Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Warscrolls Compendium/The Empire

The Empire Tactica for the Age of Sigmar rule-set, so you can follow your god into the next world!

The Empire Warscrolls

Forenote: The following section will be arranged with similar units and formations being grouped together for easier reading.

This is by no means a complete guide. Also due to the relatively recent release of Age of Sigmar, most of this is based on theory. Take everything with a grain of salt.

Why play The Empire?

Because you love gryphons that can still fly, manly men who have (and are in love with, apparently) cool mustaches and drowning your enemy a la imperial guard. Aside a few characters, the Empire can be played in many aspects like you'd play an IG army: your basic troops (going by the SDK system) are cheap-and see their utility enhanced by being deployed en masse- and so are most of your heroes (who buff your army to great extent). In the meanwhile you pack up some nasty guns like the Steamtank. Wanna drown the enemy in corpses but don't want to play vampire counts in fear of being accused of cheesemonger and sparkly faggot? Want to be a MAN? Want to pack some seriously big guns? Then serve the mighty God-Empero of Mankind KARL FRANZ!!

Named Characters

• Karl Franz on Deathclaw: The big cheese of the Empire. All units within 15" of him don't take Battleshock tests, and with Deathclaw's Piercing Blood Roar rule he can force a single enemy unit to roll 2D6 and pick the highest result when rolling Battleshock. Deathclaw can re-roll failed hits if Karl Franz took a wound. The Silver Seal lets him re-roll failed saves, and ignore Mortal Wounds on D6. His Command ability allows a single unit of Free Peoples to make an extra attack.
• Kurt Helborg: Makes enemy units that fail battleshock tests lose an extra guy. Also, all Free Peoples units within 15" of Kurt re-roll charge distances. In the utterly hilarious/stupid (take your pick) tradition of AoS, Kurt Helborg is the 1 named character in the Army to have real life affect the game. If you have a bigger and better moustache than your opponent, you re-roll failed hits with his Runefang. His command ability lets a single unit re-roll Charge distances.
• Balthazar Gelt, The Supreme Patriarch: A "level 2" Wizard with 12" flying Move. That would be enough to make him mighty useful, but he also knows a terrific spell, Searing Doom. It makes enemy armor red hot, meaning you roll 6 dice, and the target suffers a mortal wound for each one that would pass a Save roll for the unit (on average 2 mortal wounds for a 5+ Save, 3 for a 4+, etc). You know how the average Hero has 5 wounds and a 4+ Save? Well, with Searing Doom and Arcane Bolt, Gelt statistically kills one each turn. Or halves that ten-man Saurus Guard unit. Take him against anything but full horde armies, hell, take him even then, because they're bound to have at least one highly armored Commander.
• Valten: He can come back from the dead...a lot. His fucking rule even has the exact same name as Old Man Yarrick's special rule. Makes an extra D3 attacks once per game with either his dual hammers or Ghal Maraz, and re-roll armor saves that turn. As a manly teenager he's a little lackluster, but with the horsie he becomes a bearded guided missile. Not only does he get 10" Move, enough to catch most targets, but the extra D3 attacks of his heroic turn are even more epic with Ghal Maraz, one of the best weapons in the game (in fact, the weapon the game is named for). And the re-rollable 4+ Save will probably make him survive the counterattack, too. Not bad at all for a mere human Hero!
• Marius Leitdorf: The insane crazy Elector Count is back! If you pretend to ride a horse in real life, you re-roll failed hits. If you actually talk to it, you re-roll failed wounds too. His command ability is you roll a D6 and take the result: 1-2 you pick an enemy unit within 15" and they have -1 to hit, 3-4 all State Regiment troops in the army don't take battleshock tests, and 5-6 a State Regiment can move, shoot, or attack twice in your turn.
• Ludwig Schwarzhelm This guy has the statline of a grandmaster. The main difference is that his sword has no rending outside rolling 6s, in which case it simply ignores armor. He adds one bravery to all the State Troops and Knights within 24" and, if he doesn't move, can force them to stay in combat, if they flee, on a 4+. Not that bad, to be honest. Oh, and he can be a meatshield to Karl Franz, because the we know the Emperor needs more survivability.
• Markus Wulfhart: Super archer with Monster Hunter (+1 to hit against Monsters), D6 damage against Monsters, and can make a unit of Archers Wulhart's Hunters, giving them a permanent +1 to hit. And you don't have to be close to them to grant the bonus, meaning you can use a big horde of 30+ improved Archers, use their free initial move, then alpha strike something with 30 shots with re-rollable 3+ to hit. Very good with said combo, or if your army has a problem with big Monsters, or even as a Hero sniper.
• Volkmar the Grim Like a Warrior Priest, but instead of healing his last prayer adds 1 to a unit's run, charge and hit rolls, which can be very powerful. Also he unbinds two spells per turn, heals himself 1 wound each Hero phase, and it's pretty powerful in combat. Very useful and survivable, but perhaps he's better mounted on the War Altar of Sigmar. Your choice.
• Luthor Huss, Prophet of Sigmar Ironically, age of Sigmar hasn't been too kind with his prophet. Huss has the profile of a Knight grand master but has 2 less attacks most of the game (he can reach 4 attack once per game). In exchange for his mediocrity as a combatant, he becomes a support character: he can attempt to unbind 1 spell and he has battle prayers: on a 3+ he give ONE (and only one) unit one of the following three boons: immunity to battleshock (good but not that necessary), a 6+ save against any kind of wounds (including mortal ones) that the unit suffered and causing a SINGLE wound on a 4+ to all enemy units within 3" of the unit. If you're taking Luthor, your best bet is to give the 6+ save to boost your glasscannons (ie: your ranged units) the other abilities aren't that useful, specially taking into account the general can do that boosting job better. Overall, Luthor is pretty mediocre.

