2500 Empire list from an inexperience player

[Myelinated Axon]

Fantasy Army: Empire

I was thinking of building up the following list, and I'd like your feedback. I basically just chose stuff that I thought looked cool and/or fun, but I'd like this list to at least have a marginal chance of victory.

Lords:  (385 Points)
General
-Plate Armor, Shield
-Griffon
-Sword of Sigismund (+1 S and ASF)
-Talisman of Preservation (4++)


Heroes:  (423 Points)
Captain
-Battle Standard 
-Dawn Armor (re-rollable 4+)
-Sword of Might (+1 S)

Warrior Priest
-Heavy Armor, Great Weapon
-Holy Relic (4++)

Wizard
-Level 1 (don't know which lore; Death, maybe, or Heavens?)
-Dispell Scroll

Wizard
-Level 1


Core: (770 Points)
20 Halberdiers w/ FC, Shields
-2 Detachments:
     -10 Handgunners
     -10 Handgunners

10 Knights w/ FC

20 Flagellants


Special:  (395 Points)
10 Greatswords w/ FC

5 Pistoliers

Cannon

Mortar


Rare:  (525 Points)
Hellbaster Volley Gun

Helstorm Rocket Battery

Steam Tank

My thoughts were to have the Warrior Priest attach to the Greatswords, the BSB go with the Halberdiers, and stick the Wizards somewhere (maybe even run them alone). Does anyone have any suggestions as to which lores to chose? Ideally I'd want something that can help patch any holes in my force or, failing that, something fun and shooty.

And can I really take only one dispell scroll?

[calnen]

From the looks of things, you're very low on troops. You have lots of shiny toys in here, but Empire soldiers don't stick around very long so 20 is much too small for a unit (let alone 10, for the greatswords). That many troops can often die in a single round if you get charged by something nasty.

[Yvellkan]

Im not an empire expert by any means but it seems to me you have no where near enough core, and too many characters, think you will be relying on that steam tank to do all you killing, which is a bad tactic.

[D'Haran]

So many problems... actually it's not a bad list per say but there are a few things to talk about.

Flagellants aren't core! You have to have an Arch Lector to make 1 unit of them core, and you don't have one. Until you do they're a rare choice.

For the love of Sigmar give your BSB a shield to go along with his rerollable armour save.

Helblasters don't actually hit anything. with an average of 14 or so shots and generally enemies will be at long range you'll only get 4 or 5 hits. Between that and misfires (no engineer) it's a fair bit of points, I'd grab another cannon instead. They're really meant to kill heavily armoured foes, and with few ppl actually running heavy cav it's uses are limited.

10 Greatswords will die in about 2 seconds and you'll be lucky to actually kill a few models with them. If you're going to take this unit it should be at least 20, preferably 30 so that you have the bodies to win a fight.

Empire lists that do well usually have either a Pope mobile or a Lv4 Wizard, right now you're not really doing much with a magic phase, and it doesn't look like you've put much thought the roll your two lvl 1 mages will play. You're paying alot of points for characters and those are probably the 2 most useful characters to put points into.

Other than that you definitely need models, you're putting too many points into expensive small units that will fold once combat ensues. I myself tend to run 1-2 40 man units of combat core along with 30 flagellants and or a stank for the base of my army, I have tried other builds but unless you're going for massive heavy cav or a gunline I rarely see other things work.

[Larkyn]

Flagellants aren't core! You have to have an Arch Lector to make 1 unit of them core, and you don't have one. Until you do they're a rare choice.
.

Might want to read the Army List entry before you go yelling at others.

Anyway, on to the list. New one is better, but I think you're gonna find that those knights aren't going to do much for you. I'd drop them and get some Swordsmen in instead. More infantry is good.

[Morax]

See below for details... had to think of a way to delete this one...

[Morax]

So many problems... actually it's not a bad list per say but there are a few things to talk about.

Flagellants aren't core! You have to have an Arch Lector to make 1 unit of them core, and you don't have one. Until you do they're a rare choice.

For the love of Sigmar give your BSB a shield to go along with his rerollable armour save.

Helblasters don't actually hit anything. with an average of 14 or so shots and generally enemies will be at long range you'll only get 4 or 5 hits. Between that and misfires (no engineer) it's a fair bit of points, I'd grab another cannon instead. They're really meant to kill heavily armoured foes, and with few ppl actually running heavy cav it's uses are limited.

10 Greatswords will die in about 2 seconds and you'll be lucky to actually kill a few models with them. If you're going to take this unit it should be at least 20, preferably 30 so that you have the bodies to win a fight.

Empire lists that do well usually have either a Pope mobile or a Lv4 Wizard, right now you're not really doing much with a magic phase, and it doesn't look like you've put much thought the roll your two lvl 1 mages will play. You're paying alot of points for characters and those are probably the 2 most useful characters to put points into.

Other than that you definitely need models, you're putting too many points into expensive small units that will fold once combat ensues. I myself tend to run 1-2 40 man units of combat core along with 30 flagellants and or a stank for the base of my army, I have tried other builds but unless you're going for massive heavy cav or a gunline I rarely see other things work.

Flagellents are core with the inclusion of a Warrior Priest or an Archlector. He doesn't need an Archlector.

Empire BSBs cannot take mudane equipment, that includes shields.

Hellblasters are used as deterents. Sure they may be hit or miss but when they hit it can be devestating. Add to that He said in his op that he went for looks cool and fun over competitive, the Hellblaster is certainly both of those.

10 Greatswords will survive quite a while when streched out in a single line of ten to tarpit something. Try to think outside the box.

So many problems....

[zielonkak]

okay, few things i noticed about characters first. give your lord the enchanted shield to improve his armor save to 1+. Drop the holy relic off the warrior priest, keep him cheap, he has a save with his powers. i would drop the dawn armor off the bsb, give him a shield, dragon helm, and the luck stone...thats a 2+ armor save with potential 2+ ward, and can reroll the first time he misses save. Then i would drop the naked level one wizard, and take a level 4 wizard,the lore is up to you. if you can find the points then make second wizard level 2?
next..your core...all the units other then the knights are really low. If you want to use the halbreds ( which i would) then you need to run them like 40-50. if you want the detachements, then i would only take one handgunner unit. you can use the other as another unit. i like to give the knights either the banner of dis. or the flaming banner. If your set on the flagellants, then go for it, but you could drop them. you could easily add another unit of swords or spearmen.
Your special needs work. I would drop the pistoleers and beef up your greatswords to bare min 20 but 30 is really the number your looking at. Keep the mortar and the cannon. your rare is good, but i would drop the rocket for the points and use them for the greatswords or more artillery.

Only one dispell scroll, and the lores are up to you? which armies do you play against?

[Myelinated Axon]

Alright, I'm back with an updated list. I swapped the two level 1 Wizards for a level 4, bulked up the Halberdiers and Greatswords, and dropped the Steam Tank and the Helblaster.

Lords (667):
General w/ Plate Armor, Enchanted Shield, Sword of Sigismund, Talisman of Preservation

Level 4 Wizard w/ Dispell Scroll, Holy Relic


Heroes (223):
Captain w/ Battle Standard, Dawn Armor, Sword of Might

Warrior Priest w/ Great Weapon, Heavy Armor


Core (850):
40 Halberdiers w/ FC, Shields
-Detachment of 15 Handgunners

10 Knights w/ FC

20 Flagellants


Special (645):
25 Greatswords w/ FC

5 Pistoliers

Cannon

Cannon

Mortar


Rare (115):
Helstorm Rocket Battery

The most frequent army sightings in my community are Wood Elves, Daemons, Vampire Counts, and Skaven.