So, to start things off lets consider what an Empire list NEEDS.

First off, you will need combat units. Either

offensive hammer units, or else defensive anvil units. I figure that you want to be looking at approximately
300 points per unit, give or take. At that points level they should be large and powerful enough to get the job
done, without becoming too much of a points sink and presenting an obvious target. At the 2000 point level,
4 such units seems like a good number since you will probably want to try to have at the very least parity
with your opponent in terms of number of units. Empire troops simply arent good enough to take on 2 enemy
units. That gives us approximately 1200 points dedicated to combat units.
We also need a level 4 caster, theyre pretty much mandatory in 8th edition, not just for our magic phase, but
to counter the opponents magic phase. I should point out that I do understand that you *can* get by without
a level 4 caster, but it does require a pretty good game plan for how you plan to handle the magic phase. For
the sake of simplicity at this early stage of learning how the new book functions, well stick to the norm.
So between the combat units and the Wizard Lord, weve spent 1400 points. (No items on the caster at this
point, we can deal with that later). That leaves us with a slush fund of 600 points, to get ourselves a
General, a BSB and any other toys, war machines, etc that we want.
Okay, lets think about combat blocks. We want them to work out at around 300 points each, have 4 of them,
and be some mix of defensive (anvil), and offensive (hammer). 2+2 is probably a reasonable mix, at least to
start off with. A defensive block should be able to hold most reasonable threats for 2-3 rounds of combat,
while offensive should ideally be able to chew through most reasonable targets in a similar timeframe. If the
unit MUST have a character to do its job, that should be included in the points, but equipment can be left to
the slush fund of 600 points.
So lets start with defensive unit options.
50 spearmen with full command works out to a bit under 300 points. They also come from our core, which is
good since we need to fill out at least 25% of our army from that section. In a 5 wide, 10 rank deep bus
formation they should hold steadfast for quite a while, and fighting in 3 ranks they might even poke a rank off
the enemy. Since they rely on numbers rather than armour or toughness etc to hold the enemy, they are an
idea candidate for taking on enemy units with very high strength, such as great weapon wielding troops. High
strength attacks dont make them any deader than lower strength ones, after all.
24 Greatswords with full command works out at slightly more than the spearmen, but still just under our 300
point target. Being WS4 is an often overlooked defensive stat, but it is a decent one, since it means that
against any WS4 enemy they will be taking fewer hits than their WS3 comrades. Further more, they have a
4+ armour save thanks to their full plate, which should help them shrug off more wounds than the paltry light
armour worn by spearmen and halberdiers. The real benefit to Greatswords however, is the fact that they are
Stubborn. They may have fewer bodies than the spearmen, but they do not have to rely on having more
ranks than their enemy to maintain steadfast. In fact, it is quite likely that a unit of Greatswords will hold to
the last man! Having great weapons, they may even kill a decent number of their enemy. However, being
Special means they do not help contribute to filling our required minimum of core.
10 Reiksguard Knights with full command come out right on the money at 300 points. Like the Greatswords,
they are WS4 and Stubborn, but with a 1+ save. They are also highly mobile, and with S4 base and S6 on the
charge thanks to their lances they can act as pro-active anvil, charging into the unit they want to hold and
doing some decent damage in the process. They have some bad matchups, anything with high strength such

