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I really want to like the Empire Pistoliers, fast cavalier with black powder weapons that can fire on the move are just too cool. Unfortunately, they seem to be hampered by shooting penalties. They are only ballistic skill 3 to begin with. Thankfully their weapons are quick to fire so they don't suffer a penalty for moving and shooting. However, multishot weapons always incur a -1 penalty, so if you want to actually fire both shots, you are at best hitting on 5+ before any additional penalties come into play. If the target is not within 6", you are going to suffer another -1 penalty. Under the circumstances, it seems like you will never be able to hit anything with these guys. How are they supposed to work?

They are chaff, you take a unit of 5 and just annoy the enemy.

Also, since they have vanguard and M8, from turn 2 there is no reason why you wont be within 6" behind/to the side of an enemy...

If you want a true mobile shooting unit, look at outriders. Sure, they can't move the turn they shoot but thats not important. They can march into position early on, stay still, and blast the enemy.

5 outriders have the same damage output as 15 Handgunners.


Pistoliers are just chaff and annoyance units. They ain't going to kill anything except other chaff(if lucky)

Outside of war machines, no unit in the Empire list is actually going to deliver much ranged killing power under the current book. Outriders are as killy as it gets, and they're still pretty underwhelming.


The trick to pistoliers is to realise they don't kill enough to make their points back, and as a harassing unit they're a little expensive... but they're not an either/or unit. Vanguard them, then march them straight up in front of the enemy and from 5" away blast away. You'll only kill a couple (though that jumps considerably if you invest 20 points in an outrider with repeater pistol) but the enemy can't just march around you, they have to charge, at which point you flee and he stumbles forward a few inches. Then you rally, and use your fast cav rule to march right back up in his face and fire again. A couple of turns of this can completely screw up a battle line, and let you mob his other units.

At this point, other than artillery, pistoliers are the only blackpowder unit I take.

I am building 2 units right now. I think they fit their role quite well if used properly. They arent killy but they can weaken smaller units and slow larger ones.