Empire Detachments

[Lord Solar Plexus]

And you can always take Ludwig for the 18" re-roll.

[SteelTitan]

@ 40 Greatswords + 2x20 Halbedier detachment: That sounds solid. However, earlier in this thread I read that the detachment (in this case) will come out of your special allotment meaning that you are still left with filling those 500-600 points of core.

[duffybear1988]

It sounds dumb but I am loving 20 man spear/shield detachments for my halberdiers.. That 5+ save has saved my bacon a few times now, and having those supporting spears after the counter charge is great!

My only problem is that I'm struggling to get more than a single cannon into a 2000 point list...

[SteelTitan]

Uhh, how does that make sense? Spears don't fight in an extra rank when you charge? How would halbediers not be better? I'm not trying to be sarcastic (hard to tell with text), im just really trying to get my head around the logic

[duffybear1988]

Spears get the extra attacks the turn after you charge. These days I find I'm stuck in protracted combats for a couple of turns so having extra attacks to the flanks can help. 10 extra spear attacks (if you have 2 detachments) goes a long way towards killing goblin, skeleton and skaven blocks (mostly what I fight).

[Lord Solar Plexus]

No more than S4 I'm afraid - and I don't see where those extra 10 attacks are coming from to start with. You would need to field detachments of 35+ men.

[duffybear1988]

Sorry I'm not being clear. I usually run this -

40 halberdiers, full command.
2 x 20 spearmen, shields (detachments)

that way I get 10 attacks at S3 from each spear detachment on the charge, and in the next combat phase I get 15 attacks from each (as long as I still have 15 spearmen in each detachment).

Thus I get 20 spear attacks at S3 and 10 halberd attacks at S4 on the first turn, and an extra 10 spear attacks the turn after (as long as I have 15 spearmen left in each detachment). If I combine the 2 detachments with the parent block against 1 enemy unit.

[Lord Solar Plexus]

Ah, I see, thanks for the clarification. In fact I could have seen that myself had I put some thought into it.

However, are you actually fielding your Halberdiers as a bus? That is not a good idea at all (unless you want to test out how HtL works). That's a surefire way to lose against a weaker horde which you could have defeated otherwise. In addition, getting charged by a horde means that at least one detachment will go to the front. Still some support but is it worth the expenditure?

I'm still thinking that detachments, while a little better, might not work as well as we think at this point. A bus with two detachments can at least partly be neutralized in a the way outlined above while a horde with two detachments can be easily countered by an enemy bus. Of course not every bus can defeat a horde of Halberdiers so you could still get a detachment to flank charge later. It's just that this might open another can of worms entirely, since we must assume a second enemy unit in the vicinity.