We're well into our store's final 7th edition Mighty Empires league season, so I thought it might be good to highlight some of the more pertinent lessons I've learned. We have fixed Lord characters as our generals, who gain experience for certain accomplishments and can be crippled or killed outright if they are slain in battle. Battle One: 2000 points v Daemons Bloodthirster is very bad. Skink poison shots are golden against T6 large targets. Bane Head + Cupped hands is faaan-tastic against Tzeench heralds if you roll a 3-4 on the miscast table. Razordons > Pink Horrors. Khorne Dogs have MR3 and are also bad. Result- It was a solid loss for me by only seven points, with the Slann dead by the hand of the Bloodthirster, who had only one wound left. The opponent had been using Wolf Hunts to push Bloodthirster around and we read the FAQ saying you can't do so after the fact. We renegotiated terms to a minor loss, with the Slann not being slain. Battle Two: 2000 points v Dwarven gunline Saurus Heroes in skink skirmisher units running through trees > war machines. Don't put all your rune priests with dispel items in one unit that may be panicked by terradon's rocks into some chameleon skinks. Jaguar charm is the best item in the game when you've drawn out all their dispel dice and two organ guns are about to open up on you. Lore of Metal + Bane Head > Dwarf lord that's not immune to fire. There's a ninja crewman in every gun line army waiting to slay your one wound kroxigor that finally made it all the way across the board into the bolt throwers. No EotG isn't always a bad thing. Result- Massacre for me. He had the scout special rule, so I had to set up all my guys first. It didn't help him in the slightest. I ran three units of saurus heroes in skirmisher units down the terrain and into his gun crews by turn four; his dispelling ability was crippled by the incident described above and the Slann blasted and nerfed his fighting Lord, who was slain by an ambushing saurus hero. The ITP temple guard absorbed an enormous amount of firepower and held strong. Battle Three: 2500 points v Dwarf gunline (rematch) Gunlines are much worse when there's a bunch of fighty guys waiting for you on the other end. A tactic known is a tactic blown. Don't charge en mass at a handgun/ organ gun hill. It's cheap to make a Dwarf Lord immune to fire so the Burning Blade won't hurt him. Don't stake the game on getting irresistible force Unseen Lurker on your cold one cavalry. Result- Massacre for him. I got blown off the table as the organ guns rolled "10" after "10" on their number of shots and massed handgunners poured on the lead. By turn five, a saurus/ skirmisher group and skrox cohort made it to the war machines and started wiping them out; unfortunately they were the only units I had left on the table. Slann was blown away by concentrated firepower and was disabled for my next game. Hands down the worst tactically I've ever played. Battle Four: 2500 v Orc and Goblin All Night Goblin blocks have fanatics hiding in them. Do not try to charge through the fanatics. Keep your money units away from the fanatics. In fact, AVOID COMING IN CONTACT WITH THE FANATICS WITH ANY UNIT YOU DON"T WANT TO DIE. Don't let the war machines see your stegadons. Goblin Doom Divers hurt like hell. O & G have low leadership. Salamanders > Goblins. Result- Solid loss for me. The Slann was incapacitated from the previous game, so I couldn't take a Lord choice. I'd never seen the fanatics before, but that's no excuse for not doing a little research. My saurus and skrox wiped out a flank of Orc boys and Black Orcs and made it through to slaughter the war machines, but again, they were basically all I had left by the end of the game. Battle Five: 3000 v Daemons (rematch) Against Daemons, take lore of Light if you don't see a BSB on his deployment tray. Refused Flank works great with EotGs and Carnosaur. Mirrored Shield > Pink Horror blocks. Burning Alignment > bunches of screamers and flamers. 70 point skink skirmishers > 635 point Lord of Change. . Becalming Cogitation > Kairos Fateweaver. Result- Massacre for me! After one herald miscast to end his own magic phase, the Great Daemon Change Lord general was left standing in the midst of one unit of blowpipe skirmishers. After passing their terror test, the tiny heroes double poison shot the abomination to death at the top of turn two! The screamers and flamers that were harassing and march blocking my EotGs and carnosaur strayed too close and got blown away by repeated Burning Alignment. The bulk of the rest of his army was arrayed on the other side of a building on a hill; the Slann and TG survived a pit of shades and made it into the building (Slann doesn't seem to count as mounted in any way, so it was decided he could go in), used Becalming on Kairos, and proceeded to blast darn near every remaining unit in his army with Cleansing Flare. By this time saurus and carnosaur with Mirror Shield rider made it into range, and the rest was inevitable. 2X EotG with 3x dispel scrolls and Diadem plus Slann with Becalming was just enough to ward off the worst of his magic FTW. Phew! Thanks for bearing with me through that. I'll add more after the next game.
Concise, informative. Thanks. And I love that you pummeled deamons in the 3k point game and were laid low by the orc and goblin army. So much for conventional wisdom.
I can't speak for warhammer fantasy, but in 40k, orks can beat anything, sometimes. It can also just as likely loose to anything. I'm told fantasy orcs are the same.
Don't forget he mentions that against O&G he didn't have a lord choice, and that can definitely make a difference.