My New Thoughts on Empire

As a long time Empire player, I’ve had to adapt to using them in new environments. When a new book comes out you have to start adapting your lists and playing style to handle these new threats. Since the Empire is one of the most versatile books, we can easily adapt and change. However, it is still hard to be good at handling all threats.

Magic:

Magic is a threat to the Empire. For some armies it is their only way to cause panic before they get across the table to engage your army. In the current environment, you pretty much have to spend points for magic defense. Personally I feel a minimum of 6 dispel dice is needed! That means the Archlector, plus two other sources of dispel dice. Two level 2 mages with a couple of scrolls and the Rod of Power makes for an excellent magic defense and offense. Add in a Pegasus Captain with the Casket and you can put up a really good magic defense. Even the MR items can be handy if you are facing lots of missile magic. The Shroud of Magnus and the Sigil of Sigmar are pretty good choices.

If you are using the War Altar and the above combinations, once the War Altar is in combat the Empire magic phase goes into overdrive and is probably one of the best in the game at that point! Three bound spells that all hurt, backed up by two to three normal spells (I also use the Ring of Volans for a one turn “ouch”), and perhaps even whatever the Casket may have stolen! As someone pointed out to me, stealing some of the new uber Chaos Mortals spells with a Casket would ROCK! The Doomfire ring on the Pegasus Captain or another character can be used to bring the pain as well.

Shooting:

Personally I feel that shooting is a real strength of the Empire. We shouldn’t feel guilty about using it; it is part of the game. We need to maximize our strengths as much as possible to make up for the shortcomings we have in leadership and melee combat.

1) Static shooting-We really have a couple of good choices here. Against armies with a lot of armor the Handgunners are quite handy. Due to their greater range, and by default better short range, the Crossbowmen are quite capable. As a strategy static shooting must help to overcome something else. In many cases it helps to overcome a lack of movement by projecting power. Putting a Hochland Long Rifle in your Handgunners helps in the magic phase by causing their mages to take cover. Putting Crossbowmen out on a flank helps the movement and combat phase by threatening the fast flankers, so you see these things must act in synergy; all phases working and firing together.

2) Archers-Probably the most useful detachment choice you can make. Most folks use them as charge re-directors, but they can do well against the other army’s light forces in the shooting phase.

3) Artillery shooting-With so many large targets like Dragons and Hydras in the game now, having a heavy hitter in the shooting phase is a good idea. Combined with the other types of shooting a Great Cannon is still one of the best buys in the game. One to two of them are almost a requirement for the Empire. Mortars can work, but you need to maximize them by taking two or three of them. They are just too inaccurate and have no hitting power so multiples are required. Personally, I think they are useless. Though changing in roles, a Helblaster can be useful as a weak sister to the Great Cannon. Large targets will think twice about getting too near to a Helblaster as will elite troops and chariots. However, I wouldn’t count on it doing anything and if it does I would be happy. However, the threat of it is enough for folks to respect it. The Helstorm though hard hitting, is so inaccurate that it is useless as well. You can count on cannons! They are the best choice!

4) Cavalry Shooting-Pistoliers and Outriders are both extremely good choices. They can devastate units with their AP shooting and have a lot of punch on a small frontage. When used together in a combined arms role they are especially good with the Pistoliers running up and unloading at short range while the Outriders duel at long range. In my armies I like to use one of each type of cavalry shooting. You should try and take 6 Outriders minimum in a unit so you can easily calculate in your head the number of hits ad probably affects. My Outriders usually have a HLR for their Champion to help out in the anti-magic role.

Don’t be afraid to ramp up your shooting phase! Empire infantry are outfought by almost every other army so give them a chance by allowing them to fight depleted foes.

The Knightly Orders:

Knights are a valuable part of the Empire army. With that said their best use is without command. I can’t think of any unit that Empire Knights can consistently beat unless they have a character attached. The only other viable combination is to take up one of your valuable special slots and make a unit IC. IC Knights are one of the good units in the game especially with a Warrior Priest to lead them. However, they take up a valuable special slot!

Infantry:

With the newer books coming out, I fear Empire infantry is becoming a rare sight on the battlefield. To me the only infantry that are viable are Swordsmen, Flagellants, and Greatswords. The other books have powered up the armies so much that infantry is more of a liability than it is a help. Halberdiers and Spearmen aren’t worth it in the new game.

The secret if you are going to use infantry is to have a way for them to be unbreakable, stubborn or immune to psychology. Just too many armies can deal with them now. Part of this is because of less emphasis on infantry in the new edition, and part of it is because a lot of units cause fear now. That means for “normal” infantry to work, you just about have to put a character with them. Some ideas to try:

1. Unit of Swordsmen with the Banner of Sigismund. If you think your character will get killed, just turn the unit and let them charge you in the flank or rear. Take a large unit if you plan on this working since they still have to deal with psychology.

2. Greatswords with BSB, Icon of Magnus, Sword of Might. This is a pretty solid unit, however, it bleeds victory points like crazy and still really can’t hurt anything in this world of elite units; it is really just an expensive tarpit.

3. Use two to three small units of flagellants. They can sometimes hold off the enemy long enough for your other infantry to get into action or in a better position. You can use detachments to keep them in check until you need them. Archers are excellent in this role. Flagellants are really annoying since they don’t give up valuable victory points due to losing standards.

