Empire Arcane Journal Review
The Battle of Blackfire Pass - Paul Dainton 2010 © Games Workshop
Introduction
The contents of the latest Arcane Journal have leaked, we won’t have it in our hands for a few weeks but with the rules out I wanted to put down my thoughts. This is the fifth Arcane Journal and it is clear that GW is closely following the pattern for these. For this review I’m going to look at the new units and magic items first, as they can inform the armies of renown. However, for units or items only available to one of those armies I’ll include them with that army. Lastly I’m breaking the new Knightly Order rules into their own section as they apply to both the army of infamy and the grand army, and are pretty extensive.
This review is on the competitive impact of the book. I don’t have a copy yet to comment on fluff, and I think a lot of the things I call bad below are perfectly viable in casual games. And this is a collection of hot takes, I’ve read the new rules but not played games with or against them, and things will change as folks get their hands on this book and the re-released models. I don’t plan to update this as people get their hands on the book as a more complete Empire overview would make more sense down the road. Also note that I’ve played against Empire but have not played with them.
New Units
Empire Road Wardens
Special and 0-1 per 1000 points in Grand Armies we have a variant on Outriders or Pistoliers. Reaper Handguns are dropped for Crossbows, they can swap Vanguard for Scouts or Ambushers, and most interestingly they can buy Feigned Flight. A lot of folks are excited for these, but personally I have my doubts. They’re 18 points a model before upgrades, 20 points with Fire and Flee, 21 to replace Crossbows with a Brace of Pistols. They start at 4 models so that’s 84 points for 8 pistol shots at BS 4. They do have heavy armor which is nice but it’s going to be hard to make points back on these, and they’re high value to shoot at. A Ruby Ring of Ruin hitting averages killing 60 points of them (and forcing a Ld7 panic check). The pistols will be better than Crossbows but needing to be within 12” makes their Feigned Flight a lot less reliable at getting them out of range, I feel like these really needed Reserve Move.
Empire War Wagons
These are a 0-1 per 1000 points rare choice, and can also be taken as an Engineer’s mount. At 140 points it offers a pretty durable platform, you have a 3+ save, T5 and 6 wounds. Point for point this is one of the most durable units in the empire list. So what does it offer offensively? Quite a bit. You have D6+1 impact hits, and D3+1 stomps, both at AP -1. It then has 6 unique crew members with their own special weapon, and a hand weapon. The shooting output is… fine? You have a bunderbuss, long rifle, and repeating rifle. An obvious problem is these guns have three different range bands and I don’t think you want to take this as a shooting platform. It does however have Stable Firing Platform meaning the guns can shoot, and with no movement penalty even when the wagon marches. In close combat the three ranged troops can use hand weapons, the other three have some pretty powerful close combat weapons but keep in mind they’re WS3 with one attack so don’t expect a ton.
But on the whole I really like this unit. If you can get the charge off (M7, no swiftstride) it has D6+D3+2 S5 AP-1 attacks that are guaranteed to hit. Even if charged it has stomps and 8 total attacks. The big issue here is that the rare slot in empire is tight. If you take this and a Steam Tank you can’t take anything else in that slot.
Which is why i think it’s also worth looking at this as a mount. For 185 points you can take an Engineer on this which will add 2 wounds and another attack. Once you’re at 8W with 185 points invested, a Talisman of Protection isn’t out of the question.
All in all I think the War Wagon has a good profile and will see play, it does a lot of different things and I think what will hold it back most is being in the rare slot in Empire where you’re probably spending the first 265 points of rare on a Steam Tank.
Imperial Ogres
As with Ogre Bulls from Ogre Kingdoms these cost 31 points, and the stat line is the same except for a bump to BS3. These do get one big change from Ogre Bulls, they have Motley Crew and a decent selection of loadouts. However none of those options have an Iron Fist so you can’t do the best thing Motley Crew offers, min-maxing armor saves. You’re left with a unit where you can do some mix and matching of loadouts but I don’t feel there is much need. The can take Light Cannons which are a variant of the gun Leadbelchers have, it only has one shooting profile but it’s a pretty good one.
Imperial Ogres are Mercenaries and you can take them for Empire or Dwarf Grand Armies. I think they’re an interesting option as the only monstrous infantry these lists can access, but they don’t really fill any holes. I think they have a little more appeal for dwarves being faster than other dwarf options, but even there I don’t see the use for these.
