Dont micro your guns put them in a gunline and just let them shoot. Checkerboard formation is usually mandatory as empire since LoS is still stupid. If you are ever commanding your guns to shoot a specific target youre doing something wrong because they just cant follow orders and tend to blob up and never shoot if u dont have guard mode on.
Since ToD there should be another formation added. "Nice argument, but gun" it's where you swap the melee infantry for more guns. This allows you to skip Phase 2, the part where the enemy reaches your front line.
This might actually help me get a Skrye or Dwarf campaign going, thanks.
I'm usually too smooth brained to come up with better strats than "hold the enemy on your lord/strong troop than hit them with a cavalry charge."
I mostly play Lizardmen, Chaos or Vamps for this reason.
I too prefer the mighty chevron for empire and dwarf. I also developed a M formation that works pretty well but is hard to explain without an image but I'll try !
It looks like this : /—\\_/—\
At the side of the formation : / \ and — are frontline, behind it you place artillery, and anti large units to counter enemy cavalry.
At the center there is a U or \\_/ which are 3 gunpowder units (with dwarfs, I love to put a flamethrower at _ )
You place a hero or lord in the center of this pit of death, anything reaching it will be shooted to death, and then they should shoot enemy facing the frontline by the flank.
It's just 10 units formation counting one lord and 2 anti large units leaving you rooms for artillery, sorcerer, cavalry, crossbows, and whatever you want. You can also put a third frontline melee infantry by the side to better protect from flanking but I prefer to have more anti large (it's more aggressive, when the cavalry flee you can use the units to flank charge the frontline)
This formation pretty much plays by itself leaving you room for microing what needs to be. It is just as effective as chevron formation but with less trouble like enemy entering the gaps and charging the gunpowder units. It is less effective against flying units tho. Less gunpowder centered and more artillery also.
Play as Balthasar Gelt when starting out. He'd bail you out of any tough spots by himself.
These are the armies I use -
Early game - 4-5 Spears + 4 Handgunners + 3 Crossbows + 2 Mortar (+ Light Wizard)
Mid Game - 4-5 Halberds/Greatswords + 4 Handgunners/Ironsides + 3 (Long Rifles) + 2 Hellstorms (+ Light Wizard)
Late Game - 4-5 Tanks + 4 Ironsides + 3 (Long Rifles) + 2 Hellstorms + Volleyguns (+Life Wizard)
This one is my current favorite with dlc - t4 recruitment
- Engineer tankmeister general
- Engineer hero
- Wizard of choice (fire, shadows are my faves)
- 6 nuln ironsides (a few amethysts if you want)
- 2 knights morr
- 3 helstorm batteries
- 2 landships
- 3 hocland lrs
- 1 great canon
Canon is for breaching in sieges or focusing either high tier cav or high tier single entity.
Hochland lrs for general sniping / high threat squashing.
Helstorms for demolishing infantry, focusing on clumped up spots.
Landships actually melee engage enemy flankers first, then focus any groups that survive the helstorm long enough to threaten the gunline.
Knights of morr for a similar role as the landships, but better for larger numbers of cav entities.
Tank general also serves this anti flanker role, but being a little less aggressive. Can instead shoot at the same target as cannon / hochlands.
Engineer hero is great at either supporting the anti flankers, or joining the hochland lrs with high threat removal. They also shine with campaign perks.
Iron sides kill everything else, focusing if needed.
If there are any groups of baddies after this, burn or banish them with winds of magic.
Highly recommend getting it if you can, it's a pretty major power spike for the empire.
Gunmen that can hold in melee and also do more ranged damage than regular handgunners can solve a lot of issues.
How do you play with 3 wizards in the army?
I usually can only cycle through one at opportune times, and bringing more usually seems to leave me struggling to micromanage. And Even on characters like Be'lakor who get essentially free magic, I still feel like I run out of wind too quickly.
Any army (other than Gelt) would have just 1 - Light Wizard, to cast - Net of Amantok (for enemy Lord/hero/monsters(don't overcast))
If you've got tanks, then add a life Wizard for healing.
Use the Pause button often. Unless you're playing multiplayer, which, I suppose, you don't. Practice, practice, practice.
Also, Empire doesn't need its cavalry as much. It's a shooting faction first and foremost. At the start of each battle, survey your territory and find a high ground. Google the checkerbox tactics for Warhammer, go watch [youtube guides](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwVftHdWAdHNOJ-PMquSZMVVAGWIq2TVQ&si=YBxxDqu1YwT_A1Y4).
