Friendly all-comers 2500 Empire

[Wesser]

Fantasy Army: BoC

Gonna post my first list

Most likely to face daemons, skaven, goblins or dark elves, but not sure, so keeping my bases covered

Arch Lector: Armour of Meteoric Iron, Fencer's Blades
34 Spearmen: Full command, shields
Det: 15 Halberdiers

Witch Hunter: Brace of pistols, Van Horstmanns
BSB: Full plate, dragon helm, greatweapon
33 Swordsmen: Full command
Det: 15 Halberdiers

30 Spearmen
Det: 6 Crossbowmen

3 Demigryphs:Standard (of Discipline)

Steam Tank

Lvl 4 Fire mage: Dispel scroll

Pidgeoneer

Helblaster w/naked engineer

Cannon

Captasus: fulplate, enchanted shield, sword of might


So any thoughts.....

[ftayl5]

Looks pretty good.
I'd prefer a 4+ ward over armour of meteoric iron. Skaven, goblins and dark elves however are all about lots of low strength attacks so the armour save is probably the better way to go. Play around with it.
I'd take a shield rather than a great weapon for the BSB. BSB's main goal is to provide re-rolls and survive. The extra kills can come in handy, but I'd prefer the extra armour save and parry save.


The lone 30 spearmen unit seems... out of place. I don't know how effective it will be at doing anything, really.

Lore of fire is ... meh. I'd go with shadow to make all those S3 swordsmen and spearmen attacks actually mean something.

Pidgeoneers are never worth it. Pigeons are just too random and with the new rules you have to choose between the bomb and helping a war machine. I'd drop this character altogether.

Helblaster is good enough, cannon is good.

I'd alter your captasus; just go for a lance rather than sword of might. Better strength on the charge and really captasus' are only deigned to charge things they can kill on the charge. That is unless you have VC in your meta and are worried about ethereals. Then the cheap magic item is definitely a good idea.

[Morax]

Gonna post my first list

Most likely to face daemons, skaven, goblins or dark elves, but not sure, so keeping my bases covered

Arch Lector: Armour of Meteoric Iron, Fencer's Blades
34 Spearmen: Full command, shields
Det: 15 Halberdiers

Not a bad leader type. He'll do what you want him to most of the time. I'm still in favor of swords for the anvil but each of the state troops have their strong points.

Witch Hunter: Brace of pistols, Van Horstmanns
BSB: Full plate, dragon helm, greatweapon
33 Swordsmen: Full command
Det: 15 Halberdiers

I've never been a fan of the Witch Hunter's rules. In 8th, it is rare to get a save from a damaging spell that someone is going to throw at you and so the MR2 from the witch hunter often gets wasted. When he is being fielded as a mage assassin he is often best on his own with a brace of pistols and a flying carpet. Either way his place is most often not in units.

30 Spearmen
Det: 6 Crossbowmen

This block is a little out of place. What is it's purpose and how is it going to accomplish it. State troops rarely achieve anything without buffs from something else. If this is just a unit for fleshing out the army then there are more beneficial ways of doing that.

3 Demigryphs:Standard (of Discipline)

A useful unit and a hard hitting flanker. The Standard of Discipline isn't a waste here and if you just had extra points.

Steam Tank

Always a good choice.

Lvl 4 Fire mage: Dispel scroll

Fire mage is different. Do you have a gameplan for his spell selection? Something in particular you need/want him to do during a game? If not I'd likely look other directions for lore choice. Light, Life or Shadow are all very strong choices for the empire right now and each for different reasons.

Pidgeoneer

I'd avoid him but for different reasons than ftayl. I'll discuss that below.

Helblaster w/naked engineer

Great for killing just about everything.

Cannon

Can't leave home without one or two. With the cannon in the stank you should be covered fairly well.

Captasus: fulplate, enchanted shield, sword of might

The sword of might is a solid choice for him if you have the extra points. Depending on how you are using him it will often come out ahead of a lance but the extra expenditure of points can be hard to find some times.

So any thoughts.....

Key points I'd look at are the lore on your level 4 the item selection on the BSB, the Witch Hunter, the stand alone unit of 30 spearmen and the pidgeoneer.

The BSB - He is going to be a huge target for your opponent. He is worth loads of victory points (enough to win the game if that's all that's killed), the all important leadership reroll bubble, and Hold the Line on a unit that is likely going to be your center. He needs about as much protection as your general if not more as he is worth just about as many victory points and holds your army togeather better. I'd drop the great weapon in favor of a shield at the least. A dawn stone wouldn't go amiss here either.

The Pidgeoneer - Pidgeoneers are worth it only if you have multiple. What I think people miss about the point cost of them is the point cost of the pidgeon is so low it is laughably broken if taken on it's own. The game designers clearly took into account that with the pidgeons he is only going to be throwing them, so saying that he has to choose is a pointless arguement here. He doesn't choose, he just throws pidgeons, and for 85 points, a mobile artillery piece that doesn't need los and that hits dead center 1/3rd of the time is a bargin. He works best in multiples because when you need to hit, you really need to hit. If you don't have the points for two of them, I wouldn't take any and use those points to bulk up infantry blocks.

[Wesser]

Fair enough on the BsB

The Witch Hunter is mainly there to keep me covered in case i end up facing Queek or a Greater Daemon... which is likely in my meta...

Fire mage: I never rely on magic for anything unless playing VC. I took fire to get away from the usual shadow stuff and since I dont include any elite infantry I didnt think I'd get enough out of life.

The secondary units of spearmen was intended to deal with enemy chaff... its detachment as warm bodies to shield the mage.

[KimikoPT]

Don´t use a Standard on Demis. If you flee of a combat, you will lose a full model. Musician is enough.

[Morax]

Fair enough on the BsB

The Witch Hunter is mainly there to keep me covered in case i end up facing Queek or a Greater Daemon... which is likely in my meta...

Fire mage: I never rely on magic for anything unless playing VC. I took fire to get away from the usual shadow stuff and since I dont include any elite infantry I didnt think I'd get enough out of life.

The secondary units of spearmen was intended to deal with enemy chaff... its detachment as warm bodies to shield the mage.

Well for Queek and a Greater demon you couldn't go far wrong with anything with vanhorstmann's. I'd probably give it to the wizard lord and let him make that challange. It would save the points you spent on the WH.

For the Mage's lore, if you are looking for him to do something against VC I'd go with Light. The lore attribute will polish off the etherials and the buffs will help with your units in combat. Add into that that most of the Light buffs can be cast in a bubble you will often be able to affect the parent unit and the detatchment.

The fire/light mage can deal with chaff when the Hellblaster and captasus are not. If you wanted to field something that would still be useful I'd go with a unit of 6 knights fielded 3x2. They can wipe chaff and provide a hard hitting flanker. you can then take the mage bunker on any other unit of core infantry. I'd suggest swaping the crossbows for archers if you do go the light mage route as it will be much more mobile.

[GodlessM]

Don´t use a Standard on Demis. If you flee of a combat, you will lose a full model. Musician is enough.

Are you going to SPAM this in every Empire thread around? Save yourself the hassle and sig yourself already.

[KimikoPT]

Are you going to SPAM this in every Empire thread around? Save yourself the hassle and sig yourself already.

I did that here first, then i thought it was a good idea to post it on the Tactics boards instead. Sorry to trouble you.