The fleets of the Celestian Empire, once focused solely on protecting their own shores, now turn their attention outwards. Through innovative marvels that would make even a Peer of the Enlightened green with envy, they assure the sanctity of their borders. The wisdom of centuries allows the Immortal Emperors the experience to guide their people, through this tumultuous Dystopian Age, to victory. By the end of this article, perhaps you will be bestowed but a snippet of their ageless insight.
You can find the reinforcements for your budding Empire fleet that are mentioned in your blog at your FLGS or online today.
United and determined, the realms of the Celestian Emperors are prosperous, advanced and ready for battle.
How The Empire Plays
While the Empire boasts some of the most exciting, non-traditional vessels in the Dystopian Age (boxkites, krakens, squid, etc), their true speciality lies simply in Disorder, having made the application of terror into an art form. Through flame, spectral ships, poisonous gas, screaming Bulnabang, grappling tentacles, and corrosive canisters (plus even more methods!), the Empire ensures that their enemies should never be operating at full capacity.
Their greatest tool in this regard is the Alchemical quality, present on a wide variety of their weapons. With these weapons, an Empire fleet is easily able to apply the Hazard Critical Damage Effect to any target. They even have a few unique methods of capitalising on this. The Bushi Ryu, monstrous armoured samurai, make Hazard tokens apply an additional Crew penalty on top of Disorder when they make a Boarding action. There is also, of course, the Faction Battlefleet Bonus, Jade Fury. That will be covered later on, but it’s a doozy…
The Heavy Huǒqiāng, perhaps the most iconic weapon of the Empire’s fleets, is an example of their alchemical fury. This dragon-faced turret allows all Empire vessels capable of wielding a Heavy Hardpoint weapon to set foes at Closing Range utterly alight with gouts of flame. This unparallelled access to the extremely powerful Torrent special weapon quality is a key strength that the Empire can rely on.
It would be easy, after all this talk of fire and hazards, to believe that the Empire is something of a one-trick dragon. This is absolutely not the case. Bar perhaps the Covenant of the Enlightened (with whom the Empire share a very close relationship), and the Sultanate (who have their own extraterrestrial patrons to support their work), the Empire is the most scientifically advanced Faction on Earth in the late 1800s. Their three unique Generators demonstrate this handily, allowing them to reshape the battlefield with summoned magma, fade into invulnerable vapour, or raise grand energy walls to protect entire fleets from incoming fire. Even beyond all of that, the Empire currently wields the only (!) Coruscating weapon in the entire game, capable of destroying swathes of your opponents’ fleet in a single shot.
There are three distinct subfactions within the Empire’s naval forces: Japan, China, and Korea. Each of these have quite wildly different playstyles and focuses—befitting the very different realms which have given rise to them. The forces of the Japanese, the preeminent seafaring nation of the Empire, are suitably elite. Resilient and deadly, they also produce all of the Empire’s Underwater units and Submerged weaponry. Their dynamic “flying fish” torpedo salvoes are guided by full-fledged automata brains, easily capable of darting around to find the weakest spot in their prey’s armour. Leaping in and out of the waves, not even your opponent’s hovercraft are safe from their fury!
The Chinese subfaction, on the other hand, is focused much more on brown-water engagements and landing actions. Their paddlewheels and shallow draughts ensure that they are able to navigate treacherous water with contemptible ease, while their prow-mounted Huǒqiāng reduce anything that gets in their way to slag. The tradeoff for this incredible mobility is generally lower hull values and maximum speeds, but that’s a small price when it means they may sail wherever they please.
Finally there is the Korean subfaction, which has just expanded dramatically with the arrival of the new Korean Aerial Squadrons. These ships are generally defined by extraordinary speed and agility—indeed they have necessitated a new Property so that we can express just how crazy agile these rotorcraft are! Evasive allows them to dodge incoming fire entirely, at the cost of steadily rising Disorder.
While each of these subfactions is extremely cool, and it is technically possible to field a fleet exclusively built from any of them, that is not what we would recommend. Like the Empire itself, this faction plays best when it marries the strengths of all of its people into one unstoppable force. A core of Japanese cruisers, supported by Chinese frigates and Korean rotorcraft presents a threat that is as powerful as it is diverse.
We would be remiss, of course, to not briefly mention the vessels that are perhaps most iconic to the Empire (they’re even depicted on the Armoured Clash Faction Battlegroup box!)—the Draconic Colossi. What was once but a single unit is now four different variants, and they are all absolute menaces.
