Has anyone tried any of the formations?

I have tried the skaven formations... Not competitive in smaller battles... We play 60 wounds units/models... 10 wounds heros...

The lizardmen skink patrol is awesome. Ripperdactyles are pretty amazing in this formation.

I've played a few games and used the Empire State troop detachment. Now they are the most effective troops, but when you use the "Hold the line" for +1 to hit and wound, have at least 20 models in each unit for another +1 to hit, and +1 to hit if you're within 6" of another unit. That is alot of attacks auto hitting and wounding on 3+ (I like spearmen for the 2" reach in this formation). If they have a standard in the unit they ignore battleshock tests on the roll of a 1 or 2. With full commend they also get counter charge if your opponent tries to keep combat to only one unit you got a chance to get the other unit in combat if they are within 6". Back them up with a warrior priest or two and anytime you get the reroll failed wounds battle prayer off on one of the units it's a bad day for who they are fighting.

Granted the times I've played we didn't use any type of comp so there were no restrictions on what we took, and they were larger games.

You guys didn't play wounds as the points system? Sounds like I would use a lot of ranged against you...

These were larger games, prob the equiv of 4000 in 8th edition. I was actually outnumbered in wounds and or model count in 3 out of 5 large games I've played, but not to the point of sudden death in any of them. In one game I had a blob of 70 spearman in the center of my army, but they didn't hold long when they got hit by 20 fanatics and 2 mangler squigs (the parent night goblin units engaged the supporting units on either side and were able to keep the fights separate). My opponent came with a plan to counter the bonuses and it worked, the first game we played he saw how nasty an empire line in that formation could be.

I haven't used any restrictive elements in the games I've played so far and haven't run into any issues.

Awesome! How long are these games taking?

Longest one was about 4 hours, but there was much beer and bsing between turns, fastest so far was just over 2.5 hours with that size game.

I used the Furious Brayherd beastman formation in an 80 wound game (78 to either side actually)

Was a lot of fun, he had a lot of khorne synergy, I had a lot of beastmen synergy and a few skaven for fire support.

We've not played any huge games yet, but my 'Go to' has so far been the Black Orc 'Ironjaws Big Mob' - a Giant, 3 Units of 10x Black Orcs (All with Drummer, Banner and Icon) led by Grimgor (79 Wounds). We usually make use of wound count as a guide, but do vary it a bit. It's been an awesome formation so far - lots of 2+/3+ to hit, 2+ to wound.