Teutogen Guard
Heavy infantry committed to the Cult of Ulric these have some fan favorite models and I know some people are excited to see them back. For 13 points a model you get a human profile with WS 4 and T 4, as well as Wolf Hammers. These are at-initiative great weapons but only give +1 strength unless the unit has charged 3” or more this turn. This is a pretty good weapon but I3 isn’t that much better than I1 so they’re not nearly as exciting as some of the elf not-great-weapons. They do come with a bucket of special rules: Drilled, Stubborn, Veteran, 6+ ward vs flaming attacks. 0-1 units can take Guardians of the Temple for 1 point per model, allowing them to and re-roll hit rolls of 1. You can take 0-1 in Special per Warrior Priest of Ulric so they’re usable in grand army though you do need to pay the priest tax (60+ pts) and the points are not in core.
What do you get for that? Well, they’re better Greatswords. Greatswords start at 11pm but that’s without drilled, adding that takes them to the same 13ppm, and veteran is another point past that. For the same 14 points you can take the Guardians of the Temple upgrade for rerolling 1s. On top of that Guard are T4 making them significantly more durable than the Greatswords.
Unfortunately I don’t think that means much. Infantry are in a bad spot in Old World and while drilled+great weapons is what I want in my infantry, it’s not enough to make these worthwhile. I think these are a pretty good heavy infantry option, which puts them solidly in something like C tier.
Harbingers of Doom
This 65 point character is a Flagellant character with all that entails. They can grant a ward save to their unit but this overlaps with the built in Feel No Pain on Flagellants and as the Harbinger is a Zealot it can’t join other units. If you want to make a really thematic army whipping itself into a frenzy go nuts but you won’t be winning many games.
General Hans Von Löwenhacke
A new named character with a unusually ugly model, Hans is a heavy 195 points. He has two special rules, the first is that mercenaries can use his leadership and inspiring presence, and they don’t have to roll on the Misbehaving Mercenaries table. This is fine, if you’re taking mercenaries it’s actually a pretty solid set of rules, but they’re not too common and Hans isn’t a great general as just a dude on foot. The other rule is much more powerful, if you take him in your army he can apply +1 or -1 to your roll to go first. This is very good and I think will cause people to play him. I just don’t think it’s worth anything close to 195 points.
What about the rest of his profile? He has a slightly better profile than empire generals losing a point of initiative but gaining one in weapon skill and attack. He has a 4+/5++ which is okay, and he has some defense against killing blow, which isn’t that important when you consider he only has 3 wounds. He has a very good weapon with great weapon stats and multiple wounds (2).
But he really suffers from being a dude on foot. He is movement 4 and your opponent can easily decide what he’ll be able to fight. Outside of being slow it’d be a decent profile and an interesting 195 points. But I don’t think spending almost 10% of your points on a general who is unlikely to accomplish much is worth the first turn modifier.
Magic Items
Magic Weapons
Hammer of Righteousness - 50 Points
A magical great weapon that bypasses wound and armor saves if the target fails a leadership roll. It’s kinda neat but a lot of units have high leadership and 50 points is a lot, if this didn’t strike last or cost 20 points less I’d like it.
Pearl Daggers - 35 Points
Extra attacks D3, AP -1, and reroll hits makes this something on an infantry blender. But that isn’t what you want from a character. I think this is above average for a magic weapon, but that’s not saying much, I don’t see using it.
Magic Armour
Twice-Blessed Armour - 25 Points
Full plate armor allowing the bearer to cast Hammerhand as a power level 2 bound spell. I think this is pretty good, 2D3 S4 AP-2 hits is not bad, the big issue is PL2 but if you can get your opponent’s wizard in combat this will go off very reliably. I don’t see this as a mainstay but when you have the spare points it can add a lot of damage output to a character.
Talismans
Witch Hunter’s Ward - 20 Points
20 points for Magic Resistance (-2) is a good deal, it also lets you reroll an armor save. I expect to see a fair bit of this for characters on Gryphons or characters in knight blocks.
Slayer’s Hourglass - 10 Points
-1 Weapon Skill for enemy monsters in base contact. This includes the characters on ridden monsters so is kinda useful versus dragons. However empire characters don’t really want to fight dragons so I’m not sure where you use this. It’s cheap enough to toss on a character so I expect it will see some use, I just don’t think it has a clear role.
Magic Standards
Banner Of The Knights Panther - 80 Points
This gives the unit of Knights Panther Unbreakable. Unbreakable is a very strong rule, but these are very expensive close combat units so I don’t really want to pay 80 points as an insurance policy. Unbreakable is strongest on chaff units and I can’t see dropping 80 points for it here.
Tapestry Of Sigmar’s Triumph - 40 Points
Re-roll 1s to wound during the first round of combat, this is something that I think is a lot more appealing then the banner above. You want this on some flavor of knight, or maybe Great Swords to get the most value on the reroll of 1s. If you’re wounding on 3s this is 11% more successful wounds, if you’re wounding on 2s it’s 14% more, pretty good math for 40 points.