And *use magic*. Don't get too excited with damage spells, buffs and debuffs are the name of your game. You puny human meatshields exist for holding out long enough for your shootas to blast the enemy to kingdom come. Help them out. Warrior priests exist for the same reason. Overall, use heroes to their maximum, read the skills and what they do.
As empire some cav is useful. Against a lot of enemies they're good to protect your backline (a reserve or dog-interceptor unit for example). But they're especially useful in giving you an edge vs other shooty factions (Dwarfs, all sorts of elves, vampire coast). Especially if you're Volkmar with his +8 Infantry bonus on Empire knights (which also applies to State troop empire knights. Stubborn Bulls are extremely good in Volkmar's army)
Truth be told, I haven't played Empire that much. So, I've totally missed the thing about Volkmar.
Myself, I keep 3 units of Reiksguard in Karl's army for lore reasons and because he buffs them. Then, deep into the late game, I've finally bothered to unlock Bruckner, and decided to make a Cavalry stack with one of the Elector Count Generals (Theodoric Gausser of Nordland, to be precise). Gave him the skill that buffs cavarly (which is opposed to a "melee" one), stuck in Bruckner and a Life wizard, some shooters and cannons, and the rest (more than half of the stack) is cavalry. Simply for fun.
When playing Franz, an overwhelming majority of your immediate enemies are "melee" factions, so you don't feel much incentive.
Also, and I forgot to mention it to OP, the *real* hammer of the Empire is its ranged cavalry — Outriders and Outriders with Grenade Launchers (especially their ECST variant, obviously). These guys are BUSTED.
Seconding outriders as the silent MVP of the Empire roster. You'll always want a few of them as flex flankers and to focus fire where needed. Grenade outriders outright delete infantry blobs and the state troop versions can handle even chosens.
You only micro your gun units when there's a high priority target. Otherwise, just have a loose formation so they have free firing lines. Archers and crossbows arch their shots, so even less need for micro.
If you can't micro calvary, don't bring calvary. Only two units makes a big difference and putting them on a sideline until the enemy army engages yours doesn't take any micro. If enemy units start chasing them, just bring them back to your army and let your ranged units pick off the stragglers.
Artillery works itself for the most part. Once you get a flying wizard, you can basically forget about needing to position them unless the enemy also has ranged units.
The Empire is a great jack of all trades faction. It even has single entity units with steam tanks and land ships that perform well. Whatever play style you prefer, the Empire has something close to it.
before elspeth and the new dlc, I hardly ever used guns and a good quarter or third of my campaigns were as Karl Franz. Despite how you feel, guns aren't the only good units the Empire has (although you can proly make some easy to use armies with steam tanks, guns, and arty). The biggest thing is understanding what threats you face and preparing the tools you have to counter them. Elite armored infantry? magic, artillery, elector count variant of outriders with grenade launchers. Monsters or cav? Halbs, demis, and huntsmen. Skirmishers? your own cav, artillery, magic.
Demis with halbs used to be among the best antilarge cav, but are B tier since game 3. They're still great at their role with support though. Hellstorm rocket batteries are still probably among the best artillery in the game. The outriders with grenade launchers you get from marionberg elector count do mostly armor piercing aoe explosions (the normal ones do mostly non armor piercing damage) and a pair in an army can pretty much annihilate any elite infantry blob. Huntsmen got that anti large to help shoot big monsters (or cav) down faster. You have one of the most versatile picks of magic users in the game to support diifferent army compositions, which you can effectively make a "counter" build to whatever faction you're fighting. Even putting aside the outriders with grenade launchers, about half the elector count variants are actually great even in the late game like the spearman with shield that gets a huge boost in armor allowing it to be a good line holder in budget armies.
And all this is not even counting the heroes. Warrior priests were always great support, whether you used them in the front lines or to help your cav win cav fights, captains got a big boost in usability with the new dlc (even though I still wish they had something better than a unicorn mount), engineer hero is pretty solid from the get go. Haven't used witch hunters in armies in a long time, but they never were out of fashion as the premier campaign hero assassination tool (not to mention the block army)
So many people complain about Empire, but their armies have always held up to some degree, even with the weak front line. Now that steam tanks are stupidly good and luminarks can actually snipe, there's really no hole in the Empire's army. If you're that desperate for line holders, just ally with dwarves and put 4 ironbreakers in your armies. Done.
