Lords
Annointed on Frostheart; enchanted shield, dawnstone, crown of command
Heroes
Caradryan on Ashtari
Lv 2 High Mage on steed, ring of fury, dispel scroll
Core
15 silver helms, full command
5 reavers, full command
5 reavers, full command
Special
5 dragon princes, banner, champ, flaming banner
Rare
2x frostheart pheonixes
And so the flying circus is born. I've had a lot of trouble adapting my thinking to this list, both in its creation and delivery on the tabletop last night. It revolves around movement, target saturation and target selection, has a really low model count, low magic potential and is generally IMO quite unforgiving. All in all, not my natural playstyle (which is part of why I want to experiment with it). Also I love list building, so here's a chance to get to it again .
My initial thoughts on this list:
- Neither hero has charmed shield/crown so they're both relying on their natural ward saves and target saturation
My magic potential is really low so prioritising what to let through/dispel is crucial...mind you, I also don't have that many viable targets for spells
I am *really* vulnerable to war machines
No BSB could really hurt
I don't think Caradryan adds much to this list, he seems pretty redundant
Plan is for silver helms to break steadfast and for annointed to be able to hold a unit up while the rest of my army gets into position to charge next turn
Chaff clearance more or less has to be done by my main units!
In an army where every point matters, I don't think this is a very optimised list
So last night I took this list out against a fairly friendly WoC army:
Nurgle DP with stuff
lv2 tzeench sorcerer with unit
3 skullcrushers
2 chariots
hellcannon
18 tzeench warriors sword and board
18 nurgle halberds
chimera
This battle was riddled with errors of judgement and some bad luck but was an excellent learning experience and really good fun. There was very little scenery of import for this game.
Deployment:
I deployed both my reavers centrally to not give too much away and he put his hell cannon on a hill on the right flank. I'm now out of chaff and need to start deploying serious units, with no idea of how he'll set up. Still, I have a vague idea that I want him to be central and for me to pincer him, so I deploy my dragon princes centre left on the basis that they can cover regroup to a more favourable position if need be. I hold my silver helm 'bus' back til last and deploy both pheonixes centre right, opposite the hellcannon.
This was maybe my first major mistake...I identified the hellcannon as my biggest threat and decided to neutralise it, whereas I'd have been much better off trying to get into the safety of combat on my own terms rather than trying to angle towards it. With hindsight maybe I should have focussed on trying to multi-charge one unit of warriors at a time to collect the 'easy' points, these being the only units I could actually thunderstomp. He counter deployed his chariots and skullcrushers on the right flank, protecting the cannon, and we then further crowded the right flank with the DP/Annointed face-off. He deployed both warrior units centrally, with the nurgle warriors being far enough right that they wouldn't see the game.
I placed first and finished first so get +1 to roll-off...and lost.
WoC Turn 1
I forgot to vanguard, so off to a great start!
Both warrior units marched forward harmlessly. The crushers and chariots edged forward, baiting me to charge (20") with my annointed and/or helms, and the DP jumped over them to truly taunt me. The chimera does likewise, taunting both pheonixes and caradryan. Magic zipp but the hellcannon removed a rank of helms before they'd even got into their stirrups.
Elves Turn 1
Dilemmas. WoC are forcing a stand-off, which with more magic and artillery, they would win...so I figure I pretty much have to charge. I realise being drawn into these sorts of decisions is really bad with this sort of list, but what choice was there? So I declare the helms on the DP with a frosty support and my tanky annointed on the skullcrushers to protect the flank of my knights not just from the crushers but from chariot impact hits. Another lesson learnt - given the angle of the DP next to the board edge and my helms frontage, we couldn't fit the frosty in so he fail charged. Caradryan charged the chimera which fled. My reavers move up to redirect the warriors and my Dragon Princes move to flank the nurgle warriors.
Magic sees me irristably move a frostheart up into the face of the hellcannon, blows up my wizard and takes 3 reavers into the warp with him. There goes my magic phase/game! Ah well, onwards to prove that you don't need magic! Shooting zip.
Combat is disastrous. I elect to do annointed first (which I thought I might win), but with no wounds apiece the charge/banner cancelled and I lose by a musician...I then flee on stubborn 9 and thankfully get away, but the crushers hit the flank of the helms. My helms failed to do any damage and were chased off the board by the crushers. With hindsight I should have done these combats the other way around, though I suspect the helms would still have been slaughtered by the DP alone.
Chaos Turn 2:
DP charges fleeing annointed forcing me further back but failing to catch me. Chariot charges a frosty who holds. Tzeench warriors charge and redirect into both reavers who double flee. Nurgle warriors make IMO a mistake and turn to face the dragon princes who kept them turning all game. Chimera fails to rally on Ld9 but is still on the board.
Shooting - misfire causes miscast on wizards if they fail a Ld test; DP is fine but the tzeench mage has been losing leadership like nobodies buisness through some sort of magic item induced channelling attempts so he blows 7 warriors up! But more critically, magic - reduced toughness gets through on chariot charged frosty...who then dies, chariot over-runs and hits the fleeing reavers.
Elves Turn 2:
There's not a lot left now. The DPs dance around the nurgle warriors. The remaining frosty charges the chimera forcing it to flee off the board and re-directs into the hellcannon, my annointed rallies and my two fleeing reavers rally. Caradryan wins combat against the reduced tzeench unit but they hold on steadfast. The frosty/hellcannon bounce.
Chaos Turn 3:
The crushers and chariot charge the hellcannon fighting frosty, which manages to survive on one wound, escape pursuit and not run off the board. The other chariot turns to charge Caradryan in the rear next turn. Caradryan died but Ashtari carried on killing warriors. Amusingly the tzeench sorceror used a magic item which turned him into a deamon prince...on a Ld check...of 2...which he nearly made on a 3, so instead turned into a spawn!
Elves Turn 3:
Ashtari finished off the warriors then died. Annointed moved up to charge range. Dragon Princes moved into charge range. Two remaining reaver knights still alive.
Turn 4
One wound frosty multi-charged and killed. Cannon killed annointed and mount. Dragon Princes charged DP, bounced, counter charged by chariot and died. End result - elves tabled bar two reavers. WoC lost the Tzeench warriors and chimera.
Conclusions:
Things would have been very different with a BSB and BotWD in the helms unit, so that would be my first change. With the extra points I'd probably bump up the dragon warriors to 10 giving me two big cavalry threats, a bit more redundancy for war machine targets, decent protection from metal/spells generally, good AS especially coupled with three pheonixes. I'd be tempted to switch the annointed for star dragon to benefit from the banner, more stompy, Ld 10 bubble etc - generally I think he meshes better with the list, but I'll stick to the annointed for now to not make too many changes at once.