I had my third game with Empire last Saturday at one of the game days of my local gaming group. There was another game going on the table beside us - Lord of the Rings SBG.
I'm still learning, so I made some mistakes in this one, but overall I am really enjoying playing Empire. Here's my list and my opponent's:
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Young Pope (Altar/Stank) - 2,000 Points [1999 pts]
Warhammer: The Old World, Empire of Man
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++ Characters [435 pts] ++
Lector of Sigmar
Hand weapon
Great weapon
Light armour
General
War Altar of Sigmar
The White Cloak
Healing Potion
Captain of the Empire
Hand weapon
Full plate armour
Battle Standard Bearer
On foot
Empire Engineer
Hand weapon
++ Core Units [503 pts] ++
10 State Missile Troops [80 pts]
Hand weapons
Crossbows
Light armour
5 State Missile Troops
Hand weapons
Crossbows
Light armour
5 State Missile Troops
Hand weapons
Crossbows
Detachment
24 Veteran State Troops
Hand weapons
Halberds
Light armour
Drilled
Sergeant (champion)
Standard bearer [Griffon Standard]
Musician
12 Free Company Militia
Additional hand weapons
Throwing weapons (mixed weapons)
Detachment
++ Special Units [676 pts] ++
Great Cannon
Great cannon
Hand weapons
Great Cannon
Great cannon
Hand weapons
6 Inner Circle Knights
Hand weapons
Lances
Shields
Full plate armour
Stubborn
Inner Circle Preceptor (champion)
Standard bearer
Musician
6 Inner Circle Knights
Hand weapons
Lances
Shields
Full plate armour
Stubborn
Inner Circle Preceptor (champion)
Standard bearer
Musician
++ Rare Units [385 pts] ++
Steam Tank
Steam Cannon
Steam gun
Helblaster Volley Gun
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Darude Slannstorm [1997 pts]
Warhammer: The Old World, Lizardmen
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++ Characters [827 pts] ++
Slann Mage-Priest
Hand weapon
General
Battle Standard Bearer
Lore Familiar
Ruby Ring of Ruin
Becalming Cogitation
Battle Magic
Saurus Oldblood
Hand weapon
Heavy armour (Scaly skin)
Shield
Carnosaur
Blade Of Revered Tzunki
Talisman of Protection
++ Core Units [765 pts] ++
21 Temple Guard
Hand weapons
Halberds
Shields
Heavy armour (Scaly skin)
Standard bearer
Musician
14 Skink Skirmishers
Hand weapons
Javelins
Shields
Light armour (Calloused hides)
Scouts
14 Skink Skirmishers
Hand weapons
Javelins
Shields
Light armour (Calloused hides)
Vanguard
10 Saurus Warriors
Hand weapons
Shields
Heavy armour (Scaly skin)
3 Jungle Swarms
Hand weapons
++ Special Units [175 pts] ++
Bastiladon
Thunderous bludgeon
Solar Engine
Skink Crew (x3) with hand weapons and Javelins (required)
++ Rare Units [230 pts] ++
Ancient Stegadon
Hand weapons
Javelins
Great horns
Giant bow
We rolled Break Point as the scenario. I go for a fairly balanced deployment, with a unit of Inner Circle Knights on either side (in marching column), and two artillery pieces + Engineer in the centre. The infantry is arrayed to support the knights on either side, with War Altar and Steam Tank in the middle, prepared to go either direction around the tower more or less in the middle of the board.
My opponent deploys Skinks on his flanks to harass, Jungle Swarms on his left to keep me busy, and then loads his right flank with everything else.
Turn 1:
I get first turn.
