Playing Against the Empire ? Anti- Empire Tactics.

I will be starting an anti-empire tactic thread here. If you want some advice about beating the empire, stay tuned.

Anti Empire Tactics Round 1

The empire is not exactly the most beardy army out there. They haven't won a ton of GTs or Games Days, and in general, are seen as a difficult army to master effectively. That being said, they can really be a pain in the ass sometimes, especially for certain types of armies. With the newest army book, the empire definitely grew stronger. Lets take a look at what makes the empire a tough opponent at times

1. Cheap, equipped, troops. The empire can be a horde army, even though many people don't use them that way. But at 5 points a peace, your average empire soldier aint too bad. At 5 points you get either spears, halberds, or 2 hand weapons... not bad. At 6 points you get swordsmen who are WS 4 and have a 4+ in CC. So be prepared for large blocks of infantry. Empire characters also tend to be cheap and very effective.

2. Guns, guns, and more guns. Except for maybe the Dwarves, no army can out shoot an empire gunline , and that's a fact. Between archers, handgunners, crossbowmen, cannons, mortars, pistoliers, outriders, hellblasters, and hellstorms, there's a lot of lead getting thrown at you. Dealing with the empire means dealing with a shooty army, more often than not. So we will deal with this later on in the thread.

3. Detachments. Detachments allow the empire player to do something that no other army in the Warhammer world can do.. countercharge in the same turn they are charged. If you are not familiar with this rule, please look it up in your local hobby store. At the least, the detachment rule makes rushing the empire a very tactically challenging endeavor.

4. Good Armour Except for their ballistic units, the empire sports some of the best armour in the game. Your basic swordsmen have a 5+/4+ save. All empire Knights have a 1+ save, and so will most empire characters. This can be difficult for low strength armies such as wood elves, to handle.

5. Versatility When you play against the empire, you're never sure what you're gonna get, unlike say, a chaos army, which you know, is gonna be coming at you. The empire is flexible in both list building, and on the battlefield, which is not to be underestimated.

Now let's look at some of the Empire Weaknesses

1. Fragile. Despite having some good armour, the men of the empire are just that.. Men. Toughness 3 is the norm for the empire army and thus, makes them quite vulnerable. Most are also strength 3... not very powerful.. the empire usually wins CC through static combat resolution (positive resolution modifiers, before wounds are give ie, ranks, banners, etc). Remembering this fact can help you win against them.

2. Low Leadership The best the empire can muster is a LD 9. But most units in the empire army are a leadership 7. This makes them very vulnerable to panic, fear, terror, and all sorts of mayhem. When playing against the empire, this needs to be used to your advantage.

3. Slow The average speed of a human is mv 4. They are slow compared to other races. As an army, the empire is slow. Since most of their cavalry is barded, they have mv. 14. Only the fragile pistoliers and outriders have a 16 mv. The army is also woefully short on fliers, with only the pegasus and lord on a griffin available as fliers, neither of which can be fielded without a character.

4. Whacky Contraptions One of the empire's biggest strengths is also one of their biggest weaknesses. Artillery. Cannons, mortars, hellblasters, hellstorms, and Steam Tanks, are just as likely to blow themselves up at some point during the game, then cause any really damage. Remember that it is the psychological advantage that the empire player is paying for when they choose these weapons.

5. Jack of all trades/ Master of none The empire offers versatility in exchange for a lack of specialization. Empire soldiers excel at nothing. They are not particularly good at shooting, even though they have a lot of it. They are not particularly good at close combat either. They are not particularly good at magic. Sometimes when met with overwhelming skill in one area of expertise, the empire crumbles, as we shall see later on.

Look for Round 2 in the near future.

Step 2
Using the Empire's weaknesses against them

First we'll start with tactic of using the empire's weaknesses against them.

Low Ld

As mentioned in the last post, the empire is prone to low leadership and psychology. The Empire has 3 units that are unbreakable : Flaggelants, The Archlector on a War Alter, and a Steam Tank. They have no units that are immune to psychology, unless they take specific magic items or special characters. So, in general, the empire is very vulnerable to fear and panic. One tactic to beat the empire is to make them take a lot of psychology tests. Shooting parent units ( not detachments) is a good way to start the panic rolling. Aim for units that , if they panic, will flee through other units, forcing the secondary units to take panic tests as well. Pick units that are beyond the 12 inches of the general for maximum effect. Look for parent ballistic units, which are usually 10 -12 strong and have no armour. If these units take 3 or 4 casualties, a panic test will ensue.

