# Empire Tactica Needed



## Mutants_ho! (Jul 3, 2008)

Hey guys, I just figured I'd start another army, and from my recent outing in Dwarves I decided I did in fact love artillery.
This, along with the fact I like Empire backround (My 40k army is guard, after all ), has made me decide this new army will be Empire.

I have yet to buy anything empire yet, and I'd like to see a good Tactica or two before I start buying, so If anyone has any links or any of their own to post I'd greatly appreciate it :good:.


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## newsun (Oct 6, 2008)

These guys have a lot of good empire stuff and are fairly active. They are working on some tacticas right now. Should be one for cavalry and possibly pros/cons of pistoliers vs outriders this week or so.

http://www.warhammer-empire.com/


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## neilbatte (Jan 2, 2008)

The Empire is one of the hardest tacticas to as there are so many different ways to build the army from gunline to cavalry with infantry added to mix things up.
The best thing about Empire is that you can pretty much tailor the army to suit your style of play or you can have a fairly even spread of all types.
The worst thing about the Empire is that the basic trooper while better than a goblin is pretty average and only really stupid people let you take advantage of the detachment rule.


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## Othiem (Apr 20, 2008)

neilbatte said:


> ... and only really stupid people let you take advantage of the detachment rule.


Archer detachments screening your melee detachments. Sure it drives the cost of a full Empire troop block up to 250 or so, but it's worth the cost since functioning detachments are the only way you'll win a combat. And masses of archers shooting on the move as you reposition your troops help whittle down rank even further. 

And that's not the only way to use detachments, especially in the context of a gunline. For example, deploy a row of hand gunners in front of your blocks of troops, then when they reach your lines, flee through the block, and a fully ranked block of spears with a full detachment is there waiting to catch them. Or for more range, deploy handgunners in front, crossbows in back. Both units can shoot until the charge, then xbows get an extra round thanks to stand and shoot. 

I've been moving my list away from large numbers of units a small number of units that are big enough and properly supported to do their job. Games seem to be going better since I've done that.


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## Mutants_ho! (Jul 3, 2008)

Well, I am definitely not going gunline; they are not friendly lists and are quite boring to play.

Just a few more questions:

1) Thoughts on the popemobile
2) Thoughts on the STank
3) Thoughts on Swordsmen with Halberd detachments (I think I will center my Infantry on such units.)
4) Thoughts on Warrior Priests


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## Othiem (Apr 20, 2008)

Mutants_ho! said:


> 1) Thoughts on the popemobile


Standard AL on an alter is hit or miss. He gains survivability, but he also needs that since he no longer benefits from protection by hiding in a unit. You also loose the hatred that a WP can grant an offensive unit. The bound spell is nice, but for the points of the altar you could pick up several bound items, or even a whole new wizard. Now if you're talking about taking the SC Volkmar, his ability to grant hatred in a 12" radius is huge. I've never tried him since I don't run SCs, but considering everything he does, Volkmar is a great unit.



> 2) Thoughts on the STank


Never run one, but I've heard good things and bad. They're frightening to the enemy, and great to charge into those large terror causing targets that give the Empire so much trouble. However, since all attacks autohit against them, scary dragons and shaggoths and the like will quickly rip your stank down enough wounds to be practically stranded. Sadly one of their best functions is in VP denial, since a 1 wound stank is not worth killing, but still worth a ton of VPs. Most often opponents will turn their attention to the targets that are still threatening rather than waste the time finishing off a model that can't do anything. 



> 3) Thoughts on Swordsmen with Halberd detachments (I think I will center my Infantry on such units.)


This is a solid and fairly popular setup. As you want your swordsmen to take the tougher charges, that means tougher units with fewer ranks. Fewer ranks means fewer attacks coming back at the halberdiers if you don't break the enemy in the first round of combat, thus getting more out of them. Like neil pointed out though, smart players will focus fire on your detachments to force them to panic, so they need to be protected. You'll need a second detachment of archers to screen for the halberdiers.



> 4) Thoughts on Warrior Priests


Warrior priests are a great unit. Toss them in with spears to take advantage of their hatred, or send them riding with your Knightly Orders to avoid rubber lancing an important charge. Their spells play a vital part in a successful Empire magic phase. I'm actually working on a Empire magic tactica, but for my games, warrior priests are crucial. They have spells for every situation, the key is knowing how to use your prayers to draw out the dispell dice to let your mages get spells off, or using spells to let your warrior priests get through crucial prayers when needed. Basically you need to use the rod of power to generate extra PD at a time when you know the warrior priest will be casting a spell that your opponent will be afraid of. They can also be loaded up with more bound spell items to further buff your magic phase.


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## Mutants_ho! (Jul 3, 2008)

Hmm, I don't run SC's either, I like to customize my own chars.

I was thinking about having a Cult of Sigmar army of empire, led by the popemobile with a STank (My main opponent is VC, and he still believes the armies I choose are crap, even if I beat him. Only huge amounts of cheese will make him stfu); was just wanting to find out if the composition was usable.

Could you post the Empire magic Tactica on heresy once your finished, It would help alot in my choices and I'd greatly appreciate it!

I take it you are very fond of archer screens? How do you propose I get archers then, as the 5 model packs are a no go. I was thinking bret archers...

I take it that a GC or two are effectively mandatory to deal with big nasty's? Which other warmachines do you find most effective?


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## Othiem (Apr 20, 2008)

Popemobile/STank is one of the more popular powergamy empire archetypes, although it usually uses Volkmar and not the standard AL. You get two large units that can take a reasonable amount of fire and charge into terror causing units, keeping them away from your skittish troops. You also get a good start at a magic defense and offense, and the Empires only source of impact hits for dealing with ASF BG and HEs (no, the engineer's mount doesn't count.) Also, the warrior priest's soulfire is great versus the undead. Stanks are good against an undead horde build, as most of them are wounding on 6s, it's really up to a vargulf or properly geared vampire to take the tank down.

Yes, I'm a huge fan of archer screens, they've really breathed new life into my infantry based force. You can't just toss out blocks of 20 infantry with size 9 detachments and expect them to get into combat at full effectiveness anymore. Either spend the points to protect your detachments, or just beef up your blocks to 30 and don't use detachments. You can make archers out of the militia box, 20 for US$35. If you want to use Bret archers, that'd be fine as well depending on which models you like better. 

I wouldn't say cannon are mandatory; it's amazing what starting a fight with 5 points SCR can do against big nasties. Also, it always seems like a waste when you blow two rounds of cannon shooting on a monster only to end up beating it with SCR and running it down. It's as if you didn't need to shoot at all. They're still really good, and really cheap. It's less that they're mandatory, and more that they're so good why wouldn't you take one? Two can be overkill, I'd rather take a mortar for diversity. The helblaster and helstorm rockets are both great options. The helblaster is capable of holding off a flank on it's own and turning heavy knights into hamburger, but it's short range makes it avoidable. I prefer to rely on flagellants to hold a flank as they don't have a chance of blowing up in your face, but it's a matter of taste. The helstorm rocket battery is amazing. Big template, high strength, but poor aim. With all the undead hordes, marauder hordes, and demons running around, I go with the philosophy of causing as many wounds as possible, which is why I favor mortars and helstorms over cannon and helblasters.


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