Going to my first tourney, which list should I use?

[theviking]

So I signed up for my first ever WHFB tourney next month. It's reputed to be more fun than competitive, with a strong holiday theme and prizes for silly things like marching an infantry unit to the enemy deployment zone and back or breaking a horde unit with another horde and yelling waagghh!!! Tourney is 2000 points, three games, special characters are allowed. Here's what I have for sure:

Archmage, lvl 4, life, unkillable build, silver wand
BSB, AoC/Dawn/GW

35 Spears, FC
21 WL, FC, BoS
2x Eagles

And here are a few ways I might fill up the rest:

Option 1:
Korhil
14 SM
14 archers, flaming banner
RBT

Option 2:
Mage, Lvl 2, fire, seerstaff, fireball and flaming sword.
17 archers
8 DP

Option 3:
Drop the third character entirely and use the points for SM instead.

I like the first option because Korhil and SM are awesome, and it has some ranged power with the RBT.

I like the second option because DP might make a better hammer, and the fire mage + archers is one of my favorite units. Also one scenario involves capturing tokens so the DP speed will be useful.

I like the third option because three characters is a lot for 2000 points, and I can have both my DP and my SM, at the expense of the support the characters provide.

Which one would you use, or would you do something else altogether?

[Malossar]

Ok solid start! I have a few tourny's under my belt some thoughts that you may find helpful:


I wouldn't take Korhil, first of all most people claim Special Characters are OP, even if they are not, if you roll amazing with korhil or he's at the center of one combat and he pulls through, your opponent will instantly scream, " ZOMG WTF OP CHEEZE L2PLAY NOOB" ahem...

Instead i would take a back up mage, make him/her a Lvl1 or Two, doesn't really matter but i would stick with a level 1, probably take the Metal Signature spell due to the fact that he has a high damage potential against targets that the rest of the army may struggle with. Give him the Annulian Crystal, best magic defense item hands down. Much better use of points than Korhil.

Next i would drop Talismann of Saphery from the archmage, he still has a bagillion things to worry about other than something with a magic pointy stick. Plus he's rocking life so he can easily make back wounds.

Add 14 Sword Masters. Solid Decision

I also added in the 14 archers with Banner of Eternal Flame, not a bad way to get flaming into the army...

And Finally i added in everyone's favorite way to spend 150pts. Dragon Princes!!!! Most bang for your buck hands down.

After all these changes you were left with exactly 8 points, add the Iron Curse Icon to your White Lion Champion just incase

Hope i didn't totally jack your army list,

Cal

[dabber]

I don't see the point of Khorhil. If an enemy can win combat against Swordmasters, they are perfectly capable of just killing Khorhil in the process. His Stubborn won't come into play, and his hitting power is not worth his cost.

[kbolster12345]

Ok solid start! I have a few tourny's under my belt some thoughts that you may find helpful:


I wouldn't take Korhil, first of all most people claim Special Characters are OP, even if they are not, if you roll amazing with korhil or he's at the center of one combat and he pulls through, your opponent will instantly scream, " ZOMG WTF OP CHEEZE L2PLAY NOOB" ahem...

then I would incourage these people to get with 8th ed. Whining about SC is so 7th ed.

[Axiem]

I don't see the point of Khorhil. If an enemy can win combat against Swordmasters, they are perfectly capable of just killing Khorhil in the process. His Stubborn won't come into play, and his hitting power is not worth his cost.

This +1.

A smart opponent will just target him and your plan goes down the drain. It would be actually better to just take ten more Swordmasters and win combat than risk losing and having to rely on Stubborn.

Axiem

[theviking]

then I would incourage these people to get with 8th ed. Whining about SC is so 7th ed.

Agreed. Also the tourney organizer has allowed SC's, so they are to be expected.

If I took Korhil, he would go with the spears and possibly be the general. I would probably be stubborn from steadfast anyways, but against horde armies I thought it might be useful to have two stubborn anvils while my hammers get into position and charge. I am leaning more towards the second mage though, along with the archers and DP. Let's call this one option 4,

Mage, lvl 2, metal, seerstaff, searing doom and glittering blades.
14 archers, move flaming banner here
7 DP, std, banner of swiftness
RBT

I dropped the talisman and wand on the AM to make it fit, I never used all five spells anyways, and now I have a second caster to split dice with. I think life bloom should keep him healthy if he does lose any wounds.

I like the metal mage idea, he works similar to the fire mage but gives me an answer to heavy armor besides the WL. Metal does have higher casting values though, not sure I like that...

Flaming archers followed by the RBT should be enough to handle the hydra/aboms etc.

My DP always seem to lose a few before combat and lose their punch, hopefully the extra bodies will help with that.

Any thoughts? Am I missing anything?

[Caradryal]

If your intent on taking a special character personally i'd lose 35 pts somewhere else and take caradryan.

[finreir]

Ok solid start! I have a few tourny's under my belt some thoughts that you may find helpful:


I wouldn't take Korhil, first of all most people claim Special Characters are OP, even if they are not, if you roll amazing with korhil or he's at the center of one combat and he pulls through, your opponent will instantly scream, " ZOMG WTF OP CHEEZE L2PLAY NOOB" ahem...

then I would incourage these people to get with 8th ed. Whining about SC is so 7th ed.

khorhil isnt op but at nearly every of the main tournies sc are banned. At both clubs i play at sc are only allowed by invitation and at my house the same. Moaning about SC is as relevant to eighth as it is seventh im not trying to rant at you but Teclis, Vitlictch, Kairos, SKulltaker, Thorek, Emperor, Khalida, Idiot beastman thing, and tbh the list goes into a couple of dozen change the game for the worse. I would never play Teclis against a friend unless we kinda state we can, cause otherwise im not going to get many more friendlies and i don't take him to tournies cause i like to talk to people at the bar afterwards. So LordCal is right it is best to avoid sc at tournies full stop and if you come across someone else playing one and they wanna Thorek bomb you to death with 3 grudge throwers and organ guns etc then be safe in the knowledge they are THAT GUY that everyone is talking about and willing people to beat (ps the refs talk also).

[theviking]

khorhil isnt op but at nearly every of the main tournies sc are banned.

... Thorek bomb you to death with 3 grudge throwers and organ guns...

A dorf gunline is hardly going to need Thorek to beat most armies into a bloody pulp every time. That said, I agree that some SC's tend to take a good list and put it over the top, to the point where there's almost no counter. I wonder though, of all the SC's how many really break the game? Only a handful of lords and one or two heroes, and most armies don't have anyone broken at all. I would submit that it's just a few bad apples that spoil it for the rest.

I know the decision to allow SC's was controversial within the group, so it will be interesting to see what happens. Given the casual atmosphere I don't expect to see much cheese.