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Hey Johan,

At first glance, the army seems slightly unbalanced.

You have this huge anvil of spearmen but no strong hammer :
The main function of swordsmen and pikemen is to act as a tarpit. 50 pikemen gives you an awful lot of attacks due to the horde rule, however, their strength might not be enough to punch through anything with an armor. Swordsmen have good armor save and a parry save, but also lack in strength, so if your pikes get charged and the sword countercharge, the only thing they'll do is add combat res. If you do want to proxy it and pass your pikemen for halbediers (50 halberdiers, now that's a nice killing machine). I would suggest switching roles. Use your swordsmen (including free company passing as swordsmen) as your main regiment, 5 wide, 10 deep. With Bsb, hold the line, etc., they'll be a really tough nut to crack. and use your pikes as the dettachment just to add numbers for combat res.

Ok, now that you are more solidly anchored on the table, how are you gonna reply to the opponent that gets stuck in your tarpit? You need a hammer. Greatswords usually excel at this, but if all you have are knights,  then they either need to be able to roll over whatever opposition they face so they don't get bogged dow, or you need to split them for more manoeuvrability. On that topic, if your general is going to be a hochmeister (grand master) by all means give him a runefang. Then he becomes a killing machine and a monster killer especially. Don't need to give him much more than that : a shield, heavy armor (or is it fullplate) and barded warhorse means he has a 1+ AS. The other knights don't need to be Reiksguards, Innercircle knights are enough provided they are armed with lances. Okay, they won't kill much (but your Hochmeister will take care of that) but they won't die much either. A mounted warpriest is a good idea in that unit for hatred. You could perhaps split the knights 10-6. 10 with lances and including the GM and 6 with great weapons and the warpriest? They might die quick but if they catch weak units they might be able to crush them and that way the entirety of your hammer wouldn't be stuck on one side of the table while your anvil got slowly decimated.

Wizard... definately a level 4, no less! All the schools are good (some better than others), it depends on your opponent. In a case like yours, Beast lore might be good to give extra oomph to your spearmen. 

BSB... No magic banner, just tool him so he can't die, with armor and talisman and make sure someone else is there to take challenges in his stead.

Canon is good against monsters or huge targets, otherwise it is a bit disappointing. Hellblaster volleygun with an engineer (a must have) will give you more bang for your buck against rank and filers and cavalry.

Mortar is no good. Consider instead one of the swanky wizmobiles. The huricannum, I believe, gives you +1 to hit. Combined with an appropriate buff from a beast wizard and hatred from a priest, your pikemen suddendly become more of a killing unit.

Captasus... only if you have points to spare and your opponent relies on wizards (dark elf, tomb kings, vampire counts). Same story for witch hunter, although he is quite cheaper and fluffier (as in fluff).

Alternatively, here is what you could do.

50 spearmen, FC, with BSB and warpriest, + detachments of 10 crossbows and 10 handgunners.
Position: Static until the wave hits you.

Canon on one side and the other (if you don't want to pass it as a hbvg) perhaps in a far corner (just like the dwarfs)

Swordsmen and freecompanies together on one side try to roll a flank (you should really pass 30 of them as greatswords and the 20 others as a dettachment). Another warpriest in there might be useful. And perhaps your wizard should bunker with the swords.

Then your knights in one big block (or two like I suggested above) try to roll the other flank and focus on whoever reaches the pikes...

This is by no means to be taken litteraly, more like ideas to explore. It seems to me you have a good army, but in 7th edition. 8th edition Empire doesn't rely as much on spears and really focusses on synergy within large blocks. As such, I find halberdiers are way more efficient than spears... Anyhow.. food for thought

Good luck!

Pistoliers are your only ballistic unit (aside from artillery). What is their function? Harrass the enemy, disposable unit? The rest of your army is slow moving, so pistoliers will be left by themselves without support if they eventually find themselves in a bind. They could be used to soften certain units before they fight your main infantry blocks but a more basic ballistic unit (handgunners, crossbows or archers) could probably serve the same purpose at half the cost. Outriders (with the vanguard move) could position themselves well and do way more damage.

And why the wizard on pegasus? Does he really have to be everywhere? If you want to move him fast, use the lore smoke and mirrors (teleport). Oh and shadows won't protect your troops, it's actually Hexes that will handicap your opponent. If you go infantry strong, definitely consider using an Amber wizard. In combination with warrior priests and one of the magic chariots, an Amber wizard will make your troops super killy and resistant.

With the points you'll save, boost the Greatswords, 'cause they'll be the ones doing the real work (not the spearmen). Think about adding a WP in their ranks for the hatred.

As for detachments, use only one but with 30 instead of 20. Too many detachments hinder movement and since they don't get steadfast from the parent unit, some generals see them as an easier target.

