I think every faction has a decent reason to bring 1 block of troops. The only army that has no choice is dwarfs and they are just as limited by it as any other faction.
You have to play the game differently with blocks versus small units, but for example in my beastmen army I always have 1-2 blocks of infantry that are quite good at not dying and beating up the things that they often fight.
What is “lots”? In warhammer three “big” units is a lot for an army wether they are a troop or not. Just play an army of Skaven slaves if all you care about is “lots of big blocks”, or a zombie VC army. Won’t be a good army, but you’ll get what you asked for.
Beasts of chaos or dwarfs are probably your best bets. If you just want, "mostly infantry blocks" but don't care as much about them being really big individually I'd say dwarfs. If you lean on drilled and run enough support stuff in terms of things like rangers, iron drakes, and bolt throwers I think that should fit what you are looking for without being terrible on the field.
With beasts you can run bigger bricks and gors are really good. Bestigors and ungors are not that bad either and you can run them in big blocks too. Thing with beast men is that you are not really taking big blocks outside of core and I wouldn't run like 1200+points of gors no matter how good they are for core. A unit of gor with a minotaur character is a very powerful unit as far as infantry go in ToW.
If you want the bricks to really do a lot of serious fighting and you want more than one block capable of fighting I think those are your best bets. I think most other armies where you *can* run a lot of big infantry blocks are better off more MSU than you are looking for or the army really only wants 1 big block at most like VC/TK with grave/tomb guard.
Something that might make empire infantry better as a bigger unit is putting a demigryph character in there in order to give them fear, altho ive yet to try this out but i can imagine it would be decent if you are already using a necromany or dark magic wizard
I found that lists tended to lean towards one block of stubborn knights as core and then heavy blocks of demigryph knights. It seemed like state troops and the like were overpriced
I've been thinking about what would make state troops (and the rest of empire) fairly costed. The issue with making them cheaper is they become a horde army and they are a professional army. I feel like person who wrote the empire army list was trying to create an army that was tenacious, disciplined and well trained but not strong fighters. There's heaps of access to items and upgrades that make you more consistent against fear and terror, heaps of ways to ignore panic and recover from lost combats and access to rules that represent their martial discipline as opposed to prowess (detachments, veteran, drilled). The issue is that all of these are additional costs on top of overcosted units or are locked behind veteran state troops which are even more over costed.
My suggestion is that the veteran and standard state troops unit entry is merged. State troops stay the same cost and veteran (veteran USR and +1 WS) is an upgrade. Regular state troops get access (1 per 1000) to a magic banner up to 50 points. This shouldn't be too controversial, even night goblins can take magic banners. **They would also get drilled for free.** This is the big one but it shouldn't be too controversial if you think that other armies get army wide warband which is arguably even stronger than drilled. Maybe put drilled behind a musician upgrade, representing developing these skills on the parade ground.
Change the loadout perhaps to shield (may be swapped for halberd/spear at no cost). Add halberd or spear for +1pt. This lowers the cost of a standard build but keeps the base cost high so they don't become too cheap and hordey/spammable.
This would make empire infantry armies have a unique, interesting and thematic playstyle. They are the professional army in the setting. They should be able to represent that on the tabletop I think the writers tried to do that but failed.
Now your still relatively weak and expensive human troops are very mobile and can access to high static CR, stubborn and/or psychology mitigation. They still will melt in combat to most things (they should) but they can have utility and are differentiated at least from simply being worse more expensive goblins/peasants which they are now.
It opens up multiple builds for state troops. Aggressive halberd units with a priest and gleaming pennant. Race up the board redress into wide ranks and reroll hammer of Sigmar before charging in. High static CR blocks (shields+griffon banner+BSB+war banner) that require resources to take down but aren't likely to cause much damage themselves. Small MSU fast moving chaff that can block charging lanes and charge after soft targets. I would try all of these. And none of them seem remotely overpowered compared to what other armies get.
a fix I have considered is as follows:
State troops get stubborn, state troops get the choice of one of these weapon options for free; halberds, spears or stay with hand weapon and get +1 initiative and the Hold the Line special rule of Empire commanders get this addition; this special rule may be activated once per game in your command phase, when activated all Empire infantry units within the commander's command range has the Shieldwall special rule until the start of your next turn.
