Empire Hordes and Buses Versus Bricks

[Wildeybeast]

Forgive me for trying to be helpful. Since you are a new member of the forum and did not specify what your previous level of experience playing with Empire is, I figured that some general tips might be helpful. Obviously my bad. As a general piece of advice though, if you are looking for help and advice from people on the forum, being churlish when people offer it is a good way not to get any advice in the future. If the topic isn't getting you the help you need, politely trying to refocus it is usually a btter way to win friends and influence people, rather than telling them you are completely uninterested in what they have to say.

As to your specific point, I'm not sure why you have bothered posting it when you clearly have very definite ideas about what you want to do. Of course blocks of greatswords are a viable alternative. Yes you get less attacks and hit last, but you get better armour save and do more damage. They are particularly useful against monstrous inf/cav. It is a pretty straight forward trade-off and since neither is game winning or breaking, you can crunch the mathammer, or go for which ever suits your tactics/playstyle/army fluff. If you want to play greatswords rather than state troops, do it, they aren't going cost you the game by any means.

[timff8]

Thanks very much Wildey, I will try to give more concessions in the future.

I'm not unsure that I want to use a block of greatswords, but I am using this forum as a failsafe against doing something entirely boneheaded. As unlikely as it is, I wanted to be sure that buying $41 more in miniatures wasn't a stupid decision.

[Wildeybeast]

Fair enough. I would feel confident in saying that using a block of greatswords rather than a horde of state troopers is fine providing they aren't your only/main infantry unit. If you are planning to fill your core allocation with say knights, I'd consider going for the greater numbers state troopers will offer, otherwise you run the risk of fielding a rather elite army and being heavily outnumbered by a number of armies. Not a boneheaded move exactly, but something you should consider very carefully. Greatswords will hold their own against anything in a large enough unit, but if they are outnumbered they will get worn down through sheer attrition.

[timff8]

Alright then, thanks very much. I feel my question has been answered.

BTW, what exaclty does you quote/signature mean? It seems to say, if you'll forigve me, that free speech is a substitue for common sense. Is that at all accurate? It confuses me.

[Wildeybeast]

Well, I won't claim to be anything resembling an expert on Kierkegaard, but as I understand it the quote basically means that people are so keen to have their opinions heard that they fail to think about what they are actually saying. Something that seemed very appropriate to have as a signature on an interent forum!

[Thornblood]

So I've been playing a few games with Empire and I don't really see the Greatswords as tougher than the state troops. Defensively, Swordsmen do a better job man for man. However they confer the stubborn rule to there detachments, whoch is the bog pull for me, not the actual potential of the Greatswords, but the ability to create a pretty tough speedbump than can hold its ground whilst the majority of your points and hitting power overpowers the other half of your opponents army.

In Summary Greatswords dont win, but they can make a chunk of your army immovable.

If its offence you want though, Flagellants, Demigryphs and units of Spearmen of more than fifty are my recommendation.