Tribunal dos EUA diz que valor de compra da Dell ficou abaixo do justo
31 de Maio de 2016, 19:58
Michael Dell, fundador e CEO da Dell, e o fundo de investimento privado Silver Lake Partners, correm o risco de ter de pagar alguns milhões de dólares em indenizações a ex-acionistas da companhia se não conseguirem reverter a decisão de um juiz de um tribunal do estado de Delaware sobre a recompra das ações da companhia em 2013, para fechamento de capital, por US$ 24,9 bilhões.
Em resposta a uma ação de appraisal (pedido legal de avaliação de bens por expert independente) movida por investidores, o juiz Travis Laster informou considerar abaixo de mercado o preço de US$ 13,75 por ação pago por Michael Dell e o Silver Lake. Para o juiz, o valor é 22% menor que o preço justo, que deveria ter sido de US$ 17,62. Com juros sobre o período, o valor seria de US$ 20,84.
Dell e a Silver Lake têm direito de recorrer da decisão, mas se perderem podem ter de gastar outros US$ 36 milhões em indenizações, segundo a agência Reuters, a serem pagas a um grupo de investidores detentores de 5,5 milhões de ações da Dell que ainda são elegíveis a uma ação de revisão de valores.
O processo de privatização da Dell foi longo e agitado e envolveu investidores polêmicos como o bilionário Carl Icahn, que queria derrubar a negociação por discordar do valor oferecido à época. Michael Dell e os representantes da Silver Lake se isentaram de comentar sobre a decisão desta terça-feira.
Segundo analistas financeiros, o processo não prejudica a compra recente da EMC pela Dell, nem outras negociações posteriores.
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Overwatch Character Guide: How to Master Each Hero
31 de Maio de 2016, 17:21
Overwatch is packed with characters that each have their own unique skills and abilities. While the game’s easy to pick up and play, there are important tactics you should try to be mindful of. Below you’ll find a series of videos offering tips and strategies on how to best play each hero in the game.
Make sure to check back often this week and next, as we’ll be updating this feature with more videos on the rest of the game’s roster.
For more on Overwatch, check out our the news and features below:
Soldier: 76
If you’re new Overwatch or shooters in general, Soldier: 76 is one of the best offensive characters to start with. He sports a well-rounded set of abilities and can handle a variety of situations. For more on how to use this masked commando, watch the in-depth video the in-depth video above.
Genji
Genji is a powerful offensive character whose hit-and-run tactics demand patience and precision. While he’s difficult to master, he should please any player willing to understand the subtle nuances of his attacks and abilities. For more on this cyborg ninja, watch the in-depth video above.
Tracer
Tracer’s strength as an offensive character lies not in her damage output, but in her ability to distract and annoy enemies. For more on how to use Tracer, watch the in-depth video above.
D.Va
D.Va is a powerful tank that can easily lay down the pressure against opponents. Her mech suit comes equipped with twin short-range cannons capable of continuous, high-damage fire without the need to reload. She also sports a variety of useful offensive abilities that further her impact on the battlefield. For a closer look at how to use her, watch our D.Va character guide video.
Junkrat
If you like being a pest to your opponents, then Junkrat is the character for you. His wide-range of explosive weapons and abilities make him a great damage dealer for any team. For a closer look at how to use him, check out our Junkrat character guide video.
Lucio
Lucio is one of the most effective support heroes in the game, providing first-aid and ability buff support to teammates. He’s highly adaptable and is a great fit for any team. For the specifics on how to use him, check out our Lucio character guide video.
McCree
McCree is a powerful hero who’s best used against opponents at close-range. With his trusty magnum and its multitude of accompanying abilities that can instantly kill enemies, McCree is a force to be reckoned with. For a detailed look at how to use this gun slinging hero, watch our McCree character guide video.
Mercy
Mercy is a valuable support character who’s capable of using her first-aid and ability buffs to maximize the effectiveness of both tank and offensive characters. In addition, her ultimate–the ability to revive downed teammates–can quickly turn the tide of any battle. For more on Mercy’s abilities and how to play her, watch our Mercy character guide video.
