“Fighting for one’s homeland is an honourable endeavor, but it is hard to know who you’re fighting for when your homeland lay in Osterland at breakfast, belonged to Talabheim at lunchtime and allied with the Reikland by teatime!”
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, as the carollers say, and it is our privilege to say that we get to end it with a preview of the first arcane journal of 2025, The Empire of Man. It will come as no surprise to anyone that this follows what is now a pretty standard pattern with a couple of named characters for the faction, two Armies of Infamy, and a host of new magical and mundane options for the army, between units which can always be taken and ones which are locked to the new Armies.
Before we get started, I do want to stress another point here: People have to remember that these Armies of Infamy are themed lists designed to give people additional options or narrative ways to play the game. They aren’t always designed to be top-tier tournament lists. They might force you to take melee troops in what you initially read as a gunline force, or severely limit your power with very cut back composition choices, but why? Because that’s how the army has been envisioned to be constructed in that region of the Empire. With that said though, both the Armies provide great little lists and if I was starting an Empire force tomorrow I’d almost certainly be starting with one of those options and building into a generalist list over time rather than the other way around. Falcon: While I do agree with the part about the intent here behind the AJs, I do wish that balance was considered more closely. While AJs are here to provide us with new narrative options, once the models are on the table, it is their rules that drive that narrative forward. The books I love the most in any game are the ones that immerse me in the faction as the dice hit the table, not just the models in my display case at home. Empire as a faction aren’t in the greatest shape and could have really used a bit of a bigger bump much like Tomb Kings, Bretonnia, and Orcs and Goblins saw in their respective Arcane Journals. There is a lot of almost great stuff in this book that seems to follow the trend for Empire of making things that sound good on paper until you get to the last sentence in their description. That said, there are still some really cool additions to the Empire in this book for casual and competitive players alike and fans of the faction should be excited to sit down and craft to their hearts content.
Liam: In addition, we have a few pages of new background lore and it was really nice to get a few pages on what’s led the Empire into the predicament it’s found itself in at this stage in it’s history. My favourite quote from the book is the one above, and while it’s tongue in cheek it underlines what a lot of the empire will feel. They know they should be one people united against their enemies, but the chance at power sometimes corrupts everyone who’s involved in trying to get their hands on it.
What’s in the Book?
It seems that each time I come to write one of these I tend to change up the order we break things down in and this time we’re going to break down the two named characters first because while they can be associated with the two Armies of Infamy I feel that one of them certainly works better in a Grand Army and the other works just as well in either. Falcon: One of them has a cool hat and seems like a blast. One of them has a cool hat and will make a great stand in for a different model.
Harald Gemunsen, Grand Master of the Knights Panther
The first character we have is Harald, who is currently serving as the Grand Master of the Knights Panther. All Grand Masters have been slightly improved by other areas of the Arcane Journal (at a small cost) and you need to really consider that when thinking if he’s worth it. But coming in at only 185pts fully kitted out I think you’ll pretty quickly work out he’s a bit of a bargain (for what he is). You start off with the standard statline but with a small bump in WD, which isn’t something to sniff at as it’ll be a great boost to his defensive profile (only getting hit on 4’s at worst in most cases) and allowing him to hit Ws3 troops on 2’s in return.
His Skilled Duelist rule is fantastic and if we ever enter a world where there are a number of smaller melee characters running around he’s going to have a field day. If he slays his opponent in a challenge he may immediately issue, and fight, another! This allows him to slay both an enemy champion who’s been pushed forward to absorb his attacks and the character they were protecting to build more Combat Resolution. In addition his weapon is effectively a magical one handed halberd with Killing Blow attached to it meaning the above rule can happen more effectively. In addition, if you ever get to fight against Beastmen models you get to reroll all failed to wound attempts, meaning your chances of getting that Killing Blow off just skyrocketed.
What he doesn’t have however is anything to help him defensively outside of a 3+ armour save, so better hope his offensive power is enough to keep him safe coupled with that Ws7 he’s earnt through many years of combat. Falcon: I want to like Harald because he has such a kick ass model, but he really leaves a lot to be desired. The Knights Panther are one of the weaker Knightly Order options in the book, and a 3+ armour save just does not hold up in this edition. In very specific circumstances he is going to be a cute murder maker (like in narrative games against beastmen players that have eschewed chariots to walk around on foot) but otherwise he suffers greatly by being way too narrowly ruled. Empire doesn’t necessarily suffer from the need of a beatstick character of this variety. His challenge rule is sick though. Please at least give him a shield, or a rule that distracts opponents with his extra tall hat. Pretty please.
