Lords and Heroes
Empire characters also have the advantage of being cheap. Indeed, it is sometimes better to just focus on having multiple characters, rather than over-investing on gear for a single character. A good example of this is the Empire Captain - sure, you can give him 50pts of equipment, but you could also just buy a second Captain for a few points more.
In spite of all this however, no Empire army will thrive by "maxing out" it's characters. If you spend all of your points on characters, they will be left with nothing to support! Therefore, despite the new 50% cap for Lords/Heroes, it's better to stick to the classic 25% caps for each. Often times, you won't even get close to 25% for your Lords, and will usually just barely scratch it with your Heroes.
Lords
General of the Empire - This guy doesn't do anything that you couldn't accomplish with a mere Captain, because his biggest (only) advantage is that he offers "Hold the Line!" to your units. Ld9 is helpful, yes, but HTL actually diminishes the need for massive Leadership bubbles, and, the Arch Lector offers the same massive Leadership with even more usefulness.
If you're thinking that you're going to kit this guy out to handle combat, think again. His stats are almost literally no better than the typical Chaos champion - that's right, not Lord or Hero, but a mere Champion. Not good odds when there are things like Vampires, Chaos Lords, and filthy Bretonians running around on the table.
Battle Wizard Lord - Being entirely honest here, this guy is Gold. Not because he's an amazing Wizard, because he's not. He is literally just average - no boosts to casting or dispelling, no special magic lore, nothing. Nope, he's important because you need that +4 to Dispel attempts. Also, this guy gives you access to a +4 on casting Lore of Shadows, which is massively helpful for Empire. Remember - our characters are all about supporting the army, and a Wizard is the essential support character.
Arch Lector On a War Altar[/COLOR] - The Arch Lector alone will never be a bad choice. He comes with Ld9, and if he's on foot, he'll likely be sidled up next to a Captain BSB providing HTL, so at least you're not wasting a rule. However, it's on the War Altar that he becomes truly solid, and why/how most people like to take him. First, the entire model has a Wardsave, and secondly, he's a good alternative to piling Priests into two separate units. Lastly, in a "Light Coven" army, the Altar brings a Bound version of Banishment, which is amazing.
Grand Master - Sadly, he's just not worth it. He suffers from the same problem as the Empire General, in that he's just not deadly enough in combat to truly warrant fielding him. It's true that he can be equipped to mulch "basic" enemy troops, he's still toast if he comes up against an enemy character. The problem really lies with the fact that he must be your General. His only real advantage comes with being attached to a Cavalry army, which makes it tempting to ride him away from your lines and lose the advantage of his 'Inspiring Presence' amongst your infantry. Moreover, having your general as a dedicated combat killing-machine means that he'll inevitably end up meeting with one of those enemies characters designed to destroy him, and then you're out a few hundred Victory Points.
Heroes
Captain of the Empire BSB - Right out of the gates, a BSB should be a mandatory choice in every army that isn't Undead/Daemon. Seriously, you need to take one of these. Do not give him a magic banner however. You need to protect him, and that means a Wardsave - usually the Armor of Destiny, so that you can keep the Talisman of Preservation free for your L4 Wizard.
Beyond that, Captains are just great. Their cheap enough to simply toss into any regiment where you might need HTL. As I've said, I usually keep their gear to a minimum. The 4+ Ward items are usually tied up by the BSB and your General, so the only things left are 5+ items for a high cost. You can get a 6+ Parry Save just by taking a shield, and combined with Full Plate for a 3+ save, that's not a bad offer. Keep them cheap, keep them disposable, and sprinkle them around the army for a solid front line.
