Warhammer/Tactics/6th Edition/The Empire

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Why play The Empire?

The army of the Empire is easily the most versatile army of the whole game. The Empire can field full magic list of 12 power dice and some bounds AND take along four great cannons and two helblasters in 2000 points game (without any magic items one level 4 wizard, three level 2 wizards, four cannons and two helblasters is 1145 points). Or you can field full knight army. Or whatever you ever want. On the contrary, imperial troops are not as fast as elves, not as tought as ogres, not as numerous as skaven, not as killy as chaos etc. but in the Empire army can always be found something against every opponent.

Army Special Rules

• Detachment system: The Empire army uses the detachment system. Basically detachments are small support units of a parent unit. The detachment can charge along the parent unit or counter-charge a charging opponent. A detachment will charge to flank of an enemy if possible which is usually ridiculously effective. Unfortunately the role of the detachments is normally to be the cannon fodder since your opponent propably understands the effectiveness of detachments. On the other hand, your opponent has to use his precious power dice or mundane firepower to decimate very cheap units which don't even cause panic.

The Imperial Armoury

• Cavalry hammer/White Wolf hammer: +2S on first turn when charging, otherwise +1S. Requires two hands. Original name was the Cavalry hammer but in the Middenland Army list in Storm of Chaos that same weapon was used by infantry and therefore that alternate name.
• Full Plate Armour: 4+ save.
• Empire Handgun: 24", S4, move-or-fire, armour piercing. On the first shoot +D6" of range. The short range is still 12".

Experimental Weapons

These are used only by engineers or the champions of handgunner regiments or pistolier regiments.

• Hochland Long Rifle: 36", S4, armour piercing. Can be used to target any visible target, the normal targeting rules doesn't apply. Even characters in units can be targeted. -1 to hit when the special rule is used.
• Repeater Handgun: 24", S4, armour piercing, 3 x multiple shots.
• Repeater pistol: 8", S4, armpur piercing, 3 x multiple shots. Can be used in close combat.

Magic Items

In the Imperial vaults there is loads of magic items and here is covered just a few of recommended ones.

• Dawn Armour: Your general or some other combat hero will propably have 1+ armour save and ability to re-roll those saves is normally a pretty fucking good thing.
• Holy Relic: 4+ ward for 45 points. Simple and good.
• The White Cloak: 5+ ward for 30 points and immunity to cold based attacks. The special rule is worth of nothing but fortunately you are paying only for the ward. Simple and good.
• Griffon Standard: 50 points for double rank bonus in close combat. Unit of 20 state troops can be practically invincible with this banner. Unfortunately a unit of state troops can take this banner only if your general is an Elector Count and the only other ranked troop which can take this are the very expensive Greatswords. Battle Standard Bearer is of course an option. The unit carrying this banner can't pursue. Overall this is an extremely good magic item and try to find space for it always.
• Steel Standard: 25 points, +D3" to charge move, failed still only 7". For its price strongly recommended.

