Unicorn/Stag bus - Fun

[DocDropPod]

Hi all

After winning a doubles tournament with my mate (we ran a DE/WE HotEK army) I was inspired by my mate's use of a combat focused character bus.
So I've written one up myself. Just quickly. And basic. I reckon not only would it be quite effective but also fun.
My gaming area isn't terribly competitive (outside of tournaments) so this should be fine.
I also wanted to build this list because I know of people's thoughts on how ineffective Stags and Unicorns can be.

Let me know your thoughts.

Glade Captain: The Helm of the Hunt; Asrai spear; shield; Great Stag 164
Glade Captain: Potion of Foolhardiness; Enchanted Shield; Asrai spear; Great Stag 152
Glade Captain: Dragonhelm; Asrai spear; shield; Great Stag 154
Spellsinger: Level 2 Wizard; Lore of Beasts; Unicorn 175
Spellsinger: Level 2 Wizard; Lore of Beasts; Unicorn 175

21 Glade Guard: trueflight arrows; musician 325
21 Glade Guard: trueflight arrows; musician 325

5 Sisters of the Thorn 130
5 Wild Riders: shields 140
5 Wild Riders: shields 140
10 Deepwood Scouts: hagbane tips 160
10 Deepwood Scouts: hagbane tips 160

10 Waywatchers 200

2,400 points


It has a bit of everything to work well I reckon. Some things could be swapped out. Remember, I wrote it quickly.

[razorfate]

Hi,

There is a similar build in the forum with two spellweavers on unicorn and two great stag great captains. I myself am building stag and unicron riders for a similar build.
Your captains need ward save, talisman of preservation and armour of destiny.
One of the sepllweavers shell be beastweaver to cast savage beast reliably while the other goes high magic to gain invul tokens against cannon fire.
The fighters goes at the front and the mages hide behind them.

I think it is never a good idea to take that many glade guards in one unit as they are squishy, maybe you can go with a 10-15 strong eternal guard to hold a dangerous unit a few turns until help arrives from the Monsterous Bus.

I think sister bus will not be very efficient here, since you will probably already get Curse with the beast weaver (But savage beast must be priority)

Also you will be good to divide deepwood scouts and waywatchers to smaller units.

[Yuri]

As I am in the same great stag frenzy all I can say is: awesome!

If I may ask, what are you planning to do with this bus? I presume all those characters are going into one unit, right?

[DocDropPod]

All the characters in one unit and go after something that it'll murder [emoji2]

I did originally have a beast and a high Mage with the unit. But thought as much beast magic as possible would be fun. But you're right. The stags DO need protection. But is a reason why I kept them cheap and with a 3+

[DocDropPod]

And I'm not all that confident in running msu units of archers. I don't want to take a magic missile or a round of shooting to the face and loose a unit or have them run

[razorfate]

The problem with the glade guard to hunt warmachines is that you have to drop only three units before you deploy glade guard. Your opponent would likely to deploy his warmachines after your glade guard and out of your range. This happened to me in my last game, you can find the report here. My HBA glade guard were outdeployed and did nothing to his warmachines and had to march in their first turn just to enter the bow range.

Also sometimes you will be lucky with your shooting and you will be able to kill the target unit with fewer arrows. If you go with msu glade guard, you can have more targets after you dispose of one.

Last but not the least, 21 glade guard will not win any battle for you but will be easy points for fast and strong units or punishing magic phase of your opponent as they are expensive troops with nor armour.

Two level 2s will not guarantee your spell selection other than wyssan and it will be hard for them to cast spells as your opponent will likely dispel your spells with his level 4.

[Aezeal]

OK

1. so no lvl 4. I guess this is intentional but it means
- no +4 to cast
- no +4 to dispell (MAJOR imho)
- only 2 high magic spells, might be easily dispelled to prevent you getting counters.
- not much chance of getting the essential spells (savage beast? or maybe even transformation - if this unit goes into combat you can charge and then cast the spell but I'm not sure if you can make way between other characters) - or arcane unforging for the high magic.

2.
I'd NEVER go over core in GG
- scouts are SO much more effective, if they dont'get a musician they aren't that much more expensive (especially in smaller units)
- scouts skirmish: can march and fire and march with free reform: while GG just cannot evade anything (except slowly backing out), unless enemy infantry gets a good long charge they'll just be able to hop out of the front arch and keep shooting.
- scouts deploy as scouts so you can spread them out more so armies that need to melee them need to spread out more (and won't be able to get everywhere in 6 turns unless they are very fast).

Or get more waywatchers to deal with armor.. just don't get more GG than minimum needed (I think you can delete 3-4)

3. I'm not sure why razor think you'll have curse on a mage.. since a lvl 2 isn't a sure way to get both curse and savage beast. Having said that except to cast and channel I think sisters are a rather expensive way to deal with chaff or redirect or whatever your intended roll is.

4. can anyone enlighten me about high counters and cannons.
IF the frontline hero get's shot (auto hit), wound 2+ what happens then. If you fail a ward save -these guys don't have it btw which might be an idea- you can just discard the counter to prevent the wound. Then NO d6 AND no cannon ball bouncing through the rest of the unit?

5. I'd Always spend 5 points on the iron curse amulet in a unit like this.

6. I'd make one of the captains a BSB. Considering you're not really kitting the hero's much you should consider a magic banner to improve the whole unit.

7 how about getting 6 warhawks so you'll have 6 warhawks next to the unit (if enemy get's first turn and can shoot cannons you'll have a 4++ look out sir). warhawks are decent unit anyway for warmachin hunting and clearing chaff (probably better for that than the sisters).

8. I think most combat chars will still WRECK the captains. Get wardsaves, get potion of strength, potion of toughness.

9. DISPELL SCROLLLLL!!!

[Aezeal]

All the characters in one unit and go after something that it'll murder [emoji2]

I did originally have a beast and a high Mage with the unit. But thought as much beast magic as possible would be fun. But you're right. The stags DO need protection. But is a reason why I kept them cheap and with a 3+

I think that against melee armies (either strong combat chars, large flying monsters or big blocks you will not be winning combat (against the big blocks maybe first turn if you get a side charge.. but they'll be positioning them to face you I'd bet). I'd say IF you invest in a unit like this you need to go all the way for max power.

[DocDropPod]

What would you suggest?

[Aezeal]

What would you suggest?

Read my posts... the first one has several suggestion. (PS I've never played with this so it's all educated guesses.. and I'm not saying everything is a good idea.. it THINK they are improvements though so I put them there for you and others to discuss or shoot down).

[razorfate]

Aezeal, thanks for calling me Razor, it sounds very cool:)

Well, if you want high magic counters you need a spellweaver, spellsingers can only take from BRB lores.

High magic counters stop all wounds dealt to the unit, be it cannon wounds or miscast wounds ( but removing from play effects). Monsterous cavalary (unicorn and stag riders) stops the cannon ball hitting other models

I am at the same position with you about the necessity of the level 4 mage. You definetly need a level 4 because of the resons you mentioned. With level 4 comes great spell of Savage Beast and Curse of Anrehir spells.

And agreeing with all the rest as well