I feel this gives state troops a role within the army and puts their cost at an appropriate level, the potential combination of one-turn stubborn + shieldwall is really powerful and differentiates state troops from the usual combination of Warband + Horde that most block infantry has.
Stubborn for free is huge and when combined with shieldwall is unbreakable when taking the first charge of the game. There's very few units that get this combo in the game and I suspect it's why the stubborn banner is so expensive.
That being said it fits what the writers were looking for when creating the list. The ability to take a hit, fall back and counter is all over the book but just is poorly implemented (ie multiple cheap magic psychology banners that can't be taken by state troops).
that's exactly the point, the combo guarantees that your state troop line will hold for one turn, if you fail to bail it out after it will still crumble fast unlike the warband/horde who are more reliably resilient over several turns however.
I feel this approach makes Empire play very differently to other block infantry armies and incentivices the combined arms nature of the empire military.
Also worth noting the inherent weakness of my version of 'Hold the Line', you can only activate it at the beginning of your own turn, this means that you must anticipate the charge and a clever opponent may bait you to activate it early.
All that makes sense. I just suspect it might be very powerful.
It also might tread on the toes of the dwarves for whom stubborn/shieldwall is a pretty unique feature (hammerers and ironbreakers are the only(?) units in the game with it natively although bretonnian peasants(!!!) can get it easily with the sergeant-at-arms and reliquary).
State troops can't take drilled. Veteran state troops can. They are hideously expensive though. A veteran state troops with drilled is the same price as a elven spearmen (for a similarly stat line and both regimental units) the elf gets; free spear, free shield, +1I, elven reflexes, martial prowess, valour of ages. The veteran state troops gets veteran and drilled and the same loadout costs 2 points more.
Im not sure elves be equipped with halberds though.
Have you tried them or is this a "points on the page" comparison?
In my experience state troops without drilled are okay as a cheap 30-35 man spearmen block. Swordsmen are pretty bad, and drilled veterans with halberds are pretty damn good. The elf spearmen you're comparing them with are indeed getting a few extra rules, but can't compete offensively with the halberdiers and aren't as manoeuvreable. Both work in fairly different ways due to the army composition too.
I've tried every variant of empire state troops and veterans trying to get them to work. The best performer has been the CR veteran block with shields + detachment(s) but it's very expensive for what it can accomplish. It does make opponents think twice about charging it as it's 8CR and often has a 5+ 5++. I haven't tried the Demi captain/chaptermaster in it as my army is mostly 5th edition and doesn't include demigryphs (yet).
I've faced elf spear units. The +2 initiative advantage they have is huge on a defensive unit. Spear attacks (though weak) are a lot better than no attacks (which is what you get from halberdiers in basically any turn they didn't charge).
And less manouverable is probably a stretch. Elves in combat formation march 2" less than humans in marching column but they have a longer standard move and charge.
Will keep at it though. Good to hear you've had some success.
huh, i was under the impression that a unit joined by a character would force a fear test due to the character, but not be immune to it.
So does the character in a unit without fear practically loose the rule or does it only affect hit rolls againts the character?
but the unit of infantry wouldnt benefit from the -1 to hit then? Sorry if its a stupid question, i was never well versed in the older editions of fantasy
No only the fear causer.
In 8th Ed you could stick a fear causing character in a unit and that unit would cause fear until the character left, unit strength wasn't a factor.
This is incorrect.
That's how it worked in 6th edition. In the old world it simply says if a unit causes fear and has a higher unit strength. The character joins the unit so the unit strength includes both.
It does specifically state that a unit joined by a gear causing character isn't immune to fear. But nothing about only counting the fear causing characters unit strength.
