As already said, MSU relies on multiple effective units.
We can have many units, but they are either not naturally effective, or they are expensive.
Can we try to adapt the principles of MSU to the Empire?
1. Some principles of MSU:
Units must be cheap, in order to get many of them and to be able to sacrifice any without being forced to change plans.
They must be able to deal damage, as we rely on combined charges to get the upper hand in melee, and eat alive mammoth units we're facing.
2. Empire's Small Melee Units.
Cheap small melee units, which require buffing:
- Haberds (S4), Swordsmen (WS4), Free Companies (2 attacks). These units can come in small numbers: 10 per unit, with detachments of 5.
- Knights in units of 5 vanilla (+ muso): more expensive, but 2 attacks, one can be made S6/4.
More expensive small melee units, which can work on their own:
- Reiksguard knights: in small units.
- Demigriphs.
- Steam Tank.
- Captasus optimized for melee.
- TGM.
Melee units subpar for MSU:
- Spearmen because they are bad charging in a single rank.
- IC Knights: there's only 1 of that kind.
- Greatswords: striking last in a small unit is suicidal.
- Flagellants: they would be excellent for MSU, if they did not sacrifice themselves each turn.
In addition, some agile units would help a lot the MSU maneuvre, despite not taking part in melees:
- Archers: not for engaging in melee, but as a very small sacrificial unit designed to canalize the opponent.
- Pistoliers: rather expensive, but they can fit into the spirit, like Archers.
3. How to make many small units effective?
This is the tricky part.
We want to buff many units, not a single one. So War Priests are not sufficient.
Fortunately, there are area buffs:
- Hurricanum: Buffs all units within 6", and their detachments.
- War Altar: buffs all units within 6", and their detachments.
- Most Light Lore spells work on all units within 12", not including detachments. Let's consider 3 Lvl 2, in order to get all the spells and not rely on any single wizard.
The other Lores don't propose enough large area buffs to be taken reliably. Spells affecting only 1 unit are not fit for MSU.
4. Designing an MSU army.
Having reviewed all the above, we can conclude at this point that, even if Empire is not naturally fit for MSU, there are two ways to approach that:
- Elite small units on their own (Reiksguard, Demigriphs, Steam Tank, Captasus, TGM).
- Crappy small units (Haberds, Swordsmen, Free Companies, their detachments, and Knights) with buffs (Hurricanum, War Altar, Light Lore).
If the size of the game is large enough, a central part of the army could be designed around Hurricanum+WA+Light wizards, buffing infantry and their detachments,
and the wings would be taken by small units of elite/rare/hero/lord cavalry.
5. Redundancy.
One principle is that no single unit must be imperatively relied upon.
How does this apply to buffing units?
This is a reason why we consider 3 Lvl2 rather than 1 Lvl4. Sure, there is still a single caster for each spell, but losing a wizard is not the end of the battle.
Hurricanum and WA are not limited to 1. Taking 2 of each in larger games could be considered.
In smaller games, you can consider that Hurricanum is redundant with WA, Demigriphs with Stank and so on.
6. Controlling the opponent.
That's one of the principle of MSU: we're not charging head-on blindly, but we delay the combats we want not and engage simultaneously the combats we want.
The trouble is that the core of the army, infantry around the two buff wagons, is far from mobile.
This is why we need faster troops to control the enemy as we can, such as Pistoliers and Archers.
This is also an area where Flagellants have a role to play: when they enter a melee, they remain till the last one dies. That might be enough a speed bump.
7. From theory to practice.
I only analysed.
Someone has to try on the field.
That's not me, I'm afraid, but I'll be pleased to read the reports.
Have a good MSU game!