Icon Of Morr - 25 Points
This gives a unit Fear, or upgrades a unit’s Fear to Terror. I don’t think Fear is very worthwhile here, a lot of units are immune to it, and plenty of others have high leadership. That said, I think Terror is a very strong rule and upgrading Fear to Terror is very worth 25 points. I think this is a great choice on Demigryph Knights or Inner Circle Knights of Morr.
Enchanted Items
Ring of Fortune - 20 Points
Single use reroll to wounds, this is very similar to Paymaster’s Coin which is a solid little item. This costs 5 points less and the math is very similar depending on a few factors. I don’t expect to see a ton of this but if you’ve got 20 spare points for your General on a gryphon it’s a solid option.
Ring of Taal - 20 Points
Single use power level 3 Oaken Shield (7+ to give caster and their unit 5+ ward until your next turn). This is a very powerful spell to have in a magic item. It can give a combat unit a 5+ ward and at PL3 you’ve got a 50-50 shot of getting past a level 4’s dispel. Additionally as it’s an enchantment you can cast it at the start of turn before charging. I think this is a very good item any time you’re bringing a deathstar type unit. Keep in mind this can also go on unit champions who can take magic items and I think might be worth it on something like a unit of 4 Demigryph Knights.
Arcane Items
Twin-Tailed Wand - 40 Points
This is an extremely powerful magic item, you can cast one of your spells twice. The downside is that on any miscast the wizard takes d3 wounds right away. I think this is most appealing for a wizard set up for magic missile spam but I think there is a lot of play here and a lot of options. But any time you take this you are risking Wizard Death.
Tome of Midnight - 30 Points
For wizards knowing Daemonology, Dark Magic, or Necromancy this gives your caster +1 to cast and they know an additional spell, but can only cast the normal number per turn. It does give the wizard Loner. This is a good item, if you’re taking a wizard for one of those lores on a pegasus you’ll want this. For wizards on foot this is a harder sell but can still be perfectly viable if you’re taking one of those lores.
Crystal Ball - 20 Points
This is a very unusual arcane item, and isn’t connected to casting. Once per turn, when a friendly character within command range of the bearer is hit or wounded you can force your opponent to reroll that die. This is kinda a weird item, the thing that comes to mind first off is this is good protection from Monster Slayer, and just for that I’d consider trying to fit it into a list where I’m taking a Griffon. However you need to have the wizard keep up with the Griffon and you can’t take another arcane item, I wish this was extremely common.
Knightly Orders
Knightly Orders are a new set of rules for Empire that exist both for the Grand Army as well as the army of infamy that bears their name. In the grand army you can have 0-1 hero belong to an order and 0-1 Knights, Inner Circle Knights, or Demigryph Knights belong to one. This comes at a small points cost and adds some special rules. The army of infamy asks you to go all-in on one order. Your general picks their order and all other units eligible to belong to an order must join the same one. Let’s take a look at the rules for each order before we get to the army list.
Knights Panther
Knights Panther must take lances, can reroll a 1 when charging, and gain hatred for Beastmen, Warriors of Chaos, and Daemons. Their heroes and Inner Circle Knights also gain MR -1. This comes at 10 points for a character or 2 points for a knight model. This is a decent set of rules. This only takes your average charge from 14.97” to 15.23”, but it does reduce your odds of a really bad charge roll, The MR -1 for some units is a nice little bonus. The hatred rule is pretty broad but also doesn’t do anything versus 13 of the 16 factions in Old World. I don’t see myself wanting to use Panthers for their rules, though they do have a special character…
Harald Gemunsen, Grand Master of the Knights Panther
Let’s talk about Harald here as you’ll be taking him when you’re taking Knights Panther. He can only join a unit of Knights Panther and costs 185 points. And he’s pretty spicy, he has a unique rule where if he charges and slays an enemy in a challenge he can immediately issue (and fight) in another challenge. As he charges at I9 this should be fought before the enemies can go, and it allows him to challenge out a unit champ, kill them, then fight the opponent’s character. We probably need a FAQ to confirm what happens if he can’t issue a second challenge (I assume he’s done fighting for the turn) or if the second challenge is refused (here I think he should be able to fight).
In challenges he’s going to be very good at killing unit champions and characters on foot or horse, but can’t really threaten bigger things. His weapon attacks at S5 AP -1 and 4 attacks. However it has Killing Blow meaning he’s a threat to any character not immune to that due to special rules or mount. And I think that’s kinda his problem, he’s almost 200 points and he’s specialized at killing foot and mounted characters. The first are rare and the second can try and avoid him. If you’re running Knights Panther I think he’s pretty solid, but I’m not looking for reasons to take him.
