Are Empire State Melee Infantry Any Good? - Unit Focus

I just couldn't do these individually. Could not do it. So, I'm going 5-in-1 as a batch to impart what little wisdom I have from too much Empire play in Warhammer 1 and 2. Mostly those. Very little in 3, but I'm tired of all the whining. Also, note that I flubbed taking footage the first time but Halberdiers struggle much much worse against Ogres. Well they have weird/ broken momentum or something...? Regular cavalry just stop cold against them.

#totalwar #warhammer #tww3

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The Off to Battle unit focus format uses combat demonstrations from Skirmish vs. AI, background music and voice commentary, including:
- Intro
- Stat breakdown including hidden stats
- Common lord/ tech tree buffs applicable factionwide
- Tips, tricks, advice, maybe a secret or two!
- Bonus footage, playing out the battle once the voiceover is done so you can enjoy the sights and the music

Today's BGM: A Typical Ride Out by Noir et Blanc Vie (YouTube Audio Library)

Total War Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires, Shadows of Change DLC Patch 4.1!

[Gingy]

I know a lot in the fanbase think Empire infantries are weak just because they aren't as good as Chosen and Black Orcs. All I can tell them is...what did you expect? The main appeal of the Empire is that they're everyday humans like you and me having to rely on their diversity of strategies and technologies to sometimes pull a win. Their infantries are very middle road, stronger than clan rats but weaker than Bleakswords. Balance wise the Empire is pretty perfect and there's no situation where you can't handle outside of being outplayed by a better player.

[sherkhead]

Couldn’t stand greatswords for the longest then I realized that I’d you put a war priest captain and lord and maybe a steam tank let the infantry charge in then send mine to charge the enemy I win much more often then any of the elite “Elite” infantry

[enricocappi]

- Basic spears: i mean, they cost nothing and can be recruited everywhere.

- Spears+shield: your standard battle line when you are in doubt about what to use.

- Swordsmen: are in a strange position...the main thing they provide is melee killing power (the defence is still not bad, but not great), the problem is that they end up usually against other infantry units of the same category wich just punch or tank harder. But they do good against zombie+skelly tide of kemmler/vlad, norscan marauders or similar, so sometimes i keep a couple for the early game. Bonus if i go wth gelt just because i like see them go to like 50-60 armor and and 50/50 ma/md. But that's me being funny dumb.

- Greatswords: it usually just come down to economic efficency...i mean, if you are short on money, you rather invest in ranged firepower than melee prowess with the empire. But still, they are far from bad for me, the problem is that people usually compare them in an anti-armor vs anti-armor infantry fight, then yes, they perform bad, but that's not they're job, they're job is to clean the field from chaff and go face to face with sword&board infantry, like basic chaos warriors and the like. Now, am i high on Copium because they are my favourite looking empire unit from back when i played tabletop? YES. YES I AM.

[Wanheda-od]

I cannot understand whx Balthasar has muchbeasier acces to est than franz... just technologys for 7.5k
Imfine with the unlocking by Elector count region but it need something extra like bigger Pool Site and replenishment from beginning.
And also the upkeep reduction doesnt work properly for them with the minus 3 percent for every ec .
You can (theoreticly) go very cheap with then
Empire Generals have also 3 skills for upkeep reduction. So you have 39% from ec, 9% from blueline plus 8% from blue line and from one unique line extra 5-7%ish. Over 60% upkeep reduction for them is really good(when it works) for every generic eg possible

[TheGreatDanish]

My thought process is simple: if I'm against chaos, lizards, counts or greenskins, I'm using halberds. If I'm against anything with descent ranged, spears with shields. Over all, I don't find swords all that useful when I can just use spears or halberds that will hold longer and use my superior ranged fire or cavalry to grind them down.

[mikemandalorian]

I always just use 2 elite greatswords + 4 hallberds in my main stack, the rest is guns, arty and heroes (maybe one or Two anti-large cavalry to cover range infantry) and it works great against everything.

[KGAnims]

Empire infantry is average to crap, but luckily stuff like magic and priest buffs exist that can crank them up to some good levels in battle.