General Hans Von Löwenhacke
The man who knows honour and duty like no other in the Empire, Hans will put politics aside and fight for his fellow man no matter who’s giving the order on any given Tuesday. A foot commander might initially put people off, but he comes with a handful of special rules which I think will have a lot of people consider putting him into their forces and certainly picking one up at some point if they choose to lean into some of the other options available to Empire Generals with more coin in their pockets.
Coming in at 190 points you get yourself an improved statline over a General of the Empire character with +1Ws and +1A, but lets get onto those special rules shall we? Mercenary Commander lets your Mercenary forces use his Inspiring Presence rule as the armies general and allows you to skip rolling on the Misbehaving Mercenaries table at the start of the game. No longer do the Dwarfen Doomseekers not show up for battle and those Ogres will have to wake up on time and get to the fight with the rest of the Infantry. Strategic Mastery allows you to apply a +1/-1 to the roll for who goes first in battle, this appears to stack with the regular +1 for deploying first so you can really count on that a little more if you build a force with low drops or make sure your opponent moves into position first so you can unleash your firepower onto them by letting them move into range first.
He doesn’t just bring his skill with him though, he’s also got a pair of magic items. The Griffon Helm grants him a 5+ ward save and makes him immune to the Killing Blow special rule, to a point that he not only ignores the instant kill effect but it still allowed to make armour (and if he somehow has one) a regen save in addition to the Ward save provided by the Griffon Helm itself. The weapon he chooses to carry into battle is Juggernaught, a special +2str -2ap Magical Weapon with Multiple Wounds (2). Which is outstanding. He can actually go toe to toe with most other fighting characters in his weight class which can’t always be said for named characters in this game. Fairly sure if I was doing anything other than a Knightly Order themed list he’d have a good chance of seeing the table.
Falcon: Okay, now this is someone I can get behind. Is he an auto-take in your lists? Far from it. As Liam mentions, it can be difficult to play a foot slogging general in the current meta, BUT, he brings a lot to the table. Particularly, Strategic Mastery. As anyone who has played previous versions of WHFB or any other wargame for that matter, being to manipulate the Go First roll is particularly powerful and Empire has a series of lists that really want to have that kind of ability. It is common for Empire gunlines to run only 5-6 drops which is generally less than their compatriots meaning you can frequently set up pretty aggressive go turns with Outriders or other vanguarding threats. Also, occasionally terrain and deployment will make you want to go second so the -1 is just as useful. The fact that he is actually a very capable fighter with a decent defensive stat line is just icing on the cake. This is the kind of special character I enjoy, one that could and should definitely see occasional play, but not something that can be meta defining.
Guns at the Ready!
So, I keep mentioning these Armies of Infamy, but what have we got? The City State of Nuln is the first list and while everyone might initially think this ends up being just more big black powder weapons that’s not at all how the list is constructed. You can take an Empire General or Lector of Sigmar per 1000, unlimited Captains, Master Mages, Witch Hunters, Priests of Sigmar and Engineers. In addition, you may mount one of your Lectors on a War Alter of Sigmar. The big headline story here is a lack of Wizard Lords which will instantly make players consider if this is for them. Luckily I think you can certainly play around it.
In the Core section of the list you’re forced to take 1+ Nuln State or Nuln Veteran State Troops which are your normal State/Vet State troops but locked into a specific loadout. In this case your main block must have Halberds as its weapon option and be accompanied by 1-2 units of Swordsmen or State Missile Troops (which must have Handguns). The upside however is that you do get free champions in the detachment units which can lead to some scenario’s where you can theoretically tie up Dragons, etc for longer by forcing them to fight champions one at a time before they fly away elsewhere, meaning they never get to fight and wipe out the blocks themselves. In addition, you can take 0-1 Outriders in core per 1000pts (you will be) and Militia and Archers are also still available to the list.
In Special we have the same 0-3 restriction on Great Cannons/Mortar’s per 1000 along with Greatswords, Pistoliers, even more Outriders, Empire Knights and of course the War Wagon! Rare see’s the other new option for Nuln in the Road Wardens along with 0-2 of Hellbaster Volley Guns/Hellstorm Rockets and the Steam Tank is still at 1 per 1000. These all follow the standard % based groupings as per the Grand Army list. In addition you can take up to 25% on Mercenaries which include Imperial Dwarfs and Imperial Ogres, along with 0-2 Doomseekers per 1000. The other point to make is that an Engineer can be your Battle Standard Bearer as was similar with the Dwarfen Mountain Holds Expedition Force list.
