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Empires are supposed to be representing the generic humans of fantasy battles.
Personally the goofy poofy frilly designs on the whole miniature line have turned me away from them.

Would you consider playing them if they had better miniatures? ( for those that doesnt like how they look )
maybe like the humans in LoTR.

Are you complaining about the old "puffed & slashed" Landsknecht-styled Empire models, or the current "pajamas" Empire models?

I'm OK with the old stuff, but the pajamas models suck.

I prefer the Landsknecht-styled Empire models. There was something about Renaissance-styled Anglo-Germans that was such a nice change from the Medieval-style Americans so prevalent in fantasy.

Landkneckt suck, Swiss are better.

I too like the Landknecht style, especially since historically they were flamboyant douche bags who totally ripped off the Swiss and handled pikes like little girls. SWISS RULE!

some softening of the look of the empire was necessary in the transition to plastic units. If you want more generic fantasy humans play Bretonnia. In truth you have quite an odd mix of historically influenced armors in fantasy as a whole. The Dwarves have traditionally been very Viking Age/ Early Medieval in their chain mail, Bretonnians are Hundred Years War and slightly later French/English, the Empire are influenced by Landsknechts and the later Holy Roman Empire, etc. So you have armor styles hundreds of years apart facing off across the battlefields of the old world.

If I ever did another fantasy army(have dwarves and high elves) I'd be tempted by the Empire as they are. While the uniforms are "puffier" and softer than earlier metal models I still like the overall look of the army.

Not at all, Grimhowl...

The old Empire Soldiers (swordsmen and halberdiers) from 5E and 6E were all plastics and retained the puffed & slashed look.

It didn't stop me. I'm modeling after my sig.

I like Empire. Cool stuff.

JohnHwangDD wrote:Not at all, Grimhowl...

The old Empire Soldiers (swordsmen and halberdiers) from 5E and 6E were all plastics and retained the puffed & slashed look.

Current empire plastic models sculpted with their new computer aided methods required a certain softening of the details, it can be seen across many of Gw's figure lines, you are however free to disagree with that opinion. That being said the 5th and 6th edition plastics that I built and saw did not have the same level of crispness in their puffed and slashed look as the older metal greatswords and halberdiers. Those metal miniatures had issues of their own due to the limitations of sculpting techniques at the time having been scuplted as single piece casts. They were beautiful sculpts for their time though, especially the older greatswords and metal cannons. I bought and painted some of those back in the ancient days when I largely painted things just to paint them.

LunaHound wrote:
Empires are supposed to be representing the generic humans of fantasy battles.
Personally the goofy poofy frilly designs on the whole miniature line have turned me away from them.

Would you consider playing them if they had better miniatures? ( for those that doesnt like how they look )
maybe like the humans in LoTR.

I don't really like the Empire's style, but at least it is unique. Going for a more mainstream LOTR/D&D style would just make the Warhammer world more boring and derivative than it already is. Plus trying to combine a "traditional" fantasy style with handguns and cannons would be jarringly anachronistic.

Nurglitch wrote:I prefer the Landsknecht-styled Empire models. There was something about Renaissance-styled Anglo-Germans that was such a nice change from the Medieval-style Americans so prevalent in fantasy.

Medieval-style Americans....?

I like the current style Empire state troops, less frilly and more functional as expected of units fighting for good old KF in the Old World. The frilly stuff has mostly been put aside for the posh units now though, leaving the rank and mass with mismatched and more useful uniforms.

I am considering starting one as soon as the Perry Twins war of the rose line comes out in plastic, some really nice minatures those and they would suit as proxies easily i reckon

I am seriously thinking of using Empire figures plus assorted metals from other armies to build a pirate landing party.

I'd even go so far as to say the Empire starts to enter Napoleonic times with the amount of Muskets and Artillery you can field.

Dunno where you got the impression they were generic from Luna?

If you don't like the GW Empire models, check out the forthcoming War Of The Roses plastic figures from Perry Brothers Miniatures. It's a stylistically coherent range which looks different to standard fantasy. The not-yet designed continental troops should include an arquebus model.

Grimhowl wrote:
Current empire plastic models sculpted with their new computer aided methods required a certain softening of the details, it can be seen across many of Gw's figure lines, you are however free to disagree with that opinion. That being said the 5th and 6th edition plastics that I built and saw did not have the same level of crispness in their puffed and slashed look as the older metal greatswords and halberdiers. Those metal miniatures had issues of their own due to the limitations of sculpting techniques at the time having been scuplted as single piece casts. They were beautiful sculpts for their time though, especially the older greatswords and metal cannons. I bought and painted some of those back in the ancient days when I largely painted things just to paint them.

So how do you explain the new Greatswords? They've got the slashes and puffs back. Or was there a technology upgrade?

Personally I like the Empire look, there's enough mediaval fantasy armies around, I find it refreshing to play with little metal and plastic men that boldly trust their bulbuous codpieces forward, feathers waving in the wind, puffs and slashes swishing along with the stabbing and slashing motions while wearing slippers.

Therefore I was thoroughly disappointed with the pyjama wearing newer plastics and am glad they've gone back to their roots with the new Greatswords and Archers.

The thing to note about the newer Empire models is that the Perry twins sculpted a lot of stuff to be much more in line with historical 15th century stuff. The older 'Landsknecht' style was more inspired by 16th century gear.

The 'Pyjamas' are in fact a pretty good rendition of the joined-leg hose and doublet/purpoint worn at that time.

Given that the Perry's are both keen 15th century re-enactors and are releasing their own line of War of the Roses minis this is not too great a surprise (I had a quick when I saw that the newer spearmen are holding their spears with both hands over the shaft, which is the correct fighting position!)

Yeah, they're supposed to be like old German soldiers... I like the look.

I like the old and new Empire sculpts, though I have so many of the old ones I really can't justify buying the new ones.

I miss the old frills....

That aside, I got sick of the Empire as the Goldswords price was just too ridiculous.