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What are some good ways to run Men-at-Arms? I am planning on running 50-60, or possibly more, in an upcoming tournie and am not sure of the beat way to run them.

1) Is it better to run them in horde formation or not? In a horde formation with spears you can get 4 ranks to attack, but in regular formation you have more ranks.

2) With spears or pole-arms? Is the extra attacks worth less Str? Or should the weapon depend on the formations that they are in?

3) And lastly, should they get a damsel or paladin attached to them? I'm thinking either to attach a paladin with crown on command for stubborn, or a damsel with beasts and the prayer icon for a str and T boost and Ward save.

No matter what you do with em MaA kinda suck. Halberds are better if you want to horde and if you do the paladin or damsel with a few key magic items can make it, not awesome, but useful. The first item is the one that gives them the blessing, and the second the one that causes the unit to only be wounded on a 3+ or worse after the first casualty. Lore of Beasts would be better used on your knights since they are already better at fighting, but str 5 MaA is generally pretty shocking.
Another option is to run them as a steadfast block to hold down a flank or protect archers and trebs. And if you're stuck for ranks in your knight units they can be used to break enemy steadfast, but this means giving up your tactical speed advantage to a certain degree.

1. I would say do not horde them, but it really depends on what formation your enemy is running, I ONLY run Horde formation when I am trying to keep my Level 4 out of combat so that she goes inot the corner of the unit and out of BtB contact. I really don't rate spears on them, yes more attacks but since they don't tend to hit much of the time it's better to hit and wound with Halberds then spears.

2. For me Halberds all the way due to tehir poor stats I want the hits to make as many wounds as possible and S4 is better at that then S3

3. Yes and Yes, I typically run Level 4, CoC, Prayer Icon, Lore fo Life and Paladin, Empathy, Enchanted Shield, Ruby Goblet, Grail vow so that the Paladin can deal with ethereal threats, the unit cannot be wounded on better than 3+ and obviously a nice large bus unit with stubborn and ward save makes the grind that more dependable

Hording them works pretty well but to make it worth it, you will need 50-60, and though cheap, they still aren't Skaven slaves, furthermore the points still have to come from somewhere.

Halberds are a must for regular formation but in horde, I preffer spears since you can get a large number of extra attacks this way. I dont see much use to the ruby goblet, since they have a 5+ Sv against ranged and 6+ in CC, if something is s4, its going to negate its Sv in CC anyways.

Tookyflakes wrote:
Hording them works pretty well but to make it worth it, you will need 50-60, and though cheap, they still aren't Skaven slaves, furthermore the points still have to come from somewhere.

Halberds are a must for regular formation but in horde, I preffer spears since you can get a large number of extra attacks this way. I dont see much use to the ruby goblet, since they have a 5+ Sv against ranged and 6+ in CC, if something is s4, its going to negate its Sv in CC anyways.

Ruby Goblet is useful when facing things like Maindrazored Elves as it limits the amount of wounds that the unit (and all characters in the unit) takes as regardless of the strength of the attackers they cannot be wounded on a 2+! Its a small benefit but has saved me some game sin the past

Carpe thats a great point, since mind razor can really ruin your day. The ruby goblet is a small point cost, so I won't rule it out completely, but it still points that come from somewhere. In a large unit that is likely to be singled out by magic and buffed out melee units, might pay off. For me though, I haven't had a lot of use for it.

With that said M@A make great chaff or again are amazing as a horde, but in a horde you do want to protect them as much as you can.

As a DE player, I find the main use of Mindrazor is not to cause wounds. I can use the Withering for that; I only need to drop your T a point or two to dramaitically increase the number of wounds done.

Mindrazor's primary use is denial of armor saves. Even a 1+ armor save goes away under a S8 assault. That's worth gold and platinum to an army that is primarily S3 and nearly totally T3.

This is *the standard way to run Men at Arms.

49, Halberds, Banner, Musician - don't get the champion as he is a waste of 12 points.

Put a Grail Damsel in there with the Prayer Icon. Supporting them with other characters and items isn't worth the cost.

Don't bother with a horde formation. Even with Halberds, they really don't kill a whole lot. Magic may or may not be worth using on them. Go 5 wide, 10 deep.

This is what you do with said unit. Park it to the side of your knights. Run it into Fanatics, Mangler Squigs, Greater Daemons, etc. etc. etc. Protect the Flank of your knights and if needed use it to break steadfast on enemy units.

Don't get attached to them. They are peasants and when they die in droves, cackle maniacally. Just make them the largest, most aggravating road block that you can.

Atlantic you may wish you had a champion in there if someone challenges your damsel and you have to lose your blessing to avoid the challenge.

Damsel doesn't stay long. Just start her there and turn her into a dragon or magic her up if in combat.

That situation is very avoidable.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also refusing a challenge with a damsel does not take your blessing.

This is why a foot damsel is better than an empathy paladin.

Damsels don't have a knightly vow, so they can refuse challenges without ending the Blessing.

A champion is a good investment if you expect your men-at-arms to hold up a unit with a tooled-out combat character. Accept the challenge (issue one if you must) and now the character kills the champion, instead of removing an entire rank of men-at-arms by himself. 12 points vs. 25 points, easy choice.

Ahh that's cool, I didn't realize that. Still though don't any of the other army books have items like the Gauntlet of the Duel that do not allow you to refuse challenges?

The gauntlet is one of a kind.

Remember, the Gauntlet only prevents refusing as an option; it does not dictate which of the available characters/champions will accept.