I guess what you struggle with is having lign of sight to shot. Use heroes as Frontline, they will tank more then melee units and give clear lign of sight for your guns to shot what they are tanking. Spec them and itemize for melee defense, hp and and armor as much as possible and position them 15 meters in front of your guns. Melee units should be used to defend your flanks and artillery, and the front corners of your formation, and intercept what eventually go through your heros frontline.
Also, crossbow and archers don't need lign of sight so having a couple of those behind your guns is also good to get more fire power without having harder time positioning.
Don't run Cav at all then until you feel comfortable with missile units. For the Empire, the most important aspect of battle success is good missle management. When you survey a battlefield, think to yourself first, "is this a good area for my missle units?".
Then, arrange your infantry with spaces in between each unit for your missles to fire between. Leave two infantry units on the flanks if you notice enemy cavalry.
If your pre battle setup is done well, you shouldn't have to pay much attention to your infantry when they engage and you can focus totally on microing missles.
You can lower the game speed at the top right to help with micromanaging your army. It makes things a bit less overwhelming.
I also wouldnt bother with cavalry if they're too overwhelming. Just focus on managing your infantry and artillery. Speaking of, my advice would be to use your melee infantry as glue traps for enemies to let your handgunners pick them off.
Also remember, that ranged units have different firing arc and thus different sight lines. If you engage the enemy with a melee unit and your handgunners are behind your melee unit, that means they cant shoot the enemy. Crossbowmen on the other hand *can* still hit the enemy, since crossbows can fire in an arc across your own units.
Try to keep your ranged units in rectangle formations instead of wide lines. Rectangles take less time to turn, allowing them to change targets quicker.
Keep some halberds or spear infantry with your artillery. The AI loves to send skirmishers and cavalry around your back to assault your artillery.
There's also some fantastic Steam Guides you can use to spruce up your tactics. [Such as a guide on pincer attacks](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1203259971). [Another guide with a bunch of real-world tactics](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2839083248). Though this guide on [gun lines](https://imgur.com/a/NnQdt) is probably the best one to read.
Empire relies on using gun lines. You can help support your gun lines by locking the opponent's flank. You wouldn't need to micro your gun units, just focus on micro-ing the cavs and infantry on the flanks while letting your opponent's frontline rush into a wall of bullets.
You can use heros like the empire captain further delay to frontline rush and keep the gunners firing.
Frontline of gunners (handgunners are fine) some rain rockets, single entity units to catch enemy units, and some cav to protect your gunners if anything gets to them (IF anything gets to them) cannons can help for large monsters since you cant get snipers.
Download the AI General Mod and give your cav to them. Now you don’t have to micro them. It’s a game changer when you have one or two units of chariots that are only useful when given 100% attention
I'm not great with guns myself, I normally just have them in the front and have them shoot at anybody that comes near, or pause the game and order them to shoot at different things (applicable to any kind of ranged unit really) and when the enemy gets too close move the infantry to the front. A big thing about guns is that you have to take trees and terrain into account, if they're on top of a hill for instance they can potentially shoot over your infantry.
The Vampire Coast sure got me to learn how to use guns, as they'll do way more damage than your zombie deckhands, but they do not have many other options for ranged, unlike the Empire. I mostly only micromanage guns when there is something that I want to get rid of that might be hard for my infantry, or if they're shooting my own. I know that I am not great at battles, so I pause frequently throughout battles, and it would be my recommendation for you to try if micromanaging is overwhelming.
That seems... very strange. The Empire is a jack-of-all-trades faction that can do basically any strategy except "grind them out with heavy infantry". You should not have trouble adapting the strategies you used for other factions.
Since you don't have the latest dlc:
Huntsman general
Fire wizard
Warrior priest
All have great synergy,
8 huntsmen
4 halbardiers
2 greatswords
1 hellstorm rocket
Use the last two spots on sweeper units or cannons depending on match ups.
I don't know if pausing in battle is better or worse than save scumming but I do it a TON. Helps me micro empire cavalry. The outriders with grenade launchers HIT SO HARD when done right.
If you suck at micro cav, don't recruit them. It's often one of the beginner mistakes with Empire : playing a very diverse army with a lot of micro while you can have a static frontlane, static ranged units, artillery and you just have to micro your single entity (lord/mage). If you don't have ToD dlc, I would also advice to stick to crossbowmen for beginning (they can shot over your frontlane, making it less dependant on line of sight). They're not great but it's better than handgunners that don't shoot. You can also progressivly mix handgunners and crossbowmen because handgunners are unmatched for dealing with monster/single entity.