Think about using one of the new magic chariots to help boost your guys. Most people seem to like the Huricanum (for the +1 to hit and +1 PD), but I prefer using the Luminark (or both actually). At 120 pts, they are a bargain and they definitely add oomph to your troops. But don't put the wizard on it.

I like the 4 demgriffs, but basesize is wide so sometimes one guy will be left out of the action if you put them 4 wide.

Oh and on a final note, at 55 pts, you should never go out without a Witchhunter with a brace of pistols. He might not do anything in some battles (but at 55 pts it isn't quite a loss) but if he does hit his mark, your opponent's strategy might unravel quickly (think Vampire count or Dark Elf sorceress for example).

Good luck!

Why not just scour the bunches of pages in the battleground for good builds and go from there?  It's almost like you are asking us to do all you research for your benefit a lone.  Once you finish going through slap something together and ask how to strengthen or revamp.

Yeah, I should have explained myself better. I don't want you guys to do the work in my place, I want to get ideas outside the box, without preconceived notions. Just people throwing stuff out there... Then again, I'm probably too vague...

I like the idea of the two canons and a bunch of demigriffs, but would the artillery and monsters be my main assets or would they play a supportive role. If so, would they be better suited to support an Infantry build or a Cavalry build?

What about a steamtank? Does it have its place in a 2000 pts games? And if so, in what role?

Would a specialized army (all cav, magic heavy, all shooting, etc) be worth it in a small tournament?

Hey folks,

I'll do this one in reverse, instead of submitting my list I want you to build my list.

I have a "friendly" tournament this weekend and I need an all-comers list worth 2000 pts. Chances are I am going to face Ogres, Lizardmen, O&G, High Elves, Vampire counts and maybe Dark Elves... so yeah, right off the bat I know I need to take a LVL 4 caster (or two), but what else would you see?

Without going too much into details, try to explain the reasons and tactics behind your choice... 

The idea here is not for me to literally apply your list but to actually generate and discuss various builds and strategies....

Thanks for your help

Reaper does have one :

http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/abram/sku-down/02861

And if you look for Inquisitor, there a nice female witch hunter that comes up.

My personal favorite... from the Moot with a vengeance: http://www.heresyminiatures.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=9

Fascinating! Shows how much deployment of the detachments come into play.

If you stayed back an inch but with a slight \ angle, would it allow you to charge the flank of the enemy?

Then again, whenever you angle a defensive unit, you commit yourself (not as much with the muso free reform now, but still an issue with shooters). 

Here's a conversion I made recently for a painting contest.

He is the Dreaded Captain Valtramini, leader of a crew of imperial bucaneers!







He is actually a small, almost exact replica, of a friend I LARP with.

Thanks La Guerra for bring the thread back on topic.

Yes, I think its possible I forgot the steadfast bonus granted by the parent unit.

There's so many small rules now that it's easy to forget one. Let see, I had:
Steadfast due to the horde,
the general's leadership,
the reroll due to the BSB,
Hold the line, and I still missed it?

It's true though that I AM notoriously unlucky with my dies, although since I left my dour dwarves it seems to be a bit better, but definitely I must have forgotten something.

Anyhow, I'm not giving up, but I do want to know more. That idea about the detachments being in front of the main unit is quite intriguing. Any more manoeuvre ideas?

I think I posted this in the wrong section last time, so I am reposting it here...

Hey guys,

I need help figuring out how to best use detachments tactic wise.

The first Empire 8th ed game I played, I used a horde of 40 halberdiers with a war priest and a BSB, supported by two detachments of 10 halberdiers, one on each side. Now, my opponent (VC), charged my first detachment with some cav. and before I had the time to reply with my parent unit and/or supporting units (knights), the detachment lost the fight, broke, got run over and made my knights flee of the table due to their total destruction. Yes, I had the BSB, the steadfast rule, the hatred, etc., but you can still miss a leadership test with all that...

What I'm trying to figure out is how to avoid my opponent jumping on those more vulnerable units first? Especially if I were to use shooters. Should I employ less detachments but with more guys, should I deploy them a bit behind my parent regiment, should I remember the steadfast rule even if I loose 5 guys in one go? Did I answer my own question?

Anyways, I'm open to your ideas...

Corax

Hey, if you're going Stirland, with peasants and all, you can still work it into that war priest/light magic combo you suggested.

Being on the border of Sylvania, it wouldn't be out of place to have witch hunters amongst the peasant mob. A light wizard is always a plus when fighting the undeads as is a war priest with a following of sigmarites (fanatics) (might not be as good as before, but fluff-wise, still an awesome option). Archers and/or hunters would also fit in nicely. And maybe some converted pistoliers ranging about the borders.

I am personally, building a Knights of Morr army based in the town of Siegfriedhof, near the border with Sylvania. It will have lots of knights and a few demigryffs, but mostly alot of peasants armed with scythes, pitchfork and torches, captained by a fanatical witch hunter. Can't wait to get my box of Empire militia to start converting my peasants.