The Empire

[Shinobi_8745]

Don't forget about poland/russia(esque) oriented humans! (Kislev)  

[Vikki Stardust]

Of course there are also italians and spaniards and chinese and japanese and africans and arabs and british! blaugh  

[Shinobi_8745]

But those don't have any representative armies.  

[Hoxtalicious]

Actually, some do in some form or the other.

Italy and Spain = Estelia and Tilia, where the Dogs of War hail from
Arabs = Araby (have a Warmaster army)
British = Albion! The Truthsayer and those two misformed giants

Hmmm, I guess you're right. gonk  

[aquila04]

the empire steam tank is awesome but a general on flying beast i.e a griffon is good 2  

[bjs.09-00]

Alright, time for my annoying presence..once more!
Considering that i love the looks of the empire plastic captain, and the fact that it is a plastic HQ, what equipment would be good?
I don't want ot go through all the work of converting, and all that jazz to find I have a unit I can't even play because he has poor choices in equipment.
I plan on making my army theme a nice mix of a few cannons, backed by greatswords and bowmen/handgunners, and a mage or two. and, of course, hordes of state troops. Should be a nice, nonsensical list until I get more info from my shop about fantasy.
What should i do with this box to make it fit this list best?
I know it comes with one mounted and one on foot.  

[Van Evok]

Actually you have beginnings of solid list smile Empire usually softens enemy up with firepower (mages, cannons and handgunners) before smashing into them with hard hitting knights and greatswords, with cheap state troops acting as casualty sponges.  

[Hoxtalicious]

Mind you, State Troops are also excellent for holding down lines. Spearmen are worth their points and the same goes for Swordsmen. Be sure to go heavy on either crossbows or handguns as well if you are a modern man's army. wink  

[bjs.09-00]

I am thinking:
Using the empire general box, give the horseman a shield and lance,
and the on-foot a pair of hand weapons, or one greatweapon..if possible.
then, attach him to greatswords squad, while mounted-one leads calvary charges. Handgunners all around,
with one or two detachments of swordsman/pikemen troops. spearline/swordsline will defend the cannons, my side of the board, and hold the line,
guardsmen style while all the shooty and assaulty special units take out major threats/leadership.
Or am I overthinking about a game I know little to nothing about...?  

[Shinobi_8745]

Gunline armies of Empire often tend to loose I'm afraid...

Empire needs big blocks of foot troops, like 25 in each block, and go for small, cheap but effective shooting units, like 10 handgunners for detachments, and 5+ of anything else to counter-charge and remove the rank bonus of charging enemy units.

Warmachines is of course the road to power for Empire, but one shouldn't rely too much on them.

Characters... Now there's something to think about... Being a former Empire player I know that they're not the best ones out there. They lack the power to fight off other characters and they're not superior when it comes to killing enemy rank-and-file troopers either, but man they're good when it comes to leading! Just that small Ld boost can help you during a fight, some tricky magic item or those extra wounds caused in a combat really helps!

Which reminds me of my old Wizard Lord who slaughtered a bloodthirster in single handed combat during a challange, Van Horstmans Speculum and flaming sword of Rhuin wins the day! trading stats AND making the wizard even better with the sword was a good combo.


Empire is quite a tricky army to play... It's much like when I play Skaven, you need supporting units while fighting since you don't have any superior stats, equipment or rules to rely on, like other armies have, Skaven have their Ld boost through ranks, numerous due being cheap, Chaos have superior statlines, good base armour and attacks, Dark Elves have Hatred, High Elves Always Strike First, Orcs have choppas and high T, I could go on forever, but Empire have something else, and that's what I mentioned earlier, Detachments! Almost always use your shooty troops as detachments, there's no good in using your combat units as detachments.

Blah... I shouldn't write things like this when just getting up from the bed... If I'm beeing too blah with all this just let me know... = w =;;  

[Van Evok]

Empire has Hellblasters and Steam Tanks, mind you...  

[Shinobi_8745]

And you think you can rely on those units only? Sure they're good, but you can't heavilly rely on those units to win the game for you, just as much as I can rely on my Hellpit Abomination to win every game for me.

I've been on enough Fantasy tournaments to know that Empire Armies needs more than just firepower to win, but if one go for a Nuln army I don't see the reason not to throw in as much blackpowder units into the list as they possibly can. <3  

[Hoxtalicious]

The only way Empire gun lines can win is if they can pour enough fire into the enemy at such a rate that nothing is left before the enemy can charge. Fat chance of that happening though.

Though the allure of a Nuln army is very tempting. At first I wanted one heavy on cannon, handgun and helblaster, but nowadays I'm more inspired to build a Nuln army based on Gründel's Defenders, a regiment designed to protect their artillery.  

[bjs.09-00]

Well, a chance for a very cheap army has come my way.
There will be:
an empire hero/general box, opened but not used. (14$)
2 wizards. (10$)
2 hellstorm blasters. (10 and then 15$)
3 sets of 14 handgunners. (14 each$)
28 free company (27 $)
22 free company (22$)
20 state troops swordsmen. (20$)
5 outriders (18$)
8 knights (indeterminate order) (16$)
I can manage 150 dollars worth, which cuts off a few units.
of these, which should I prioritize on getting?
most of these are already assembled, and either lightly primed or bare. they seem to be done fairly well.
Any ideas? seems I can maybe get a pretty good gunline out of this.