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

=== 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.