Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Empire

Why Play Empire

One word: versatility. An Empire army can be built to suit almost any play style. You want to play magic-heavy? The Empire can do that. You like to go for anti-magic? Empire's got you covered. Want to do both? Nothing's stopping you. Do you make heavy use of infantry? Ranged units? Cavalry? Artillery? The Empire can do it all, albeit not quite as well as armies that specialize (especially since the the new armybook was written by The Cruddace). But hey, you're looking for options, and this army has them in spades.

Unit Analysis

Named Characters

Note: Under the current edition, named characters tend to be overpriced; you can pretty easily emulate most named characters from scratch and save yourself some points. That said, a few named characters do have abilities and wargear or wargear combos unique to them, so if you absolutely need to have them, go ahead. Just make sure you're really getting your points worth.

(The new 8th Edition armybook updated the rules for named characters, so watch this space.)

• The Emperor Karl Franz: His Imperial Majesty is definitely one of the better named characters in the book. All of his hits automatically wound for d3 wounds (unless you're a complete moron and drop Ghal Maraz in favour of his Runefang), he comes with a 4+ ward save and magic resistance 2, is Immune to Psychology (and confers that rule on any unit he joins), and has Inspiring Presence with a better range than any other general you can field. He is best fielded on foot or on horseback; Deathclaw and the Imperial Dragon aren't really worth the points unless you're getting them free from Storm of Magic.

• Kurt Helborg: The Grand Marshal of the Reiksguard wields a Runefang and carries Laurels of Victory, which doubles the value of the wounds he causes for the purposes of combat resolution. He also makes a unit of Reiksguard Immune to Psychology and Stubborn; this and +1 WS essentially costs you 25 points. Iffy, but he does come with 155 points worth of wargear, which is higher than the 100-point limit for generic Lords.

• Marius Leitdorf: Whoa, who the fuck is this guy? He's from older editions, he's back, and he's here to go insane and charge that Hellcannon because he's convinced it's looking at him funny (to be fair, being a possessed cannon, it probably was looking at him funny). He's got a special rule, forcing him to take a leadership test on three dice, dropping the lowest, at the start of each of his turns. If he fails he goes nuts and does something random. Maybe all your units get a free instant reform, and then get to charge or shoot as they please! Maybe he pisses off Gork and Mork and gives Orcs & Goblins Hatred against him for the rest of the game! He's got a Runefang and an additional hand weapon that he gets to use even though he's mounted and got a Runefang. You're effectively paying 4 points for +1 WS and his insanity.

• Ludwig Schwarzhelm: If his name is Schwarzhelm, how come his helmet's painted gold on the box? Anyway, Ludwig is a Battle Standard Bearer with a 20-point magic weapon and Killing Blow, making him another very solid named character choice. He can also take wounds for the Emperor if they're both in the same unit, unless the Emperor is in a challenge.
  • Strategy: Mount Karl Franz in a Warhorse, place Ludwig in the same unit; you get the bodyguard benefit and the combination radius of Inspiring Presence + Hold Your Ground. No game breaker, but very helpful and synergistic.

• Markus Wulfhart: The Empire has a character archer now? Yeah, and he's kitted for hunting monsters, because apparently we didn't have enough men with giant brass balls. His Monster Hunter rule means he can reroll hits against monsters, always shoot monster mounts out from under characters, and taking him lets you buy a unit of Huntsmen in who get the same rule. He's also got his own magic longbow that always wounds monsters on a 4+ and does D3 wounds to them. Would be totally worth it if cannons didn't exist.

• Grand Theogonist Volkmar: Fluff-wise, this guy makes Kaldor Draigo look like a pussy. Crunch-wise, not so much. A comparison between Volkmar and an Arch Lector means that you're spending 90 points for +1 WS, a +5 Regeneration save, a +1 to casting his prayers, and +2 Strength to attacks, but only so long as you take him on the War Altar and it hasn't been destroyed. Not worth it at all.

