Anyone know about WHFB Empire

Hi All,

I have only played WHFB a couple of times (though Mordheim and Fantasy RPG back in the day) and I have recently inherited a large Empire army (around 2000 points without upgrades) of old (and some knackered) models.

Has anyone got any advice on what I should do with it to make it a functional army (painting and modelling aside). Are there any obvious units missing or things the army needs to make it functional and effective (tactics wise).

30 spearmen
25 swordsmen (might have enough for 5 more)
20+ militia
5 reiksguard knights
5 empire pistoliers (could be outriders at a stretch)
1 empire general on horseback
1 standard bearer
1 cannon and crew (plus 6 spare crew)
1 steam tank - metal (minus the back wheels) - is this worth putting together or sell it and buy a plastic one?
1 grey wizard (metal)
1 light wizard on horseback (metal)
1 luthor huss
32 handgunners (maybe a few more in bitz)
10 greatswords (metal with full command) - should I buy another ten to make a decent unit?

I also got given some orks and a few battered skeletons - but not enough to do much with.

Any thoughts?

Laney

The latest edition of WHFB just came out last summer. The trend in this edition is to large blocks of units. Any infantry blocks that you want to hold (basically any low stat infantry, which Empire has a lot of) should be in blocks of 30 or more. If you have more ranks than your opponent then you are steadfast (leadership is unmodified for break test).

Cannons are also quite deadly as is magic. A battle standard bearer is almost mandatory.

In this edition characters are generally best on foot in a large block of infantry (on a mount they can be targeted with ranged weapons).

Cavalry are still effective against the right target. It is hard to break units on the charge in 8th edition, especially large units. Cavalry still has its place though against smaller units and war machines.

My advice would be to get the large infantry blocks cleaned up and painted. Paint some characters on foot. Paint a cannon. Then get the Empire book and the main rules and play a few smaller games. 1,000 points is a nice size as you will have a few infantry blocks to play with and will avoid many of the multiple huge nasty monsters.

I believe Empire is still pretty strong this edition. Good war machines, decent magic, cheap infantry are all good.

That's brilliant thanks Narcissus.

Once my IG squad is finished I'll clean up the infantry blocks and get speed painting (well as fast as I can)!

Laney

Hmmm, I played Empire back in 6th edition and would recommend checking out http://warhammer-empire.com/ for some more comprehensive tactics. Narcissus is right in that bigger blocks of state troops are the backbone of the Empire. Each different type suits a different play style a little more, or they can be combined. Spearmen are more defensive, Swordsmen slightly more survivable and offensive, Halberdiers are cheap and deal higher damage due to their strength four.

The big thing to remember with Empire infantry is the detachment rule in which basically your big blocks of troops have supporting smaller units that get to make special moves and actions. Again their are different opinions but I like to give each big block a detachment of handgunners and one of close combat troops; swordsmen, milita and halbrediers being the best.

You might wan't to look into getting a bit more arty. The empire relies on cannons to take care of all the big monsters that are running around these days. Rocket batteries and mortars are awesome for softening up blocks of troops and the Helblaster can mess up elite units.

The knights and pistoliers are good supporting units to protect your flanks and harass the enemy, just don't think your knights can charge into the enemy and have a chance of winning on their own.

I really like greatswords but they are probably not the most competitive choice.

For heroes a General and BSB are needed to bolster your low leadership and a level 4 wizard provides good magic defense. Warrior priests are good all round characters and engineers are useful if you go artillery heavy.

You should be able to make a nice list of two infantry regiments with gunner and militia detachments for both. Couple of supporting cav units and some good characters, I would look into getting some artillery bitz maybe to use up those extra crew. The boxes come with both cannons and mortars so if you are willing to make some carriage and wheels for them their should be lots of barrels around.

I have never used an STank but people seem to like them.

Hope that helps.

Oh I would recommend going to the warroom on the empire website and looking at "TVI tactics" from 7th edition but it is still one of the most reliable ways to play empire.

That's ace - thanks for the advice!

I need to get a working 1000 points painted - might take me a while! Batch painting and fixing the models (they are in very poor condition) is my first aim - in a month or so.

Ta Laney