And here is the rest

• Runefang: 100 points for making all hits wound automatically and no armour saves allowed. Normally it would be extremely good weapon if not the fact that it costs 100 points and only Elector Count can wield it. It's risky to say the least
• The Mace of Helstrum: 65 points for instead of making normal attacks, you can make one with S10 and multipule (D6) wounds. It can be an okay low WS monster deleter if you give it to your Templar Grand Master, but against anything with high WS it's too risky.
• Sword of Fate: 50 points to nominate one monster (must be large target) or character at the beginning of game. Against chosen target this weapon wounds on 2+, no armour saves allowed and causes D3 wounds. If you can manage to get to your target then it's pretty good. Can be neat on pegasus flying assassin captain, but a bit pricy.
• Sword of Sigismund: 50 points for +1S and always strikes first. If you're fighting against elves or skaven which rely on their speed to reduce damage then it can come in handy as those factions don't have good toughness or saves. Against any tougher opponent it might lack punching power (you'll have WS6 S5 A4 at best with this weapon keep that in mind).
• Sword of Righteous Steel: 45 points making bearer hits on 2+ regardless of WS. Can be hilarious if you combo it with Speculum and charge into biggest enemy lord, other than that not worth it imo.
• Sword of Power: 40 points Great weapon but without striking last drawback. Not bad if you're fighting low initiative factions like Orcs or Ogres or Lizardmen but cost a bit (40 points).
• Hammer of Judgement: 35 points for making models hit by this weapon take a leadership test. If they fail they suffer wound with no armour saves allowed, if they pass you roll to wound and save normally. Way too random to actually use it and almost useless if you're fighting close enemy general.
• Dragon Bow: 30 points Bow with 36" range and S6. Can be pretty neat to soften enemy monsters before they get close, but with only 1 shot it ain't gonna do much. Once again captain on pegasus can be an interesting option with it.
• Sword of Justice: 25 points allows bearer can re-roll failed wound rolls. Not completely tragic and can be an okay weapon in smaller point games.
• Wyrmslayer Sword: 20 points to make bearer always wounds on 4+ (unless hit strength would make it less) and large targets loose their scaly skin save against attacks made with this weapon. Maybe if you expect to run into a Lizardmen force with 3 dino's it can pay for it's price, but cannons are better at dealing with those anyway.
• The Gilded Armour: 50 points Heavy armour + Opponent must pass Strength test before trying to hit you. Bad because of it's price and randomness
• Armour of Tarnus: 35 points Light armour with 5+ ward save and allows wizards to cast spells while wearing it. Not bad for it's price and allows your wizards to have 4+ save on barbed horse which is something.
• Shield of the Gorgon: 35 points Shield which makes one opponent of your choosing to loose 1 attack. Too expensive for it's price and using up a magic armour slot.
• Armour of Meteoric Iron: 30 points for 1+ save. If you want to deploy foot-slogging melee characters then it can help them survive combat tremendously + allows you to use weapons which require two hands without worrying about your save.
• Bronze Shield: 25 points to completely ignore first hit character suffers. Skip.
• Helm of the Skaven Slayer: 20 points for +1 save which can be combined with others (this + plate armour + barbed horse + shield with hand weapon = 0+ save) and the wearer causes fear in all models from skaven army. Good against skaven, meh against anything else.
• Shroud of Magnus: 60 points talisman which gives you 5+ ward save and model wearing it is completely immune to Dark, Chaos or Skaven magic even if cast with irresistible force. If it gave this effect for entire unit or at least mount too then it would be interesting option. As it stands it's way too expensive.
• Jade Amulet: 50 points to completely ignore first wound bearer suffers. For that price? Pass.
• Sigil of Sigmar: 20 points for additional dispel dice against spells which affect wearer or the unit he is within. Not bad if you expect a lot of magic from the opposition.
• The Crimson Amulet: 20 points 6+ ward save which also makes the wearer pass all characteristic test except those based on LD. It's way too situational to come in handy and if you want 6+ ward save just take Talisman of protection which gives 6+ ward but for 15 points instead.
• Grey Wand: +1 to all casting rolls for 50 points. Simple, effective and a bit costly but not bad.
• Seal of Destruction: Super dispel scroll which makes enemy wizard completely forget their spell on 4+ for 50 points (bound spells are forgotten on 6+). Is this thing better than 2 dispel scrolls for 50 points? If you can roll 4+ then yes, but it's a gamble.
• Rod of Power: For 45 points you can store up to 3 power dices from your pool instead of using them. In next magic phase you roll a dice and if the result is higher or equal to number of dices you've stored then you get to use them. If you roll below then they're lost. Saving up your magic dices to have more of them in next magic phase isn't terrible idea, especially if your wizard can't even use them all in one magic phase. An interesting option to be sure.
• Luckstone: Once per battle your wizard can re-roll dice used to cast/dispel a spell for 25 points. If you can afford it for your wizards then it's pretty good.
• Crystal Ball: It's a really interesting one. For 25 points your opponent must always reveal any secrets involving all units within 12" of wizard holding it. It means any magical artifacts his characters can hold, any disguised assassins, fanatics etc. he doesn't normally have to tell you. Depending on whether or not you and your friends actually tell or not what is in your list, it can be really useful or completely useless.
• Wizard Staff: 15 points to allow wizards to use one more power dice than their power level allows them too when casting a spell. It's only useful on low level wizards, since your level 4 wizard lords can use up to 5 magic dices already and why would you even need more than that?
• Laurels of Victory: A 70 point artifact which makes each wound your character dealt count as 2 when you're working out combat resolution. Expensive and those 70 points could be used to give your character magical weapon/armour etc. Additionally only really Templar Grand Master can use it somewhat effectively, since Elector Count is stuck with WS5 S4 A3.
• Rod of Command: 50 points to make your unit pass first break test required even if normally they wouldn't be able to. A bit niche dare I say item. If you could decide when you want to use it then it would be better, but as it stands it can maybe be useful against lots of fear causing factions.
• The Silver Horn: 45 points level 5 bound spell which makes all your units on the battlefield rally. Pricy and might not come in use all that often depending on your army and playstyle.
• The Orb of Thunder: Level 4 bound spell which forces all flying units to use their regular movement instead of flying for 40 points. If you expect a lot of flying units then certainly useful, but pretty low power level so might not go off if your opponent decides to store some dispel dices or dispel scrolls.
• Aldred's Casket of Sorcery: Item which makes you steal one randomly chosen enemy wizard spell and then you can cast it and completely remove from game. Power level of spells is equal to that required to cast normally and you can release them all at once if you want to. Well, for 35 points it's not THAT expensive but the question is can you actually deliver your character near opponent wizard to make use of it?
• Icon of Magnus: 30 points which makes wearer and unit he is with ignore fear caused by fear causing units, and reduce terror from terror causing units to only fear. Not bad if you're facing lot's of fear causing units.
• Ring of Volans: 30 points one use only bound spell which is chosen randomly from one of lores from rulebook of your choosing and is cast with power level normally required to cast said spell. Depending on spell you get it's either crap or a steal. Are you feeling lucky today?
• Doomfire Ring: 25 points bound spell with power level 3 which you can cast every magic phase. What spell is it? It's shittier fireball cause only range 18" and S3 D6 hits. Not really worth 25 points imo.
• Van Horstmann's Speculum: Do your characters get constantly shit on by opponents characters with superior stats? Are you fed up of mediocre stats of your humans? Well then this Speculum is for you. For 25 points at the beginning of challenge you swap your S, T, I and A with character you're currently in challenge with. It's hilarious if you manage to catch someone big and beat them to death with their own stats. Combo's really well with Sword of Righteous Steel to negate any to hit penalties from having mediocre WS.
• Imperial Banner: 100 points to make all of your units with at least one model within 12" of this banner re-roll all psychology tests and tests to avoid pursuit. Really expensive for not that amazing effect.
• Banner of Sigismund: 60 point banner making unit holding it stubborn. Pretty good effect but a bit pricy since you'll need captain to hold it for units.
• Banner of Ulric: 50 point banner which gives your Knights of the White Wolf weaker fear. When your knights charge, enemy has to pass a leadership test or they hit knights on 6s in combat + when opponents wishes to charge you he has to pass a leadership test or will remain stationary in that movement phase. Units which ignore fear ignore this effect as well. Not as powerful as fear, and on charge your knights have a good chance of killing enough opponents to survive getting hit back. However it can somewhat screw up opponent game plan when his units won't charge your knights.
• Banner of Valour: 40 points banner to ignore panic. I guess okay? Nothing amazing and it's not immune to psychology which would be much better.
• Standard of Arcane Warding: 40 points banner which gives you 2 additional dispel dices against spells which would affect unit holding it. Useful against magic heavy factions.
• Banner of Duty: 10 banner that allows you to re-roll failed Rallying tests. It's cheap, but they're better banners out there.

