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Tactica: Empire - Teutogen | |
CORE UNITSHalberdiersAlthough not a brilliant fighting regiment, halberdiers strength 4 and cheap cost makes them ideal detachments for swordsmen or spearmen. On their own, they don't have enough protection to be effective in combat. Spearmen Spearmen are completely and utterly average. They make a decent enough fighting unit if a character is present or if there are enough detachments. Spearmen benefit greatly from halberdiers and handgunners detachments, combined they are greater than the sum of their parts. Swordsmen Swordsmen, for the same cost as a halberdier or spearmen with shield, have superior stats and a better save in combat. Swordsmen can take a good deal of damage, they make excellent "holding units" against enemy regiments and can hang on long enough for some knights to get into position for a flank charge. The ws4 and 4+ save means swordsmen take damage quite well, even against strength 5 cavalry charges they can hold their own long enough. The problem with swordsmen is that although they can take the damage they can't dish it back out, but combined with halberdiers detachments this problem can be remedied. Swordsmen are better most of the time as a fighting regiment than the above two. Handgunners For their cost, handgunners have to be one of the best core shooting units in the game. They are armed with the awesome handgun, and the champion can take a hochland long rifle. Sadly however, their poor accuracy means they can't win a battle on their own without adequate combat support. A good tactic is to make all handgunners detachments for large infantry regiments, apart from the advantage of being able to shoot any enemy that charges, the handgunners also won't cause any panic tests if they are forced to flee or are destroyed due to the detachment rules. Free companies Like halberdiers, free companies are not very good as individual regiments but excel as detachments. The 8-10 attacks as well as supporting flank charge means they are threatening and cheap. Halberdiers have hitting power, free company fighters have the sheer number of attacks and are cheaper, its a tough choice when it comes to whom to choose for detachments. Archers Although nowhere near as good as handgunners or crossbowmen when it comes to killing things, archers can be more useful in other areas. Archer are skirmishers, which means they take up less space when deploying than a long gun line of handgunners, can move in any direction, see in any direction and most importantly fire in any direction. Combined with helblasters, archers can help safeguard your army from beastmen ambushers attacking from behind and deal with annoyances like cameleoline skinks and flyers moving out of vision range of the more powerful shooters. On their own, archers don't have the punch to deal significant damage to the enemy, but they work extremely well when taken alongside handgunners or crossbowmen. Huntsmen are also good for slowing down enemy units by preventing them from marching, possibly giving the rest of your army an extra two turns of shooting before combat, best 50 points you'll ever spend. Crossbowmen Crossbowmen are less powerful than handgunners but have a longer range, both are quite good. Against things like wood elves crossbowmen are the most suitable choice since the tree-humpers don't get a save anyway and their longbows won't be able to outdistance you, anything with a longbow will outshoot handgunners. While against armies like chaos handgunners will be a better choice because that extra -1 to saves is vital for killing chaos knights and high save infantry. Knightly orders None of the core infantry units have the punch to finish off enemy regiments on their own. Every army needs a killer unit, and knights are killers. Almost all empire armies need at least one unit of knights for hard-hitting support, preferably inner circle with a captain leading them for good measure. They can also have a 50 point magical banner, but to keep the overall cost down I'd recommend a simple war banner most of the time. Whatever type of empire army you play, you probably need a unit of these guys. Tie up the enemy with infantry then go in for the kill with knights. Knights of the white wolf These guys don't have the 1+ save of knightly orders, but cavalry hammers more than make up for it, otherwise the same thing applies for them as knightly orders. SPECIAL UNITSGreatswordsAlthough stubborn is good, the leadership 8 means they aren't guaranteed to stay if they lose. The good thing about greatswords is they combine great weapons with a good save, the bad thing is they are fickle. If you are unlucky and take a few casualties from the enemy, you won't be able to dish out the damage effectively with those great weapons, against fear-causers stubborn means little too. It might be best to take swordsmen most of the time and spend the spare points on detachments. Greatswords, as it describes in the fluff, are actually really damn good at defending castles, it's almost impossible for an enemy unit to take a wall that greatswords are defending, in sieges it's criminal not to use them but in normal games you don't need them. Pistoliers Hailed as the most hard-hitting fast cavalry unit around, pistoliers are brilliant. Two pistol shots on the charge can be devastating, pistoliers work well supporting knights, charge the pistoliesr in the turn after the knights charged and the enemy unit should crumble. Its usually a good idea to take a marksman with repeater pistol since you can then shoot effectively as well as kick butt in combat. They can't beat enemy regiments without support but they are good against skirmishers, other fast cavalry and particularly beastmen centigors and lizardmen saurus cavalry. Every empire army should have a unit. Great cannons Brilliant war machines, can kill practically anything in one shot if you guess well, there's not much else to say except that everyone should consider taking at least one. Don't forget to grapeshot any skirmishers that go near it, I've nailed the odd lone chaos lord in my time too doing that. Mortars Usually left out of most armies, mortars have limited use, they tend to do nothing for a few games then spectacularly blow half an enemy regiment to bits. Occasionally brilliant, usually below average for killing a few men and worth a laugh when it misses by ten inches and hits something else entirely. Although a fickle weapon, if you can get it to land on top of any toughness 3 infantry unit near the middle you will almost certainly be rewarded. My personal highlight so far is landing a mortar shell directly in the middle of 20 high elf swordsmasters and killing eleven of the gits. Mortars require a good deal of luck most of the time as well, certainly less reliable than cannons but worth it against armies like skaven and high/dark elves. RARE UNITSHelblaster volley gunsThe helblaster has endless uses, it's criminal to not use one in any shooty army. Their main bad point is the fact that they can blow up at the absolute worst possible moment. Helblasters are beautiful tools of destruction, against skirmishers they don't need to hit, they can fire in all directions so beastmen ambushers have to be wary, against knights they are armour piercing and anything that gets within short range is either daft or suicidal. Helblasters are so versatile but you cannot rely on them too much since they are prone to malfunctions, but even if you do is misfire you can always pray for a 6! It's almost worth it for that alone, there's nothing more gut wrenching for your opponent than a helbaster misfiring then rolling a 6 on the misfire chart at short range, nothing at all. My personal record for that eventuality is currently 9 chosen chaos knights and a chaos lord taken down together in one turn. Single-handedly responsible for so many victories, it can just as easily blow up on the first turn as go on a killing spree and take out half the enemy army. Flagellants These crazed nutters aren't very good in protracted combats, and your opponent won't usually be daft enough to charge a decent regiment into them. They do make good protection for flanks, they work best in a cheap unit of ten. Next: Empire Magic Items | |
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