Topic: WIP: Osterknact's 8th Edition Ideas - Overview

[osterknact]

Welcome, to Osterknact's WIP version of the Empire in 8th Edition. The end goal is to combine and build upon all the great ideas circling around the forum into a coherent Army List that can be used in a W-E Campaign - a great playtesting ground.

Campaign Background - In the wake of the Storm of Chaos, the Empire has survived but at a terrible cost. The Emperor, Karl Franz and many of his top lieutenants fell in the last terrible battle. The new elector counts untrusting of each other accidentally elect the Halfing representative, Helga Stewmason the Emperor. Helga's rule is ineffectual and her policies do little to help the provinces in the aftermath of the war. This farce sends the Empire into turmoil and the provinces of the Empire are fractured and divided. The greatest threat to the Empire is civil war as towns, leagues and provinces seek to profit from this collapse in Empire law. Who now can bring about justice? (drawn from rumours about Warhammer-Forge)

[Hopefully, if their is enough participation there will be a division for each province who will at first fight amongst themselves and occasionally battle againist a neighbouring province. Then in latter stages of a campaign, the strongest warrior from each province will claim electorship and seek to expand his influence, forming alliances and fighting againist the other provinces.]

1. Provincial & City State (inc. Marienburg) Flavour System & Traits. This is a link to another of my posts where each province/army is characterized by its economy, population, location and religion - each of which give their own advantages & disadvantages.

2. Troop Builder - State Troops
 
3. Special Character - Elector Count - Builder

3^1/2. Captain - Ranger/Witch Hunter/Seneschal -source:Warlord

4. Lieutenant = parent unit only command upgrade with access to magic items 15/20pts... costs double of sergeant?

5. 'Art of War' - add. powers for general, capt. and grandmaster. Two Schools - Combat & Tatics

6. Army Focus = different compositions. The ability to create greater themed armies eg. Crusading and Holy Mission armies.

7. Engineers - Journeyman & Master + new experimental weaponry. source:der Hurewiebel

8. New Magic Items - inc. Religion effected Holy Relic & New Banners

9. Dogs of War 2.0 - an empire only merc. list including Ogres, Halflings, Kislev, Tileans & Estalia.

10.  Knightly Order Traits (secular vs. religious)

11. Polytheistic Warrior Priest and Arch Lector - one unique prayer for each major religion - Sigmar, Ulric, & Morr?

[osterknact]

The Captains of the Empire: The Ranger, Witch Hunter & Seneschal

Captain of the Empire  M WS BS S T W I A Ld
                                 4   5   5  4 4  2 5 3  8

all of these variations have the same statistics? or very small variations... much of the difference is their choice of equipment.

Ranger Capt.
skirmish
light armour (only)
hand weapon, longbow, bow and HLR
not sure yet if they should be allowed to have other magic weapons & armour?

Witch Hunter Capt.
Leaning towards unit upgrade for Milita and Flagellants instead.
(Can not be outnumbered by Wizards and a Wizard can never be army general)

Seneschal.
Knightly Valour - as the embodiment of the Order, a Seneschal will never flee or retreat from the battlefield. A Seneschal can only join a unit of Inner Circle Knights and makes them ... and acts like a standard bearer.

[osterknact]

The Lieutenant - An Empire Command Upgrade for Parent Units

[osterknact]

The Empire's - Art of War
Captains and Generals of the Empire are not born military geniuses. Either they have excelled in battle rising through the ranks or been trained in the Imperial Military College in Altdorf, most have done both.
Capts. - 10pt AoW allowance.
GotE - 20pt         ''
TGM - 15pt          '' (Combat only)

Originally, my idea was to have 3 different schools, each specializing in an exclusive discipline - combat, leadership and tactics - but it was really hard to justify increased Ld10 and really blurred the line between tatics and Ld. But, after reading some posts - I am convinced convinced that elves, dwarves and certain other fantasy beings should be better at Ld, general tatics and combat. Why should empire get a free reform when elves cant?
~But an Empire General should increase his armies abilities and the PERFECT way to do that is to increase and build upon the unique Empire detachment system.

Therefore, I have decided upon two schools of AoW - Tactics and Combat.
Tactics:
~(General of the Empire only - possibly should be a GotE standard ability) - increase detachment range to 5".
~Hold your Fire! - Supporting Stand and Shoot detachments do not suffer the -1 pentaly, unless they themselves are being charged.
~To the Rescue - Counter/Supporting charge 2D6 +1" 

& Combat/Specialty - this is not the right name gives the wrong impression these abilities are for the general himself and signify each general's unique upbringing, education and skills:
~eg. Marksman - once  a game re-roll all shooting hits againist a target. - Unique but not super powerful

[osterknact]

Troop Builder - State Troops

M  WS  BS  S  T  W  I  A Ld
4    3    3    3  3   1  3  1 7  - base statistics of Empire militia/state troops.