as enemy great weapon troops will chew through their low model count fairly rapidly, but against anything S3
or S4 they could last for quite some time.
There are other options, but these examples should hopefully give you a good idea of the sorts of thought
process involved in building a defensive combat block. It is probably worth pointing out, as I mentioned in my
review, that Swordsmen are still a decent anvil option, thanks to their WS4, better save, and parry ward.
However due to their higher cost they will not have the advantage of numbers that spearmen have. If you can
provide them with stubborn however, against WS4 or lower, S4 or lower enemies they will take longer to kill
to the last man than spearmen (Very slightly). So if you have large numbers of swordsmen in your collection,
you shouldnt feel that you cannot use them without gimping yourself. They still work decently.
So lets look at the offensive side of things, hammer units. These guys job is to attack and break/murder
enemy units, ideally in the same 2-3 round timeframe were talking about for our anvils holding. While
the Empire do not have some of the raw killing power of other books, we have to work with what is available
to us. So what options have we got for killy then?
Demigryph Knights. You saw this one coming didnt you? 4 Demigryphs with full command comes in at
actually a fair bit under the 300 point target. 4 wide you should be able to get full contact with most units,
and that gets you 12 S5 armour-piercing attacks and 4 S5 stomps per turn. You also get 5 S6 lance attacks on
the charge from the riders, then S4 from then on. I dont think the halberds are worth it, despite how cool
they look. Dropping to 2+ armour saves make S4+ stuff a bit rough, and we arent really interested in the
riders killing power anyways. With a 1+ armour save and 3 wounds each, theyve got the staying power to
spend a few rounds munching their way through a unit. Obviously, some stuff is a really bad matchup for
them, notably again great weapons or anything else with high strength, but anything that relies on lots of S3
or S4 attacks will have a really bad day at the office fighting these. They also massacre enemy heavy cavalry,
if you can get the charge before them.
Flagellants. 30 of these guys does come in at a rather eye-watering points level these days, but they are our
answer to all those great-weapon problems. They can be a bit of a one-shot wonder against anything I3 or
higher, and being frenzied will always over-run/pursue, meaning you have to spend a couple of rounds turning
them back around and getting them to their next target. Further more, once away from General/BSB range
they become a bit prone to frenzy-baiting. All that said, they will catastrophically blend most things out of
existence. Their big weakness is anything with large numbers of high-initiative attacks, which stabs them out
of existence before they get to swing.
Inner Circle Knights. 10 of these guys with full command comes in at a bit under our 300 point target. You
dont really need Reiksguard for hammer duties, since their job is smashing rather than holding stubbornly.
Ideally they want to try to use their speed to get into a flank. It may very well also be worthwhile trading
lances in for great weapons, since I think knights on the offense need to be more about the sustained grind,
and less about the shock of the charge. They dont even begin to match the two options listed above for
killing power, but they DO have the advantage of being core, and we have to fill out our core allowance with
SOMETHING. They are also nice and mobile.
Halberdiers. 40 with full command comes in nicely under the 300 point target, and in a horde formation they
throw out a good number of S4 attacks, and can survive some attrition casualties. Again, not as powerful as
the other options here but once again have the advantage of being core.
Finally, it is worth noting that some of our anvil options can be pressed into double-duty and fill in as

makeshift hammer units. Greatswords and Reiksguard knights are the best candidates for that.
So now that we have our 4 combat units figured out, and a Level 4
Wizard Lord of some flavour, we can deal with the remaining 600
points. Out of this, we need to get a General, a BSB and whatever
toys and extras we want. Lets start with the General. There are 3
basic ways I can see building a General for an Empire list;
Option 1) Buffbot. Someone who provides lots of bonuses, to
multiple units rather than just 1. The example for this really would
be an Arch Lector on the War Altar, giving hatred and bound prayers to all units in 6. Pretty peachy, but a bit
pricy these days even without any magic items or equipment, and hell probably want at least some
defensive upgrades so he doesnt get pulled off his ride and beaten to death by the first skirmishers or fast
cavalry who make it to him.
Option 2) Defensive General. Basically a guy who can take one of your anvil units, and make it anvil-ier. A
great example of this would be a General of the Empire, with the crown of command and the White Cloak of
Ulric, wearing full plate and a shield. That all comes in at under 200 points, and even has 15 points free on
the magic item allowance. Hes rocking a 3+ save and a 5+ ward, causes all models in base contact to be at 1 to hit (Even against the unit, rather than him), and more importantly grants Stubborn and Hold the Line! to
his unit. He can make your spear bus hold right to the last man. An option for his final few points of magic
item allowance would be the Helm of the Skaven Slayer, which nudges his armour up to 2+ and makes him
cause fear. Even a single failed fear check by the enemy could grant your Spearmen another round of
holding in combat, and they MIGHT even win! Not too bad at all.
Option 3) Fighty General. Opposite of the guy above, he makes one of your hammer units hammer-er-ier.
Good example of this would be a Grand Master with a Runefang, and a shield. Hes more expensive than the
General listed above, but he has a 1+ armour save and 4 WS6 I6 attacks that auto-wound with no armour
saves. Not too bad really, and again he has 15 points spare on his magic item allowance, so you could
squeeze in a 6+ ward. Major downside with something like this is that he will tend to be moving away from
your battle line, taking his leadership bubble with him. Would require careful play.
Next up is the BSB. Hes actually pretty straightforward make him as hard to kill as you can. Generally
this will mean full plate and a shield, and a 4+ ward save. Greatswords make a good bunker for him to sit in
since theyre stubborn so hes unlikely to be hurling himself to his death if the unit breaks, AND he gives them
Hold the Line! Stubborn with Hold the Line! and a BSB re-roll isnt likely to be running from combat. Another
option is to mount him up and stick him in with the Reiksguard Knights. This has the advantage of increasing
his armour save to 1+, and makes him more mobile so you can easily put him where hes needed. As with the
Greatswords, stubborn knights with Hold the Line! wont be going anywhere.
Other Toys;
With all that out-of-the-way, you can spend whatever is left over on toys for your army. This could be war
machines, chaff/re-direct units, magic items for characters, and the like. One option that strongly appeals is
the Celestial Hurricanum. For a fairly modest investment of points, you get +1 power dice and +1 to hit for all
units in 6. Oh, and some bound spell thing. With care, it would be possible to have this buffing both of your
hammer units, greatly enhancing their killing power.
Charge blocking/re-directing chaff units are always handy too. This is actually a decent place to use

