Editing The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy) (section)

==Military==
[[File:1384527464826.png|Pictured: The reason why the Empire has survived for so long.|650px|right|thumb]]

{{Topquote|Three things make the Empire great; faith, steel, and [[Gunpowder (Warhammer Fantasy)|gunpowder]].|Magnus the Pious}}

The Empire is based on early modern Germany and their military is no exception for the most part, but a few of their units draw from other areas as well.

===Infantry and Cavalry===
In the 17th century the ''crème de la crème'' of military tactics was the ''tercio'', otherwise known as the Spanish square, Spanish third or - as we know it today - the pike-and-shot formation. Composed of pikemen, swordsmen and early handguns, the tercio would see the pikemen at the forefront, defending against infantry and especially cavalry while the gunners fired their relatively short ranged and slow-loading guns, while the swordsmen, called rodeleros, would help break the deadlock that occurred when two blocks of pike men clashed face to face. As the guns got better, the swordsmen were phased out. The gunners could also be moved from the front toward the flank to allow more tactically defensive maneuvers.

The whole tercio was further supported by heavily armoured cavalry, called ''cuirassier''. Due to the superiority of pikes, the lance was dropped from the usage of heavy cavalry and instead long barreled pistols were taken up as the primary weapon and ''caracole'' (which means "snail," ironically) tactic was invented. The cavalry would fire their guns, then wheel around to reload, and then circle back and fire again. They also often carried pistols to fire quickly or in an emergency. Generally, cavalry had a hard time facing against a tercio, as the hand guns got better and the wheeling caracole got less and less effective. Often, the commanders would have the cavalry charge formations until they were point blank range, as the pistols often had mace heads and blades mounted on to make improvised melee weapons.

Incidentally this time period is when we get the term "bullet proof" as cavalry armour would be shot with a pistol before it was sold: if the armour stopped the bullet then it was "proofed" and was then sold as being able to offer proper protection. If the bullet went though the armour, well, good luck selling it.

If that sounds a bit like the Empire, it should. That was the Spanish square. In Switzerland, halberds were used in place of the swordsmen (the Swiss Guard in fact STILL use halberds ceremonially), while in Germany soldiers also used halberds and legends say the ''Doppelsöldner'' (mercenaries who volunteered to fight on the front line for more money) could do the same with two-handed greatswords called ''Zweihänders'' by using the weight of the sword to smash though the wall of pikes.

Considering the Empire's principle enemies are [[Warriors of Chaos|massively ripped, Chaos worshiping Viking warriors in awesome plate armour with physical strength and skill beyond that of any other race]], [[Orc|greenskinned football hooligans with inhuman resilience and never-ending numbers]], [[Skaven|man rats with horrific technology]] and [[Beastmen|Goat-headed, Chaos-mutated killing machines]] the use of halberds with their greater ability to cut though meaty target over pikes makes a lot of sense.

Likewise, the Empire's detachment system is surprisingly accurate being very representative of the discipline these formations held with units of men armed with distinctly different weapons acting in support of each other.

The Empires pistoleers are indicative of the cuirassier while the knights, without the competition of heavy pikemen because none of the Empire's enemies have the discipline to hold a pike wall, take up the traditional knightly role of shock troops. In addition, the attitude and bravery of pistoleer units in the fluff seems to be drawn from the Light Cavalry units of later eras, such as Napoleonic Hussars, who were basically pirates on horseback (the name is even related to the word ''Corsair'').

Outriders come from a different military unit, however, that of the dragoon. A dragoon was a infantry man who rode from Point A to Point B but once at Point B got off his horse and fought on foot. When they say, "Wait for the Cavalry" they mean "Wait for the Dragoons" because they were used as troubleshooters and fast reaction soldiers to plug gaps in the line. But the bigger part of their influence is the US Cavalry deployed by the North in the Civil War, Northern cavalry were armed with early breech-loading carbines, one Confederate solider said that they (the unit of cavalry armed with the weapon) could "load on Sunday and fire all week", a clear parallel to the Outriders' repeater handguns. For completeness sake, Southern cavalry were armed with revolvers. Also of note, the fact that the Empire's outriders are heavily entwined with the engineers of Nuln is likely a reference to the fact that many dragoon units were cross-trained as sappers and combat engineers, due to the fact that they ranged ahead of the main army and thus often had to repair or build bridges and outposts.

===BIG Guns===
Cannons, however, are what ultimately killed the tercio. As field artillery got better and better, the tercio, a tightly packed group of men, became easier and easier targets. The blocky tercio evolved into the flat lines of Napoleonic warfare so that one would need a flanking cannonball (enfilade) to get a whole rank of soldiers. The Empire's cannons are muzzle loaders and muzzle loaders (given that the ball speed is relatively low) are measured by the weight of their shot. Modern guns, because speed is more important and because muzzle size no longer correlates to shell weight, generally use muzzle size. The British were slow to swap over, which is why the "17 pounder" and "88mm" fought against each other in [[World War II]]. Given the size of a "great cannon", it can be estimated that Empire field guns shoot between a 68-100 pound ball, which is huge, but they have to shoot monsters with them so there we are.

