lector uses the speculum on Eltharion, who laughs as his toughness increases, and then watches as Stormwing bites the popes head off. My Shadow Warriors finish the GW Knights. The massive combat with the horde of Halberdiers, and my White Lions and Spears starts off well for me. I inflict 14 casualties. And then he gets to attack back, wipes out my White Lions, BSB, and cuts my remaining spears in half. Even though I did 14 wounds, I still end up having to roll on snake eyes... My boys run, and get caught.

The writing is on the wall in big florescent colors now. My turn, little I can do. Shadow Warriors charge the great weapons, in the hopes my noble can chop his General down. Eltharion is still locked in combat until he destroys the pope mobile, which he does this turn. Shooting wise, I drop two more knights, but they make their leadership. I put my Eagle up to redirect their charge again as well. Magic, another inconsequential fireball. Eltharion again only has line of site on units with no armor (warmachines) so his spells are useless. Archers again are forgotten. My Noble challenges his General, but to no effect. The T5 greatswords take no wounds, chop my SW's down, and my noble runs away.

His next turn, he charges his flagellents into the building. His knights charge my eagle, but catch it as it flees. This leaves me with a PERFECT flank shot for my bolt thrower. If you've read all this so far, you know what happens when I shoot. The rest of his units mill about. Shooting, really see's nothing to important. His cannont tries to take Eltharion again, but misfires luckily. Close combat, I kill a few flagellants, and he eats a lot of archers. I pass my stubborn test and force it for another round.

And just to wrap things up. He eventually lands a mortar on my fleeing sword masters, wiping them out. Eltharion gets the Cannon and Hell Volley. I DID miss my perfect flank shot on the knights, but managed to peg 2 more when they reformed to charge the bolt thrower. They still held though.

In the end I had 900pts left on the table, he had 1900 points. Massacre in his favor.

That has been my general experience with Empire so far. Mortars just flat out destroy me in turn one and two, and then it's just a mop up action for the rest of their units. I've very quickly coming to the opinion I don't want to play Empire anymore.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And before anyone starts out, yeah I know my list was not optimal. I built it to have fun, and try a few things differant from standard Teclis/Book of Hoeth spam.

Thanks for the report. One important factor against the war machines is whether or not you deploy in full blocks. Consider deploying in wide lines, then reforming to tighter formation once the enemy closes, or the war machines are dealt with.

Also, perhaps some protective magic would be in order. The regen or the toughness boost from life could help, as could the ward from High magic, or Pha's Protection from light.

Empire mortars are absolutely savage, but in one respect you're lucky, I'd actually expect most Empire generals to field more artillery than your opponent did here at this points level. Plus you'd normally see an engineer with Pigeon Bombs also.

I echo what Zeke said, you would be wise to consider what forms of protection are available to you against war machines, whether that's in the form of magic or cunning formations at deployment.

Thanks for the report though, it was an entertaining read

Actually, he did have two engineers. I forgot to put that in the original list. He only got one chances to use pigeon bombs, and they ended up not doing anything.

But yeah, after talking it over with a friend, if I know i'm going to be going up against pie plate spam, I'll start reforming my units.

In a 3k i will throw out 2 steam tanks, a popemobile, 4-6 mortars, 2 cannons, and a couple engeniers, not counting a unit of 30 Flagellents and a ton of halbrediers. His list was very forgiving as far as empire goes.