Ok guys, here is a re-write of the Empire army book and some changes I made to the list of characters, core, special and rare.
Hopefully you guys enjoy it.
Some good ideas in there, especially with the changing magic item rules and such.
I have been researching different weapon and combined arms tactics from the middle period (medieval) in our history and found some interesting things about pikemen and infantry developments as a whole.
I will try and transfer them here for you.
Core:
All infantry command options are: musician+4, standard+8. Sergeant/Duellist/marksman +12
Sergeants of Spearmen and Halberdiers are equipped with full plate armour, shields a hand weapon, spear/halberd and pistol.
Duellists of swordsmen regiments are equipped with full plate armour, shields a hand weapon and pistol.
Marksmen of Handgunners are equipped with a brace of pistols, a handgun and light armour.
Marksmen of Crossbowmen are equipped with a brace of pistols, a crossbow and light armour.
Pikemen sergeants are equipped with a Pike, hand weapon, full plate armour and a pistol.
Halberdiers 4pts, light armour, hand weapon, halberd. State troops, stats; same
May be equipped with heavy armour for +2pts.
Sergeants may exchange their halberd for a great weapon+3pts, an extra hand weapon+2pts.
Swordsmen 5pts, Light armour, shield, hand weapon. State troops, stats; same.
Duellists may exchange their hand weapons for a great weapon+3pts, or an extra hand weapon+2pts.
Spearmen 4pts, light armour, shield, hand weapon. State troops, stats; same
Sergeants may exchange their spears for a great weapon+3pts, an extra hand weapon+2pts.
Handgunners 7pts, State troops
May take light armour+1pt or heavy armour+3pts
Champions may take a repeater handgun +10, or a Hochland +15 instead of his handgun.
Crossbowmen 7pts, light armour, crossbow. State troops
May take pavise+3pts (+2 AS vs. shooting, cannot be used in combat)
Pikemen 8pts same stats as a halberdier, Pikemen are NOT state troops.
Pike, light armour. May be equipped with heavy armor+2pts
Pikemen sergeants may exchange their pikes for; a great weapon+3pts, an extra hand weapon+2pts.
Fight in four ranks, even when charging (this represents a steady quick march into the enemy with pikes lowered).
ASF against all enemies CHARGING the FRONT only, regardless of magic abilities, special rules, or anything else that enables a model to strike first(no one, and I mean NO one can hit a forest of pikemen first, no matter how quick you are).
+1S on the turn any enemy infantry with movement six or less charges the front, +2S if any cavalry, monster, large target, chariot or any model which moves seven inches or more on its profile(including 2d6 and 3d6 moves).
(The above rules represent the lovely force we call momentum, you charge a hedge of pikemen who are braced, you will take casualties regardless of who you are.)
I included the Pikemen with the above rules for stopping cavalry and infantry effectively, as this is what they were proven to do when utilised by the Swiss, they weren't purely defensive infantry, they just work better when defending.
Archers, 5pts, bow.
May skirmish+1pt, may take light armour+1
May be upgraded to huntsmen+2pts, bs4, may replace bow with longbow+1pt minimum unit size, 5+(huntsmen only)
Knights 20pts each. Full plate, lance or great weapon, warhorse. shield. Command as normal
may take barding +2pts may upgrade to inner circle+5pts +1S and +1WS
Lancers 15pts each. Ws4 bs3 s3 t3 w1 i4 a1 ld7. Command: musician +7, standard +12, champion (suitable name?) +12(the champion has +1 A).
Warhorse, lance, light armour, hand weapon.
May take, heavy armour+2 shield+1, barding+1
Fast Cavalry (if a shield or barding is taken then Lancers no longer count as fast cavalry).
Militia/Free company 4pts, hand weapon, extra hand weapon.
may take light armour+1, may skirmish+1, may replace extra hand weapon with pistols+4.
Special:
Greatswordsmen, 10pts, full plate armour, Greatsword, hand weapon. State troops
m4 ws4 bs3 s4 t3 w1 i3 a1 ld8, stubborn.
May take a magical standard up to 50pts.
Pistoliers same as book but. . .
The pistoliers train daily to utilise their pistols, either in close shooting harassment or combat.
Pistoliers, if in combat will lay about themselves with their pistols. The pistoliers brace of pistols counts two hand weapons in the close combat phase, even from horseback (So essentially each pistolier will have two, ws3 s3 attacks each turn.).
Outriders; same as book.
Great cannons and mortars.
These are the same points costs as the book, a Great Cannon and/or a Mortar may take an engineer as a unit upgrade for 30pts; Engineer m4 ws3 bs4 s3 t3 w1 i3 a1 ld7. Same as book but non hero choice.
He is equipped with light armour, and a belt of tinkering tools (hand weapon).
Master of Ballistics-Great Cannons/Mortars; extra crewman.
He may take a Hochland long rifle +15, a repeater handgun +10, a brace of pistols +5, a repeater pistol and pistol +10, a grenade launching blunderbuss +10 and/or pigeon bombs +25(all same as book)
Master of Ballistics-Great Cannons/Mortars; This special ability allows the Engineer to reroll the artillery dice once per turn. This can stop a misfire.
If a engineer is taken as an upgrade for an Empire Great Cannon and/or a Mortar then the Great Cannon and/or Mortar become 2 for 1 special choice.
Example; a mortar is taken with an engineer upgrade allowing a second mortar to be taken as a single special choice.
