Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

K, So I jumped into this AoS thing... and discovered that my local has a very interesting meta....

There's a campaign going on (I'm still debating whether or not to jump in that), but in general, it seems that all games are played based on warscrolls, not a wound cap...

The thing I'm looking at, is where to expand my burgeoning Empire force.

So far, I have Karl Franz on "Deathchicken", and 2 boxes of Greatswords.

Here's what I'm looking to add:

2 more boxes of greatswords (to make 2 units of 20)
War Altar
2 cannons
2 Master Engineers
1 Demigryph knights

Any thoughts or suggested changes?

Overall I see you're already grabbing the best units Empire has to offer, so it's heading the right way. Although I see you lack a wizard. It's important to have at least one in AoS and Empire happens to have some of the better choices (not counting Slann and named powerhouses), so I would definetely recommend you to get sum.

In a wound-based list what I field is Karl Franz, couple units of Greatswords, a Master Engineer, cannons and Balthasar Gelt as he's the best mage Empire has to offer + he's flying. Altar is a bit less cost-efficient in wound-based games, but it's solid as a warscroll. And of course Demigryph Knights are awesome. (y)

I don't think there's anything else you could need... unfortunately shooting units in Empire are fairly "meh", so it's better to use cannons instead of them anyway... Looks solid either way!

Cool, thanks for that... I did manage to talk to a buddy, and he suggested I take a look at the volley guns as well

The issue I had with volley guns is the abysmal rend of 1 - while it's only one lower than cannon, that really makes the difference (1/3rd chance of saving it vs 1/6th with cannon on 4+ save models like knights and sigmarines).

And they jam. If you want a reliable amount of damage, you need to fire all three decks which jam on any double and it has lower range than cannon.

What I was personally considering was the rocket battery as it gains bonus to hit when shooting the same target with all 3 rockets, but it has it's own cons too and, frankly, the cannon (at least to me) seems like the most reliable and devastating piece of imperial artillery so far. And it has the best synergy with Master Engineer by far. Easy to hit, easy to wound, great rend and massive damage without any risk of failure at all. Add an engineer and you'll have to be very unlucky to not kill something with up to six shots from three cannons parked around him!