First of all I got away from the idea to make a War Altar Grandmaster list. as the Waraltar would mainly mean that I have to keep the list close together mitigating a huge advantage of a fast heavy cav list therefore I went back to a priest in two big units aproach. Here is what I came up with:
Ok the list - The Beast and the Saint
I will say some words to each unit but overall the funky part is that I have four elements that double as Hammers and as an anvil but check it out for yourself.
2 Lords: 491 Pts. 19.6%
3 Heroes: 449 Pts. 17.9%
4 Core Units: 625 Pts. 25.0%
2 Elite Units: 435 Pts. 17.4%
2 Rare Units: 500 Pts. 20.0%
*************** 2 Lords ***************
Wizard Lord, Level 4 Upgrade
+ Dispell Scroll
+ Lore of the Beasts
- - - > 225 Points
Why the lore of beasts? On a lvl 4? Well because it is a heavy cav list. Wyssans means that the two main units are S5....in subsequent rounds so yes they are mounted greatswords that would hit on a S of 7 on the charge toughness 4 also helps to redue losses immensly, Oh the horses will also hit with S4 and hatred and don´t forget that you always can drop it on a stank to make it S7 T7. Also the character buff spells are amazing for this list, Grandmaster with +3 Attacks? Or if it really depends the wizard could try to get more characters into contact and grant them all +3 Attacks and +3 S, Anraheirs curse is another candy spell and helps to diminish the power of huge horde units the list might otherwise struggle again, also it grants -1 to hit in cc later in the game. So some nice spells, we should avoid curse of crows and kadons transformation the rest are all useful. Oh and on top of this +1 to cast on cav and chariots basically making our caster a lvl 5.
Grand Master, Shield, Lance
+ Runefang, The ohter Trickster's Shard
- - - > 266 Points
Nothing fancy here but not to be underestimated as he can go toe to toe with everything except a Vampire lord with blood fury...and well even with him should the Beast mage grant him +3 on Toughness, only drawback should we manage to grant his unit a 5+ wardsave they have to reroll them.
*************** 3 Heroes ***************
Captain of the Empire
+ Lance, Full Plate Armour
+ Pegasus
+ Dawnstone, Charmed Shield
+ Battlestandard Bearer
- - - > 173 Points
Bringing us the rerolls exactly where we want them the charmed shield and hiding him should keep him alive for the 1-2 turns of our artillery (3 cannons) to destroy enemy warmachines and leave him the option of free mobility on the battlefield...oh and with 7 Attacks at S9!!! he also can kick some ass (you see what spell is key in my planning but even with wyssan he is very solid in dishing out some face slaps). Questin here for everyone....would the Pegasus also get +3 Attacks and +3 S???
Luthor Huss, Prophet of Sigmar
- - - > 155 Points
Luthor ...is Luthor is Luthor, underpriced as hell he is one sexy bugger leading the Reiksguard to victory. Do I have to say it? +d3 S/T/A/Ws and on top of that +3 A/+S could make this guy to a god of battle truly Sigmar reborn with potential 8 Attacks at S10.
at Ws 8 that is. BAM!
Warrior Priest
+ Steed, Barding, HEavy Armour, Shield
+ Crown of Command, - - - > 120 Points
Hatred granter and making the IC unit of the Grandmaster stubborn his prayers might help the unit to let others feel the pain. Also him and Luthor make the Saint part of the Armies name.
*************** 4 Core Units ***************
10 Archers
+ 5 Archers
+ 5 Archers
- - - > 140 Points
Bunker for the mage, chaff reducers and well in difficult terrain they are stubborn too so the largish unit can stick around for a while if there ever might be the need. Don´t forget that the archers in the last TDG saved our bacon.
9 Knights of the Order, Lances, Inner Circle, Musician, Champion
- - - > 245 Points
Warrior Priest and Grandmaster in here, one of the four hammers that is also stubborn on a ld of 9 even without any buffs the hatred and the high strength means that this unit should punch some holes in the enemy lines. Musician is in to allow for a redeploy and move away from threats should we be blocked by chaff in an important situation.
5 Knights of the Order, Lances, Champion
- - - > 120 Points
redirecters, chaff unters, artillery hunters the champion at +10 points for another S5 attack ont he charge is too good not to take
5 Knights of the Order, Lances, Champion
- - - > 120 Points
Same as their buddies.
*************** 2 Elite Units ***************
10 Reiksguard, Musician, Standardbearer, Champion
+ Standard of Discipline
- - - > 315 Points
Lead by Luthor these guys also come at ld 9 even if they are operating far away from the General (not unlikely) resulting that you have to bring them down one by one their high armour and S4 means that they should be able to grind down infantry blocks in a couple of turns too. Luthor helps in killing enemy characters by some hammer to the face.
Great Cannon
- - - > 120 Points
I know I know two stanks shoudl be enough but well what can I say I really like to keep one cannon as the no pivot of the stank makes it sometimes hard to shoot the stuff I want to shoot also what is better than two cannons? Thats right three cannons, these fellows would really profit from the War alter prayers because flaming cannons are also fun but well I can´t have all the candy..can I?
*************** 2 Rare Units ***************
Steam Tank
- - - > 250 Points
Steam Tank
- - - > 250 Points
Dual stank is about the most brutal thing we can do with the new Empire army book, they give us the option to just sit back and shoot cannonballs with no fear at all of some chaff units coming by to kill the crew or we can go full throttle ahead smashing into units eitehr destroying smaller ones outright or tarpitting units no matter how huge they are either to kill everything around or ride in with the cavalry in the flank or rear grinding the unit down. Oh he can also act as hammer should our knights be stuck somewhere with the knights riding the fleeing enemies down.
Total Points Empire : 2499
So it is unique because of Lore of Beasts, because we can completely dictate the flow of battle do fast elements and a mobile bsb to help our already very solid elements stubborn on 9 out(even the archers are very fast and versatile)we also have enough firepower to sit back and let the enemy come towards us thinning the lines out a bit (monsters and other warmachines like organ guns or hellblasters that would otherwise threaten our knights) before starting a devestating countercharge. Some additional Info, I wouldn´t use pistoliers in a heavy cav list, First I thought that two units of 5-6 would be grand but if you really think about it one big advantage is that the targets are "hard" so small arms fire won´t do much agains the heavy armoured list so all small arms fire units are reduced to redundancy 40 or more repeater crossbows won´t put a dent into the list as only one in six wounds causes a casualty so only 12 hits so usually the 40 shots will kill one knight...boohooo. If I add in "soft" targets like pistoliers I take the small arms units back out of their redundancy they can kill my pistoliers and gain their points back. While at first thought everything scream yes Knights and pistoliers, they are one of the worst choices one can make in a heavy cav list. Especially against dark elves.
So VOTE for me VOTE for success and VIctory of the Empire.