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Hey there guys,
After playing 40k for quite a while my wargaming group have all decided to start Fantasy armies. After watching some proxy battles and seeing how enjoyable it is to play, I decided to go with an Empire army.

The other guys have picked Lizardmen, Beastmen, Warriors of Chaos, Wood Elves, Vampire Counts and Dark Elves. At this stage I have no idea how they are planning to build their armies.

The plan is to do an escalation league so we have time to build and paint starting with 1200, then increasing the points level when everyone is ready.
From what I have read 2400-2500 is a good point level to aim for so I’d like some advice on how to build an army that will scale up to that.

My questions are:
- What is the best way to build an empire army against the variety of armies I will be facing?
- Which units would be best to include?

So far I have:
- 20 state troops
- 8 Knights
- 10 handgunners/crossbowmen
- Cannon/mortar
- 15 great swords
All are still on sprues.

There is no theme I want to have, just after advice to build a balanced and competitive army that has something to do in each phase.

Thanks in advance for helping a noob out.

What takes your fancy? Fast cav lists? Infantry hoards? Magic spam? Without this we can't help you enjoy and play the way you want.

 Arbiter wrote:
What takes your fancy? Fast cav lists? Infantry hoards? Magic spam? Without this we can't help you enjoy and play the way you want.

I should have been more specific sorry. I love the idea of having some big infantry blocks, knights (especially demigryphs), some magic and a few pieces of artillery to back it up. I don't want to have pure gunline army but some shooting units would be fine.

Awesome, so I can write you out a list if you want, or I can just throw out what units your going to need to accomplish this mission.

In the event of the latter, you will need around 80 more state troops for I prefer 2 blocks of 50 halberds either 10x5 or 5x10 (this 5x10 is the better idea unless you have buffs) then grab 2 boxes of demis armed with lances, shields, a muso and champion. The knights will be chaff clearers so keep them simple with lances & shields and a muso. As firepower goes 1 helblaster and 2 cannons are my favorite combo, the helblaster is there for area denial.

More to come later.

 Arbiter wrote:
Awesome, so I can write you out a list if you want, or I can just throw out what units your going to need to accomplish this mission.

In the event of the latter, you will need around 80 more state troops for I prefer 2 blocks of 50 halberds either 10x5 or 5x10 (this 5x10 is the better idea unless you have buffs) then grab 2 boxes of demis armed with lances, shields, a muso and champion. The knights will be chaff clearers so keep them simple with lances & shields and a muso. As firepower goes 1 helblaster and 2 cannons are my favorite combo, the helblaster is there for area denial.

More to come later.

Thanks for the amazing info.

Basically I'm after a base list for a 1200 army with advice on what to add to the list as it gets bigger (going up by 400's). If you'd be able to write one that has some of the things you mentioned it would be great!

Just want to make sure my next few purchases are solid choices, can't go wrong with more state troops though.

You mention buffs for the halberds, is that from heroes like warrior priests?

Daec wrote:
You mention buffs for the halberds, is that from heroes like warrior priests?

Warrior Priests, Wizards, Buff Chariots (War Alter, Hurricanum, Luminark).