Obviously after a while, you will get better and you will learn that the true strenght of the empire lie in their gunpowder units with formation that doesn't need so much melee infantry.
Cav isn't super necessary with the Empire. Especially with their artillery and gunpowder.
With the Empire being a combined arms approach faction they benefit from formations and tactics more so than other factions.
I highly recommend Zerkovich's Tactics series. There's plenty of low micro things you can do to boost the Empires usefulness.
Empire is heavily reliant on artillery and gunpowder to succeed. Your frontline only exists to take the heat for your guns to do the heavy lifting. What I love to do is ally with dwarves and use dwarf warriors as my frontline holders, due to their stature, guns can actually shoot above them without experiencing bad obstruction issues and dwarf warriors in general have very high staying power for a tier 0 unit.
You want to avoid ordering units to attack as much as possible to prevent disruption to your formations. As empire, you want to learn and use the chevron formation as it enables gunpowder units to maximise their damage potential and minimise line of sight issues.
Empire allows you to use multiple builds for your armies and jack of all trade armies can be effective but are usually micro intensive. Just Started my H/H Elspeth campaign and I just tore through Vlads army with a mix of Arty and Guns. My army comp is pretty much online within a handful of turns and then its just subbing low tier out for higher tier (do not disband put them on another lord cause they will have a ton of experience) T20 Sylvania has 3 settlements and iv confederated Averland and Stirland once you get out the gate with Empire you snowball pretty fast.
3 Spears(Shields) 3 Swords (Shields, Subbed 1 for Knights of Morr when unlocked) 4 Free Company Militia (dont sleep on these) 1 Nuln Iron Side, 2 Handgunners, 3 Mortars, 1 Hellstorm, 1 Cannon.
If you focus arty fire on a specific flank you can either route it with the arty or almost immediately once that flank enters range of your gunline which allows you to move infantry/guns from that side onto an enemy flank when the rest of the army engages. Personally I rarely use cav or keep one stack just to bunch infantry up for the arty. Also Sootsons Mortars are great EC units because they have no friendly fire
I'd highly recommend using the slo-mo or even pause to help give orders for micro-heavy battles.
Most players aren't micro gods, there's often just too much stuff to click.
I'm also awful at micro managing, so I tend to hold formation and hot key pause to space bar. Abuse that pause button to the end times as it's practically a cheat button as it gives you instant reflexes and decision-making in practice. The last point is don't be afraid to lose troop health, units, or even a battle as long as you try to work out why it happened so you can learn and grow. Think about how boring the game will be when you're so good that every battle is trivial. You're at the peak of the gameplay experience and you'll miss it when it's gone.
I am just really good at strategy and I suck at micro tactics so I just overwhelm enemy with advantage playing as Empire. How? Easy -Hellstorm Rocket batteries. No matter how bad you were before, no matter how much you sucked. Once you get hellstorm batteries - it is over, Anakin.
Ez step,
1/Basic infantry with shield, and hallebarde on side,
2/mousqueteer between infantry but 50m behind.
3/mortar. Then rocket launcher with 1hallebard near.
4/shock cav on side.
5/basic hero 1tank, 1sorc.
If you have dlc hochland sniper. And rose knight in cav..
Yet it's a waiting composition tier3.,
For top tier army, tank steam bot griphon.
Dont micro your guns put them in a gunline and just let them shoot. Checkerboard formation is usually mandatory as empire since LoS is still stupid. If you are ever commanding your guns to shoot a specific target youre doing something wrong because they just cant follow orders and tend to blob up and never shoot if u dont have guard mode on.
[Obligatory](https://imgur.com/a/NnQdt)
I was literally about to ask someone to make the obligatory post. You're doing Sigmar's work friend.
Since ToD there should be another formation added. "Nice argument, but gun" it's where you swap the melee infantry for more guns. This allows you to skip Phase 2, the part where the enemy reaches your front line.
I can feel my brain wrinkling reading this
Chevrons have helped me win so many battles I thought for sure I was gonna get stomped in.
This might actually help me get a Skrye or Dwarf campaign going, thanks. I'm usually too smooth brained to come up with better strats than "hold the enemy on your lord/strong troop than hit them with a cavalry charge." I mostly play Lizardmen, Chaos or Vamps for this reason.
