Empire book has arrived - a quick review

[Robcoulman]

Well, visit to QKG today and to my surprise the new Empire book was sitting on the shelf waiting fresh from being unpacked. Alan had two copies plus lots of the shiny new mini's. So 1 book duely purchased.

What's changed?
On the surface not much - still an army based around various infantry types, supported by Cavalry, Artillery and some of the more special things. Drilling in there are some fairly substantial changes to the armies in points values and equipment. The book structure is fairly standard:-

Part 1 covers the 'History' and geography of the empire and covers the colleges of magic, nothing particularly new in that bit.

Part 2 covers the Empire army and describes the characters and selections which make up the army. All of the expected characters are now included, Karl Franz, Ludwig Schwarzhelm, Kurt Helborg, Grand Theoginist Volkmar, Balthasar Gelt and Luthor Huss are described.
Change number 1 appears - The Empire general now appears and replaces the Elector Count (Although the character selected can be an elector count!).
Change 2 - addition of the outriders to the army, BS 4 basic troops with repeating handguns and a champion with BS 5 - Nice!!
Change 3 - Master Engineers get more options, the mechanical steed, Pigeon Bombs and the Grenade Launching Blunderbuss make this character much more useful.
Change 4 - The new artillery piece the Helstrom Rocket Battery (A 5" template weapon - hitting at S5!)
Change 5 - Welcome back to the Steam tank. It now has a S and T characteristic and that makes things easier for combat, the rules for steam points are simplified as well.
Change 6 - Warrior priests now have a Lord chacracter - the Arch Lector, plus the War Alter has been reintroduced! There is a change to the Ward aave prayer - goes from 5+ save to 4+ and a new prayer making the priest and his unit unbreakable.
Change 7 - Flagellants are even more fun! You can choose to sacrifce up to three figures a turn (Martyrdom!) and the unit gets benefits like re-roll to wound.
Change 8 - The magic Heirlooms are the same between the books, but the new book most of the items are cheaper, the one exception is the Griffon Standard which can only be taken as an army standard now (Removal of a small slice of chesse!) and is 55pts. Van Horstmann's is now better as it now includes the opponnents WS, S, T, I and A at the cost of 5 extra points (So now a captain with VHS and Sword of Battle (For one more attack just to run it in) can really take on ANY nasties out there!

Part 3 is the list itself and again changes - All of the named characters are now Lords or Heroes and none of them take up extra slots. There are 4 characters and 4 lord options (General, Templar Grand Master, Arch Lector and Wizard). Hereos now include Ludwig Schwarzhelm and Luthor Huss (Down from a Lord last time!!).
Change 1 here -m points values - Halberdiers, Spearmen and Swordsman are all cheaper (5, 5 and 6pts) and the champions of Halberd and spear units are also cheaper.
Change 2 - White Wolf knights now carry Great Weapons as the Cavalry hammer rule has gone (Loss of 1Str pt on charge!). Inner Circle Knights become a special choice.
Change 3 - Greatswords are now 10pts per model.
Change 4 - Pistoliers ae now 18 points
Change 5 - Flagellants are down to 10 Points and become a core choice if there is a Lector or Warrior priest selected!
Change 6 - The Helblaster is reduced to 110 pts
Change 7 - Dogs of ware have disappeared from the selection choice - no giants here then!

Finally the colour model section - what strikes me most here is how many of the previous character figures (Templar lords, Elector counts) remain unchanged. New models include - State troops, new characters models (General, Ludwig, Kurt and Warrior Priests), plus the new Helstrom Rockets. The rest are the older kits or metal figures.

So overall is the new book any good? Well yes the changes seem to be favourable, making the foot cheaper, bringing in the special characters that you will use and having all the familiar units in one place. The detachment rules are the same as before.

The army remains consistent and all the old figure choices can be used (And the inside back cover shows a massive Empire army with a mix of old and new plastics!). Most of the variant armies can be pulled together without any problems - the main exception is the Middenhiem Ulric orientated army - go back to storm of Chaos for that!