• Luthor Huss: I see what you did there. Luthor is now the only Warrior Priest with the prayer "Unbending Righteousness", which makes his unit Stubborn for two rounds of combat. He also has a one use power which makes him even more of a beast in close combat. His points cost went down, but so did a basic Warrior Priest, and by the same amount. Still causes Fear, still has +1 WS over other Priests. In short, he's actually worth taking now, especially if you're in need of a mounted Warrior Priest that can handle a challenge.

• Balthazar Gelt: Dude cheats people by giving them fake gold as payments and accidentally turned his own face to gold. A Wizard Lord of the Gold Order who knows every Metal spell, has a 3+ ward save against shooting, magic resistance 1 (which increases one point for every enemy wizard beyond the first, up to magic resistance 3), a staff that gives a +2 bonus, and is mounted on a Pegasus. +6(!) to cast on any Metal spell is a very nice boost which helps you conserve power dice. Good, but would be a lot better with a different Lore (say, Life). Also quite expensive at 360 pts.

Generic Characters

Note: While named characters are judged against their generic counterparts, generic characters are examined based on their role in your army.

• General of the Empire: Has very good attack capabilities and gives his unit Lizardmen style Leadership against Break tests.
• Templar Grand Master: Pretty much a General with a barded warhorse and a better statline. You can only take him if you have a unit of Knightly Orders to go with him. Also doesn't have the cold-blooded rule that the General has, but he has Immune to Psychology.
• Arch Lector of Sigmar: A souped-up version of the Warrior Priest. Not as good as he used to be, but still worth taking.
  • War Altar of Sigmar: The War Altar now bestows a 6" bubble of Hatred and any active prayers from the Arch Lector, and can cast Banishment once a turn. Not as awesome as it was in 7th Edition, but a very good force multiplier if deployed correctly.
• Wizard Lord: Gives you all the fun you can expect from magic-users. At the very least, upgrade him to level 4. A Wizard Lord using the Lore of Beasts can take a griffon as a mount.
• Captain of the Empire: This guy is your Battle Standard Bearer and is therefore absolutely mandatory to take unless you're grabbing Ludwig instead. Like the General, he gives Lizardmen style Leadership to his unit against Break tests.
• Warrior Priest of Sigmar: All sorts of goodness wrapped up into a zealoty bundle. Channels power dice like wizards, gives any unit he joins Hatred, and can cast prayers that can give the unit he's in rerolls to wound, a 5+ ward save, or flaming weapons. Taking one for every major melee unit would be ideal, unless you're taking an Arch Lector on the War Altar.
• Battle Wizard: While being lower level and therefore less useful than a Wizard Lord, you can also take nearly three of him for the same price. Again, upgrade him to level 2 and use him as a scroll caddy.
• Witch Hunter: This guy buys you Magic Resistance 2 for a unit, and a character assassin who works just as well with his pistol as up close. And he's cheap, too. Ridiculously cheap. Take these guys, and send them after whoever your opponent's most important character is.
• Master Engineer: You want him for his ability to reroll artillery dice once per turn; the errata states that you don't have to have him join the crew to gain this ability, and you can use it on all artillery on top of that, which wasn't allowed in 7th Edition. Leave his toys at home.

