I've been toying with this deck since the last battle pack came out, and I feel it's the closest Empire comes to a rush deck.

• x3 Errant Wolf
• x3 Gold Wizard Acolyte
• x2 Johannes Broheim
• x3 Peasant Militia
• x3 Pistoliers
• x3 The Greatswords
• x2 Thyrus Gorman
• (19 Units)
• x2 Forced March
• x2 Iron Discipline
• x2 Judgement of Verena
• x3 Surprise Assault
• x2 Surrender!
• x2 Will of the Electors
• (13 Tactics)
• x2 Abandoned Mine
• x2 Church of Sigmar
• x3 City Gates
• x3 Contested Village
• x3 Helblaster Volley Gun
• x3 Shrine to Taal
• x2 Temple of Shallya
• (18 Support)

The strategy is to lay out City Gates in the battlefield and amass a large number of developments that may be converted into extra hammers, extra combat damage or indirect damage.

However, I'm not sure if I should add more cards as "fodder" to the city gates, or keep to the bare minimum. Thoughts?

RM

deashira said:

I would say keep the cards to the bare minimum and here is why:

1- You are relying on drawing City Gates so the fewer cards you have, the higher probability of drawing it.

2- It is a rush deck then you will not have to worry about running out of cards. The game should be over before that happens.

As for your deck, it's an interesting concept. At first glance I would say lose the Suprise Assaults. If this is a rush deck then you will be tight on resources and while spending 2 resources to deal 6 indirect damage on turn 3 or 4 seems like a good cost/damage ratio, the damage will go exactly where it helps you the LEAST. I would also add a third Surrender! because that tactic can be used for both defense and offense. At only 1 cost, it is a real bargain.

Also, again since this is a rush deck, you probably want more units. I would take out JoV and WoE and make room for more units. Zealot Hunters are a must in every order deck since Skaven are in most decks at the moment. Add 3 of those as well. Vigilant Pistolllers seem useful in a rush deck since if they die, the come back to be used as resource providers. Temple of Shallya can bring them right back to the battlefield (which would also pump up your greatswords) so I would add a 3rd one of those.

I would also lose the Abandoned Mines. This deck does not have any hugely important cards which make or break it. So, if you develop a card, just let it go. Plus, any time you take away a development, you lose the power it gives you, essentially slowing down your rush deck.

That's all I can think of right now. Overall, I think this deck is an interesting deck that can use some tweeking. It is definately a suprise and I would love to see it work. Let me know what you think of my ideas for the deck.

curses someone beat me to it! still mine was a little less empire centric and more general order! but still it looks to be a solid deck, as stated above i'd make room for more units.

I'm beginning to agree. I think I need some more units and fewer tactics. I like the idea of Zealot Hunters, but I'm not sure what else.

Also, would Warpstone Excavation be well suited to this deck, or is that a card that should never be included in an order deck?

deashira said:

You know I've been thinking about Warpstone Excavations and I'm leaning towards no. While it could speed up your deck, Johannes Broheim would not be able to jump into that zone (probably place them Kingdom) without getting corrupted. Sure you could uncorrupt him after you get the resources for your kingdom phase but if any other unit is corrupted it would be a tough choice. Plus with Warpstone Excavations in a zone it leaves that zone relatively defenseless.

Also, I think you should add Knight's training. A 0 cost attachment which adds to your attack is great for a rush deck. Plus, if you attach it to Johannes Broheim then you get 1 more resource and 1 more card per turn (for no cost to you).

In my opinion Infiltrate (the empire one) is one of the most powerful cards for that race, I would make room for it if you can. I have had it crush opponents many time. Free Company is reall good as well if you are looking for some more units.

Vitamin T said:

Infiltrate the quest? I don't know of an empire quest like that card. Can you give the name of the card you are talking about?

Infiltrate the Empire card is a Tactic that allows opponent to only draw 1 card on their turn.

Vitamin T said:

You should focus on speeding yourself up, rather then slowing you opponent down. If this is a "rush" deck, remove the "control" cards, like Judgment and maybe even Will of the Electors.

Personally, I might not even play Johannes in a deck like this. Thyrus Gorman is better.

