Lion Chariot Smash army 2500 (Updated with new book)

[Domine Nox]

Well I can see how that would go sour. Wulfric is kinda outgunning him. Shame about the forced accept. I think you need to give Korhil a chance against more appropriate opponents.

[Ghogra]

I really need to move somewhere where I can play more than once every three months. That said I did get an interesting game in over the the weekend. I played a two on two 2500 points each game. Featured were Empire, Dwarves, Warriors of Chaos and my Chariot Smash High Elves. Because there was no clear way to divide up teams we drew names out of a hat and I ended up allied with Chaos. My list:

Achmage, Book of Hoeth, Heavens

Noble BSB, Shield of the Merwyrm, Sword of Might, HA, Lion Cloak
Korhil (This was a level 2 mage with beasts and a scroll but I swapped it due to shared power dice with chaos)

35 Spears Full Command, Banner of Discipline
5 Reaver bows and spears, musician
14 Archers, musician, standard

Tiranoc Chariot
2 Lion Chariots
18 White Lions, Full command, Banner of the World Dragon
12 Swordmasters Full Command
10 Dragon Princes Full Command Fire Banner

2 Bolt Throwers
Eagle

My "ally" had:

level 4 tzeench mage on a war shrine shrine

hero BSB with razor standard, tzeench
hero with ASF stupid helm, Tzeench

25 Warriors, shields, tzeench full command X2
10 warhounds x2
5 Marauder Horseman
2 Gore beast chariots

The enemy had:
Empire

Big horde of halberds with General on foot and runefang sword, a BSB with the stubborn crown
Big block of great swords
10 knights
20 crossbows
20 skirmishers with bows
great cannon
celestial chariot thing
3 Demigriffon knights
level 4 light mage
and a scattering of warpriests just channeling power dice

Dwarfs

Big block of hammerers
Big Block of longbeards
Big block of dwarfs
10 fire gun shooting dwarfs
Flame cannon
BSB
Dwarf king with shield bearers

Might be somethings missing from the enemy army but that was the gist of it. My elves deployed mostly on the right flank with the warriors to the left. Across from me was mostly empire while the dwarfs camped behind a river on the left across from the warriors. In the early stages of the game magic was mostly shut down on both sides with a few small spells going off. I advanced in untypical fashion and used my eagle and reavers to redirect the demigriffons off the table and open up a charge from my Dragon Princes on his now weakened empire knights (thanks to the bolt throwers) which we handily won.

In the center I shot the crossbows off the table and put my White Lions and one lion chariot into his greatswords and level 4(also weakened by my shooting). With the aid of Iceshard blizzard the white lions finished these off but left the fight at half strength. They were able to reform and set up against the returning demigriffons and clean them up.

My swordmasters, spears (lead by Korhil and the BSB) and the second chariot went into his stubborn halberds. The swordmasters kill droves of the humans but were wiped out in return. Korhil ate a champion in a challenge but then fluffed his next challenge against the general who easily carved up Korhil (again Korhil fails to do anything meaningful in a game for me). The stubborn halberds held for a few turns but my ASF spears slowly ground them down. I ended the combat short the swordmasters and both my characters, but the spears were still in fighting strength.

Meanwhile on the other side of the field my "ally" and the dwarfs were slugging out a mean match in the middle of the river. Both sides were grinding each other to dust. The dwarfs seemed to be gaining the upper hand when they polished off one unit of warriors and smashed into the Lord level caster on the war shrine wiping him out too. But the winds of magic blew our way and since I had finished off most of the humans I started dropping comets into the middle of the giant melee. It was pretty awesome slaughtering droves of helpless troops as they were locked in combat.

One of the best moments of the game was when the stupid chaos exalted hero killed a dwarf champion and turned into a demon prince. The new prince then charged into the dwarf king. The two great champions battled beneath the falling stars but the dwarf laid the new demon prince low. But at what cost? The Dwarf king looked around seeing his army and that of his human allies dead in a river of blood. The glittering host of elves however stood mostly undiminished and had encircled him while he was distracted by the chaos host.

With that my enemies declared the elves the victor! It was a great game with some epic moments and it really felt good dropping comets on both friend and foe (though I never really claim to be friends with the forces of chaos).

What I learned:

*I softened the right targets with shooting, though I underestimated the stubborn halberds.
*Korhil still seems overpriced and underperforms, though I love the model.
*I actually felt like my magic phase went better when I had to split my dice with my ally. It made me focus on what was most important to cast and take a few more risks with the number of dice I use.


I cannot figure out the right character distribution for the army. I like the Archmage and the BSB but it is that third slot that fails me. Korhil makes the swords stubborn and should eat challengers for breakfast, but never seems to pan out. The Scroll caddy is nice with beasts but only tends to shine when the archmage blows himself up and I struggle to find the right place to put him. I like the idea of the griffon noble, but haven't seen him really perform up to his point level. I tossed around the idea of the Loremaster as I think he could provide a good amount of support casting and still be able to fight up front, but I haven't found a build I like for him yet. Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?

[Antheron]

Korhil is much like the High Elf army in general. He hits like a tonne of bricks, but he's fragile if what he hits survives. With two wounds, toughness 3 and a 4+ save he's going to die to any character mid-level and above if he doesn't kill them in one turn. For me, characters should compliment an army and cover weaknesses - so I tend to like High Elf characters to be able to take damage and shrug it off. This is especially true if I want them in challenges to mitigate killing-machine characters that my opponent might thrown out. You can still use the same model, but equip him as a noble with a lion pelt and great axe. Then you can give the guy some survival tools. Korhil is stubborn, which is great, but if he's going to get pasted in the first round of combat then that become by the by - stubborn is only a benefit in battles of attrition, and he's not an attrition-friendly character.

I did see him used in a chariot at a tournament though, and the combination of his attacks and the chariot's hitting power meant his flimsiness was less of an issue as most things he hit tended to die instantly.