8th Ed. Empire trouble... again

[wolfmage]

Now there is a major problem at in 3k an empire player is taking 7 master engineers with pwidgen bombs and grenade blunderbusses. How in hell do you stop this as they stand and shoot with whichever they feel like most of the time and that many s4 templates or s6 shots is not fun especially when they are in a combat unit or a rifle unit. They have become impossible to charge without losing half my saurus/ temple guard or most of my cold ones. They can even cripple a steg instantly.

 

[Chahlie]

Try shooting back. Engineers tend to be really, really un-armored. (Oyxtl is great at this)

 

[walach]

i find this suprising...

pigeon bombs make that engineer very expensive, and unless i'm reading the rules for them wrong, there's a good chance the bomb wont even do anything

regarding the blunderbuss, well yes, 7 of them pointed your way is a little intimidating, but statistically rather mediocre as a stand and shoot; you're only looking at 1-2 wounds taken on the steg or 3-4 saurus dead - if you're in against squishy empire after that, you should be winning easily.

and finally, those 7 engineers so equipped is an enormous ammount of points.


frankly i'd love to play against this empire player and have fun stomping him off the board.

 

[wolfmage]

It's my store manager so he knows what he is doing and they cost 100pts each with both items and frankly 7 tempates is still 7 templates however you look at it and the fact that it is normally in a 10 wide unit of some sort of gunner which vary depending on what he is taking.

 

[walach]

well my point is that 7 of those templates isn't 7... 2/3rds of them wont actually hit you, so we're probably only talking 2-3 templates.... actually yeah, that still sounds pretty devastating. i guess with saurus we have it a lot better than others though (imagine against blocks of 20mm T3 guys....!)

 

[JohnMavrick]

Don't also forget Walach that it's in a unit of gunners or archers which means he's also getting shot with 10 other weapons of some sort or if it's in a horde double or even triple that amount (if archers)! My suggestion is Chahlie suggested with Oxytl or perhaps just massed skink fire from multiple skirmish units. This unit he's putting them in is extreamly expensive and you're bound to do massive damage as Empire missile troops have no armour.

You could also try flaming them with a Salamander. Engineers should only have a leadership 8 which is rolled on two dice. Better than average chance they won't flee but it's definately worth a shot! Plus if you can get that template of your over a couple of Engineers then he'll have to start making LoS! rolls and he might even fail of couple of them too.

 

[Bibamus]

skinks can wither those units down rather good. T3 and no armour means that any 6's will kill them and if you hit on 5's even more wounds. then a panic check follows.

sallies should also do a number on them since, iirc, empire is at Ld 7 or 8. TG (or BSB's) can also get the banner of less shooty-ness (don't remember the name, the one with the -to hit penalty) wich should help against a gun line.

in this scenario you might also want to consider terradons, just get them in combat with the unit and direct all possible attacks against the engineers (the good old active magic defense). if you are worried about stand and shoot, get terradons (or chameleons, tough i don't suggest this) behind his units. he can only S&S agaisnt units in his front arc. as long as he turns towards your terradons, not only did he waste a turn turning for a 90-120 pt unit, but you can also charge from the back with your CC blocks without worrying about S&S.