Nobility & Heroes

• Empire General Your army buffer. This guy is a requirement for the state troops detachment (which is beastly if you go with big units, and you should) and so can be considered an autotake. Overall, he has a nice combat ability but you'd want him out of the strife instead supporting your army. Each hero phase he gives a +1 for both to hit and to wound rolls to a unit in exchange of it not moving nor charging (great for those handgunners about to be charged, bonus points if you took them in the state regiment, gave them more than twenty models and give them those orders, enjoy your automatic hits with nigh secure damage and slight rending).
  • General of the Empire on Imperial Griffin Very powerful and with a nice Command Ability that buffs a unit without requiring it to stand still. Not much else to say. He's fast, he's tough as nails and he's impressively killy.
• Grand Master Wanna make your knights faster? The Grandmaster can, every hero phase, give them the chance to run and charge as long as they stay within 15 inches from him at the charging face. Overall he also packs a nice punch and has a 3+ save if he goes with a shield.
• Demigryph Knights These monsters can chuck out a ridiculous amount of attacks for what they are and have a total of 4 FUCKING WOUNDS EACH. Not to mention they can move 10" like all Empire cavalry, they can and will charge into a unit and hurt it bad. Good at clearing hordes with the mounts 3 rending attacks each and rider's 2 attacks with either weapon. Personally I would recommend giving them sword and lance as it does 2 damage on the charge and will wound on a 3+ like the halberd but this requires care with who they charge as they will loose effectiveness on the second round of combat. Not to mention the models look awesome as hell.
• Empire KnightsGood cheap cavalry and can be used as a base choice for a cavalry themed army using the Brotherhood of Knights warscroll. Take 3 10 man Knight units and a 3-6 man unit of Demigryph Knights as a linebreaker squad.
• Reiksguard Knights These guys are not much better than regular knights but the riders do hit on a 3+ rather than a 4+. On the charge their lances inflict 2 wounds and they get a `+1 to those rolls. They will destroy anything with poor saves. Sigmarines though, may tank a bit of their damage.
• Celestial Hurricanum This one's fun. It adds to the casting rolls of Order Wizards, to the Hit rolls of Free People and the Hurricanum as well as the Wizard on it can drown the opponent in mortal wounds. In other words, it's a force multiplier with a punch.
• Empire Battle Wizard Bog standard Wizard with a staff attack and a bad save. The Empire Wizards have the nice trick of being able to pick their unique spell depending on which school they follow. Most of these are meh or, in the Lore of Death case, just worse versions of Arcane Bolt. The Lore of Beasts, Lore of Shadows and Lore of Life are definitely the best here.
• Amber Battle Wizard on Imperial Griffon Very strong, but not nearly as survivable, or dangerous as the one with the General on top. In exchange for a great command ability, a great additional weapon and a much better save, this guy here gets... a pretty decent unique spell. Wee.
• Luminark of Hysh A big honking Laser Cannon that also gets Free People around them a save-after-the-save and makes unbinding for Order Wizards easier. Its Light beam at full strength is also terrifyingly powerful and thanks to its really high range, it should never be in any danger. Use this if you like cannons but don't want to be a sitting duck.
• The War Altar of Sigmar Surprisingly very dangerous at range, especially against Chaos and even more against Chaos Daemons. It is also immensely good at buffing your units and keeping them safe. One Altar in your army can also have Volkmar the Grim chilling in it, who makes the thing even better. Do keep in mind that, as it gets damaged, it will have trouble keeping up with your Knights, so an all-cav list may not be the right place for it.
• Warrior Priest Never ever give this guy the Greathammer as its stat block was obviously written by someone who didn't get the rules. Other than that, they are decent though not impressive in melee and have some very nice prayers up their sleeves and most importantly, unlike most Priests, they aren't that squishy. In fact, with a shield, they are decidedly non-squishy and not just by Empire standards, either.

