Didn't see a topic yet, so I thought I might share my thoughts, having seen the new book;
Magic items:
Almost entirely gone. GW seems to really hate army gear, they're tying to homogenise everyone to the default items in the main rulebook (which is good in theory but sorta short-changes people in practise).
The two Banners left are still awful, and for some reason Cruddance made them even more expensive.
Runefang is still there, and it can be taken on Grandmasters, but it prevents you taking a ward save so still pointless. Flaming Mace of Gimmick is still there too, again no one cares. Speculum is still in, but its more pricey and without the option for Sword of Justice, there isn't any reason to take it except on a Wizard Lord (for hilarity more than effectiveness). A few magic armours are left, they're still worse than the generic items in the main rulebook. Ring of Volans was never good, so meh.
So, nothing of value was really lost. No more Scroll of Forget Spell, which is handy for our Slann.
Special characters:
All still terrible, no surprises there
I know GW have been pimping the hell out of them (especially Karl Kranz, the Cannon Magnet), and people have correctly stated they had their gear and points redone, but they're still terrible to mediocre. If you you did face them before in battles, expect the same (they're not really different, mostly it was just a cost downgrade and a few rules tweaks).
Lords:
Unsurprisngly, Arch-Lectors got hit hard with the nerf bat. No more auto-generated dispel, although they can channel power/dispel like a Wizard. War Altar has also been downgraded, it only generates a 6" bubble and its bound Light spell is fixed as 'Banishment' (which means no one cares anymore). Arch-Lector is only as good as a cheaper Priest in casting (they're not Wizards, but they can cast spells, go figure), so unless you shell out for the nerfed War Altar, he's pointless.
Generals are still terrible. Their new schtick is they can pretend to be us (ie like Cold-Blooded) for Break tests, and it spreads to the unit they join. No one cares, because....
Grandmasters went up in price, but not enough to make them unfieldable. He is still Master of Horsies, and he still has the statline to fight other Lords. Speculum is a a forced swap, so pointless on him. Expect Sword of Swift Slaying+Talisman of Preservation+Potion of Strength to be the new default.
Level 4 is same price, just about the only item worth taking is Speculum at this point (ignoring generic items for now). All of the cool arcane items got removed, so no Wand of Seven Dice or Phase Swapping.
For those that are curious, yes you are forced to take a specific Lore to take a mount.
Beasts is for Griffon, which means no one will take it (because Lore of Beasts sucks, and the new Griffons are massive cannon/magic nuke bait)
Light is for Laser Cannon, which means no one will take it (as it can be taken in Rare, and Light doesn't need a Level 4)
Heavens is for Orb of Random, which means no one will take it (Heavens sucks, the Orb can be taken in Rare and it's worse than Laser Cannon anyway)
Heroes:
Captain is largely the same. As I mentioned before, you can't do the Speculum+Sword of Justice combo anymore, and with the removal of all but two banners, you'll probably see just default BSB and then Armour of Justice (as there is no Holy Relic, so Talisman has to be for the Grandmaster General). Might be mounted, might just be in a Halberdier horde for bunkering with the Level 4.
Warrior Priests are still pretty decent. You channel both power and dispel, the spells are now 'till next Magic phase' instead of RIP (arguably a better option for Empire, as we only gets one chance to dispel), and the spells themselves are arguably a lot better. They are now 'whole unit gets better', so less about characters and more about making Halberdier or Knight units insanely deadly. They are pretty much identical in options as before, so if anything they got better.
Witch Hunters are terrible. Again, GW has been pimpin these guys and various Empire players think Snipers with pistols are cool. No, MR2 doesn't mean jack, neither does there 'I really hate that guy' ability. Warrior Priest has amazing spells on offer; WH offers weak buffs and is basically a really bad assassin. He'll kill Skinks Priests or lone Slann, but provided your TG bunker is alive your Slann doesn't care (multiple wounds, ward save and point-blank range with pistols means you are difficult to snipe with even multiple WH).
Level 1/2's are the same. As I mentioned before, all the cool arcane items are gone, so no surprises here. As a side note, Light or Shadow wizards are pretty likely, as striking speed is an issue for Empire ranked blocks (they have re-rolls galore from Priests, they're just slow).
Engineer's are better, but because warmachines will be fewer (as Laser Cannons are likely to replace some Cannons now), probably won't see more than one or two for camping with the cannons. They removed the option for Sniper rifles from the shooty units, so I guess you'll see them on these guys now (for sniping Skink Priests out of units maybe).
Core:
Halberdiers and Handgunners are just about the only things worth taking except Knights. Halberdiers outperform all the hacky options by a long margin, Handgunners are in reality only 1/8th more and still have the Sniper rifle option.
