New Empire List

Thanks to my fellow DAWG I've had a pretty good look into the new Empire list.
Thought I might pass on some of my own feelings towards it.

Looks like you will be seeing a lot of Arch Lectors running around. And add in the new War Alter for 100 points and he is really nasty.

Warrior priests seem to be better than before. Cheaper, now cause hatred to everything and not just low leadership troops.
My first thought was I liked their prayers, but looking back, they are so, so. 2 help the priest only, but one does make his unit unbreakable.
And now their prayer is bound 4 instead of bound 4-6.

Basic infantry are a few points cheaper. But Handgunners now lose their +d6" on their first shot.

But my biggest blow, my white wolf knights lost their Cavalry hammers. They downgraded them to great weapons only. Though they are a couple points cheaper.

But this just sucks, IMO. The lance and shield option is much better and take the 1+ armor save.

The outriders don't sound that impressive. A unit of 5 gets 15 shots, but move, long range and multi-shot means you need 6's to hit.

Hellblaster was definetely weakened so now you need to roll to hit. Though at 15 points less than before, I expect to still see these. Strength 5 all the time. Add the engineer in here and you are going to blast some serious troops at even 24". But no longer any good against skirmishers.

Instead add in the Rocket Battery. You better learn the rules for this bad boy as you will be seeing them in 90% of all Empire armies. Uses the Large template and is Str 5. So this is the new anti-skirmisher weapon.

You will also be seeing many more steam tanks. Rules have been greatly simplified. Thank the GW studios. Now it is just Toughness 6, 10 wounds and US 10 with a 1+ armor save. There is only 1 version now instead of the 5 different cheese options.

This thing is still a monster but if you can knock off 3-4 wounds early it is pretty useless. To move and fire the cannon takes 3 steam points. So this becomes a risk if you knock off even 2 wounds.
But attacks that allow no armor save, cannons, some swords, special weapons, etc... These things are very suceptable. And everyone auto-hits it in hand to hand.

As for magic items, the big hit is the Griffon banner. Only allowed on the BSB now that it costs 55 points. But expect to see the 30 point rod of power everywhere.

Seemed like a lot of stuff got cheaper overall for Empire. While they nerfed a few rules here and there. I expect to see a bit better army hit the field. But some of the old tricks are going to have to be thrown out.

Good luck