Core Units

• State Troops: These guys will probably end up being the backbone of your army, and are fully integrated into the Detachments system. They come in six flavors:
  • Halberdiers: Halberdiers give you +1 Strength to your attacks, which makes them ideal for detachments so they can get into your opponent's juicy flanks. Taking shields isn't worth it; halberds are two-handed, so the shields can't be used in the Combat phase.
  • Spearmen: Spearmen let you fight with an extra rank, so these make natural parent units. Again, shields aren't worth it.
  • Swordsmen: Swordsmen give you +1 WS and a shield, which increases their hardiness. They can be used either as the parent unit or a detachment.
  • Handgunners: Handgunners give you Armor Piercing and access to the Hochland Long Rifle, which lets you snipe your opponent's characters; the repeater handgun, which adds two more shots to the gunline; or a brace of pistols (pfft). They're Move or Shoot, so take care where you deploy them, since they shouldn't be moving around much. Can be used either as a parent unit or a detachment, and should be kept small, no more than 10-15 models in each unit.
  • Crossbowmen: Trades Armor Piercing for an extra 6" range. The loss of the specialty guns means you're probably better off with Handgunners unless you're taking a whole boatload of them and try to blast as much of your opponents army on the first turn.
  • Archers: Instead of Armor Piercing or extra reach, Archers have Volley Fire, so the guys in the back rows will be more useful than ablative armor. And they can move and fire during the same turn, which makes them more responsive to enemy developments. Can be used either as a parent unit or a detachment.
  • Free Company Militia: Wielding two weapons and without armor, these guys will live fast and die young. If you take them, remember that. You can field militia units as detachments, but they cannot be parent units.
• Knightly Orders: Cavalry ain't what it used to be, so if you take them, take a dozen or more in a unit. Can be upgraded to Knights of the Inner Circle for +3 points each, which gives them Strength 4, but you can only take one unit of them in your army. Come in two flavors:
  • Knights Panther/Knights of the Blazing Sun: Come with a shield and lance, which bumps their armor save up to 1+, and they get a +2 Strength bonus on the charge.
  • Knights of the White Wolf: Fluffwise: AWW HELL TO THE FUCKING YES! They are motherfucking viking-furries with greathammers from the deep forests of Middenland, what's not to love?. They are the closest you'll get to vikings in an Empire army. To become a Knight of the White Wolf you have have to kill a wolf with your bare hands and skin it. They wear no helmets, 'cause they are just that awesome. They wear the fur of the skinned wolf on their armor, so they look pretty badass. Crunchwise: No thank you. They come without shields, so they lose that 1+ armor save, and because they're wielding great weapons, they hit last. Against a unit with high initiative, chances are your Middenland-furries will get hacked to pieces before they can even attack. If your taking them for fluff in your Middenland army, you maybe should consider Knights Panther. They fill the fluff equally good. But lets not be all negative; they might hit last, but keep the Strength bonus throughout the combat (and the combat will almost certainly take more than one turn). But I'd still say that you should go with Knights Panther/Knights of the Blazing Sun.

Special Units

• Greatswords: DEM BEARDS. Come equipped with greatswords (duh), full plate armor, and are Stubborn. Make a great tarpit or anchor for your army. They can also take detachments, and can now take a magic banner. Take thirty or more. And take detachments; Stubborn transfers to them too now.
• Reiksguard Knights: They're their own unit now! They're basically statted out like Inner Circle knights with lances and shields, but now they're Stubborn naturally. That's right, Stubborn knights with 1+ armor. The Bretonnians are weeping with envy right now. Stubborn only costs them pennies more per man than regular Inner Circle knights, so they're totally worth it.
• Pistoliers: Young nobles full of piss and vinegar and dual-wielding pistols. They can be a massive thorn in your opponent's flank, especially because they're Quick to fire and are Fast Cavalry. A pretty reliable fire-magnet.
• Outriders: These old farts can unleash the same amount of firepower as a regular gunline, and trades safety in numbers for mobility (like Pistoliers, they're Fast Cavalry). The Outrider Champion gives you the option of taking the Grenade Launching Blunderbuss... meh. Since they lost the option of the Hochland Long Rifle, the old Super Sniper strategy is gone. Try to get behind your opponent's army and shoot him up the strap. Also got DEM BEARDS.
• Huntsmen: Dirt cheap archers with Scout. Not part of the detachment system at all. If Markus Wulfhart is in your army, you can buy a unit of these guys who are also Monster Hunters.
• Demigryph Knights: The Empire finally got its invitation to the Monstrous Cavalry party. Three wounds, three WS 4 S 5 Armor Piercing attacks from the mount, Fear, Stomp, all that goodness. Can take either a lance and shield or halberds.
• Flagellant Warband: Pretty expensive for infantry but man, can these crazy bastards dish out the hate. They're Unbreakable, they have Frenzy, and you can martyr some of the models to regain charge bonuses. A big block of these will create a tarpit like no other but are expensive and very much a glass cannon.
• Great Cannon: Hell yes. If you're good with your aiming, you can snipe monstrous creatures and characters with it. Goes 'splodey (you're playing Empire; get used to it). An amazing deal for 120 points and really no Empire army should go without at least 1 cannon.
• Mortar: Unreliable and low Strength, but they do cover a large area. You might be better off with the Helstorm now.

