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So the title pretty much explains it all, but i was just hoping for some stuff that would be good, i am playing these in a campaign and we are starting with 1000 pts so here is what i was thinking of for a start-
Battalion
Generals box
Warrior priest
Army book

I would use the mounted general and the priest for my lords and heroes and keep the other general on foot and paint him for the larger sized games and make him my BSB

So i am hoping you guys who play empire can give me advice on if my starting plan is good, and what to add at 1500, 2000, and 2500(at 2500 i want to add a steamtank they look awesome)

Thanks
Lance

Well it depends what you want like if you want a gun line or no but I strongly suggest magic wizards are good and useful war machines cannons and mortars are pretty awesome.

Tank is pretty awesome and very nasty haha also maybe a hell blaster or 2 halberds are not bad as far as I remember sorry this may not be the most helpful but gives you a bit of a starting point magic and war machines go well in hand shadow wizard to de buff and mortar to kill.

Cool thanks, yeah i want to get a hell blaster just cause they are cool, and definitely a tank, i have a question though what are the best option, swordsmen, spearmen, or halberdiers?
I dont know i think for 1500 i will get a wizard a mortar/cannon and some pistoliers and maybe another box of state troops, or hand gunners

Thanks
Lance

If I remember correctly halberds are the way to go I could be wrong been a while till I have looked at the empire book or played against empire.

State troops cant go wrong with those.

I cant remember which ones are better pistoliers or hand gunners one is better check the math on them ps out riders are pretty good van guard move then unleash a volley of fire good times.

swordsmen, spears, halberds all have their uses. It really depends on how you plan to support them. ie halberds are great with a life wizard, and spears are good with shadow. I will say though that halberds with a priest are very nice. They are also cheap enough to use in horde formation.

Thanks neil for filling in the blanks and shadow magic is great with mortars they may be weak but with a not so tough enemy then well problem solved a shadow and life wizard are not a bad combo dice might not be more than enough but if you think strategically you will manage.

@Neiltj1 Yeah i think since i almost always run life with my wizards if i run a horde of halberds with a priest that will be a kick @$$ unit, but spears fight in an extra rank, so a horde of them with hatred(priest) being regrown would also be awesome, but also swordsmen have a 5+ save, a ws of 4 and a 6+ parry save, so tough to choose

A unit of spears and halberds and hey go for more str rather than more attacks.

Try to get your hands on one of the old empire brigades. They are a lot better than the batallions.

@UNREALPwnage I will try but i dont think i can, anyway the owner of the closest flgs is gonna trade me unopened empire(and some used ones) for my orc army($888.50 worth of O&G to be exact) but i will still try to get one

Might as well borrow this thread.

Any recommendations for warmachine choices?

Way i see it, you need at least 1 canon to take out monsters, etc.

That leaves a choice between mortars, volley gun and rocket battery.

Mortars are good, but the volley gun seems too luck based since you will be rolling to hit at BS 2. Seems like a weapon to take out heavily armored knights(if you can roll well enough), but the short range means you only get ONE try at it.

The rocket battery seems useless since you are guaranteed to over shoot by 2-10 inches AND you still have scatter. It doesnt seem like a decent alternative to the mortar at all.

While we are on the topic ya why not mortars and cannons rock hell blaster is a sure i have points why not sort of thing and those missiles meh really not that great.

With more and more beasties and nasty scary stuff I would say more than one cannon is a good idea without a doubt.

Mortars have become a must too seeing skaven have 2 point models ya those need to be taken care of swarms and hordes are waht they are good for.

So mortar and cannons for sure depending on the game size 2 to 3 if you are being competitive take the max amount that you can.

Rockets are just junk really.

hell blaster is a why not sort of thing a whole hey I get to roll a ton of dice and you will get to roll a bunch of saves or not haha

Kinda wondering here, but why do none of your sentences contain punctuation other than the full stop? Its really hard to read.

I do apologize for that usually I do not think with punctuation (as in im writing something and then as I am writing I forget about comas etc).

That and I try to make my point in very few words since the attention span of people is not the best and not many people want to read a large chunk of text.

This may bother some people so I do apologize.

UNREALPwnage wrote:Try to get your hands on one of the old empire brigades. They are a lot better than the batallions.

How many points does the brigade give vs the battalion roughly? My local store has a brigade that's been there for a while.

brigade is 20 melee guys and 10 ranged. It is a great deal ( I have 2 sitting on my shelf).

I think the mortar is overall the best warmachine. One great use is once you whittle a unit down place the hole on a character, and if it hits NO LOOK OUT SIR if the pieplate hits all the models. Did that to an elf player, he was not amused.

I have been running a Lvl 4 Shadow, and a lvl 2 metal. Wither is awecome because it supports shooting and HtH. Signature spell can swing your unit from being hit on 3+ to hitting your opponent on 3+ (making the spell offense and defense at the same time). Okkams is awesome on everything especially if it has hatred. Metal has great buffs, +1 to hit is great on everything so is 5+ scaly skin. And the offensive spells are decent as most armies have some armor in them.

