empire preview up on gw website., preorder on 31st.

And the next ones too considering what a new army costs nowadays...

I plan to convert up the Amber wizard on foot as another Bray-Shaman.

Anyone heard any rumors about what will be stronger/weaker, what we're likely to see a lot of in new empire armies? There will be two empire players in a campaign I'm playing in which starts in weak, and I doubt I'll get a chance to look through the book before I'm up against one of them.

I feel like getting one of those gryphons, partially for chaosifying it, but also for getting Ghal Maraz for my dwarfs

Only that Mortars and cannons are going up in price.

My guess is GW wants to sell Demigriphs and that big Griffon kit. I know the local Empire guy heard the stats on the Demipgriphs and is likely going to buy a couple kits.

Griffons are cheaper and hittier. Mortars are a third more expensive and dropped to strength 2. 6s to wound a horde of Gors!
Cannon up by 20% ish.
Stank down by 50 points. T6 W10. 360 degree charging, no charge reactions.
Alter is only bound banishment now I think. But gives hatred in a 6" bubble.

Edit: forgot, point increases for state troops, missle troops, flaggies (i think). Flaggies also ws3 now.

Just off the top of my head. I'll taking advantage of GWs release timing by picking my book up today. Most places will get it today in the delivery as tomorrow is good friday!

Overall, I can't wait to start an army. Strange for me, because I normally hate empire. But battle budgies have won me over.

This post has been edited by Gojiragor on Apr 5 2012, 09:26 AM

Empire looks like a rather fun army right now. The "gunline" build got beat over the head with a mallet, so it looks like combined arms will have to carry the day. They also have access to a slew of buffs to make those puny Humans respectable in a fight.

This post has been edited by rothgar13 on Apr 5 2012, 07:36 PM

Spent most of the knight reading the new book and I like it. Can't believe I actually like an empire book. The magic carts are pretty cheap, LESS than half the price of a ghorgon. New martyr rules are disapointing but the prayer system is great. Looking forward to making the army over the coming months, but have no idea what to do with the core. Battle budgies seemed over priced at first at 2 points less than a mournfang, but they have all their equipment already and mournfang have to buy it. 1+ AS and lances or halberds built in. Not bad. The kit is pretty nice too.

I can see some issues arising in my area with the Witchunter, Accusation is disconcerting for armies heavily reliant on BSB or another specific character. Accusation + Tools of Judgement could mean things like undead casters wont survive as often as before when up against empire. Ogre slaughtermasters dodge another bullet however I guess due to being Monsterous Infantry.

This post has been edited by Burb on Apr 6 2012, 04:53 PM

He wouldn't really bother my VC setup. He won't really be able to get at my casters which will be bunkered behind my line.

Even with rerolls he still only has 2 attacks basic in combat and is super squishy, so much better things to be worrying about in the empire army. He's only 50 points for a reason pretty much.

Quick question, Gojira - are the cavalry Halberds any different from a normal Halberd? The fact that he's holding it in one hand has me holding out hope that you can use them in conjunction with your Shield. Also, do they cost extra?

Halberds are a free swap, there's no extra rules for them, so halberds are as is and won't be getting your shields in combat with them. The only pay for options they have are a cheap command @30 points for full, and a choice of 50pt banner.

I assembled mine with lances as after the first round if I'm still there for some reason, you can't use a lance and are back to hand weapon which puts the shield back on the table and back to 1+ AS.

Yeah, I think that's the better option. No reason to sacrifice a point of armor save when the monster's the one doing the killing anyhow.

I can see the halberd option being useful since your armor save would be a 2+ like everyone else's knights, which is still very solid.

2+ is good, no denying, but 1+ is better.