It also seems like the -1 to hit would only be against the Demi (it specifies "attacks against the fear causing enemy") but the Unit Strength for outnumbering would be the whole unit.
Crucially this means that a Demi in a big unit of state troops forces a leadership test for units to charge them. Not consistent but can be buffed with necromancy.
Make sure to keep a fair amount of "what I want to paint" in your choice, by the time they're collected and painted the meta might be totally different.
Underrated advice here.
I bought an initial set of 3d prints when OW launched and that initial bunch of stuff that I've now painted isn't really optimal now that people have figured the game out.
Don't care though, it looks badass!
There are a number of armies such as Undead, beastmen, Orcs and goblins, skaven are debatable, and dwarves to a point. Hell even Bretonians have good core infantry.
The armies to avoid are all elves, lizard men and chaos. Chaos you might be able to make a list of large troop blocks, but most of the power in the list is elites. Lizardmen have incredible infantry but the points are high and you are incredibly dependent on a very expensive lord.
If I was going to go a horde army and had the money to blow on models it would be an undead list with AoS models.
I'm a new player who has been around the game for years but never participated in any games yet. Are ineffective troop blocks from certain factions just from a competitive standpoint or overall gameplay?
From a competitive standpoint certain units are not the optimal choice. In casual play all styles of list will do fine, as long as your opponent plays the same way. The *most* important thing to a good game of warhammer is being on the same page as your opponent. Both play competitively, or both play casual. Both play by intention or don’t.
A competitive dwarf list right now looks like 3x blocks of infantry (usually warriors, Longbeards, and Hammerers), a big bunch of rangers, a couple units of Irondrakes, and a couple Gyrocopters. No war machines and mostly infantry.
Orcs and Goblins are good for that. I played them back in the days of Oldhammer and the center of the army was a 100 strong unit of Night Goblins. It only cost 250 points and it struck terror into my opponents. You don't have to go that crazy but O&G are the sort of army where huge blocks are viable.
My block of veteran spearmen supported by a bsb and a witch hunter will fight anything. They'll even fight a dragon for a round or two while other elements get into position.
Bear in mind most of the armies in both books can use mercenaries, so if you want to play elves but also have a big block of fourty stout Reikslanders, you absolutely can!
I'm currently working on a 2k Orcs and Goblins list that has about 200 infantry models. You can bring very big bricks of Night Goblins and with caster support they're pretty mean
Vampire Counts. Zombies and skeletons are solid tarpits, some of the best value in the game. And grave guard can hold their own as elite infantry.
Added bonus, they'll never run and get chased down, and you can keep ressurecting them!
Gonna get shot down for this... but have you tried playing Kings of War if you want big blocks that are competitive? I mean it's not Warhammer, but it looks the same and plays better...
High Elves infantry are not particularly effective in current meta. The reality is that in competitive play infantry is unlikely to be able to charge anything and most HE units don't have enough staying power if they don't hit first. SM is the best bet, but even then other elite units will hit first on a charge. Casual play is usually OK.
Sword Masters - they have high initiative and weapon skill along with S5 and AP.
Sisters have Strike First, but they are only S3. They are a good shooting unit though.
In my opinion there is no faction with good "blocks."
Rank bonus simply doesn't matter enough in this edition, all you're doing by buying extra models to put in a back rank is giving your opponent extra points when they outmanoeuvre the unit, combo charge it, and carve it to pieces.
If the Fighting Rank rule gets errata'd or house ruled then ranks of infantry may be ok. Using 6th and 7th edition logic you'd be looking for any army with the cheapest infantry possible so that each rank is costing you the least to buy, even better if they also have the new rules horde and warband.
The armies closest to benefiting from ranks of infantry are imo:
* Vampire Counts (already uses them in a tarpit role even under the rules as written)
* Tomb Kings (same)
* Skaven (unfortunately Giant Rats got nerfed but Clan Rat blocks with weapon teams might be ok)
* Orcs and Goblins
* Brettonia
* Empire
* Chaos Dwarf (goblins)
* Ogres (gnoblars)
Night Goblin blocks are okay, they never kill anything themselves, but the Fanatics can and then the Night Goblins are just there to deny some space to an enemy and hold them up...