Fill your rare with as many steam tanks as you can leagally take. Take 1 cannon for every 2 mortars you are fielding. So if you are running 4 mortars take 2 cannons and 3 engenieers (take pidgion bombs)

Mortars are a fantastic bargain, you won't see big templates anywhere else for 75 points. They're fantastic at wiping out horse units, and pretty solid performers otherwise.

Cannon are fantastic for taking about big monsters and other warmachines, and pretty good at whittling down other enemy units when no high toughness targets are present.

The other guns are more for fun. They have much greater damage potential, but are much more likely to do little or nothing in a game. That said, the higher the points level, the more useful the rocket battery becomes - even scattering twice at high points levels there's so much stuff on the board you'll like hit something.

The best use I've gotten out of a hellblaster is when I gather all my cannon and mortar together in one battery, supported by a master engineer. I fire all my mortars and cannon first, and sometimes when I get lucky and don't misfire with anything, that leaves my engineer free to lend his BS to the hellblaster, producing a lot more hits and threatening to decimate good quality units with some good rolls. It's still a big investment of points for an unreliable end, and I wouldn't recommend it for someone looking to maximise their chances of winning, but it's a fun approach.

Helblasters can be fun. They can decimate that unit of cav coming around your flank (or just make it reconsider coming that way), but it may also just blow itself up without accomplishing anything.

Question wrote:Mortars are good, but the volley gun seems too luck based since you will be rolling to hit at BS 2.

I've been using the crew's BS of 3... Did I miss something?

sebster wrote:...that leaves my engineer free to lend his BS to the hellblaster...

He can do this? I thought he only let you re-roll a dice


Automatically Appended Next Post:
On a (hopefully) more helpful note... If you can't get the brigade box, a battalion (or two) plus a couple boxes of state troops, along with the other things the OP mentioned are a good start. Did I mention more boxes of state troops? You can't really have too many of those.

Okay, so like i said my FLGS is giving me an awesome deal on my orc army(In store credit, and lots of it), so on wednesday im gonna pick up the battalion, the army book, the mortar and either a warrior priest or a wizards box(i dont think he has the wizards box ) and maybe another box of state troops/handgunners and get that stuff together and hopefully play a game, before i have to go out of town for a week, i doubt i will have much painted, maybe the Handgunners?
Anyway do you guys think this is good for starting off, and if so should i get an extra box of handgunners, state troops, or neither ?

Thanks
Lance

While they're all technically 'state troops,' the halberd/spear/sword guys is a different box than the handgunners/xbowmen.

Imho, the 10 handgun/xbows in the battalion box are probably enough for starters. I would get the box of halberds/spears/swords.

I know they are different boxes, i did "State Troops/Handgunners" because i meant they are the same price so i will pick up a box of one of them, also my FLGS has 16 handgunners from the old starter(or maybe just an old set) for the price of a normal handgunners box, do you think i should get them?

Verd_Warr wrote:He can do this? I thought he only let you re-roll a dice

Oh, that's because... (quick read of FAQ) gyaargh! It's not in there.

Have I been getting this wrong? Whoops.


EDIT - I see what I did wrong, didn't realise they'd lost the Extra Crewman rule. Lot of dead Chaos Warriors on account of that screw up...

sebster wrote:

Verd_Warr wrote:He can do this? I thought he only let you re-roll a dice

Oh, that's because... (quick read of FAQ) gyaargh! It's not in there.

Have I been getting this wrong? Whoops.


EDIT - I see what I did wrong, didn't realise they'd lost the Extra Crewman rule. Lot of dead Chaos Warriors on account of that screw up...

Darn, hoped I was doing it wrong . BS4 Helblasters would be scary fun

So my parents got me some stuff to cover what they owed me, and this is what i got-
Army Book
2 Battalions
Empire State Troops(1 box)
16 old Handgunner models
Generals Box
2 Mortars/Cannons
Pistoliers(1 box)
SteamTank
Chapel
2 Warrior Priests
Glue
Paints for the army

And yeah, im gonna order the wizards box tonight
Thanks for all your help guys,
Lance

Looks like a good start, SngrFghtr .

If you check around on ebay, sometimes you can find the chassis bits for the cannon/mortar at a reasonable price. That will let you make 3 complete guns out of the two boxes.

I strongly recommend the helblaster. Great fun.

In terms of state troops I would say halberdiers are damn useful. S4 is good.

Remember the detachment rules. Each of your line units needs a small detachment for the flank charge and support.

Helps greatly.

Hellblaster fires at BS2 most of the time because of the long range modifier.

Its only good at taking out small, heavily armored units. For everything else mortars are better.

Check the thread i made in the tatics forum for the maths.