Pharah
Pharah is a great offensive character to play if you want to hassle the opponent while dealing considerable damage. When used properly, her rockets and jetpack make her highly effective at hit-and-run tactics. For a full breakdown, check out our Pharah character guide video.
Reinhardt
Reinhardt is an easy-to-use tank who primarily acts as a team’s frontman. With his handy shield and giant hammer, he can be used for a variety of effective offensive strategies. For a detailed breakdown on how to utilize his abilities, check out our Reinhardt character guide video.
Roadhog
Roadhog is a hefty tank that can quickly lay down the offensive against the opposing team. As a tank, he’s great for hassling enemies, bringing them towards him with his chain hook and bombarding them with his scrap gun. For more on how to play him, check out our Roadhog character guide.
Symmetra
Symmetra can be an incredibly useful support character if played properly. With her handy teleporter and arsenal of turrets, she’s capable of easily tipping the odds in your team’s their favor. For more on how to use her abilities, watch our Symmetra character guide video.
Torbjorn
Torbjorn is an engineer class hero capable of all sorts of useful strategies with his stationary turret. Whether you want to play him defensively or offensively, Torbjorn can be an effective addition to any team. For a detailed look on how to best utilize his skills, check out our Torbjorn character guide video.
Widowmaker
Widowmaker is a powerful sniper with a plethora of abilities that support her long-range capabilities. With the ability to see through walls, plant mines, or grapple-hook her way on to a roof, she’s not a character that opposing players should take lightly. For a detailed breakdown on how to best use her, watch our Widowmaker character guide video.
Winston
Compared to other tank class characters, Winston is less of a brute and more focused on disruption tactics. His mobility allows him the ability to get the jump on his opponents when they least expect it. For more details on how to use this guerrilla scientist’s abilities and tactics, check out our Winston character guide video.
Zarya
Zarya is one of the most difficult tanks to play, utilizing an assortment of complex offensive and defensive abilities. While she may not be the robust tank to use at first, her abilities carry a wealth of nuance that’s fulfilling to master. For more on how to use her, watch our Zarya character guide video.
Coming Soon:
- Bastion
- Hanzo
- Mei
- Reaper
- Zenyatta
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Evolving Connectionist Systems: Methods and Applications in Bioinformatics, Brain Study and Intelligent Machines (Perspectives in Neural Computing)
31 de Maio de 2016, 17:05
Many methods and models have been proposed for solving difficult problems such as prediction, planning and knowledge discovery in application areas such as bioinformatics, speech and image analysis. Most, however, are designed to deal with static processes which will not change over time. Some processes – such as speech, biological information and brain signals – are not static, however, and in these cases different models need to be used which can trace, and adapt to, the changes in the processes in an incremental, on-line mode, and often in real time. This book presents generic computational models and techniques that can be used for the development of evolving, adaptive modelling systems. The models and techniques used are connectionist-based (as the evolving brain is a highly suitable paradigm) and, where possible, existing connectionist models have been used and extended. The first part of the book covers methods and techniques, and the second focuses on applications in bioinformatics, brain study, speech, image, and multimodal systems. It also includes an extensive bibliography and an extended glossary. Evolving Connectionist Systems is aimed at anyone who is interested in developing adaptive models and systems to solve challenging real world problems in computing science or engineering. It will also be of interest to researchers and students in life sciences who are interested in finding out how information science and intelligent information processing methods can be applied to their domains.
Mobile banking conquista o coração dos brasileiros
31 de Maio de 2016, 15:56
Depois das facilidades trazidas pelos serviços oferecidos via Internet, agora chegou a vez do mobile banking conquistar o coração dos brasileiros. Aos poucos, os smartphones revolucionam a forma como as pessoas se relacionam com o setor financeiro.
Segundo dados da Febraban, o número de transações realizadas através de dispositivos móveis no Brasil saltou de 4,7 bilhões para 11,2 bilhões entre 2014 e 2015. O volume representa um aumento brutal da ordem de 138%.
A escalada da mobilidade no setor financeiro foi intensa, ainda mais se considerarmos que esse canal registrava menos de 1% do total de operações realizadas em 2012. Atualmente, já responde por 21% dentre um total de 54 bilhões de transações realizadas nos 17 maiores bancos em atividade no País.
