Well. Midwest Rampage 7 has come and gone. I brought Empire this year after getting comp bombed last year with my dwarves and not liking it. For reference in the reports. The TO, Jim Emerick rolled up all the terrain for the various boards several months ago and assigned tables to people who wanted to build them. Building and bringing a table's worth of terrain gave you full points for display board for your paint score and there was also a prize for best table. I did not make a table.
Here was my list.
GotE: GW, FP, 4+ Ward, Crown of Command
L4 Shadows: Dispel Scroll (in hindsight, Metal would have probably worked better all weekend)
BSB: Sword of Might, Dawn Stone, Enchanted Shield, FP
WP: HA, Shield, Helm of the Skavenslayer
WP: HA, GW
ME: Pigeon Bombs
ME: Pigeon Bombs
50 Spearmen: Full Command: + 20 Halberds + 10 Crossbows
10 Inner Circle Knights: Lances: Banner of the Eternal Flame
30 Greatswords: Full Command: Standard of Discipline + 15 Halberds
4 Demigryph Knights: Lances: Full Command
Cannon
Cannon
Helblaster
Helblaster
Celestial Hurricanum
Game 1: Dawn Attack vs Dwarves.
Army list to be added later (in bag downstairs. too lazy to get right now)
His deployment and the terrain on the board hurt him mightily. He had 3 combat blocks IIRC, Hammerers, GW Longbeards, Ironbreakers. Longbeards were on my left, Ironbreakers were in the middle and his hammerers were on my right, initially deployed in an Acropolis of Heroes, but moved out his turn 1. He was also very light on artillery with 1 cannon, 1 grudge thrower and 1 organ gun and an anvil.
My deployment was much more balanced with my only out of center unit were my demigryphs which were opposite his hammerers and one of my helblasters was on my left opposite one of his cannons.
Spells for my L4 were all the augments/hexes for this one.
General line for my main battleline: 20 halberds, spears, crossbows, helblaster, greatswords, 15 halberds, lancers, demigryphs.
His turn 1: He moved forward with his units, popping the hammerers out of the acropolis of heroes, popping his longbeards into a normal building.
My infantry units were all moving pretty much directly forward turn 1, including the crossbows which didn't have a hugely clear shot turn 1 so they advanced and my knights were actually hit by Master Rune of Challenge turn 1 and forced to charge the Hammerers and my demigryphs moved into position to flank if the lancers held. One of my cannons popped his organ gun turn 1 with a perfect shot and one of the helblasters popped a gyro as well. The other helblaster killed some thunderers. The close combat had me kill a few hammerers but he killed 3 knights in return including doing 3 overkill from his lord in a challenge (dice failed me there on AS) but due to the acropolis being in range I was stubborn and made my break check holding them in place.
His turn 2: Miners pop up in my backline. He also pops out the Longbeards from the building. At this point he has a tough choice. He can anvil charge the Miners into one of 2 targets, a cannon or a helblaster. What he does instead is anvil charges the Longbeards into my 20 Halberd Detachment. They do some damage (I think they killed something like 8 of the halberds and lost a few in return). I make my LD 9 Stubborn Hold the Line break check which we wasn't expecting me to have. The lancers lose 1 more and continue to hold. This game I was rolling out of my keister with respect to armor saves on the knights. They once again pass their stubborn break check no problem.
My turn 2: Demigryphs go into the flank. In order to get my crossbows out of the way so I can flank the longbeards with my parent unit to save the halberds and prevent the longbeards from going up my line, I charge the crossbows at the ironbreakers needing an 11 on the dice to get to them. I roll boxcars for the charge distance and get there "Inconcievable!" was the comment. The helblaster on the left turns towards the miners and blows them off the table doing 8 wounds and panicking them off the table. The demigryphs take off a rank of hammerers this turn, taking 1 wound in return and a few more knights die. He loses combat but makes his stubborn 10 no problem. In the longbeard fight I do enough damage that he's on snakes to hold and I break him and run him down, pursuing with both so the spears aren't going to get flank charged when the crossbows inevitably lose combat to the ironbreakers and get run down (which DOES happen in that combat phase)
Rest of the battle: Can't remember most of the maneuvers for both sides at this point. The IC Lancers do eventually break from the combat and flee but the demigryphs hold that turn and the hammerers turn to face. That combat will last until the end of the game with the hammerers being ground out to the man on turn 5 and the lord finishing off the last demigryph on bottom of 6. The only other unit that he has left on the board at this point is his Anvil.
Result: Resounding win for the Empire. 20 Battle Points, 9 Best General Points (BG was done as a separate set of points from Battle points) 1-0
Game 2: Vs John Wenger and his Dark Elves: Meeting Engagement.
His list in a nutshell: L4 Metal, L2 Death, L2 Dark Magic (extra spell), Big Block of Corsairs, Big Block of Spears, Big Block of Executioners, Hydra, Cauldron, Big Block of Xbows, 5 Dark Riders, 7 Shades, 1 cold one chariot.
There is a huge river that pretty much spans the the border of a table quadrant. It ends up being a Boiling Flood. That screws up all sorts of battle plans.
