Not too sure if this is the right forum, I'm still getting the hang of this site, but here goes.

The Emprie Army Book came out toady in Australia nad New Zealand, this is all I'll say without posting up rules and everything.

Lords
Quite a few Special Characters. Karl Franz, Kurt Helborg, Volkmar the Grim, Belthasar Gelt, Luthor Huss and Ludwig Schwarzerhelm (not sure if that's how you spell it, my -very limited- knowldege of German instigated that guess). Huss and Ludwig are Heroes (woot! huzzah!) Ludwig is a very good fighter and a great bodyguard (the have specail rules to represent it), Kurt Helborg is a geat General as well as a fighter. However, if you want an excellent allrounder, ti appears that Karl Franz is a safe bet. Volkmar will be an interesting model to use by the looks of things. Arch Lectors don't appear too bad, but thier statline is very similar to the Warrior Priest, I'll just be using them.

Heroes
The Master Engineer will be a colourful character to use by the looks of things. The Mechanical Steed and Pigeon bombs will probably be used a fair bit, even if just for the novelty. The Warrior Priests have been given an extra Prayer and the Battle Wzard's recieved no change except for an increase in points. Not as interesting as the Lords.

Core
Well, we can now challenge the Orcs for a horde army. Our State Troops are now cheaper, and we won't be affected by Animosity (yet ;) ). White Wolves won't be near as good as teh last Edition, now counting as having Great Weapons. As teh Rumours said, Inner Circle Knights will now become Special Choices. There's now a special rule to represent the fact that our standard grunts are State Troops, just wait until you see it.

Special
No change here whatsoever for Greatswords, the Great Cannon and the Mortar. Pistoliers lose their Fussilade rule and ca now get Musicians. Outriders will be an interesting unit to use now, with Repeater Handguns.

Rare
I don't think the helbaster will be used too much now. Though it loses the difference between Long Range and Short Range (all shots will be 3 Artilelry D6, etc), you now have to roll to hit, and on a Misfire, there's a 1/3 chance of it being Destroyed (ie, if you roll a 1 or a 6). The Hellstorm Rocket Battery will be a lot of fun to use. Consider this to be a Cannon combined with a Mortar but the Blast has S5. Flagellants will now be more colourful also. The Martyr rules are true to the Rumours, so they'll be fun to use. Finally, we now have one big Steam tank. The rules are 2 pages long (instead of 4-5) and it has a bigger Statline (more than just Strength). rare units will be hard to choose from now.

I hope no-one else has posted this yet (I spent a long time writing this) and that I'm in the right forum.

Any questions about the Book?

archonfarseerguy

Ah, that's sweet ^__^
The new Empire models do look pretty sweet and I was thinking about buying a box of state troops and maybe a warrior priest.

I read through the book earlier today, and in all honesty it set off a lot of my "WTF" alarms. On paper, a lot of things looked wicked powerful, but I will try my best to hold back any screams of cheese until I actually play against them.

Overall I felt as if the empire are being given a lot of things that aren't native to them, or are traditionally a trademark of a different army. For example, giving empire characters a pegasus to ride really bothers me. The archlector has access to a crazy chariot, complete with a ward save, bound spell abilities, (hope I'm not going into too much detail), and impressive stats. Combine that with his ability to make himself unbreakable... and T_T.

All empire troops melee troops cost less now, which I suppose is a decent fix, but still bugs me a bit. Outriders look interesting. They have the ranged power of 3 handgunners in one, are slightly more durable, but are obviously easier to knock down to a few models.

Greatswords are much cheaper now, but appear the same otherwise. Pistoliers are a tidbit cheaper, but lose the fusillade rule. The new rocket pack thingy looks pretty interesting, and the steam tank appears much more balanced now. In the past it was extremely difficult for armies without abundant S7 weapons to touch the things. Now it looks like most armies will be able to deal with it, and it will still be a potent threat on the table.

The changes to the armory bug me. I know that it seems to be the trend lately to cut down the prices for the common magic items... but wow. Sword of striking for half price? Sword of attack/battle for the same? Staff of sorcery and power stones down a significant amount as well. I don't recall all the specifics of the rest of the armory, but I do have to say some of the arcane items look crazy.

