Empire army composition.

[Shaggy412]

Anyone knows a good army composition for Empire factions? Are artillery and ranged units still as powerful as in TWW2?

What's your most versatile army you now use?

[sleeper]

Well empire is interesting you can make a wall of greatsword users and have artillery bomb everyone. Or you can do hammer and anvil. Basically again greatswords and then you hit them from behind you cavalery while there engaged with the great swords. You can also mix both tactics. But to be honest the first army composition is the best. There not the best at it that is dwarves and cathay but it works considering what you have.

[Shaggy412]

Hmm, I remember Cavalary and Greatswords being weak in TWW2 yet here you say, tactics which include them in armies are good. Gonna give it a shot my man, thanks!

[pascal.difolco]

I'd say Lord + 2/3 heroes, max 4 melee (Halbs and Greatswords), around 8 Arquebusiers + Crossbowmen, a couple Cav, at least 4 arty (HRBs and HVGs mostly)

[BIG E.]

Ok so after tons of testing on VH battle difficulty i will say this,

Empire still wants to play around handgunners and artillery. However, few key things changed. Instead of going for 4-6 hellstorm batteries now you go for only 2 hellstorm batteries and 4 hellblasters.

Why?

Because AI in WH3 recruits ♥♥♥♥ ton of heavy cavalry and single entity monsters. Hellstorms do nothing against monsters and usually 4-5 gunners is not enough to kill them.

So here is the best army comp i have figured out;

Lord + 2 Captains + Wizard(life) + Warpriest + 4 halberdiers + 5 handgunners + 4 hellblaster volley guns + 2 hellstorm rocket batteries.

Key thing here you want your captains and warpriest buffing halberdiers constantly and get their MD techs aswell. Also corners and chokepoints are your best friends, forests and bumpy maps are your biggest enemy.

Imo this is the best army comp since you are mostly gonna be fighting chaos and monsters. You wanna be able to kill those monsters.

Now obviously depending on the Lord and faction you are fighting against you can do different things, for example Markus should 100% go for huntsmen. Huntsmen Generals are great for stacking archers for cheap armies, or for example you can drop handgunners for archers/crossbowmen when fighting against low armor factions etc

[SpeaksTooFast]

One thing I would be careful with is having too many handgunners, I find that if I have more than 4 I have a hard time setting up a decent firing line. They are also a lot less useful in sieges and settlement battles. 2-4 seems like the sweet spot IMO... especially if you are going for a more versatile army.

[BIG E.]

Originally posted by SpeaksTooFast:

They are also a lot less useful in sieges and settlement battles.

Oh sir... I disagree.

Step 1 - Blast a wall

Step 2 - Set up a unit of handgunners directly looking through the breach

Step 3 - Send your Lord/heroes to other side of the breach to lure their units

Step 4 - watch handgunners eat them

Step 5 - swap the handgunners when they are out of ammo and if AI doesn't take the bait anymore just move the handgunners in and do the same thing for chokepoints in the siege map.

And if they have really strong units that can duel your Lord/heroes you can actually lure them outside of the walls and kill them with handgunners/hellblasters.

I actually won sieges with handgunners that would take me an hour to win with crossbowmen since AI dodges arrows pretty good nowadays.

Only thing about this strat is though, you need to make sure your lord and heroes have somewhat good resistances and healing, thats why i love life wizard aswell.

[Shaggy412]

Oh yes, the Lord+Captain+Life Wizard+Priest with ~2 Handgunners, 2 Hellstorms and at least 2 Hellblasters is working out nicely.
I've noticed that I actually dont have to focus on my melee infantry at all since AI is either dead before they approach them, or they just go for heroes instead. Gonna put 2 more heroes into the army and maybe 2 more artilleries instead of infantry, see how it works out. Cheers.

[Hieronymous]

So long as Sigmar is present, most army comps will succeed.

[Shaggy412]

Originally posted by Hieronymous:

So long as Sigmar is present, most army comps will succeed.

For Sigmar and the Empire.

[Darklight]

I usually balance my army around rocket artillery, I get 5-6. I always get one wizard (life most appreciated) and a priest. I add in a few cheap buffer units like spear and shields or halbs backed up by some addition range. Handgunners are good all around damage but I usually prefer huntsmen or a mix of both as the rocket artillery already decimates infantry, I am only really missing good anti-large damage and appreciate that they arc the shots.

I fill in the rest with captains for additional buffer and anti-lord and anti-hero sniping. That was always my goto in WH2 and hasn't gone wrong for me in WH3 so far.

[SpeaksTooFast]

Originally posted by BIG E.:

Oh sir... I disagree.

Had not tried blasting holes in the walls as normally by the time I would have set that up my heroes/cav have already capped the town square... that being said it could be a fun strat.

Have you had recent success with a single breach in the walls or do you need a few to get reliable line of sight?

[Hieronymous]

Originally posted by Darklight:

I usually balance my army around rocket artillery

By Sigmar, yes

[Amereth]

Originally posted by BIG E.:

Originally posted by SpeaksTooFast:

They are also a lot less useful in sieges and settlement battles.

Oh sir... I disagree.

Step 1 - Blast a wall

Step 2 - Set up a unit of handgunners directly looking through the breach

Step 3 - Send your Lord/heroes to other side of the breach to lure their units

Step 4 - watch handgunners eat them

Step 5 - swap the handgunners when they are out of ammo and if AI doesn't take the bait anymore just move the handgunners in and do the same thing for chokepoints in the siege map.

And if they have really strong units that can duel your Lord/heroes you can actually lure them outside of the walls and kill them with handgunners/hellblasters.

I actually won sieges with handgunners that would take me an hour to win with crossbowmen since AI dodges arrows pretty good nowadays.

Only thing about this strat is though, you need to make sure your lord and heroes have somewhat good resistances and healing, thats why i love life wizard aswell.

similar to how i play the empire.


except i still send some infantry in because i like to watch them die, hmm i mean fight...


Lore of life is the best. That is why Bretonnia is one of the best faction. Easy life wizard at turn 1.



That and the fact they are a bunch of inbr...nope not going to say it.

[l_pha]

Archlector, life wizard, 12 steam tanks and 6 hand gunners. You can play Empire without ever building any of the other military buildings besides the artillary building chain.

[dollars202]

spearmen with shields. The silver shield ones are best but normal ones work fine against the ai. ohh bring a battle priest so you heal faster on the map.