The two Cannons and/or Mortars with the engineer are deployed at the same time as normal with the other war machines but MUST be deployed within 5 inches of each other.
Rare:
Flagellants 12pts. Stats as Empire army book but +1T
If your army includes a warrior priest or an arch lector then one and only one unit of Flagellants becomes a core choice.
Helblaster volley gun and Helstorm Rocket battery.
Helblaster 105pts.
May take a specialised Helblaster Engineer (see Great Cannons and Mortars) for +35pts
Extra crewman, Master of Ballistics-Helblaster.
Master of Ballistics-Helblaster; Helblaster may reroll any to hit rolls that miss.
If the Helblaster suffers a misfire and is destroyed, the Helblaster Engineer is killed along with the rest of the crew and machine.
Helstorm 110pts.
Steam Tank; 300pts
Same as book but may customise the layout, as in white dwarf number ....
(Does anyone know of the white dwarf where it showed you the customization you can do to your Steam Tank? I will try and find the article on it but they are all in storage.)
When I find the white dwarf article I will put the upgrades in here.
Lords:
I’m not going to touch special characters, have no experience with them and don’t intend to play empire with special characters anytime soon.
General of the Empire. M4 WS5 BS5 S4 T4 W3 I5 A3 LD9 95pts but slight points drop for equipment.
Hand weapon.
Ancestral Heirloom. Commander of Armies.
Great weapon +5, additional hand weapon +5 and/or a pistol +8.
May have a Longbow +5 or and/or a handgun +10
May wear Full plate Armour +10, Heavy Armour +5 or light armour +3.
May carry a shield +3
May ride a warhorse +14, which may have barding +5, an Imperial Pegasus +50 or a Griffon +185.
If mounted the General may take a Lance +5
May choose up to 100pts of magic items.
Commander of Armies: The General of the Empire is a hardened, battle tested individual, able to inspire the entire empire army with his presence.
If the General of the Empire is alive on the field than all State troops (including detachments of any kind) in the Empire army uses the Generals Leadership for any leadership based test, including break tests.
(I was gonna include every model but thought it would be a mite too good.)
Templar Grand Master. Same as book.
Arch Lector of Sigmar. Same as book. . . but slight points drop:
Great weapon +5, second war hammer +5.
May ride a warhorse +14, which may have barding +5
May ride upon a war Altar of Sigmar +125(only because people have been clamouring for an increase and it seems too good for what it does).
May choose up to 100pts of magic items.
Wizard Lord 165pts same as book but slight points drop.
May ride a warhorse +14, which may have barding +5.
Heroes:
Captain: Same as book but slight points drop.
Great Weapon +3, Halberd +3, additional hand weapon +3, and/or a Pistol +5
May take a Longbow +5 or a Handgun +10
Light armour +2, Heavy Armour +4, full plate +8, Shield +2
Warhorse +10, barding +4, Imperial Pegasus +50
50 pts of magic items.
Captain Battle standard Bearer. +25, normal options.
May take a shield+2
Warrior priest, same as book.
Battle wizard, same as book.
So there you have it, a whole list, re done just a little, let me know what you think about it. It took several days of hard thinking, including the points values and the why’s and wherefores but it looks pretty balanced to me, 8 years should be enough to discover if you know anything about the empire or not lol.
The reasons I made the state troops cheaper was twofold. First, GW will like that idea as they will be able to sell more models . . . or components, not too sure which. And second, it allows our foot sloggers to stand a chance against the huge amount of sheer killiness that we face against other armies.
The thought for the difference of equipment between champions was due with models and rules.
In the Rulebook, it states that characters can use different weapons than the unit they are in.
Unit champions are characters in the rules and I thought it would be awesome to represent this.
I gave them all full plate as base as the old sixth Ed models were basically armoured to the teeth.
Maybe I should make the champions 8 pts and then the full plate as an upgrade? What do you think of that idea?
Magic Weapons:
Runefang, 100points. Even though some of you said you wanted the Runefang costed down, it has been in two editions for the same price and I think it is ok for what it does. Although maybe opening it up to other lord choices is a good idea too?
Wyrmslayer sword, all scaly skin saves are lost. 10pts
Sword of Justice 15pts.
Magic Armour.
Gilded armour 35pts.
Dawn Armour. . . 35pts.
Helm of the Ratslayer 20pts.
Shield of the Gorgon. . . 20pts
Bronze shield 15pts.
Arcane Items.
Seal of Destruction 40pts.
Magic standards. (a much discussed topic, hopefully my suggestions will be useful and/or interesting lol)
Imperial Banner. I think this is priced fine the way it is. 100pts
Banner of Sigismund. 50pts
Griffon Banner, 50pts
Banner of the Daemonslayer, 50pts. Unit causes fear, available to anyone.
Banner of valour. Same, it seems well priced and helpful. . . Maybe make it 40pts and units within 6inches reroll panic tests?
Standard of Arcane Warding. Same, a good banner, a good price.
Steel Standard. Same.
Banner of Duty. Unit automatically rallies if fleeing. 20pts.
Ok guys, peruse at will and let me know if you like/don’t like/disagree/agree with anything I have written.
I will test run these point values every Sunday for you. . . It will be a little project of mine for the next half year until they release 8th edition and I spend every waking moment after work perusing through the things they have changed. . . first of the mark, halberd rules.
