For sharing!
So... my 1500 pt game last night was my first adventure in 8th edition and my first trial with Empire in about 3 years. I wasn't sure who was going to be there, as it really was a pick-up environment, but I ended up pulling the WoC player who won the last major tourney here (8th ed release tourney, final game of 7th). Solid guy.
His list:
Sorc lord of slaanesh on steed
Exalted Hero
Exalted BSB
15-18 warriors of Tzeentch, sword and board
ditto
5 Warhounds
ditto
Warshrine, no mark
My list:
Lector, barded steed, mace of helstrum, heavy armor, shield, dragon helm, crimson amulet
BSB, AoMI, ironcurse
Life wizard, lvl 2, RoP (Awesome!!! Rolled dwellers and regrowth)
45 Halberds, FC
10 handgunners
10 knights, FC, greatswords, Banner of Eternal Flame
21 Greatswords, FC
Cannon
Mortar
We rolled up a Meeting Engagement and he won to deploy... and to go first. He started with one unit of 18 warriors of Tzeentch and one unit of 5 hounds off the board. Pretty insignificant in the end. 6 piece of terrain were rolled: Sigmar shrine that made him reroll wards (non-issue), Ghost fences, 2 buildings, sphinx, and a river of Light. The river mattered and was a solid deterrent.
I placed my knights fairly aggressively with the hope that I might be able to roll across his line while advancing with my infantry - and waiting for my halberds. Ugh. Greatswords were placed to control the right flank while still leaving a firing lane for the cannon. Handgunners went in the building. More forward than I'd like, but 'safe'.
So his first turn brought on his second warriors and dogs right next to my knights. He turned his first warriors (with warbanner) towards my knights, and tossed a bit of magic my way. The shrine put +1 Ld on the newly arrived Warriors. Nothing big. Just prepared to make me hurt, a lot.
I had originally thought to charge through the centrally-deployed warriors but then decided I wouldn't be able to break them with his BSB and charged the second unit with a hope to break through and run off the board for a turn. Good plan. Sort of. Even with great weapons, knights don't hit that hard. I charge, he accepts. No surprise. We'll see what happens soon enough.
Magic was a riot. My wizard decided he'd be awesome and got off Dwellers on the 1st unit of warriors with BSB. Killed 8, I think. Nice start, especially considering I'd thrown 6 dice at it, got it off, no IF, and it wasn't dispelled by the lvl 4.
Shooting was a mixed bag. Cannon fired a shot stuck right in front of the dwellered warriors. Mortar blew up. Handgunners killed another warrior leaving 6 plus the BSB. Still a LoS roll for him.
Combat was fun. His exalted challenged my lector, did one wound, and I smashed him for 3 with the mace. Smash!!! I killed one warrior, he killed 2 knights. I won, he was steadfast. With the warshrine's +1 ld buff and a BSB nearby, they didn't go anywhere. Also meant my hatred was done.
As you can see after Turn 1, things look bleak for my Knights. Very, very bleak.
The proverbial hammer just came down. Flank charge on my knights with the BSB unit. 1st hounds charge the building (stand and shoot killed 3, they panicked and were out).
Magic wasn't too great, though he got his larger unit of warriors to frenzy.
Shooting brought +1 ld again on the same unit.
Combat was what I expected. BSB challenged my lector, puked on him with the stream of corruption and dealt 2 wounds. One dead lector with no return mace smash. I do 2 wounds on the sorc lord and get butchered. Lose 4 knights. Need insane courage, fail, and get run down.
Revenge... I hoped. I found out that the river was a River of Light. Both my units got Netted. Yuck.
Magic was again awesome with another key dwellers. This time on his larger unit with his sorc lord. Killed the lord and 4ish warriors. He was reeling from not being able to dispel and by me not exploding in a cataclysmic event of light and sound. Bonus.
Cannon killed 5 warriors from the big unit after overshooting the BSB unit - I was hoping to snipe. Handgunners kill one more warrior. No combat.
Turn 3 for the warriors was interesting. The BSB unit charged my handgunners and killed 8. As I was in the building, though, I was steadfast and pushed him back. He had flanked the building leaving a juicy opening for my halberds. The river had just given me the Timewarp. I regrew my handgunners, charged with my halberds and he fled with his warriors. I charged his shrine with my great swords. They failed and got Speed of Light from the river.
Not much happened here. 2nd unit of warriors took the building from my gunners. I got dwellers off for a third time on just-rallied BSB unit and killed all but 2, who ran off the board. Greatswords hit the shrine with a parting timewarp from the river, do a wound, and start the chase. Cannon overshoots.
Here's what was left after that 3rd dwellers.
Game ended with him having 3 warriors in the building dodging cannon balls. I lost the mortar, the knights, and the lector.
Overall, this was a great learning game with a good opponent. I learned a few things to watch for and have to think more about my knights and their use. The mace was a great surprise, though the lector needed to get off his ward save.
Magic is fickle. With the lector and the Rod of Power, I owned his magic phase. I also got quite lucky with my casts and his lack of dispels. He came within one or two each time. Not to mention my luck with rolling for spells.
Random terrain adds an interesting element to the game. That river made sure that he didn't want to take a charge from my halberds - timewarped makes a horde of them terrifying.
Artillery is still useful and random, though the mortar wouldn't have done much. Handgunners were a distraction that did what I expected - killing one, or two, models at a time. Solid for knocking out those hounds.
I'm looking forward to adding more toys to my list!