There are a host of special rules associated with this list so lets take a look. Big Guns Know No Fear means that Engineers (and any unit they join) gain Immune to Psychology while near friendly Warmachines which is great. I saw someone lose a game on the weekend due to a failed Terror Test on a long-bomb charge, so that wouldn’t have happened here. Entrenched Positions means that your Warmachines might stay safe a little longer by allowing you to “entrench” (provide it with cover and act as if it is defending a low linear obstacle) one for each engineer you have. Finally Gun Limbers is a cool little rule allowing you to give Vanguard & Veteran to 0-1 Warmachine per 1000pts. I’m not majorly sure what scenario’s this would be great in bar allowing you to maybe change the angle of a cannon shot or stopping the enemy moving as far forward if they want to remain outside of a Volley Gun range, but I’m sure smarter people than me will figure this out. Falcon: If you bother to take this (the upgrade costs between 5 and 15 points depending on the war machine) you’re doing it because you know the terrain you’ll be play on or you really want your Volleyguns to be able to shoot turn 1 every game. Liam: When I said finally, I just meant the rules which effect the Warmachines, we’re still only half way though.
Handgun Drill is a cool rule allowing each detachment of handgunners to fire in an additional rank once per game. Nuln State Troops is a really wordy way of saying specific units have to be equipped in a certain way, I’m more than OK with this, it allows the designers to get the theme and background/lore of an army across and honestly they should do this more in my opinion. Falcon: Honestly, I wish this rule wasn’t once per game. This is one of those rules I first mentioned that feels like they’re playing things too safe. Being able to fire in an extra rank is a very flavorful rule that fits the Nuln theme very well. Unfortunately, because you can only take missile troops in detachments in this list it is rare that this is going to give you more than an extra 10-20 (if you heavily invest in the concept) ballistic skill 3 shots over an entire game. Given the prevalence of giant units of volley firing poisoned archers in several armies, it just doesn’t feel great by comparison or even particularly interesting. Especially when Veteran Outriders is the next rule on the page. Liam: Finally, you have Veteran Outriders which is maybe the most run rule of the lot here. It allows Outriders in a Nuln army to ignore the Ponderous rule for their missile weapons, meaning you can really bring their firepower to where you need it while keeping them safe. Falcon: And herein kind of lies the problem with this Army of Infamy in my opinion. This rule is quite strong and none of the others really matter or necessarily change the theme of your list outside of being forced into taking at least 15 state troops. The thing that I have enjoyed about most of the previous armies of infamy is that they generally did a great job of balancing the units you were restricted in taking with some very neat special rules. Here the juice doesn’t feel like it is worth the squeeze and you end up finding yourself tailoring down to one specific unit and making it as powerful as you can to take advantage of the theme. Which is really too bad because the Empire is such a vast and varied army with a rich history.
Liam: But what about the new units in this Army of Infamy I hear you ask? We’ll start with the Empire Road Wardens which are Crossbow armed light Calvary units. They can upgrade their Crossbows to Brace of Pistols, which allows you to now use your Pistoleer models without having them run off into the enemy after suffering the negative impacts of the Impetuous Rule as these don’t have it. They do come with Bs4 however so can output some real damage onto unsuspecting enemy troops. These can also be taken 0-1 per 1000 in a Grand Army as a Special choice so aren’t a Nuln unique unit. Falcon: I was hesitant about these guys at first, Pistoleers that lose impetuous and gain a Ballistic Skill feel like they should be quite good, but you end up paying about 4 more points per model which starts to make them feel a bit too expensive for their role, especially in Nuln where Outriders generally feel like the better choice because of a number of factors. That said, in a Grand Army I think there is a decent argument to running a small unit or twp of these guys as scouts, particularly if you’re running Hans as it can give you another viable threat for your opponent to deal with when you inevitably go first.
War Wagons can also be added to a Grand Army as 0-1 per 1000 as a rare choice and I think you’ll see a fair few of them there. For 140 points you get a 6W T5 Heavy Chariot with a host of weapons. Some good D6+1 -2AP S5 Impact Hits and D3+1 -1AP Stomp Attacks to boot. All on a model with a 3+ Armour Save. The rules are a little long winded with regards to all it’s weapons but in effect it’s got 3 OK ranged weapons and 3 OK melee Weapons, just write yourself a little cheat-sheet to remember all of them when playing games. I really like these and would be picking up a couple for sure. Remember in the Nuln army you can take them as a Special Choice so could have 7 in your special choice’s alone, nevermind the fact that they can be taken as an Engineer’s mount! Falcon: I love these guys. Most of the time they’re going to be a bit of a meme but they have a really nice profile and can do some surprising work. Large Target is a bit of a concern if you find yourself running up against large units of missile toting minions pretty frequently as your 3+ probably won’t save you there, BUT, this little engine that could is a dream otherwise. The Engineer BSB in Nuln with a White Cloak or Talisman of Preservation is legitimately cool tech that you love to see.