If you are playing an empire player, attempt to use your fear causing units to cause further leadership tests. Always target units that are farther away from the general, as most empire units have a 7 or 8 ld. Needless to say, a well planned movement of a terror causing unit can be devastating against an empire army, so make sure you use your terror causing units wisely as well.

Fragility
The only units that are tough to crack in the empire army are Knights and the Steamtank. State troops have a 4 +armour save at best and ballistic units have no armour at all. Almost every soldier in the empire army is toughness 3. This means that the empire is vulnerable to low strength, high rate of fire shooting. Crossbows, rockthrowers, reaper bolt throwers, magic missiles , ratling guns, and arrows will start to take it's toll on the empire masses. Make sure you concentrate your fire on large blocks of infantry, so that you can decrease rank bonuses and cause the panic tests. Only focus on empire knights with well aimed bolt thrower shots, hand guns, and specific magic. In close combat, the empire can function a little better because of all the numbers they can bring to bear. But they are still vulnerable to High Weapon skill, multiple attack units suck as dryads, saurus, swordmasters, etc.

Lack of Speed

The following armies are all faster than a balanced empire army : All elven armies, Brettonians, skaven, Ogres, Lizardmen. The following armies have the same basic movement of the empire, but have faster elements, that the empire does not have : Orcs and Goblins, Tomb Kings, Vampire Counts, Demon armies. The following armies are the same or slower than the empire : Chaos, Dwarves, Chaos Dwarves.

Get the picture here? Speed is a real issue for the empire, which uses flaggelants, the stank, and missle troops to protect it's vulnerable flanks. If you can take advantage of their slowness, the empire can be outflanked. This is important for removing ranks, and dealing with detachments. Speed also allows you to deal with the empire players missile troops faster, so the rest of your army does not sustain as much damage.

Warhammer is a game of tactical maneuvering more than anything else. So having a speed advantage, and knowing how to use it is extremely useful for the empire opponent.

Next we'll talk about Dealing with Detachments.

Nice article Stephan. I had never thought about the Empire as a slow army. I know my Slaanesh cavalry can take advantage of that. Too bad I have nothing in the way of low str shooting, except maybe the rocklobber. I'm really looking forward to the summer and some games of Warhammer!

Well they certainly are slow being that they lack fast moving elements. Lets look at how they compare to other armies.

You're average empire soldier is mv 4.... we have a 7 inch Cavalry and 2 8 inch Cavalry units. You can mount a hero on a pegasus and the lord can ride a gryffin. Thats that in the way of speed.

All Elven armies are faster with their mv5 and mv9 cavalry

Brettonian armies have overall 8 inch movement, making them faster.

Skaven have mv 5 but lack cavalry, which takes away some of their speed, but they also flee an extra inch which helps them sometimes. They also have tunneling units that make up for this.

Ogres all move 6 inches, making them an extremely fast army, even though they only have Rhinox cavalry. They have slave giants too.

Vampire Counts have predominantly mv 4 but have dire wolves, black knights , bloodknights, Fellbats, bat swarms, Spirit hosts, carn wraiths, and the new varghulf all with faster mv.

Tombkings - have chariots , light horsemen, carrion, and tunneling scorpions to make up for their mv 4

Chaos, while predominantly mv 4 have mv7 knights, chariots, marauder cavalry and demonic units that have mv 5 or can fly. The also have chaos hounds. They also have access to the Beastmen army book for added speed. Slaneesh and Tzeentch in particular have access to some fast demonic mounts. and don't forget chaos Giants

Beastmen are quite a fast army with predominantly mv 5 skirmishing units. The also have centigor cavalry, ogres, Minataurs, trolls, dragon ogres, warhounds and chariots

Lizardmen are predominantly mv 4 but have skinks who are mv 6 and can scout. So overall their speed is a little better. plus they have Saurus cavalry and terradons, to add more speed.

Orcs and Goblins are also predominantly mv 4 but have wolf units that are quite fast, spider riders which can ignore terrain, chariots, sqig hoppers, trolls, Giants, and the pump wagon

Dwarves, are obviously the slowest army in the warhammer world, even with the gyrocopter

Chaos dwarves are a little bit faster than regular dwarves because of their bull centaurs, lamassu, an mounted hobgoblin units.