Knights got a price reduction, and interestingly he moved the IC upgrade to still be Core (presumably so they won't compete with Demigryphs). So yeah, small IC bunkers for BSB or General are probably likely, to back up the Halberdier blocks. Still the cheapest Knights in the game, and Core as well, so definitely expect them.
Special:
Demigryphs are pretty formidable. Amusingly, the chickens hit faster than the riders. Lances or halberds, so either S6 on the charge, or S5 always for the riders. S5 and AP for the chickens, so Saurus and TG don't like these guys hitting their flank or even the front without serious magic support.
The mounts can't attack from the second rank, so expect 3-4 chicken flanking units. Either Knights hit your front, or a Halberdier block, to pin you. They then slam these small but deadly chicken units into the flank, and just eat lizard until we die.
Cannons got a price hike, but only by 1/5th. So yeah, 3 is still entirely possible. However, Laser Cannons cost the same and are cooler (although requiring power dice to shoot), so expect a mix. Either way, our EOTG or Stegs die by Turn 2 usually. No surprise.
Mortars are terrible, which is good news for us. Saurus now care less about them, as do TG. Still squish Skinks just fine, so Southlands lists will still hate them.
Greatswords are the same. Flagellants are terribad now, so meh, enjoy grinding them down. Pistoliers and Outriders are the same, so I guess just poison them before they shred the Skirmishers.
Rare:
Helblaster is still insane but short-range, Helstorm is still deadly but random.
Orb of Random is sorta useful, but I think it's a bit too random. Remember, bound spell, so just like the Laser Cannon, our Slann can block or we can burn a dispel scroll to block it.
Laser Cannon is actually pretty good. It's easily blocked, but because we need our dispel to remove Prayers (which are easily spammed by the Warrior Priests hiding in the Knight/Halberdier units), you'll probably see two to supplement the cannons. It is good at killing monsters, lone models, especially good at killing Undead (re-rolls to kill them), and murders multi-wound infantry and heavily armoured infantry. In short, deploy shallow blocks against it, then rank up to fight the Halberdiers. Sadly, it is going to overwhelm the EOTG, Skrox and Stegs.
Stank is now affected by magic normally, is only T6, and its cannon requires more steam to fire longer ranges. So, not that different to before, bit easier to kill and not as long-ranged unless it stays still.
tl;dr
Grandmaster for General
Level 4
BSB Captain
Mix of Warrior Priest, Level 2's and Engineers
Halberdiers/Handgunners/Knights
Demigryphs, Cannons n stuff
Laser Cannons, Helbasters, maybe Rockets, Stank probably
Magic items:
Almost entirely gone. GW seems to really hate army gear, they're tying to homogenise everyone to the default items in the main rulebook (which is good in theory but sorta short-changes people in practise).
The two Banners left are still awful, and for some reason Cruddance made them even more expensive.
Runefang is still there, and it can be taken on Grandmasters, but it prevents you taking a ward save so still pointless. Flaming Mace of Gimmick is still there too, again no one cares. Speculum is still in, but its more pricey and without the option for Sword of Justice, there isn't any reason to take it except on a Wizard Lord (for hilarity more than effectiveness). A few magic armours are left, they're still worse than the generic items in the main rulebook. Ring of Volans was never good, so meh.
So, nothing of value was really lost. No more Scroll of Forget Spell, which is handy for our Slann.
Special characters:
All still terrible, no surprises there
I know GW have been pimping the hell out of them (especially Karl Kranz, the Cannon Magnet), and people have correctly stated they had their gear and points redone, but they're still terrible to mediocre. If you you did face them before in battles, expect the same (they're not really different, mostly it was just a cost downgrade and a few rules tweaks).
Lords:
Unsurprisngly, Arch-Lectors got hit hard with the nerf bat. No more auto-generated dispel, although they can channel power/dispel like a Wizard. War Altar has also been downgraded, it only generates a 6" bubble and its bound Light spell is fixed as 'Banishment' (which means no one cares anymore). Arch-Lector is only as good as a cheaper Priest in casting (they're not Wizards, but they can cast spells, go figure), so unless you shell out for the nerfed War Altar, he's pointless.
Generals are still terrible. Their new schtick is they can pretend to be us (ie like Cold-Blooded) for Break tests, and it spreads to the unit they join. No one cares, because....
Grandmasters went up in price, but not enough to make them unfieldable. He is still Master of Horsies, and he still has the statline to fight other Lords. Speculum is a a forced swap, so pointless on him. Expect Sword of Swift Slaying+Talisman of Preservation+Potion of Strength to be the new default.
Level 4 is same price, just about the only item worth taking is Speculum at this point (ignoring generic items for now). All of the cool arcane items got removed, so no Wand of Seven Dice or Phase Swapping.
For those that are curious, yes you are forced to take a specific Lore to take a mount.