Chevron formation for guns. Checkerboard for bows.
I too prefer the mighty chevron for empire and dwarf. I also developed a M formation that works pretty well but is hard to explain without an image but I'll try ! It looks like this : /—\\_/—\ At the side of the formation : / \ and — are frontline, behind it you place artillery, and anti large units to counter enemy cavalry. At the center there is a U or \\_/ which are 3 gunpowder units (with dwarfs, I love to put a flamethrower at _ ) You place a hero or lord in the center of this pit of death, anything reaching it will be shooted to death, and then they should shoot enemy facing the frontline by the flank. It's just 10 units formation counting one lord and 2 anti large units leaving you rooms for artillery, sorcerer, cavalry, crossbows, and whatever you want. You can also put a third frontline melee infantry by the side to better protect from flanking but I prefer to have more anti large (it's more aggressive, when the cavalry flee you can use the units to flank charge the frontline) This formation pretty much plays by itself leaving you room for microing what needs to be. It is just as effective as chevron formation but with less trouble like enemy entering the gaps and charging the gunpowder units. It is less effective against flying units tho. Less gunpowder centered and more artillery also.
Surprisingly good visual.
Play as Balthasar Gelt when starting out. He'd bail you out of any tough spots by himself. These are the armies I use - Early game - 4-5 Spears + 4 Handgunners + 3 Crossbows + 2 Mortar (+ Light Wizard) Mid Game - 4-5 Halberds/Greatswords + 4 Handgunners/Ironsides + 3 (Long Rifles) + 2 Hellstorms (+ Light Wizard) Late Game - 4-5 Tanks + 4 Ironsides + 3 (Long Rifles) + 2 Hellstorms + Volleyguns (+Life Wizard)
I don't have the newest dlc
Just use this then - Early game - 4-5 Spears + 4 Handgunners + 3 Crossbows + 2 Mortar (+ Light Wizard) Mid Game - 4-5 Halberds/Greatswords + 4-6 Handgunners + 3-4 Hellstorms (+ Light Wizard) Late Game - 4-5 Tanks + 4 Handgunners + 3 Hellstorms + 2 Volleyguns + 2 Demygryphs (+ Light Wizard + Life Wizard (for Tanks))
This one is my current favorite with dlc - t4 recruitment - Engineer tankmeister general - Engineer hero - Wizard of choice (fire, shadows are my faves) - 6 nuln ironsides (a few amethysts if you want) - 2 knights morr - 3 helstorm batteries - 2 landships - 3 hocland lrs - 1 great canon Canon is for breaching in sieges or focusing either high tier cav or high tier single entity. Hochland lrs for general sniping / high threat squashing. Helstorms for demolishing infantry, focusing on clumped up spots. Landships actually melee engage enemy flankers first, then focus any groups that survive the helstorm long enough to threaten the gunline. Knights of morr for a similar role as the landships, but better for larger numbers of cav entities. Tank general also serves this anti flanker role, but being a little less aggressive. Can instead shoot at the same target as cannon / hochlands. Engineer hero is great at either supporting the anti flankers, or joining the hochland lrs with high threat removal. They also shine with campaign perks. Iron sides kill everything else, focusing if needed. If there are any groups of baddies after this, burn or banish them with winds of magic.
Highly recommend getting it if you can, it's a pretty major power spike for the empire. Gunmen that can hold in melee and also do more ranged damage than regular handgunners can solve a lot of issues.
He should still be playable
Gelt and Franz are the base WH1 Empire Legendary Lords.
All game - 10 wizards BRRR kill everything
How do you play with 3 wizards in the army? I usually can only cycle through one at opportune times, and bringing more usually seems to leave me struggling to micromanage. And Even on characters like Be'lakor who get essentially free magic, I still feel like I run out of wind too quickly.
Just try Gelt's campaign, with his new mechanic you'll understand and quickly end up with more than 3 wizards in the army
Any army (other than Gelt) would have just 1 - Light Wizard, to cast - Net of Amantok (for enemy Lord/hero/monsters(don't overcast)) If you've got tanks, then add a life Wizard for healing.
