7th Ed. Engine of the Cheese

[Glorystorm]

Alright, so i have a tournament coming up in about eight weeks, its a simple and effective comp and there is 100 places so it should be a good laugh.

Now ive been trying lots of things out, mainly to try and go there with a really abstract army (e.g. an army which DOESNT have an engine), Because more and more recently lizardmen players have been going for the same mechanics in their army list, and if i see another scar veteran with the blade of chotec my eyes are going to stream.

Basically, im trying my list without the engine this week, because by the time ive got my slann and engine im well into 1000points of my army.
Now ive tried dropping the TG, but ive found that you spend over half the TG's points cost on the Slann just to make him capable of going by himself, and even then its nowhere near as effective.
So after much debate im consdering dropping the engine.


I love the ward saves, the amount of cannons have pinged off my bubble is tremendous with it, and i love nothing better than drawing a warriors of chaos player from the board and watching his knights shuffle around trying to avoid it. But i really dont think it ever seems to get its points back.

What is everyone's general opinion on the engine? particularly in a tournament environment

 

[Alesh]

It's fair for its points cost. All of its abilities are powerful but in the end its only a T2 Skink on top.

 

[lupercal]

i personally don't use an engine (mostly because i don't have one) or TG (same reason) but i have had pleny of success without either you just have to pick your battles is all i personally go magic heavy with 2 skink priest's on foot in skirmisher units and then have a JSoD for characters to me that frees up a lot points for the units i want and maintains the magic superiority that i like to have plus i still have a killy character and i also don't suscribe to the BBoC although i see the reasons behind the engine and the BBoC i just spend my points elsewhere i like to have a lot of saurus and lots of magic and the engine does not do it for me i also use calv. which is also not so popular for a lot of players on this site but i really like them

sorry didn't realize that justification rant took so long

anyway without an engine you will need to replace that role with either calv (my favorite) or krox i personally like the calv. for the extra d6 pursue and the banner but as you will you will also want to put some sallies in there to give you some much needed shooting since you are lacking in other areas you need to try and make yourself a more all-round army and less of a one trick pony you need to have more units and have them hit tough units from all angles instead of a head butting contest that is what your TG are for and what smart generals will do to your TG but with the extra units on the board you will likely scare the hell out of people since they are expecting the EotG good luck

 

[WheelR]

I most of the time use an engine.. Sadly i didn't play a single tournament yet(Next week har har) since i started playing again. I use the Engine a lot since i don't really know what to replace it with.. Your opponent is scared when you are moving closer with it.. it annoys shooty lists.. Undead fearless? Don't think so. So i have to replace that(~400 points) with something else that could do the same.. It also provides a little 'defense' against the 'imbalanced'(Don't start on this again) VC/Deamons which seem to be rather popular as well.

I am trying to use lists without an EotG but you will never see me put away a BBoC.. You don't steal a kids toys as well do you? I know it is a .. let's say rather 'good' weapon. I use it with the Enchanted Shield and throw him solo against some core choice unit..as long it doesn't cause fear..To keep the fun in it. 3-4 Kills keeps it from fleeing that fast with CB +high LD.

I do understand why you don't want to bring 'cheese' to a tournament though..I never got all its points back by killing.. but rather with saving my units from cannonballs. Next week i am most probably not gonna use the EotG.. unless my magnets gonna work against me.

 

[Lord Ryba Oujak]

I agree wth the "too many points" argument. I find them a bit of an issue when including them in lists that are character heavy points to begin with. In my 2250 list I have 2 scar-vets and a Slann; thus the engine would be over the top to include. The 5+ ward is probably the only thng that really redeems the quite large points investment. I thought I would try a differnet tact last game. I took just an ancient by itself; I found that it served a similar purpose as it distracted his bolt throwers the entre game tryng to bring t down. I find it hard to justify to bring due to if the opponent gets good randomiztion then bye bye priest and bye bye engine. All in all feel lke the engine just isn't worth the investment. I guess it also depends on ones list. I also worry about comp scorng as well (due to a Slann + effectivly a lvl 3 wiz on stegadon).