Beasts is for Griffon, which means no one will take it (because Lore of Beasts sucks, and the new Griffons are massive cannon/magic nuke bait)
Light is for Laser Cannon, which means no one will take it (as it can be taken in Rare, and Light doesn't need a Level 4)
Heavens is for Orb of Random, which means no one will take it (Heavens sucks, the Orb can be taken in Rare and it's worse than Laser Cannon anyway)
Heroes:
Captain is largely the same. As I mentioned before, you can't do the Speculum+Sword of Justice combo anymore, and with the removal of all but two banners, you'll probably see just default BSB and then Armour of Justice (as there is no Holy Relic, so Talisman has to be for the Grandmaster General). Might be mounted, might just be in a Halberdier horde for bunkering with the Level 4.
Warrior Priests are still pretty decent. You channel both power and dispel, the spells are now 'till next Magic phase' instead of RIP (arguably a better option for Empire, as we only gets one chance to dispel), and the spells themselves are arguably a lot better. They are now 'whole unit gets better', so less about characters and more about making Halberdier or Knight units insanely deadly. They are pretty much identical in options as before, so if anything they got better.
Witch Hunters are terrible. Again, GW has been pimpin these guys and various Empire players think Snipers with pistols are cool. No, MR2 doesn't mean jack, neither does there 'I really hate that guy' ability. Warrior Priest has amazing spells on offer; WH offers weak buffs and is basically a really bad assassin. He'll kill Skinks Priests or lone Slann, but provided your TG bunker is alive your Slann doesn't care (multiple wounds, ward save and point-blank range with pistols means you are difficult to snipe with even multiple WH).
Level 1/2's are the same. As I mentioned before, all the cool arcane items are gone, so no surprises here. As a side note, Light or Shadow wizards are pretty likely, as striking speed is an issue for Empire ranked blocks (they have re-rolls galore from Priests, they're just slow).
Engineer's are better, but because warmachines will be fewer (as Laser Cannons are likely to replace some Cannons now), probably won't see more than one or two for camping with the cannons. They removed the option for Sniper rifles from the shooty units, so I guess you'll see them on these guys now (for sniping Skink Priests out of units maybe).
Core:
Halberdiers and Handgunners are just about the only things worth taking except Knights. Halberdiers outperform all the hacky options by a long margin, Handgunners are in reality only 1/8th more and still have the Sniper rifle option.
Knights got a price reduction, and interestingly he moved the IC upgrade to still be Core (presumably so they won't compete with Demigryphs). So yeah, small IC bunkers for BSB or General are probably likely, to back up the Halberdier blocks. Still the cheapest Knights in the game, and Core as well, so definitely expect them.
Special:
Demigryphs are pretty formidable. Amusingly, the chickens hit faster than the riders. Lances or halberds, so either S6 on the charge, or S5 always for the riders. S5 and AP for the chickens, so Saurus and TG don't like these guys hitting their flank or even the front without serious magic support.
The mounts can't attack from the second rank, so expect 3-4 chicken flanking units. Either Knights hit your front, or a Halberdier block, to pin you. They then slam these small but deadly chicken units into the flank, and just eat lizard until we die.
Cannons got a price hike, but only by 1/5th. So yeah, 3 is still entirely possible. However, Laser Cannons cost the same and are cooler (although requiring power dice to shoot), so expect a mix. Either way, our EOTG or Stegs die by Turn 2 usually. No surprise.
Mortars are terrible, which is good news for us. Saurus now care less about them, as do TG. Still squish Skinks just fine, so Southlands lists will still hate them.
Greatswords are the same. Flagellants are terribad now, so meh, enjoy grinding them down. Pistoliers and Outriders are the same, so I guess just poison them before they shred the Skirmishers.
Rare:
Helblaster is still insane but short-range, Helstorm is still deadly but random.
Orb of Random is sorta useful, but I think it's a bit too random. Remember, bound spell, so just like the Laser Cannon, our Slann can block or we can burn a dispel scroll to block it.
Laser Cannon is actually pretty good. It's easily blocked, but because we need our dispel to remove Prayers (which are easily spammed by the Warrior Priests hiding in the Knight/Halberdier units), you'll probably see two to supplement the cannons. It is good at killing monsters, lone models, especially good at killing Undead (re-rolls to kill them), and murders multi-wound infantry and heavily armoured infantry. In short, deploy shallow blocks against it, then rank up to fight the Halberdiers. Sadly, it is going to overwhelm the EOTG, Skrox and Stegs.
Stank is now affected by magic normally, is only T6, and its cannon requires more steam to fire longer ranges. So, not that different to before, bit easier to kill and not as long-ranged unless it stays still.
tl;dr
Grandmaster for General
Level 4
BSB Captain
Mix of Warrior Priest, Level 2's and Engineers
Halberdiers/Handgunners/Knights
Demigryphs, Cannons n stuff
Laser Cannons, Helbasters, maybe Rockets, Stank probably