Anyway, so yeah on paper they appeared very powerful to me, but I'll try not to really condemn them until I play against them a few times.

I know hwta you mean there. However, the Empire has no uber-powerful warriors to call on. Orcs have Black Orcs, Wood Elves have Tree Kin, Wardancers etc, Lizardmen have Kroxigors etc etc. The Empire are just men, so they need some big advantages.

Also, they're affecting Characters, which don't tend to do a massive amount of stuff. That said, I think they're a bit overpowered as well. Overpowered, but not game unbalancing. Also, they've weakened a few things as well, like the Helblaster.

Conclusively, this new Empire Army should be fun to use.

archonfarseerguy

The Empire DOES have powerful units to fall back on... Just look at the steam tank.
Also, weakening some units doesn't really fix the fact that another unit is broken. All that does is reduce the odds that the nerfed unit will be used in favour of the new and overpowered one.

I dunno. The idea of empire characters flying around on winged horses and monstrous chariots just really doesn't have the same feel to it. Pegasi are very brettonian and druchii. I just really don't think it fits with the Empire army.

Hate to spoil the mood but does anybody know whats slated for the rest of the year? I wanna see all these armies revamped to be on the same power curve again. I dont like my one friends insane anvil of doom, and now I dont think I like my friends flagellents or well... never liked his warmachines but still =D

I just cant believe they gave the empire dragons.

Nah only one dragon, and only if you take Karl Franz.

As an individual monster or as a mount. If mount why? Did Deathclaw die?

The changes to the armory bug me. I know that it seems to be the trend lately to cut down the prices for the common magic items... but wow. Sword of striking for half price? Sword of attack/battle for the same? Staff of sorcery and power stones down a significant amount as well. I don't recall all the specifics of the rest of the armory, but I do have to say some of the arcane items look crazy.

WHAT!.. You're telling me GW is giving the common items to new armies cheaper, while making armies that havent been redone pay the full price??? Thats absolute cr*p.. If they want to make the common items cheaper, they should release a revision which makes it apply to all armies, not just when they are re-released (Since it puts armies like Dark Elves etc at a disadvantage). Not to mention that High elves items are already too good compared to dark elves, now theyll get cheaper common items too this year?.. Im going to go cry lol..

I suspect that the cheaper items are just for the Empire itself. Afterall they do have a rather large population to draw enchanter-smiths from, to make the common magic weapons.

Nope. Orcs pay less currently too.

well that does seem a tad odd then......maybe it's because the Orcs have a good supplier in the Empire soldiers they slaughter on a regular basis.....

I just cant believe they gave the empire dragons.

Nah only one dragon, and only if you take Karl Franz.

As an individual monster or as a mount. If mount why? Did Deathclaw die?


This actually makes sense in terms of fluff, Karl Franz has a "zoo" that has at least one great monster from all over the world. They've been basically tamed but I suppose they could be taken to war easily enough.

That and in 5th edition; dwarves could get dragons. Plus almost any other monster. They were available to all. I remember a battle report, a huge 45k+ [if I remember correctly], and the Empire player took a wizard lord on a Black Dragon. Fun battle report. It ate Snarsnick and Gobbla. =D

KU

I just can't picture Karl Franz riding a dragon. Yeah I remember 5th edition bestiary. I came into the hobby right as 6th was released. Dragons are things of the elves to me. Best left alone by a human.

True, he's always ridden to war on Deathclaw [Dunno what MK he is now! =D ] or a horse. Doesn't mean he wouldn't allow generals of his to take say a pegasus or a dragon [if he's very lucky]. Though I do agree they should not be options, so far I am disliking the Empire army; moving too much away from its roots.

KU

I feel like WFB are taking a recessive curve. Gaining more options and choices turning into another first edition set up. Thought the new choices are interesting and a little ridiculous. *pigeon bomb* *rocket launching warmachine*

6th edition felt like it had supstance. This army now feels like a blend of Orcs and Dwarves.

