Hochland's Finest

[Murphy'sLawyer]

This is going to be my OFCC log for my Empire Army and I will be posting list ideas along with pics of my army as it comes together.

 

I will also be posting a story line that I am basing my army off of to give my army its own character for fun. (You don't have to read my fluffy bits. I swear I won't be bothered.)

 

To start off I have decided to go with Hochland as my home Province and will be working off that theme. I have Broken Honour for a reference for the army formations in Hochland but I know this is incomplete. So advice is welcome, but I am not going to take every idea seriously. My models are mostly put together outside of the War Altar and one or so units.

 

Now that I am done with my introduction I hope you enjoy my thread.

 

Murphy's Lawyer

[HeroZero]

Jaegercorps, I would make your archers and handgunners/crossbows as woodsy as possible, ore rugged less poofy.

I would suggest 40k DA bits for knights of the broken sword. The fluff closely matches.

I would include a very huntsmen theme across the army. Some hunting hounds for unit filler wouldnt be remiss.

You absolutely have to bring a compliment of Hochland long rifles

Definatly include a unit or two of huntsmen. I really can't see hochland not having them, despite game use.

I'd try to make the war altar more taal like, rather than sigmarite.

[HeroZero]

Also you need to mount telescopic sights on yor cannons and maybe extend the barrel.

Hochland long cannons don't miss....

[Murphy'sLawyer]

Well pulled out my old WHF Role Play books and found some intersting things. First Taal is an indifferent god and doesn't care about mortal events much like weather, so would he grant blessing like Sigmar. Also Hochland does have a large following of Sigmarites and of the three gods worshiped in Hochland Sigmar is right there with Taal. (Sigmar granted the lands of Hochland to the Hochland people instead of folding it in with Talabecland and the people of Hochland praised him for this.)

 

I don't have to follow the fluff completely but that is an interesting point. It is other Nothern Provinces like Middenland, Ostland and Nordland where Sigmar is followed much less.

 

So still brewing on the War Altar.

 

The unit of Handgunners is a must. My only question is should I bring an engineer with a Hoch gun to go in the unit?

 

Thanks for the ideas Hero, the unit fillers are a great idea and will see what I can find.

 

And we can talk more on Hochand's religions becuase I am now working from two writen sources. Taal and Rhya are interesting gods but they don't get involved with human conflicts. And Ulric is not worshiped much in Hochland unlike its neighbors.

[HeroZero]

I don't see indifference as inaction. Taal IIRC hates him some beastmen. Hochland is pretty filthy with them. I see a taal shrine being pretty synonymous with "kill the mutie scum"

I'd hazard a guess and say that a level 4 beast mage wouldnt be remiss either.

[Murphy'sLawyer]

Good points. I also just thought what if I had a Warrior Priest for both Sigmar and Taal in my army? Sigmar had no issues with Taal and the temple of Sigmar tolerates followers of Taal, so why not?

[HeroZero]

That could work. Or just go beasts mages, sigmarite shrine+priests.

 

I'm not sure if a Master engineer with rifle is worth it since he wouldnt be able to fire the cannons. ( Really put some scopes on cannons its hilarious IMHO)

 

I would definitely bring a unit of handgunners with the long rifle for fluff. Give the champ a racoon skin cap for sure. Davy Crockett was a hochlander for sure.

 

You should throw removablecamo netting on your steam tank.

Something hilarious in my mind in hiding a smoke belching war tank under camouflage for "ambush"

 

If I'm not mistaken hergigs in hochland they had a regiment of distinction if I'm remembering right.

 

Don't forget to bring an ale pony unit filler. Because hunting beastmen sober and thirsty is down right bull[big bad swear word].

[MexicanNinja]

So, here are my thoughts:

 

1) A unit of handgunners should have the unit champ w/hochland long rifle.  If you take master engineers give them hochland rifles for theme and for use, in the event you are expecting to always need the re-roll (shoot the war machines first and if you don't use his ability you can attempt to snipe).

 

2) A unit of Outriders with a champ and hochland long rifle would be a good fit (you get a ton of handgun shots followed by a snipe shot).

 

3) You better have 2 volley guns in that formation somewhere!

 

4) If hochland has a strong sigmarite following, try and include a mounted warrior priest and a unit of 25-30 flagallents.

 

5) I use hounds in my Witch Hunter Mordhiem warband.  You can find some cool looking hounds on reapermini.

 

6) As for a magic lore that would fit your theme:  Beasts is great for the "huntsmen", Light because you still hate mutants and heretics, Death because you can snipe your foes outside of combat.

 

 

You have a great idea bubbling up.  A good-quick resource is the Empire: Heraldy book.  I purchased that a long time ago and I thought it was pretty cool.

[Murphy'sLawyer]

Wyssan's Wildfrom alone with the Warrior Priest buffs and Lore of Light. A 40 man unit of Halberds will Wreck face. Will keep that in mind.

 

Otherwise I am loving this idea more and more now.

[HeroZero]

I'd avoid Lore of light, your treading dangerously close to the "netlist" of empire.

 

A savage beast of horrors warrior priest and BSB can be down right scary. God forbid if a a witchunter is on his prey target with savage beast.... Splat.

 

Plus what's cooler than once and a while going full retard and flopping out a boosted transformation of kadon.

 

Poof I'm a hydra! Rawr. Poof! I'm a dragon ...dude.

[MexicanNinja]

I'd avoid Lore of light, your treading dangerously close to the "netlist" of empire.

 

A savage beast of horrors warrior priest and BSB can be down right scary. God forbid if a a witchunter is on his prey target with savage beast.... Splat.

 

Plus what's cooler than once and a while going full retard and flopping out a boosted transformation of kadon.

 

Poof I'm a hydra! Rawr. Poof! I'm a dragon ...dude.