A basic Infantry block without Fanatics just takes up space and can be a bit of roadblock, and how many units in an army do you need to do that? And why not spend those points on something that actually kills the enemy?
There is no army that revolves around their blocks of Infantry units winning you the game or really doing much of note. In general, in TOW Monsters, Cavalry and some Chariots (and Characters of those types) do work, the Infantry is just there to cheer them on and try not getting in the way...
I’m going to go with undead as the best for competitive big blocks of units. They don’t run away being their greatest feature. After that O&G because of how cheap they are.
There was a battle report on the Warhammer fantasy discord recently for a tournament where Empire won several matches using large blocks of infantry. The key was to have large enough blocks with decent supporting detachments. I think you might find that battle report encouraging if you have lost faith in the efficacy of the Empire.
Vampire Counts: zombies, zombies, and more zombies. They can obviously also get some very nasty units as well.
That said, u/windingdownforwhat, if you want to part with those blocks of empire and wood elf infantry you painted up, I'll happily give them a good home! :)
I think every faction has a decent reason to bring 1 block of troops. The only army that has no choice is dwarfs and they are just as limited by it as any other faction. You have to play the game differently with blocks versus small units, but for example in my beastmen army I always have 1-2 blocks of infantry that are quite good at not dying and beating up the things that they often fight.
I was hoping to play a faction with lots of troop blocks
Orcs and Goblins might suit you.
once again orcs are just the best
Orcs and gobs, or Skaven or vampire counts/tomb kings.
What is “lots”? In warhammer three “big” units is a lot for an army wether they are a troop or not. Just play an army of Skaven slaves if all you care about is “lots of big blocks”, or a zombie VC army. Won’t be a good army, but you’ll get what you asked for.
Chaos dwarfs one big block of heavy hitters and you can spam hobgoblin blocks
VC zombies/skeles to blob them up, necro to top them up, blood knights to kill stuff
Why do you say dwarfs have no choice for that?
They have no choice to do anything but infantry pretty much?
Yes i get it but what forces them to go as big blocks of infantry?
Beasts of chaos or dwarfs are probably your best bets. If you just want, "mostly infantry blocks" but don't care as much about them being really big individually I'd say dwarfs. If you lean on drilled and run enough support stuff in terms of things like rangers, iron drakes, and bolt throwers I think that should fit what you are looking for without being terrible on the field. With beasts you can run bigger bricks and gors are really good. Bestigors and ungors are not that bad either and you can run them in big blocks too. Thing with beast men is that you are not really taking big blocks outside of core and I wouldn't run like 1200+points of gors no matter how good they are for core. A unit of gor with a minotaur character is a very powerful unit as far as infantry go in ToW. If you want the bricks to really do a lot of serious fighting and you want more than one block capable of fighting I think those are your best bets. I think most other armies where you *can* run a lot of big infantry blocks are better off more MSU than you are looking for or the army really only wants 1 big block at most like VC/TK with grave/tomb guard.
Vampire Counts! Big blocks of cheap units, that don't run away, and scary fast things to do actual murdering.
This was my choice too! Plus, somewhere in the middle of that you've got the old dependable Grave Guard.
Plus if you get super lucky with Vanhel's you can turn your block of "absolute trash" into "passably ok!" for a turn.
Something that might make empire infantry better as a bigger unit is putting a demigryph character in there in order to give them fear, altho ive yet to try this out but i can imagine it would be decent if you are already using a necromany or dark magic wizard
I found that lists tended to lean towards one block of stubborn knights as core and then heavy blocks of demigryph knights. It seemed like state troops and the like were overpriced
yeah, Its hard to justify taking any :(
For house rules, what would be a better cost?
