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I've been thinking about starting an empire army for a while now and I really like handgunners. Could massing them with cannon support and maybe a couple small units of knights be effective. I want to run an empire army without having to buy lots of infantry.

Effective or a waste of time?

I put together a list for just such an occasion! The only non-firearms unit is a very combat capable general and the wizard.

General of the Empire – 392
Griffon, Runefang, Full Plate Armor


Battle Wizard – 116
Level 2 caster, Wizard’s Staff, Heavy armor, Shield


10 Handgunners - 125
Marksman with Hochland long rifle

10 Handgunners - 125
Marksman with Hochland long rifle

10 Handgunners - 125
Marksman with Hochland long rifle

10 Handgunners - 125
Marksman with Hochland long rifle

11 Handgunners - 133
Marksman with Hochland long rifle

5 Outriders – 134
FC, Hochland long rifle

5 Outriders – 134
FC, Hochland long rifle

5 Outriders – 105

Mortar - 75

Steam Tank – 300

Hellblaster volley gun – 110

1999

In a gunline I suppose, we it really varies on terrain. Of course there is loads of terrain=no los=no firing and this sort of tactic relies on putting as many missiles into the enemy CC units before they reach you, if something pops up behind you like gutter runners and kills your cannon, do you turn to face them, or carry on firing at your front? If there is a building in the way, or some other terrain piece someone could creep up behind in a column and you could only get maybe 1-2 turns of proper shooting in, before say, a couple of marauder blocks break you apart.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Of course it has been a long while since I have played fantasy, and have no experience of this new edition, so take what I say with a pinch of salt.

It's going to depend on how many knights you have.
If you go too heavy on shooting, you'll find that the enemy will hit your lines, and then it's over. The game will play in two halves.
You dumping a crapload of dice on him and racking up points, and then him dumping a crap load of attacks on you, and racking up points.

If you wanted a low model count, I would seriously look at taking ~30 knights (2 units of 15) or more, with about 2 handgunners for every knight. That should give you pretty good balance where the game for you doesn't end when he crosses the table.
I'd also take a wizard to either buff your troops (light/beast lores) or weaken his (shadow). This will let your handgunners maybe do something on turns 4-6 (besides just break and die).

-Matt

It does have its problems. Against someone like Dwarves or a traditional Empire list, you will be outshot at >24" simply because they have more warmachines.

Against something like Skaven or Nightgoblins, you might kill 50 or 70 models assuming no Stormbanner or no losses of your own early game. That's probably a single unit and then the others are upon you. You will have a really hard time to stop a HPA or a unit of Ratogres. If the latter (or anyone else with M6+) go first, you're looking at a single turn of shooting, and that's with perfect LoS and no skirmishers.