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:

Tactics

Know your Weaknesses and know your Strengths

Empire (as expected) is a "Jack of all trades master of none" type of army, meaning that you can try almost any playstyle with the Empire, but they'll never truly excel at it unlike other races. However even though they are jack of all trades, they still do some army compositions better (like heavily focusing on ranged combat) than others (heavily focusing on melee infantry combat) and don't have access to some (mass fear type of army).

One thing that Empire player should understand is that your melee infantry isn't usually gonna do amazing damage, no matter what you do. They're all locked at 1 attack only for the most part and if they somehow have more it's usually WS3 S3 so that won't do much damage anyway. How does your empire infantry can win combat then? By static combat resolution. Your guys are cheap, you can bring usually more state militia than enemy can bring his core units for the same price. Sure, chaos warriors will completely destroy any state militia in combat, but can 10 chaos warriors do enough damage to chew through 20-25 militia? Assuming you've bought command squad, each turn you get +5 to combat resolution so chaos warriors are put at high disadvantage every combat round. Add to that the fact that you can charge flank with detachment of Halberdiers or Free Company and suddenly you're making them test for panic and get additional points to combat resolution. Hell you might even kill 1-2 bastards on charge.

As you can see, Empire prefers quantity over quality in their troops (at least if said troops aren't knights or greatswords or flagellants) which also stretches to ranged combat too. Yes, your crossbowmen and handgunners are gonna hit on 4+ at best most of the time, but you can bring a lot of them and with enough of them you might even break you opponent before fight properly starts. Bunch of handgunners/crossbowmen backed up by Great Cannons and you can completely blast them away if there isn't lots of terrain. Throw in some huntsmen and pistoliers for additional frustration.

If you actually want to play melee focused Empire army then you'll have to spam Knights and pistoliers. Knights are excellent core choice and on charge they can do a lot of work with WS4 S5(6 if you've upgraded to inner circle) + they'll likely survive being hit back, since they're wearing full plate armour on barbed horses with shields. Knights of the White Wolf can even be used as anvil type of unit, since thanks to their hammers they'll hit with WS4 S4(or 5 if inner circle) even if they didn't charge which still is way better, than what your infantry can do. And while knights charge head on and tank most things, pistoliers do flanking charges with up to 2 S4 ap attacks which will likely make your enemy suffer.

I'd say the armies against which Empire struggles most are those which focus heavily on fear and terror. Because pretty much no Empire unit (besides knights but only if you take certain lords and flagellants) have easy access to immune to psychology rule. At best you can stay inside your LD9 aura's of Elector Count/Templar Grand Master, but once you start loosing combat against foe's with higher Unit Strength you ain't gonna stick for a while. Against non-undead factions you can counter that by simply trying to blast them as much as you can before they get close, however against undead you can only hope that your guys are gonna win combat.