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But think about it this way the Empire is fighting Chaso who has absolutely ZERO access to gunpowder. The Nilfgaardians are in essence set up the same way when it comes down to their militaries. Also the pike and shot tactic is used by Nilfgaard just with the less advanced crossbow.
Nilfgard would be like Brettonia if you stripped the Grand Scale Magic, magic equipment, any flying units, etc. and gave them some better infantry and morale. Brettonia already has a tough time of things, Nilfgard would just get wreaked.
You see just to play devils advocate for the sake of arguement. Reading the books there are actually a ton of people with magical ability, and in some cases they are more powerful then what the Empire was able to muster. Entire battlefields leveled by a single sorceror. I never hear of anything like that in the Warhammer Universe. As for the tanks they have been shown in lore to have weaknesses, and there are only 5 of them all together. Meaning when they're gone they're gone. Luminarchs are fine tipped scalpals so I don't knwo what effect they would have in a battle. Demigryphs is a DEFINITE boon to the Empire but pegasus mounts are few, and far between not to even mention that a few hundred crossbow bolts would end them. I would even argue that the "traditional" nilfgaardian troops are better equiped then the Empires. I will stand by my assessment the Nilfgaardians are basically Chaos just without all the wird Chaos, demonic stuffs...
Read the books about the magicians because it turns out that magic is actually almost as common as what they have in the warhammer universe, and even MORE powerful. Not to mention I feel that once again Nilfgaard resembles Chaos military wise just without all of the chaotic perversions. (One more point on magic though which I will give you is that magicians in the Witcher universe are persecuted like ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hell).
By the way they can't be superior in every category if the not-Swedes are better organized, and even more militaristic
And let's not forget the GUNS. Yes only the empire can field massive amounts of artiliry and smite enemies from afar. Only the Empire can have mounted gunsmen, or great cannons, or field gunners, or snipers.
Sure in the Witcher Universe there are many people who can use magic quite well, but what does Nilfgard really have access to? A small band of sorceresses? *ooo so scared*
Well fun part is they have all that stuff in the Witcher Universe except for guns, and artillery. Even so though the guns around the time period we are talking about were just as useful as crossbows. They just had an added scare factor in most cases. Another thing that I already established is that mages for the Empire are just as common for Nilfgaard.
Nilfgaard has created a vast empire by right of conquest. They pretty much did this in the same way the Roman Empire did. Their enemies were humans of inferior military capibilities and lacked and fell to the far superior military machine that is Nilfgaard. In the world of the Witcher their armies would face primarily other humans which gives them a great deal of experience in battle and wars.
They also would have surely dealt with many great monsters in their lands so they would not be unable to combat great monstrous creatures. In the starting area of The Witcher 3 you assist Nilfgaard in taking down a great griffon which for all intents and purposes seems very close to the power of a Imperial Griffon. Nilfgaard has the ability to stop it, but at a great cost and instead seeks to find someone else to the job. Their military armies themselves were far more used to fighting humans, but I dont think they would crumble before great beasts.
The Empire of the Warhammer world has fought many wars against a wide variety of enemies including other humans (and themselves) as well as all manner of beasts such as Orcs and Beastmen who present a whole different kind of challenge then a human foe. While Nilfgaard is able to deal with beasts if the occasion does arise the Empire does this on a daily basis. The Empire is used to fighting great enemies and have seen far more diverse enemies on a smaller and grander scale than that of Nilfgaard.
The Empire fights harder battles against stronger foes and manages to survive. Where Nilfgaard wages wars to subjucate other humans the Empire wages war to surive against the never ending onslought of great beasts from within and without. Their soldiers have stood face to face against towering giants, menacing orcs, savage beastmen as well as the overwhelmingly powerful forces of chaos and still survived. What has Nilfgaard done to rival this survival?
However by simply pointing out the obvious fact that the Empire has had the tougher fight and survived we do not prove that the Empire is the superior force. To stay within this specfic comparison between the Empire and Nilfgaard we have to ask the question of if Nilfgaard could survive like the Empire has.
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Nilfgaard wins by overpowering their foes with superior strength, equipment, tactics and training. They ARE the powerhouse that plows through their foes. They ARE the heavyweight in the ring. However what can the heavyweight do when he cant power through his opponent? What does he do when there is a bigger and stronger opponent than him? He has to look to other means of victory. The soldier has to look within himself to find the courage to fight on and overcome his foe.
In this regard The Empire has their zealous devotion to their several divine gods and primarily Sigmar. Soldiers of the Empire not only fought to survive for themselves, their families or their nation, but also their faith. They are fighting with the mindset of a crusader. Now all of the Empire soldiers are not zealous maniacs who will never retreat (far from it), but their actions are backed by their faith which does play a role in their ability to fight on. A man who believes in his cause hard enough will just keep going and even those who are less than devote can find courage in the words of their faith.
Nilfgaard on the other hand has their religion called The Great Sun. This religion is not nearly as deeply explored as the Empire's due to their being less material based on the Witcher universe, but I would also say its because its not as core to Nilfgaard as it is to the Empire. I would cite examples from Warhammer titles as well as all of the Witcher games to reference the fact that amongst the military from both faction one of them is constantly seen invoking their gods as well as having active religious battle leaders.