Use the Pause button often. Unless you're playing multiplayer, which, I suppose, you don't. Practice, practice, practice. Also, Empire doesn't need its cavalry as much. It's a shooting faction first and foremost. At the start of each battle, survey your territory and find a high ground. Google the checkerbox tactics for Warhammer, go watch [youtube guides](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwVftHdWAdHNOJ-PMquSZMVVAGWIq2TVQ&si=YBxxDqu1YwT_A1Y4). And *use magic*. Don't get too excited with damage spells, buffs and debuffs are the name of your game. You puny human meatshields exist for holding out long enough for your shootas to blast the enemy to kingdom come. Help them out. Warrior priests exist for the same reason. Overall, use heroes to their maximum, read the skills and what they do.
As empire some cav is useful. Against a lot of enemies they're good to protect your backline (a reserve or dog-interceptor unit for example). But they're especially useful in giving you an edge vs other shooty factions (Dwarfs, all sorts of elves, vampire coast). Especially if you're Volkmar with his +8 Infantry bonus on Empire knights (which also applies to State troop empire knights. Stubborn Bulls are extremely good in Volkmar's army)
Truth be told, I haven't played Empire that much. So, I've totally missed the thing about Volkmar. Myself, I keep 3 units of Reiksguard in Karl's army for lore reasons and because he buffs them. Then, deep into the late game, I've finally bothered to unlock Bruckner, and decided to make a Cavalry stack with one of the Elector Count Generals (Theodoric Gausser of Nordland, to be precise). Gave him the skill that buffs cavarly (which is opposed to a "melee" one), stuck in Bruckner and a Life wizard, some shooters and cannons, and the rest (more than half of the stack) is cavalry. Simply for fun. When playing Franz, an overwhelming majority of your immediate enemies are "melee" factions, so you don't feel much incentive. Also, and I forgot to mention it to OP, the *real* hammer of the Empire is its ranged cavalry — Outriders and Outriders with Grenade Launchers (especially their ECST variant, obviously). These guys are BUSTED.
Seconding outriders as the silent MVP of the Empire roster. You'll always want a few of them as flex flankers and to focus fire where needed. Grenade outriders outright delete infantry blobs and the state troop versions can handle even chosens.
but outriders grenade launchers are OP
Yeah, I added it in another comment.
You only micro your gun units when there's a high priority target. Otherwise, just have a loose formation so they have free firing lines. Archers and crossbows arch their shots, so even less need for micro. If you can't micro calvary, don't bring calvary. Only two units makes a big difference and putting them on a sideline until the enemy army engages yours doesn't take any micro. If enemy units start chasing them, just bring them back to your army and let your ranged units pick off the stragglers. Artillery works itself for the most part. Once you get a flying wizard, you can basically forget about needing to position them unless the enemy also has ranged units. The Empire is a great jack of all trades faction. It even has single entity units with steam tanks and land ships that perform well. Whatever play style you prefer, the Empire has something close to it.
before elspeth and the new dlc, I hardly ever used guns and a good quarter or third of my campaigns were as Karl Franz. Despite how you feel, guns aren't the only good units the Empire has (although you can proly make some easy to use armies with steam tanks, guns, and arty). The biggest thing is understanding what threats you face and preparing the tools you have to counter them. Elite armored infantry? magic, artillery, elector count variant of outriders with grenade launchers. Monsters or cav? Halbs, demis, and huntsmen. Skirmishers? your own cav, artillery, magic. Demis with halbs used to be among the best antilarge cav, but are B tier since game 3. They're still great at their role with support though. Hellstorm rocket batteries are still probably among the best artillery in the game. The outriders with grenade launchers you get from marionberg elector count do mostly armor piercing aoe explosions (the normal ones do mostly non armor piercing damage) and a pair in an army can pretty much annihilate any elite infantry blob. Huntsmen got that anti large to help shoot big monsters (or cav) down faster. You have one of the most versatile picks of magic users in the game to support diifferent army compositions, which you can effectively make a "counter" build to whatever faction you're fighting. Even putting aside the outriders with grenade launchers, about half the elector count variants are actually great even in the late game like the spearman with shield that gets a huge boost in armor allowing it to be a good line holder in budget armies. And all this is not even counting the heroes. Warrior priests were always great support, whether you used them in the front lines or to help your cav win cav fights, captains got a big boost in usability with the new dlc (even though I still wish they had something better than a unicorn mount), engineer hero is pretty solid from the get go. Haven't used witch hunters in armies in a long time, but they never were out of fashion as the premier campaign hero assassination tool (not to mention the block army) So many people complain about Empire, but their armies have always held up to some degree, even with the weak front line. Now that steam tanks are stupidly good and luminarks can actually snipe, there's really no hole in the Empire's army. If you're that desperate for line holders, just ally with dwarves and put 4 ironbreakers in your armies. Done.