Falcon: Nuln is the army list I have had the chance to play the most after receiving the book. Mainly because it is the most binary thing on paper and I was concerned it might be a bit problematic. A list taking 20-30+ Outriders with the right magic items and hero allotments is easily playable here and you still have a lot of space for war machines or other tech. You can reliably make a list that takes way more than 100 shots a turn from extremely mobile weapons platforms that often hit on 4s or 5s and wound on 3s. A lot of people trying to play certain factions will play into that and have a miserable time. Of course, that pain goes both ways too just like with any skew list, particularly because you have no access to Wizard Lords. There will be times the Outrider player just can’t kill anything at all and gets bogged down in one-sided games in the other direction and in my experience there will be games where your poor Dwarf opponent loses 30 Longbeards in your first turn of shooting. I honestly would have preferred some stronger limitations on Veteran Outriders, like making it only effect 1 unit of Outriders in your list or giving it a point cost and then boosting the power of the very specific Nuln State troops, war machines in general, or Handgun Drill to compensate so the army list as a whole feels more narratively interesting.
Charge of the Light Brigade
The second Army of Infamy is the Knightly Orders Of the Empire list. As you can guess, it’s very much themed around Knights, but it’s been designed in a cool way allowing you to – depending on your chosen knightly order – to take different units to fit the theme. You get 0-1 Grand Master (he’s the leader of course) and you have to take 1+ Chapter Master (chances are you’ll want a BsB). 0-1 Lector of Sigmar or High Priest of Ulric per 1000pts are also allowed along with unlimited Witch Hunters, Priests of Sigmar and Priests of Ulric. Finally the Lector of Sigmar can of course take a War Alter.
In Core you have to take 1+ unit of Empire Knights per 1000 points and 0-1 units of Inner Circle Knights can be taken in this slot as well. Empire Archers also retain their place as a very welcome addition, acting as the scouts and chaff for the army. Into Special you get more Inner Circle Knights and Demigyphs Knights alongside 0-1 unit of Empire State Troops or State Missile Troops per 1000pts so if you want to have some not-so-solid blocks of infantry to support your army. Finally in Rare you can take Pistoliers, just in case you wanted to add some of those young nobles to the force.
The way this is constructed now means I have to break down the 5 “chapters” of the Knightly Order list. I very much view these like Space Marine Chapters from Warhammer 40,000. They’re all very much the same starting point (see above) but get different flavours to spice it up a little. The thing to remember is that every ‘knight’ unit has to buy the upgrade relating to their knightly order and I’ll go through them here. Falcon:Â Just like with Nuln, the Knightly Orders cannot field Wizard Lords by default, along with an entire swath of other flavorful options (like war machines) which is a pretty big punch to the gut. At first glance, this just looks like Bretonnia but worse. However, as we’re about to see, depending on the Order you choose to define your list, your army composition gets further adjusted. This makes each Order’s list look just different enough that you can almost make out the flavour change, like when you thought the red M&Ms tasted better as a kid.
Knights Panther – You can include 0-1 Knights of the White Wolf as a Merc unit; this is the only way to get a different Knightly Order in a Knightly Order list. These on loan nobles ignore the Misbehaving Merc’s rule as well. Knights Panther must always be equipped with Lances (but can buy Magic Weapons), may reroll a single dice of a 1 on a charge and gain hatred against Warriors of Chaos, Beastmen Brayherds and Daemonic Models. In addition the Grand Master, Chapter Master, Inner Circle Knights and any unit they join gets Magic Resistance (-1).
White Wolf – At an army composition level you can take a unit of the new Teutogen Guard as special and 0-1 Free Company Militia per 1000 as Core. Clearly you can’t take any Priests of Sigmar; he’s not allowed this far north. The Knights themselves have to have Great Weapons or Halberds and replace them with the new Wolf Hammers (you’ll want to do this anyway) and they all gain Furious Charge (Ace!). In addition the Grand Master, Chapter Master, and Inner Circle Knights gain a 5+ ward against all attacks with the flaming special rule.
