There have been some analysis about individual units’ merits.
Empire Complete Tactica part 1:
http://warhammer-empire.com/theforum/index.php?topic=42301.0Empire Complete Tactica Part 2:
http://warhammer-empire.com/theforum/index.php?topic=42308.0What everyones 8th edition Empire army will look like.
http://warhammer-empire.com/theforum/index.php?topic=42174.0And the evaluation after 3 months.
http://warhammer-empire.com/theforum/index.php?topic=43532.msg736036#msg736036Here, I’d like to examine here the feeling of
the army as a whole. Please note that I don’t pretend to have extensive experience playing WHFB. I spend much more time analyzing than playing.
However, my analysis on Druchii.net have been met with interest, I hope that W-E readers will benefit from them as well.
There are other articles which have great interest as well:
The Tao of the EmpireEssential Tactical Manoeuvres1.
Generic categories.First, I’ll classify units in broad generic categories:
- Melee units (infantry, heavy cavalry, STank).
- Buffing units: most characters, buff wagons.
- Warmachines + spells damaging at long distance.
- Agile units (fast cavalry, skirmishers, flyers, sacrificial units).
- BS shooters + spells damaging at short distance.
I attribute more or less the same categories for the opponent. Of course, we’re not playing only Empire vs Empire, but the generic categories should be more or less the same, with slight adjustments.
Next, I specify what can threaten some specific units, which are either too large or too agile, and what threatens characters hidden inside a unit.
1.1.
Melee units.Infantry units absorb damage and provide ranks (buses, hordes). Most infantry units need buffing to avoid losing morale and to increase their fighting effectiveness.
They are
Halberdiers, Spearmen, Swordsmen, Free Company, Greatswords, Flagellants.Heavy cavalry units escape damage thanks to the armor. They kill more than infantry, but may lack staying power.
They are
Knightly Orders, Inner Circle Knights, Reiksguard Knights, Demigryph Knights, Steam Tank. I include also the
Templar Grand Master, which main role is similar.
Melee units are likely to do most of the damage to the opponent, and to receive most of the damage.
Therefore, survivability and killing potential need to be the best you can get.
Melee has many flavours.
It could be made with large units (hordes or buses) or many small units (MSU).
EDIT: see
can someone please explain how Empire MSU works?It could be based on infantry, on cavalry, or a mix. Monsters ridden by mighty characters add another dimension.
These choices influence dramatically the army.
1.2.
Buffing units.They allow melee units to be more efficient, in complement to command group and magic banners.
Some units influence mostly Leadership tests, especially as General and BSB:
- General of The Empire, Captain of The Empire.Some units provide permanent fighting buffs, and/or require powerdice for more buffs:
- Arch Lector, Warrior Priest,
- War Altar of Sigmar, Celestial Hurricanum, Luminark of Hysh,
- Wizard Lord, Battle Wizard (with buffs & hexes, all Lores except Fire).
These units are normally not expected to do that much direct damage, however they are paramount to allow melee units to inflict effective damage and to resist the damage they receive.
They are always extremely high on the target priority of the opponent: not only they are worth many victory points, but moreover, when they are gone, the melee units are far easier to handle.
As they role is to buff, they should be geared defensively in order to fulfill their duty longer. They should be placed as far as possible from direct risk (melee, shooting).
However, they need to move along with the battle line in order to keep buffing it, so they are quite likely to find themselves in melee sooner than they wish. With the exceptions of Metal/Shadows/Heavens spell casters, who may safely follow the battle at 48”/36”/24”.
1.3.
Warmachines.They kill far (48” or further) and they kill hard or massively. They are the best to threaten buffing units remaining in the back lines. However, they are vulnerable to very modest units in melee.
They are
Helstorm, Mortar, Cannon (including STank’s), along with the
Engineer who improves their performance.
Many spells have a similar range, be them magic missiles, direct damage, vortexes or damaging hexes. Especially
Fire, Light, and, with a bit of luck,
Heavens, which all have a typical range of 48” (plus move). They lack the sniping capability of some warmachines but are still welcome to get rid of an opponent’s buffing unit.
If they don't have a buffing unit to destroy, they can well serve to downsize the enemy's main units.
1.4.
Agile units.They won’t survive shocks or shots. They serve to disrupt enemy’s plans, by attacking warmachines and interposing in the path of melee units.
Skirmishers and fast cavalry can double-move and shoot:
Archers, Huntsmen, Pistoliers, for a total threatening range of 32” or 28”. However, their shooting hardly threatens anyone but lone mages.
Flyers can position where they want:
Griffon, Pegasus.Still in that category, you can find small
detachments, whose role is to speed bump the enemy.
