Alamo GT Army List

Here it is, boys and girls, my official army list for the 2012 Alamo GT taking place in San Antonio, Texas next weekend November 2nd through 4th. After several days of tinkering, especially after the Wood Elf FAQ update, this is the list I devised and turned in to tournament personnel:

Highborn (292 points)

• Altered Kindred, Bow of Loren, Dragonhelm, Stone of Crystal Mere, Arcane Bodkins, Great Weapon, Light Armor, Shield

Spellweaver (333 points)

• General, Level 4, Lore of Beasts, Dispell Scroll, Opal Amulet, Ruby Ring of Ruin, Elven Steed

Noble (139 points)

• Battle Standard Bearer, Banner of Eternal Flame, Resplendence of Luminescents, Light Armor, Elven Steed

Noble (169 points)

• Great Eagle, Charmed Shield, Dragonbane Gem, Hail of Doom Arrow, Light Armor, Spear

Glade Riders (267 points) (10 models with musician and standard bearer)
Glade Riders (267 points) (10 models with musician and standard bearer)
Glade Riders (267 points) (10 models with musician and standard bearer)
Glade Riders (267 points) (10 models with musician and standard bearer)
Wild Riders (278 points) (10 models with musician and standard bearer)
Warhawk Riders (120 points) (3 models)
Eagle (50 points)
Eagle (50 points)

Total army points is 2499 broken down as follows: 625 points in Lords, 308 points in Heroes, 1068 points in Core, 398 points in Special, and 100 points in Rare. Based on the breakdown, this army has more points in core than characters combined (which is rather rare at tournaments) and very little in the way of special and rare points. I am hopeful that this army design will net me a good, if not exceptional, comp score.

Army Purpose:
The main purpose behind this army is points denial. From the get go it is clear that this army is not going to be winning its games by thousands, or even hundreds, of victory points. It just can't deal out tons of damage in any particular phase, be it magic, shooting, or combat. Rather, this build will, hopefully, win its games in the 100-250 point range by focusing on killing small units of chaff, warmachines, unprotected characters, or single blocks of troops, while, in turn, preventing my opponent from killing those units that are worth substantial victory points like the characters and Glade Riders. As the Alamo GT only requires that you beat your opponent by 100 points, I will be constantly examining how best to maximize my victory point trade offs.

The second main purpose of this army is misdirection. All the substantial points in the army are spread into several different and fast units. As such, my opponents will be unable focus on one particular unit to achieve victory. They will be forced to go after several different units allowing me to maximize my movement and hopefully spread my opponent's army and battle plan apart. For example, almost every unit in this army can vanguard. This means that I can set up on one side of the deployment zone to get my opponent to commit to a particular side of the board, and then move 12" towards the other board edge before the game has even begun, thereby disrupting his battle plans. This tactic has worked very well in the past against Daemon, Lizardmen, and Dwarf armies who like to group their units together for maximum efficiency.

Finally, this army has something that a lot of other armies do not have going for it; height. Yes, all of these models are very tall (because they are mounted on horses, duh!) and are usually more than double the height of a standard model. This allows me to see over opposing units to shoot at critical units like warmachines from the beginning of the game. And depending on the height of the warmachine or covering units I may be able to do so without the additional -2 penatly for shooting. This makes it very difficult for my opponent to hide his units from my shooting.

Unit Purpose:
My Highborn is built as a machine gun character. He has movement 9 so that he can move around the battlefield and get to where he will cause the most damage, as well as being able to move around enemy units that get too close. He has 5 attacks, which translates to 5 shooting attacks each and every shooting phase with no armour saves (8 shots if I get lucky with the Savage Beast spell). He is there to shoot at, and kill, heavily armoured targets. The lower the toughness of the unit, like knights, the better, but with some lucky 6's he can bring the hurt on heavy toughness targets like Doombulls, Steam Tanks, and other high-armor save targets that the rest of the army can't bring down.

My Spellweaver is built for utility. He takes the Lore of Beasts to help the army out. He also takes the Ruby Ring of Ruin for an extra flaming attack in the magic phase to drop regeneration before casting Amber Spear at things like Hydras. The Dispell Scroll speaks for itself and the Opal Amulet is there because I had 15 points left in both the army and in lord points so I thought a little defense might be appropriate (I'm looking at you Death wizards).

Why the Lore of Beasts? Because the Lore of Beasts has worked wonderfully for me in the past compared with the Lore of Life. With Life, I find myself relying on just 1 spell, Dweller's Below, but Beasts really helps kit the army out. Wildform makes the Wild Riders really exceptional. Savage Beasts makes the Eagle Noble and Highborn amazing at putting out the hurt (especially when facing Lizardmen with the Banner of Eternal Flame on their Tomb Guard unit). Flock of Doom always puts wounds on high toughness, low armour save monsters. Amber Spear kills things, period. And Curse of Anraheir is just freakin' amazing! Look at my past battle reports to see just how awesome. The only spell I really don't want to get is Transformation of Khadon as I am on a horse and don't want to turn into a giant dragon.

My BSB is there to give me those necessary rerolls on leadership tests. He also provides the army with magical and flaming shooting attacks. He is highly mobile and can jump from unit to unit as I lose Glade Riders and still provide the army with a way to deal with ethereal or regenerating units.

The Eagle Noble is a warmachine and chaff hunter who specializes in surviving the inevitable first turn cannonball and then destroying the cannon that fired it. He also has enough attacks to charge a small unit in the flank or rear to cause damage and hold the unit in place for a turn or two. He can also kill chaff like no one else, thereby freeing up my Glade Riders to whittle down the big blocks as soon as possible. Finally, he has the Hail of Doom Arrow to kill things that need to die.
I take 4 units of Glade Riders which gives me 40 shots per turn. I know that number is low for Wood Elves, and that none of these shots are strength 4, but the purpose of the army is points denial. The Glade Riders stay away from anything that can kill them and kill what they can, giving me a victory just cresting the 100 point minimum. They are also extremely difficult to kill outright as most enemies will never be able to shoot at them or cast spells at them as I float at maximum range whenever possible. I normally wouldn't have put the banners in each unit (as they cost 18 points each), but there is a battle point for standards in one of the scenarios and it doesn't make sense to just give up a battle point before the game even begins.

The Wild Riders are my hard hitting unit. If I manage to cast Wildform on these guys they can just go crazy. Because they are immune to psychology I have to play them a little safer as they cannot declare a flee reaction, but they can also run straight at an archer unit or warmachine and not worry about running away from casualties. These guys also help me break the big blocks on turn 5 and 6 after my shooting and magic has whittled the units down to a more manageable size. Their strength 5 on the charge helps me put a dent in high toughness, low armour save units and monsters.

The Warhawk Riders are there to give me another way to kill warmachine and small chaff units (and because I couldn't paint another Glade Rider unit it time for the tournament). They can also be used to charge a unit in the flank when my opponent has unwisely placed a character in the corner as their Hit and Run rule allows me to feel and auto-rally while preventing the unit from pursuing me. Also, the unit flies which gives me a way to get behind people's lines if necessary and to charge over other units to make sure I hit the warmachines.

Finally, the two Eagles are in in the army to act as roadblocks, warmachine hunters, cannon magnets, etc. They are a free 100 victory points to my opponents, but they should die in such spectacular fashion that they more than make up for themselves on the battlefield. I have played with eagles for about a year now and have come to fully appreciate all the diabolical uses they have.

There you have it; an all fast cavalary army list. Leave any thoughts or questions in the comments and I will be sure to answer them. Also, I will be doing a breakdown of each Alamo scenario and how this army expects to win that scenario and get the all important bonus points.