This is for the local tourney scene, which isn't quite as WAAC as ard boyz, and does place (a lot of) value on painting and (some) on WYSIWYG-ness, so this list isn't quite optimized, but it does require very minimal work in terms of new models painted in time for the tournament (in the last two weeks, I've done the last five swordsmen needed, as well as six of the ten greatswords that I was short, leaving me with four greatswords and a mortar to get done in the next few weeks-obviously, there's time to go a bit beyond that, if you have good suggestions). Frinstance, I'm not convinced that I need a full thirty greatswords, having scraped by with twenty in the past, but I wish I had time to get my swordsmen blocks up to 35 or 40 each...
Lords:
L4 Wizard Lord (lore of life) on pegasus with holy relic, rod of power, and sword of battle
Arch Lector with Armor of Destiny, fencer's blades (er, make that smith's hammers, lol), other trickster's shard
Heroes:
BSB with talisman of preservation, plate armor, and luckstone
Warrior Priest with Armor of Meteoric Armor, dawnstone, and great weapon
Engineer
Core:
30 swordsmen with full command and detachment of 15 halberdiers
30 swordsmen with full command and detachment of 15 halberdiers
10 crossbowmen
10 crossbowmen
10 handgunners
Special
Great Cannon
Great Cannon
Mortar
Mortar
5 Pistoliers with musician
30 Greatswords with FC
Each swordsman block gets a cleric. The greatswords get the BSB. If I'm in an obvious "brace for impact" situation, I can get all three melee regiments inside the LD and BSB bubbles with no problems, except that dressing my ranks in such close order will make it had to find good LOS for the three shooter blocks (who mainly serve to defend the artillery against warmachine hunters anyway), otherwise, each is at least LD8, and can operate a little more spread out without sacrificing the BSB bubble, leaving gaps for the shooters to peek through. The one engineer will have to choose before each game whether to support the cannons or the mortars, depending on which looks more likely to be the more useful...the other pair will actually separate, spreading four pieces across three locations, further complicating the enemy's attempts to counter them. The pistoliers act as flank guard if I go refused-flank, or try to get flank shots (so less chance of return fire) on enemy shooters, or help counter warmachine hunters. The wizard lord is as self-sufficient as I can make him, and not entirely unable to intercept a warmachine hunter himself, or tie up, for example, a small block of HE archers, in melee. With +1A, 4++, S/T4, and the pegasus's attacks, such a fight would be a slaughter. Obviously, the two main elements of the list are the three statie regiments and the artillery...everything else serves to buff the troops or protect the guns. It's a little different take on hammer/anvil...the idea being that the artillery breaks the enemy down into units small enough for the swordsmen to handle with no more support than just their own halberdiers.
Lords:
L4 Wizard Lord (lore of life) on pegasus with holy relic, rod of power, and sword of battle
Arch Lector with Armor of Destiny, fencer's blades (er, make that smith's hammers, lol), other trickster's shard
Heroes:
BSB with talisman of preservation, plate armor, and luckstone
Warrior Priest with Armor of Meteoric Armor, dawnstone, and great weapon
Engineer
Core:
30 swordsmen with full command and detachment of 15 halberdiers
30 swordsmen with full command and detachment of 15 halberdiers
10 crossbowmen
10 crossbowmen
10 handgunners
Special
Great Cannon
Great Cannon
Mortar
Mortar
5 Pistoliers with musician
30 Greatswords with FC
Each swordsman block gets a cleric. The greatswords get the BSB. If I'm in an obvious "brace for impact" situation, I can get all three melee regiments inside the LD and BSB bubbles with no problems, except that dressing my ranks in such close order will make it had to find good LOS for the three shooter blocks (who mainly serve to defend the artillery against warmachine hunters anyway), otherwise, each is at least LD8, and can operate a little more spread out without sacrificing the BSB bubble, leaving gaps for the shooters to peek through. The one engineer will have to choose before each game whether to support the cannons or the mortars, depending on which looks more likely to be the more useful...the other pair will actually separate, spreading four pieces across three locations, further complicating the enemy's attempts to counter them. The pistoliers act as flank guard if I go refused-flank, or try to get flank shots (so less chance of return fire) on enemy shooters, or help counter warmachine hunters. The wizard lord is as self-sufficient as I can make him, and not entirely unable to intercept a warmachine hunter himself, or tie up, for example, a small block of HE archers, in melee. With +1A, 4++, S/T4, and the pegasus's attacks, such a fight would be a slaughter. Obviously, the two main elements of the list are the three statie regiments and the artillery...everything else serves to buff the troops or protect the guns. It's a little different take on hammer/anvil...the idea being that the artillery breaks the enemy down into units small enough for the swordsmen to handle with no more support than just their own halberdiers.