[mcsmash]

empire infantry is the heart and soul of all my empire armies i consider their stats to be good enough, the cav and artillery are complementary to the infantry and make any defincies more or less irrelevant, + the fact that i play on normal only means i do not suffer stat penalties due to autism

[MySuperPowerIsITouchGrass]

Keep in mind, to balance out their mid performance these troops are cheap. Your basic Spearmen are not much more expensive then Cathay peasants and have better stats. Also cheaper than most Kislev infantry and more specialized so they often perform overall better.

They are not true chaff like skaven slaves or goblins but you're not hurting much if any of these guys route off either.

[mateuszk]

I think that Empire could use some Warrior Saints SFO submod / Full Plate (aka armored) variants / Road Watch Radious unit types. Also some more egineering weapons units would be great (duck feet pistols as a sidegrade for militia / revolving handguns, mancatcher armed units with huge buffs when fighting on walls/high ground etc).

Hell, CA could even give them a version of battle-vagon / chained together carts as a possibile deployable field fortifications that could be used outside of normal unit cap.

I did catch myselve just seeing most of my meele roster as glorified meatshields (when playing without unit mods), at least untill I get the Greatswords /heavily buffed Halberders

[RisingChaosWriting]

I love the swordsmen, I know they arent great, not specialised. I just love them. The lads holding the line for country and home

[MrSquigglies]

I will usually min/max with shielded spears handguns huntsmen and 1 or 2 carroburg greatswords for infantry with bordermen/grenade outriders and an artillery corps tailored for the opponent I expect to fight but usually hellstorms or canon.

[TheKarofaar]

I normally minmax armies.
I only use 6 +3 army points in buff stats.
So when an army use regular infantry (early heroes) i never choose the great swords. They will probably loose against a higly buffed "halles".
When i use great swords, i never touch the regulars.
But the point is when you start from altdorf against the evil druchii, you start with your pretty stak and greatswords. But when you are fighting morathi and malekith every single turn in the wastelands...your "karl staks" usually consists in 19 lancer without shield and a bunch of witch hunters and floating fire mages from albion sniping hydras.
4 turns to recruit anything when morathi have hydra doomstaks each turn does not have my consent.

[danpitzer]

I find that Spearmen with Shields are the ideal for my playstyle. They will hold. They'll hold better than any other infantry thanks to that beefy melee defence and missile block.

And if there's something too armored for them...well, that's what guns are for.

[emanuelalfred]

I’ve found swordsmen pair really well with a beast wizard. Keep them close to the beast wizard and drop those buffs… they’ll do amazing things.

I like to roll with mixed armies and found that having swordsmen makes me tolerate major settlement battles better in the early game. Doesn’t feel as slow and tedious since they can actually kill stuff way faster when combined with archers or crossbows in the early game.

I try avoiding cheesy tactics for my own immersion reasons. So I’m not sending my general into a settlement while mortars or archers shower missiles on the horde surrounding him. No shade to the people who like that style. To each his own and do what feels fun for you.

[daniellison]

I think it would be awesome to have some dismounyed knights as a true elite infantry for both empire and bretonia.But to balance it they come with unit limits or a unit pool

[MAGS-ikuj]

I almost left a comment on another video of yours to ask if you would do a unit focus series for the empire the same way you did for nurgle but decided against this for fear of being pushy. Glad I was a little patient, I get to watch another great video that softly dunks on some of my favorite units in game:D You can’t make a video about empire melee infantry without softly dunking on them, otherwise you’re lying to the audience

[Orendiz]

I hope in the empire update dlc CA will rework the stats for the empire state troops a bit so that empire spearmen with shields don't just make the rest of the roster obselite with the exeption of halberds and greatswords.

Jk they will add empire halberds with shields as a dlc unit and add 5 more single entities/heroes or a cav unit and call it a day when it comes to the roster.

[MrSquigglies]

I will usually min/max with shielded spears handguns huntsmen and 1 or 2 carroburg greatswords for infantry with bordermen/grenade outriders and an artillery corps tailored for the opponent I expect to fight but usually hellstorms or canon.

[kirillrivkin]

Excellent review. The Empire imfantry is OK, with some strenghts and notable holes. They lack a midlevel Sword and shield line holder and an armored Halberdier who would deal greater damage to Large units. Hopefully DLC will address those deficiences. Last question- what about Flagellants- when and how do you use them?