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Hi all! I've made some more progress on my empire models, and I was curious: How do any of you run your state troops, and why? I ask because I'm about to pick up the "last" 2 state troop boxes I need, and I'm torn between sword and board (4+ save is nice), or Halberds (-1 rend to deal with skeletals and skaven). Currently I'm sitting on 40 state troops with sword and shield (2 20-man teams), so I figure the halberds should be good for another hammer unit (I already have a small team of greatswords and some demigryph knights and other mounted units). Any thoughts?

In my experience the only two types worth taking are the Swordsmen and the Militia. The Swordsmen are one of the tankiest mass units we have with the 4+ save in combat and the rerolling of 1s.

Otherwise I like the Militia because of their ranged attack. Whilst not as good as Handgunners the fact that they are 80 points means you can tessalate them better with other units to round out the numbers. For example the State Troop Detachment at 120 + 1 unit of Militia at 80, or the Outriders at 140 + 20 Militia at 160 etc.

State troopers are most effective with the Freeguild General's "hold the line" but that disables them from moving - this renders the counter charge useless and IMO makes halberds and spears useless. For he Swordsmen that is fine because they are only there to sit on objectives or make a wall in front of a Rocket Battery, and for Militia it's fine because they have a shooting attack.

Although in terms of effectiveness I think Handgunners trump everything. I would try to max out on Handgunners wherever possible and only fall back onto State troopers with swords or militia weapon where 80 points is available or to cheaply fill out the State Troop Detachment battalion.

Thanks! I see your point, though I suppose I should elaborate on my experiences more:

Locally, I've found militia lacking: The ranged weapon is nice, however they seem to just be a weaker swordsman unit with an okay ranged shot and lacking parry. I do agree that handgunners are one of our best options, though. (even a 10-man squad in a state troop detachment w/ hold the line is downright scary).

My most common unit is 2 20-man swordsmen squads, but I still feel like the lack the punch to quickly deal some some of the more "scary" units I run into (Hunters, Chaos warriors, massed skeletons/skaven, zombie dragon, etc.). The reason I keep looking at the halberds is their ability to make quicker work of 'tarpits' like 30-man skeleton or clanrats. That rend -1 makes them drop like flies, without having to spend my own tar pits dealing with them, all the while being a more meaningful threat vs. the big stuff. I do agree on spears though: Kinda useless (though the extra range is nice, I still don't see a good 'spot' for them)

It should be noted that my 'plan' for 2k is something along these lines:

1 state troop detachement (3 20 man state troops, 1 10-20 man greatsword)
1 state troop detachement (3 10-20 man handgunners, 5 outriders)
~700 points of other stuff (Generally cavalry or Dwarfs. Points permitting my steam-tank comes out to play)

I've seen some good arguments made that freeguild serves no purpose if you run handgunners as your battleline. Then you can just take greatswords which are killier, more survivable, and can push if need be.

 buddha wrote:
I've seen some good arguments made that freeguild serves no purpose if you run handgunners as your battleline. Then you can just take greatswords which are killier, more survivable, and can push if need be.

True enough, though my only problems with that are 1) I love the state troop models, 2) greatsword boxes are costly (20 state troops for the price of 10 greatswords), 3) GW won't restock their handgunners , and 4) I'm a fluff gamer at heart, so that's a factor as well.

I hear ya. I am also blinded by my love of State Troops. I have my 20 Swordsmen that were my first fully painted fantasy regiment and I'll be damned if they are not going in my army! I don't in fact have any Handgunners - I went for Archers because I love the models. But now that I want to give my army more competitive crunch so I have 20 Handgunners in the pipeline soon to be 30...

Yup I figure running a second state troop of ranged units only (i.e. handgunners) would let me have a little more flexibility with my melee troops. This way I can choose either group to hold the line with, but I don't have to hang back a squad in order to continue to buff my handgunners. Another thing I was thinking about was Dwarf/Brettonian allies for some cheap side-buffs.

So far we've talked really about Freeguild but I think if you want to incorporate allies it's best to first stick with the older Empire elements. Specifically the Hurricanum and then the Luminark. The Hurricanum being the mortal wound dealer that we need, it also gives a +1 to hit for all order units within 10". That can make any of your State Troop Detachments even more deadly!

The Luminark is nice too, especially with the 10" wound save of a 6+. The gun on top is great too (damage 6!) the potential to miss with it 33% of the time can be buffed firstly by the Hurricanum or alternatively if you have any Damned terrain nearby you can sacrifice D3 mortal wounds and have a chance to save each one with that 6+ dice roll :-p

Oh, yeah, of course. I'm all for out battlewizards and steam tanks I haven't put too much thought into the bigger things like the luminark, but that's mostly due to me not really wanting to order it online What's your experience with knights/demigryph knights? Mostly due to fluff, but I was thinking of trying out that brotherhood of knights formation.

 Bottle wrote:

State troopers are most effective with the Freeguild General's "hold the line" but that disables them from moving - this renders the counter charge useless and IMO makes halberds and spears useless.

Note that as far as I can tell, these two abilities do not stop each other from working.
Hold the line, specifically states during your turn you cannot move or charge. It states nothing about the enemy turn when counter-charge is in play.

I'm also interested in what people have to say about Knights, particularly Demigryphs. I'm not hugely into bringing in Brettonian elements like some would suggest just because they have better Knights. I've got a box of Demi's that I'd love to put together, but really unsure about them and Knights in general. They seem very similar to Chaos Knights that I've been running in AoS to date, and lately I've been finding my Chaos Knights underwhelming.

someone2040 wrote:

 Bottle wrote:

State troopers are most effective with the Freeguild General's "hold the line" but that disables them from moving - this renders the counter charge useless and IMO makes halberds and spears useless.

Note that as far as I can tell, these two abilities do not stop each other from working.
Hold the line, specifically states during your turn you cannot move or charge. It states nothing about the enemy turn when counter-charge is in play.

I'm also interested in what people have to say about Knights, particularly Demigryphs. I'm not hugely into bringing in Brettonian elements like some would suggest just because they have better Knights. I've got a box of Demi's that I'd love to put together, but really unsure about them and Knights in general. They seem very similar to Chaos Knights that I've been running in AoS to date, and lately I've been finding my Chaos Knights underwhelming.

I like my Demigryph knights, and I don't really see how Bretonnian knights are better. Ours are cheap, decent, and with the brotherhood of knights formation + their once per game buff they can be pretty mean.

someone2040 wrote:

 Bottle wrote:

State troopers are most effective with the Freeguild General's "hold the line" but that disables them from moving - this renders the counter charge useless and IMO makes halberds and spears useless.

Note that as far as I can tell, these two abilities do not stop each other from working.
Hold the line, specifically states during your turn you cannot move or charge. It states nothing about the enemy turn when counter-charge is in play.

Interesting! Yes it seems your right. This would also mean Hold The Line only disables pile-in moves in your turn too, but in the enemy turn you can pile-in and still receive the bonus +1s