2000pt Empire List. Please Help a Newbie!

[jma037]

Hey guys,
I'm a 40K player new to fantasy. Can you please check out my list and make some suggestions? The grouping of the units suggests how they are likely to be used.

General:
Count(great weapon, full plate, shield, warhorse, barding and holy relic)
167pts

lvl 1 Wizard with 2 X dispel scroll
110pts

29 X Swordsmen(full command, griffon standard)
Detachment
10 X Free Company
10 X Free Company
Captain( great weapon, full plate, shield)
442pts

25 X Halberdier (full command, shields)
Detachment
10 X Free Company
10 X Free Company
300pts

5 X Knightly Orders
5 X Knightly Orders
5 X Pistoliers (marksman with repeater pistol)
342pts

Master Engineer(light armour, HL long rifle)
11 X handgunner(Musician and marksman with HL long rifle)
11 X handgunner(Musician and marksman with HL long rifle)
313pts

1 X Cannon
1 X Cannon
1 X Hellbalster
325pts

Total 1999pts

Thanks for all the help!

[samael]

Your army is very vulnerable to magic as it is now.
I would personally dump the engineer for a scroll caddy to get some protection.

The unit of pistoliers is to big, drop them down to 5 or 6 and include a champion with a repeater pistol, the warrior priest on horse is a very nice combination with these guys but you need to loose the barding from his horse to make sure that he doesn't slow your fast cav unit down.

If you really want to take a unit of halbardiers at least give them shields, if you get charged by that frenzied unit of khorne knights you can declare that you will be using your handweapon and at least have a chance to save on a 6. (however unlikely )

Do not put full command in you handgunners it's 100 vp per lost banner, the chances of that happening are huge.

I usually just field a unit of 12 with only a musician to have a higher chance of rallying.

How are you planning to use the count, because your infantry blocks are a bit vulnerable (leadershipwise) when you send him out with the knights, especially because you don't have an armystandard?

I hope I've been some help.

[jma037]

Thanks for the quick reply!
I've made some changes according to your advice.

Changes:
6 X Pistolier (marksman with repeater pistol)

Halberdier now have shields.

12 X handgunner(musician and marksman with repeater handgun)
12 X handgunner(musician and marksman with repeater handgun)

I want to keep the engineer for fluff reason. Is there any other way to boast anti magic?

I got the Captain leading the swordsmen and the count is leading the halberdiers.

I'm not really good with the rules yet. The warrior preist is riding with the knights, does the barding on the preist slow down the knights( I thought the knights have barding as well).

The pistoliers operate independantly and in support of the knights.

Ideas, Suggestions? Thanks heaps.

[samael]

Barding gives a -1 on the horses movement, but that's not a problem when you stick the priest in with the knights, they allready have that because of their own barding. (so they go 7" instead of 8" )

If you put the priest in with the pistoliers he gets their benefit of being in a fast cav unit (if you don't give him the barding) and they benefit from his higher leadership, attacks, strength, and hatred against all things chaos and undead.

This means that in the first round of combat against all these armies your pistoliers get to reroll those yummy strength four -2 armour save attacks if they have missed.

I'm converting a priest right now just for that purpose.

[Lord Lucifer]

The unit of 9 knights...
Personally I wouldn't go above 6 if you're including the Warrior Priest, preferably five in that case.

Rank bonus is not the selling point of the Knights. They're there to flank and remove ranks from the enemy.

I'd drop two or three of them, personally, and grab the Rod of Command for the Elector, or probably the Captain. That little item is a godsend against angry opposition.

