Editing Warhammer/Tactics/6th Edition/The Empire (section)

==Units Analysis==
=== Named Characters ===
* '''Karl Franz:'''
* '''Valten:'''
* '''Luthor Huss:'''
* '''Balthasar Gelt:''' The Supreme Patriarch of Altdorf Colleges of Magic (or Vietstalia war veteran, depending on whom you ask). Balthasar Gelt is lvl 4 wizard and knows all lore of metal spells so you don't have to roll for them. Gelt rides to battle on top of his pegasus and posses 3 (technically 4) magical items to aid him in battle. 1st one is Al-kahest (which actually isn't listed as magic item but as his special rules) Gelt can either throw it in shooting phase as if he was throwing knives. This attack has range of 6", wounds EVERYTHING (ethereal creatures and war machines too) on 4+ and allows for no armour saves or you can make Balthasar drink it instead, which restores 1 wound to him or his mount. 2nd one is Staff of Volans, it allows Gelt to change one of dices from casting/dispelling roll to be 1 number higher, meaning that Gelt can roll irresistible force on 5-6 (you change 5 to 6) and requires 3 one's at least to roll a miscast making him much more reliable wizard. His 3rd magical item is Gleaming Robe which gives Gelt and his mount 3+ ward save against any ranged attacks (templates and magic missiles included) and 4th item is Amulet of Sea Gold which pretty much gives them both magic resistance 1. All of that for 450 points which may seem a lot, but fully kited out Wizard lord on pegasus would cost you 360 points so not that big of a difference. Gelt if you can position him well can be a nightmare to deal with thanks to his survivability and is very reliable wizard. Definetly one of the better one's in game and one of better named characters in general.

=== Lords & Heroes ===
* '''Elector Count:''' The weakest combat lord in the game but also the cheapest. If your general is an Elector Count, one of your state troop units can have a magic banner (=Griffon Standard) which can be extremely useful. The only lord which can ride a griffon which is the only source of terror in the whole imperial army. Unfortunately griffons tend to attract a shitload of missile fire and T5 W4 doesn't last very long. 
* '''Templar Grand Master:''' As Elector Count is perhaps best suited for defensive approach, Templar Grand Master is made for offensive lists. A Grand Master has +1 Ws, A and I compared to an Elector Count, comes always on a barded warhorse and has by default full plate armour, shield and lance. If the Grand Master is assigned with Knightly Orders, it makes the whole unit immune to psychology which normally is an extremely good thing. Sometimes it can backfire horribly. If you are planning full knight army, a Grand Master is your choice. 
* '''Wizard Lord:''' No special rules of any kind, can use any of the eight lores of magic in the BRB. As almost all the other wizard lords of different races, this fellow comes by default as level 3 wizard and can (=will) be upgraded to level 4.
* '''Captain:''' Almost as good fighter as an Elector Count, lacks only one wound and one point of Ld. Basic hero without any special rules. Can ride a pegasus which can be nice war machine hunter or lone wizard hunter. Can be given the battle standard.
* '''Battle Wizard:''' Level 1/2 wizard, can use all the lores of BRB.
* '''Warrior Priest:''' Adds one dispel dice and can use prayers which work like bound spells. A nice combination of might and magic. Can be used to lead regiments to battle and gives to the whole unit hatred against Chaos, Skavem and Undead. 
* '''Master Engineer:''' An okayish ranged hero (though Captain is better at shooting). The main benefit he gives you is that he allows you to re-roll artillery dices for mortars and great cannons making them less likely to missfire. He also serves as additional crewmen for war machines so helps them work longer and can shoot if you haven't used his re-roll ability. Take maybe if you don't want to take Heavens wizard, but other than that I don't think guys worth it really.

