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So! Making use of the State Troop Battalion can create some nice synergy with hit bonuses.

Battalion Abilities
+1 to hit rolls if a unit from this detachment is within 6" of another from the detachment
+1 Bravery when near their general 10", 1s 2s for battleshock tests dont count for units with standards

1 Empire General on Griffon
1 x20 Spearmen w/ Shields FC
2 x10 Handgunners FC
1 x10 Greatswords FC

so from the get go all units get a +1 hit modifier for being within 6" of eachother.
Handgunners recieve another +1 if they dont move (now they're hitting on a 3+ potentially)
Spearmen get another +1 if they number 20 or more (potentially hitting on 2+)
Greatswords get a +1 if they are within 14" of a hero (now hitting on 2+)

this is just an idea with some synergistic elements. in larger battles with larger spearmen units they can potentially be hitting on +1. not to mention wagons for extra buffs like from the luminark.
Sounds fun to me!

Empire general on foot has a great buff. +1 hit and wound is awesome.

My friend runs it with 20 xbow, then 2 x10 swords. Xbow get the +1 to hit from detachment, and +1 hit and wound from General, plus shoot twice. 40 shots hitting on 2's wounding on 3's is quite scary. Plus counter charge from the swords when I get close and stand and shoot. Strategic use of a canon/mortar gives them good long range too, and the foot general is less of a target

Maybe its because I never played Warhammer Fantasy before AoS, but reading through these warscrolls, the synergies really excite me! not to mention I come from more of a hobbyist standpoint than a gamer so the fact that I can build an army any which way I feel is pretty cool..

I like the higher damage output from the Hangunners personally, and I like that I dont need to have a large unit to get abilities. If your friend has 20 crossbowmen all you need to do is kill one and that shoot twice rule is gone. if you have ranged units and get the first turn he may never get the chance to use that ability. so really he'd like to have 24 or so crossbowmen.
Thats one drawback I see from the abilities requiring larger units, the state troops for example; if we want the +2 hit bonus from having 30 or more models in the unit, that unit should likely start out with 35-40, that way we can get more use out of that ability throughout the duration of the game.

overall though, having generals, wagons, priests, wizards and using bonus's from maintaining unit cohesion to buff the army and make it stronger has a very "empire" theme to it. Again, im sure 8th had that vibe too but at least it seems we didnt lose it in the switch to AoS.

I've seen a similar list played with the addition of a Luminark and it was insane. The Handgunners alone are one of the most devastating units I've witnessed in any games so far, and a lot of that comes down to the 'overwatch' ability. Place them behind your Greatswords and Spearmen: bye bye charging opponent.

Unfortunately I was using vampire counts, so little long range. I summoned a banshee nearby, but he got lucky. Agree it is vulnerable to longer range, but without that it made a very scary block. He has another 2 boxes of ranged troops coming, so I should imagine he will have more than the bare bones 20.

Empire have some amazing synergies especially with the formation. It isn't as good on the offence for my friend (generals ability needs them to remain stationary) but it is a hard nut to crack.