Halberds & Shields cost +1pt.
+1WS and +1I cost +1pt? Swordsmen have shield plus +1 to WS & I for 7pts when base is 5pts...

I suggest that the profiles are a good thing except it means that swordsmen are always the elite troops. When there is fluff that shows that several famous regiments use halberds of even spears.
I think the ability to build your own troop is very Empirical and not very hard to justify.

Maybe you are allowed one unit of 0-1 Elite State Troops with +1 WS & I for every 2000pts?
I also think half or full pikes should be a limited option...

[osterknact]

The Elector Count's of the Empire - The Special Character Builder

start with GotE base statistics - the statistics WS,BS,T,S,I are allowed to be moved one point in either direction eg. +/- 1 WS but it costs 5pts to move a pair of stats one up, one down. 2 pairs of stats can be altered eg. +1 WS = WS6 & -1T = T3. Also BS and WS cannot be a pair.
~this needs tweaking...

For its 100 pt cost Runefang is included in profile, but doesn't count toward magic item limit which is 50pts.

then have some special rules - both ad./disadvantage.
eg. Mad Hatter (ex.Marius Leitdorf) on a 4+ General acts normally, but if he fails suffers from stupidity for the rest of the turn.
~ One-Handed: cannot dual-wield, carry a shield or use two-handed weapons.
~ Caution to the Wind: If in charge range must attempt to charge.
 
All special rules modeled on either elector fluff or other empire fluff, and other army book lists.

Also all rules regarding one magic weapon & armour per character are disregarded.

[osterknact]

The Empire Engineers - Journeyman & Master
thanks to der Hurenwiebel for the idea and some great experimental weaponry.
Two Engineering characters - Journeyman & Master ? - what are their roles...

~Kape Gun Retrofit: The Hochland Long Rifle is not ideal for a fast closing enemy. For Marksman who are unsure of their ability to stay disengaged a Kape Gun adds much needed short range firepower. +10 points side firing repeater pistol has been mounted to the Hochland Long Rifle.
~Steel Longbows: AP Range 36" and +2pts each?
~Falconet: this highly manouverable mini-canon is the perfect defense againist those individuals beant on destroying the crazy inventions of a Master Engineer. Has also been widely adopted in the Imperial Navy. Range 12" Strength 6, can either be loaded with a Canon Ball or Scatter Shot which is D6 S4 shots.
~Telescopic Targeting Monocle: +1 BS for engineer 5pts?
~Breech-Loading: Move & Fire OR Rapid Fire x2 shots. +5pts per model - Handgunners only 0-1 limit.
~Nulnish Shoulder-Cannon: + 30 points, range 36' strength 6, 3 shots. Equipped with the new dropping breech block so it is not restricted to move or fire.
~Waldenhof's Winged Warriors: It was during a demontration of the outlandish flying skills of the Birdmen of Catrazza that Hans Von Waldenhof was inspired.  He swiftly gathered the broken pieces of a shattered glider as well as the wounded pilot citing Imperial security reasons, then after many failed experiments and several modifications to the design we have this.  1 Rare unit per 2000 points. Outriders may purchase a flying upgrade for 15 points per model.  The unit gains skirmish & flying in place of fast cavalry.
~Chain Shot: range 42 S6 D3 troops per rank for full range.  Hans Von Eggendorf had the brilliant idea of riveting two cannonballs to each other by a short stout chain after being inspired by the antics of a goblin fanatic, (through a spotting scope at a safe distance of course) the rest is military history.  The D3 variable represents the action of the twinned balls spinning through the unit at high velocity. +20 points to equip a cannon with these.

[osterknact]

Dogs of War 2.0
*inc. Ogres, Halflings, Kislev, Estalia & Tileans - an Empire only resource. using allied contingent rules: ACC - Allied Contigent Commander
also will relate to each province's characteristics both location: north vs south = ogres + kislev vs tileans and economy: rich vs poor = lots vs not so many

Ogre units = Maneaters and Bulls(?).
Halfling units = Hotpot, skirmishers & ?
Tilean = Pikes, Crossbows with Pavise and ?
Kislev = Kossars, Winged Lancers, Horse archers and Bear-riding capt.

[osterknact]

Knightly Order Traits
would have to be really well done... read some stuff on White Dwarf system seemed to me that one or two of the traits were way over powered, made it a choice between power or fluff

Secular eg. Reiksguard and Knights Panther vs. Religion eg. Order of ...
                                                                                          Sigmar -
                                                                                          Morr -
                                                                                          Ulric -
                                                                                          Myrmidia -

[osterknact]

Empire Magic Item List
many of our items were added to the common magic item list - which makes sense we are the most common warhammer race. However, we need some new items especially banners.

[osterknact]

THE CAMPAIGN

[osterknact]

Collaborators
-Zygmund
-Der Hurenwiebel