Knights of the White Wolf
Now we’re talking, White Wolves get to take Great Weapons or Halbards, which can be replaced for free with Wolf Hammers per the Teutogen Guard profile, I like Wolf Hammers more on cavalry than on infantry as you’ll be charging a lot more often so this is a nice upgrade, it’s also a really good mundane weapon for characters. They also get Furious Charge (+1 attack if you’ve charged at least 3”) which is an amazing upgrade for mounted units with swiftstride and countercharge. Knights of the White Wolf will hit extremely hard on the charge, and with Wolf Hammers they’ll hold up a lot better when charged in return. Characters and Inner Circle Knights get a 5+ ward versus flaming attacks which I expect most people to forget about because it’s useless.
Overall I think KotWW is the clear standout among these rules. It is pricey at 3 points a knight and 15 for characters but I think it’s worth it. If you’re running Inner Circle Knights in a Grand Army this is how I’d take them, and I think it will be the premier choice for the Army of Infamy.
Order of the Blazing Sun
Order of the Blazing Sun gives their units Evasive and Flaming Attacks. This is in a word, crap. Flaming Attacks are a drawback as often as an advantage, I’d certainly not pay points for them. And then Evasive on blocks of knights is just odd, you can fall back in good order when the enemy shoots at you. But I don’t want to fall back with my knights, I want them close enough to charge. I just don’t see what the use of this is. Characters and Inner Circle Knights get +1 to combat res on the turn they charge, this is a good bonus but doesn’t stack or make up for the complete miss on the unit rules. You pay +2/+10 points for this set of rules and just don’t take it.
Order of the Knights of Morr
Knights of Morr have a 6+ ward versus non-magic attacks, this is very good, most armies have very limited magical attacks and knights are quite expensive. This won’t help versus Warriors of Chaos or magic missiles but in most matchups this will save quite a few points of knight. It’s on the expensive side at +3/+15 but I think it’s worth it. Characters and Inner Circle Knights gain Fear and Magical Attacks, this is pretty underwhelming due to unit size. However if the unit takes Icon Of Morr they gain Terror which is pretty damn good.
Order of the Fiery Heart
Fiery Heart gives units +1 initiative in the first round of combat and hatred of Orcs & Goblins. I’m not sure if this is worse than the Order of the Blazing Sun, they’re both terrible. Characters get the very good buff of reroll 1s to wound, but +1 initiative on a unit of knights is so underwhelming, they can now charge at I 7/8 rather than 6/7 but that will rarely be relevant. Meanwhile when charged this will let them go simultaneously… with units holding great weapons. To add insult to injury this is +3/15 points, totally not worth it.
Knightly Orders - Army of Infamy
Okay so let’s now look at the army of infamy. From the section above it’s clear that the knightly orders are not created equal, I’ll talk about the army list in general then briefly talk about the bad orders, and spend a little more time on the good ones. The orders do make some small tweaks to the army list so it’s worth considering the bad ones. I won’t cover army special rules because there are none, your bonuses here are entirely reliant on the Knightly Order you chose, more on that later.
Magic Items
Blade of Silver Steel - 30 Points
S+1, AP-1, Hatred Undead, no armor or regen saves for undead. This is a cool fluffy weapon, don’t bring it to a tournament.
Shield Of The Gorgon - 40 Points
This gives -1 attack to enemies in base contact. This is a powerful effect but a bit hard to use. I think it’s most interesting on model using a larger mount, so you can get more models in base to base. However this is hard to use as a dragon lord will lose 2 attacks, but that isn’t the end of the world when you started with 10, and most models in the game have 1 attack meaning this does nothing but take an attack off the champion. So this is a powerful effect but I think too narrow to be of much use.
Army Composition
Army Composition for Knightly Order lists depends on which order you select. All of your eligible units must share that “mark” and it will also give you a few extra options for list building.
Characters
You can take a Grand Master, 1+ Chapter Masters, any of the lectors, priests, or witch hunters. You can not take mages, generals, or engineers. That’s a pretty huge downside, you don’t need engineers as you can’t take war machines. But no general means no flying mounts, and no mages, well yeah, that’s not great. Note that Chapter Masters become your BSBs.
Core
You can take 0-1 units of Inner Circle Knights and I think you will most of the time. They cost a good bit more than other knights but going from a 3+ to 2+ save is good and Inner Circle Knights make the point upgrade for a knightly order comparatively cheaper, while getting more out of it.. Beyond them you probably will be taking one or more units of Empire Knights. And you can fill out some point with units of Archers. I don’t dislike Archers, they’re very cheap and can give you some drops to play around with. I’d take a couple units of them unless I was trying to finish deploying first.