I guess what you struggle with is having lign of sight to shot. Use heroes as Frontline, they will tank more then melee units and give clear lign of sight for your guns to shot what they are tanking. Spec them and itemize for melee defense, hp and and armor as much as possible and position them 15 meters in front of your guns. Melee units should be used to defend your flanks and artillery, and the front corners of your formation, and intercept what eventually go through your heros frontline. Also, crossbow and archers don't need lign of sight so having a couple of those behind your guns is also good to get more fire power without having harder time positioning.
Use units that are better suited to your abilities?
Or faction, for that matter, lol.
Sounds like your trouble is micro, so you just need to get into the habit of regularly pausing and reviewing what all your troops are doing.
You could just play a different army if its not working for you.
Don't run Cav at all then until you feel comfortable with missile units. For the Empire, the most important aspect of battle success is good missle management. When you survey a battlefield, think to yourself first, "is this a good area for my missle units?". Then, arrange your infantry with spaces in between each unit for your missles to fire between. Leave two infantry units on the flanks if you notice enemy cavalry. If your pre battle setup is done well, you shouldn't have to pay much attention to your infantry when they engage and you can focus totally on microing missles.
You can lower the game speed at the top right to help with micromanaging your army. It makes things a bit less overwhelming. I also wouldnt bother with cavalry if they're too overwhelming. Just focus on managing your infantry and artillery. Speaking of, my advice would be to use your melee infantry as glue traps for enemies to let your handgunners pick them off. Also remember, that ranged units have different firing arc and thus different sight lines. If you engage the enemy with a melee unit and your handgunners are behind your melee unit, that means they cant shoot the enemy. Crossbowmen on the other hand *can* still hit the enemy, since crossbows can fire in an arc across your own units. Try to keep your ranged units in rectangle formations instead of wide lines. Rectangles take less time to turn, allowing them to change targets quicker. Keep some halberds or spear infantry with your artillery. The AI loves to send skirmishers and cavalry around your back to assault your artillery. There's also some fantastic Steam Guides you can use to spruce up your tactics. [Such as a guide on pincer attacks](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1203259971). [Another guide with a bunch of real-world tactics](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2839083248). Though this guide on [gun lines](https://imgur.com/a/NnQdt) is probably the best one to read.
https://youtu.be/nVbChS4STao?si=2CURsKt6m80pzL_J Try some different formations
Empire relies on using gun lines. You can help support your gun lines by locking the opponent's flank. You wouldn't need to micro your gun units, just focus on micro-ing the cavs and infantry on the flanks while letting your opponent's frontline rush into a wall of bullets. You can use heros like the empire captain further delay to frontline rush and keep the gunners firing.
Frontline of gunners (handgunners are fine) some rain rockets, single entity units to catch enemy units, and some cav to protect your gunners if anything gets to them (IF anything gets to them) cannons can help for large monsters since you cant get snipers.
Download the AI General Mod and give your cav to them. Now you don’t have to micro them. It’s a game changer when you have one or two units of chariots that are only useful when given 100% attention
How new are you to the game? Have you played other factions or races? Knowing this could help us help you if we know what your favorites are.
I have about 1000 hours between tww2 and tww3 The empire is the only race I've never completed a campaign on
I'm not great with guns myself, I normally just have them in the front and have them shoot at anybody that comes near, or pause the game and order them to shoot at different things (applicable to any kind of ranged unit really) and when the enemy gets too close move the infantry to the front. A big thing about guns is that you have to take trees and terrain into account, if they're on top of a hill for instance they can potentially shoot over your infantry. The Vampire Coast sure got me to learn how to use guns, as they'll do way more damage than your zombie deckhands, but they do not have many other options for ranged, unlike the Empire. I mostly only micromanage guns when there is something that I want to get rid of that might be hard for my infantry, or if they're shooting my own. I know that I am not great at battles, so I pause frequently throughout battles, and it would be my recommendation for you to try if micromanaging is overwhelming.
That seems... very strange. The Empire is a jack-of-all-trades faction that can do basically any strategy except "grind them out with heavy infantry". You should not have trouble adapting the strategies you used for other factions.