Order of the Blazing Sun – Army composition-wise you get 0-2 Master Mages per 1000 giving you some defense against enemy casters and you also get access to 0-1 Cannon or Mortar per 1000pts for some ranged output. The trade for this is no Priests of Sigmar or Ulric. The Knights themselves gain Evasive and Flaming Attacks along with the Grand Master, Chapter Master, and any Inner Circle Knights in your list gaining +1CR on a turn they charge. The CR from this buff is not cumulative though, so throwing all 3 together will not get you a gigantic lift. Added to a Rank, BsB, Banner, Warbanner, Close Order, etcetera and some output from the unit and you’ve got yourself a decent little block of mobile Combat Res.
Knights of Morr – These gain the ability to take both Master Mages and Wizard Lords as character choices, giving you a Lv4 Wizard option for your Knights if you really want one. You do lose access to all kinds of Priests though, so that seems a fair trade. In addition, the Knights themselves gain Hatred against all undead models and have a 6+ Ward against none-magical attacks. Grand Masters, Chapter Masters, and Inner Circle Knights gain the Fear and Magical Attacks special rules as well.
Fiery Heart – These get to take Flagellants as a Rare choice and lose access to the Ulric based priests. They gain a limit on the types of characters which can join their units (Only Grand/Chapter Masters and Priests of Sigmar), gain Hatred against enemy Wizards and Greenskins and gain +1Int during the first round of combat like Elves. In addition the Masters of their order and Inner Circle Knights can re-roll both hits and wound rolls of a 1 in combat. While the Inner Circle already rerolls 1s to hit, the extra lift is kind of nice.
It’s worth noting that that’s kind of it for the Knightly Orders army list. It really reduces the options you’ve got but you get 5 differently themed lists within the army list and I think that’s something to admire. There’s every chance that I end up with Knightly Order of the White Wolf army at some point between now and next Christmas for sure.
It’s also worth me saying that you can actually take Knightly Order Upgrades (so just the ones on the characters and units) in a Grand Army, allowing you to get Fiery Heart Knights who hate Greenskins into your list for example if your Meta is Greenskin heavy, which is a great little boon to the army for not a lot of points.
Falcon:Â This Grand Army upgrade option is limited to 0-1 Empire Knights, Inner Circle Knights or Demigryph Knights and 0-1 Grand Masters/Chapter Masters in a list but I’d certainly be looking at this if I had an empire army already. Particularly White Wolves is an all-around solid choice. Gaining Furious Charge and the amazing Wolf Hammers on even a single unit of Inner Circle or Core Empire Knights really ups the damage potential in a Grand Army list and is a great new tool for empire players. Honestly, any of these Knightly Orders would make a flavorful and competitive addition to your Grand Army list if you’re looking to liven things up, and I only wish the Knightly Orders army of infamy had been something else entirely and that these singular upgrades were all that was on offer as a side bonus because as small packages go they’re genuinely cool. As part of a Grand Army, each of these orders could have some really interesting value competitively and narratively. Unfortunately, the Knightly Orders army of infamy feels lackluster when taken for it’s full value (though it is a very powerful stat check as you’ll frequently be rocking 40 ish wounds with a 2+ armour save). Because of the army composition restrictions the majority of the Knightly Orders lists end up looking just about the same for 75% of their list or more and these heavy restrictions make them extremely linear in terms of actual gameplay. The whole thing feels like Diet Bretonnia and I feel the book is so very close to having a great priest of Ulric or Sigmar themed list instead that it could have gone in a more fun direction. There are some really awesome ideas here though and I’m interested to see if there is any real innovation to be had.
Reinforcements for War
I’m going to quickly talk about the units which I haven’t touched on which are also included in the Arcane Journal here before starting on the magic items. We’ve got the Harbinger of Doom who’s a Flagellant hero. He can be included in any army which includes a unit of Flagellants and has a normal melee hero statline. He does however come with the Prayer of the Damned special rule which allows you pray in the normal manner and the character and their unit game a 6+ ward and a 5+ ward against against wounds caused by an enemy model with the Fear or Terror rules, which is going to be great and reducing the damage they take from enemy wizards or monsters. Outside of that he has all the rules you’d expect to allow him to look and feel like part of a Flagellant unit on the battlefield.