Special
More units of Inner Circle Knights can go here. Demigryph Knights are probably what you want the bulk of your special choices to be. Demigryph knights are good and are comparatively cheap to upgrade with the Knightly Order boost, though they can’t always gain as much value from it. Lastly you can bring a limited number of State Troops or State Missile troops, please don’t.
Rare
Pistoliers. That’s it, that’s the rare slot.
Knights Panther
The best thing I can about Knights Panther in a Knightly Orders list is that they can take a unit of Knights of the White Wolf as Empire Knights or Inner Circle Knights. White Wolf is a really good knightly order, however as mercenaries with a different order they won’t play well with the rest of your list, don’t take Knights Panther.
Knights of the White Wolf
Now we’re talking, You lose the ability to take priests, lectors, and witchhunters, which is a bummer, but you can take Teutogen Guard in Special and Milita in Core. Skip the Militia but I think a block of Guard wouldn’t be bad in a Knightly Order list. But of course the main reason you take this is that Knights of the White Wolf kick ass. Hand out the wolf hammers and get ready to charge. I’ll talk about them more in the example list.
Order of the Blazing Sun
Well they can take wizards. But only level 2s. They can also take Great Cannons or Mortars. But only 2. They also lose access to the religious side of the empire character roster. Given how dire the rules are for these Knights even Great Cannons would not tempt me to run this list. That said, Great Cannons are one of the best Empire units, so if a Knightly Order list did do well in a tournament, and it wasn’t White Wolf or Morr, Blazing Sun would probably be my next guess.
Order of the Knights of Morr
Here we go, the only list in this Arcane Journal that can have a level 4 wizard, the Knights of Morr. I think that alone puts them into the upper tier of Knightly Order lists. When we add to that they have the second best knight rules I think Knights of Morr is a perfectly cromulent way to build a Knightly Order list. They also lose access to priests but that’s a trade I’d happily make. If I were building this force I’d have a strong block of Inner Circle Knights with an Icon of Morr to give them Terror. I’d then go heavy on the Demigryphs to take advantage of the 6+ ward save.
Order of the Fiery Heart
Fiery Heart gives units +1 initiative in the first round of combat and hatred of Orcs & Goblins. I’m not sure if this is worse than the Order of the Blazing Sun, they’re both terrible. Characters get the very good buff of reroll 1s to wound, but +1 initiative on a unit of knights is so underwhelming, they can now charge at I 7/8 rather than 6/7 but that will rarely be relevant. Meanwhile when charged this will let them go simultaneously… with units holding great weapons. To add insult to injury this is +3/15 points, totally not worth it.
Knightly Order Army List Thoughts
It’s no secret that the “all mounted” armies of infamy have not been the best. They typically have pretty big restrictions and only give you mild upsides. I can’t say this list bucks that trend, you lose access to most of Empire’s good units and in return get to take slightly more knights than usual. The big winner here is White Wolf, this is the only army list where I’m happy to pay the points on every unit for it to gain Furious Charge, something you can’t do in Grand Army. I think it still results in a very narrow, limited army, but it looks fun to play and the limitations feel less like the punishments seen in the Heralds of Darkness list.
The ability to pick which order you want to play is very cool, however the vast power disparities between them make this an unsatisfying gimmick of the list. Who has been asking for an army that is all Evasive heavy cavalry?
Knights of the White Wolf Army List
I was a little tempted to do Knights of Morr as they’ll certainly get less attention, but I have to go with Knights of the White Wolf, this is just a very powerful option. I don’t think this will end up being a top tier tournament list, at the end of the day it has too few options and too many limitations, but I do expect this to be a list that can absolutely run over someone who isn’t ready to deal with it.
So what I went with is a low drop list, at 4 drops + characters it’s one higher than I’d like, but I don’t want to go down to 3 units as I think that will just make them too unwieldy. The list intends to run the General and Chapter Master with Silver Horn and Witch Hunter’s Ward in the large core unit of Inner Circle Knights with a Rampaging Banner. This gives the unit 2 rerolls on charging and should make it out-range most other units in the game. The general has an Ogre Blade to try and make this an aggressive unit though I think a defensive build or just a cheaper one using a wolf hammer is very viable. The BSB goes into the Demigryph unit and Tapestry Of Sigmar’s Triumph buffs damage while Icon of Morr causes Terror. He has also taken Twice-Blessed Armor which adds a little more punch to the unit.
There will then be two character-less units one of 10 Knights and the other of 8 Inner Circle. These units are not as strong as the character blocks but still have Drilled, Furious Charge, and a host of other rules. With Stubborn across most of this list I’m trying to limit bad luck in a round of combat causing a unit to run.