Empire cannons are pre-Gustavus Adolphus, a Swedish king who revolutionized warfare by making his army the most artillery happy in the world by using a lighter cannon. He stopped using everything bigger than 3 pounds (24 pounds if you include his few siege guns) so his army could move faster as the really heavy guns would not slow them down, fire more often because the guns were lighter, and - more importantly - he used a lot more of them. How much more? Almost 6 times as many as his enemies. In one battle, despite being heavily outnumbered, he fired six times for every one of his enemy and won massively. That said, the Empire could be justified in using a heavier ball because Gustavius, badass that he was, did not have to fight [[Bloodthirster]]s. As for their mortars: not much to say, the Empire often neglects their historical use (siege breakers), but otherwise they're fairly accurate (artillery puns!).

Alternate take: The Empire lives in a post- Gustav the Great world, as its great cannons are considered their siege equipment which as contemporary in our world for the period were essential for campaign and as such are able to be limbered up and moved while still powerful enough to breach most fortifications, as most smaller siege guns were at this time. In times prior and for significantly well developed fortifications it required much larger siege cannons which had to be assembled on sight. Ever wondered why a cannon maker in older total wars is called a bell foundry? Because churchbell makers went from church to church casting the massive, often half ton bells on site, and as such were the only people with mobile metalcasting techniques of the quality needed for cannon, and kings put them to work. 
The light, mobile and tactically adept field guns can be seen as the helblaster volley gun, which fires shot larger than handgunner rounds but not cannon sized, tactically offering a canister shot like effect but with likely easier to write tabletop rules instead of "draw a 25 degree angle out from the cannon muzzle. Everything in that range is dead." 
The reason you cant 1:1 with the real world in this situation is because as stated above, the nature of monsters and how that would change the battlefield. Just the change from "very fragile, frightened humans" to "Massive unflinching beasts who can take a cannon shot without dying automatically" would alter things radically, one would assume.
Back on topic now.

On the subject of guns, the Helstorm Rocket Battery is based on the Congreve rocket. They were invented by William Congreve (much like the Empire, real weapons tended to get named after their inventors). They were based on rockets stolen when the British conquered Mysore. Just like the Imperial rockets, Congreve rockets used a big stick to stabilize themselves in flight. The rockets were used from 1806 until 1850 when they were replaced with Hale rockets that spun themselves in flight so they did not need the stick. They could also be inspired by some rare renaissance organ guns with multiple decks, just having their gun barrels swapped out with rocket mounts. Or maybe even the Korean Hwacha, which was a multiple rocket launcher on wheels from the 15th.

[[File:Helblaster_irl,_swiss_volley_gun,_1640.PNG|A Helblaster Volley Gun in real life.|right|thumb]]
Helblasters are based on some volley guns that were made in small quantities during the late 16th and early 17th century. Just like the real one pictured, it works by having multiple barrels divided by decks which can be turned around a shared rotation axle. From the video game TWW it can be seen to be up-gunned from its real life counterpart to be a sort of contemporary of the dwarven organ gun, as it fires small yet still cannon sized shells (Anything greater than 20mm/.79" is a cannon by classification, fyi)

===And 'Heavily Armored Steam-Powered Cavalry'===
The Empire's [[Steam Tank|Steam Tanks]] however are, perhaps unsurprisingly, the most unrealistic part of their army, even then they are somewhat plausible. The problem with steam as a method of propelling a vehicle is that it's relatively inefficient as a propellant despite what steampunk enthusiasts tell you. The issue is that to turn coal into power, first you need to burn the fuel in order to heat the metal holding the water over the fire (the pan as it were), then heat the water to 100+ degrees Celsius to boil it, then have the steam travel a set of pipes to the pistons, then you need to work the pistons, and then you need to turn the wheels or propeller, all the while you're losing energy due to thermodynamics at each step, plus as compared to petrol, coal and wood have less energy per pound. Trains and ships can get away with using coal and wood power because, like a quadratic wizard, they pass a point where they became so big they become able to lug enough water and fuel (either coal, wood or oil though the Empire most likely uses wood given how heavily forested the Empire is) to power themselves for long distances, and as you go farther along you become lighter since you're burning fuel as you go. Steam power may be relatively inefficient, it's also relatively simple since they're mostly plumbing to put together, to scale up to a level that gas engines can't do nearly as well. So getting something as small as a tank to carry enough fuel and water for any length of a fight, along with all the powder, weapons, ammo and armor is a very tall order. [[Warmachine]], as a point to compare, tells us that a warjack can operate for only 30 minutes to an hour. The Empire's Steam Tank is doubly handicapped by the fact that not only it does not use black powder, but shoots its cannon with compressed steam, which would further chop down the likely running time of the engine. That said, the Steam Tank is not completely unrealistic. As mentioned, the Empire is very heavily forested with plenty of rivers and small bodies of water. While they may only be able to run their tanks for less then an hour, refueling would be a simple procedure of chopping some trees down and pouring a few buckets of water in the internal tanks. The lore has the inventor dying while testing alcohol-fueled aircraft so this might have some relation to the tanks. Of course, the Empire also has magic so they could just point a bright wizard in front of the boiler and tell him to go nuts, so in truth it's not the steam engine that is the biggest problem with the steam tank.