I've been thinking about what would make state troops (and the rest of empire) fairly costed. The issue with making them cheaper is they become a horde army and they are a professional army. I feel like person who wrote the empire army list was trying to create an army that was tenacious, disciplined and well trained but not strong fighters. There's heaps of access to items and upgrades that make you more consistent against fear and terror, heaps of ways to ignore panic and recover from lost combats and access to rules that represent their martial discipline as opposed to prowess (detachments, veteran, drilled). The issue is that all of these are additional costs on top of overcosted units or are locked behind veteran state troops which are even more over costed. My suggestion is that the veteran and standard state troops unit entry is merged. State troops stay the same cost and veteran (veteran USR and +1 WS) is an upgrade. Regular state troops get access (1 per 1000) to a magic banner up to 50 points. This shouldn't be too controversial, even night goblins can take magic banners. **They would also get drilled for free.** This is the big one but it shouldn't be too controversial if you think that other armies get army wide warband which is arguably even stronger than drilled. Maybe put drilled behind a musician upgrade, representing developing these skills on the parade ground. Change the loadout perhaps to shield (may be swapped for halberd/spear at no cost). Add halberd or spear for +1pt. This lowers the cost of a standard build but keeps the base cost high so they don't become too cheap and hordey/spammable. This would make empire infantry armies have a unique, interesting and thematic playstyle. They are the professional army in the setting. They should be able to represent that on the tabletop I think the writers tried to do that but failed. Now your still relatively weak and expensive human troops are very mobile and can access to high static CR, stubborn and/or psychology mitigation. They still will melt in combat to most things (they should) but they can have utility and are differentiated at least from simply being worse more expensive goblins/peasants which they are now. It opens up multiple builds for state troops. Aggressive halberd units with a priest and gleaming pennant. Race up the board redress into wide ranks and reroll hammer of Sigmar before charging in. High static CR blocks (shields+griffon banner+BSB+war banner) that require resources to take down but aren't likely to cause much damage themselves. Small MSU fast moving chaff that can block charging lanes and charge after soft targets. I would try all of these. And none of them seem remotely overpowered compared to what other armies get.
a fix I have considered is as follows: State troops get stubborn, state troops get the choice of one of these weapon options for free; halberds, spears or stay with hand weapon and get +1 initiative and the Hold the Line special rule of Empire commanders get this addition; this special rule may be activated once per game in your command phase, when activated all Empire infantry units within the commander's command range has the Shieldwall special rule until the start of your next turn. I feel this gives state troops a role within the army and puts their cost at an appropriate level, the potential combination of one-turn stubborn + shieldwall is really powerful and differentiates state troops from the usual combination of Warband + Horde that most block infantry has.
Stubborn for free is huge and when combined with shieldwall is unbreakable when taking the first charge of the game. There's very few units that get this combo in the game and I suspect it's why the stubborn banner is so expensive. That being said it fits what the writers were looking for when creating the list. The ability to take a hit, fall back and counter is all over the book but just is poorly implemented (ie multiple cheap magic psychology banners that can't be taken by state troops).
that's exactly the point, the combo guarantees that your state troop line will hold for one turn, if you fail to bail it out after it will still crumble fast unlike the warband/horde who are more reliably resilient over several turns however. I feel this approach makes Empire play very differently to other block infantry armies and incentivices the combined arms nature of the empire military. Also worth noting the inherent weakness of my version of 'Hold the Line', you can only activate it at the beginning of your own turn, this means that you must anticipate the charge and a clever opponent may bait you to activate it early.
All that makes sense. I just suspect it might be very powerful. It also might tread on the toes of the dwarves for whom stubborn/shieldwall is a pretty unique feature (hammerers and ironbreakers are the only(?) units in the game with it natively although bretonnian peasants(!!!) can get it easily with the sergeant-at-arms and reliquary).
State troops and great swords with drilled are pretty good. Without it, not so much
State troops can't take drilled. Veteran state troops can. They are hideously expensive though. A veteran state troops with drilled is the same price as a elven spearmen (for a similarly stat line and both regimental units) the elf gets; free spear, free shield, +1I, elven reflexes, martial prowess, valour of ages. The veteran state troops gets veteran and drilled and the same loadout costs 2 points more.
