The wagon moved along the road that passed through the open town lands. The sun shining on the green fields that were at the start of the growing season. Family steadings and villages passed. Guthlaf was riding in the back listening to Gisha chat with the girl, Bemia. He shook his head in amazement. Gisha never seemed to want to talk to the ‘lesser races’ about anything but there she sat next to the girl chuckling at Bemia’s jokes and sharing stories. ‘Almost there, about another hour or so’ Bemia looked over her shoulder and said and then returned to her conversation. The idea that her mother was a respectable owner of a large Inn rather than the thief that he knew years ago was a surprise. What she described was really a small village as there was a blacksmith, farriers, a brewery and more. The caravans stopped there within a long day’s march to the city they had just left. Guthlaf dozed in the sun and let the time slip by.
I have very few ‘Special’ units for the Empire and less ‘Rare’ ones, more on that later in this. I have proxied the Reiksguard Foot in as Greatswords for years but I am now painting up some proper Zwiehanders for whatever game I want to use them in. They are probably the most ‘Germanic’ looking miniature soldiers in the Empire Army as they are sculpted to look exactly like those veteran Landesknechts and considering they were from the hands of the Perry Brothers it should not come as a surprise to anyone. But then I don’t have any that are painted to show off so I will move on.
For the special units that I do have painted that I always take to the table are the Great Cannon and Mortar. First the Great Cannon is really a large direct fire weapon that you can, if you’re good with guessing ranges, break whole units and kill monsters with one shot. In some editions you can also make them into large shotguns. They are quite scary to march on and if you can bounce your cannon balls properly. The same goes for the mortar but instead of putting a large metal or stone ball through a unit but rather putting a bomb in the middle of a formation. They are truly weapons of mass destruction. There is an entry in the main rules for a smaller cannon, the cannon used by the Dwarfs actually, but I use an old cannon from the old Battle Masters game (1992) from Milton Bradley and GW. It fits quite nicely with the army. I tend to look at that if I am in a smaller game and can use the point saving somewhere else.
I have two Great Cannons in the army. One is lead and the other is plastic. With another metal and two more plastic ones waiting in the bin to assemble and paint. They are fairly straight forward minis and can be assembled without a lot of thought. The metal cannon ‘Nuln’s Judgement’ was the first part of what I hoped would be the Grand Battery of my army. The plastic is from the 6th edition box and named ‘Wrath of Sigmar’ was more of a good thing. It destroyed a Wood Elf dragon and Mage in one shot. Heady day indeed. Together they work as a team that will give you ranges from the first shot and allow you to hammer those Chaos Warriors to pieces. Put them on elevations that allow you to fire over your battle line or on a flank with some protection. Enemy fliers will be all over them if you don’t. NEVER put them in your battle line unless you have to. In a battle line they could be charged directly or have their field of fire obscured by friendly units.
Mortars work very differently from cannon but they are quite useful especially against horde armies. Put them near enough to the cannons to assist you in range estimation but not so close to get caught in a misfire incident. I have one painted and four more in the bin. All are from the fourth edition era and are very basic. They were, like their historical counterparts, in a simple base/cradle to hold the ‘pot’ and emplaced directly on ground. A later game mortar would be wheeled but I didn’t like the way it looked. Keep in mind that it has a Minimum range of 12 inches and a maximum of 48 inches. That 12in dead zone is important to remember when the enemy is in danger close. That’s why you load your nearby cannon with grape. As they are far more in need of a good range guess it is better to fire the cannons and increase the chance of a hit. To be blunt, there is a historical precedent for using the fire of nearby engines to gain the range on a given target.
Now I’d like to talk about the only Rare unit I have on the table and the only war engine I put in the battle line: The incredible Von MienKopt’s Whirling Cavalcade of Death, or as the laymen put it, the Hellblaster Volley Gun. I remember taking one to battle, watching it destroy every enemy unit I fired at until it misfired on the last turn of the game. I immediately went and bought a second one to increase that firepower. Do I really need two? No. I wanted them. Bet your tuckus, putting one of those on a flank will have your enemy shying away but two, well that is what a tactician would call a ‘denied flank’. It is the only engine that I put into a battle line side by side with a small regiment for security.
I also look at magic as a support weapon along the lines of war engines in the game. The ‘magic system’ changed quite a bit over the 5 or six editions, main editions that is, but the human mages were more restricted than some other factions. The wizards in the army come from various editions. Most from the 3rd edition but there are a couple from 4th. I try to take a Lord and a couple battle mages. The lord is a heavy hitter with numerous spells and the ability to reach out and touch the enemy. The lesser mages are there to protect and dispel. Anything beyond that is gravy. I don’t mount them on horses but I have some unpainted ones and probably will see how they would work in a game. The later editions of the game would almost do away with half of the Colleges of Magic, from my observations, so my old minis came back to the table as I could just name them to this faction or that.
After re-reading this I realized that this is all about the artillery of my army. Empire Armies are about firepower to whittle down opponents in the idea that the weakened units will not push an attack and will be vulnerable to counter attack. In conjunction with the detachment rules that make the infantry deadly in the defense, well, the Empire army (if played well) is a handful on the tabletop. IF the ideas introduced in 4th to 6th editions remain in the new game I would probably look closer at the rules.
Guthlaf sat in a well appointed office in the Inn’s large main building. ‘The Bard’s Repose’ was as Bemia described. It was a small village that was close to the Royal Road and was close enough to a navigable water course to have a small landing for river commerce. It was quite the operation. Elswyth was no longer the waspish thief he’d adventured with almost two decades ago. Now she was stocky with graying hair but he had no doubt that she could still be deadly with the short sword that hung from her left hip. She sat at a large desk looking at the pair. Gisha stood next to the small window that looked out onto the front yard of the inn. She too was impressed with the size of the place. ‘So,’ Guthlaf said, ‘What do you need from us?’
joehough1960 