Hey,

After reviewing Wkura's thread, making and testing my own variation, and asking his permission to post my variation, I am, well posting my variation which I plan to use this Saturday at a tourney. So please, rate and review this army (1st prize is Whirlwind LE-4 and LE-5(!!!)).

Well here it is, still haven't decided on which one to use but are basically same thing:

Variation 1:
Emerald Glade Mystery - 68
***Scorpem Gunner - 47
***Scorpem Gunner - 47
***Heavy Lancer - 51
***Heavy Lancer - 51
***Light Lancer - 36

300pts exactly

or

Variation 2:
Emerald Glade Mystery - 68
***Scorpem Gunner - 47
***Scorpem Gunner - 47
***Heavy Lancer - 51
***Horned Hatchetkrugg - 44
***Nightmare Reaper - 42

299pts

We all know the basic strategy of this army, fly up 6 in. away, with 21d. vs range, shoot em up then charge em'. I can also do the long range tactic where I stake out 15 in. away, bound and shoot with scorpems, then move EGM into base so they can evade some counter shots. I tested this against my friends armies and it is yet to lose, and this friday I will be testing it against all types of armies (F&P(ML/Ram, bone toss, etc.), Swarm, Charge/Swarm, rouge, Stormy, Hiero, other ranged fatties, AG - gunner/magus cheese, AG melee, arties, MB-heavy, and any other type of army that I think I might see at the tourney).

So, please, I ask you, the community, to review this army. I'd like to know which one you like better, why, and its strengths/weaknesses. I love playing both of these armies but favor V2 maybe a little more. So please, post a reply.

Thanks!

The main problem I see is the complete lack of harrassers. You probably dont need them against most armies, but there will be a few cases where you will. The 21 defense is very difficult to hit, but forces you to risk the EGM being in range of Magic blasters or F/L splash damage.

Having no harrassers makes it difficult to advance on a hvy enhanced gunner/(Magus or scorpems) army. The F/L splash damage makes using the EGM for raising defense not that great an idea. Its difficult to describe how it would play out on the 3X3, but basically they can allow you to get first hit in with the bounders, but formation fire back splashing F/L over onto the EGM OR get a few harrassers to block LOS and then F/L the following turn using a formation shot.

another thing that can happen is that on the critical turn where your going to move in to attack(about 15-18" away from their main forces), shades can be leved or moved forward(providing they are close enough) to tie up a few units and the rest of the army can move their gunners into range. This forces you to use a few chargers the following turn to deal with the shades and leave your self in a ackward position, or else leave a few guys and advance and go in understrengthed. If you had the Fell Reaper of the original version you could send him out to tie them up for a few turns while you dealt with the shades.

Also you lack the ability to move all your figures in one turn, allowing the EGM to be exposed at some times to Ram or else have figures exposed with out the 21 defense. This would most likely would be a rare problem, but I don't know what your area looks like in army types and player skill.

However if your area is using a lot of melee, or swarm/charge, or wierd armies than this army will do so well that it would almost seem to be cheating.


Overall: I like version 1 better because it can move enough figs in one turn to keep the EGM protected(at a crawl of 6 though) from RAM. The nightmare/krugg combo doesnt add enough really to warrant forcing everything moving solo. It can also formation attack using wounded chargers to assist each other to still make hits on big figures(ok this is kinda reaching for another reason....)

I see your point, Bshugg, with the whole harrassers deal, and it was bothering me while building this army. Although, I didnt mention it, I had considered replacing the the ***light lancer for a *fell reaper, because of reasons stated. Or, i can possibly trade a scorpem for a *fell reaper and a *standard bearer, to both hehlp on the action problem and harrassment.

Mind if I tinker with Version 2 a bit?

Why not trade the hvy lancer and horned hatchetkrugg out for 2 blue heavy cavaliers, saving 11 points in the process, which would be enough to add a standard bearer to make them all move up to 12" a turn?

As for the extra point left over, I would suggest switching the red nightmare out for a red fell. 300 on the nose.

Emerald Glade Mystery - 68
***Scorpem Gunner - 47
***Scorpem Gunner - 47
2x ** Heavy Cavalier
* Standard Bearer

*** Fell Reaper

It's not perfect movement-wise since the scorpems are a bit slower, but I like the threat that they add to the army. Without playtesting, I can't honestly say whether or not you need both of them in there; seems like it could go either way.

Let us know how it goes, Joe. Good luck.

Hitman

One of your biggest problems(In my humble opine), is that both of your armies lack one of the original "tank's" most threatening capability: 1 turn movemebt of up to 12" It is extremely critical to have this 12 inch movement to be able to keep pressure on GA/turtle type armies.

The tank will usually be able to take a few F/L shots(they do need a 9 after all), but by only being able to move 6" at a time, the amount of shots your opponent will be increased manyfold. The other option would be to break up the formation protecting the EGM, but as Bshugg noted, this leaves the EGM open to be rammed/shakoff, etc.

Good work overall Joe, but you really need to put in someone to march your tank around :) Keep up the good work though, Scorpems are definetly a nice fit for Tank armies!

As a side note, I used scorpems in a 400 point version of the tank and went 4-1 last weekend(whooped up on by a dragon...eheh learned a few rules about MDF :O )

hitman the army still doesn't solve the harassment problem. It is an improvement but it still needs harassment.

Yeh, it takes 2 turns to move, but it may make up for that in the fact that it has 15" range capability.

But if lack of harrassment is going to be a giant problem like it seems it is, then in form 1 I can switch the ***light lancer for a *fell reaper, or in form 2, I can switch the ***nightmare reaper for a ***fell reaper.

probably just do that

Well, I've realized that my versions, so far, lack the ability to move in one turn and harrassment.

In this army, you may be able tp offset the disadvantages of the other, but missing both is unacceptable.

So I thought of this one, and since I also found that fitting both a fell reaper and scorpem is hard with this one, I went for the "move your army in one turn" effect.

Emerald Glade Mystery - 68
***Scorpem Gunner
***Heavy Lancer
***Heavy Lancer
*Heavy Cavalier
*Heavy Cavalier
**Standard Bearer (had 2 extra points)

It's more closely related to Wkura's original version, but I think the scorpem was perfect for this strategy so I had to fit him in. Also, I perfer the *heavy cavs to ***light lancers for a few reasons. The cavs retain 3 dmg after a push and have better defense; that 14 on the light lancers makes me nervous, just by looking at it.

So what do you think? It retains the mobility of the original tank but now has long range capabilities. I can now bound-attack with scorpem, and in the same turn, move the glade in to deend him, and then move the rest of my army in charge position.

I like this version best so far. Harrasment shouldn't be much of a problem. You have plenty of strong fighters. The scorpem fits in quite nicely, with it's humongous range. Good luck, and snag those LE's!