Empire half way through thoughts

After doing about half of the empire reviews i have a fairly good idea about them.



1. They suck shit in combat. Their good units cant stand up to other races good combat units. They could shoot all the good units to death and cc the weaker ones, but it still might be a hard fight.



2. There magic will be strictly average but they have good anti magic.



3. Shooting is the only avenue to victory. I am fairly confident empire can out shoot dwarves if neeed be and we have faster units. However O&G and skaven can all have better magic, combat and nearly shoot as good as empire which is why they are a poor army.



I tired a couple of hybrid combat/gunline lists but have realised you need a total gunline. Here goes.



3x Mortars 225p. Kind of compulsory in 8th.
3x Cannons 200p  more is better. One of these will be the first to be dropped though.
2x Hellblasters 220p. Rip the centre out, totally destroy a flank or badly damage both.
2x Rocket battery 230p Inaccurate, but aim at the middle of the army and rip it to shreds.
=875p



Next we need to low the opposition down. We could take a captacus with super armour and ward but that will wait till later if i have points. The best way to do it though is pistoleers. These run a few inches away from the enemy and flee when charge gaining another couple of turns of shooting.



3x5 Pistolliers 270p, 3 Musician 21p = 291p



Running total 1166p

Arch lector 125p

Wizard lord 175p

Captain 50p,BSB 25p =75p

Running total 1441p

3x10 Swordsmen 180p. These little guys delay

2x 10 Knights 460p

Muscicians 14p

=474p

Running total 2095p 

Pretty much  just add anything now maybe a captacus, whatever.

Basic plan:

Guns shoot. Duh!

Pistolliers get up close and slow down the opposition

Knights can do the same but also can get stuck right into combat. Holding up a unit for a few turns is a great use. Multi charge both units to break one unit is good, but if its not holding the rest up dont bother.
The minimal swordsmen units tie up a unit for a turn and stop warmachine hunters.

What i think this list misses though is a clean up unit or two, to crush the larger remains. The knights can do this if they are still around, but the best alternative is just shoot them more and magic missiles. Speaking of magic i dont have the energyy right now to go through magic lores looking for a suitable one. Something to delay/disrupt or buff is the best as if all your large templates cant destroy the opposition nothing can