The Flagship Tiānlóng is the brawler, tearing into entire squadrons with flame, fang, and fusillade. The other three are decidedly more specialised; the Kiyohime is all about Boarding actions, using its talons and caustic breath to weaken the target before sending in the peerless Bushi Ryu Samurai to slaughter. The Gangcheori, meanwhile, brings the Empire’s take on Heat Lances to bear, devastating targets within 10" as it swoops by at (frankly ludicrous) breakneck speeds. Finally, there flies the Shénlóng, swarmed by a flock of Frigatebird Repair Automata. These dragons support their siblings in the skies, repairing any damage that manages to slip past their scales with ease.
Battlefleets
As you may have come to expect from the self-certified “Hazard faction”, their Faction Battlefleet is focused on dialling up the heat to 11 with the Jade Fury Battlefleet Bonus.
With special formulations of their alchemical compounds, the Empire can set foes alight even more. Burning with bright green flames, you’ll find that your enemies can barely pull themselves together long enough to form a counterattack. This Battlefleet Bonus goes a long way to ensuring the longevity of your own fleet, allowing Chinese elements to make up for their lighter hulls and Japanese elements to make up for (generally) being quite outnumbered. Set your enemy ablaze with Huǒqiāng and Alchemical Rockets, and watch them flounder!
The secondary main Battlefleet—this one with a bit more of a focus on the Speaker for the Fleets’ own forces—instead delves into the animalistic automata that are so iconic to the Empire. It allows you to hurl Chita Escorts alongside torpedo attacks, crashing into the enemy’s hull and drilling deep holes in devastating Chita-Strikes. This fleet deviates a little from the Empire’s standard emphasis on Disorder, allowing you to build a Force that behaves very differently to one built around a Faction Battlefleet!
The Empire has five specialist Battlefleets to supplement these two core organisations, allowing you to really specialise your list in whatever directions take your fancy. The Kagutsuchi Volcanic Battlefleet brings the unrestrained power of the Magma Cast Generator to all your Generator-capable ships. It even lets you score some extra victory points for covering your opponents’ half of the board in lava. Meanwhile, the Yamata No Orochi Abyssal Battlefleet allows an Admiral to fully lean into the incredible array of Underwater units the Empire has to offer—particularly their terrifying Ika Colossi.
The last trio instead focus on the Airborne elements of the Faction, though via different routes. The Gwisin Silent-Strike Battlefleet represents far-ranging contingents of Korean rotorcraft accompanied by Doksuri Fighters, sent to support a larger fleet operation across the waves. The Dragon’s Wrath Battlefleet instead represents entire strike teams of Draconic Colossi personally dispatched by one of the Seven Immortal Emperors to oversee a particular task.
Finally, there is the iconic Zhǎnmǎdāo Battlefleet, led by the eponymous skyfortress itself. This Battlefleet represents the perfect marriage of all realms of the Empire, the Zhǎnmǎdāo itself a symbol of their unity of purpose. With Japanese Bushi Ryu samurai, Korean Doksuri Fighters, and Chinese Frigatebird Repair Automata, it brings the strengths of all subfactions together. The hulking fortress on the horizon is not all your opponent will have to worry about, though! Thanks to its Castles in the Sky Battlefleet Bonus any Qianshao and Ziwèi in your fleet can Cloud Dive ahead of the Force, forming forward bastions to protect all who come behind.
Small Scale list (1000 points)
This is a great beginner Force, built using just the Empire Starter Set and a single box of Empire Frontline Squadrons. Immediately, it demonstrates the power of the Empire’s core philosophy—collaboration. By fielding a healthy mix of Chinese and Japanese units, this fleet is able to field a very respectable number of powerful units that can fulfil different purposes, whilst covering for one another’s weaknesses.
As the Empire Faction Battlefleet does not specify any one of these subfactions, instead calling for simply Empire units, a list can be built to represent a fleet from any one nation if you like! In this list's case, thanks to the points saved by sprinkling in some cheaper Shànghǎi Frigates and Dāo Light Cruisers we were able to afford a couple of all-important Escort tokens for the brick of a unit that is the two Hokkaidō Heavy Cruisers. We were even able to squeeze in a Doctrine! Falling Avalanche provides some much-needed versatility to any Alchemical Rocket-bearing units, allowing them to shoot at Closing Range—you never know when your Shànghǎi Frigates might need to dart forward to claim a critical Objective!