Witch Hunters could be considered in this category: they are not that likely to kill their target, but may well force it to react.
You want all these units as cheap as possible. Because they are much more likely to die than to kill anything except the crappiest fighters, i.e. warmachines.
1.5.
BS shooters.They shoot at a rather short range (24” to 36”). They can kill agile units, but struggle to damage the largest melee units. Move-or-shoot and short range allow most targets to get out of range. All in all, they are more suited to interdict a rather small area than to kill nasty foes.
They are
Handgunners, Crossbowmen, Outriders. I include
HelBlaster Volley Gun, which range is similar and which uses BS, too.
Engineers using
Hochland Long Rifle or
Pigeons are in the same category.
Wagons’ spells, Magic missiles, direct damage, vortexes or damaging hexes have a similar area of influence. Especially
Metal, Life and Death, which typical range are 24” (plus move).
When there is no agile unit to shoot at, they may well try to downsize a larger unit. Don't expect much, though.
1.6. Serial Killers, Mass Murderers, Bounty Hunters or Professional Assassins? Select the appropriate tool.Size matters.
The opponent will not field only units of 15-20 infantry or 7-10 cavalry, which are rather easy to kill.
- There will be immense
Hordes & Buses – no matter how many are killed, there seem to be little difference.
- Sometimes there will be
Many Small Units (MSU): one unit is easy to kill, but there are so many of them that time is too short to catch them and kill them all.
- Single
Characters, the most rewarding targets, will be hidden amongst masses.
"One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic" (Joseph Stalin).
- The usual
Serial Killers, who make most of WH armies, are best suited against medium units, but are insufficient against large units, have trouble to reach agile units and are not selective enough to kill characters.
-
Mass Murderers are able to cleanse out a large chunk of a horde – but have trouble aiming at the hero leading them, and are overkill against a Small Unit.
-
Bounty Hunters can look after evasive targets – they do marvels also to finish off the remnants of a larger unit.
-
Snipers are able to aim at a specific model – but struggle against small units and are hopeless against massive units.
The appropriate tool shows the good workman. Let’s review our tools (keeping in mind that they are also our opponent’s tools against us).
1.7. Mass Murderers against Hordes & Buses.The best way to kill them all at once is Melee – if they lose morale and you catch them.
- To overcome combat resolution:
Active Combat Resolution, helped with
Buffs/Hexes, takes many models with many attacks and/or high strength;
Static Combat Resolution is achieved with ranks, banners and side/rear charging;
- To overcome steadfast, you can either use a
longer bus yourself or kill so many of them that they are no longer steadfast (think about several s
harks eating a whale). Alternatively, use terrain: fights in woods /rivers /buildings can impose or deny steadfast.
- To hamper their morale test, kill the BSB, kill or lower the General’s Leadership, decrease their own leadership – but that’s no longer a task for Mass Murderers.
Magic offers a few genocide spells able to kill large parts of a Mammoth unit, whatever the size:
- Fire #5 (all models suffer S4 if moving – 24”)
- Metal #6 (all models have 2/6 chances to die, no WS – 18”)
- Life #6 (all models test S or die, no WS – 24”).
Templates spell are weapons of massive destruction:
- Fire #6 (small/large template, S4 – 30”)
- Fire #3 (S4 line – 36”)
- Shadows #5 (small/large template, I test or die, no WS – 24”)
- Shadows #4 (line, S10, ~40”)
- Death #6 (small/large template, I test or die, no WS – short distance)
- Heavens #5 (comet, all units within 2D6” suffer 2D6+m hits, S4+m – infinite distance!)
- Beasts #3 (S6 ballista – 24”)
Milder spells must be used repetitively before they can cause significant havoc:
- Fire #0 (1D6 or 2D6 or 3D6, S4 MM – 48”)
- Fire #1 (each unit in contacts suffers 2D6, S4 - touch)
- Fire #4 (D3 per rank, S4 – 48”)
- Metal #0 (2D6 – 24”)
- Light #5 (2D6, S4 – 48”)
- Beasts #1 (2D6, S2 – 24”)
- Beasts #6 may allow a breathing weapon.
In summary, your best Magic Lores against Large Units are:
Fire (#5, 6, 0, 1, 3, 4) and
Metal (#6, 0 – short range).
Shadows (#4, 5) is less powerful.
The following Lores can cause significant damage, but you’re not sure to get THE only single spell which works against large units, unless you take two mages with the same Lore: Life (#6), Death (#6), Heavens (#5).
Beasts (#1, 3, 6) might cause significant damage in the long run, but cannot be considered a mass murder Lore.
