From the Unit Level stats on Woehammer, it looks like template based war machines are doing well to very good. Cannons and bolt throwers, not so much. Elf RBTs don’t show up on the lists, but I’ve faced them twice and while their potential is quite scary, they have done f@ckall in the games I’ve faced them.
I think Empire Great Cannons have lost something, but also have become a little bit more reliable (no ones anymore). Of course if people come from the eighth, laser-sighted cannons causing less wounds might feel bad, and maybe they avoid cannons because of that. Me, coming from the 6th, I can appreciate the measuring.
I think Great Cannons are average. And the Empire needs them.
Bolt throwers are about what they used to be, and I find them versatile. For low BS armies, they're still a hit and miss weapon, but Elf players always take them for their effectiveness. And because the army doesn't have other warmachines.
Stone Throwers I think are very good now.
The Helblaster seems to overperform the army average for Empire, but not by much. My experience with cannons this edition is that they have been solid, but not overwhelming.
I've had really really bad luck with my Helblaster. Or rather my opponents have killed it time and again, often without it getting a single shot out. So I cannot say much from experience. Other than that my opponents prioritize it as a target, which might tell something.
Statistically, I think the HBVG used to be equivalent to 25 Handgunners in the 6th ed, and now I think it's equivalent to 15-20 Crossbowmen. Those Crossbowmen are much more unwieldy and have a big footprint, but they have longer range, more wounds, and can do something in combat too with numbers and close order. I'm contemplating using them instead (divided into several units/detachments), but their big footprint is a problem, especially now on 25mm bases.
HBVG with an Engineer is good in theory, and I hear in practice too. The combo is a lot of points, but give the Engineer a decent weapon and place another warmachine within his command radius, and I think all in all he should be quite good.
It’s not clear to me why templates are so good when the scatters are so bad and base sizes have gotten bigger, meaning fewer hits. I’m also struggling to understand why non-template war machines are so poor.
Not clear to me either. My experience, and my calculations, with the Mortar suggest it's a pretty poor choice for its points. Then again I've been unlucky with it.
But the Mortar can hide from the enemy and still lob random shots, even at hidden enemies. And it's still a moderately efficient tool against tightly packed horde armies with T3. Maybe it forces the enemy to move, opening up targets for other units?
-Zyg
