[Black Mamba]

Ok, so I've been trying to come up with an Empire army that can throw a few hidden traps up against Vampires.

I thought massed infantry with a unit of cavalry and mortar, with following characters.

-Level 4 Wizard: (Light) Mounted, barding, VHS, Armour of Tarnus, Rod of Power

-Warrior Priest: heavy armour, shield, Doomfire ring, Sword of Justice.

-Level 2 Wizard: (Beast) Aldreds Casket of Sorcery, Crystal ball.

-Captain: FPA, Imperial Banner.


-Level 4 Wizard is a tempting target running around on his own, if I run him close enough to enemy I might draw out a vampire, challenge, VHS him, then watch him quiver as my wizard goes to town on the Vampire.
-Warrior priest just a bit of fun, mini wizard.
-Level 2 runs right at enemy, Bears Anger on himself and keeps using casket to remove spells
-Captain just supports army core



Any improvements/changes?

 

[HighPlainDrifter]

Well, when I play against an empire player and I see his weak little heroes getting close to mine and I know hes not a really bad player, I never challenge him. VHS is in almost every empire list and unless he knows nothing about empire hes not going to fall for the "Oh no! I'm just a little man with a staff in a dress all alone and I'm lost in this scary forest! Some one save me!" routine.

It does work sometimes, but i find that a WP:freaked-out: giving Hammer of Sigmar to a outrider champ with the hochland long rifle works better.

 

[Marnepup]

I agree with Drifter. VHS is both famous and common. Anyone with more than two games under his belt isn't going to be fooled. You have to be sneakier than that. As we say in Iraq: "The dumb terrorists have all been killed or captured. The only ones left out there are probably smarter than you"

Much better to lurk behind your battle line with a light wizard, see where the vamp strikes, and then slap him (and his unit, if he has one) down to WS1...seeing a common halberdier make mincemeat of him is fantastic!

Or, you put VHS on a character that's weaker than the target, but not so weak that it's the obvious model to put it on...like a mounted WP in a unit of pistoliers...sure, it looks like he's just buffing them while they run around looking for war machine crews to ventilate...but really, they're also escorting and disguising the priest while he gets into striking distance of that nasty enemy combat monster. A

fter that works once, you continue to run the priest with the pistoliers, but without paying the points for VHS...and your opponent will keep his characters out of their way...which in turn keeps the pistoliers alive, and can even allow you to "herd" his character out of a certain part of the table...in the meantime, the priest is good by himself to beat most standard infantry units, reducing the enemy's options for threatening the pistoliers with assault.

 

[ArchonFarseerGuy]

I agree with the consensus here. If you want to use the VHS, use a little subtlety. Placing it on a Wizard or Master Engineer is the oldest trick in the Sun Empire (that reminds me that we need to work on the Tactica. Ah well, in a couple of weeks, my exams will be done with). What I tend to do with mine is place it on a WP in a spearmen unit, and having a Captain floating about doesn't hurt either. What's always fun is seeing people know full well how it works yet still issue challenges/accept with their powerful characters.

Magic, I tend to have my reservations about. If you can really dominate the magic phase (and admittedly a plethora of bound spells and the Lore of Light - with its lethal spells and low casting values - do help a lot), then it will work extremely well for you. Not only will you be in position to inflict serious damage, but the chances are that you'll have a solid magic defence to accompany. If you can reduce or completely shut down their magic phase, you'll be blunting much of their efficiency. If you want a fairly hit-and-miss tactic, try a Seal of Destruction and/or Casket of Sorcery. If his vampire lord can't cast the Invocation of Nehek, he's in a bit of trouble.

Finally, Fear is easily one of the biggest problems that we'll end up facing, particularly with no-one sporting a Leadership value of higher than 9. What I suggest is going for something like the Icon of Magnus (the Imperial Banner can't hurt either) and the Rod of Command can be useful at times.