Free People units

• Crossbowmen With the aid of your General, they're a solid ranged unit to have. If you're looking for some decent 20 inch shots to throw out, consider getting 20 of them. If you can't afford the 20 model count, or aren't planning to use a general to buff, then it might be best to pass.
• Handgunners Handgunners, at the beginning, seem bad. A sucky save, low bravery and a short-ranged missile weapon that needs a 5+ to hit. Now you look at it's 3+ and it's -1 rend and think: it's not that bad. Then you look at their skills: 20+ models gives +1 to hit and if there's no enemies close them and they didn't move, they add ànother `+1 to hit. Now couple them with an Empire general and State Troop Detachment. Pick 3 units of handgunners and don't space them too much. Enjoy 60 autohits and nigh ensured damaged. Skeletons will shit bricks.
• Archers Can make an extra move after set up, and they get better in high numbers. Their sucky save will make them die in droves, though, but they're pretty decent. A big unit of them with Markus Wulfhart +1 to hit bonus can be a thorn on your opponent's side, and makes for a great defensive and shooty army.
• Greatswords With Oathsworn Honour Guard and Hold the Line! Greatswords have the potential to deal 2 attacks each at 2+ to hit and wound if they stand still. Compared to other Elite infantry like Stormvermin, Bestigors, Wildwood Rangers etc. Greatswords are an absolutely brilliant and powerful unit, even more so with all the buffs your army has going. Get a Warrior Priest next to them and they hit on 2+ and reroll to wound.
• Pistoliers Very short-ranged guns and awful Bravery. They do bring Rend and a lot of attacks, but since you have Demigryphs for smashy, you may want to skip Pistoliers for Outriders.
• Outriders Decent-ranged guns and a bonus to hit if they stand still, with an impressive number of shots, but in exchange they are quite a bit worse in melee (where you don't want them anyway).
• State Troops Your basic infantry. Your best options are the shields+swords as they give you a great rock. If you want to deal damage, take Spear to attack in two rows. If you know you're facing Vampire Counts, take Halberds as those Skellies really hate Rend.
• Free Company Militia Don't bother. Sure, you get 4+ rerollable if you have 20+ guys. So what? They are not state troops so they don't get any further buffs beyond the re-roll and their armor is 6+ so anything with rend will bypass and they'll lose a boatload of models per turn (specially with their sucky bravery). They do however have a not too bad ranged attack on top of their okay melee.
• Master Engineer Not much to say, awful on his own, yes, even with the Long Rifle, but he buffs your cannons to high heaven, so you need the guy.
  • Master Engineer on Mechanical Steed Awful. Almost as bad as the unmounted guy at melee and exactly as good at range, and incredibly unreliable movement.
• Witch Hunter Not too dangerous, unless you send him at Wizards or Daemons. Funnily enough, the rule doesn't specify CHAOS Daemons, so your Witch Hunter will have a field day with Seraphon, as ALL his attacks doing D3 damage actually makes this guy pretty dangerous.
• Flagellant Warband Bad hit rolls and no saves make for a very unimpressive unit at first glance, but if you get a War Altar or a Hurricanum (or better both) close to them, you have an absolutely terrifying unit that nobody wants to get charged by, because even if your opponent kills them, they can deal unpleasant damage to him.

