8th Ed. Phoenix Guard - who thought they were a good idea?

I played the same army again and did exactly this.

I walked between worlds my temple guard unit in front of his 40 strong unit of spear men then buffed them with Wisson’s. I was charged by them and by a unit of high elf cavalry in the flank.

They managed to kill 6 temple guard. When I hit back there was a dead champion (2 wounds + overkill), 2 dead cavalry and 9 dead spear men. I won the combat and managed to overrun his spear men when they fled.

This did leave me open to a flank charge from the Phoenix guard but at this point the game was over for the high elves. My unit of 35 regular saurus hadn’t received a scratch by this point and was closing in.

The deployment phase won me this game.

 

Ooooook

So it turns out that banner of the world Dragon protects against miscasts while magic resistance does not via FAQ.

50pts?!?! What load of crap lol

 

You could just use any unit of Saurus or Temple Guard without magic items to steamroller through Phoenix Guard. They only have 1 attack each while you have 2 and Predatory Fighter. They are Strength 4 so wound you on 4s, but are Toughness 3 so you wound them on 3s (or even 2s with Temple Guard). Also you have better armour than they do. Statistically out of an equal number of Saurus and Phoenix Guard, the Saurus have the edge, and Temple Guard can destroy them easily. Honestly in my experience the best solution to Banner of the World Dragon is just to use mundane attacks.

 

I will do this next time I face them and see what happens!

 

Don't forget though that they are sitting behind a 4+ ward save as well. And if they cast a spell out of their Lore of High Magic, that Ward Save becomes 3+.

 

And round and round we go! ha

 

*sigh* forgot about that. Just have to hope your higher number of attacks will get past that I think. Better 4+ (or even 3+) than 2+. Certainly they still won’t be that powerful offensively so at least you haven’t got that to worry about

 

I personally dont like this matchup. That 4+ ward will negate 50% of your attacks, so all you have going for you is predatory attacks.

If they buff the ward save to a 3+ then they are essentially a Iron wall, with their halberds they can make your armor save a 5+ and with your halberds you can make their save nonexistent, and be wounding on 2's they wound on 4's and hit on 3's which makes them slightly less offensive and slightly more defensive. Assuming that you cannot give your TG a ward/regen save.

Considering that the PG are 1pt more expensive per model, you should win (they have less models for the same price). But that is without considering special rules, they fight in an extra rank, and re-roll hits due to always strikes first, this will also just be good for them later in the fight because they can eliminate your second, (and if your in horde formation) third rank attacks. All in all they should win, if barely. Guess thats what the 15pt price tag gets you.