Grande parte (95%) das operações realizadas através do mobile banking no ano passado são classificadas como movimentação não financeira, ou seja, referem-se a serviços de consulta de saldos e extratos, por exemplo.
Apesar disso, o telefone celular se consolidou como ferramenta de relacionamento entre correntistas e seus bancos. “O cliente pede e se mostra cada vez mais interessado na utilização desse canal”, enfatiza Gustavo Fosse, diretor setorial de tecnologia e automação bancária da Febraban, projetando que o uso acentuado da mobilidade se mantenha forte pelos próximos anos.
O executivo baseia suas apostas nas estimativas do IBGE, que estima que 40% dos brasileiros possuem um smartphone atualmente. Esse percentual deve subir para 65% em 2020. “Isso mostra espaço para o serviço avançar”, resume, citando que atualmente, 33 milhões de brasileiros usam mobile banking.
Vetor digital
Considerando todos os canais eletrônicos (web, mobile e POS), o digital respondeu por 69% das transações registradas nos bancos brasileiros em 2015. O internet banking registrou 17,7 bilhões de transações no último ano, pouco abaixo das 18 bilhões verificadas em 2014. A representatividade do canal caiu de 37% para 33%, talvez influenciada pelo avanço da mobilidade.
Porém, segundo Fosse, mais pessoas têm utilizado a rede mundial de computadores para se relacionarem com instituições financeiras no Brasil. “Tivemos um crescimento de 6 milhões de contas correntes que passaram a utilizar o canal entre 2014 e 2015”, cita o executivo, apontando que, atualmente, 62 milhões de brasileiros usam internet banking.
“A tecnologia se mostra um grande indutor da bancarização no Brasil”, avalia Fosse, comentando que 89,6% dos brasileiros já se relacionam com o sistema financeiro tradicional. Para suportar os avanços dos canais eletrônicos, a indústria investe pesado em TI. No último ano, o segmento aplicou nada menos que R$ 19 bilhões em projetos de tecnologia.
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11 atores famosos que foram recriados no mundo dos games
31 de Maio de 2016, 13:20
Jean Reno – Onimusha 3: Demon Siege
Óbvio que eu tinha que começar voltando no tempo, lá para a gloriosa época do PS2 onde nossa única preocupação era em liberar espaço no Memory Card. Durante esse período, Onimusha foi uma franquia de games que ficou bastante conhecida por seu enredo e estilo de jogo, levando o game a várias continuações. Porém, aqui nós iremos direto para o terceiro jogo denominado Demon Siege, onde o ator Jean Reno emprestou toda sua imagem e porte físico para interpretar o personagem Jacques Blanc, um dos protagonistas da trama.
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How the Top 5 PC Makers Open Your Laptop to Hackers
31 de Maio de 2016, 13:07
Software makers like Microsoft put a lot of effort into ensuring that the operating system and application updates they deliver to your system are secure, so that hackers can’t hijack updates to get into your computer.
But it turns out that PC hardware makers are not so careful. An investigation conducted by Duo Security into the software updaters of five of the most popular PC manufacturers—HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo, and Asus—found that all had serious security problems that would allow attackers to hijack the update process and install malicious code on victim machines.
Researchers at Duo Security’s Duo Labs found that all five vendors, known as OEMs or Original Equipment Manufacturers, shipped computers with pre-installed updaters that had at least one high-risk vulnerability that would give an attacker remote-code execution abilities—the ability to remotely run whatever malicious code they want on a system—and gain complete control of the system. The skill required to exploit the vulnerabilities was minimal, the researchers said in a report they’re releasing (.pdf) about their findings.
All of the sexy exploit mitigations, desktop firewalls, and safe browsing enhancements can’t protect you when they’re crippled with pre-installed software.
The OEM vendors all shared similar security flaws in varying degrees, such as failure to deliver updates over a secured HTTPS channel or failure to sign update files or validate them. These problems make it possible for attackers to conduct a man-in-the-middle attack to intercept update files as they’re transmitted to computers and replace them with malicious ones. The malicious files can get installed regardless of other protections a machine might have because updaters operate with the highest level of trust and privilege on machines.
