First Blood

I had my first Warhammer battle last night. I played against someone who hadn't played in several years so this was his first foray into the current edition of Warhammer. He fielded a force of Lizardmen against my Empire army. We played two rounds (out of 6) before everyone had to leave to go watch Spiderman 3 (I didn't join them) so we called it quits and called the game a draw. It was somewhat anti-climactic but I got a lot out of playing the game and seeing the mechanics in action. I've already made changes to my list based on what happened.

The list I had was for a 2,000 point army. For clarification: battles are fought between armies of comparable points. Each unit that is available to an army costs a certain number of points. Certain units can be enhanced by purchasing upgraded for extra points. Some units get bonuses for forming ranks of certain sizes. Each faction has different characteristics based on racial ability (dwarfs, humans, undead, lizardmen, elves, each have different skills), type of unit (infantry, cavalry, flying units, war machines like cannons, mortars, etc), rank (depending on the size of the army you can add certain numbers of units that are characters with special abilities such as for Empire, you could add the Emperor as a seperate unit, a General, wizards, the leader of an Order of Knights, etc.). The list I created was as follows:

Lord Choice (limit 1 for a 2,000 point army):
Templar Grand Master 235 pts (this unit is supposed to be the head or an Order of Knights and has great leadership skills and abilities)
(with Sword of Sigismund +45 (an improved attack), Holy Relic +45 (an improved chance to escape damage if hit))

Characters(up to 4 total including the Lord choice):
Captain of the Empire 114 pts
(with Sword of Righteous Steel +30; handgun +10; full plate +8; shield +2; Barded warhorse +14)

Battle Standard Bearer 138 pts (one unit in an army can be the BSB which confers on him the ability allow fleeing troops to rally and also allows the purchase of a magical banner that add furtehr benefits to the army or the unit the BSB is attached to)
(with Griphon Standard +55 (this is a magical banner that allows the unit to count its ranks twice in combat resolution - in effect the unit would appear more powerful than it really is); full plate +8)

Battle Wizard 115 pts (just a low level wizard to counter enemy spell casters. This guy won't do much offensively)
(with two Dispel Scrolls +50)

Special choices: (up to 4 units having special abilities may be fielded)

Knights of the Inner Circle X10 models 320 pts (an improved Knighly Order - these guys are stonger than your basic Knights)
(with Full Command and Steel Standard +20 pts) (Full command means the unit has a Champoion who has slightly better stats than a normal model in the unit, a Musician that helps rally fleeing troops, and a standard bearer that confers some other bonus to the unit)

Pistoliers x5 models 114 pts (light cavalry with short ranged armor piercing pistols)
(with Full Command and the outrider champion equipped with a repeater pistol +10) (the repeater pistol adds an extra attack to my champion)

2X Great Cannon 200 pts (Cannons go BOOM!)


Core units: (at least 3 of your units must be Core units)

Swordsmen X 25 models 175 pts (The Empire is uniquie in its ability to have certain kids of infanty units have detachments that can function in close support and can act when otherwise they could not normally do so.)
(Parent unit - Full Command)
Detachments:
Halberdiers X10 models 50 pts
Handgunners X 10 models 80 pts

Knightly Orders X10 models 320 pts
(with Full Command and Banner of the Demonslayer +50 pts)

Knightly Orders X5 models 139 pts
(with Musician and Champion - no standard)


So there it was. The game begins with each side deplying units one after the other. I had a strategy going in to try to heavily load one side of my force and swing up and try to crush his flank. I was taken by surprise by the lay out of the field and how my opponent squished all his units together. I ended up fielding my army in a ragged line that really didn't lend itself to my original plan. it turned to be more of an assault on three fronts which did not bode well for me. On the plus side, my knights were superior to all of his front line troops and in every one on one encounter I would easily win, I spread myself too thin and allowed my Knights of the Inner Circle to be outflanked in the last round. My Pistolliers also didn't do as well as I hoped due to their short range and low armor saves. I also found out a limitation to magical weapons that I wasn't aware of. In the end this was a great learning experience.

I've made a couple of changes to my list. I swapped out my Pistolliers with Outriders which are also light cavalry with ranged weapons, but the Outriders have a significantly longer range but cannot move and shoot at the same turn without incurring a penalty - a tradeoff, but one I think I can live with - we'll see how that works out. I also swapped out the magical weapons on my Characters for more useful items. I had to lower the numbers in my infantry unit to get within the 2,000 point limit as well.

I think I learned other things as well. If I have a plan I should stick with it for a lot longer than I did this time. I think a pincher move could have worked, but I didn't do that - it ended up being a weak frontal attack instead. An even stronger option would have been a single strong flank attack as I originally hoped but I didn't set up my units to do it that way.