Battle Wizard Lore of Metal or Lore of Light - Having an extra Wizard around to carry a Scroll isn't necessarily a bad idea, but like I said - our Wizards don't really add much to the army aside from the boost to Dispelling that we get from the L4. However, there are two strategies which really stand out for an Empire army in the magic phase. Firstly, Lore of Metal is a solid lore for the army, just for the Sig spell, as it gives us a way to deal with heavy armor. Since you only really need the signature spell however, there's no point in wasting 75% of a L4s spell allowance on the rest of the lore. This makes L1s perfect for the job, and even lets you spam the signature spell several times during a phase, freeing up your L4 to carry Lore of Shadow. Lore of Light Wizards are important if you are going for a Light Coven, which I will explain more in the Magic Section.
Warrior Priest - like the Empire Captains, these are excellent support characters to sprinkle around your army. Hatred is a powerful bonus to any of our melee units, and it spread along to Detachments as well, via the psychology rules. Like Captains, it's best to keep these guys cheap and cheerful, so that it's less of a big deal when your enemy inevitably targets them to negate their unit-wide bonus. Having several of these guys also gives us extra Channeling attempts, and the ability to spam even more easily-cast bound spells, to help draw out enemy dispel dice and boost our regiments up even further.
Master Engineer - if you have a Gunline with lots of artillery, this guy might be useful. Otherwise, he's probably closer to a Red for most lists. Pigeon Bombs are a fun little addition and can make this guy worthwhile, but generally he's not worth it just as a delivery system for the birds. You'd be better off buying a Mortar in that case.
Witch Hunter - even more than the Grandmaster, I wish this guy were awesome. The fluff and the model are just so cool, but he's unfortunately not good enough to really be that helpful. The only truly useful way to field this model is to take 2-3, each with a brace of pistols, and hide them in a unit of Archers. The Archers give them ablative wounds, and you can declare the enemy L4 Wizard as their Quarry and unload a volley of shots into him. As you can see, this tactic is very situational, and costly - you're so much better off just fielding a bunch of Captains and Warrior Priests. If you really want to snipe out enemy characters, just give your Captains and Outrider Champs Hochland Long Rifles and call it a day.
Intro to Lords and Heroes
Empire characters exist to support the army, and are among the best characters in the game for that role. Unlike other armies who gain support from their characters, Empire does not use their characters simply to add kills to a combat. Empire characters generally can't be counted on to add tons of kills to a combat, or to handle challenges particularly well. Instead, the special rules like "Hold the Line" are where our characters shine.Empire characters also have the advantage of being cheap. Indeed, it is sometimes better to just focus on having multiple characters, rather than over-investing on gear for a single character. A good example of this is the Empire Captain - sure, you can give him 50pts of equipment, but you could also just buy a second Captain for a few points more.
In spite of all this however, no Empire army will thrive by "maxing out" it's characters. If you spend all of your points on characters, they will be left with nothing to support! Therefore, despite the new 50% cap for Lords/Heroes, it's better to stick to the classic 25% caps for each. Often times, you won't even get close to 25% for your Lords, and will usually just barely scratch it with your Heroes.
Lords
General of the Empire - This guy doesn't do anything that you couldn't accomplish with a mere Captain, because his biggest (only) advantage is that he offers "Hold the Line!" to your units. Ld9 is helpful, yes, but HTL actually diminishes the need for massive Leadership bubbles, and, the Arch Lector offers the same massive Leadership with even more usefulness.
If you're thinking that you're going to kit this guy out to handle combat, think again. His stats are almost literally no better than the typical Chaos champion - that's right, not Lord or Hero, but a mere Champion. Not good odds when there are things like Vampires, Chaos Lords, and filthy Bretonians running around on the table.
Battle Wizard Lord - Being entirely honest here, this guy is Gold. Not because he's an amazing Wizard, because he's not. He is literally just average - no boosts to casting or dispelling, no special magic lore, nothing. Nope, he's important because you need that +4 to Dispel attempts. Also, this guy gives you access to a +4 on casting Lore of Shadows, which is massively helpful for Empire. Remember - our characters are all about supporting the army, and a Wizard is the essential support character.