I have also had better luck with Thyrus in a rush style empire deck.

I agree in removing JoV and related stuff...But I'm pretty sure Joannes has to stay, maybe 2x (playin' with 50/51 cards).

I'd use a couple of Talabehim detachment (they're good with Greatswords with the proper resource engine) and flagellants (easy loyalty, give an help with T1 drops, avoiding some "2-cost" stalling).

Johannes is definetely staying in. Picture this: six developments in battlefield, Johannes gets six hammers from Shrine of Taal. Move to Kingdom for seven resources, move to quest for seven card draw, move back to battlefield for seven damage.

Thyrus Gorman is also good, but he's in this deck more to get a quick resource/draw boost at the beginning of the game, rather than to do damage. If I throw out a Peasant Militia and a knight training (which I will add back in) on the first turn, I can cover the loyalty on Thyrus and get him out right away. He'll be gone by the third turn, but he'll have netted me six resources by then, which is a lot in the first couple turns.

I considered using the Talabheim detachments, but it costs two to play them, one to return and two to play them again, boosting The Greatswords by two. With Pistoliers I can do the same (or more, if they're already in play) for the same price. I am tempted by the Flagellants. Even though they have no hammers to start, they can quickly become a powerhouse with Shrine of Tall or Hellblaster Volley Gun for cheap.

I see your points and I agree in general.

Talabehim is not that "powerful"...It was just an Idea

Flagellants are pretty effective, anyway...You can use Peasant Militia to bite (you'd be surprise if you'd seen a friend of mine dealing something like 10 damage with it ) and use Flagellants for early loyatly, 2 damage soak + block (you basically prevent 4 damage for a price of 1).

I do like Thyrus Gorman, even if NOONE in my meta likes it...It's fast and strong (3 cost/3 damage)...It's not solid, but if the oppo focuses on removing it, doesn't focus in other painful/little stuff and in a deck like this that's pretty good!

So, leave it in!

deashira said:

I completely agree that this is amazing (and I'm all for Johannes staying in). However, this sounds like a win-more kind of situation rather than a winning one. It just depends on what turn you can pull this off in and if Johannes can stay alive an entire turn.

Well where ever you put Thyrus, Johannes cannot go. Which is the reason I suggested dropping him. I also agree with Toberk that it is a "win-more" scenario.

For any other hero, I would agree with that reasoning. However, Thyrus is going to die in a couple of turns no matter where I play him. Then, Johannes is free to roam. Ideally, I would use Thyrus for resources to play Johannes the turn Thyrus will die.

RM

also note that flagellants can not absorb 4 damage with their current wording, even thought their preview article described it as such. If they have damage assigned to them, then its already assigned to your capitol as well and its too late to use their ability. You can thank whoever worded the card for making it useless.

chaosvt said:

Oh, I thought we were all playing the way the article said to play (even though it is not what the card really reads). Since the article was posted by FFG, our group just considered it a ruling and played it that way. Are we the only ones?

I don't see how you can come up with that from this wording. The Flagellants cancel damage, they don't prevent you from assigning damage.

I think Flagellants will get a rewording in the next FAQ (or at least hope they will). Current wording doesn't work like the article said it would, at least not in combat.

Current: "Action: Sacrifice this unit to cancel the next 2 damage assigned to your capital this turn."

Assign Damage step, opponent assigns damage to Flagellants and then rest go through to capital. Action Window opens, you'd like to use the Flagellants. Problem? "Cancel the next 2 damage", except damage has already been assigned for this turn, there is no next 2 damage, at least not very likely.

Fixed wording: "Action: Sacrifice this unit to cancel 2 damage assigned to your capital this turn."

Now you can activate them in the Action Window after Assign Damage and they will actually work as intended.

It's the next 2 damage DEALT, not the next 2 ASSIGNED. You use the ability in the window between ASSIGNING the damage and DEALING it.

Note that with NON.COMBAT damage, you don't have an action phase between assignin' and applyin' damage.

swingjunkie said:

www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp

Sure as sure looks like ASSIGNED, not dealt in the article, which has the image of the card.

but it's not canceling the assigning, it's cancelling the damage dealt as a result of the assigning.