Skinks vanguard up - I realize that I have mad a fairly serious deployment error and the cannon on my left flank is much more exposed than I had initially thought. Consequently I use Drilled to redress my Inner Circle Knights into a formation where they can see around the rocky terrain so I can charge the Skinks in my turn 2 if they get close enough to pitch their javelins at the cannon. The Lector prays, and successfully passes the leadership test to put Shield of Faith on the Inner Circle Knights on my left flank. My cannons open fire, but between the three of them (including the cannon on the Steam Tank) only manage to knock two wounds off the Bastiladon. The crossbowmen unleash a volley against the jungle swarms, dealing several wounds.
The Lizardmen advance, using the tower in the centre to protect their left flank. The Skinks throw fourteen poisoned javelins at the cannon on my left flank, rolling 3 6's to hit (auto-wounding with poison) and scoring two 6's to wound besides, convincingly slaying all three crew in a single volley. Ouch. The Bastiladon manages to cast Beam of Chotec magic missile from its Solar Engine for 3D3 Str 5, AP -2 hits against the Inner Circle Knights. However, thanks to Shield of Faith, the knights have 4+ armour and a 5+ ward, and only one knight is slain despite my opponent scoring several wounds against the unit.
Photos:
https://ibb.co/qp38phChttps://ibb.co/KGsmKBYhttps://ibb.co/2591kpchttps://ibb.co/26LjRBmTurn 2 & 3:
The Inner Circle Knights on the left flank charge the Skinks, losing one knight to stand and shoot, and another being killed by dangerous terrain. However, the three remaining knights hammer into the Skinks, hit with all of their attacks (that in-built reroll 1's to hit is very nice, to say the least) and wound with all their attacks. In the end, five Skinks are slain in the ensuing melee (four being spitted on the lances of the knights, and one being kicked to death by the hooves of a knight's warhorse). The Skinks break and flee, and are run down by the knights, who pursue off the board. I advance with several of my units, being careful to ensure the Lizardmen will not have any charges in their turn, while opening up better firing lanes for my artillery. The Inner Circle Knights on the right advance behind the building to block line of sight to the Skinks, so I can throw them up the board with a 21 inch march in turn 3 and get into the Lizardmen's backlines. The Steam Tank manages to blap the Bastiladon after the remaining Great Cannon rolls a 1 to wound. The crossbowmen continue plinking wounds off the Jungle Swarms in front of them. The Helblaster opens up with an epic 24 shot volley, slaying 6 Temple Guard.
The Lizardmen advance a bit further while trying to avoid giving their Imperial foes any easy charges. The Slann casts a bunch of spells, but incredibly Witchbane from War Altar is proving to be a fairly significant hindrance. The spells that do go through do some chip damage here and there. The Lector has a 3+ ward against flaming attacks, which is proving very useful against the fire magic employed by the Slann.
Turn 3 sees us playing more footsie around the tower in the centre. The Saurus try to corner the Inner Circle Knights as they come back onto the board, but they're outmanoeuvred by the much faster cavalry, and end up being left flat-footed. The Inner Circle on the right flank make a 21 inch march past both the Skinks and the Jungle Swarms, and are now in my opponent's backfield. The Helblaster unleashes another tremendous volley against the Temple Guard, mowing down five more.
My opponent races his Skinks around the now exposed flank of the crossbowmen once the threat of the knights is safely in another part of the battlefield, and sets up charges. The cannons fail to do anything in turn 3, between rolling 1's to wound and my opponent passing his saves, but the threat of the shooting forces him to engage the Empire in melee. Consequently he declares three charges this turn - Stegadon into the Veteran Staties, Temple Guard into the Steam Tank, and Oldblood on Carnosaur into the Lector on War Altar. He makes all three charges.
The Stegadon crashes into the Veteran Staties - total bloodbath, but they manage to hold with some help from the BSB and merely FBIGO. The Griffon Standard was unfortunately no help whatsoever. I think in hindsight I ranked them too wide. Oh well.
The Steam Tank won combat against the Temple Guard, but they stick.
The Oldblood has a weapon called the Blade of Revered Tzunki, which is Str 6 and negates all armour and ward saves entirely, but nevertheless the Lector survives with two wounds left, and, thanks to Stubborn, FBIGO's over the Steam Tank, which the Oldblood now has to pursue into - from what I understood, the Carnosaur becomes frenzied once it does a wound in melee.