Light (#5) is near helpless against large units.
There is one more way to deal with superlarge überunits.
Some warmachines can kill many birds with a single stone, at long distance:
Mortar (large template),
Helstorm Rockets with 1D3 small templates. Their accuracy greatly increases with an engineer, and taking several of them increases chances to get the right target.
Overall, make sure you have at least two ways to deal with hordes/bus überunits:
- Your own überunit of Melee (with buffs)
- Many killer Melee Units (with buffs, attacking simultaneously)
- Fire or Metal Lores, possibly Shadows, assimilated to warmachines.
- One single spell of Life, Death or Heavens is in the same category.
- Mortars or Helstorm.
1.8. Bounty Hunters hunting Small Units.The good thing with Small Units is that once they’re caught, they’re dead. The trouble is to catch them.
Some of them hide far behind the battleline (warmachines). Some of them are agile enough to evade threats (Agile units). Some of them are so cheap that there are just too many of them.
Mass Murder tools work against them but that’s overkill.
The ideal answer against them should be shooters.
The difficulty with our shooting is that it is mostly Move Or Shoot. Worse, most of our shooting has 90° LOS.
The way to overcome that limit is to take
several units of shooters, each of them covering a specific location or a specific direction. If an intruder has to spend half the game getting around them or risking annihilation, that could be worth.
The best shooting unit is the
HelBlaster, because of its 360° LOS and its high S.
Pigeons can be used after moving but they are unreliable.
Bows are very weak but they can be used after moving. Their effective range at 360° is 32”. In rather large units, that can be a significant threat.
Pistoliers offer a great alternative. With a double-move, they get a 360° range of 28”.
Other missile weapons are stronger but cover only a predetermined small area that the opponent can circumvent.
The best answer to Small Units is
Magic Missiles, assimilated to Shooting but often more efficient – when winds of magic are sufficient.
They can be sent after moving, so they cover a very large area (all the more if their range is long).
They need no BS, so they are outstanding against troops benefitting from covers (skirmishers in a building anytime).
- Heavens #4 (D6, S6 – 48”)
- Heavens #2 (D6, S3 – 24”)
- Heavens #6 (D6, S6, bounces – 24” – perfect against MSU)
- Light #5 (2D6, S4 – 48”)
- Light #0 (D6, S4 – 48”)
- Light #4 (D6, S4 if moves – 48”)
- Fire #0 (1D6 or 2D6 or 3D6, S4 MM – 48”)
- Fire #4 (D3 per rank, S4 – 48”)
- Metal #0 (2D6 – 24”)
- Beasts #1 (2D6, S2 – 24”)
- Life #1 (D6, S4 – 18”)
In summary, your best Magic Lores against Small Units are:
Heavens (#2, 4, 6),
Light (#0, 4, 5) and
Fire (#0, 4). A mobile Metal signature Level 1 could do the job, too.
1.9. Professional Assassins sniping Leaders.In melee, that’s easy: the character to kill is in base contact. But it’s risky, too, he could strike back – or worse, strike pre-emptively.
- Many Rank & File attacks directed to the target and the help of buffs & hexes could do the job: they can take some punishment and strike back with ranks filled in.
- A tailored killing machine such as
The Grand Master with Runefang and Other Trickster Shard has great chances. He is well armoured and could benefit from a Priest’s 5+ ward save. He can challenge to become impervious to Rank & File attacks.
- Another possibility is to aim for Killing Blows. A
Witch Hunter can do that, the problem with him is to survive until his task is achieved. Fencing Blades could be determinant for that.
Some shooting attacks have the sniping capability, too.
-
Witch Hunters can snipe, but at a terrible short range. The brace of pistols is mandatory, and taking 2 of them is the best bet – but still, it’s hard to get good chances for an instakill. In order to bring them into range, a Magic Carpet, or Shadows #1 spell makes them fly. Alternatively, getting inside a unit of bowmen gives the skirmisher capability, allowing to double-move and shoot.
-
Hochland Long Rifles have the sniping capability. They can be given to Engineers, to Handgunners champions and to the Steam Tank. However, their chances to remove one wound are remote, let alone all wounds from a model.
Magic can do the trick. That’s the specialty of
Death Lore. Metal has a single access to sniping.
- Death #0 (24”), #2 (24”), #5 (12”) – as ranges are short, it is best done with a mobile wizard, on a Pegasus for example.
- Metal #4 (24”).
A combination of Death #0 and Witch Hunter is possible thanks to the Ring of Volans. This increases a lot the chances of killing the desired target. However, the difficulty of getting in range remains.