Topic: WD 147 3rd edition Empire Army List 1992

[Middenheimer78]

Greetings all I've recently delved into 3rd edition FB, mainly so I can fully enjoy both Realm of Chaos books and am also in the process of building a very themed Empire Army that makes use of Imperial Dwarves. I guess we could call this just towards the end days of 3rd edition where 4th was on the horizon and it gave us a taste of the structures of army books/codex to come while allowing us to use some of those new units that are not really in WA.

Anyway...while I do own Warhammer Armies, for those of us who remember in 1992 starting with WD Issue 146 GW released a NEW empire army list that makes some changes to the first list in WA. Technically it's over a series of WD issues that contain all the rules, mainly though it's issue 147 that contains the full list and issue 149 adjusting it slightly so you are able to add single troops as extras vs additional blocks of 5+.

Here is my question and this has got me very confused because after reading through #147 army list it does not seem to clarify or delve into these "problems".

1 It appears we can only take the named special characters from the list and multiple ( cause they were not named sc till later editions ) elector counts and battle wizards. Does this mean we cannot give them any magic items or extra points gear beyond for example the imperial zoo mounts ? ie they are locked with what they have ? In the case of battle wizards it simply gives their stats but they don't seem to have any locked magic or items specific to them either unlike the other character units.

This leads me into the next question which is a dual one...

2 Since the unit entries in #147 have for example a captain mentioned in the regiments and then the option ( under 10 or 15 size ) for purchashing a standard and musician, does this mean we cannot buy them a "unit champion" that we could from WA ? or the "captain" simply acts as the unit leader, which is different vs hero champions of low level that are tied to the unit unlike the higher level ones.

Secondly it's mentioned with Detachments that they can be bought and used as normal units if you wish, but you also have the option of using Detachments as the special rules version where they back up the parent regiments, what I'm not clear on is if we choose NOT to pick them as the backup unit, can we in fact take them as "rank n file" core units ? for example if we decided not to ( forgetting about what's good and bad ) buy a regiment of spearmen or halberdiers, we could just purchase units of handgunners, archers and greatswords ?

Are detachments allowed a musician and standard ? they don't have captains listed with them but I'm assuming they would still have a "leader" model at least visually ?

Thanks to all for any clarification with this for those who understand this specific list.

[commandant]

Generally detachments were not allowed their own command but I'm not sure if this was true prior to 6th as well

[Zygmund]

Use the 4th ed Empire book. The problems in the WD articles are tied to the fact that the 3rd ed rules were being transformed into 4th ed rules, with the accompanying new magic system with cards etc.

But if you insist on using the WD rules, I'd say you CAN buy magic items for your characters, you CAN buy the normal Captain And Unit Champion, and you CANNOT use units as Detachments if they have any unit upgrades (characters, command). At least that would be, in my thinking, within the spirit of the rules.

-Z

[Mike Stockin]

What he said.
I play WFB 3rd edition and I have the WDs in question.

They are as stated more 4th edition than 3rd, even though they are in WD issue before WFB 4th was published.
If you buy the army book for The Empire in 4th, you will see it is all in there like in WD.

So either stick with 3rd and ignore all that, or play 4th, or make some terrible hybrid of both like I did/am.