Photos:
https://ibb.co/VwrhQDphttps://ibb.co/sFv1M9Shttps://ibb.co/JzwJ3y2Turn 4 & 5:
The Lector quaffs his healing potion, which unfortunately only manages to restore a single wound, and puts the Hammer of Sigmar prayer onto himself. He charges into the remnant of the Temple Guard, but is too close to proc impact hits. Shooting doesn't do a whole lot this turn, apart from some chip damage here and there. The Jungle Swarms unit only has 4-5 wounds left at this point, and is completely destroyed by a volley from the crossbowmen.
The Skinks cut down both crossbow detachments with successive volleys from their javelins, but the parent regiment luckily manages to pass their panic checks. The Helblaster puts two volleys into the Skinks during these turns. At this point, both my opponent and I are getting close to our break points, and as a result, I am trying to remove unit strength from his army where I can. The first volley whiffs, but the second savages the Skinks and they panic, fleeing off the board at the beginning of my opponent's turn 5.
The Stegadon runs over the rest of the Veteran Staties over these two rounds of combat, although to their credit they die to the last man rather than fleeing.
The Lector keeps Hammer of Sigmar up on himself during all rounds of combat against the Temple Guard, and they also are slain to the last...lizard. The Lector doesn't have that many attacks, but hitting on 3's, rerolling 1's and wounding on 2's rerolling 1's is a crazy combo. He is basically hitting and wounding with all of his attacks every turn. I want the Lector to charge my opponent's small unit of Saurus, as doing this would break his army and end the game as an Empire victory, but he overruns too far and they end up being outside of his charge arc. Whoops...
The Oldblood manages to destroy the Steam Tank after a very grindy combat over several successive rounds. Even with no saves (thanks to the Blade of Revered Tzunki) the Steam Tank ensures that the Oldblood doesn't accomplish much of anything for the rest of the game.
Some other incidental things occurred - my Lector got blasted by a fireball from the Slann, which rolled 11 hits and 6 wounds, despite the War Altar being toughness 5...
However, the Lector saved 5 wounds on his 4+ armour, and the last wound was saved by the 3+ ward against flaming attacks from the White Cloak. You love to see it.
Anyway, by the top of my turn 6, the Lector and both units of Inner Circle Knights had manoeuvred to launch a final glorious charge against the Saurus Warriors that, if successful, would win this battle for the Empire. My opponent did his best to line up his Slann, Stegadon, and Oldblood to counter-charge if any charges were failed...
My opponent also dropped a pillar of fire in front of my Lector and the knights preparing to charge his Saurus.
Turn 6:
The Lector prayed, and Sigmar answered his prayers by bestowing His blessing (Shield of Faith) on the Inner Circle Knights that were going to have to pass through the pillar of flame. The Lector was able to pass through the pillar of fire unscathed, but unfortunately, the knights rolled really badly on their saves and, despite Shield of Faith, three of them were slain. The Lector sadly failed his charge, but the two units of Inner Circle Knights easily made their charges, so between the two units five knights hammered home.
Most of the Saurus unit was lanced in the ensuing combat (man oh man, hitting on 3+ and rerolling 1's with strength 6 lances is brutal), and the knights won combat by a convincing margin, with the retaliatory attacks from the Saurus spanking harmlessly off the armour of the knights, despite the Saurus having AP -1 on their hand weapons. The Saurus fled 11 inches, and one of the units of knights failed to pursue successfully, but the other rolled an 11 with a little help from Swiftstride and ran down the remaining lizards.
By the end of my turn 6, my opponent was still about 6 unit strength shy of breaking my army, and he opted to concede, resulting in a narrow victory for the Empire!
Photos:
https://ibb.co/nz04vhVhttps://ibb.co/wMhqFrd