Duo Security
“It doesn’t take much for one piece of software to negate the effectiveness of many, if not all defenses,” they write in their report. “All of the sexy exploit mitigations, desktop firewalls, and safe browsing enhancements can’t protect you when an OEM vendor cripples them with pre-installed software.”
Many of the vendors also failed to digitally sign their manifests—lists of files the updater should pull down from a server and install. Attackers can intercept unsigned manifests if they’re transmitted unsecurely; then they can either delete important update files from the manifest, preventing computer users from getting updates they need, or add malicious files to the list. The latter would be effective in cases where vendors didn’t sign their update files, allowing attackers to slip in their own unsigned files. Some manifests include inline commands that are required to execute update files, but an attacker could simply add inline commands to install and launch his malicious files. In the case of HP, the researchers found they could in fact execute any administrative-level command on a system through the inline commands in its manifest, not just commands to install update files. An attacker could add a new user account to the system, for example, that gives him ongoing access to the system.
“There are myriad ways to abuse command-injection bugs,” says Darren Kemp, a researcher with Duo Security. “Pretty much anything an administrator can do, you could do [through the inline commands in the manifest].”
The five vendors they examined are just a sampling, but the researchers noted in their report that based on what they found, it’s unlikely that other vendors are any more secure. However, they suspect that Apple’s updater might be more locked down because the company is known for taking security seriously and for not installing third-party bloatware on its machines.
“This is one of the cases where that Apple walled garden works,” says Kemp. “You get [only] Apple software … so their ability to control that tightly is in this case a befit to them.”
PC makers install update tools on computers to deliver firmware updates—firmware is the software on a computer that boots up the machine and loads the operating system—as well as driver updates and updates to so-called bloatware that comes pre-installed on machines when consumers buy them. Bloatware can be anything from 30-day trial versions of third-party software, to special utilities the OEM offers to add functionality to your machine, to adware that sends ads to your browser as you surf the web. In some cases, the updaters direct computers to the OEM’s site to download updates, but in other cases they send computers to the third-party software maker’s site to get an update.
The researchers found 12 vulnerabilities across the five vendors, and every vendor had at least one high-risk vulnerability in their updater that would allow remote-code execution. In some cases, vendors installed more than one updater on machines, for different purposes, and the security of each updater was inconsistent.
Duo Security
Of the five OEMs, Dell’s updaters were the most secure—although the company doesn’t sign its manifests, it sends manifests as well as the update files themselves via secured HTTPS channels to thwart simple man-in-the-middle attacks. The Dell Update also validates that the files are signed and that the certificate used to sign them is valid.
Although the researchers found problems with the latest version of another updater Dell uses for Dell Foundation Services, the company apparently discovered these vulnerabilities independently and patched them before they could report them.
Hewlett-Packard also scored fairly well. The company transmitted updates over HTTPS and also validated updates. But it failed to sign its manifests. And in the case of one downloader component, although HP included a process for verifying signatures of files, it failed to ensure that the verification was always required. An attacker could, for example, download an unsigned malicious file to a computer and prompt the user to run the file. And since HP had a redirect problem that would allow an attacker to redirect a user’s machine to a malicious URL masquerading as a legitimate HP download URL, this would have made it easy for an attacker to download malicious code and trick the user into launching it.
Lenovo was a mixed bag when it came to security. It had two updaters the researchers examined—Lenovo Solutions Center and UpdateAgent. The first was one of the best updaters the researchers examined. But the second was one of the worst. Both manifests and update files got transmitted in the clear and the updater didn’t validate the signature of files.
Acer tried to do the right thing by signing update files, but failed to specify that the updater should verify signatures, essentially making the signing useless. It also failed to sign its manifests, allowing an attacker to add malicious unsigned files to the manifests.
As bad as Acer was, however, Asus was worse. Its updater was so bad the researchers called it “remote code execution as a service”—essentially a built-in service for hackers to do remote-code execution. Asus transmits unsigned manifests over HTTP instead of HTTPS. And although the manifest file was encrypted, it was encrypted with an algorithm known to be broken, and the key to unlock the file was an MD5 hash of the words “Asus Live Update.” As a result, attackers could easily intercept and unlock the list to make changes. Asus update files weren’t signed, either, and they were also transmitted via HTTP.