He's not even close to the "netlist" of empire with a single life caster.  It takes a level 4, war altar, and 2 other level 1's for the light council to work.

 

Lore of Life with your theme is perfect.  It's only a council of light if you spam banishments with lots of wizards and war altar.  I believe your army could benefit from the buffs.  Have you ever witnessed a horder of Halb's go to town with speed of light?  The majority of people who use lore of light only see the banishment spam and not the other great benefits it offers.

[Murphy'sLawyer]

I will only have 1 Lore of Light. And as MN said it is more for the Buff spells than Banishment. The Lore of Light is way underestimated when it comes to its Buff spells and Speed of Light looks fantastic.

 

I will be actively trying to avoid the Netlist but I am not going to avoid good units and spells in the process. Having Handgunners, Pistoleers and a Witch hunter already steers way away from it and mixing a Lore of Beasts with a Lore of Light will get me banished from the Empire forums. (Get it? Banish..... Yeah that was bad.)

 

Watching Once Bitten's battle reports have already shown me the Netlist and I am not going there.

 

MN the unit you are thinking of might be the Gentlemen's Free Company.

[MexicanNinja]

Unfortunately, I don't respect the list that OnceBitten plays.  He copied it from another player.  He just happens to have a youtube channel to show it off.  That's another story though.

 

Yes Murphy, yes!  I try and tell many players that lore of light is excellent for buffs.  However, the first response is that banishment is the only reason to take it.  So dumb, IMO.

 

Sidenote, are you going to be at the club house tonight?  I'd like to discuss empire things with you.  As I have stated, I spent 5 years playing Empire and could discuss things with you.  I played them through 3 army books and 3 editions of WFB.

[Murphy'sLawyer]

I will be there with some Empire to test models out. Not a great list just one put together to see how the Backbone works.

[HeroZero]

Yeah the "standard" is

popemobile,

lvl 4 light,

BSB,

2 lvl 1 light,

witch hunter.

40-50 Halberds

10 archers

2 x 5 archers

2 Cannons

6-8 demigryphs

2 HBVG

Steam tank.

Season with IC knights.

Blech. Who wants that?

While oncebittens are decent rothgar's are much more informative and has a 3 to 1 advantage in amount.

 

Back to topic

I don't really see hochland as fanatical heretic Hunting types. Maybe in stirland, or ostermark bordering Sylvania will do that to you.

I see more justification for lore of life (Rhys worshipers, huge forests etc) or beasts (taal, Rhya, forest creatures)

Than lore of light.

 

Life+Beasts is nasty and synergize well together.

Toughness 8 , str 5 halberd hordes sure.

Regeneration on grunts with no real save? Deal.

 

Your pistoliers NEED to have foxes and hounds on their bases. The brettonia sprue has some dogs IIRC. Because nothing says up jumped country nobility than a fox hunt through a beastmen infested forest. And obviously the musician with the little brass trumpet.

[MexicanNinja]

I will be there with some Empire to test models out. Not a great list just one put together to see how the Backbone works.

Cool, we could talk "backbone" if you like.  Just remember, detachments are your best ally!  That rule alone is top 3 "army specific" rule in WFB right now, IMO.

[HeroZero]

Yes it is. 5 man detachments being stubborn because steadfast parent is so god awfully awesome.

 

Also @ML you need a Jaegermeister. It's just required for getting in the hocland spirit!

[MexicanNinja]

Yes it is. 5 man detachments being stubborn because steadfast parent is so god awfully awesome.

 

Also @ML you need a Jaegermeister. It's just required for getting in the hocland spirit!

 

It's not just the steadfast rule.  If you happen to have a horde of halb's in a unit size of 40 and then flank them with a detachment of 20 halbs your opponent needs to kill both the parent unit and detachment to gain points for them.  You have the ability to do some great things with them.

 

If you like greatswords, you can screen them with archers for extra protection from shooting (hard cover).  I just love the rule.  It greatly enhacnes the empires performance.

 

Murphy, I am really liking the direction your Empire army is headed.  It's unique and will be a great sight on field of battle!

[HeroZero]

Murphy another conversion idea...

 

Your great sword champion should have a lumber jack axe.

And

Wait for it.... Your mage/witch hunter should be little red riding hood...

[Murphy'sLawyer]

So I learned some valuble leasons tonight. The biggest is the learning curve for Empire os not as easy as I thought it would be. First rule, battle mage with disspell scroll is a must. Second, I need to learn deployment for a new army. Cannons are new to me so how they target is different than what I am use to meaning deployment is going to be different. (And forgetting that the hill in the corner should be used first.)

 

Another thing is that at games under 2000 having Demi's and a Stank in the same list is just too much. I was point starved for the rest of my army and my opponent played the cat and mouse game with is units so my Demi's got chewed up by his Bolt Throwers.

 

So now I will drop the Demi's for some games and focus on the Stank and unit detatchments. I also should have more points to make sure I have a Battle Mage next time.

 

I will post my next list later this week after I play with some numbers.

[generalripphook]

Id see if you could make a unit filler of a wagon filled with rifles...or a tripod of rifles and a camp fire.....with the tree sump with a axe in it from the bretonian men at arms or archers set.

[MexicanNinja]

Steamtank usage, in the words of Fired Up....BE AGRESSIVE BE-EEE AGRESSIVE!

[Murphy'sLawyer]

So tonight I scored 2 pegasus, Bret Knights, from GG out of their bits box. So I could do captain pegasus.

 

Also I have to decide on which units to get next. More State Troops, Great Swords or Knights. Of course my theme is going to dictate on which purchase comes next.

[MexicanNinja]

if you decide on using great swords, make sure you take a few things to properly support them.

[HeroZero]

Yes unsupported great swords are so sad.