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Alright, so I just started fantasy recently and I was hoping I could get some help on making a list, or at least some pointers on what might work, as I took the liberty to try making a 2000 point list. My brother and I played some games and what we have seen is that empire doesn't have a single strength other than it has the capability to have every strength. We learned this mostly from me trying to out-power ogres, so please correct me if this idea is not accurate. Anyways here's the list if you could give some suggestions or feedback on it:

Lords
-Wizard Lord, Wizard Level 4, Lore of Life, The Silver Horn, Armour of Tarnus (280)
Heroes
-Battle Wizard, Lore of Beast (65)
-Warrior Priest, Great Weapon, Heavy Armour, Shield (100)
-Captain Battle Standard Bearer (75)
Core
-Knightly Orders x 10 [lances and shields], full command (270)
-Swordsmen x20, full command
-10 Halbardier Det. (50)
-Handgunners x 10, musician, marksman [hochland long rifle] (110)
-Spearmen x 20, full command (120)
-10 Corssbowmen Det. (80)
Special
-Greatswords x 19, full command (220)
-Mortar (75)
Rare
-Steam Tank (300)
-Helblaster Volley Gun (110)

One problem I thought I had was that I feel I'm still trying to go for too much power and that i'm not getting enough infantry, but that might just be paranoia from fighting ogres so much. Please let me know what you think.

Quick Notes:

War Altar is still pretty strong, not sure if it beats out a lv4 though.

No dispel scroll is a no no.
your BSB has no gear and therefore is worthless.

Knights are meh as hammer units. Best used as units of 5 with only a musician.

20 is too small for infantry. 25-30 is optimal.
Parent units should have 2 detachments, 1 combat and 1 ranged.

HLR is a waste on BS4 handgunner champs. If you want one put it on an outrider champ.

Greatswords need to follow the same rules for core infantry: 25-30, 2 detachments

Ok with the wizard lord hes going to be in a unit so drop the armour a 5+ward save wont help much, also i dont really rate the silver horn its abit situational. Give him a rod of power so he can get a few extra power dice or dispel.

Give the empire knights great weapons and put your warrior priest with them (so give him barded warhorse) Now they can do well against most with a nice armour save high strength and re-roll to hit.

Missile troops suffer alot of -hit modifiers now so i would drop the 10handgunners all together to free up the points to give all your state troops extra.

Bsb just needs armour of meteoric iron and then he shuould be fine, also second wizard could hold a dispel scroll just in case.

Alot of people are saying helbaster volleygun is not very good since you have to roll to hit so 5's to hit or 6's at long range let alone cover etc, just get a basic cannon to take out those big fat ogres.

Beefing up the normal infantry blocks is good. Secondly i think a cannon is necessary so either the hellblaster or the greatswords should be converted to great cannons

Thanks for the feedback so far guys!!

The 2 Empire armies I've seen in 8th are following the pattern of fewer, but larger units. One uses a single 60 man unit of Spear with 2 30 man detachments of swordsmen. The other has a unit of 30 flagellants, 30 free company and 25 Swordsmen (bunker for general & priest).

Out of all those units, the flagellants might be the most dangerous - with re-rolls to hit and to wound, the unit can generate 15-20 S5 wounds on the first round of combat.

60 spears? perhaps worthwhile if they are unbreakable. If they don't hit first I don't foresee them surviving something as simple as 10 swordmasters.

25-30 is the sweet spot for empire blocks. 40 if you are jonesing for a horde unit.

60 spears in horde would kill 10 swordmasters easily but that doesnt matter i think your right 25-30 or 40 in horde is the ideal amount.

60 spearmen in horde =40attacks, 20hits,10 wounds so 7 dead swordmasters on average + rank bonus etc will probably win combat.

I think your math is wrong benny. The swordmasters are WS6 and iirc the spearmen are WS3 meaning that you need 5's to hit which means 13.33 hits and wounding on 4's means 6.66 wounds. The swordmasters wear heavy armor which makes that a 5+ save meaning that you'll be kill 4.44 swordmasters a round.

10 swordmasters going 5x2, however, will be making 15 attacks and hitting on 3's and getting re-rolls. So that's 13.33 hits. Wounding on 2's makes 11.11 wounds and the spearmen won't get a save agasint that. Also keep in mind that swordmasters are likely to be run 15+.

Unless you're lucky, the swordmasters are going to force break tests each round until their dead or you fail. That unit of spearmen would be a tarpit.

@Infreak - you only hit on 5's if the opponent's WS is > 2x your WS. In this case, the Spearmen hit on 4's.

Ahhh, well there we go. Still need to learn the WS chart I guess. My mistake. Benny you're right then, roughly 7 unsaved wounds.

Welcome to the ranks of the empire, it’s a great army to play.

I’m not sure that the extra battlewizard is worth the points. Given that the winds of magic will on average give you only seven dice per phase, your level four will happily chew through these on his own. With throne of vines you are going to feel happy throwing a lot of dice at each spell, so even on those turns where you get twelve dice you’ll probably still be happy with the one guy. Personally I quite like the Armour Of Tarnus and combined with Earthblood it should keep your level four alive in the front rank.

In 7th I ran knights in units of five as effective flankers. This still works fine, but with the second rank attacking, I now run them in tens. Add a hero and they make a decent hammer unit.

Not sure marksmen are worth the points. For the cost of the marksman upgrade and the hochland, you can have three extra gunners. That’s three extra shots and three bodies in combat. That said, Hochland’s look good on the tabletop.

Cannon are great. With long range they can hit most of the battlefield on the first turn and they are still effective at close range when the enemy fast cavalry/flyers break through and begin hunting your warmachines down.

Increasing the size of your infantry units will help you maximise attacks, ranks and steadfast which is vital with such weak troops. Usually empire army list posts devolve into a ‘which is best out of swords, spears and halberds’ debate. I’m going to avoid this by saying that in my opinion swords are the easiest to assemble and to jam onto a movement tray with 40 other models. Whatever the tactical advantages of spears and halberds, an easy life is worth more IMO. There is also an argument for assembling all of your state troops as one type to ensure flexibility. That way is you start to play using detachments and you later decide you’d rather run huge hoards then you swap your models around with the minimum of fuss.

Thanks for the great advice again guys! I am currently tinkering with a new list so hopefully when I finish it will be a lot more competitive!!