The true showsto\pper of this list, though, is the Oni Command Cruiser with its Interphase Generator. There is little better than the look on your opponent’s face when your Flagship fades into spectral mist—only to fly forth, passing through islands and ships alike! Then it returns to reality to unleash an enormous fusillade of broadsides or flamethrowers where the enemy least expected it.
As for how you equip the ships in this fleet—there’s really no wrong answers! I would personally give the Oni either paired Jangdaebi Repeating Guns or Heavy Huǒqiāng to capitalise most on the Interphase Generator’s speed boost, but Heavy Alchemical Rockets and Heavy Gun Batteries are also great options. Please bear in mind that any weapon options you have on your Hardpoints don’t cost extra, so you may want to refrain from gluing those components on as you test which is your favourite. If you’re feeling artsy, you could always magnetise the turrets and retain maximum flexibility!
Standard Scale List (2000 points)
Here we have a solid take-all-comers kind of fleet. Built from the contents of a Kongō Battlefleet Set, Ergun Battlefleet Set, a box of Empire Support Squadrons and finally a box of Korean Aerial Squadrons. The aim here is to build a fleet around Magma Cast Generators, and specifically the Kagutsuchi Volcanic Battlefleet.
The Kongō Heavy Battleship and Ōsaka Cruisers can deal with Underwater enemies with their torpedo salvoes, meanwhile the pair of Shénlóng can eviscerate any Airborne threats. Ships from all three subfactions are present and equipped to summon pyroclastic explosions of magma all across the battlefield, spreading Damage and Disorder everywhere. The pair of Hwanung even bring along some Bangpae Explosive Automata for bonus explosions! The Chinese contingent of a Heilong Battleship, Dìyù Immolation Cruisers, and Héxié Hover Zebeks can comfortably skirt through the treacherous water generated by the magma, getting in close to unleash devastation from their Huǒqiāng, Inferno Cannons, and broadsides—especially with the help of Paddlewheel Surge increasing the formers’ speed.
Large Scale List (3000 points)
It’s time to go wild. Here is an absolutely apocalyptic list, featuring some of the Empire’s biggest, most monstrous machines of war, built around a core of the Hachiman Battlefleet Set. The Matsumoto Generator Ship carries the unique Hyperbeam Lense Cannon, which can either fire enormous single-shot blasts at individual ships, or be overcharged to fire a coruscating beam across the entire play area, damaging all it touches (friend or foe!). Any who survive are ambushed by surfacing Ofukoro Ika Colossi who restrain and grapple entire flotillas with their enormous sturginium tentacles. They aren’t just here to kill, though, their Escort Bay and Escort Support helping nearby ships maintain a healthy allowance of Escort tokens to fuel their Chita-Strikes!
Meanwhile, the Zhǎnmǎdāo Skyfortress fulfils its role of “castle” very well. It is immensely resilient, sharing that toughness with those nearby via its Chang’an Tower Generator and Repair Facilities. This, in combination with the Matsumoto’s own Generator-sharing abilities, can make for a disgustingly hardy Force.
But the resilience simply doesn’t stop there. This list also features the Empire’s last unique Generator - the Great Wall Generator. Through these marvels, an Admiral can build enormous networks of energy walls spanning their entire fleet, protecting everything behind them from all but the most dedicated firepower. Thanks to the Castles in the Sky Battlefleet Bonus the two Ziwèi Sky Bastions can Cloud Dive ahead of the Force in the perfect position to generate a critical segment. These walls even make it so that Surfacing submarines can more easily take advantage of the Abyssal Terror Battlefleet Bonus without as much risk of being destroyed!
Closing Thoughts
The Empire boasts some of the most interesting and weird systems and units in the entire setting, only really challenged in this regard by the Sultanate and the Enlightened. With their powerful Generators, Colossi, and Airships, they make statements, impressing upon your opponents that they are facing something more.
Their truest strength, though, remains terror. There is no Faction in Dystopian Wars with greater command over the core mechanic of Disorder, and it is through mastery of Disorder that an Empire Admiral can expect to achieve victory. Ensuring that your opponent’s biggest threats are so disarrayed that they cannot mount any true counterattack, and knowing when to focus down a single ship or spread Hazard and Disorder across an entire fleet are some of the key skills you’ll have to develop.
Once these lessons are learned, however, there will be little any can do to stand against the might of the Immortal Emperors and their most loyal servants.
Now summon the Draconic Colossi—for the Celestian Empire’s enemies must burn.
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