So as you can see, the empire army is quite slow compared to other armies. Because of their versatility, they can choose to take an all cavalry army.. but this is not very balanced list

Nice article Stephan, seems like you've got a good handle on the Empire army.

On a side note, will you be making a seperate side bar for kislev folks or are left out to dry?

But again, very nicely written article, I hope to see more like these in the future!

Everytime ive played against Empire their biggest weakness has been LD tests, i have broken whole empire armies with fear/terror alone, if general runs off the table, then the empire army is as good as dead.

ps. never and i mean NEVER fail a charge in front of a hellblaster volley gun .....brrr, i still have nightmares about it.

STEP 3 - Dealing with Empire Detachments

Some people say, " look at those little detachments, they're worthless and not worth my attention"

Well, that's not too far from the truth. Detachments are worth very little point wise, usually being no more than 60 pts a piece. But... they are certainly worth your attention, because if you neglect them, they will usually come back to bite you in the ass.

First, let's look at what detachments are and what they can do. Swordsmen, Halbadiers, Spearmen, Free Company, Archers, Xbowmen, and Hangunners can all be detachments, no one else. Any unit of State Troops can be a parent unit and can take 2 units of detachments which number no more than half the size of it's parent unit. So if I take a block of 10 swordsmen, I can take up to 2X 5 man detachments of any kind mentioned above.

Detachments must be deployed within 3 inches of their parent unit, at the same time the parent unit is deployed, and they must remain within 3 inches if the parent unit is to benefit from the detachment rules.

There are 3 main things that detachments can do.

1. If the parent unit is charged, a detachment can counter charge the enemy unit in the flank, regardless of whether or not the detachment is actually in the enemy' flank. As long as they have the distance to hit the enemy unit, they can do this. Counter charging detachments strike first before the charging unit and negate enemy ranks.

2. If the parent unit is charged, ballistic detachments may stand and shoot the charging unit, without the usual stand and shoot -1 modifier.

3. If the parent unit declares a charge on an enemy unit, and a supporting detachment has enough distance, the detachment may charge the flank of the enemy unit, regardless of whether they are in the enemy's flank

So as you can see, it is folly to charge a fully ranked empire unit w detachment to the front, with out having some very serious hurt you plan to dish out. A ranked unit charging an empire parent unit will loose it's ranks and the empire will get +1 to combat res. Plus, the empire unit will most likely outnumber an otherwise even combat. So instead of having a static combat res. of 4 (3 ranks and a standard) you will have a static combat res of 1 (for the standard). Meanwhile the empire troop has a static combat res of 6 (3 ranks, standard, outnumber, and flank). That means that your ranked unit will need to inflict 6 wounds, and sustain none themselves in order to win combat. So as you can see, that's a dicey proposition.

Detachments add to the lethality of the empire block by adding another unit to pursue with. There have been many a time where my enemy has escaped my parent unit after loosing combat, only to get run down by a 54 pt detachment of empire swordsmen.

Oh and did I mention that detachments never cause panic in any other empire units, even other detachments?

SO what to do about these annoying detachments.

1. You can shoot them. The best armour save a detachment is going to have from shooting is a 5+. They are Toughness 3. In most cases, if you kill a few, they'll have to take a panic test. Shooting them also lowers their numbers. Once you get a CC detachment down to 4 models, they are essentially worthless since they can no longer negate ranks.

2. Charge them. This is a sound tactic to break through an empire line, however it needs to be done with care. A savy empire player will place his detachments in such a way that, if it is charged, they will flee, and you will have a failed charge on your hand, and a possible flank charge from the parent unit in the next turn. If charging an empire detachment, you must make sure that you will have a good chance of moving your full charge distance and running them down even if they flee. This might require getting a bit closer to the empire line than you would like however, so this tactic is not for the weak hearted, but more for the well-armoured.

3. Flank them Parent - Detachment combo units are unwieldy and slow, even more so then your regular block units. Detachments make their parent unit quite ponderous if they are to remain effective. Nothing will ruin an empire players day more than getting a flank charge on one of his detachments. Most likely the detachment will be destroyed and you will overrun into the flank of the parent unit. If you are fear causing, even better. Sometimes this may not be easy to do however as a savvy empire player will make sure his flank is protected by unbreakable units or the board edge.

4. Magic With less targeting restrictions, and psychology affecting results, magic can be devastating to a small unit of empire soldiers. So like when applied to skirmishers, Magic always offers a way to deal with small units.

Thats that for now Folks. Next Topic Dealing with Empire Artillery.