=== Core Units ===
* '''Swordsmen:''' Your basic empire infantry. They can potentially survive somewhat long thanks to their WS4 and 4+ save but don't expect them to win combat by killing opponents since they only have 1 S3 attack. Take them in big units to get good static combat resolution and use them as parent units for your detachments.
* '''Spearmen:''' Pretty similiar to previous unit, however they trade their hand weapons for spears and have WS3/I3 instead of WS4/I4 which swordsmen have. This means that not only they hit less often but also get hit more often and have worse armour save than previous unit. It's the price you pay for being able to attack in 2 ranks, but you gotta ask yourself, do you really expect them to kill anything with S3 attacks? Maybe against skavens or other light factions they can kill something. Pass for me.
* '''Halberdiers:''' Just like spearmen traded their hand weapons for spears and worse WS/I, Halberdiers traded WS/I and hand weapon for (you've guessed it) halberds. With S4 they can actually kill something but they still suffer from having only WS3. They can be used as pretty good detachment unit to counter-charge or charge with it's parent unit and actually use said S4 attacks. Other than that I wouldn't take them but light wizard can help them by reducing enemy WS making it easier for them to land a hit.
* '''Handgunners:''' Pretty underwhelming from my experience. BS3 and having only 24" weapon (bonus d6" for shooting for the first time doesn't increase your short range) means that you'll hit for the most time on 5+ which is far from good. They are however cheap (as most empire infantry units are) and can be pretty okay detachment for your parent units since there is really no point in bringing them in big units. Unless you're playing against elves and are worried about panic from shooting casualties. One thing worth to mention is that their sergeant upgrade gets BS4 and access to experimental weapons which can either make him like 3 regular handgunners with repeater handgun or try to snipe enemy characters hiding in units with Hochland long rifle. Not that you have very high chance of succeeding in it, but you might as well give it a shot (heh).
* '''Crossbowmen:''' Handgunners but with crossbows. Not really much to say about them (other than they can't use experimental weapons), if you know how to use handgunners you know how to use crossbowmen since both perform pretty much same role, expect crossbow has longer range (30" compared to 24") but lacks armour piercing (so only ap-1 instead of -2) meaning that they are better against factions that have poor armour save's.
* '''Archers:''' Handgunners but with bows plus they're skirmishers so they're a bit harder to hit in ranged combats. One unit in army can be upgraded for 2 ppm to huntsmen which gives them longbows instead of bows and makes them scouts, but locks them in unit size of 5-10. I'd advise taking 1 unit and upgrading them to huntsmen for war machine hunting and disrupting enemy marches.
* '''Free Companies:''' Your cheapest melee infantry (5 ppm) and for a reason too. They have pretty regular human stats (M4 WS3 BS3 S3 T3 W1 I3 A1 LD7), no armour saves and use two hand weapons in combat. Use them only for detachments to charge with parent units or counter charge. That way they can turn tides of combat pretty easily and even if they die, so what? 
* '''Knightly Orders:''' Heavy cavalry with natural 1+ save (plate armour, barded horse and shields) equipped with lances meaning that they can survive quite a lot of regular attacks. They're allowed to carry magical banner up to 50 points too which is nice. You can also upgrade 1 unit for 3 ppm to knights of the inner circle making them have base S4 which makes them even deadlier. Good unit overroll, definetly take them.
* '''Knights of the White Wolf:''' Pretty much same deal with previous unit, however they're locked to 0-1 option and use Cavalry hammers instead of lances making them a bit more expensive. Cavalry hammers give user +2S on charge and +1S normally, so even if your knights get charged there is a good chance that not only they'll survive but also hit back making them more forgiving choice of the 2 cavalry core's.

=== Special Units ===
* '''Greatswords:''' Somewhat heavy infantry. They are pretty comparable to swordsmen since both units have WS4 and 4+ save (though swordsmen only in melee while Greatswords always), however Greatswords are using you've guessed it, greatswords! Meaning they have +2S and strike last making them hit at S5 which isn't bad. They also have Ld8 and are stubborn, plus can carry magical banner up to 50 points making them good choice for Griffon Standard. Just like with all Empire infantry units, they win combat mostly by having good static resolution, instead of high killing potential. 
* '''Pistoliers:''' Fast cavalry which is equipped with 2 pistols which gives them nice shooting phase (though still only BS3). Marksman can replace his pistol with repeater handgun or repeater pistol and has higher BS too so not a bad idea to give him fancier weapon. Pistoliers have one additional trick up their sleeve which is that they're allowed to fight using 2 weapons and since they have 2 pistols each they have 2 S4 armour piercing attacks on charge so they can hit pretty hard, but WS3 only.
* '''Great Cannon:''' Your dedicated monster/war machines deleter. Shots from cannon are resolved at S10 no armour saves and multiple wounds D6 making it excellent at removing any monster threats such as dragons, giants, war machines etc. with which you can't really deal with otherwise. Always including at least 1 in army isn't a bad idea.
* '''Mortar:''' Stone thrower but lower strength making it worse than regular stone thrower. It can only really deal with infantry and it's not even that good at it so I wouldn't bother taking it. Especially since it also sits in special slots where you have better options.

=== Rare Units ===
* '''Flagellants:''' Your only melee infantry unit that has a chance to win combat by killing opponents. At least in 1st round. Flagellants are crazed, which means they are immune to psychology, unbreakable, pass automatically any leadership test they are ever required to make, cannot flee, always pursue and can't ever be joined by characters, they also don't wear any sort of protection. They have WS2 which is terrible since they'll pretty much always hit on 5+ or 4+ at the very best (though light wizard can help them) but they also have 2 attacks and are using flails, so each flagellant in 1st melee round throws 2 S5 attacks. Against opponents with WS4 they won't probably do much, but anything else really doesn't want to fight them. 
* '''Helblaster Volley Gun:''' The main question about this machine is: Is the misf.. sorry the artillery die your friend? Can be extremely effective or can blow up instantly. The problem with it is that it rolls 3 artillery dices and you cannot re-roll them with your engineer hero meaning that it's a bit dicey unit. I personally wouldn't bother taking it, unless I have heavens wizard in my army for that sweet d3 d6 re-rolls. Unfortunately Second Sign of Amul doesn't allow the player to re-roll the artillery die (it is unambiguosly D6, not any special die allowed to re-roll) but re-rolling the die on the misfire chart could easily be even better.
* '''Steam Tank:'''