I was just wondering what your guys opinions are on character selection at various point levels. Basicly I’ve had quite a bit of success at 1250 with just a general(enchanted shield GW and black gem) and BSB(armor of ghaz) in a big unit of warriors with a warbanner but now my local group is having a 2000 point tournement in a few weeks and I’m worried about balancing magic defence with leadership and combat ability. This won’t be an extremely competitive tournement, almost everyone is making thier first transition from 40k to fantasy but I do expect several magic heavy lists. Particulary a high elf, vampire and skaven.
I’ve modeled up a lord on taurus that I would love to use but if I keep my other two heros all I can fit in is a single caddy. I don’t want the lord flying his leadership away from my hobgoblins so I feel I need to keep the hero for my general. In that same worry the BSB will keep em from breaking. One caddy doesn’t seem like it’ll be enough to keep me safe unless I get lucky early on with some warmachine wizard sniping.
The second option was to go a wizard lord on foot, since he’ll be in my lines I was thinking I could trade him with my current general and take two lvl 2s and the BSB. This will give me a fair bit of extra ranged punch and a nice defence to make up for the loss of combat ability and terror. Against some armies it will certainly be a bonus, others not so much.
The last option I think might work for me would be to take the flying lord, drop the general, keep the bsb and put a lvl2 wizard in both hobgoblin units to boost thier leadership to 9. A little riskier the LD10 since even with full ranks, outnumber and a standard they’ll lose by a point or two to a lot of things but hopefully the BSB will keep them in line.
My list is pretty much fixed due to available models, at the moment it is gonna be along the lines of 2 earthshakers, 6 bolt throwers, minimum warriors with great weapons, minimum blunderbusses(or more great weapons, will have to convert something quick for third core), 25ish warriors with full command and warbanner as my main anvil and 2 30ish units of hobgoblins with armor shield and bow who keep it from getting flanked. I know the hobgoblins units are a little unconventional but they work for me. Depending on what I’m facing they deploy differently. Against slow armies they’ll deploy wide and reduce frontage a little every turn while shooting, eventually becoming an empire quality combat block. Against faster armies I can usually deploy 10-12 wide, shoot once and then condense. Or sometimes if there are suitable large targets they’ll start off ranked tight and concentrate all thier ranks into the big stuff.
So what do you guys usually do at 2k? The flying lord seems like he would be a lot of fun and I’m happy with how I’ve converted him and want to show it off, but not at the expense of getting blown apart by magic missiles or having the rest of my army stuck without a leadership boost. The wizard lord seems like the safer bet and with a few powerstones will likely cause a fair bit of damage if he doesn’t blow himself up.
My characters for a 2k game is Lord on Great Taurus with black hammer of hashut, armour of the furnace and a shield, i then take 2 level 2 wizards with 2 dispel scrolls each just to stop peoples magic and for a third hero i normally take a bull centaur hero in a unit of them but as you don�?Tt have them i would go for a CD hero with armour of ghaz and a sword of might for +1 strength and that should serve you well i think
By the way I want to tell you do not place sorcerers in hobgoblin units. Even tought it seems to be a nice idea you will end to waste your precious sorcerers most of the time because of animosity.
Another reason is that hobgoblin units are gold because they are so damn cheap to be thrown away in case of necessity but if you place a sorcerer in… they become expensive fragile units. Good for your enemy!
I am not so much of an expert on battling ( ye i really need help at making lists and stuff actually XD ) but the sorcerers with dispelscrolls are very nice IMO, and like bassman said. Dont put m in hobbo units :3 Wizard lord can be useful, depending on your way of playing, if you like ranged/magic a lot to whipe out loads of troops before they reach you he could be just your thing
I’ve tried a lot of combinations of characters in this year…
If you want to field a hero lord everybody will suggest you to put him on great taurus with great hammer and armour of fournace…
He goes in the battle with 2 sorcerers level 2 with 2 dispel (or one with 2 dispel and the second with staff of sorcery… i prefear this second option)
last choiche is an hero with armor of gazrack and 2 different option:
1- great weapon and gaunthlet
2- sword of might
it depends if you want more strenght or magical attack
you could choose dwarf hero if you want to improve your Ld and make the hero lord cheaper, making of this little hero the general of the army, or you could choose BC hero if you want a model with more moviment, attack and toughtness
in this configuration you can also choice to put the 3rd sorcerer…
if you want to do so I suggest you to give him chalice of darkness and a dispel and a power stone to the others…
I don’t like to put BSB in army with great taurus because it goes around the table leaving slaves with low Ld… and if you want to put hero on foot and BSB you must drop a sorcerer and 2 sorcerers in a list of CD are a mandatory
other possiblity is sorcerer lord
if you have him he MUST to be equipped with gem of gnar, the only kind of TS he can bear. He calls automatically a BSB (better if a BC) with armour of gazrak and sword of might. Both take your slaves up to Ld 10 and they could reroll combat test… preatty unbreakble
Obviously a sorcerer with 2 dispel…
Last choice coulde be:
1- 3rd sorcerer with staff of sorcery and you can give to your lord 2 dispel/power stone
2- hero with armour of fournace and GW ( if a dwarf or BC is the same talk of above…)
I also tested BC lord… he’s cheaper than great taurus and preatty effective, but he’s slower than him, doesn,t meake terror and he isn’t large target so he must charge only units he can see… I wasn’t so satisfy by him.
I never suggest you hero hobbo because he suffers animosity in a unit and alone on wolf he’s too fragile…
Alan’s advices are pretty good. I just want to argue a little bit with BSB and Taurus lord.
Even tough the taurus lord fly away and you cannnot make a full use of his ld 10 leadership, you can still use it. The fly ability let you use his leadership where and when you need the most (for example to help an unit of orcs/hobgoblins/bull centaurs/wolfriders far away from the center of the battle field), giving flexibility to your tactic and movements. Of course you have to take care of magic (that’s why we have dispel scrolls) and shooting (beware bolt throwers and cannons) but if do not take some risks… .
While the Taurus lord is hanging around with friends the BSB will keep the line together. Dwarfs have ld9, equal to most of the lords in the game… with BSB nearby they can stand by themselves in time for the Taurus lord to complete his slaughter or come back just in time like a movie-hero
.