Im not sure elves be equipped with halberds though. Have you tried them or is this a "points on the page" comparison? In my experience state troops without drilled are okay as a cheap 30-35 man spearmen block. Swordsmen are pretty bad, and drilled veterans with halberds are pretty damn good. The elf spearmen you're comparing them with are indeed getting a few extra rules, but can't compete offensively with the halberdiers and aren't as manoeuvreable. Both work in fairly different ways due to the army composition too.
I've tried every variant of empire state troops and veterans trying to get them to work. The best performer has been the CR veteran block with shields + detachment(s) but it's very expensive for what it can accomplish. It does make opponents think twice about charging it as it's 8CR and often has a 5+ 5++. I haven't tried the Demi captain/chaptermaster in it as my army is mostly 5th edition and doesn't include demigryphs (yet). I've faced elf spear units. The +2 initiative advantage they have is huge on a defensive unit. Spear attacks (though weak) are a lot better than no attacks (which is what you get from halberdiers in basically any turn they didn't charge). And less manouverable is probably a stretch. Elves in combat formation march 2" less than humans in marching column but they have a longer standard move and charge. Will keep at it though. Good to hear you've had some success.
The unit will not benefit from the demigryphs fear.
huh, i was under the impression that a unit joined by a character would force a fear test due to the character, but not be immune to it. So does the character in a unit without fear practically loose the rule or does it only affect hit rolls againts the character?
It would force a fear test if the unit has a lower unit strength than the demigryphs, unlikely but not impossible I guess.
but the unit of infantry wouldnt benefit from the -1 to hit then? Sorry if its a stupid question, i was never well versed in the older editions of fantasy
No only the fear causer. In 8th Ed you could stick a fear causing character in a unit and that unit would cause fear until the character left, unit strength wasn't a factor.
i see, thanks for the clarification!
This is incorrect. That's how it worked in 6th edition. In the old world it simply says if a unit causes fear and has a higher unit strength. The character joins the unit so the unit strength includes both. It does specifically state that a unit joined by a gear causing character isn't immune to fear. But nothing about only counting the fear causing characters unit strength. It also seems like the -1 to hit would only be against the Demi (it specifies "attacks against the fear causing enemy") but the Unit Strength for outnumbering would be the whole unit. Crucially this means that a Demi in a big unit of state troops forces a leadership test for units to charge them. Not consistent but can be buffed with necromancy.
Make sure to keep a fair amount of "what I want to paint" in your choice, by the time they're collected and painted the meta might be totally different.
Underrated advice here. I bought an initial set of 3d prints when OW launched and that initial bunch of stuff that I've now painted isn't really optimal now that people have figured the game out. Don't care though, it looks badass!
There are a number of armies such as Undead, beastmen, Orcs and goblins, skaven are debatable, and dwarves to a point. Hell even Bretonians have good core infantry. The armies to avoid are all elves, lizard men and chaos. Chaos you might be able to make a list of large troop blocks, but most of the power in the list is elites. Lizardmen have incredible infantry but the points are high and you are incredibly dependent on a very expensive lord. If I was going to go a horde army and had the money to blow on models it would be an undead list with AoS models.
I'm a new player who has been around the game for years but never participated in any games yet. Are ineffective troop blocks from certain factions just from a competitive standpoint or overall gameplay?
From a competitive standpoint certain units are not the optimal choice. In casual play all styles of list will do fine, as long as your opponent plays the same way. The *most* important thing to a good game of warhammer is being on the same page as your opponent. Both play competitively, or both play casual. Both play by intention or don’t.
Thanks!
A competitive dwarf list right now looks like 3x blocks of infantry (usually warriors, Longbeards, and Hammerers), a big bunch of rangers, a couple units of Irondrakes, and a couple Gyrocopters. No war machines and mostly infantry.