Rare Units

• Helblaster Volley Gun: Oh man. The Helblaster does three artillery dice worth of Strength 5 shots with Armor Piercing. If you roll a misfire, you lose half your shots. If you roll two misfires, you roll on the Black Powder misfire chart. If you roll three misfires, it goes out in a blaze of glory, giving you 30 shots before being taken off the table. Often when taking helblasters it is a no brainer to take an engineer to sit beside it. Makes for a low chance of error and high chance for lots of shots.
• Helstorm Rocket Battery: The gun is named "Helstorm" not for its attack, but from the outburst of profanity from the Elector Count of Middenheim at the engineer that almost accidentally killed him; that should tell you something about its accuracy. The Helstorm fires d3 small blast templates and then scatters them like a stone thrower, always firing indirectly.
• Steam Tank: The Steam Tank is awesome. A 1+ armor save with T6, 10W, and up to 3 D6 random movement makes this guy look very scary to your opponent. The more wounds you take the more likely you are to hurt yourself, but if done right it can still be effective with 1 wound. Though at that point I'd rather just blow myself and everyone around me to smithereens. At only 250 pts. this guy can hold up double its worth. Oh, did I mention the extra cannon? Just don't hurt yourself too much, or you'll be inching across the table. Steam tank is better overall and safer to use in 8th Ed.
• Luminark of Hysh: Gives a 6+ ward save in a 6" bubble, adds a dispel die, and fires a Strength 8 multiple-wound magic missile that goes through units like a bolt thrower. Can be used as a mount by a Wizard Lord using the Lore of Light.
• Celestial Hurricanum: Gives a +1 bonus to hit in close combat in a 6" bubble, adds a power die, and dumps a random storm on an enemy using the small blast template. Can be used as a mount by a Wizard Lord using the Lore of Heavens. Random storm isn't that great and is a low level bound spell so often easily dispelled, bought more for its +1 to hit bubble and free power dice.
• Halfling Hot Pot Catapult: Doesn't... really have rules. It's an old Dogs of War unit, but DoW aren't legal anymore so... it's just a collector's model. Looks nice though. In a friendly game, you can probably get away with using it "counts as" a mortar.

Building Your Army

Buying Your Army

If you're building a well-rounded army that has something of everything, 2-3 Battalion boxes should form the core of your army; then add Special/Rare units to your personal taste. However, one thing you should be aware of is that the knights in the Battalion do not come with a Knights of the White Wolf sprue Yes they do but, unless you're running a fluffy Middenheim army, why are you taking Knights of The White Wolf anyway?

Magnetize your artillery so you can swap between cannons and mortars and between Helblasters and Helstorms.

The General and Wizard boxes both give you two characters for the price of one and are a converter's dream come true.

