Hey everyone. I won my first victory in WHFB (incidentally my first game), against a Tomb Kings army, at the 2250 pt level. The army lists are as follows:
Me:
Engineering Experimental Cavalry Division:
Archlector: 280 pts.
+War Altar
+Armor of Meteoric Iron
+Van Horstmann's Speculum
Warrior Priest: 142 pts
+Warhorse
+Barding
+Heavy Armor
+Great Weapon
+Doomfire Ring,
Battle Wizard: 160 pts
+Aldred's Casket of Sorcery
+Warhorse
+Level 2 Upgrade:
+Sigil of Sigmar:
Battle Wizard: 140 pts
+Rod of Power
+Warhorse
+Level 2 Upgrade:
Knights: 9 Knights: 247 pts
+Preceptor
+Standard Bearer
+War Banner
+Musician
Knights: 5 Knights: 123 pts
+Musician
Knights: 5 Knights: 123 pts
+Musician
Outriders: 6 Outriders 176 pts
+1 Champion with Hochland Long Rifle, Musician
Outriders: 6 Outriders 176 pts
+1 Champion with Hochland Long Rifle, Musician
Outriders: 6 Outriders 176 pts
+1 Champion with Hochland Long Rifle, Musician
Pistoliers: 8 Pistoliers : 204 pts
+Musician
+Outrider with Repeater Pistol&Pistol
Steam Tank: 300 points
Total points: 2249
I attached the Sigil wizard to the pistoliers, and kept another wizard independent. The warrior-priest was attached to the 9-strong unit of knights, where he could fully take advantage of his hatred ability.
His list had the following as far as I remember:
Khalida
Icon Bearer
-Icon of Rakaph
Liche Priest
-2 Dispel Scrolls
Liche Priest
-Staff of Ravening
20 skeletal spearmen
25 Skeletal archers
10 Skeletal Heavy Horsemen
8 Chariots
4 Ushabti
3 Carrion
Tomb Scorpion
14 Tomb Guard
1 Screaming Skull Catapult
1 Bone Giant
I deployed my Arch-lector in the center of the map behind everything else. I deployed my pistoliers behind a forest, and deployed a unit of knights and my large unit of knights full inches foward, center of the map, alongside the steamtank. On the rightmost flank, I deployed 2 units of outriders, on the leftmost flank I deployed a unit of knights and an outrider.
He deployed a unit of archers, and his Tomb Guard+Khalida in the center of the map. He deployed his chariots and ushbati on my leftmost flank; on my right flank he deployed his spearmen, light horsemen, carrion, screaming skull catapult, and bone giant. He left his Tomb Scorpion in reserve for It Came From Below. He attached Khalida to a unit of Tomb Guard, the Icon Bearer and Liche priest to the archers, and another liche priest to spears.
Magicwise, for my Sigil wizard, I rolled Healing Energy (which I swapped for Burning Gaze) and Cleansing Flare, while for my other wizard, I rolled Blinding Light and Burning Gaze.
Empire Turn 1:
I went first and hurtled my central knights and tanks straight at the enemy lines, my pistoliers using them as cover. Meanwhile, I moved my arch-lector to my right flank to assist the outriders, and the knights on the left flank to prepare a charge towards his center. My magic phase was uneventful; I got a single casting of Hammer of Sigmar off, and killed 2 skeleton bowmen with Burning Gaze, but aside from that, my army failed to kill stuff. Anticipating a horrid magic phase next semester, I save 2 dice through the Rod of Power.
The shooting phase comes, and I shoot one of his High Priests with my Long Rifles. He was shocked because of the Scientific precision rule and someone else pitched in and said "yes, it's basically a sniper rifle" and he was pretty demoralized through the rest of the battle. I wound one of his Liche Priests but otherwise fail to intimidate him.
Tomb Kings Turn 1:
His turn comes, and he positions his Usbati and Tomb Guard as if ready to receive a charge from my knights; meanwhile, he rushes his cavalry and chariots and carrion throughout the battle. He casts Righteous Smiting on his archers and they fire a good 23 shots, killing a grand total of 0 knights. He attempts to use several movement spells to move his heavy cavalry but those end up dispelled. Finally, I dispel the Staff of Ravening and Khalida's serpent staff. His Screaming Skull misses my steam tank, and his archers again fail to kill any infantry.