Though the idea of giving a dragon to a Mage Lord sound like a good idea interesting for some reason.

Well skaven more than orcs.

I'll have to check, but I think the Imperial Dragon's weaker than the other ones, slightly, not sure though.

The Empire has had Pegasi since at least the last Edition, I don't kow about before that as I haven't been in for long, so it's not that bad, plus, as has been stated, they have a zoo.

archonfarseerguy

Yeah the zoo was metioned in the old army book. Deathclaw being one of the main attractions and allowed to fly around the city at night.

I wonder if the dragon is just a dragon. Like the one fought in the Gotrek and Felix novels. Don't think it would be as strong as the nobler dragons. *light, dark* And magically enhanced ones such as zombie or choas.

A friend and I bought the Empire army book yesterday and I have to admit that for the most part we were reading it with our jaws on the floor.

It looks like the magic items have had a revamp in price, the sword of striking has halved in the last two books (Empire and Orcs), so now it's a complete steal!

Greatswords are now cheaper and have lost the 0-1, although the griffon standard can no longer be given to them. This isn't too much of a problem as the BSB can have it.

Mortars are still tasty, and this new fangled hellstorm rocket launcher means that you can fire a ridiculous amount of large template weapons at the enemy.

I was trying to come up with a 2250 list I would try to make if I was an Empire player, it was something along the lines of 30 handgunners, 3 mortars, 2 Hellstorm rockets, some flagellants, some greaswords, some cavalry and ten billion infantry.

A possible down side is that it is a trifle expensive to make an empire army, given that their troops are so cheap, but I'm sure it's still a lot of fun!

Overall, I love the new book =)

Ciao

Stonehambey

Sword of Striking gives +1 to hit.
Sword of Might gives +1 to wound and -1 to saves

Since they are the same price why the HELL would you ever get a sword of striking? maybe if you were S5 or more and already wounding on a 2+ but no-one in the empire is.

Sword of Striking gives +1 to hit.
Sword of Might gives +1 to wound and -1 to saves

Since they are the same price why the HELL would you ever get a sword of striking? maybe if you were S5 or more and already wounding on a 2+ but no-one in the empire is.

I see your point. I'm used to using oldbloods and scar-vets, so the sword of striking works wonders for me =)

I still think it's a viable option though - hitting basic infantry on a 2+ is very tasty.

Ciao

Stonehambey

There have been a lot of arguments that this new book takes the Empire away from their history, or that it adds elements that should not be present. I disagree.

First off, right off the bat, let's put this to rest: The Wmpire had pegasi last edition... This was always an option, so I don't understand why some people don't like it being 'added'.

Second, in terms of roots, bringing the Steam Tank back into the regular rules, adding a Dragon option as well as outriders and war altar ARE returning the army TO its roots. These are all things that the Empire has had before.

In terms of magic items, it's pretty clear to me that the Empire got the shaft last edition in terms of pricing on their items. They were the first book out, and the writers were being cautious. Honestly? I can't point to a single thing that I feel is over-powering relative to the other armies out there.

In terms of the common items. It's not that the cost of common items is going DOWN for every army and they are hosing the armies who haven't been repreinted yet, it's that they are (starting way back with the Ogre book) revsing the way they handle them. Each army will have different pricing / availability that will be assessed in balance with the army itself. Examples:

Ogres: no enchanted shield
Dwarfs: no common items (this is not a change)
Orcs: cheaper common weapons, and staff. no discount on other items. MORE EXPENSIVE shield.
Empire: cheaper items overall.

keep in mind that High Elves already have discounts on a number of common items... so theere isn't really a universal price list for all of these things anyway!

I am quite happy with new updates and units that have been added, I have yet to try the new list out in battle but look forward to trying them out and now having cheaper troops which is great there are somethings i am gonna miss like flaggies having high toughness and hellblaster autohitting.

The biting blade isnt that good imo but its not useless, i do prefer the sword of might myself.

Hmmm, one thing I just noticed. The anti-impact hits thingy on the Steam Tank. That can't apply to Ogres can it? This has got to be just an oversight on GWs part, no?