Army Composition

This is largely a matter of personal preference, but keep two things in mind:

• Size matters. Most of your army is going to be Strength 3, Toughness 3, so melee units need to be big in order to have staying power. One unit of 30 State Troops is a lot harder to break than two units of 15.
• Don't go overboard on Lords & Heroes. The days of Herohammer are dead and gone, probably forever. Another block of infantry/cavalry/whatever is a lot more useful than a superfluous character that only makes for easy kill points. Only take characters if you have a specific role for them to fill in your army. Generally speaking, you shouldn't have more than two or three characters unless your army is magic- and/or anti-magic-heavy (i.e. you've got a bunch of wizards and/or Warrior Priests running around).

Magic Items

RIP the days where armies had a plethora of unique magic items to choose from. Denizens of the empire now get a total of 9. First off, you need to properly kit out a champion to handle challenges; most armies you'll face are likely to have a champion bigger and nastier than yours. In order to survive and thrive in challenges, a character will need three things:

• A good weapon. Good choices are the Runefang (15 points cheaper now), the Mace of Helsturm (sort of a Ghal Maraz-lite) and the Ogre Blade (+2 Strength). If you're looking for something more economical, The Sword of Righteous Steel always hits on a 2+, and the Sword of Anti-Heroes can be awesome if your opponents are still playing Herohammer.
• Good Armor. The Armor of Meteoric Iron gives a 1+ armor save and a 6+ ward save. Armor of Silvered Steel and the Armor of Fortune are also good choices.
• Take the Talisman of Preservation or the White Cloak of Ulric to make a character harder to deal with, especially if you're taking a Templar Grand Master or something equally nasty.

Van Horstmann's Speculum swaps your champion's attack stats (S, T, I and A) with those of your opponent's champion in a challenge. The ability to elect not to use it has been removed, so only take this on a really sucky character like a wizard.

The Ring of Volans can now hold a random bound spell from any Lore instead of Fireball.

Magic banners will help you out tremendously. The Griffon Banner is great if you can afford it, while the Steel Standard has your knights ignore barding penalties and allows them to reroll 1s for movement. The best banner for its points, however, is the Standard of Discipline. It boosts the Leadership of the unit it's in at the cost of using your general's Inspiring Presence; however, this downside is negated completely (and then some) if you put the general in that unit.

Some character in your army has to take an enchanted shield, its 5 damn points for +2 to armour! A no brainer choice.

Magic

The Empire is one of the few armies to get access to all eight Lores of Magic. Good choices are:

• Life: This Lore could only be more awesome if it had tits and was on fire. Throne of Vines lets you ignore all miscasts from Life wizards on a 2+ (this includes a miscast from casting ToV itself, so go for broke) and beefs up the rest of your spells, Regrowth brings back dead models, Flesh to Stone and Shield of Thorns are welcome buffs, and The Dwellers Below makes all models in a targeted unit make a Strength test or roll for anal circumference. And every time you successfully cast, you heal a wound, which can be on any model within 12". Seriously, take this Lore, and take it for the highest-level wizard you have.
• Metal: A good choice, but only comes into its own against enemies with high armor values (Warriors of Chaos, Bretonnians, other Empire armies, and so on). Casting Plague of Rust on Skinks or Clanrats is a waste of fucking time, and the lore attribute means that direct damage and magic missiles are less powerful the less armor their targets have. On the other hand, all damage spells ignore armor saves, and the augments it offers are fine in their own right.
• Light: Gives you a lot of very nice buffs (Speed of Light is a godsend should your opponent get into your artillery) and debuffs (particularly Net of Amyntok). A particularly nasty combo (if you can get it off) is Speed of Light and Birona's Timewarp, which together will make your Greatswords/knights with greatweapons hit like Frenzied High Elf Swordmasters. A very good lore, especially considering the fact that it's statistically the easiest lore to cast.
• Death: Four words: Purple Sun of Xereus. Also has very good buffs and debuffs, though you've got to be pretty close to an enemy for the latter.
• Shadow: Has a lot of very good debuffs and can make one guy a flier, but you really want this Lore for Okkam's Mindrazor, which replaces a unit's Strength score with its Leadership when rolling to wound, which means that the unit you cast it on will essentially have at least 7 Strength(!) in close combat. Cast it on your Knights, Greatswords or Flagellants and swing for the bleachers. This is statistically the hardest lore to cast, so make sure to give it to a level 4 Wizard Lord.

