Empire Battalion

[DivineVisitor]

All looks pretty good to me and i'll more than likely pick this up from wayland. Then again I'm just starting Empire so have hardly any models for them.

Greatswords were awesome being in the battalions. I bought 5 of them to kick start my army.

[loveless]

I can see the Heraldry Book on both the Canadian and US versions of the site. There is no batallion however, nor evidence it's changing.

The Heraldry book is certainly there - but different countries end up with different stocks, apparently.

The evidence for the battalion is in the next/new WD, where it shows up alongside the new Necron kits.

[Minsc]

Greatswords were awesome being in the battalions. I bought 5 of them to kick start my army.

Indeed.
I bought 3 battalions in total myself, and I already have a sizeable Empire-army.

Greatswords were the kicker really.
Now though, I'd rather just buy the same amount of Goldswords/Statetroopers by themselves, and use the money I "save" on -not- having to buy outdated knights, overpriced crossbows and useless mortars on something else.

[Soulless]

Bought 2 2009 battalions today ... terrible change :/

[LampLighter]

IMO, what they need to do is combine the archer and handgunner/crossbowmen boxes. I REALLY hate having to field gun toting ballerinas. The archers at least have a coat.

[theDarkGeneral]

Well, this won't be a purchase I pick up for my son, as he already has PLENTY of those types of units...what happened to the "good" ol' days when you at least got one cool/new unit in the Battalion Boxed sets???

[MajorWesJanson]

If the battleforce is in the first wave with a book, it will not have cool new units in it. If it is in a second wave, it will.

[Bylak]

I can’t see what the problem is.

People who already own a reasonable sized Empire army tend not to need Battalions and for a new player they are very useful.

This new Battalion is up on Wayland for £48, why not just buy that and sell the Knights for something like £10, even with postage you will get the equivalent of a free cannon which is always useful in larger games.

I think the problem is that traditionally the Battalions have been seen as a way to break into the game in a cheap manner. Buy two boxes and have yourselves an army! The Dwarf box is a really good example of this, I think. Now however it seems like the Battalions are switching in focus to being a single starting point for new players to begin building armies at a core level instead of a cheap way to get a very basic, full army going.

[Lord Solar Plexus]

I think you need to ask yourself what is the purpose of a battalion. Can I suggest that when the GW exec answers this question the answer "providing existing Empire players with a cheap way to get hold of our overpriced greatswords" is not very high on his list.

Battalions have always been about giving someone who is just starting the army a kickstart with a slight saving. As such a cannon is much, much more use than a worthlessly small unit of greatswords.

Quite so, although looking at some recent batreps, 10 GS might not be as useless as one thinks. I've fielded small units of them myself in 500- and 1k games, and they were pretty good. That doesn't take away from the fact that a cannon is much more useful for a new player though.

Oh, and you can field 8 knights + WP + TGM or Captain. That's not too shabby, especially since you can use them for core or special.

[Clobbersaurus]

This is the same battalion I got when I got into the game in 2008, only it was $10 cheaper and it came with Outriders/Pistoliers. Also, it didn't come with the White Wolf bits for the Knights.

[decker_cky]

I think the problem is that traditionally the Battalions have been seen as a way to break into the game in a cheap manner. Buy two boxes and have yourselves an army! The Dwarf box is a really good example of this, I think. Now however it seems like the Battalions are switching in focus to being a single starting point for new players to begin building armies at a core level instead of a cheap way to get a very basic, full army going.

You have a very romantic view of what battalions have been over time. I'd argue that there's almost always been a kit people don't want, either because of models or because of in game effectiveness, in most battalions back to early 6th edition. There's usually been new models in battalions, not to let people get deals on new models, but because most battalions couldn't be released without new models included.

[jtrowell]

Does someone know if for the new bataillon they have put back the White wolf sprue for the knights ?

[Toshiro]

Terrible change, I was considering starting an empire army with 3 battalion boxesto get a good core army up. I would have liked 30 greatswords for the army, I don't want 3 cannons for it though...

[Brother Dimetrius]

Funny thing is, I remember well how people bitched about the previous box because it "shoved Goldswords" down their throat or something to that effect. Now people are lamenting them going away.
't is the way of the gamer I believe

[decker_cky]

Funny thing is, I remember well how people bitched about the previous box because it "shoved Goldswords" down their throat or something to that effect. Now people are lamenting them going away.
't is the way of the gamer I believe

Most people complained about the price of goldswords, then said they'd only buy them with the battalion from what I saw.

[loveless]

Most people complained about the price of goldswords, then said they'd only buy them with the battalion from what I saw.

There's a potential reason for dropping Goldswords and adding in a Cannon/Mortar. No one was buying the Goldswords as a stand-alone product, so clearly the way to remedy that is by removing their "discounted" availability in the battalion.

Goldswords or no, I still wouldn't pay for that many ugly warponies. At least the excess models in other battalions look good - I might not need a dozen Corpse Carts, for instance, but they do come in handy for Halloween decorations when you put them on parade in your home

[sigur]

I observe that the recent trend is to put the outdated kits in the battallions as a manner to get rid of the stock they have and nobody wants. Common goblins, Empire knights...

Probably a kind of tradeoff for getting slightly reduced price. I like the old knights by the way. Better than many other new kits actually.

[LostAngel]

There's a potential reason for dropping Goldswords and adding in a Cannon/Mortar. No one was buying the Goldswords as a stand-alone product, so clearly the way to remedy that is by removing their "discounted" availability in the battalion.

Goldswords or no, I still wouldn't pay for that many ugly warponies. At least the excess models in other battalions look good - I might not need a dozen Corpse Carts, for instance, but they do come in handy for Halloween decorations when you put them on parade in your home

Have you tried to use them as 'unit fitters', they are great!!!!

Maybe i will buy some ogres to goldswordthem!!! lol

[decker_cky]

I guess the VC battalion is better if you play multiple armies. They seem to get converted for all sorts of different things.

[Souppilgrim]

I would never buy this new Battalion. So, I guess it's bad news.