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Lords

Wizard Lord w/ level 4 with Dispel Scroll (Life)
Arch Lector w/ AoMI, Ruby Ring, Warrior Bane

Heroes

Captain w/ BSB, Full Plate, Shield
Warrior Priest w/ Heavy Armour, Shield
Captain w/ Pegasus, Full Plate, Shield, Dragon Helm, Sword of Striking, Potion of Foolhardiness

Core

50 Halberdiers w/ Full Command
5 Archer detachment

50 Halberdiers w/ Full Command
5 Archer detachment

10 Archers

Special

Cannon

4 Demi Gryphs w/ Musician
4 Demi Gryphs w/ Musician

Rare

Celestial Hurricanum

Steam Tank

4 points left over.

It seems good to me.

Are the halberds going to be in hoard formation?

Yep, but you can swift reform into deep steadfast blocks if you need to.

5 man archer units are used to drag out Fanatics, touch Mangler Squigs, intercept/redirect threats, bubble wrap against Scouts, all the while adding a bit of support fire (even while marching.) Not expecting any damage from them.

Zoned wrote:Yep, but you can swift reform into deep steadfast blocks if you need to.

5 man archer units are used to drag out Fanatics, touch Mangler Squigs, intercept/redirect threats, bubble wrap against Scouts, all the while adding a bit of support fire (even while marching.) Not expecting any damage from them.

How can you march and shoot? Detachment rule?

Huh. I just realized something.
With that Life Wizard you could actually give that Tank T10.
That'll certainly end a lot of "Tanks are nerfed! OMFG!" complaints.

As far as empire goes, its a pretty good list.
A few things:

1) I would suggest trying to get a 4++ on your wizard. Death Magic, assassin type units (DE shades with KB from cauldron, Fast Calv, single Bloodcrushers or Fiends, etc), or just combat in general will see him quickly disposed of without some extra protection. After all, for such an important character he is still only WS3 T4 W3

2) I would also suggest taking at least 2 cannons. Against monsters, monstrous infantry, enemy war machines, single characters on pegasi , etc, you will want more than 1. Also cannons do plenty of damage to make up a portion of their points to special/rare units as well (models that are around 15+ points) if there is nothing else worthwhile to shoot at.

3) Your Captain BSB and WP both need more protection. As they are now it doesn't take much to kill them. At the VERY least give them enchanted shield or dragonhelm, but I would suggest a 5++ save (talisman for the BSB so he can keep his Full plate, armor for the WP).

EDIT: After some thinking, I have decided it might not be such a bad idea to just throw these characters on horses. This allows them to usually stay out of combat (being on the very edge of the unit) and gives them +2 to their saves. With the Tank, Demigryphs, Magic Derpcanium thingy, etc, they should not have to worry too much about cannon fire. If you decide to remove the flying captain, maybe give one of these the charmed shield just in case.

4) I would suggest the Sword of might over the sword of striking for the pegasi. At least in my opinion the S5 and extra -1 to armor saves is better than +1 to hit. Most fast calv will be T3 with 5+ saves (mount + LA), making S5 a perfect fit. Most warmachine crews will also have T3/4 so S5 is good. I would also suggest the Charmed shield, because it is not unlikely he may take a cannonball to the face someday, and for what he should be fighting the +1 to his save is not necessary.

5) High elves take life magic because they have no issue causing damage, they have an issue taking damage. We have a large issue with causing damage, so I would suggest Lore of Shadow. -D3 to Str is about the same as Flesh to Stone, -D3 to toughness or Mindrazor will allow us to do the damage we need. Pit of shades is gamebreaking and will give us an edge against tougher but slower (initiative-wise) armies like Orcs and Ogres. Plus the lore attribute can allow the wizard to escape a combat in which he may be picked out an killed.

Question. If you use Shadow to teleport a Warrior priest into a unit that has already been in combat for several turns, do they get hatred for the next round?

As for how you will pay for the changes, I have no idea. My biggest issue with writing empire lists is not being able to fit everything that is needed to provide the synergy we need.

