# Empire Lords & heros rundown?



## Fallen (Oct 7, 2008)

so, primarily being a 40k player a group of my friends also play fantasy, i happen to have a couple thousand points of empire stuffs but i dont know whats considered a good lord/hero yet. (ive played 2-3 games ever of fantasy)

thanks all.


----------



## effigy22 (Jun 29, 2008)

I won't go in to special character as I'm on my phone but a quick run down:
Templar grand master: good with knights, better than average combat ability
Empire general: average, cheap in points, allows a magic banner on state troops (only way greatswords can take one)
Wizard lord: cheap level 4, can pick any lore out of the rulebook.
Arch lector: poor lord stats, own spells that can cast, primarily a rank and file support character.

Warrior priest: see arch lector. 
Captain: cheap average hero. Can be a BSB.
Enginner: warmachine support.
Battle wizard: cheap level 2. Pick any lore from BRB.


----------



## Aramoro (Oct 7, 2009)

It has to be all about Arch Lector on a War Altar , 18" inspiring presence, 4+ ward and unbreakable. Throw Van Horsemans Speculum on him and some decent armour and you're laughing.


----------



## effigy22 (Jun 29, 2008)

I agree. I run the arch lector anti hero combo most of the time. However I have been recently running the cheap leadership 10 bubble.

GEneral + greatswords + standard of discipline.
Make use of attachments and you can have a line of leadership 10. (Attachments can use parent leadership) 

Leaves points for lots of mortars and cannons. =D


----------



## olderplayer (Dec 11, 2009)

Arch lectors and warrior priests are below average in killing in combat but they can be fully armoured and max protected (1+ armour saves re-rollable and/or ward saves on the arch lector). What makes arch lectors and warrior priests good are the bonuses they provide to the army. The most important bonus in many instances is the extra dispel dice they give for defensive magic (two for arch lectors and one for warrior priests). This bonus can effectively help shut down the opposing magic phase in many cases (or at least gives you a chance against Slanns and sac dagger dark elf lvl 4's) and, if the opponent fails to cast, rolls poorly on winds of magic, or miscasts, those extra dice can allow the potential for the extra dice to be carried over to your next offensive magic phase with the rod of power on a wizard. Additionally, due to Righteous fury, they give the rank and file unit they are in (not the other characters) hatred, a huge benefit to greatswords and halberds. This makes those units much more potent. War priests and arch lectors were better in 7th edition due to their ability to autocast their prayers of sigmar (treated as bound spells that now must be rolled for using power dice) but those prayers can be very useful if one gets a good winds of magic roll and has a level 4 with say lore of life and/or carries dice over with the rod of power. It means that one really only needs a single lvl 4 (I prefer Lore of life.) in the army. 

The other thing is arch lectors and warrior priests allow for flagellants to come in as core. While flagellants can easily be killed, they don't panic or break and their first round abilities and unbreakability makes them a tough unit in certain battles with flails and the ability to generate hatred and possibly re-rolls to wound by having some martyrs. The relatively low WS of flags makes getting hatred essential. Having 30 flags (the max unit size) in a core horde formation can be quite intimidating and allows the army to focus on the cannons and mortars it needs and conserve on core infantry. 

Absent the skillful use of the detachment system and the hatred boost of warrior priests and arch lectors, empire infantry (halberds, swordsmen and greatswords are the primary units for the points costs in 8th edition to play in ranked units, with maybe shooting units or militia in detachments) feel like they just don't hit well enough or hard enough to win on their own and justify focusing on those units (possibly they are a half a point per State Troop model too expensive and a point or more too expensive per great swords due to an older army book over-valuing detachments and the ability to boost these units and not being updated to match the newer army books). Thus, you really need to buff them and protect them (steam tanks to charge into and hold up the tough stuff; flagellants to take on the tough stuff) and to allow the mortars and cannons to do the damage and deal with stuff before you have to fight it. 