On the other hand I dont ever recall Nilfgaardien soldiers ever bringing up their gods. Its because of these things that I would argue that the Empire has superior devotion to their cause due to their war based religion spuring them on. Religion in our own world can drive people to do crazy things and cause entire wars. It also pushes people to blind devotion because of their faith. Often times this is a bad thing, but in a straight up theoretical war between to fantasy based armies I see zealous devotion to your cause and a sense of spiritual superiority over your enemy (and the opponents lack there of) to be an advantage.
This lack of unifying faith and devotion would greatly weaken Nilfgaards chances of surviving in the Warhammer World. They would fall victim to the temptations of chaos, the corruption of undeath and they would likely fall from within before they fell from without. The Empire finds its survial rooted in its Faith, Steel, and Gunpowder. Nilfgaard really only has one of those things.
Based off of all those things I would find it safe to conclude that the Empire of the Warhammer Fantasy universe has faced far greated challenges than that of Nilfgaard and survived. They have fought all manner of mortal opponents as well as not only the undead, but all the overwhelming power of chaos armies which are fairly similar to that of Nilfgaard. What does Nilfgaard bring to the table that the Empire has not faced before?
The Empire has faced overwhelming bulldozers and survived. There foe can be man, undead, beast, orc or chaos itself, but they will survive. The Empire of Nilfgaard on the other hand has serious problems dealing with the Northern realms which come across as a worse Bretonnia. The Northern realms are right up there with Bretonnia in terms of technology and may have an advantage in the form of superior basic infantry, but fall far short of Bretonnia in terms of cavalry, religion devoted to war and possibly magic.
Spoiler Warning for Witcher 3:
In fact if you (In the Witcher 3) choose to not actively get involved in the war between the Northern realms and Nilfgaard then the Northern realms will in fact win the war. Bretonnia is a weaker Empire of Sigmar and yet its rough equivalent will beat Nilfgaard.
Spoiler Over --
With all this being put out there it seems rather obvious that Nilfgaard cant bring anything to the table The Empire has not seen or cant handle. There is just no ace in the hole for Nilfgaard. The only advantage Nilfgaard has in their army is that of superior basic infantry which can be said for just about every enemy the Empire faces yet the Empire wins despite that through combined arms.
The Empire has superior technology, superior tactics, Superior air control, arguably superior wizards, superior cavalry, and has faced and beaten superior foes than that of Nilfgaard.
Now that went way longer than I expected it to and I am sure a great deal of it will be crap, but at least I tried. Also remember I was trying to focus in on a few key things such as who they face to show this battle from a different angle. This post was not meant to be an overall comparison.
I was going to do some detailed comparing like I always do with these threads, but the Witcher wiki is so barren I can't find enough to build up a solid understanding of just what Nilfgaard brings to the table and I'm not comfortable going into a comparison when I only have a good (somewhat) accurate picture of what one side fields.
And I just looked up the Battle of Sodden Hill. Literally all it says is that there were 22 mages there and that a lot of people died, although there was no indication that the dying was thanks to magic (in fact it specifically said that seventeen of those 22 mages were killed by the Nilfgaardian army).
First of all I have to say I enjoyed reading that. Now onto the matter at hand counter-arguement for the sheer hell of it.
First off I would find that because Nilfgaard fights humans all the damn time it is because of this that they would have the advantage. Their battle strategies would be undiluted when facing the Empire which has a force that consists of purely human subjects. Meaning that it would be simply another day in the park when a battle between these two occurred.
If you fight humans constantly you become very efficient in that form of combat instead of the "catch-all" fighting style the Empire would employ. Nilfgaard would argueably be better prepared for a fight with the Empire due to the singular factor they have fought other things that aren't human. Meaning the Empires tactics aren't s efficient as they COULD be in such a scenario.
Another thing I would like to point out is the Nilfgaardian cavalry which I would say is generally BETTER in comparison to the Empires. Reason being the Alba Division which has some concept art here: http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/witcher/images/2/25/Nilfgaard_by_2blind2draw-d6rrr12.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/220?cb=20151024070355.
The Alba Division is an elite heavily armored shock division the Nilfgaardians employed in combat which was their best cavalry unit. I would say they could be in comparison to the Reiksguard from their description in the books. They had the best equipment, horses, and training within the Nilfgaardian Army. The only thing I woul reckon to beat them are the Chicken Knights.
So overall I would say that the Nilfgaardians have superior human fighting tactics, superior soldiers in general, argueably better sorcerors. The ONLY thing I believe they lack is the gunpowder element. But plenty of factions have beaten that in the past in the Warhammer Universe. I don't believe gunpowder is a trump card.
You see I guess the falt on my part is that the books are a major thing my arguments come from. Which can be tough for others to decipher happy your having fun though!
Now the Battle of Sodden Hill was where basically where 22 sorcerors wiped out 2 armies ranging somewhere from 20-50k soldiers. The dying was due to magic which ripped everyone a new one. You look up the stuff surrounding Sabrina Glevessig?