Topic: Rebuilding the Army

[Michael W]

Hello All,

So...it's been the better part of 5 months since I last got a decent game of Warhammer.  I'm looking to sign up for a local tournamenty-league thing that runs through the spring and subjects me to five, maybe six games at a competitive level.

Thing is, as I sat down today to try to write up an army list, I realized that I don't really know what's out there.  And more importantly, I'm not entirely sure what a take-all-comers Empire army looks like anymore.

So I'm taking suggestions.  I'll put some guidelines in cause I know folks hate trying to give advice as to "what wins" - and, really, everyone's got their own idea, so I'd probably end up with a pretty crappy army list if I tried to take everyone's advice at once.

Models I'm pretty much golden on.  I have about 500 Empire models, representing all Core troops, all Specials except Outriders, one Helblaster Volley Gun, and one Steam Tank.  Oh, and the Flagellants...plenty of them, too.  There are about 30 characters, a dozen on foot and the rest mounted.  I can put a character on Griffon if I want, and I have one on Pegasus.  Well, 2, including the Wizard.  I am not buying more models for this.  So...model selection is not a terrible limit, but if I don't have it, I'm not getting it.

I know I want an Arch Lector.  My usual outfit is Dawn Armour & Shroud of Magnus, with a GW on a barded horse, thrown into a unit of 6 knights.  Lots of survivability, helps the knights resist enemy magic, and keeps those +2 Dispel Dice around as long as possible.  That said, I'm happy to change if there's a better way to kit him out or field him.

I also know that I like infantry and I like detachments.  My units are currently at 30 strong each (5 spear units and 2 swords units), with one unit of 40 halberdiers (that will take some work to paint if I intend to bring them onto the field).  I can fluff up those 30-strong units to 40 without too much work for fielding bigger units.  I haven't put Greatswords on the field since, I think once, early in 7th Edition, but I have plenty.

I've used Pistoliers since I figured out how to use light cavalry and almost always have appreciated their presence.  That said, I don't know how well they fare in competitive environments.  Knights I can never seem to use well - mostly they just seem to help characters avoid death.  (Last time I put a 12-strong Knight unit on the field, the only thing it killed was a unit of 10 ambushing Ungor bowmen.  Talk about wasted points.).

So...yeah.  Oh, 2500 points is the limit, so keep it under there.  I appreciate all the input on this.

[Eighty]

my personal preference for my arch lector is a war altar. having access to all the spells of light can be huge (bironas timewarp kicks everythings ass)

secondly we want to bump all your infantry blocks up up up. if you insist on using spears (i prefer halberds) make sure you have at least 50 so you get that extra rank of attacks for as long as possible (bring halberds!)

people here have mixed feelings on detachments - i personally just make all my detachments into another block of 40-50 units.

ballistic shooting is out, pie plate war machines are in! bring more mortars, i bring 6 machines at 2.5k 1 cannon, 3 mortar and the hellrocket and hellvolley. great stuff. having said that i also still bring a few pistoliers, they might not be as effective as they used to be but they still can make a difference (sometimes) haha

hope this helps a little! if you do some digging you will find plenty of threads going into more detail about starting a new 8th edition list

[Talben21]

I agree with the above poster, but I always bring 2 cannons.

[Michael W]

Yeah, I've been fielding a brace of cannons for as long as I've had a brace of cannons.  And my experience thus far with 8th has certainly convinced me that at least a pair of mortars is a necessity.