As for magical protection, consider dropping the Warrior Priest for a Scroll Caddy.
As it is, if anyone else brings magic to the party, you're their bitch, plain and simple.
The Warrior Priest offers NOTHING besides possible hatred for the Knights, and his cost doesn't warrant that. He won't be getting prayers off, the enemy can dispel them even without wizards in their army far more effectively than you can cast as (a single power 3 spell is NOT going to get past two standard dispel dice. You will never, EVER get a prayer off)
Drop the priest, get a wizard... and think seriously about how much you need that engineer, because he offers little and takes the place of an infinately more useful Imperial Captain

[jma037]

Changes:

Replaced the Warrour Preist with
---------------------------------------
Lvl 1 Battle Wizard with 1 X dispell scroll
---------------------------------------

Knights now changed to
---------------------------------------
5 X knights
5 X knights
---------------------------------------

I'm keeping the engineer because of the fluff...

What about now? Can it stand to a resonable amount of magic?
How do you think I shoud play the two knights and the one pistolier in a game?

Any tips on tactics with this army?


Thanks all.

[jma037]

Also, which lore should I chose for the wizard?

[Lord Lucifer]

The Knights often perform best seeing off softer targets that can threaten your infantry assaults...

Okay, basically, the Empire doesn't have the best troops in the game. You aren't going to win on the strength of your stat-line, so you have to play by the science of the game.
Combat reso. Ranks'n'flanks.

You have to maximise your combat resolution, and minimise your opponents.
This means outnumbering, out-ranking, and flank-charging.

If the enemy gets fast cavalry round you, you're going to lose your ranks bonus, your adversary gets Flank bonus, and you end up fighting a losing battle.


With your knights and postiliers, you have to decide when best to strike (flank charging can be decisive with them, but if the enemy is stubborn, it pointlessly locks your cav. in combat)

Destroy enemy fast cav with shooting, neutralise small threats with cavalry, before positioning them to support your main-line troops.


They're fast and capable of performing a number of useful roles.
Battlefield conditions will dictate what is most useful.
SECURE high combat resolution in order to make the win. Decisive combats in succession are your friend.

Just find a way to get the maximum number of favourably decisive combats for a minimum of unfavourable combats and you're set.




And a word of advice, never enter a fair fight willingly.
1 on 1? No, 3 on 1, no duels

[jma037]

More changes after refinment.
--------------------------------------
Marksmen and Engineer now have long rifle
3 X Long Rifle
at the cost of reducing one handgunner from each group
and the reduction of a pistolier

battle wizard now have 2 X dispel scrolls
---------------------------------------

I'm now quitely confident about this army.


Any more tactical advices for a newbie?

how do I use the wizard? I have no clue about magic.

Thanks for all the help

[samael]

The wizard is there just to disrupt your opponents magic (a bit) don't expect him to get any spells off. If you do you would get dissapointed.

That said, to have any chance of getting a nice, cheap spell that you can cast with a level 1 wizard take light magic.

The most expensive spell has a casting value of only 9+ and the opportunity to make all your units immune to psycholgy and to rally all fleeing troops in a range of 12" from the wizard on the roll of 8+ is just to good to pass by.

Al this imho off course.

[jma037]

How would you fight against this army?
I would like other player to give me some inputs on how you would fight me, so that way i'm prepared and can make some more improvments.

Thanks all!

[jma037]

After some thought.

Should I drop the shield on the Halberdier and get an extra dispel scroll instead?
Or should I try and get a groups of huntsmen by getting rid of somthing else?

How else could I spend the 25 + 1 pts that I have left?

Thanks

[jma037]

More Changes:

Thing's removed:
-----------------------------------
EC's shield
Captains's shield
2 X handgunners
25 X halberdier's shield
-----------------------------------

Added:
-----------------------------------
5 X Huntsmen
-----------------------------------

total points:
2003pts

What do you think? Are the huntsmen any good? I thought it might get me more tactical options.

Cheers

[Lord Lucifer]

Huntsmen are useful.
Any chance you have of disrupting enemy movement should be seized with great determination

You win and lose on positioning for maximised combat reso. This includes the position of your opponent, as that affects you too


Huntsmen are unlikely to kill anything (not even warmachine crew), but having them around slowing the enemy, and taking pot-shots at fast cavalry, works wonders for your force in the long-run.