The empire is fairly good! Basic tips on how to play empire.

[MEAT IS ON THE TABLE]

I am a veteran of totalwar games starting with med 2. I have also won as the western roman empire in attila totalwar on legendary (the hardest faction in totalwar history) without abusing the church selling trick. I just want to make my point that I know what I am saying.

When first playing the empire in my first mortal empires game I thought they were pretty weak. Now I know better.These tips are not for multiplayer.

Rule #1 Understand that as the empire do NOT plan to win the frontline engagement. Most factions have better inf units, even greatswords really aren't that great. Your frontline is just there to hold the line as your "game winner" units carry the game. This is why actually spearmen with shields or halberds are fairly good because of their high melee defence stat and cost that will allow them to hold for sometime with the added benefit of killing cav.....even against powerful inf units they will hold, they will ultimately get slaughtered but they will hold long enough for your missiles/rear charges/arty/magic to kill your enemy.

Rule #2 Understand the empire's strengths. So you now know not to play to win the frontline with inf, so what are the strengths then? Heavy cavalry and artillery, with decent inf to hold the line with fairly high leadership (moral) for their cost and one of the largest selections of magic to choose from (see another page for which magics are best against factions example: fire is good against undead), and very solid handgunners. The empire arguably has the best artillery (or at least tied for first with dwarves) which will soften the enemies lines before engaging. Great cannons for sieges/armoured untis/cav/monsters, mortars for archers/sieges/blobs (protip; use shift click to manually target inf blobs for maximum effect and so they dont hurt your own units) and hellstorm volley gun battery for everything its amazing, if I don't get 150+ kills I'm sad. Don't every build hellstorm rockets, they suck at the moment for their cost.

Rule #2 Army composition. This will surely get some flak but an ideal composition for an effective yet also cost effective army I find is this as follows:

1 mage of your choice
1 warrior priest for buffs and healing after the battle to save skill points for your lord
2-3 artillery, 2 hellstorm volley guns or 2 great cannons with a mortar are very good combinations
8 or so frontline inf, for most cost effective go 5 spears (never the ones without sheilds) and 3 halberds. Or with a little more money go with 3 greatswords 4 halberds and 1-2 spears (if you aren't fighting a faction with lots of archers)
4 handgunners. In the past they had line of sight issues, that is now fixed. These guys will melt monsters/flying units/armoured units. Protip; whenever possible fire at the rear of the enemy inf as your melee units hold, nothing except the strongest spells can melt units as fast as this.
2-3 heavy cavalry, either reiksguard or demigripgh knights (don't bother with the halberd variant, there are much better means for dealing with large units)

Good optional picks:

1-2 outriders with grenades
1-2 steamtanks if you have the money
1 witchhunter
+2 more handgunners if against dwarves or vampire counts (total 6ish)


Rule #3 Always try to win either the cavalry game. Stack all your heavy cavalry on one side and crush the enemy's cavalry so that you can later take out their artillery and archers and later rear charge the frontline.

Hope this helps.

[yuzhonglu]

Even the people who like the Empire use qualifiers in their praise. "Fairly good." Etc. etc.

I could be wrong, but it's almost as if they know they're lying to themselves. "Oh this child. He's fairly good at algebra." Etc. etc.

[Ben Argo]

The Empire is the best.

Saying they’re “fairly good” is just our way of being polite to all the inferior factions.

[Ashley]

Originally posted by yuzhonglu:

Even the people who like the Empire use qualifiers in their praise. "Fairly good." Etc. etc.

I could be wrong, but it's almost as if they know they're lying to themselves. "Oh this child. He's fairly good at algebra." Etc. etc.

This is complete heresy.