1) The Wizard chills out with the 10 archers that lurk behind the combat blocks. Death magic is pretty much the only thing that worries him.

2) I wanted a second cannon but I'll have to settle for the Steam Tank and pumping 3 steam points into the cannon.

3) The Captain sometimes lurks with the Archers too, or when he's placed in the corner of a regiment it tends to minimize the attacks on him. Same with the WP. Would love to buy them more gear but difficult to cut.

4) Good suggestions for the Pegasus Hero.

5) Life and Shadow are both great lores. I prefer life in this build due to the multiwound models running around and the sheer terror of a Dwellers.

About your question, I would say yes, kind of like Primal Fury, I suppose.

P.S: To Cthulu - skirmishers can march and shoot.

I think its too risky to fire the Steam cannon, but to each his own, and if you have to take something out its probably worth the risk.

Be careful with the Wizard in the Archers, I fear that they are very vulnerable to fast calv and scouts

Warrior Priest, HA, Barded Steed, Enchanted Shield, Luckstone. I think for the few points you pay this is a VERY good defensive setup. Plus if needed he can run with the Demiknights for more hitting power.

Well lets see about lores:

Life:
S) Wasted on archers
1) Direct damage, meh. Good for dealing with single spirit hosts that the peg can't reach.
2) Obvious
3) Obvious
4) A little bit of extra damage, but not in the CC phase.
5) Regaining Halberdiers is not very effective, as they are only state troops. Useful on DemiKnights
6) Obvious

Shadow:
S: Imagine lowering WS to <3 and then hitting on 2's with halberdiers, or WS to 1 and making them hit on 5's. Good utility.
1) Useless, but if forced to take it can be used to reposition the peg.
2) = Flesh to Stone
3) Helps you get that damage.
4) Cannonball for low Initiative targets, its ok.
5) Obvious
6) More damage.

In summary I just think that a weak point in our book is our lack of damage. IMO take shadow, but Life is not bad in any way, its just a lot more defensive+direct damage rather than buffs for your own units.

Just curious, why No Helblasters? Those seemed very good during my Read through.

Sasori wrote:Just curious, why No Helblasters? Those seemed very good during my Read through.

I personally don't see them as very good. Short range means they need to be on the front lines when deploying, BS4 (including the ME) means usually hitting on 4+ or 5+ depending on modifiers, And the average number of shots is only around 15ish....

for almost 200 points...

If MEs could affect 2 warmachines with his BS and choose to reroll after you roll artillery dice, then they would be pretty good at about 150 each.

Zoned wrote:1) The Wizard chills out with the 10 archers that lurk behind the combat blocks. Death magic is pretty much the only thing that worries him.

2) I wanted a second cannon but I'll have to settle for the Steam Tank and pumping 3 steam points into the cannon.

3) The Captain sometimes lurks with the Archers too, or when he's placed in the corner of a regiment it tends to minimize the attacks on him. Same with the WP. Would love to buy them more gear but difficult to cut.

4) Good suggestions for the Pegasus Hero.

5) Life and Shadow are both great lores. I prefer life in this build due to the multiwound models running around and the sheer terror of a Dwellers.

About your question, I would say yes, kind of like Primal Fury, I suppose.

P.S: To Cthulu - skirmishers can march and shoot.

Archers are skirmishers? What are huntsmen then?
I am so confused.

And how could halberds hit on 2s? The best you can do in CC (without modifiers) is 3+

CthuluIsSpy wrote:

Archers are skirmishers? What are huntsmen then?
I am so confused.

Huntsmen are skirmishers and also Scouts.

CthuluIsSpy wrote:
And how could halberds hit on 2s? The best you can do in CC (without modifiers) is 3+

In the Lore of Shadow you get Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma which reduces WS, BS, I or Mv by D3. If you reduce the WS of your enemy to 2 or less the Halberds hit on 3+, if they have a hurricanum within 6 inches they get +1 to hit, so hit on 2+. For a level 4 casting the 10+ power is a three dice affair which reduces all four stats by D3.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
If you get a good magic phase you chuck a few dice at The Enfeebling Foe which reduces strength by D3. Ogres are much less scary at strength 2 or 1.

