8th Ed. Help please.....fighting 2500 vs Empire....Monday night!

[Gary_M]

I come seeking wisdom from the wisest Lustrians....
Never played vs Empire, no idea what he'll take, but know he's practicing for a tournie.

Thoughts on what to take:
Slann with lore master high magic. My fave build is becalming cog, focus, harmonic plus channeling staff.
Couple of kitted cowboys
2 sallies plus snacks


Beyond that, I can field a Steg, a basti, 3 Terradons, a carnosaur, up to 30 TG, about 12 cold one cav.

So my wise friends, what do I take.....?

 

[NexS1]

Well....
He'll probably take knights and a steam tank. Take metal, or wandering deliberations, and deal with the stank first. Terradons dropping rocks on artillery will be handy.

But it really depends on what you want to field - you could make CoR work, or you could make TG work. Lots of people take tetto eko for the certainty of getting comet of cassandora.

 

[Scalenex]

Based on your models I would advise 25+ Temple Guard and a Slann with Wandering Deliberations, and a Skink Priest to help aim his attack spells. Spirit Leech and Searing Doom will put the hurting on the STANK and/or chicken knights. The STANK gets less effective and more prone to misfire the more wounds it takes. Therefore you can protect yourself by pegging the STANK really hard once even if you can't kill it.

I would defiinitely bring the Salamanders. Great for panicking pesky infantry. I would leave the big dinos at home. They are just cannon magnets unless you have three or more.

Saurus characters on Cold Ones are a good idea. I would advise giving them great weapons. They should be able to put wounds on the Empire's many well armored units. If you deploy them solo, you'll want Ward Saves. Otherwise you can use a bus of 5-8 Cold One Riders to protect them.

 

[Ixt]

If you go with the dinos, take two.

Unless he sets you up to be counter-charged, charge him with the Stegadon at every opportunity. Even if you don't get into combat, even if you're 18" away, vanilla infantry has to make a Terror check and failing one of those can be a game-breaking thing. Set them up with an Iceshard Blizzard in the previous turn for bonus points. Carnosaurs & Skink Chiefs on Terradons with the Terrifying Mask (great for making Ld7 crew flee) are exceptionally good at this.

The Bastiladon is good for removing chaff and decent as a tandem partner for warmachine hunting. Unless you're unlucky, the many hits generated by the Beam of Chotec will lend you some 6's. The Bastiladon can also open up your magic phase.

Otherwise, TG ruin Empire infantry. Terradons are a great choice for redirection/warmachine hunting. If you proxy them as Rippers, they'll eat his knights (toad rage the knights, try giving the Rippers regen if possible).

Watch out for the Runefang, the Luminark, the Hurricanum (especially if the Runefang-bearer is nearby), the tank (pop it with Searing Doom/Spirit Leech), the Light council, Demigryphs, etc. Remember, the Stank has to move in a straight line (if I remember right) and benefits from a 360° charge arc.

I've had good success with both FoM & WD on a Slann, but much greater success with FoM. Fiery Convocation & Tempest are excellent against T3, and Drain Magic is great on a buff-reliant army such as Empire. Arcane Unforging will ruin his pretty items, and Hand of Glory is always nice. WBW your TG to a sweet spot, and it may be your opponent's end.

Frenzied Temple Guard (via BSB w/ a Skavenpelt Banner) are incredible btw. It sounds like you have no Core, however - you may want to proxy these as Saurus. If you go with Frenzied ones, take Spears - no parrying with Berserk Rage anyway.

An Oldblood cowboy w/ Crown of Command & other gear is nice for hurting demigryphs. Bring chaff! I like three units of skirmishers.

Sorry that this is all over the place - I'm going stream-of-thought here.

 

[Gary_M]

Sorry, should have said, I have enough core.
Could run up to 30/40 skinks and c48 Saurus.
It was only the Special/rare I listed.
Thanks for all the advice.

 

[SilverFaith]

Runefang is not a problem if you have FoM on your slann. He will either waste ALL his dispel dice on dispelling, or almost certainly lose it, since he can't afford much else in terms of magic items. If he tailors, you'll likely find that he has magic shield (charmed or enchanted), Iconcurse Idol, and Luckstone/dragonbane gem, just to make it less likely that you'll unforge it out of existance. Of course, that will render him awfully squishy, so even if he auto-wounds, you could try throwing a bunch of Templeguards at him, and just decline challenges, allowing you to direct a ton of hits at him. He'll drop extremely quick, considering his squishyness. Runefang has the same problem Blade of Realities has, in that you only really have enough for that 1 item, and not much else, leaving you pretty vulnerable when people start attacking you.

 

[Gary_M]

Played the game last night - Was very good although I ended up losing (14 - 6).

The empire player is one of the best at our club and regularly plays inn tournies, doing pretty well, so I wasn't too sad at losing - For me it was a learning experience as much as anything.

I certainly feel I'm getting there with the lizzies - My oppo thought so.

I'll post details (what I can remember of them) on a different thread.

Thanks for all the help and advice - It did help.