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## Empire of Man [2000 pts]
Warhammer: The Old World, Empire of Man
### Characters [670 pts]
- Grand Master [276 pts]
-# (Full plate armour, Shield, General, Barded Warhorse, Ogre Blade, Talisman of Protection, Order of the White Wolf)
- Chapter Master [150 pts]
-# (Wolf hammer, Full plate armour, Shield, Barded Warhorse, Witch Hunter’s Ward, The Silver Horn, Order of the White Wolf)
- Chapter Master [244 pts]
-# (Wolf hammer, Twice-Blessed Armor, Enchanted Shield, Demigryph, BSB, Tapestry Of Sigmar’s Triumph, Order of the White Wolf)
### Core Units [699 pts]
- 10 Empire Knights [298 pts]
-# (Wolf hammers, Heavy armour, Drilled, Stubborn, Preceptor (champion), Standard bearer, Musician, Order of the White Wolf)
- 10 Inner Circle Knights [401 pts]
-# (Wolf hammers, Shields, Full plate armour, Stubborn, Inner Circle Preceptor (champion), Standard bearer [Rampaging Banner], Musician, Order of the White Wolf)
### Special Units [631 pts]
- 4 Demigryph Knights [330 pts]
-# (Wolf hammers, Shields, Full plate armour, Demigryph Preceptor (champion) [Ring of Taal], Standard bearer [Icon of Morr], Musician, Order of the White Wolf)
- 8 Inner Circle Knights [301 pts]
-# (Wolf hammers, Shields, Full plate armour, Stubborn, Inner Circle Preceptor (champion), Standard bearer, Musician, Order of the White Wolf)
City State of Nuln
Magic Items
Von Trickshotte’s Wonderous Arquebus - 25 Points
This rifle has 36” range, S5, AP -2, armourbane 1, and multiple wounds (D3). It also ignores penalties at long range. Which is not a bad profile, however it can’t target out specific models like a typical long rifle. So you’re left taking a single shot into units which isn’t that exciting for 25 points. If you had the points this isn’t the worst thing for an engineer but I’m not reaching for it when building lists.
The Banner Of The Free State of Nuln - 20 Points
This banner gives you Stubborn, which is a pretty good deal for 20 points and I’d take most of the time for my State Troops block unless there is another banner you want more.
Squintsoffen’s Marvellous Magnifier - 35 Points (Extremely Common)
This allows the bearer and their unit to ignore the long range hit penalty when shooting. This is a great idea in theory but well, shooting units kinda suck. If you are taking a large unit of handgunners (more on that below) you’ll want this in the unit, but otherwise meh.
Special Rules
Big Guns Know No Fear
This gives Immune to Psychology to Engineers while a war machine is within their command range. More importantly it gives this to their unit. This is very powerful and your engineers can now make blocks of missile troops or state troops immovable in combat. This is pretty exciting however it does mean you have to keep the engineer alive.
Entrenched Position
Each engineer can nominate a war machine to entrench giving it partial cover and count as defending a low linear barrier. This is fine I guess but the odds this helps a war machine vs BS shooting or a charging unit is pretty low.
Gun Limbers
0-1 per 1000 points, for a cost of 5-15 points a War Machine can be given Vanguard and Veteran rules. Veteran allowing leadership rerolls is not very useful on war machines, you’re taking this for vanguard. And with vanguard you get a 4” move before the game starts. This is mostly going to be to allow you to slightly redeploy to get something into line of sight, or get you out of line of sight. I don’t think this is very helpful because you can only have this on 0-2 war machines. If you have 3 cannons and a hellblaster gun the odds that this move will help the war machine that needs it is low. That said, Hellblaster Volly Guns have 24” range so typically can’t shoot turn 1, so if you both deploy on the line vanguard will let them fire turn 1. However your opponent can counter this 15 point upgrade with the very advanced tactic of… deploying 4” back. I don’t see taking these upgrades much.
Handgun Drill
Once per game Nuln handgun units can fire in an additional rank. This is cool but has a bunch of downsides. First off handgunners are not very good. Second, if you have handgunners 2 ranks deep they’ll only be able to fire both ranks once, the rest of the game they’ll have those potential shots wasted. You can take Drilled on them which helps here but it does add to the unit cost. Third, Nuln has some pretty big restrictions on actually taking handgunners. When you read this rule you might dream of taking 50 handgunners 2 deep and deleting a unit on the first or second turn, that’s not possible as we’ll get to. So yeah, this rule is fine and handgunners are very fluffy for Nuln, but this doesn’t help much.