Freman Bloodglaive wrote:

CthuluIsSpy wrote:
And how could halberds hit on 2s? The best you can do in CC (without modifiers) is 3+

In the Lore of Shadow you get Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma which reduces WS, BS, I or Mv by D3. If you reduce the WS of your enemy to 2 or less the Halberds hit on 3+, if they have a hurricanum within 6 inches they get +1 to hit, so hit on 2+. For a level 4 casting the 10+ power is a three dice affair which reduces all four stats by D3.

Wow...that's a fairly brutal combo.

That means against Saurus, if it goes off, they'll be getting hit on a 2+, followed by wounds on a 4+ and they'll have to take saves on a 5+ (as well as a 6++ save from parry)
That may not seem like much...but there are 50 halberds, meaning about...

at least 25 attacks I guess. That's painful.

My Empire run a level 4 with shadow and a level 2 with life.

You don't want to know what a successful dwellers below does to a unit reduced to strength 1. Admittedly it doesn't go off that often (I got it off in the closing turn of the game when the dispel scroll was burned and I got a very good number of dice) but when it does... let's just say that even Ogres disappear like... well... magic.

Freman Bloodglaive wrote:My Empire run a level 4 with shadow and a level 2 with life.

You don't want to know what a successful dwellers below does to a unit reduced to strength 1. Admittedly it doesn't go off that often (I got it off in the closing turn of the game when the dispel scroll was burned and I got a very good number of dice) but when it does... let's just say that even Ogres disappear like... well... magic.

Maybe its just me, but I find a Lvl 2 with life to be very unreliable. The strength life has is to be able to cast throne and then dish out Flesh to Stone and heal your units, as well as having Dwellers. A lvl 2 cannot do that. You don't have enough spells to actually make him useful. With a Lvl 2 of life you gamble >100 points on being able to roll a 2 or a 6 when picking spells, as most of the others require Throne to be efficient, and even if you get throne and another spell, you put too much focus into your Lvl 2 rather than your Lvl 4. Plus Dwellers is difficult to get off with a Lvl 2 without using 6 dice on the short ranged version, and when you are within 12" you should be buffing and preparing for combat, not worrying about Dwellers.

A Lvl 2 supporting caster should be a caster who only needs the Signature spell to provide support, and maybe gains extra utility if he gets lucky and rolls another useful spell. For example, my personal favorite is a Beasts wizard. The signature is all that he needs to be effective, but if he also obtains Pann's, Beast, or Transformation he gains extra utility for free.
Another example would be a Metal wizard. The signature spell is there just for when you need it (unkillable Dreadlord, Chaos Knights, Stanks, etc) but many of the other spells provide a huge boost in utility when you need that buff or debuff. Enchanted Blades, Transmutation of Lead, and especially Glittering Robe are all great spells to use to gain an edge in combat.
Life however does not have this quality. In fact, the signature spell forces you to put your caster on the front lines where he is most vulnerable, and only Flesh to Stone can reliably be cast by a Lvl 2 with enough effect that justifies taking the Lvl 2.

As for the other lores, at least IMO Fire, Light, Heavens, Shadow (which IMO should be on your Lvl 4 always), and Death don't have good enough Sig spells to justify risking >100 points that may accomplish nothing.

Just my thoughts, but boy do I have too many of them

I rolled a 6, didn't feel like trading it in, and got a handful of power dice on the last turn. I didn't go in expecting that to happen.

The level 2 is just there to carry the staff of sorcery as a backup spell blocker. If she casts a spell it's generally so she can put a wound back on my steam tank via the lore attribute.

I'm suprised noone's mentioned this -- get a shield for your archlector, it's probably 3-4pts

buckero0 wrote:I'm suprised noone's mentioned this -- get a shield for your archlector, it's probably 3-4pts

The reason why no one mentioned this is because there is no point
The Armor of Metoric Iron gives a 1+ save that cannot be modified in any way. Having a shield would be a waste of points.