Beginner Seeking Starting Army Advice (2000pts)

Varangian · Post by **Varangian** » Sun Jun 19, 2011 4:11 am

Ok, so I played Brets and DE in 5th Ed and have just now decided to jump back in three editions later (what happened to all 9 stat Dragons!?).

(To clarify I only played Brets because they were the starting army and I traded the other starting army for more Brets. Long story short I had 2k worth of knights before buying an army book. Anyways, my loyalty lies with Naggarond now.)

Unfortunately when I left I discarded all my models so I am starting over and must be somewhat strategic in my model purchases. I am aiming for a solid all corners style 2,00pts army that I will eventually build off of.

Here is my plan so far, remember I am going all corners:

Lord:
Supreme Sorceress (320pts)
Lvl 4, Sacrificial Dagger and Pendent of Kaleth
-Leads the Warrior Spearmen block
-Runs Shadow Magic (which is disgusting, fyi)

Hero:
Death Hag/BSB (225pts)
Cauldron of Blood, BSB

Core:
14 RXBS (159pts)
Shields and Musician

14 RXBS (159pts)
Shields and Musician

34 DE Warriors/Spears (268pts)
Shields and Full Command
Standard of Discipline
-Will run 7 wide rather than 10. I can't afford 40 Warriors so there is no way I optimize the Horde w/ spears feature. So I have conceded to simply run them two shy of 7x5. This way they can keep a full 4 ranks of Steadfast after eating up to 5 to my Sorc's Sac Dagger.
-Bunker for Sorceress.

5 Harpies (55pts)

Special:
10 Cold One Knights (345pts)
Full Command and Standard of Hag Graef

5 Shades (85pts)
AHWs

Rare:
1 Hydra (175pts)
1 Hydra (175pts)
-There are two Hydras I listed them separately because I like to itemize.

I have a few questions over my own build as well.
1) Does my DE Warrior block have 10Ld? The Standard of Discipline prevents the Warriors from receiving the Supreme Sorcress's Ld via her 'Inspiring Presence' but as the unit commander she should still confer her 9Ld which is then improved by +1 from the banner for 10Ld. Is this correct?

2) Standards on the RXB regiments. Should I sacrifice some spearmen for them?

3) I've considered dropping the harpies and some spears for a chariot to back up the COKs. But since I am rusty I figured keep with the big block core unit with steadfast. Thoughts?

4) Should the Supreme Sorceress bunker in a RXB regiment instead of my anvil spear regiment? And pump them up to 20 w/ banner.

5) I know two hydras are deemed cheese but I haven't played a game in...5 or 6 years. Either way in a tournament I'd use them because you're there to win.

I am open to all criticism and suggestions. I invite it, hence the post

Thanks for reading!

Post by **Calisson** » Sun Jun 19, 2011 7:51 am

Hi, Varangian, welcome to the dark side and to D.net!
Very solid list. If you like to win, that's the way to go.

1) Ld10 indeed.
2) There is a scenario requiring standards. You have 3, which is not much but sufficient (barely).
3) COC don't back up COK, they are too slow (they cannot march). They back up footloggers. You have hydras to do the job. Keep your infantry, and, more important, keep the harpies (warmachine hunters and a zillion more uses).
4) Plan to go inside your spearmen. Change plans as the battles imposes.
5) That's the spirit. Hydras are not much finesse gaming. They are powergaming.

Have fun.
With your very solid army, you should have rather easy games.
When you've mastered your army as shown above, you'll venture into more subtle armies.
DE offer plenty of choices.

Aveleys · Post by **Aveleys** » Sun Jun 19, 2011 2:13 pm

Looks like a super solid list man. The only thing that I would recommend would be to plan that you might want to either set up those warriors in ranks of 5 so you have a better chance of remaining steadfast. The way you have them now would work if you manage to get a good shadow debuff off on the unit charging them, but otherwise you might find that they will not hold very well otherwise. I hope this helps =)
Cheers,
-Ave

Blaznak · Post by **Blaznak** » Sun Jun 19, 2011 2:37 pm

Hey, a couple of quick thoughts!

1) Get more standards. About 2 if you can do it. As mentioned there is a scenario that will pound you for not enough standards.
2) Combine your RXB into one unit. You can't target two units a turn, but you can force panic tests on one unit a turn. Much more important. Also, you will have less units on the table (possibly getting you a bonus to see who goes first in some scenarios) and the unit will be harder to destroy. Stayability is critical for DE.

Just my thoughts!
~B~

Aveleys · Post by **Aveleys** » Sun Jun 19, 2011 5:02 pm

Blaznak wrote:2) Combine your RXB into one unit. You can't target two units a turn, but you can force panic tests on one unit a turn. Much more important. Also, you will have less units on the table (possibly getting you a bonus to see who goes first in some scenarios) and the unit will be harder to destroy. Stayability is critical for DE.

This is a really good idea and you can give them a banner which will help you out as well !
Cheers,
-Ave

Saintofm · Post by **Saintofm** » Sun Jun 19, 2011 7:08 pm

I agree, either get more corssbows for your unit, or have one large unit and blot out the sky alah ancient Persian Army style. The baner would alow you to do banner games well enough, and give them a fighting chance should some skirmishers charge (chanses are they will only get one rank bonus now things shoot in two ranks).

Adding a banner to the unit probably won't hurt.

I would change the spearmen to ranks of 7 with the current build as this would alow you to have at least 3 ranks of 7 attacks, and give you about 5 ranks to work with.

Couldron of Blood is ok, but it's probably going to help the spearmen more as the knights will be marching 14 inchaes ata a time, and as a warmachine the CoB can only go 5 inches at a time. However, the spears can now get a 5+ ward or KB against tough enemies.

Varangian · Post by **Varangian** » Mon Jun 20, 2011 4:05 am

Thank you all for the advice!

I've merged the RXB into one unit of 20, dropping 8 RXBs and giving the single unit a Full Command. Four standards now and one regiment smaller.

I did not realize the COB can not march. Well that dampens my plans. So I've come up with two alternate plans:

1) Keep the COB and use the points from the reduced RXBs to make my spear regiment a 40 strong horde. Also gives me the points to pump up my shades and harpies to 6 each.

2) Decide my COK are the mainstay of my force and give them all I got. I dropped the COB and instead took a Master w/ a BSB, bought the Hydra Banner and put him in the COK. Also added +1 COK so they are 12 strong (w/ Master). The extra points from merging the RXBs also allows me bolster my spears to 36 strong, shades to 6 and harpies to 6.

Let me know which direction sounds better. I appreciate the feedback!

Post by **Calisson** » Mon Jun 20, 2011 7:34 pm

1) more reasonable.
2) funnier.
Go for 2).

Blaznak · Post by **Blaznak** » Mon Jun 20, 2011 9:02 pm

Go for 2 only if you give us a battle report! I think it sounds cool cool cool.

(Grin).

Good luck~

~B~