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

Empire Knights review

This review is probably going to be crap because i have lost my flow but here goes and i havent played a game in months.

For 23p you get a guy on a horse who cant fight even as well as a swordsmen. Knights do have two crucial advantages however Ld 8 and a great armour save. Lore of metal will crush knights though and even wounding on twos your only getting one WS3 attack per knight

Lets examine options

Can take magic standard=Awesomesauce
Inner circle=3 points for 1+ strength. Pass
Great weapons=not so great. You really want to strike before anything with great weapons and you lose a pip of armour
Lance and shield=great.

Looking at these options the first option that comes to mind is a hydra/tree man killing unit. This is also probably the only time you would want the inner circle upgrade as wounding on 4s instead of 5s is huge. Unfortunately using knights for this is crap. The hydra you charge your knights into will kill a few and it will take you approximately 4 knights to get a wound. Four knights is the price of a cannon that can get a whole lot more. For monster hunting your unit wound like to be more like 10 which is more than two cannons.

Knights could be used as a counter attack unit. You would want a big as unit though as to properly counter attack you need to break ranks or kill units. A big as unit is a deathstar so next.

The best use for knights is as an anvil. It will take forever for low strength stuff to kill their points in knights and the first turn of combat will be brutal to them. It takes approximately 24 WS4 S3 hits to kill a knight so a smallish unit can last turns while your warmachines munt shit.

Halbed/Spearmen/Swordsman review

Every empire armies core is made up of blocks of these guys. I will do some maths hammer to back this up later, but halberds are the best option.

30 is a good size for a block. Not enough to be a huge points investment and enough so you can survive many casulties. Bus if need be.

Always take detachments. If you have points, a 15 strong halberd block into a flank will break the steadfast of the stuff you beat in combat and can sometimes turn the balance in combat. Also having a throw away block that cant panic your other blocks is great. 10 Man archer blocks are also great to screen and as throwaways

First try at a list

There are a few things every empire needs which i will start with.

3 Mortars 225p
2 Cannons 200p
2x5 pistoliers 180p, Musicians 14p=196p

Standard artillery and vanguards.

Archlector 125p

Wizard lord 175p

Captain 50p
    bsb 25p
    Full plate 8p
    Shield2p
=85p

Captain 50p
    Pegasus 50p
    Full plate 8p
    Shield 2p
    Steal spell taly 35p
    Lance 4p
=149p

Warrior Priest 90p
    Heavy armour 4p
    barded horse 14p
=118p

30 Halberdiers 150p
Musician 4p
10 Archers 80p
15 Halberds 75p
=309p

15 Knights 390p
Flaming banner 10p
Musician 8p
=408

2x30 Halberdiers 150p
10 Archers 80p
Musician 4p
=234p
x2=468p

=2458p, leaving 40p for magic items.

This is an attempt to make an empire army that is not a gunline. Given time i could make this way better.

Archlector hangs out with the halberd block with detachments.
Warrior priest with knights.
Giving 3 prayers and 3 extra DD, which makes up for the lack of a second caster. 4+ ward, unbreakable halberds seems choicec

Captain also goes with halberd block.
Pegasus runs around by the opposition caster and and tries his luck. Also picks out warmachines, flankers, skirmishers...


Pistol   Knights            Archers       Archers               Captacus    Pistol
                               Halberd  Halberd Halberd
                    
                      Warmachines  Halberd detach


I think i have an overinvestment in knights. Drop the warrior priest, inner circle and the size down to 12. It should be used to hit a flank hard and break steadfast. Then i could take maybe a second caster and a couple more detachments/sacrifice blocks

Master Engineer review.

Great another character that you cant write much about. He improves a warmachine greatly, and has some cool experimental weaponry, but he costs to much.

Battle Wizard review

The stock standard hero level caster.

These are not mandatory as you have prayers for support spells but you cant go wrong with them. Take lores that have good signiture spells.

Warrior Priest review

Just like a stripped down arch lector. An extra DD and hatred in a key unit are great but for 90p+ not so much. Somehow there wont often be points and ecerything else you want/need.

One use is in with a Knight unit. Rubber lances are a pain and some of the prayers are great on your counter attacking unit.
If your taking a walter or simply want hatred/prayers on another big block the Warrior Priest is also decent.


Overall there is just so much to buy, so even though the Warrior Priest is good, most builds wont be able to afford one.