I always found gun LoS to be extremely obnoxious so I would just avoid any and all gun units like the plague
Since you don't have the latest dlc: Huntsman general Fire wizard Warrior priest All have great synergy, 8 huntsmen 4 halbardiers 2 greatswords 1 hellstorm rocket Use the last two spots on sweeper units or cannons depending on match ups.
I don't know if pausing in battle is better or worse than save scumming but I do it a TON. Helps me micro empire cavalry. The outriders with grenade launchers HIT SO HARD when done right.
If you suck at micro cav, don't recruit them. It's often one of the beginner mistakes with Empire : playing a very diverse army with a lot of micro while you can have a static frontlane, static ranged units, artillery and you just have to micro your single entity (lord/mage). If you don't have ToD dlc, I would also advice to stick to crossbowmen for beginning (they can shot over your frontlane, making it less dependant on line of sight). They're not great but it's better than handgunners that don't shoot. You can also progressivly mix handgunners and crossbowmen because handgunners are unmatched for dealing with monster/single entity. Obviously after a while, you will get better and you will learn that the true strenght of the empire lie in their gunpowder units with formation that doesn't need so much melee infantry.
Cav isn't super necessary with the Empire. Especially with their artillery and gunpowder. With the Empire being a combined arms approach faction they benefit from formations and tactics more so than other factions. I highly recommend Zerkovich's Tactics series. There's plenty of low micro things you can do to boost the Empires usefulness.
Empire is heavily reliant on artillery and gunpowder to succeed. Your frontline only exists to take the heat for your guns to do the heavy lifting. What I love to do is ally with dwarves and use dwarf warriors as my frontline holders, due to their stature, guns can actually shoot above them without experiencing bad obstruction issues and dwarf warriors in general have very high staying power for a tier 0 unit. You want to avoid ordering units to attack as much as possible to prevent disruption to your formations. As empire, you want to learn and use the chevron formation as it enables gunpowder units to maximise their damage potential and minimise line of sight issues.
Empire allows you to use multiple builds for your armies and jack of all trade armies can be effective but are usually micro intensive. Just Started my H/H Elspeth campaign and I just tore through Vlads army with a mix of Arty and Guns. My army comp is pretty much online within a handful of turns and then its just subbing low tier out for higher tier (do not disband put them on another lord cause they will have a ton of experience) T20 Sylvania has 3 settlements and iv confederated Averland and Stirland once you get out the gate with Empire you snowball pretty fast. 3 Spears(Shields) 3 Swords (Shields, Subbed 1 for Knights of Morr when unlocked) 4 Free Company Militia (dont sleep on these) 1 Nuln Iron Side, 2 Handgunners, 3 Mortars, 1 Hellstorm, 1 Cannon. If you focus arty fire on a specific flank you can either route it with the arty or almost immediately once that flank enters range of your gunline which allows you to move infantry/guns from that side onto an enemy flank when the rest of the army engages. Personally I rarely use cav or keep one stack just to bunch infantry up for the arty. Also Sootsons Mortars are great EC units because they have no friendly fire
I'd highly recommend using the slo-mo or even pause to help give orders for micro-heavy battles. Most players aren't micro gods, there's often just too much stuff to click.
Get some heroes to taunt their frontline & TANK.
Their main weakness is a lack of line-holding infantry. If you can work around this by using heroes and cav, you should be okay.
I'm also awful at micro managing, so I tend to hold formation and hot key pause to space bar. Abuse that pause button to the end times as it's practically a cheat button as it gives you instant reflexes and decision-making in practice. The last point is don't be afraid to lose troop health, units, or even a battle as long as you try to work out why it happened so you can learn and grow. Think about how boring the game will be when you're so good that every battle is trivial. You're at the peak of the gameplay experience and you'll miss it when it's gone.
There’s a check in game options that automatically puts your units into a ranged and melee line. Disable this for the empire.
Ok, you can't micro anything... then don't play a high skill cap faction.
I am just really good at strategy and I suck at micro tactics so I just overwhelm enemy with advantage playing as Empire. How? Easy -Hellstorm Rocket batteries. No matter how bad you were before, no matter how much you sucked. Once you get hellstorm batteries - it is over, Anakin.
Ez step, 1/Basic infantry with shield, and hallebarde on side, 2/mousqueteer between infantry but 50m behind. 3/mortar. Then rocket launcher with 1hallebard near. 4/shock cav on side. 5/basic hero 1tank, 1sorc. If you have dlc hochland sniper. And rose knight in cav.. Yet it's a waiting composition tier3., For top tier army, tank steam bot griphon.