Hey Teir5,
Just some quick thoughts.
1) On your Wizard Lord, not to ask a dumb question, but what is a "Staff of Sorcery?"
2) For your Grandmaster, I'm not sold on the Sword of Anti-Heroes. Unit Champions do not count as characters, and, from my experience, usually you only get +1 / +1 from the sword… if even that. Not to mention that most enemies will have superior Initiative, or ASF… which means, while the Grandmaster may get stronger, he'll still strike last. Though... you can make the case that, since he's going last anyway, might as well go stronger. But... if you want to go that way, then you might as well just get him a zwei-sword, and save a ton of points.
2-A) Overall, you might want to consider the Sword of Might. While it "peaks" at +1 to Strength, you always get it. So, you're still getting 4, Strength 5 attacks. Not bad. And, it's slightly cheaper, saving you some points.
2-B) Don't forget, the Other Trickster's shard also works against you. All Ward saves in base-to-base with the barer are re-rolled. (Which means you'd actually have to re-roll successful Ironcurse Icon saves, or Priest-Prayer-Ward-Saves for the five models which would touch your Grandmaster.) And, it has zero effect on Regeneration saves. For its cost and penalties, I'm not impressed with it.
3) For your BSB, I don't think you included the cost of the Pegasus. You might also want to look at "Iron Hard Hooves" for a Pegasus upgrade. It lets you re-roll your Stomp to-wound rolls... which, overall, tends to force another armor save from your opponent.
3-A) You might want to consider a Pistol for your BSB. He has BS5, and is highly mobile on the Pegasus, and it increases his threat radius.
3-B) Heh… Armour. You Oxford-English people and your extra "u"s. Sorry, me and my dumb sense of humor.
3-C) Overall, your BSB doesn't have much of a Ward Save (other than against Fire or War Machines)… and BSBs tend to be critical to compensate for the moderate LD of the Empire. You might want to consider swapping out the Ironcurse Icon / Dragonhelm for at least the 5+ Ward Save Talisman. That'll give your BSB 2+ Armor Save / 5+ Ward Save.
4) For your Warrior Priests, they can get both a Shield and a Two-Handed weapon. So, you can use the shield to help get into melee… and then the hammer in melee. With their moderate Initiative anyway, you might as well emphasize the HULK SMASH, by getting them the zwei-mace.
5) For your Wizard-Apprentice, what's wrong with Wind Blast? It's one of the only spells to let you move an enemy unit out-of-turn. It's a great-way to push units that you cannot charge on your turn, so your opponent ends up having to deal with the fact that if he moves them on his turn, it'll put them into your charge range.
5-A) Wind Blast also lets you slide missile units, so they won't have as clear an LoS… or slide enemy units in front of other enemy units, slogging up his battle line.
5-A-1) Not only that Wind Blast works great with spells like Fulminating Flame Cage, where each model takes a hit, if that model moves. So you Cage a unit… and then you force the unit to move with the Wind Blast. Or, since you're doing dual Heavens, slide a unit back into the potential impact area of a Comet of Cassandora.
5-A-2) And, not only that, you can actually push enemy units closer to your guys, mucking up an enemy battle line that way as well.
5-A-3) For example, I've actually force-shoved a unit a Black Riders, into a unit of Hex Wraiths that was moving into flanking position, causing wounds on both. Mind you, I've done this on other units too, just this was the most recent time I used the spell.
5-A-4) Anyway, point being, I think you are underestimating the usefulness of Wind Blast.
6) For your knight units 10 - 12 (with characters) is really about as big as they should be. Any more than that, and you're paying for a very, expensive +1 to CR from a rank. I've used knight units from 6 - 15 in size, and any time it has gotten over 12, the unit has just become as sluggish as infantry, due to the additional space needed to move, wheel and Swift Reform. And, larger units of Knights are trickier to hide behind terrain, and easier for enemy templates to scatter into them (or stay in them on small-ish scatters).
6-A) I would suggest you drop your knight units down to 10 - 12 size. They'll still pack a punch, be highly mobile, and free up points you can use elsewhere.
6-A-1) Overall, I would think that three units of 10 - 12 knights would serve you better than 2 units of 16 knights.
6-A-2) You might want to look at the Steel Standard or Banner of Swiftness for your Inner Circle Knights. Both banners add movement to your knights, overall increasing their threat radius. The Steel Standard also has the added benefit that you'll be more likely to roll 8"+ on 3k2 charge/pursuit/flee move.
7) Over having a detachment of 5 archers, I'd just find the points to get a second unit of 10 archers. I haven't been impressed with detachments at all.
7-A) And, with two independent Archer units, both can get musicians. Now, while Archers Skirmish, they often fight "Fast Mover" type units, which usually lack any command upgrades. Sometimes, just having the musician around to break ties is huge.
7-A-1) And +1 LD to rally is also important, when you have your Wizards hanging out with them.
8) Your Pistoliers really need Musicians. Right now, without a Musician, they will be very iffy at pulling off "Feigned Flight" moves.
8-A) Also, Pistoliers tend to work outside of command radius', and the +1 LD to rally becomes huge for them.
8-B) I tend to field my Pistoliers in units of 6… with an Outridder. The Outridder actually gives them a spot of reliable combat mischief, with his 4 shots at BS4.
9) Your Demigryph unit is… too large. Remember, the second rank of Monstrous Cavalry only gets the attacks of the rider. So… you're paying a lot of points for +1 to CR from the rank, and +3 attacks (from the 3 riders).
9-A) Demigryphs tend to be in a unit of 3 or 4 max, because of the above.
9-B) Now, while I like full command in Demigryphs, keep in mind that if the Demigryphs lose combat and break, the Standard Bearer is auto-slain. So… if you're not keeping that in mind for what the Demigryphs charge, you might be handing off free points to your opponent.
10) Something else to consider adding to your army would be a Storm Chaser Van… aka the Hurricanum. Being a chariot, it can keep up with your mobile army. It can self power, as it generates its own Power Die. It gives you another option to attempt to lightning zorch enemy units, and it helps keep your Knights from being Knights of the Striking Out, from the +1 to hit. And, being a chariot, if it needs to, it can crash into enemy units, causing impact hits.
Anyway, just some quick thoughts. ))