Veteran Outriders
Now this is a good rule, Outriders in Nuln army lists get to ignore Ponderous on their guns. This takes their D3 shots from hitting on 6s or 7s to 5s or 6s. Is it enough to make Outriders good? Kinda, they also move to Core as 0-1 per 1000 choices so I expect all competitive Nuln lists to take 2 units.
Nuln State Troops
This “special rule” is in a weird place as it’s half special rule, half unit profile. Nuln armies can’t take State Troops or State Missile Troops, they instead are stuck with this frankenunit. Taken as Nuln State Troops or Nuln Veteran State Troops it is a unit of state troops, armed with Halbards accompanied by 1-2 detachments which can be State Missile Troops or State Troops armed with sword and shield. They do grant a free champion upgrade to all units/detachments but don’t let that hide the fact this is a big downgrade. Detachments mean that you need at least 20 state troops in the main unit, and then it could have 10 model units of missile troops. Want the missile troops to be 15 strong? Gotta bump your state troop detachment to 30. This is very limiting and forces Nuln to take one of the worst profiles in the empire list - State Troops or Veteran State Troops, and due to limited core choices you’ll have to do so in numbers.
Army Composition
Characters
You have access to the normal empire selection, however level 4 wizards are cut off. This is a huge downside for the army and one of the reasons I think it’s weaker than building a gunline with Empire Grand Army.
Core
We start with 1+ unit of Nuln State Troops, yes, we start with a requirement to take the unwieldly, expensive, bad unit I was just complaining about. Not much you can do about this, I’d probably take 20 State Troopers, 2 units of missile troops and then fill up my core with the rest of the list.
Next up you can take a unit of Outriders per 1000 points, as these get the Veteran Outriders rule I think they’re pretty good and I’d always be taking 2 units, though they’d probably still be at/near minimum size.
Lastly you can take any number of militia or archer units. I don’t think militia are good but archers are cheap and flexible. They will quickly add to the number of drops in your list so personally I’d probably take 3-5 units of them to allow myself deployment advantage. Alternatively if you’re trying to get under 5 drops you could put most of your core points into one big Nuln State Troop unit(s).
Special
Empire Knights are moved here from core, Inner Circle Knights and Demigryph Knights are gone. Empire Knights are solid… as a core choice, don’t take them in Special. Ditto to Greatswords. So what do we have to work with? You have Great Cannons and Mortars, any Nuln list worth its points is going to start with 3 Great Cannons. You can take Pistoleers and Outriders but I’d recommend your Outriders are in Core and your Pistoliers are left at home in favor of Road Wardens.
Now we get to one of the big draws of the Nuln army, you can take War Wagons in Special. I think if I were taking Nuln to an event it’d be to spam some War Wagons, see below for an example army list to this effect.
Rare
In rare you have what you’d expect, Steam Tanks, Hellblasters, Helstorms, and Road Wardens. As with most empire lists a Steam Tank is an auto-include, but Nuln still only can take one. After that I’d take a Hellblaster, and you have a few points left over to fit in Road Wardens, should you be so moved.
City of Nuln Army Thoughts
I don’t know where to start this, when GW announced this as an army of infamy I was worried that it would make empire too strong and too strongly promote the less than fun gunline style of gameplay. Those fears were unfounded because I think Nuln gunline is just worse than Grand Army gunline. They get some advantages but suffer greatly from losing level 4 wizards and having limited core options.
Weirdly I like what GW did with Nuln State Troops, it makes empire troops behave more like empire troops when building a list. However it doesn’t account for the fact that infantry and specifically empire troops suck. So you’re forced to take this fluffy, bad pick which does a lot to bring down the army’s power level. Having this on top of losing level 4s I think seals the fate of this army as Grand Army But Worse.
I’d like to have seen this move to 33% Core and 33% Rare so you could double-Stank lists, yes it’s obnoxious at T7 but it’s a very fun unit and 33% core for empire is a very big downside. I’d also like to have seen something in this list that “fixed” state troops, make me want to take them, don’t force me to.
City of Nuln Army List
The example list below is a first draft on a Nuln list. As with the above Knights list I’m assuming a rule of 6/3 for core/other. Here we take a very defensive general, two naked engineers, the common heavy gun package of 3 Great Cannons, Hellblaster, and Steam Tank. Core is a block of Nuln State Troops then padding out with Outriders and Archers. The list is rounded out by a pair of War Wagons, these are your counter-charge units, when your opponent comes to your gunline hit back with these.
As I’ve been talking about, I don’t think this is better than a Grand Army list, I think the core is weaker and I want a level 4. Skipping taking any wizard is I think reasonable in this list as a level 2 won’t do much for you.
