Have a league match coming up on Sunday against an Empire player, apparently a very good Empire player at that, and want to make a solid list. I have only ever played Empire once or twice and not in 8th so not really sure what I need to be on the look out for and what a solid 1900 - 2000 point Empire list might look like. Any thoughts on unit match ups, list sugestion, and tactical ideas are welcome. Cheers
I would anticipate lots of guns (and cannons). With that in mind, go heavy on skirmishers, chameleons, and terradons. I would leave the stegadons at home. Take lore of life or lore of light. I would prefer light in this instance as you can use Pha's protection (at the higher casting value) to give you some protection against shooting. Also, the net spell will automatically stop war machines from firing (as they auto fail a str test). Chameleons to get in quick and shoot cannons. Terradons to get into combat by turn 2. Skirmishers to screen saurus/TG.
I agree with almost everything arli said. I would consider a steg just to draw fire from the saurus blocks. You want to get your saurus into combat quickly they should mince up any empire foot soldiers. Also fit a couple salamanders in. A couple good templates should deplete his units may even cause a few to flee.
Set to two Lore for the League Life and Heavens (House Rules pick 2 Lore at beaging and use all season). What is the Empire heavy hitter unit; Halberdiers? Wat kind of armor am I looking at? Pretty sure I heard he always brings a Steam Tank, how do I deal with that?
greatswords 4+ save and GW =S5 is what i know of, pretty easy for being heavy hitters. put a unit of saurus at them and they will stop there, or break and flee. steam tank = skink food, go at it with poison.
I play vs empire quite a bit and I agree with leave the steg a home whole heartedly. One lucky cannon shot and hes gone. Solo slann is very safe with ethertal (sp) Chamo skinks are fantastic take as many as you can (2x6), I prefer them over skirmisher. Unit of Terradons also good and Salamanders work well versus T3 humans. I wouldn't worry about TG, blocks of sarus eat all empire infantry for breakfast as long as your not being overly flanked. And I like to bring one unit of Skrox "can openers" to place right in front of his knights. This unit can also deploy super wide if you need alot of poison shots at a steam tank.
My list: 1900- Slann (Steve) Life, Rumination, Cognition, Subborn Crown, LD banner 25 Saurus hws 25 Saurus hws 32 Skinks/4 Krox 10 Skink Skirmishers 10 Skink Skirmishers 5 Chameleons 2 Salamander 2 Salamanders Result - Loss (Purple Sun Sucks! ) Had my opponent totally out deployed and then it happened! Steve the Slaan, and half his unit, were wiped out by a well-placed Purple Sun on Turn 2. Without his LD and the BSB there to keep things under control the Skinks could/would not hold. Game went full 6 turns, by the end all I had left on the table was a unit of 10 skinks and 2 Salamanders to his units of Flagellants, 1 cannon and a lvl 4 Shadow Mage in a unit of 7 halberdiers. I did have a unit of Saurus in CC with Halberdiers but he managed to get off Miasma and Mind Razor and the Saurus just evaporated. Finish League: 4 wins 2 draws 3 loses Meh.
Damn, well I have to say you had an excellent list to destroy him. High level magic just rolls like that sometimes.