Across the board, the researchers found that if the vendors had simply used HTTPS and certificate signing in a consistent and competent manner, they would have “significantly raised the bar to exploitation.”
As varied as their security stances were, the vendors also varied in how easy they made it to report security problems. While Lenovo, HP and Dell, all had direct channels for reporting security problems with their software, Acer and Asus did not, leaving Duo researchers to attempt contact to their customer support lines channels multiple times via email and phone calls before they got a response.
How the vendors responded to the researchers also varied. HP has already patched the most egregious vulnerabilities the researchers found. Lenovo addressed its problems by simply removing the vulnerable software from affected systems. Duo reported the problems to the vendors more than four months ago, but Acer and Asus still haven’t indicated when they will fix the problems or if they will.
“Asus told us they were going to patch in a month, then they backed off on that after we pointed out that their planned patch was also flawed,” says Steve Manzuik, director of security research at Duo Labs. “And that’s when our communication broke down with them.”
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Advances in Research on Networked Learning (Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Series)
31 de Maio de 2016, 13:04
Networked learning is learning in which information and communications technology (ICT) is used to promote connections: between one learner and other learners; between learners and tutors; between a learning community and its learning resources. Networked learning is an area which has great practical and theoretical importance. It is a rapidly growing area of educational practice, particularly in higher education and the corporate sector.
This volume brings together some of the best research in the field, and uses it to signpost some directions for future work. The papers in this collection represent a major contribution to our collective sense of recent progress in research on networked learning. In addition, they serve to highlight some of the largest or most important gaps in our understanding of students’ perspectives on networked learning, patterns of interaction and online discourse, and the role of contextual factors. The range of topics and methods addressed in these papers attests to the vitality of this important field of work. More significant yet is the complex understanding of the field that they combine to create. In combination, they help explain some of the key relationships between teachers’ and learners’ intentions and experiences, the affordances of text-based communications technologies and processes of informed and intelligent educational change.
Em Curitiba, CIO Global Summit 2016 inova e desafia CIOs a criar startups
31 de Maio de 2016, 11:54
Quem disse que CIO não sabe empreender? Em Curitiba (PR), um grupo de líderes de TI de grandes e médias empresas da região, que participou da 10a edição do CIO Global Summit, levou a sério o desafio de exercitar a transformação digital e a inovação disruptiva, e criou não apenas uma, mas quatro oportunidades de novos negócios digitais durante o encontro regional promovido pela CIO.
De food truck conectado aos clientes por aplicativo móvel, a uma rede de máquinas de distribuição de comida ligadas ao fornecedor por meio da Internet das Coisas, os projetos foram criados pelos CIOs de Curitiba durante o workshop de inovação que fechou a agenda do dia. Usando os conceitos de Business Model Canvas, o workshop de inovação desafia os CIOs a “quebrar” os modelos tradicionais de negócio de suas próprias empresas e pensar como transformar digitalmente as companhias.
A digitalização dos negócios muda as regras em todas as verticais da economia. Para toda empresa há um “Uber” pronto para virar o jogo e cabe ao CIO agir como vetor da inovação.
“O CIO vive em uma era de ruptura e precisa reformular as plataformas da TI e fazer da transformação digital realidade para os negócios”, diz Cezar Taurion, consultor e CEO da Litteris Tecnologia. “É preciso entender as novas plataformas da TI e o novo framework, que inclui cloud computing, analytics, mobilidade e Internet das Coisas (IoT)”, garante Anderson Figueiredo, consultor e Digital Technology Future Analyst.
Nova agenda
O CIO Global Summit, realizado em Curitiba no último dia 24 de maio, foi patrocinado pelas empresas InfraTI, Prime Control e QualityWare. Ele é o primeiro da série de seis eventos regionais de 2016 que a revista CIO promove este ano pelo décimo ano consecutivo no Brasil.
Além de Curitiba, o evento, com duração de um dia, acontece em Belo Horizonte (MG) no próximo dia 22 de junho; no Rio de Janeiro (RJ) dia 13 de julho; em Campinas (SP), no dia 10 de agosto; em Porto Alegre (RS), no dia 10 de novembro e em Recife (PE), no dia 17 de novembro, e reúne CIOs de grandes e médias empresas da região.