Master engineers are generally worth considering as part of the character complement. Mortars are good because they get the large round template and even if they only have S6 under the hole and S3 under the rest they reduce the armour save by 1 generally and do not allow an armour save under the hole. Thus, a mortar hit on larger T3 and T4 troops can potentially kill a lot of points in a round. Additionally, with a master engineer in 3" range, both mortars and cannons can use the master once per shooting phase per master in range to re-roll their initial scatter or artillery dice roll (no re-roll of the bounce) which can substantially reduce the risk of misfires and, when needed, increase the chance of hitting. One master attached to one war machine with a second or third war machine within 3" is, thus, considered pretty standard in deployment. 

In general, a fairly standard empire army will have one arch lector (with speculum and protection and possibly on a war altar), one lvl 4, and one captain and possibly add a warrior priest as their basic character components with one or more master engineers viewed as dedicated to enhancing the cannons and mortars. 

BTW, I love empire cav and would like to run many characters with full armour on barded mounts (in order to max their armour saves with mundane armour and avoid magic armour as much as possible ihn order to better utilize their magic points) in a heavy cav unit but heavy cav units are really hurt by 8th edition rules and need to be recosted by GW (as is being done in the new 8th edition army books such as Orcs and Goblins) to be fully worth focusing on.


----------



## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

As for some of the Heroes

Emperor on Foot buffed by Warrior Priests and a Runefang can help take out other annoying combat characters.

Mounted on anything, he loses his capabilities, as Cavalry sucks, and his Griffon and Dragon are cannon chow.

If you want to consider a hilarious unit;

Captain, Halberd, Full Plate x10
Warrior Priest
Greatswords x19+
Buff with Wyssans Wildform, Flaming Sword of Rhuin, and Enchanted Blades of Aiban.

Font rank has 3 Magical Flaming S6 AP Attacks with +1 to hit (with reroll) and wound.

Supporting Attack by S6 Magical Flaming AP attacks with +1 to hit (with reroll) and wound.

Always find that hilarious, until something vaguely Blast Template shaped comes along.


----------



## effigy22 (Jun 29, 2008)

Vaz said:


> As for some of the Heroes
> 
> Emperor on Foot buffed by Warrior Priests and a Runefang can help take out other annoying combat characters.
> 
> ...


I like but i see 1 flaw - Warrior's priests Hatred does can not influence "Characters"  Sucks i know so you would only be able to get 1 of them to re roll (with the Spell Hammer of Sigmar)

Emperor - Brilliant model, on foot he gives an 18" leadership 10 bubble - but he is a little high in points (see earlier post). 

Balthasaar Gelt - If you are relying on Lore of Metal - take him! He and his mount have a 2+ ward against magical Missiles and 3+ ward against non magical missiles. 

Kurt Helborg - Can really rack up combat res, he is expensive - no ward and only useful in a knight unit. Plus "Steadfast" bones his combat res trick.

Ludwig - Killing blow and able to re roll to wound. He is also a BSB - he is however a lot of points. 

Luthor Huss - Warrior priest with a 4+ ward save and causes fear.


----------



## Alexious (Apr 13, 2009)

The problem with some of the Special Characters is their saves..... Take a look at Ludwig and Kurt and you will soon see the problem. They are a lot of points to invest in a non ward saved character.

The other issue which the AL suffers from and a skilled opponent who has faced him enough will soon use against you, is just to overwhelm him with something that can hit hard enough and turn the WA into kindling along with the AL. 

The olde Speculum defense measure is a great one, but it fails when the Lector gets bogged down against elite troops that will slice and dice and eventually overwhelm.


Although I have yet to face it... or use it... several engineers or a group of engineers can be a fun thing to look at as well.

As for wizards, I tend to run a level 4, and a 2 with either WP or AL. For the reasons that Older Player stated. However Lore of Death, Lore of Life are usually my prime considerations. Death has a tendency to remove things State Troops struggle with and life keeps the state troops moving and tougher to remove.


----------



## effigy22 (Jun 29, 2008)

Another lore not to look over is shadow. It can level the playing field where empire numbers then make it an advantage. I find it has a real good synergy with empire.

Plus it give you the ability to swap places with other characters if you need a quick escape.


----------

