2400 Anvil of Executioners

[Cicciuz]

I would like to create an Anvil of executioners and I have thought at this list. Any comment welcome:
LORDS
Morathi
HEROES
master on Peg, CoT
2 lvl Life sorceress (dispel and OTC)
Death Hag BSB
CORE
12 Darkshards
23 Corsairs
10 DR
SPECIAL
29 Executioners
5 CO
1 CO Charriot
2 RBT
RARE
5 Warlock

STRATEGY:
Annilhate units using the Executioners. Morathi will attract all the shootings leaving a bit of rest to the exec. the life sorceress cast regen on the exec, keep a dispel, and grant OTC to the exec and heal Morathi if needed. The death Hag make the corsairs frenzy and they act like witches with higher armour. CO and the Charriot flank when Exec and Corsairs are holding the enemy. The DR are the bunker for Morathi.

I can increase the unit of exec further if needed.
I am afraid thet both the death Hag and the Sorceress are extremely vulnerable.

Any suggestion to improve this list?

[tehnico]

Like you, I love my executioners! I run a similar list with a hoard of executioners. The only difference is that I have mine surrounded by cavalry, instead of a balanced mix. You'll have to tell me how that works for you.

Here's mine.

Lords:
LVL4, Death, Dark Steed, Power Stone (Usually for a big Purple Sun of prepare your anus), ToP.

Heroes:
Peg Master, BSB, Full mundane armour, CoT, Lance.
Cold One Master, Full mundane armour, Lance, Ring of Hotek.
LVL1, Shadow, Dispel Scroll (I usually signature select Miasma).

Core:
9 Dark Riders Sh/RxB, FC (LVL4 goes here).
5 Dark Riders Sh/RxB.
5 Dark Riders Sh/RxB.
16 Darkshards w/Sh (LVL1 goes here).

Special:
10 CoK, FC, Banner of Swiftness (Cold One Master goes here)
32 Executioners, FC

Rare:
5 Warlocks
5 Warlocks

So much shooting/annoyance/movement/magic, and that horde hammer of Executioners... as many as 31 S6 KB @ initiative attacks!? Did I just hear Dwarven gunlines shiz their pants? Yes, yes I did. I've been tempted to try Tullaris in there to up it to his attacks + frenzy for the group. ~45 attacks... I don't even... but I don't want to spend a hero for a luxury I don't need. Sometimes I jigger a flaming banner in the Executioners if I'm facing a heavy monster/knight army.

I'll keep the cold ones and the exec's close enough to both benefit from the Ring of Hotek. Usually keeps the high dice RIP spells away. Between the sniper spells from the LVL4, and the Peg Master, war machines do not last very long. I use the banner of swiftness so that I can give a steroid boost to the Cold One Knights by sinking the Peg Master/BSB in there after he's cleaned up a war machine (mainly because I hate losing movement, even an inch). The re-rolls for stupidity are nice if I'm faced with a crucial charge late in the game too.

All the while, there's strategic redirecting, RxB fire, and Doombolts flying all over the board.

Fun story, I've Fate of Bjuna'd a trebuchet that took a wound but survived. It failed it's ensuing stupidity tests (LD 5) and kept stumbling forward (and unable to shoot!) for the rest of the game. He was not impressed.

[marcopollo]

Morathi is a beast. I'd drop the OTC. She will die to a stiff breeze and then the OTC will be of no value. Maybe some MR and a steed and put her in the warlocks/DR. If you give her death, then you can get two ld 10 spirit leeches off per turn if you keep her close enough to Morathi.

[Cicciuz]

I played this yesterday and it rocks!!!
actually i dropped the death hag and the life sorceress and I put in a master BSB in the executioners. I put on the crown and the OTC on the master, but i am not really sure about my choice as i never used them in the battle.. any suggestion here?
I tried 2 executioners unit one of 7x2 and the other 8x2. However, i am thinking to go back to the original idea of an Anvil as i was struggling to move such a large unit. any suggestion on the dimension of the unit? Is it better a 10x3 or something like 6x5 or 7x4? It sounds like a waste to put executioners in more than 2 ranks...

I ll follow your suggestion tehnico and I ll drop the darkshards for more DR and probably another anvil of Corsairs!

[tehnico]

Glad it worked out! Maybe I'll give a more diversified list with my Execu-Anvil a shot.

As for Darkshards vs. Corsairs. I'm always torn. I find that Corsairs don't give me enough ROI, and they don't attract much attention either. But they're great for keeping charges away from other infantry blocks. On the other hand Darkshards feel good to have for the shooting, but rarely move far, never get into combat unless they're forced, and sometimes don't end up killing a damn thing. I wish I could make better tactical use of my corsairs, but I can never seem to make it work. Which is crazy because I feel like I'm wasting the AS and A of a very affordable unit. Just about all I can figure out to do with them is run 2 units of ten, just to piss people off. And I've never taken the handbows.

What do you do with corsairs?

[marcopollo]

I like the following set-up for corsairs.

20 corsairs, full command, two hand weapons.
Bloodwrack shrine
Supreme Sorceress of ShadowDark: ToP + scroll (lv 4) -- or sorceress of dark with T o Furion (lv2).

If you set up with command in the front there is a small space behind the front three for the SS to "hide". With the size of the BWS being a total of 15 model bases, you have an effective unit size of 36 (6x6) models. Which is plenty big to break steadfasts in a 6x6 formation. With a shadow mage you can threaten mindrazor and pull off miasma and enfebelling/withering with consistency helping combat but also the intiative tests that have to be taken due to the BWS. Dark is similar but you threaten with word of pain and boost with PoD.

The BWS adds +1 to ld so ld 10 with SS or ld 9 with the level 2. The BWS also stands and shoots, doles out impact hits and is pretty decent in combat. It has also been argued successfully that the BWS stops stomps and T-Stomps on the unit. The argument goes like, the stomps/T-stomps are distributed like shooting and because the BWS creates a "unique unit" it is immune to stomps/T-stomps.

And IIRC the BWS gives MR 1 to boot. Occaisionally, I have gone with life to minimize cannon effects and heal.

But, to be honest, I still think that a full DR core is the best way to use up core points. So I have taken now to using BG in this role and a full DR core.

[Cicciuz]

to be sincere it happens the same to me on Corsairs...

at the beginning i was doing a big Anvil and put a sorceress with dagger in them and giving them handbow: in this way i put them in the middle and shoot at everyone hoping to get the attention, although it is not so savy to kill so many corsairs with the dagger.
now that i have Morathi I am putting them in the middle of the army hoping people to charge them but they do not get much attention: archers and cavalry prefer to charge/shoot the exec as they do not ASF.
I was thinking to try to give them swiftness so they are always in front and the enemy need to charge them before getting to the exec; alternatively put them as human wall to protect other units aginst shooting.

Re: darkshards, they barely kills something as with all the fast cavalry usually the match is fought in the other half of the table and by the time they get in range everyone is in cc so they can not do much.

@marcopollo: that sound nice but i do not have a shrine

[marcopollo]

The finecast shrine is a real pain to put together. But it is a nice center piece and can add good value to corsairs especially.