Swordmasters for the Win - a review

Discuss your tactics for the 8th Ed army book here.

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Seredain
The Cavalry Prince
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Swordmasters for the Win - a review

#1 Post by Seredain »

Chaps,

Enough about swordmasters being the poor man's infantry choice. Please see the link below for my opinion on why, based on my current experience, they kick arse.

As ever, let's get stuck in.

http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic. ... 55#p853655
The Cavalry Prince - List Design, Tactics, Battle Reports

http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=76&t=33584
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Tethlis
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Re: Swordmasters for the Win - a review

#2 Post by Tethlis »

Replied there. This should make for interesting discussion.
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Gondarion
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Re: Swordmasters for the Win - a review

#3 Post by Gondarion »

Yeah, every time I use them they impress me. And you can take them in units less than 10, which is an excellent tactic.
Ferny
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Re: Swordmasters for the Win - a review

#4 Post by Ferny »

Seredain, are you gonna jump back in to the debate or have you made the points you wanted to? I'm looking forward to seeing further defence of the SM given the many comments it generated in favour of WL, and I'd be curious about how you feel they perform in a blender role next to PG as an alternative (assume BotWD for SM and Razor for PG).
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Chracian
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Re: Swordmasters for the Win - a review

#5 Post by Chracian »

I'm leaning back towards sword masters with a high archmage in there after playing lots of games using white lions. As you say, once the third rank is gone, swordmasterrs are proportionally better due to base 2 attacks. WS7 (from hand of glory) against ogres makes a lot of difference!
"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."
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Seredain
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Re: Swordmasters for the Win - a review

#6 Post by Seredain »

Ferny wrote:Seredain, are you gonna jump back in to the debate or have you made the points you wanted to?
Hell no Ferny! You know I'm always as verbose as possible, right?

Been working like a madman for the last two weeks, so typed up everything at work (lunch breaks of course). Let's look at the SM + PG question shortly but, for now...

Round 2 ding ding!

http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic. ... 36#p856536
The Cavalry Prince - List Design, Tactics, Battle Reports

http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=76&t=33584
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Tethlis
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Re: Swordmasters for the Win - a review

#7 Post by Tethlis »

A High Archmage can do perfectly fine, as long as his unit is 10-wide, has Banner of the World Dragon, and the Mage is already starting with Talisman of Preservation. 2+ versus most characters, 3+ versus the rest, when you're part of a wide unit formation to limit incoming attacks is quite good in terms of survivability.
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Re: Swordmasters for the Win - a review

#8 Post by cptcosmic »

SM work fine and they need as much support as any other HE unit. They are just a less safe than WL with stubborn thus you give away points if you do an error, in short dont make mistakes :D

I also think Heavens as main lore does work well with Swordmasters because...
-Iceshard keeps them safe from shooting
-Comet blasts gunlines => less stuff that can shoot your swordmasters
-Iceshard + Curse = most unit will hit them on 5 and has to reroll 6s => not getting hit is great survivability imho
-Harmonic Convergence lets them reroll 1s to hit and wound which increases their damage (altough rerolling 1s AS is mostly useless here unless fighting some low strength scrubs)
-S6 direct damage spells covering your lack of high S attacks
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