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Empire of Man [1999 pts]
Warhammer: The Old World, Empire of Man, City of Nuln
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++ Characters [442 pts] ++
General of the Empire [352 pts]
- Great weapon
- Full plate armour
- Shield
- General
- Imperial Griffon
- The White Cloak
- Bedazzling Helm
Empire Engineer [45 pts]
Empire Engineer [45 pts]
++ Core Units [517 pts] ++
20 State Troops [130 pts]
- Halberds
- Champion
- Standard bearer
- Musician
10 State Missile Troops [90 pts]
- Champion
- Drilled
5 Empire Archers [40 pts]
- Fire & Flee
5 Empire Archers [35 pts]
5 Empire Archers [35 pts]
5 Empire Archers [35 pts]
4 Outriders [76 pts]
4 Outriders [76 pts]
++ Special Units [655 pts] ++
War Wagon [140 pts]
War Wagon [140 pts]
Great Cannon [125 pts]
Great Cannon [125 pts]
Great Cannon [125 pts]
++ Rare Units [385 pts] ++
Steam Tank [265 pts]
Helblaster Volley Gun [120 pts]
Conclusion
What Does This Mean for the Grand Army?
So this has added a lot of options to Empire, what might change in the Grand Army with this list?
Magic Items
I think we’ll see a lot of Witch Hunter’s Wards and Rings of Taal, both are quite good on unit champions. I also think Tapestry Of Sigmar’s Triumph, Twice-Blessed Armour, and Icon of Morr have uses and may see play. For Arcane Items Twin-Tailed Wand and Tome of Midnight I think both have some play but time will tell on them.
New Units
I don’t think the characters will have much impact. However I think Teutogen Guard, War Wagons, and Road Wardens will all see play. They all do something new or something different from what existing Empire units offer so I think they can all find spots in lists. If something is going to make Empire melee work it’s the guard. War Wagons have some issues being in rare but I expect to see them as mounts somewhat often. And then Road Wardens I don’t love but are probably the best mounted ranged unit for Empire and due to the point cost of the Steam Tank, Hellblaster, and War Wagon it’s actually pretty easy to stick a unit in there.
Knightly Orders
The Knightly Orders can be used in Grand Army and I think will actually have some impact. Your Empire Knights in core can take White Wolf to get furious charge and wolf hammers, this is pretty huge. Empire core kinda sucks and Knights are usually taken for that reason, I don’t think they’re very good in part due to a lack of damage output, Furious Charge is a game changer there and I expect medium to large blocks of core White Wolf Knights to become quite common.
The Arcane Journal Overall
So where does this Arcane Journal stand? It’s a mixed bag, I think the magic items are solid but nothing game changing, I actually really like them in terms of balance/power level and hope future Arcane Journals maintain this level of item. The new units are also pretty good. I don’t like the characters but Imperial Ogres are cool, Teutogen Guard look fun, Road Wardens have excited some players, and War Wagons are just a great time.
My fears of Nuln being an overpowering and unfun army were avoided, however in return we got a pretty mediocre list. It did nothing to fix the problems with State Troops and in the process of making them fluffier, it made them worse. If someone had access to a ton of War Wagons and was playing in an event without comp I think bringing 10 or so War Wagons would be a lot of fun, but I don’t see another case where I’d be excited to run this list.
The Knightly Orders and their list are really hard to evaluate. I think White Wolf armies look like a lot of fun, and Morr might work, but the other three are just terrible. I know that GW and Specialist Games are not known for their balance but how anyone could think that Evasive and Furious Charge are rules that exist on the same plane for heavy cavalry I don’t know. I also think it’s unfortunate that you can’t mix and match at all. I think it’d be really cool if someone had an empire army with a unit of Knights of Morr and a unit of Order of the Blazing Sun, but you can’t do that. I don’t think there are any balance concerns here, and outside a Knightly Order army list I don’t think there are fictional problems, so it’s a shame GW limited this.
For competitive events, this isn’t the worst journal, but it’s not the best. I think Empire will be left in a similar spot to before, mostly underpowered but with a few profiles that have been over-tuned and generally a list that doesn’t present the most fun games of Warhammer. These are just my first impressions so I hope I’ve been wrong in some of make takes and we see some new, exciting Empire lists at tournaments.
I think for casual players and Empire fans there is a lot to like here, chiefly the new units and the Knightly Order special rules (though I hope you like one of the good ones). The magic items should also offer some good options for lists, I think a number are already being underrated by the community. And of course getting the model range back in production is a great thing, the Empire is THE iconic Warhammer Fantasy faction and seeing State Troops and Empire Knights back on store shelves is a great thing. To my great shame I’ve not read any of the background/fluff in the Old World books, that’s something I really need to get to. And when I do I think the Empire Arcane Journal will have some of the most interesting information there as the Empire is the part of the setting most changed from the WHFB setting.
