I’ve never played The Empire before and while I have a few units worth of models I’m unlikely to get a full Empire of Man army. For the sake of completion, and to support my local store, I picked up a copy of Arcane Journal Empire of Man. I know I don’t exactly have cutting edge timing on this review, but my copy came in late. I might be late to the party but here is my review! This 48 page soft cover book provides additional background, two Army of Infamy army lists, a scenario, new troop and character types, two special characters and 18 additional magic items.
As always I like to take a look at the scenario in the book. There must be a lot herdstones in The Old World because much like the High Elves the Empire of Man the scenario calls for a Herdstone to be placed on the board. In this book the forces of evil are the Beastmen not the Warriors of Chaos, but bad guys are bad guys! I really like this scenario due to the wacky deployment rules. The board is divided into six sections and the players take turns placing a single non-character unit within the sector they choose. They can then place a single character on the board. Everything else comes in as reinforcements in the compulsory move phase, but the catch is they roll a D3 to see which of their friendly sectors they deploy in! This scenario sounds like a lot of fun and it’s probably the first one I really want to play!
The two Armies of Infamy are the City-State of Nuln and the Knightly Order. The new units are Harbingers of Doom, Teutogen Guard, Imperial Ogres, Empire Road Wardens, and Empire War Wagons. The two special characters are Harald Gemunsen, Grand Master of the Knights Panther and General Hans von Lowenhacke.
The City-State of Nuln list limits your overall army composition but allows you to take Imperial Ogres, Imperial Dwarfs, and 0-2 Doomseekers. Wait a minute. Ogres, and Dwarfs in an Empire list again? Maybe I’m changing my mind about not playing Empire! As the Imperial Gunnery school is in Nuln you might be expecting to take a lot more artillery than normal but in reality this isn’t the case. Great Cannon and Mortars are still 0-3 per 1,000 points. In the City of Nuln you can take 0-2 warmachines from the following list: Helblaster Volley Gun, Helstorm Rocket Battery, and 0-1 Steam Tank per 1,000 points. This is only slightly different than the regular Empire list where you can take 0-1 from the following list: Helblaster Volley Gun and Helstorm Rocket Battery, plus 0-1 Steam Tanks per 1,000 points. I guess if you aren’t bringing a Steam Tank you get to double your Rare slot artillery but if not you aren’t gaining much. This list allows you to entrench one for each Engineer you have, which allows the machine to have partial cover, and defending a linear obstacle. This list can buy gun limbers for 0-1 war machines per 1,000 points giving them the Vanguard and Veteran special rules. Handgun drill allows each unit of State Missile Troops to fire in an additional rank. Nuln Outriders are considered Veteran Outriders and do not suffer the Ponderous special rule. The City-State of Nuln must bring 1+ unit of Nuln State Troops or Nuln Veteran State Troops which appears to just be a specific way of equipping the troops, i.e. missile troops have handguns, the Sate troops have halberds and so on.
All of the new units belong with the City-State of Nuln list. The Knightly Order list relies on upgrading the Knights to specific Knightly Orders for variety. The Harbinger of Doom is a Flagellant character than can also be brought in an Empire Army as a 0-1 Character choice. The Teutogen Guard carry Wolf Hammers that are +1S, AP -2, require 2 hands, and in a turn where they charge 3″ or more they get +2S! These religious nutters can also re-roll To Hit results of a natural 1! One unit can also be brought in an Empire of Man Grand Army for every Priest of Ulric. Imperial Ogres are impact causing monsters that can be equipped with a variety of equipment, including a light cannon and Ogre pistols! The light cannon does D3 hits if succesful at S4, AP -1 and Armor Bane 2! These guys are too cool not be be brought and are a 0-1 Mercenary choice in both an Empire of Man Grand Army AND Dwarfen Mountain Holds! Empire Road Wardens are light cavalry equipped with crossbows and can have either vanguard, abushers, or scouts! They can be a 0-1 unit in an Empire of Man list. Finally their is the Empire War Wagon. This monstrous chariot carries wide range of weapons for both close combat and ranged attacks. Not only can a War Wagon be included in an Empire of Man Grand Army it can even be a character mount!
The Knightly Order substantially limits your list building and as you can imagine is designed to be used as an all knight army. In fact 0-1 core troops may be Inner Circle Knights while you need to take 1+ unit of Empire Knights per 1,000 points. The rest of your core may be filled out by Archers. Just archers. Obviously you aren’t here for core, you are are here to have as many Knights as possible! This list allows that! Each of the Knightly Orders has specific build restrictions and allowances but they don’t get much more flexible! With that said the base list does not allow for any Wizards, two of the Knightly Orders, Knights of Morr, and Knights of the Blazing Sun allow you to bring some mages. Each of the Knightly Orders gives special rules to units of Knights, Grand Masters, and Chapter Masters. In the Knightly Orders Army of Infamy each of these units can be upgraded, and in a normal Empire Army list a handful of these units can be upgrades which is kind of fun!
I don’t normally comment on magic items but I had to mention Von Trickschotte’s Wonderful Arquebus. It’s a fun multiple wound weapon, but how can I not mention it with that name? It is old school silly name Games Workshop for sure!
Well, when I started this review I had no interest in an Empire Army, but this book has changed all of that. I’m not sure the lists themselves are worth the cost of admission, but with every new unit being an option for the Empire of Man (and in one case the Dwarfen Mountain Holds!) I think this book is a must have for Empire players. I am seriously considering an Empire Army based around Nuln at this point due to the early edition feel of getting to add Dwarfs and Ogres. If only halflings were in this book I’d be online buying an Empire Army right now!
-Wachtmeister
The Wachtmeister's Patrol 