Preparing for the Masters

As I mentioned previously, this year I have qualified for the Australian Masters tournament, to be held in Canberra on the 3rd and 4th of December. That is in 3 weeks, and today is the deadline for army submission. I spent a fair bit of time umming and ahhing over what I was going to use, but I finally committed over the weekend and sent in my list last night.

I say was I trying to decide what list to use, however the army was always going to be the Empire. This is still my Year of the Empire, although the Masters represent the last tournament to which this applies. There will be nothing through until Cancon next year, and I have not made any plans for the new year. So I was definitely using Empire for this tournament, and I figured I would still to something similar to what I've been using recently. Of course, I used all-cavalry armies in the last 2 tournaments I attended - Book of Grudges and Axemaster. I considered doing it again, however I was slightly worried that people might think I was taking the piss when I'm sure some are approaching this event very earnestly. I might not be as serious about winning as some others, however I am not there to poke fun at things. I would also have been fielding a compromised army for little benefit - I doubt anyone would care about things like themed armies at this tournament, so it felt like there was little point.

In the end I have pretty much retained the heart of my army from the last couple of tournaments, however I have dropped the third unit of cavalry and Pegasus in preference of a large block of infantry and a couple of war machines. It should make the army a bit more flexible, and the cheapness of the Halberdiers meant I could stretch my points further than I could have with cavalry alone. Below is the list I have submitted:

Arch Lector @ 249.0 Pts
     General; Barding; Prayers of Sigmar; Shield; Warhorse
     The Mace of Helstrum
     Dawn Armour
     Dragonbane Gem

Wizard Lord of the Amethyst Order @ 270.0 Pts
     Magic Level 4; Lore of Death; Warhorse
     Talisman of Preservation

Captain @ 137.0 Pts
     Barding; Full Plate Armor; Battle Standard; Warhorse
     Charmed Shield
     Talisman of Endurance
     Biting Blade

Warrior Priest of Sigmar @ 119.0 Pts
     Prayers of Sigmar; Great Weapon
     Armour of Meteoric Iron

Battle Wizard @ 100.0 Pts
     Magic Level 2; Lore of Shadow

Master Engineer @ 90.0 Pts
     Pigeon Bombs

13 Knightly Orders @ 339.0 Pts
     Barding; Full Plate Armor; Great Weapons; Standard; Musician; Preceptor; Warhorse

50 Halberdiers @ 295.0 Pts
     Halberd; Light Armour; Standard; Musician; Sergeant

     5 Detachment - Free Company
          2ndWeapon

11 Knights of the Inner Circle @ 326.0 Pts
     Barding; Lance; Full Plate Armor; Shield; Standard; Musician; Preceptor; Warhorse

Great Cannon @ 100.0 Pts

Mortar @ 75.0 Pts
 

Steam Tank @ 300.0 Pts

Total Army Cost: 2400.0

This list should prove more flexible than my all-cavalry armies. I have a horde of Halberdiers who should be able to hold things up and put up reasonable resistance, I have an expendable detachment there for emergencies (like Mangler Squigs), I have a bit of artillery with an engineer to try to help them hit the odd thing, and finally I have a backup wizard to add slightly more variety to my magic. In all, I think the list is pretty well rounded. I don't feel like I've obviously compromised the list in any way.

So now that I'm committed, I need to make sure I have the models in order. There is a reason why I have not yet fielded a big horde of Halberdiers in a tournament this year - I still don't have one painted! I have the old 4th edition Halberdiers and their Ogre unit filler done, however those total 28 models with no command. I was working on my scratch-built Halberdier to try to fix that issue, but I really don't have time between now and the tournament to create, copy and paint that many models. So I have gone for a compromise and grabbed a pile of 6th edition models to pad them out for the event. I can then go back and split them into their own regiment later. I also grabbed the command group from the Swordsmen I have assembled as stand-ins. All these units will ultimately be painted in compatible schemes, so this temporary solution shouldn't be a long-term problem (other than having 3 partially painted units instead of 1)...

My to-do list assembles...

We have here: 16 Spearmen from the 6th edition starter box with halberd heads on their spears, 3 6th edition multi-part Halberdiers who looked to fit in OK, and my Swordsmen command group. A bit of a mix, but I think it will work for now.