Next we have the Teutogen Guard who have returned after many many years in the wilderness. They’ve got a pretty standard elite infantry stat-line very similar to Greatswords but also have T4 which really adds up over a game. They come with a bunch of different rules and a new weapon which makes them really good (in context of other infantry) on the table. Blessing of Ulric grants them a 6+ ward against any attack with the flaming special rule which’ll occasionally help. They can be upgraded with the Guardians of the Temple special rule to re-roll 1’s in combat on their to-hit rolls meaning they’ll make their swings count more often. But the best part of this is their Hammer. The Wolf Hammer, which we have already talked about in the White Wolves Knightly Order, is a 2 handed, +1Str, -2Ap weapon without the Strikes Last rule and it gains an additional +1Str on the turn it charges, making it a significantly better flail. The good news is you can take a unit of these for every Priest of Ulric in your Grand Army lists as a special choice. Falcon: Elite infantry have kind of struggled this edition with a small handful of exceptions and those that have succeeded have had to be Core to do it. So if anything is going to test whether infantry has a shot in this game as it stands it’s probably going to be the Teutogen Guard. Liam mentions they have a ‘bunch’ of special rules. They have all the same special rules as fully upgraded Greatswords (like Drilled, Stubborn, Veterans) on top of rerolls and better toughness for the same points cost. I think there really is some potential play in taking a decent sized unit of these with a priest of Ulric and a daemonology wizard lord and seeing just how close to the sun they can fly. They’re neat.
The last of the units are the Imperial Ogres which I really like the look of. You start with a pretty standard Ogre profile we’ve all come to know along with light armour, but you get a host of options. Great Weapons, Morning Stars, Ogre Pistols and Light Cannons are all options along with the Motley Crew special rule to allow you to make the most of them. In addition you can pick up Heavy Armour as well. The Light Cannon is wonderful little weapon with 18″ range, S4 and -1AP along with Armour Bane (2) but what really makes it good is that you get D3 hits rather than 1. They can be taken in the Grand Army for the Empire and the Dwarfs meaning you can have some big lads in that Dwarf Army now which look the part.
Magic Items from the Armoury
As per normal we’re not going to go through all the magic items and instead are just going to pick our favorite ones here to share with you.
Von Trickschotte’s Wonderous Arquebus – A big magic gun, wonderful! S5, Ap-2, Armour Bane (2) and Multiple Wounds (D3) mean you’ll see this in every Nuln list out there, great item and can be combined with the Dragon Bow in the same army to let your characters get involved early on. Falcon: It also has a range of 32 inches and ignores the long range modifier. Just a sweet package for a Captain or Engineer to tote around.
Twice Blessed Armour – Armour with a bonus effect? Great! This is full plate armour (allowing you to give it to some models who don’t have that option) along with Hammerhand at bound Lv2. I really like HammerHand as a Combat Res booster and when you’re charging at the enemy wizards trying to deny them their chance to dispel this just makes sense. Falcon: I have been a fan of tossing this on a mounted Priest of Ulric to get them up to a 2+ save. It also gives you enough room for a:
Witch Hunter’s Talisman* – Falcon: A very common magic item that gives you Magic Resistance (-2) AND let’s the bearer reroll a single failed Armour Save once per game. Warriors of Chaos players have been tossing Brazen Collars on units for a while now and this is even better than that for the same points. This little beauty if a godsend in the Knightly Orders but you should eye it in your Grand Armies as well. Just an excellent item to slap onto a cheap character or unit champion to dramatically up your survivability.
Tapesty of Sigmar’s Triumph – Really like this. Lets you reroll 1’s in the first round of combat on your “to wound” rolls. I think if you’re taking a Knightly Orders Army where you need to make those hits count and wound on 3’s a lot of the time this will increase your damage output on those few which don’t wound and tip combat into your favour. Falcon: This is very good for the points and is not limited to the rider so can be a consideration for your Demigryph Knights as well.
Squintsoffen’s Marvellous Magnifier* – Another Nuln only item but allows you to ignore range modifiers for the bearer and their unit. Really lets you get your firepower where you need it to be and I love the idea of Master Mages or Witch Hunters leading units of Nuln Veteran Outriders clutching their Magnifiers. Could be brilliant with 2 (or more) units in an army. Falcon: Getting your Outriders down to always hitting on 4s or 5s when equipped on Mages or Witch Hunters for their in-built magic resist/chance of dispelling protects you just a tad from one of Nuln’s biggest weaknesses. This might be the most powerful magic item in the book though it is very limited in where that power goes.
Twin-Tailed Wand – Has a downside in that your wizard could very well blow up, but at the same time getting to cast one of your spells twice per turn is brilliant. Putting your Wizard Lord on a Pegasus keeps them alive providing they haven’t taken other damage before and I think you’ll see a fair chunk of this. Having a caster on one of these beasts was already fairly popular and letting them double dip on “Fireball” or “The Summoning” seems really useful. Falcon: Taking d3 wounds with only ward saves allowed whenever you roll a miscast is a steep penalty but the value in getting two stabs at casting the same spell and the pure value you can get out of so many potential combinations can’t be overlooked. My first look makes me think this would be aces on an Elementalism wizard to really play with the board state.
