April | 2012 | Warpstone Pile

So, the Empire book came out over the weekend… and I’m not sure I’m entirely pleased with it. I don’t hate it, but there’s some oddness in it. I dunno. It’s definitely going to take a lot of time for me to process.

My list’s definitely going to have to change a fair amount, but I certainly expected that. I’m extremely thankful that the Halberdiers I’ve built look to be the Right Choice: Spearmen are cheaper, but clearly worse, Swordsmen are better, but not worth their cost.

I’m not going to try to do a unit by unit or even a section by section breakdown, though: I’m sure much better players than me are doing/have done that right now.

The sad truth is that, with the new book, I’m less enthused about knocking together an Empire army. My initial motivation was that they did everything I did with my Skaven list, only with better Leadership, better shooting, more reliable shooting, better magic defense and more magic options. Now… that’s not quite as clear.

Anyway, I’ve started noodling through a list. It’s probably horrible, but I’ve got to start somewhere, right? Stop judging me!

Lords
General (General) – Shield, Gold Sigil Sword, Ironcurse Icon, White Cloak of Ulric, Gryphon
Battle Wizard Lord Lvl 4 – Light, Talisman of Preservation

Heroes
Battle Wizard Lvl 1 – Metal? Beasts?, Dispel Scroll
Captain (BSB) – Great Weapon, Armour of Meteoric Iron
Warrior Priest – Heavy Armor, Warhorse w/ Barding, Enchanted Shield
Witch Hunter – Ruby Ring of Ruin

Core
Halberdiers x34 – Standard Bearer, Musician
– Handgunners x10
Halberdiers x34 – Standard Bearer, Musician
– Handgunners x10

Special
Demigryph Knights x4 – Full Command, Banner of Eternal Flame
Great Cannon
Great Cannon
Outriders x5 – Champion w/ Brace of Pistols, Musician

Rare
Helstorm Rocket Battery
Luminark of Hysh

Core is two buses of Halberdiers. I don’t waste points on champions, ’cause they’re going to be character-heavy. Handgunners are probably not as worth it any more, but I really like the models (and have 30 of them).

I’ve got a block of Demigryph Knights instead of Greatswords. The models are badass, they’ll be able to counter-charge better, and they cost less (shocking!).

There’s still a unit of Outriders in there.

I’m not in love with any of the Lord choices. Besides the Wizard Lord, none of the choices feel like they offer enough to justify their cost. So, to make a General feel worthwhile, I’m bloating him up up with a Gryphon and a few defensive items.

I’m taking a bunch of cheap Heroes, ’cause you can do that. I like to take a baby Wizard, but I’m not sure what I want to do with him in terms of Lore. The BSB and the Witch Hunter go in one unit of Halberdiers, Battle Wizard in the other. Warrior Priest goes on a Barded Steed and rides with the Demigryphs; he’s a different type, so no Look Out, Sir! but I figure the army’s target rich enough to minimize worries about that… and if there’s a unit in here that wants Hatred, this is it.

Effectively four warmachines. Two Great Cannons, might be too much. We’ll see. The Rocket Battery (and the Volley Gun) have gotten much better, and I already have one painted, so that’s an easy call. I think I’d rather have a very accurate, higher strength small template instead of the lower strength mortar. Finally, the Luminark (and the Hurricanum) are best considered War Machines.

I put enough time & money into the dang Greatswords, but there’s just no room in the list for them. They cost even more than they did before, and I’d have to replace the Demigryphs and something else to make room for them.

The overall idea is to be obnoxious with the War Machines and force them to come to me. Try to take their charges with the Halberdiers and counter-charge with the Gryphon or Demigryphs.

Thoughts?

Image courtesy of TurboPhoto

Today, WarpstonePile’s three years old!

It feels like it’s been a lot longer than that; not sure why.

I suppose I could get into a breakdown of what each year’s looked like in terms of content, and how it’s evolved over the past year… but that’s basically what my Year In Review posts are, and one of those a year is self-indulgent enough.

So, instead, I figured I’d 1) acknowledge the milestone and then 2) actually post (since March has been a bad month for that).

I’d started these guys before the new paints were announced, and I’ve decided to go ahead and finish them. When they’re done, I’ll have 20 (well, 21) painted Halberdiers… and a decision to make in regards to proceeding with my current paint scheme or picking up some of the new paints and seeing what results I get with those. I’m early enough in painting this army that it’s not too painful to change my approach.

I don’t expect to have too many problems finding a comparable look with the new paints, but it’s better to evaluate it now, before I get too much further into the army.

Speaking of painting the Empire army: I also need to stop and reevaluate where I’m going when the new book comes out next week. I’m pretty excited about it, but I’ve no doubt I’m going to have to build to a new list.

Finally, I’ve gotten around to making some progress on replacing the Google Spreadsheet for tracking hobby progress. The DB’s setup, the interface with the DB’s in place, and I’ve got a charting approach sorted out (using HighCharts). There’s more charting to be sorted, for sure, and I’ve got to figure out how exactly I want to handle data entry and authentication… but progress is progress. I come from a .NET background but have Unix hosting, so there’s a lot of relearning how to do things that should be pretty basic, which slows things down but is growth.