The Empire!

I, in my infinite wisdom and distraction, have decided to switch my Fantasy army to Empire. I got to play a small game with my Dwarves in which I realized they do not fit my style of play as they're very slow and, as someone described, all the do is survive for the whole game. The Empire allows for more versatility and much more movement as well as allowing most types of armies. Balance is quite possible as well as a gunline or a knight army. The knights are what I started putting together first as they were the ones which I knew what I would do with. They take a while though, I've manage to get half of them done so far. This doesn't sounds so bad until you learn there are only eight knights. Here's my newly cluttered working area with the knights as well as parts for the Volley and Rocket gun:



I got the Empire Army box they had this out for this Christmas which has an impressive starting army with a lot of variety. It also has the impressive standard which many people convert to be a banner for the Deathwing and which I've been considering doing that for. Here's the box:



I could also buy the White Lion chariot from the High Elves and convert it to the impressive chariot/alter for an Arch Lichter. This would give me the lion bits I've been drooling over for my more advanced conversion of Belial. There is actually a cape bit on the knight sprues which has a cat face on it, I think it may not be meant as a lion but could well serve as one, a female at least so I may attach that to the current model to spruce him up a bit.

There are a few things which are getting me exited about the Empire, one of these is the Detachment system. This allows for what are called child units to back up parent units. The child unit must be equal to or less than half the size of the parent and is allowed to back them up in a fight depending on how you choose. They can either fire on a unit that charges the parent, counter charge a unit which charged the parent, and charging with a parent unit when they charge. In the charges, the child is allowed to hit to other unit in the flank which negates many advantages for close combat resolution.

The addition of magic is something I think I will also enjoy. I intend to run a Warrior Priest, which is a great hero, for a couple of reasons. First of all, he's a pretty strong addition to the power of the army in combat as well as the fact that he has magic to add as well. He has a smaller range of spells to draw from but they're all quite interesting and add much but he also adds a dispell dice to my pool which I found useful from the Dwarves. A warrior priest also allows my flagellants unit to be a Core unit instead of a Rare unit which means I can also take an interesting gun or a steam tank! The flagellants are an interesting unit which would tie up a powerful unit for a while as they won't break under any circumstances and might do some good damage as well. Enough about interesting units though, suffice it to say I'm exited about my new army and completely distracted for now.

I did however hear that my game store is going to be running a leader board on Sundays for the next couple of months with possible prizes if enough people participate. If I remember correctly the point value is 1500 so that shouldn't be hard to get up to and would be a fun way to get some games in as well as trying out my Deathwing army. I have the models built for it but not painted so I may try and paint them soon though the Empire building my take president.