Empire Turn 2:
My next turn comes and things get nasty. I charge his archers with my 9-strong knight unit, passing the fear check. Meanwhile, I burn 4 steam points and move/position my steam tank's cannon in a manner that I'm now flanking his chariots. I move my pistoliers within 8" of khalida, and am told that I cannot steal Incantations (apparently the FAQ says otherwise but what did I know) so instead I sit back and taunt his Tomb Guard and Ushbati. In the magic phase, I threw two Hammers of Sigmar, the first producing a dispel scroll, the second producing 2 dispel dice. I casted soulfire at his archer unit and that too was dispelled. I cast Burning Gaze with the Golden Griffon and this gets dispelled likewise, but I get another one off with the non-sigil wizard, and manage to inflict 5 wounds on his carrion unit, reducing it to one half-wound model. Finally, he lets the doomfire ring go through, saying I can only shoot it straight through or else I hit my own models. I killed an archer. I rolled a 1 on the rod of power and lost the dice.
In the shooting phase, I taunted Khalida's unit by shooting pistols at them, inflicting 3 dead tomb guard. I fired the Steam Tank's cannon, and in a fit of bad luck, I landed the cannonball on one chariot, but it did not bounce through (which was a shame as it was such a perfect alignment...). So I killed one chariot with a cannonball, rather than the 3+ I hoped...oh well. I killed another chariot with an outrider unit firing, while another outrider unit wiped out the last Carrion; the other one managed to inflict a wound on the Bone Giant. Finally, I wounded his other Liche priest with Long Rifle fire.
In the assault phase, since I had left my 5 man unit of knights in reserve, I only had the large knight unit to fight stuff. Between the horses, hatred-buffed knights, and warrior-priest with great weapon, I killed 9 of his models and he killed none in turn. Due to the CR, me having the War Banner, he ended up losing another 10 models.
Tomb Kings Turn 2: This hurt...quite a bit. My opponent pulled out It Came From Below and popped out his Tomb Scorpion. Meanwhile, he charged with his Chariots against one of my units of knights, which held. The other unit was charged by the Scorpion AND bone giant and held as their reaction check. He charged the Ushabati and Tomb Guard at the pistoliers, who chose to flee. Meanwhile, he advanced his horsemen towards my outriders. So I only had 6 dispel-dice.
Between that and close combat, my opponent forgot his shooting and magic phases outright. Which I said "wait, we can go back" and he's like "nah, forget it..." Due to fear/terror/etc, he manages to run down and kill both my vanilla knight units. However, due to the way his pursuit works, his chariots and bone giant are facing away from my outriders and I'm basically able to shoot them in the ass for the next turn. Against his other unit, his Icon bearer kills a knight with Killing Blow, but the rest of my unit kills another 3 archers, winning combat again and killing another 2 through CR. He's down to about 3 archers, the Liche Priest, and Icon Bearer.
Empire Turn 3: I rally for the Pistoliers (who being in range of the Arch-lector, are rolling at Ld 10), and move them in between the Tomb Scorpion and Bone Giant (whos back is to them), and build up 4 steam points with which to charge the Steam Tank against Khalida's tomb guard. I also charge his Heavy Horsemen with the War Altar. Finally, I run up a unit of Outriders to close the gap between me and the Screaming Skull.
For magic, I fired off several burning gazes, one which he dispels, another which gets cast on irresistable force, inflicting 2 wounds on his Tomb Scorpion. I cast another soulfire on the archer unit, which he dispels. I cast 2 soulfires and a cleansing flare, wiping out his heavy cavalry unit, and leaving my Arch-lector stranded and in charge range of the skeletal spears.
For shooting, my pistoliers kill the Tomb Scorpion off, and the outriders inflict another wound on the Bone Giant. Additionally, I kill off another chariot.
In close combat, I roll 5d3 for 12 impact hits for the Steam Tank. Of these, only one fails to wound. 11 Tomb Guard find themselves squished into a bloody pulp, and Khalida's attacks fail to wound in turn. The resulting combat resolution kills off the unit (I basically imagine Khalida going "squish") and the Curse fails to hit the Steam Tank. After this, my opponent conceded.
Comments: My opponent was just terrorized by the Outriders. He's like "they're better than Dwarfs; how are they getting so many shots? I can't do anything!" I told him that they have paper-thin armor in return and he's like "but when I target, you get that 2+ save..." I mentioned he was shooting at the knights which are hard as nails. I in turn was surprised at the lethality that being run down could result in. It was still a good game though the TK player said "next time if I'm going to lose, I'll play Goblins so I lose in style..." We then talked about unit use and the local-game store owner said he used his casters out of units so they couldn't be targeted...the Tomb King player said "but his sniper rifles can!" I really think the sniper rifles scared him just because its Tomb Kings...
Next time I play, I'll probably bring the FAQ to clarify that "yes, I can steal your Incantations."