4. Think about not using standards at all. They just add to the uselessness of infantry in many ways. If you have a standard then not only is the infantry useless it is also worth an additional 100 victory points.

In one of the old tacticas on Warhammer-Empire, Brian Lang suggested using three blocks of infantry with musicians only. In his example they were all halberdiers so that you could point out how “fluffy” your Empire army really was while spending points on cavalry, shooting, and the magic phase. Even Chaos players take small units of Marauders just to hold table quarters. However, I would just as soon spend the points of flagellants as they won’t run off on turn six to lose your valuable table quarter and are hard to kill.

5. Load up on Greatswords! I’ve tried two units of Greatswords backed by two to three units of flagellants for a solid infantry line. The secret of course is to have a way for them to hold meaning a BSB or Empire General tooled up to keep them around. Don’t forget the magic defense if you are going to use this! Losing one of those expensive units to magic really hurts!

6. Use so much infantry that it doesn’t matter-What I mean is use four blocks of infantry and form a solid wall. While I realize that detachments are part of the Empire, for my two middle blocks I think I would only use archers. The end blocks could have their normal complement of detachments (archers still are a great choice to re-direct charges).

7. Don’t be afraid to flee with your standards! The only time the enemy gets VP for standards is when they defeat you in combat. It is far better to flee than to give up the extra VP in a hopeless exercise in futility.

A Sample List Construction:

Archlector, War Altar, Sword of Fate, Armor of Meteoric Iron, VH Speculum

>This guy can take a hit and dish it out to enemy heroes. It has been used with great success by Jordan Braun in the GT circuit. The secret is using the Sword of Fate on perhaps an enemy large targets such as a Giant, Hydra, Hellcannon, etc. The Archlector would still have the Speculum to defend against attacks by enemy heroes.

Two level two mages, one with two scrolls, and the other with the Rod of Power and Ring of Volans

>Just a rock solid magic attack/defense. You can use any lore you like. Normally I put one on horseback and the other stays with an infantry unit or hides in cover. On horseback I like Fire, and Death magic because they have good missile attacks. On foot I prefer Beast Lore to hopefully get the valuable “Beast Cowers”.

Pegasus Captain, Enchanted Shield, with either the Doomfire Ring or Aldred’s Casket

>Either way he is valuable on so many levels. The Doomfire ring can be good, but against armies such as Deamons and Vampire Counts, it isn’t nearly as good as the Casket.

Core Units:

25 Swordsmen, musician and standard

Det: 10 crossbowmen

Det: 5 archers

>Why? Well I use them for bait! I set them up near the Archlector early in the game to use his leadership. Normally they just sit in one place and guard artillery and give the enemy a goal-the only standard in the army. At the same time they are shooting 15 shots per turn while doing nothing.

3 units of Vanilla Knights, all with musician

>Their job is harassment and keeping the shooting units safe. Normally I hold back one unit to support the Swordmen, but I have sent them to help escort the Archector as well.

10 Handgunners

>Why? Honestly their job is to hold a table quarter and take pot shots at enemy units. Their normal deployment is in the middle of the table as an early drop. They give the enemy something to aim for so that they will deploy their counter in the middle or deploy their light stuff on the flanks.

Special Choices:

2 x Great Cannons

>Don’t leave home without them

6 Outriders with Champion

>Just so many nice shots!

5 Pistoliers with Champion and Repeater Pistol

>Another nice unit to use in conjunction with the Outriders. The Pistoliers marchblock and harass while the Outriders hopefully bring the pain.

Rare Choices:

2 x 12 Flagellants with Champion

>These are tarpit units that can dish it out if they get the charge.

Helblaster Volley Gun

>I use it more like a cannon to dissuade large targets than anything else. In all honesty it is probably the worst choice in the list.

Summary:

Here I’ve used all the choices to get:

1) Strong magic attack and defense! Pretty much the optimal choices.

2) Decent core troops-The vanilla knights are excellent for general use. Swordsmen, detachments, and handgunners act as a missile-centric middle deployment. They are really the throw-away units of the list and act as bait.

3) Strong shooting phase-It could be better if you spend the points on Hochlands for the Outrider Champion and the Handgunners, but that is up to you.

4) Unbreakable troops-You have three unbreakable units; the Archlector, and two units of Flagellants.

5) Table Quarters-Several holding units, the Swordsmen, detachments can hold the quarters. The Knights, Archlector and Pistoliers, can act as grabbers.

If I had to change anything it may be to drop one Great Cannon and replace the Swordsmen unit with Greatswords. That way they can actually do something.

List with Greatswords:

Characters: same

Core: three units of vanilla knights, handgunners (upgrade champion to Hochland Long Rifle)

Specials: 20 Greatswords, full command, detachment 5 archers and 10 crossbowmen (foot mage goes here), 6 Outriders (upgrade champion with HLR), 5 Pistoliers (champion, repeater pistol)

Rare Choices: same

The only thing I don’t like about this list is that the Greatswords are actually worth points.

Summary:

The newer books have changed how we play the Empire. In friendly games and friendly tournaments we can drop back to our old reliable TVI-style lists, but where the action is hot and heavy you need to ramp up your list to handle the new threats. No longer is CR infantry the king of the battlefield. It is about combinations of things that when used well together they create an excellent battle force able to take on the top armies of any race.