detachments, since they can be minimum 5 models. Two good options in my opinion, are either archers which
have the advantage of being skirmishers for great mobility, and bows to harass people with. Skirmish in
particular makes it much easier to get them to annoying positions for the enemy, and they can mildly irritate
things with arrows. Alternatively, for a few points less you can get 5 Free Company Militia. Normally, these
guys are terrible, but they have a very useful role to play in potentially dealing with opposing chaff units,
because 5 of them bring 10 attacks and most chaff units are not particularly scary. This gives them a useful
role in advancing rapidly to clear enemy charge re-directors out-of-the-way of your hammer units.
Finally, war machines are an ever important possibility here. Of the 4,
the Cannon is probably the best all-rounder. Its good for killing
monsters, destroying chariots and enemy war machines, and even if
all it has to shoot at are enemy infantry units, it can fairly reliably kill a
file of infantry with each shot. If you aim at an enemy character hiding
in a unit, sooner or later someone will fail a look out sir roll and get
turned into a fine red mist. Mortars, while probably still having a niche
against lightly armoured T3 infantry hordes, are not as good an allround option as the cannon. Helstorms might be good, with a very high damage potential if you get lucky and
drop 3 rockets onto a unit. Similarly, a Helblaster can potentially do a huge amount of damage, particularly if
coupled with an Engineer. Just keep in mind that both are likely to be quite random. Some games theyll be
spectacular, other games they might do nothing.
So last but not least, heres a 2000 point sample list. Its not really engineered to take on anything in
particular, more of an all-comers;
General of the Empire
+ Full Plate
+ Enchanted Shield
+ White Cloak of Ulric
+ Crown of Command
2+ armour save, 5+ ward, -1 to hit for enemies in base contact. Gives stubborn and Hold the Line!
Battle Wizard Lord
+ Level 4 Upgrade
+ Dispel Scroll
Pick one of: Light, Shadow, Death or Life in my opinion. My personal preference is Light.
Captain of the Empire
+ Battle Standard Bearer
+ Full Plate
+ Shield
+ Barded Warhorse
+ Talisman of Preservation
BSB with a 1+ save and a 4+ ward.
Warrior Priest
+ Heavy Armour
+ Charmed Shield

Cheap and cheerful warrior priest. 4+ save, and discounts first hit on a 2+
49 Spearmen
+ Full Command
Anvil block 1. General goes here to make them Stubborn and provide Hold the Line!
9 Reiksguard Knights
+ Full Command
Anvil block 2. BSB goes here, and gives them Hold the Line!
4 Demigryph Knights
+ Standard Bearer
+ Musician
+ Steel Standard
Hammer unit 1. Steel Standard gives them a more reliable charge. Champion omitted to save points, since
theres no characters with this unit.
39 Halberdiers
+ Full Command
Hammer unit 2. Fills out core, Warrior Priest goes here to make them a bit scarier.
Great Cannon
Blows up big stuff, or else snipes at characters in ranked units
Celestial Hurricanum
Tools around with the hammer units, making them better at hammering.
Totals just under 2000 points.
This can be modified by slotting in and out blocks with the other options we looked at earlier, changing up the
general, or trying out different extra options. The extras in this list are the Hurricanum, Cannon and
the Warrior Priest. This to me seems like a decent starting point, and I should emphasise that it is a STARTING
POINT. It will take some time to find out how to get the best out of the new book, and the fastest way to do
that is to play games and try things out.