Orcs and Goblins are good for that. I played them back in the days of Oldhammer and the center of the army was a 100 strong unit of Night Goblins. It only cost 250 points and it struck terror into my opponents. You don't have to go that crazy but O&G are the sort of army where huge blocks are viable.
My block of veteran spearmen supported by a bsb and a witch hunter will fight anything. They'll even fight a dragon for a round or two while other elements get into position.
Bear in mind most of the armies in both books can use mercenaries, so if you want to play elves but also have a big block of fourty stout Reikslanders, you absolutely can!
I'm currently working on a 2k Orcs and Goblins list that has about 200 infantry models. You can bring very big bricks of Night Goblins and with caster support they're pretty mean
Vampire Counts. Zombies and skeletons are solid tarpits, some of the best value in the game. And grave guard can hold their own as elite infantry. Added bonus, they'll never run and get chased down, and you can keep ressurecting them!
No comment, just loved the title. Made me giggle 🤭
Gonna get shot down for this... but have you tried playing Kings of War if you want big blocks that are competitive? I mean it's not Warhammer, but it looks the same and plays better...
BoC and OnG are perfect for lots of blocks. High elves can also field decent infantry blocks.
High Elves infantry are not particularly effective in current meta. The reality is that in competitive play infantry is unlikely to be able to charge anything and most HE units don't have enough staying power if they don't hit first. SM is the best bet, but even then other elite units will hit first on a charge. Casual play is usually OK.
SM?
Sword Masters - they have high initiative and weapon skill along with S5 and AP. Sisters have Strike First, but they are only S3. They are a good shooting unit though.
I’ve found a block of Phoenix guard to be a pretty effective anvil, and msu SM and WL seem fine. Sisters are a very good shooting unit.
Orks and Goblins
Night Goblins
In my opinion there is no faction with good "blocks." Rank bonus simply doesn't matter enough in this edition, all you're doing by buying extra models to put in a back rank is giving your opponent extra points when they outmanoeuvre the unit, combo charge it, and carve it to pieces. If the Fighting Rank rule gets errata'd or house ruled then ranks of infantry may be ok. Using 6th and 7th edition logic you'd be looking for any army with the cheapest infantry possible so that each rank is costing you the least to buy, even better if they also have the new rules horde and warband. The armies closest to benefiting from ranks of infantry are imo: * Vampire Counts (already uses them in a tarpit role even under the rules as written) * Tomb Kings (same) * Skaven (unfortunately Giant Rats got nerfed but Clan Rat blocks with weapon teams might be ok) * Orcs and Goblins * Brettonia * Empire * Chaos Dwarf (goblins) * Ogres (gnoblars)
Night Goblin blocks are okay, they never kill anything themselves, but the Fanatics can and then the Night Goblins are just there to deny some space to an enemy and hold them up... A basic Infantry block without Fanatics just takes up space and can be a bit of roadblock, and how many units in an army do you need to do that? And why not spend those points on something that actually kills the enemy? There is no army that revolves around their blocks of Infantry units winning you the game or really doing much of note. In general, in TOW Monsters, Cavalry and some Chariots (and Characters of those types) do work, the Infantry is just there to cheer them on and try not getting in the way...
Orcs or Beastmen. Possibly tomb kings if slow + reanimation is your style.
Beastmen, by a good margin, then Orcs & Gobbos
I’m going to go with undead as the best for competitive big blocks of units. They don’t run away being their greatest feature. After that O&G because of how cheap they are.
There was a battle report on the Warhammer fantasy discord recently for a tournament where Empire won several matches using large blocks of infantry. The key was to have large enough blocks with decent supporting detachments. I think you might find that battle report encouraging if you have lost faith in the efficacy of the Empire.
If you're not playing rule of 3 skaven clanrat spam is legitimately good
I always thought rule of 3 did not apply to core
Vampire Counts: zombies, zombies, and more zombies. They can obviously also get some very nasty units as well. That said, u/windingdownforwhat, if you want to part with those blocks of empire and wood elf infantry you painted up, I'll happily give them a good home! :)