Tome of Midnight – Falcon: The Tome of Midnight grants its wielder +1 to cast so long as their chosen Lore of Magic is Daemonlogy, Dark, or Necromancy. In addition, the bearer knows 1 additional spell from their lore though they may only cast an amount of spells each turn equal to their wizard level. However, the user of the tome is too weird and becomes subject to the Loner special rule. This item is quite good, though it does lose a significant amount of strength due to Loner as all of a sudden a number of self spells in these lores become obsolete. That said, having an effective level 5 wizard in your list (by also taking the Wizard’s Staff from the Forces of Fantasy) is very welcome. While the power here is obvious, it is also extremely thematic in a Knights of Morr Knightly Order list where you can take really advantage of necromantic leadership debuffs.
To War!
This is where we normally give you a couple of armies and I think this’ll be the same.
Necromantic Knights
Knightly Orders Army of Infamy: Knights of Morr
Points: 1999
Heroes
Wizard Lord: Lvl 4, Necromancy, Tome of Midnight, Wizard’s Staff, Armour of Tarnus, Empire Warhorse 272 pts
Grand Master (General, Full Plate, Shield, Ogre Blade, White Cloak, Demigryph) 310 pts
Chapter Master (Full Plate, Shield, Lance, Talisman of Preservation, BSB, Banner of Morr, Demigryph) 233 pts
Core
4 Empire Knights (Drilled, Stubborn, Lances and Shields, Preceptor) 116 pts
4 Empire Knights (Drilled, Stubborn, Lances and Shields, Preceptor) 116 pts
9 Inner Circle Knights (Laces and Shields, Preceptor, Musician, Banner, Sigmar’s Tapestry, Witch Hunter’s Talisman) 396 pts
Special
4 Demigryph Knights (Full Plate, Lances, Preceptor, Standard Bearer) 278 pts
4 Demigryph Knights (Full Plate, Lances, Preceptor, Standard Bearer) 278 pts
This Knights of Morr list tries to go a bit thematic with a juiced up ‘level 5’ wizard riding behind his forces providing demoralizing support. The Banner of Morr gives a unit that already causes Fear the Terror special rule and since every model in this army causes it it’s a great tech piece to potentially run an opposing unit off the board after they’ve been threatened with a good time by your Necromancer. I recommend putting your masters in each of the demigryph units because even though this does mean they lose the chance to take part in some points denial, they do protect your Loner loser lord from being sniped. The 6+ ward save comes in surprisingly handy in this list and comes up often making all your knights just that much harder to move. If you’re looking to try something different you could switch out the Grand Master for a second lvl 4 wizard with Illusion Magic and some combination of Lore Familiar, a Killing Blow/Monster Slayer Weapon with the new Magic Item that once per games allows you to reroll wound rolls or the new magical axe that ignores armour saves on failed leadership tests. If you’re wanting to make the list more competitively focused you can pretty easily switch Necromancy for Dark magic to get access to Hatred and Frenzy for your Knights and swap in some banners/magic items to make your charges a bit more reliable.
Grand Army of the White Wolf
Empire Grand Army
Points: 2000
Heroes
Grand Master (White Wolf, Ogre Blade, Wolf HammerTalisman of Protection, Full Plate, Shield, Pegasus) 294 pts
Priest of Ulric (Barded Warhorse, Biting Blade, Twice Blessed Armour) 116 pts
Wizard Lord (lvl 4 Elementalism, Pegasus, Twin-Tailed Wand) 230 pts
Wizard Lord (lvl 4 Daemonology, Armour of Tarnus, Lore Familiar) 225 pts
Core
15 Empire Knights (Drilled, Stubborn, White Wolf, Wolf Hammers, Shield, Preceptor, Standard, Musician, War Banner, Witch Hunter’s Talisman, Ring of Taal) 503 Pts
Special
18 Teutogen Guard (Champion, Standard, Guardians of the Temple, Drilled, Stubborn, Veterans) 266 points
Great Cannon 125
Great Cannon 125
5 Road Wardens (Fire and Flee, Feigned Flight, Brace of Pistols, Scouts) 110
This list takes a lot of actual hammers in 2 big hammer units and just tries to punch it’s way to freedom with some tricky movement shenanigans at your beck and call. Your lvl 4 Elementalism Wizard on Pegasus gets to do some really interesting things here if they can abuse the Twin-Tailed Wand. Being able to double cast Wind Blast or Travel Mystical Pathway can really shake up your opponents movement plans and allows you a bit more freedom of movement with your 2 giant drilled blocks of idiots. Plague of Rust on two separate units also doesn’t suck in a pinch. Ring of Taal gives you a single use of Oaken Shield per game on your Empire Knights which you can use as your last ditch effort should the rest of your plans fail, your bus ends up looking down the barrel of something it should not have messed with, and Ulric’s prayers go unbidden. The Grand Master on Pegasus acts as line support, threatening units of nearly any size with death via 360 no scope charges and your Teutogen Guard get to hope their Daemonology babysitter can give them an extra boost of speed via Steed of Shadows, along with the buffs Daemonic Vigor and Vitality provide to really crank up their output. If the 15 strong unit of Knights scares you a bit too much with their paper thin saves, you could split them up easily enough and take some archers for more board control.
