Trim My Empire List!

[timff8]

Hello all,

I was wondering if anyone can give me a hand trimming this list down. I need to drop it to 2000 points.

Arc Lector w. Heavy Armor, Shield, Talisman of Endurance, Van Horstmann's Speculum - 178 pts.
Level 4 Wizard Lord w. Lore of Shadow 200 pts.

Captain of the Empire w. Full Plate Armor, Shield, Battle Standard, Talisman of Protection - 109 pts.
Warrior Priest w. Heavy Armor, Shield, Dragon Helm 79 pts.

39 Halberdiers w. musician and standard - 254 pts. (Lector) + 20 Swordsmen detachment - 140 pts.
37 Spearmen w. full command - 215 pts. (Wizard, captain, Priest) + 2*10 Halberdier detachments - 120 pts.

3 Demigryph Knights w. musician and standard - 194 pts.
10 Huntsmen - 80 pts.
5 Pistoliers w. musician - 100 pts.
5 Outriders - 105 pts.
2*Great Cannon - 240 pts.

Total: 2014 pts.

I'm loathe to drop any of the characters' gear, but if you can find a way to make them cheaper and still effective, that's great. I want to keep the great cannons, and have at least 2 good disruption units (hence the pistoliers and huntsmen), but anything else you guys can come up with is fine with me.

All the best,

Timff8

[Solution9]

I'd drop the Arc Lector since you aren't taking the Pope mobile. There is no benefit for taking the Arc Lector over the Warrior priest if you don't use the War Alter. I would take a General of the Empire so that way you can make your units work like Lizardmen. Aside from that maybe drop your Swordsman detachment from 20 to 15. I still don't know how those Demigryphs hold up for the points you pay other than that they look cool.

[timff8]

The point in taking the Arc Lector is for the extra leadership. Someone's got to have Ld 9 to be my general. If I dropped him to take an Empire General, I'd have to buy another priest for that big block of halberdiers to give them (and their detachment) Hatred and prayers.

Demigryphs are quite nasty. They throw more damage than a block of 10 knights, and do it for less points. Plus they have Stomp and Fear.

[Solution9]

Yea you get Ld 9 over 8 but with the General of the Empire you get Ld9 and you get to roll 3D6 for the parent and the detachment he is with. Also you can put the Crown of Command on him making the GoE Ld9 roll 3D6 and have Stubborn. W/o looking at the book right now the GoE is cheaper than the Arc Lechtor right? I'm sure he is. So if you need another Warrior Priest you can still get one. I just don't see AL being useful w/o a War Alter.

[timff8]

The General of the Empire is 5 points cheaper. So, that's not really eating into the cost of another warrior priest.
Put it to you this way: A horde of halberdiers with detachments, Hatred and Prayers? Nasty. A horde of Halberdiers w. detachments that won't run away easily? Nnnnnnot as nasty. Don't get me wrong, Hold the Line is great, but I still have a BSB, and the big unit of Spearmen he's in is all about staying put. The Halberdier horde is the beater end of the formation. And to that point, I need a Priest in there.
The Arc Lector doesnt' have any more power than a Priest. But, by the same token, why bother taking a General? A captain is 30 points cheaper, and a General doesn't do anything that the Captain doesn't. Why bother paying extra? Because you need a Ld 9 general that can purchase enough gear to keep him alive, that's why. So, it's not about him being an Arc Lector; it's about him being my Ld 9 guy with 3 Wounds and a big wargear allowance. And he hapens to kick ***, and any unit he's with kicks ***.

[Thornblood]

If you just have to trim a few points drop the huntsmen to archers and loose the pistoliers musician.

However You do need to buy an extra halberdier or drop two swordsmen for that unit to be legal.

The problem Im having with my two big empire foot units is table size and terrain. The things are becoming unwieldly with detachments. Id maybe only take one unit of halberdiers as a detachment to the spearmen and just deploy the spearmen next to the other unit to defend them from being flanked. On the other hand flank charges only work if you have a unit strength of 10 (as in, negates rank bonus'), so maybe boost one detachment of halberdiers to 15 and drop the other.

I would drop the arch lector though, for an empire general for the leadership and hold the line! rule. This works out cheaper in points. Maybe give Van Hortsmanns and the talisman to the wizard- lore of shadows let you do the character swap thingy which means you can get the wizard in the right combat match ups easier, and your giving your opponent a poorer statline to fight with (because, lets face it and arch lector has the potential to kill and arch lector if the enemy character has any magic weapons or and additional hand weapon). Only let them have the wizards 1 attack at strength 3.

Maybe just drop the dragon helm from the warrior priest?


Theres a few options there, pick what you want.

[timff8]

I'm dropping the Huntsmen to Archers, following understanding that Scouts gives your enemy an automatic +1 to go first.

Actually I don't need to buy another Halberdier; the new rules allow you to have detachments of up to half the size of the parent unit, rounding up, so I'm good.

I've never found it to be too much of a problem on a 4' by 8' table. I don't really care about negating ranks so much with the spearmen; they'll be in a bus formation, so 8 ranks. I'd much rather have the priest's Hatred and prayers affect as many attacks as possible, hence the two units of 10. For the big block of Halberdiers, they will be in a horde, so the swordsmen in a unit 20 are there to negate ranks.

The Arc Lector and the General of the Empire both have Leadership 9. I think I said this above ( I may not have) but it's important for that horde of halberdiers to have support from a priest, and I don't want to have to buy another one to replace the Arc Lector; generals are only 5 points cheaper.

I do love the Van Horstmann's Speculum on a wizard. I just tend to worry about them too much as they can't carry armor. That, and I think the priest's Hatred and prayers make up for the opponent getting an extra point of Strenth and Attack.

I want to drop the Dragonhelm; I just can't seem to find a safe place to put the wizard, so I'm using the priest and captain to shield him by putting him in the scond rank. So the priest has extra armor to keep him alive.