The biggest issue with the Empire's Steam Tanks, aside from the steam powered gun, is the horrible design. Forget about the jokes about the [[Leman Russ Battle Tank]] being a poor design for looking like a [[World War I]] tank, the Steam Tank's four wheels would make the thing sink into any ground that was not paved unless it was dense soil or other such stable features instead of loose dirt or sand or soft clay (or, God forbid, mud), and the rickety wooden axles would likely snap at any speed over rough ground and replacing it with metal has its own weight and engineering issues, and it's likely they use a steam cannon since a proper gun would shatter them if fired (the steam cannon’s description seems to imply it’s like a fire hose that shoots scalding vapor). Aside from the Steam Tank's sheer complexity, its shitty design is likely the only thing keeping the Empire from forming its own Panzer divisions. Although, there may also be alchemical or magical aspects. Since when the guy that built them died the Empire didn’t understand the designs. Even so, at least the Leman Russ has the excuse that it was just an STC tractor someone slapped guns on. The steam tanks of Fantasy were designed to be mobile weapons platforms.

===Other Odds and Ends===
So, that's most of the Empire's army, who have we not covered yet that does not use magic? [[Flagellant]]s? Oh, this will be fun. Jolly smashing, old bean old sandwich old pringle old teapot old sport old cracker old boy old fishcake old mushroom etc etc what what! (Britishness intensifies)

Flagellants are, like the unit, people who beat themselves almost dead in penitence for their sins and the sins of the world. The Empire's unit originates from the Dark Ages during the height of the Bubonic Plague, just when it would seemed that <strike>God's</strike> Sigmar's judgment really was coming down upon the world. Flagellants were more than just nuts desperate for some sense in the world, they were people mad at the church. They were declared heretical (yay) because they said they had a way to cleanse themselves of sin (that being self-torture) which was something the Church said only they could do. A few miracles were also attributed to the Flagellants like those of a child being brought back from the dead and [[What|a talking cow]].

The real-world Flagellants were not really able to fight all that well, since they were, you know, peasants (and poorly armed, beaten peasants at that), and for the most part the Empire's flagellants are just as inept at combat with their staying factor only being attributed to them being so frothing mad that they didn't care who else died alongside them. They're not really a military unit though, they're sort of military hangers-on whom the Empire 'tolerates' rather than burn, like the real-world [[Inquisition]] did.

There's also the Free Companies. These fill in the role of "irregular" infantry, whom were, for a lack of better words, soldiers that weren't soldiers. Free Companies are basically militias, a collection of mercenaries, peasants pressed into service, and local citizens that follow the army and fight like everyone else. These have a multitude of real life comparisons, from the Minutemen of the American Revolution, the Spanish Guerillas of the Peninsular War, the Resistances of WWII, peasant mobs of the Medieval period, the barbari of the Roman Army, and many more. Historically, irregulars were local men who quickly armed themselves with whatever could be used as a weapon, typically either in defense of their homes or, in the Medieval period, were quickly being levied to act as fodder while the militias and knights did most of the actual slugging it out. In later periods, militias would become the irregulars, with men often coming to the aide of the army armed with outdated muskets and antique swords.

Unlike flagellants, irregulars have an actual noted fighting record, but as the definition is so loose this record is mixed. Some, such as the Francs-tireurs and the Minutemen have records for their fantastic use of less conventional tactics and ability to disrupt the enemy. Others, like the Confederate Bushwhackers and Union Jayhawkers of the American Civil War were little more than armed gangs who spent most of their time fighting other militias and terrorizing civilians. Some, like the colonial militias of the Indian Wars (and even earlier, in the Carribbean) had a record for throwing down their weapons and retreating the moment combat actually started. The Cossacks and Pindaris both have well-known records as fantastic horsemen in their respective armies, but don't really have an comparison available in Warhammer (at least, not in the Empire).

So in conclusion the Empire has surprisingly thick roots for all the units you can field on the table top excepting those that use magic since we don't have magic ourselves (apart from the only thing holding Tomb Kings models together). It's also clear that the fact the Empire manages to survive the onslaught of hundreds of threats despite their allies being douchebags, shows that their military is nothing to sneeze at. Thus showing that the common Warrior-Priest is not only likely miles tougher than the all-too-feared [[Inquisitor Lord]], he is also perhaps leading a group of men almost as well organized and as disciplined, while having balls not seen on anyone who is not from the [[Imperial Guard]]. The Empire also shows that you don't have to be a superhuman to be tough as hell, they prove that at the end of the day, Humanity can overcome a threat by working together and standing firm even when by all rights you should run. Oh, and liberal application of black powder. <s>Except not really, because imaginary games with dice and little plastic fellers doesn't prove squat.</s> if a [[Noh|Fictional]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ico character] can inspire true pathos, then a tabletop game can show you the meaning of courage when one of your units passes a leadership test in the face of the odds and that lets you win the game.