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What can an empire player do to counter ethereal?

This seems like a tactics question?

Yeah I was going to ask about the warrior priests and then got too general. So are any of the wp spells considered magical attacks?

All attacks from spells, bound or otherwise, are magical attacks. As are attacks made with magic weapons.

Your only real option is loads of cheap characters with 5pt magic weapons and Warrior Priest prayers.

Cheapo magic items are the easiest. However, wounds caused are just one component of deciding who wins combat.

Ethereal units are expensive, almost always can't get banners, and have sucky stats. If you have more ranks(3), a banner, charge, you're already +5 on combat resolution. You can simply overwhelm ethereal forces. Look at the combat resolution pages to get as many bonuses as you can.

So hammer of sigmar and soul fire will work on etherial

Yes, and as most etherial units have really lame stats they will probably obliterate you.


Although you can beat many Etherial units with only combat rez.

I had a unit of 6 IGs kill a spirit host one combat rez alone. They charged, it did one wound, and it lost combat by 2. The same happened till it died.

I generally throw my warrior priest unit at them. Throw the magic spell that makes my unit magical flaming and boom, (usually) soft ethereal gone.

magic missiles are very effective as ethereal generally have no armor and crap toughness

war wrote:
magic missiles are very effective as ethereal generally have no armor and crap toughness

Heroes with any cheap magic weapon is the answer.
The problem with magic missiles is you can't cast if you are in combat, you can't target a unit that is in combat, and you are depending on having enough power dice and superior magic phases.
Ethereals are fast (Move 6 + skirmish or move 8 + vanguard), so if magic missiles would be a threat, they can close range, or get out of arc pretty easy, not giving you much time to use those missile.

Static combat res works great against a base or two of spirit hosts, or a minimum sized hex wraith/wraith unit, but as soon as anything is decently sized, static combat res won't cut it.
4 spirit hosts throwing out 16 S3 attacks is a big problem for 180 points.


As a vampire player, I'm least happy to have to deal with a captain on the peg with a sword of might and dragonhelm, potion of foolishness.
148 points, 1+ armor, 2+ ward vs fire (needed for hex wraith hunting).
4 attacks on the charge that hit on 3's and wound on 2's; and you're immune to psych on the charge. You'll doing 2-3 wounds, and another combat res for charging. You can expect another 2-4 wounds from crumble (depending on vamp BSB). 4-7 wounds is a good chunk. And you've got plenty of survivability should you have to grind it out.
Just watch out for terrorgheists, but those should be going after your steam tanks and cannons, not this hero.
Usually I see peg captain bag an ethereal unit and then get swamped by zombies until either player can throw a 2nd unit in to turn the tide. (vs the zombies, combat is usually really close but hold the line keeps the peg captain around).

-Matt

Plus the magic missiles are useless if the Etherials in question are Banshees/Cairn Wraiths in a unit of Skeletons. In which case you need a hero with a cheap magic weapon.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Plus the magic missiles are useless if the Etherials in question are Banshees/Cairn Wraiths in a unit of Skeletons. In which case you need a hero with a cheap magic weapon.

I though only ethereal models can only be joined by other ethereal models. therefore a banshee cant join are unit of skelitons???

That rule does not exist - youre thinking of unbreakable

The rule is a character can't join an Etherial unit. There is no restriction about the inverse however.

 riverhawks32 wrote:
I generally throw my warrior priest unit at them. Throw the magic spell that makes my unit magical flaming and boom, (usually) soft ethereal gone.

It doesn't make your attacks magical, only flaming. The hits generated from being in BtB are magical attacks, though, so that might do in a pinch, but it's not the best strategy.


As per the FAQ;
Q: What are ‘magical attacks’? (p68)
A: All attacks made by spells and magic items are considered to be magical attacks, as are all attacks that are specifically noted as being magical attacks. Shots fired from magical items are also considered to be magical attacks, unless their description specifically states otherwise. Hits inflicted by rolls on the Miscast table are treated as magical attacks.

guzzoid wrote:
So hammer of sigmar and soul fire will work on etherial

Why would Hammer of Sigmar work? Isn't that the one that lets you re-roll to-wounds?

Ahhh okay, I screwed up on that rule x) Thanks for catching