Para celebrar o aniversário de dez anos do CIO Global Summit, a agenda de conteúdos foi totalmente reformulada, ampliando o foco na Transformação Digital e no CIO como vetor da inovação. Discussões sobre novas tecnologias e produtos trazidas pelos patrocinadores se juntam às novas apresentações de Cezar Taurion, Anderson Figueiredo, e Silvia Bassi, publisher da CIO.
No final do dia, um workshop inédito, criado para exercitar inovação e mudança disruptiva, reúne os CIOs em grupos e os desafia a exercitar inovação e transformação digital entendendo seu mercado e seus consumidores e propondo formas de causar ruptura no modelo de negócios de uma empresa.
A participação nos eventos é feita apenas por convite e mediante qualificação. Para cadastrar-se ou saber mais sobre o evento visite o site do CIO Global Summit 2016
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Analista de TI Jr
31 de Maio de 2016, 9:26
Analista de TI Jr
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Total War: Warhammer Empire guide
31 de Maio de 2016, 9:18
The Empire, in Warhammer Fantasy Battle’s setting, is the human confederation at the centre of the Old World. It’s modelled on a rough sweep of the historical Holy Roman Empire, which means that it has armoured knights, medieval foot troops armed with crossbows and handguns, and lots of artillery. It also means that the Emperor is elected from among the state heads that make up the Empire—and that the other heads aren’t very happy about your election.
The humans of the Empire might have the easiest start of any of the Total War factions. Though their neighbours aren’t allied, they aren’t exactly hostile (save perhaps for Graf Todbringer in Middenland) and they’re mostly desperate to survive. They also don’t have a huge cultural axe to grind against them, unlike the Vampire Counts and Greenskins. The Dwarfs and Brettonia even have a grudging respect for the Empire, which can blossom into an alliance when Chaos attacks.
However the Southern Greenskins and Eastern Vampire Counts aren’t that far away, and are very willing to push into the Empire proper once they’ve established themselves. Neglect the East and South for too long, and you’ll have big armies on your doorstop. Piss off the dwarfs or the humans by fighting any of them, and you’ll have a lot more problems to handle.
Imperial ambition
The Empire starts in a single region—Altdorf—but can swiftly and easily regain the other regions in its province. This province is situated in the West of the Empire, and you need to regain the whole place to get the Short Victory. That means definitely wiping out the Vampire Counts, and almost certainly killing off Archaon, the big boring suit of armour who heads up the Chaos faction. You’ve also got two Orc factions nearby who like to cause trouble.
The best way to proceed is to woo your neighbours, both human and Dwarfish. Many of them are well-disposed to you anyway, and crushing any wandering Greenskin tribes is a good way to make them like you more. The human factions are also exceedingly cheap dates because they’re so impoverished from fighting amongst themselves. A small bribe to them might only be as little as 500 gold, but will make them love you for turn after turn.
Of course, to get them to join your confederation, your need to get your military strength up, which means you need to afford at least two full armies. And that’s going to take some upkeep, which means you need to make money!
Getting Gelt
Despite his name (gold in German) and his magical control over gold, Balthasar Gelt is no help making the thousands you need each turn. Instead, you need to focus on the buildings in your province. The Empire, oddly, can build weaving sheds in every town which are cheap to start with and produce a steady stream of income. Each upgrade on them is less and less worth it, but will still pay off in 20-40 turns, so do them when you can.
Of course, to upgrade them you need bigger cities, which means growth, so you’ll want to invest in farms wherever you can. The most efficient use of money is to just build the basic farm
Some towns have unique buildings, with special effects. For example, Grunberg has an expensive breeding stables which heavily buffs your cavalry and missile cavalry units and also has livestock farms, which give better growth than normal wheat farms. Always watch out for these when considering what to build—and always look at the building browser, because it’s hard to tell through the normal menu.