So I'm a relatively happy bunny - nothing looks broken, most stuff is cheaper and the key new unit I really like is the Outriders - 5 figures can lay down 15 S4 Armour piercing shoots with a minimum BS of 4 - all for 121 points Very nice.

So go Empire - 5,000 points ready to go!

Rob

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[Stan]

the book looks great, had a look at it in liverpool, and all in all i thought it was quite good. The Hellstorm model is not as bad as it appears, and is always convertable. the changes seem positive.

Its good to see the return of older unit types: outriders, and the steam tank, and a few characters. the background is meant to be darker, highlighting the corruption, and witch hunter nature of the empire.

the outriders do seem to be relatively overpowered for their points, i know their meant to be good but a BS 5 empire trooper, is too much, especially when elves are only BS 4.

The new boxes and organisation makes it easier to organise units, even though it does cost slightly more in the long run, if you have smaller units you might save.

Though didnt volkmar die at storm of chaos??? i think, or at least his wagon was smashed!

[Robcoulman]

Stan - the storm of chaos book talks about Volkmar being captured by the demon and his soul chained up. Volkmar escaped (His indomitable will!) and returned to the empire and was reinstated to his post.

The book is not that dark, although there are plenty of hints. I agree that the outrider champion is to good (BS 5 equals the main characters - Cmapion and General). But he costs 37 points! A Gladeguard champion costs 33 (And I know which I'd prefer - move and shoot at 36" every time - the wood elf will win that one!)

[Pils]

Well i think its a fairly good book, as for the outrider champion he is alot of points for what he is and for his BS being the same as a general well he is probably as old he just went down a different path of life

[Analytical Engine]

I'm interested in doing an engineer-based force. Could somebody tell me how feasible it is to do an all gunpowder/steam-tech force? Is it playable?

[Stan]

Playable? yes, however it will be a very specialised force, as such either working very well, or very badly. handgunners, artillery, outriders, pistoleers, steam tank, very much a ranged force, slightly cheesy i must add.

In all fairness i can see people getting bored of facing such an army on a regular basis.

[Dave]

With all the gadgets available (grenade launcher, sniper rifle, revolver, machine gun) it's more like Master Chief than Master Engineer but to be fair the mechanical steed is also an option for orcs (although it's a 'magic item').

I'm guessing the Empire's lack of a stone-thrower-like artillary piece led to the creation of that Helstorm Rocket Battery but it seems to be a slot filler somewhere between the cannon and mortar to deal with elite infantry.

[Llanfer]

I used to play Fantasy Warhammer quite a lot actually in the nineties. My favourite army was Wood Elves but I also collected High Elves, Dwarves and Empire. What really upset me about Warhammer though and it seems not to have changed is that every couple of years they would change the books, rules and armies. So that although you may have figures which looked superficially the same, whenthe armies changed all previous figurines were rendered 'obsolete' and not playable in tournaments,this meant you always had your hand in your pocket building new armies (and painting them! and now my eyesight isn't what it was - I have to wear glasses to see small print). Also whereas say, an old card retained its value - old figurines were virtually worthless. However I used to love the game itself and I would be interested to see how its changed.

[Dan]

The new rules work well. As to the updating of the armies it's stops forces becoming stale, it gives you a new way of playing it every couple years and as long as the model is still gw you can use it however old it is.

[Dave]

In some rare cases the older models look better than the newer ones. E.g Imperial Guard storm troopers, Bloodthirster (some might say), and so on.

[Robcoulman]

Current WH edition isn't to bad as far as the rules play - yep it's all about the gimmick's to keep sales going, but the basic troops are pretty much the same (A wood Elf Archer is still a wood Elf Archer).

The plastic models are actually pretty darn good and reasonable VFM - some of the metal stuff less so, but you don't have that many after all!

For me the rules are fairly seemless - but I do prefer to play Warhammer Ancients as it feels a better game. As always the interpretational aspects and loopholes are still around.

Key thing is it presents the option to have a few hours of 'fun' and broadly your old troops can work happily.

Rob