If you take direct damage spells (especially magic missiles) with the notion of blasting your enemy to kingdom come, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. Buffs and debuffs are where it's at, and you'll notice that what all of the Lores recommended above have in common are good buffs, good debuffs and one Spell of Horde Buggery.

Tactics

Fighting challenges: Most armies are going to challenge your puny human heroes every chance they get, so make sure you ether have a unit champion to feed to that vampire/chaos lord or have your hero kitted out for fighting these combat monsters. There are some common stats to expect from these kind of heroes so plan for: WS/T/S/I of at least 4, most likely 5 or even higher, at least 4 attacks and probably re-rolls for something (most often to hit), in most cases you will be looking at a 2+ or 3+ save as well. On the other hand you can probably afford 2 heroes for every one of theirs. Most of the time all you can do is deny them kills and combat res so kitting your heroes to survive the stupid numbers of attacks likely to be inflicted on him is a good direction to take as normal troops would probably just get minced.

Using detachments: If you're using detachments (and you probably should), you need to learn the detachment rules by heart so you always know what they can and can't do in a given situation.

The Good:

• Melee detachments can make a countercharge.
• Ranged detachments can make a Stand and Shoot action at no penalty if their parent unit is charged.
• Detachments get any special rules that their parent unit possesses, as well as any prayers from Warrior Priests. Moreover, the FAQ has ruled that detachments use the ranks of the parent unit for determining Steadfast, even if it isn't in combat.

The Bad:

• Detachments cannot take command models, so you can't put a Hochland Long Rifle in a detachment of Handgunners.
• Detachments lose their special abilities if they are more than 3" away from their parent unit.
• Detachments cause Panic now.
• Parent units do not get to react like detachments do, so a smart opponent will either just charge the detachment instead or tie it up with a chaff unit unless you can give him a good reason not to.

The Ugly:

• Detachments can take up a lot of valuable real estate during deployment, and can't be placed in reserve unless the parent unit is in reserve as well.

Take the high ground: In real life, placing artillery on the highest position available gives you an unparalleled vantage point over your enemy, and the same is true in Warhammer. Placing your artillery on a hill behind your troops means that you can fire over them without giving your target hard cover (this is less important for mortars and Helstorms, which fire indirectly). However, even though you may be tempted to do so, do NOT put your artillery in a building if your opponent has artillery of his own or high-Strength units he can bring to bear on it; every model in the building takes multiple wounds, which can wreak havoc on artillery.

Kill the Witch: Fill your Hero allotment with Witch Hunters. Walk forward every turn, shooting merrily. Kill all of your opponent's characters this way. Put a Warrior Priest in the same unit, and have him cast Hammer of Sigmar to give the Witch Hunters rerolls to wound in close combat, or Soulfire to make all ranged attacks Flaming. Combine with Enchanted Blades of Aiban/Flaming Sword of Rhuin for even more cheese.

Homing fireball: Goofy but funny thing you can do is buy a witch hunter a Ruby Ring of Ruin and according to the most recent FAQ their killing blow ability applies to shooting spells as well. Hit someone with a killing blow fireball.

Homing Rockets: Take a Helstorm Rocket Volley with a Great Engineer. The artillery die reroll can apparently be used on the Helstorm now, as well as the engineer's BS. Bulls-eyes with 4" scatter or less means you can do 21 hits on a unit per rocket, for a maximum of 63(!). Use the reroll wisely, though; you do increase the chances of a misfire. It's best to reroll misfires (duh) and 10s, 8s if you feel lucky. If you roll a 6, just hope for bulls-eyes for a 2" scatter (unless you get three rockets, in which case you might want to go for it).