The key to this battle was the initial spell roll for my L4: Dice. 1,4,5,6. No duplicates and NEITHER hex. Probably the WORST initial spell roll for facing Dark Elves. I converted Steed to Miasma. He had 24 crossbow warriors come in late. I had my Hurricanium and one of the Warrior Priests come in late. He gets the initial turn. One of the objectives is to succeed in getting into combat on turn 1. The only unit of his that did NOT stumble and fail the charge was his Cold One Chariot into my Knights. His blessing from his Cauldron was +1 Attack onto the executioners.
The Chariot does 3 wounds to the knights but they make their steadfast. That combat will go until turn 5 when I finally break the darn thing.
Other highlights as it goes. I cast a Pit of Shades on the Executioners on a lark turn 1. He fails to dispel. It scatters onto the Cauldron. Bye Bye Cauldron. The Helblasters over the course of a couple turns rip the Executioners to pieces. Hurricanium at one point manages to have his spear brick do a 180.
Lowlights: Demigryphs charge the RXB guys turn 1, Fluff their attack rolls BADLY and break and run away and never take part in the battle again. My cannons end up useless, misfiring and sticking in the mud. My Wizard outside of the pit fun fails pretty miserably, The one turn he gets Mindrazor off on my spears who are in combat with his spears is the turn that my dice fluff HORRIBLY and I actually blow my stubborn 9 roll and get run down.
Massive loss to the Dark Elves: 8 Battle Points (5 for loss, 2 for major objective, 1 for minor objective (killing cauldron), 0 BG points
Game 3: Watchtower vs double toad Lizard. Having seen his list in action 2 weeks before at a primer I ran and just because I expect it out of toad run Lizards anyway, I had my wizard deploy outside of a unit to protect from cupped hands. There's another river on this table and it TOO turns out to be a boiling flood..... That being said, are Salamander units really immune to it due to having the aquatic rule?
I have all 3 hexes and Pit of Shades this game.
I controlled Watchtower but had nothing I could put it. He scouted a 5 man chameleon skink unit right by the tower. He moved them in turn 1. BIG MISTAKE.
His turn 1 he moves his death toad into a wizard's tower that's right by the watchtower and promptly throws 6 dice at a big P-Sun and IFs it. The movement puts the template through my spears and off the board while also nicking 3 halberds. 3 halberds and only TWO spears die to the P-Sun. Miscast is sent to my l4. he rolls a 7 for the result. Nobody's in base contact with the wizard so no damage is done. He loses most of the rest of his pool. He then casts a buff or two on his temple guard. One of his saurus units is 4 inches away from the tower at this point.
My turn I put my spears near his TG, Charge my Greatswords towards the tower but trip going 4 inches. My l4 then manages to get a movement reducing miasma onto the saurus that could get into the tower and reduce them to 1 movement for the next turn so they can't get in. I turn 1 helblaster on teh temple guard, killing about 8 IIRC and my other one onto his skink + Krox unit killing 6 skinks and a krox. One cannon spends most of its game shooting into the building holding the death slann, eventually killing it even though it had the 2+ ward vs shooting.
My turn 2: I get the greatswords into the watchtower this time wiping out the chameleon skinks.
Long story short: Game ends on turn 5. he's got his TG, 1 sally unit, and 1 saurus unit way out position left on the board. I have the demigryphs and the Greatswords still in the tower.
Win for Empire: 19 BP (Failed to wipe out all his wizards...), 0 BG points (we tied on everything for best general)
Day 1 results. 2-1 for the empire. Things are looking up.
Game 4: Battleline vs Brettonians.
His Trebuchets were Laser Guided. My dice decided to utterly betray me. Massive loss for the empire.
Funny thing happened in this one though. Mid game. Hurricanium is down to 1 wound thanks to taking 3 from a direct hit from a treb and then 1 from archers. It's in the flank zone of his grail knight unit (which was whittled from 9 to 5 at this point) and I decide to go for broke and charge it so my helblaster doesn't get munched so quickly. I charge. Get 6 impact hits. Wound with all, he fails 4 armor saves, fails 2 ward saves. He then whiffs utterly with the remaining knight. in base contact. He saves all wounds from the regular attacks from the hurricanium. He rolls boxcars for his break check (bsb WAY out of range). I run down the grail knights going 9 inches which puts me in a wildwood. I fail my DT check so the hurricanium ALSO falls apart...
Game 5: Blood and Glory vs Dwarves.
Very different type of list. 2 Cannon, 1 GT, 2 Gyro, 3 combat bricks, 3 units of Crossbows, Anvil.
My dice did even more betrayal. One of my cannons blows up turn 1. One of my babysat Helblasters BLOWS UP turn 1 . His crossbows are uber accurate against my greatswords, his GT is laser guided as expected. His anvil is #$%@#$% insane!!!!. he uses it for Ancient Power Wrath and Ruin in 4 of the 5 turns the game went before he finally broke me and it goes off each time. This one was just a complete and utter curbstomp in the stunties favor.
Final results for MWR 2012. 2-3
That being said, I had the best record for an empire player at MWR this year.
