Shazbot’s Empire Sketchbook – SFO Edition
Just like the regular edition of my unit pack, this one is a set of the same units for The Empire with stats tweaked to match the balance set in Steel Faith Overhaul. Being a unit pack, it’s simply a bunch of new army dudes for you to play with. I’ll explain what types of units are in this item, sorting by theme. Let’s start with the "Medieval Warband" set, including warriors armed in a more classical style.
Warband units hold the line remarkably well, with decent offense against infantry or cavalry depending on their weapon. Killing power against enemies engaged with the shield wall is then provided by knights and ranged units, whether mounted or on foot, and the Dwarf Bolt Thrower and Bretonnian Trebuchet were brought over to complete the set with medieval artillery.
Exploiting the full potential of what is plausible with current Empire technology, and with perhaps the most technically varied unit roster of what you’ll see in here, firearms-centric are one set of my units I may be somewhat biased towards personally.
Line Infantry come in three flavors. Musketeers, armed with muzzle-loading smoothbore muskets, lack range, reloading speed, and accuracy but have decent melee stats. Riflemen are vice versa, having far superior ranged stats but much weaker melee. Guards combine the best of both worlds, and inspire surrounding ranged units. Cavalry options include Carbine Cavalry, long-range rifle skirmishers, Horse Guards, with devastating melee againt infantry, and Lancers with strong bonuses against cavalry and in charging. Melee infantry even have a place here, as Pikeman are specialized against cavalry but have the charge bonus to deliver some shock damage if needed and can hold enemies in place for the Line Infantry, or Grenadiers who use quicklime to spread damage in dense infantry or incendiary shots for massive damage against larger targets. There are even snipers armed with rifled repeater handguns, covered by stealthy melee units: the Raider Company which delivers a shock of explosives before charging, and the Troll Hunter Company which can hide well while not moving, taking rushing cavalry by surprise.
War Machines are also numerous. Taking from the Organ Gun, the Volley Howitzer fires explosives with lethal accuracy into infantry formations. Gyrobombers were also moved over, as were Gyrocopters with modified weapons to include accurate rockets effective against heroes or artillery pieces, and quicklime for infantry. And then the Steam Tank got a modified variant added with explosive grapeshot and flechette rounds for the main cannon, incendiary shots for the turret, and an improved ramming prow and front armor impervious to small arms fire. This also has a light variant with more speed, no turret, slightly less hit points, and a cheaper price tag.
Other units include:
-Several hero units. The Bannerlord leads the Warband with abilities centered around inflicting contact effects, and the Colonel for the Musketeers with his own gun and more conventionally designed leadership abilities, and the Champion of Myrmidia with a host of strategic powers for gaining a tactical advantage. RPG-themed heroes as well, including the:
*Paladin who heals and buffs defense.
*Druid with a mix of damage, healing, and defense.
*Shaman with healing and buffs and debuffs affecting offense.
*Battlemage, a competent melee duellist with anti-infantry and area-denial spells.
*Berserker, who (predictably) becomes more powerful as he loses health.
*Ranger, with strong ranged power and a stealth spell affecting up to a few units.
*Enchanter, with spells affecting immobilization, melee attack, reload speed, the winds of magic, and enemy morale.
Some smaller, more specialized units include Asur Skirmish Mages who command a variety of projectiles (standard for anti-infantry, extended for anti-hero/large, poison for debuffing enemy shields and armor for other ranged attacks, and heavy for smashing gates) and Asrai Stalkers who are basically the Raider Company on steroids, being much faster.
I think that’s everything. Jeez, if my Technical Writing instructor were to read this he’d be absolutely disgusted. Well, first draft and all that quickly whipped up to do something better than my sleepy stupor did. I hope you enjoy these units and have a lot of fun with them. Happy war mongering.