Hans Van Doomseeker
Nuln Army of Infamy
1998 Pts
Heroes
Hans Von Lowenhacke (General) 190 Pts
Captain of the Empire (Pegasus, Full Plate, Shield, Lance, Triqueshot’s Arquebus) 112 Pts
Engineer (War Wagon, BSB, White Cloak, Grenade Launching Blunderbuss) 250 Pts
Master Mage (Empire Warhorse, Lvl 2 Daemonology, Squintsoffen’s Magnifier) 137 Pts
Master Mage (Empire Warhorse, Lvl 2 Daemonology, Squintsoffen’s Magnifier) 137 Pts
Core
11 Outriders (Sgt, Grenade Launching Blunderbuss) 225
11 Outriders (Sgt, Grenade Launching Blunderbuss) 225
Nuln State Troops (10 Halberdiers, Sgt, 5 Handgunners) 105
Special
Great Cannon 125 Pts
Great Cannon 125 Pts
Mercenaries
5x Badlands Ogre Bulls (Crusher, mix of Great Weapons and Iron Fists, Heavy Armour) 202 pts
Doomseeker (Master Rune of Alaric the Mad, Rune of the Hateful, Rune of Endless Battle) 165 Pts
Here’s a more fun narrative twist on the Nuln Army of Infamy where we try to spice up our guns with some heavy-hitting meaty mercs and Hans to keep them in check. While you could drop all of the drama for more Outriders, Helblasters or a Steam Tank, this list instead anchors your line with some chonky Badlands Ogre Bulls (which could just as easily be their Imperial brethren, I just like having the Iron Fist options here) that provide a bit more character protection for your Doomseeker and Hans than the lowly Nuln troops could ever support. The Master Mages provide a little support kit for your Outriders, carrying the wondrous magnifiers to ensure you can stay safely out of charge range and still fire effectively and also giving the unit a little spell protection with MR (-1) and a chance to dispel your opponents’ casts, which is better than no chance at all.
To Sum Up
So there we have it, the sixth Arcane Journal in the Empire of Man. It’s fair to say it’s a really fun, themed book; it lacks anything which is going to really catapult the Empire Army to the top tier, but honestly I think I like this more than that.
The Knightly Order list might be a little stifled but is great to put on the table, just won’t be winning any events anytime soon (Falcon: I think it can definitely win an event just off the back of that many 2+ armour saves, it just has some terrible match-ups). The Nuln list really forces you to play with that min unit of Halberds or forces you to make the most of them and lean in to. The army will be decided by how much it can kill in those first few turns though.
The big winner here is arguably the Grand Army. You can take an upgrade on a single unit of Knights, Inner Circle Knights or Demigryph Knights and the Grand Master. You can take a couple of War Wagons and a unit of Ogres. Want to make the Flagellants better than they are add in a character. I really like how this book does that and adds in a few new items which can certainly be taken in nearly every Empire list. If this is the marker all future books are measured by and they’re all in the same ballpark I think the game is going to be the better for it.
Falcon: I know I may have come across as harsh in some sections of this article, but it is because I honestly have felt that the previous Arcane Journals were better than this. While Tomb Kings was a bit too powerful in retrospect, the others really provided us with some unique and cool playstyles that livened up their existing armies and I’m not sold we have that here, at least not in a healthy way. This is all just my opinion and it comes from a love for this game more than anything. Like Liam, I think there really is some great stuff to be had, it’s just really tempered by too many ‘buts’ thrown in at the end of interesting rules. Several Magic Items we don’t talk about would be decent to good if they had one less rider attached to them. I love the Knightly Orders as add-ins for your Grand Army and several of the Magic Items are legitimately cool. The War Wagon is a sweet piece to put on the table and I kinda want to run at least 3 once in my life. As to the Armies of Infamy though, I just wish they did a better job of creating a unique identity for themselves outside of stat check lists as the Empire is just so much deeper than this.