Arch Lector On a War Altar[/COLOR] - The Arch Lector alone will never be a bad choice. He comes with Ld9, and if he's on foot, he'll likely be sidled up next to a Captain BSB providing HTL, so at least you're not wasting a rule. However, it's on the War Altar that he becomes truly solid, and why/how most people like to take him. First, the entire model has a Wardsave, and secondly, he's a good alternative to piling Priests into two separate units. Lastly, in a "Light Coven" army, the Altar brings a Bound version of Banishment, which is amazing.
Grand Master - Sadly, he's just not worth it. He suffers from the same problem as the Empire General, in that he's just not deadly enough in combat to truly warrant fielding him. It's true that he can be equipped to mulch "basic" enemy troops, he's still toast if he comes up against an enemy character. The problem really lies with the fact that he must be your General. His only real advantage comes with being attached to a Cavalry army, which makes it tempting to ride him away from your lines and lose the advantage of his 'Inspiring Presence' amongst your infantry. Moreover, having your general as a dedicated combat killing-machine means that he'll inevitably end up meeting with one of those enemies characters designed to destroy him, and then you're out a few hundred Victory Points.
Heroes
Captain of the Empire BSB - Right out of the gates, a BSB should be a mandatory choice in every army that isn't Undead/Daemon. Seriously, you need to take one of these. Do not give him a magic banner however. You need to protect him, and that means a Wardsave - usually the Armor of Destiny, so that you can keep the Talisman of Preservation free for your L4 Wizard.
Beyond that, Captains are just great. Their cheap enough to simply toss into any regiment where you might need HTL. As I've said, I usually keep their gear to a minimum. The 4+ Ward items are usually tied up by the BSB and your General, so the only things left are 5+ items for a high cost. You can get a 6+ Parry Save just by taking a shield, and combined with Full Plate for a 3+ save, that's not a bad offer. Keep them cheap, keep them disposable, and sprinkle them around the army for a solid front line.
Battle Wizard Lore of Metal or Lore of Light - Having an extra Wizard around to carry a Scroll isn't necessarily a bad idea, but like I said - our Wizards don't really add much to the army aside from the boost to Dispelling that we get from the L4. However, there are two strategies which really stand out for an Empire army in the magic phase. Firstly, Lore of Metal is a solid lore for the army, just for the Sig spell, as it gives us a way to deal with heavy armor. Since you only really need the signature spell however, there's no point in wasting 75% of a L4s spell allowance on the rest of the lore. This makes L1s perfect for the job, and even lets you spam the signature spell several times during a phase, freeing up your L4 to carry Lore of Shadow. Lore of Light Wizards are important if you are going for a Light Coven, which I will explain more in the Magic Section.
Warrior Priest - like the Empire Captains, these are excellent support characters to sprinkle around your army. Hatred is a powerful bonus to any of our melee units, and it spread along to Detachments as well, via the psychology rules. Like Captains, it's best to keep these guys cheap and cheerful, so that it's less of a big deal when your enemy inevitably targets them to negate their unit-wide bonus. Having several of these guys also gives us extra Channeling attempts, and the ability to spam even more easily-cast bound spells, to help draw out enemy dispel dice and boost our regiments up even further.
Master Engineer - if you have a Gunline with lots of artillery, this guy might be useful. Otherwise, he's probably closer to a Red for most lists. Pigeon Bombs are a fun little addition and can make this guy worthwhile, but generally he's not worth it just as a delivery system for the birds. You'd be better off buying a Mortar in that case.
Witch Hunter - even more than the Grandmaster, I wish this guy were awesome. The fluff and the model are just so cool, but he's unfortunately not good enough to really be that helpful. The only truly useful way to field this model is to take 2-3, each with a brace of pistols, and hide them in a unit of Archers. The Archers give them ablative wounds, and you can declare the enemy L4 Wizard as their Quarry and unload a volley of shots into him. As you can see, this tactic is very situational, and costly - you're so much better off just fielding a bunch of Captains and Warrior Priests. If you really want to snipe out enemy characters, just give your Captains and Outrider Champs Hochland Long Rifles and call it a day.