Those Poor Bastards, New Empire book

Just read some of the book myself from empire friend. I like it. It looks really good. I like how the gunline-ey-ness is less so I will actually get to fight some with him. I also like the options he is getting.

Luminark does do extra stuff against us, is going to be interesting.

Yeah, I agree. I think it's a pretty good book! There are some problems, some wording issues, and some things to make me jealous as a TK player (all those magic banners!), but overall I think it's great. Now if only they would let Cruddace go back and apply lessons learned to our book and put our some sort of update.

=> They would certainly be even cooler if you could move and shoot, but their real strength is their ability to very quickly get into a prime firing position and then hunker down and blast away.

=> They would certainly be even cooler if you could move and shoot, but their real strength is their ability to very quickly get into a prime firing position and then hunker down and blast away.

Dare to dream! As for the move and shoot, do you really think they would let a unit of fast cav be able to unleash the hell that outriders can AND still be able to more like an elf? I usually run a unit of 5 with HLR so as to snipe characters and whittle down troublesome units. After seeing the damage they can do, my friend added a unit of ten to his gunline army. The idea was to vanguard up and shoot, run away if charged then do it again as needed. Annoying as hell but worked great.

Too bad they took the HLR option away. Glad I never got around to modeling mine!

As a TK player, I am jealous of many things out of the Empire book. My primary complaint is that they have retained the character of the Empire army between the last two books and folded them into 8th edition.

Still useful magic items. The White Cloak is going to be used everywhere. Steel Standard and Runefang perhaps as well.

Armored troops - coming in shades of S3, S4, S5, S6 and 1+ or 2+ AS.
Infantry and Detachments.

Artillery (with the proper points increase).

Variety of support characters (priests, witch hunters, engineers, wizards etc.)

Big wagons (Tanks, Luminarchs, Hurricanums, Alters)

and for those interested, the Imperial Zoo list.

Basically, if you wanted a themed army, you could probably do it and still be moderately effective. The characters would help fill in the gaps to tie the list together. I'm not saying it's Demons where you can throw models together and still win. However, the book will support many viable builds, even if it isn't 100% optimized. As we know for TK, the game can be won or lost immediately on list development.

Don't forget, it's another book where models for each and every unit are available for purchase.


Where is our Titan?
Our Colossus with great weapon?
Colossus with bow?
Ushabti with two weapons?
Ushabti command?
Heralds of any kind, especially the BSB?
Almost all the special characters?

Honestly, if it's not obvious to everyone that GW viewed the TK book as a slapdash test bed for VC rules and certain other concepts (resin ushabti helped GW learn how to _not_ cast larger resin models and paved the way for multi-unit plastic combo kit MI for VC, plus other non-VC concepts as well), this should be another clue.

The book is out, it's a rushed piece of awfulness, missing models, with an incomplete FAQ....the list goes on.

They are done with it, have moved on, and consider us lost causes now that they have the cash from our initial spending spree.

I'm still playing them, as are most of us, but it's pretty obvious to me that our dedication is just a happy perk as far as GW cares. The release served its purpose...moving on.

Don't forget, it's another book where models for each and every unit are available for purchase.


Where is our Titan?
Our Colossus with great weapon?
Colossus with bow?
Ushabti with two weapons?
Ushabti command?
Heralds of any kind, especially the BSB?
Almost all the special characters?

Honestly, if it's not obvious to everyone that GW viewed the TK book as a slapdash test bed for VC rules and certain other concepts (resin ushabti helped GW learn how to _not_ cast larger resin models and paved the way for multi-unit plastic combo kit MI for VC, plus other non-VC concepts as well), this should be another clue.

The book is out, it's a rushed piece of awfulness, missing models, with an incomplete FAQ....the list goes on.

They are done with it, have moved on, and consider us lost causes now that they have the cash from our initial spending spree.

I'm still playing them, as are most of us, but it's pretty obvious to me that our dedication is just a happy perk as far as GW cares. The release served its purpose...moving on.

+1

And the witch hunter! THAT'S APOPHAS DONE F***ING RIGHT! AND SOOOO CHEAP! AND GIVING MAGIC RESISTANCE TO HIS UNIT! I almost want to completely switch to Empire just for these guys. And warriors priests are like MEGANECROTECTS....

I did, and now I'm sad At least I can still use the model as it won't confuse anyone with an option that no longer exist.


As for the book being good, it's was an easy(ier) job, even for Cruddace, to work on that book as the Empire is quite a well oiled engine already, and all the mechanic are the most basic stuff found in the BRB. They don't have a ton of fancy rules or abilities, and those they have is a few editions old already so it was more a tweak than a re-write. Totally different from the TK situation, who had to cope with a brand new edition that totally changed their nature, and the army design that was also altered from the single book that was before it. So yeah TK are rough around the edge, but it's a "new" army that is harder to get right due to the nature of the army, being Undead and all. All we can hope is that the next book, in 9th or 10th editon, will polish what was done here (instead or going in a new direction again) and get only better

Same for the models. The Empire were already far ahead of every other armies in term of models available (and in plastic), they needed very little update of their range so all that was left was the new stuff they wanted to introduce and a few characters. Tomb Kings got a fairly good release, as good as any army, in term of new kit and models, it just need more support latter down the road as they can't possibly release everything in one go and we honestly had a lot of new stuff that needed models. We needed more models due to a bunch on new units and a lot of old metal models they'll want to replace eventually, but I'm sure in time we'll get them. Beastmen did get all their rare choice years after release, it was a long wait but they got them, so patience and we'll see ours too

I did, and now I'm sad At least I can still use the model as it won't confuse anyone with an option that no longer exist.

=> Not so fast! Maybe, maaaaaaybe, if you have no other rifles in the army you could do it. If you add an actual rifle elsewhere, though, it would be bad form to say "this rifle is actually there, but that rifle isn't."

=> I'm a 40 year old man. I don't have a whole lot of gaming years left (at least not a lot of painting years). Dammit, I want my crap now!

There shouldn't be confusion if only Engineer can use HLR now, the Outrider will just be one more "champion that look cool", like if you have a great weapon champ in a State Troop unit. A unit leader (champion or not) that look cool with an unusual weapon never was a source of confusion, at least around here

Fair enough, but you're young enough and have plenty of time If we are to believe all the rumors, my guess would be that we'll see the Colossus/Titan kit within the year, wich would be great.

that is why i have my little ones training to paint my armies....
Muahahahah!!! My son is good enough to throw a guy in my ranks and noone notices the difference.

As for my daughter, well, pink skeles do kinda clash with the turqoiuse and red...

I am getting the new book tommorrow for my Empire. I play it mostly against my son's skaven, or for campaigns.

J

Gahhh! Dear Jeebus, man! Heresy.

I would faint at the sight.

Obviously I did convert and am now sad. Now I really have to trim the fat from my list after all the changes. Will have to read it with a fine eye.

I think it's because all the negative rumours broke first, mortars nerfed into the ground, swordsmen (previously the most popular ST unit) now way overpriced, flaggellants nerf-batted out of the park.

Now while that stuff bugs me slightly, the benefits of the new book far outweigh the negatives, the detachment system is frickin awesome, priests are still strong, but not overpowered and captains/generals finally have a role without just being a vastly inferior arch lector/priest.

With the exception of the 3 units above (which coincidentally were very popular powerful choices in the last book) everything else is pretty well balanced, the Mage altars and war altar are great value, and I think RC has even made the griffon a competitive choice, no mean feat at all.

The book certainly needs to be read and thought about properly, a superficial reading basically lease you with the impression that everything just went up in points for no good reason, but a deeper look reveals the strong, reliable synergy in the list.