Warmachines

• Empire Cannon: If 3 Crewmen are within 1" of the Cannon, this thing fires 2 shots that do D6 wounds. If you're incredibly lucky, you just dealt 12 wounds. With a Human Engineer within 1" you re-roll hits, also it can grapeshoot a close unit, which has the potential of making them mincemeat: a mortal wound on a roll of 6 for each model within 10", and because you fire two shots, that means one third of the number of models in the unit of mortal wounds, nice. As always, an excellent unit, and the basis of lots of armies.

• Empire Mortar Like a very powerful catapult, he can shoot things it can't see. Very accurate, and long range with a close Master Engineer. Also, it's very very powerful against great hordes (of 20+ models, it deals 2D6 Damage to them). Great choice against hordes, but has 10" minimum range and only one shoot, overall the Cannon is probably better.

• Helblaster Volleygun: You decide whether you load 1 deck, 2 decks, or 3 decks. For each deck you decide to load, you roll a D6 to determine how many shots you get. However, any doubles rolled means the Volleygun jams and cannot fire that turn. A Human Engineer within 1" can allow you to re-roll ALL of the dice.
• Helstorm Rocket Blaster Fun to use and scary as hell when you realise how much damage it can potentially do with D6 damage with a full crew. Uses Ork mentality of MORE SHOTS IS BETTAH BOSS as they hit on 5+ so i would recommend taking 2-3 of them if you want to take them at all and stick a master engineer in the middle of 3 guns to use his funny but unreliable rule that lets all missed shots hit another unit of your choice (within 10") on a on a D6 roll of a 6. Be wary of the minimum range however as they can't shoot at anything within 10" The crew also has a peculiar rule that says they add 1 to the to hit rolls when firing all salvos at the same target, but as they can only come in a unit of 1 gun carriage they can only shoot at one target anyway? So by that logic i would assume they get this bonus all the time but that doesn't make sense so if anyone would like to point this out that would be greeeaaaat. The rules for attacking state that models with multiple attacks may split those attacks amongst different enemy units within the attacking model's range. So instead of splitting the shots amongst different units, you gain +1 to hit against an enemy unit that you really don't like.

• Empire Steam Tank Seems too random and weak for its reputation at first, until you realize that with his ability you re-roll ALL of his random values, which makes it very threatening both at range and in close combat, specially against units with 10+ models. Get one or two Mages with the Lore of Life close to this thing, heal it each turn so its performance doesn't decay, and you won't fear anything. After all, who needs monsters when you have TANKS?

Formations

• State Troop Detachment: 1 Empire General (Can be mounted on Griffon), 3 Units of State Troops, Hand Gunners, Crossbowmen, or Archers in any combination, and 1 unit of either Greatswords, Pistoliers, or Outriders. A unit within 6" of another State Troop Detachment unit adds +1 to hit, and have +1 Bravery when within 10" of the General. And if a 1 is rolled for a bravery test, no models flee. And if a unit contains a bannermen, then your unit is unbreakable.
• Brotherhood of Knights: 4 units of Empire Knights or Demigryph Knights in any combination. All models in formation get +1 attack when charging, and have +1 bravery. This is how you loose friends by ruining his army in 1 turn by throwing a load of horses at him. Recommended format is 3 units of regular Knights or Reiksguard Knights if that's how you swing and a 3-6 man unit of Demigryph Knights behind them to keep them safe from being charged. Let the horses absorb the first wave in case you loose the priority and end up being charged and then chuck the Demigryphs at something Bloodthirster style and absolutely wreck them. If you get the priority then brilliant what are you waiting for charge that motherfucker! Useful to have a big scary unit such as a General on a Griffon to go in with the first wave and take some of the attention away from the Demigryphs and also buff them with 2+ to bravery and 1+ to its charge rolls and hit rolls. Not to mention he can tank and smack the shit out of something but he won't get the Brotherhood of Knights bonus.

External Links

Rules are here [1]