Also, remember that many building chains can only be fully-upgraded in a provincial capital—so if you want top-tier units in a region, ensure you build the smith, stables, foundry and temple of sigmar only in your provincial capital. That by itself uses up four of your provincial capital’s five spare slots—and many have unique buildings on them. For example, your faction capital Altdorf has a port and a unique college of wizards that you absolutely need to build. You might also want to build walls around them, which will take another slot.
It’s also worth noting that the Empire research tree is more formalised and smaller than the Dwarfs and Vampires. You only unlock three techs for research at a time, by building mid- and top-tier structures in your cities. Because of that, this is the faction it’s easiest to forget to do research with, and you won’t have much choice early on what to research.
These limits means that, unlike the Vampires, it’s hard to get all of your key buildings in one province and your military production is going to be more distributed. That also means you’re going to have defend a much larger core area than the Vampires against Chaos and its allies, so long-term the Empire has a harder game to play.
Head boy
Picking your commander makes a bigger difference for The Empire than most factions, because the choices are very different. Emperor Karl Franz upgrades as he levels up to be one of the best fighters and/or leaders in the game. And he can eventually unlock his griffon Deathclaw which hugely increases his lethality. He also starts with halberdiers, knights, and handgunners and allows your faction to move slightly further on the campaign map, which is always useful when chasing enemy armies down… or running away.
Balthasar Gelt, by contrast, is a wizard, who has a unique magic school to use, the lore of Metal, which has lots of damage-oriented spells that are particularly useful against heavily-armoured troops—e.g. Chaos Warriors and Chosen. He’s hugely fragile in combat though, so needs to be kept back until he can unlock his pegasus. He starts with better units than Karl Franz, in my opinion—a lethal mortar, anti-infantry greatswords and skirmishing outriders.
Loads more heroes
The Empire has a slightly larger selection of heroes because it has three wizard types. (It should have eight but that was a lot of work for one faction.) The wizards get to select from the lore of Light, Heavens or Fire. Fire is straight flaming damage-dealing, heavens (also known as Celestial) can call down lightning bolts and comets, and Light is focused on buffing, though it can also ‘banish’ enemies with a moving vortex spell.
The other three heroes are more traditional fighter types. The Witch Hunter is a fine-boned assassin, with pistols that he uses in melee and at range, and a special ability that can kill almost any other enemy in a few shots. The Warrior-Priest of Sigmar can buff troops around him, as well as being a solid melee fighter. And the Imperial Captain is just a tanky soldier, like an inferior versus of Karl Franz.
Uniquely to the Empire, Heroes and Lords can also be assigned to specific Imperial Offices, which give them and your Empire bonuses to income. You should always fill these if you can, as it costs you nothing, gives your characters some fun titles and buffs your faction heavily. Remember to keep changing it as you recruit more characters and they level up, as that allows them to access the higher tier offices.
Men of the line
The Empire has a big array of troop types. They’re roughly divided into infantry, cavalry, missile cavalry and war machines.
The basic infantry of the Empire are average. Spearmen, Swordsmen and Spearmen with shields feel like they were scraped straight out of previous Total Wars. They’re not as bad as the Vampire’s basic zombies and skeletons, but they’re pretty poor against almost any other race.
However, the next step up is much better. Halberdiers are great against cavalry and monsters, with armour-piercing weapons that give them bonuses against large enemies, whilst Greatswords are your elite infantry, with two-handed weapons, heavy armour and great leadership—they’re the only humans who can go toe-to-toe with Black Orcs and Chaos Warriors.
They also have a minimal set of missile troops, in their crossbowmen and handgunners. Neither of these are as good as the dwarven equivalent, especially not in melee, but they’re cheap and effective.
Horsing around
The Empire thrives on its knightly orders, and the ones on display here come in four varieties of shock cavalry. The basic Imperial Knight is pretty good by himself, but he’s outmatched by the Reiksguard Knights, who themselves are knocked into a cocked helmet by the Demigryph Knights, who are faster, better armoured and better fighters, and come in anti-large and anti-infantry varieties.
More fun than those are the mounted handgunners. The headstrong Pistoliers are very fast with short-ranged pistols whilst the Outriders have anti-armour handguns or anti-infantry grenade launchers but are less maneuverable. All three of these unit types get vanguard deployment, meaning they’re perfect for harassing an enemy force or taking out artillery—though it has to be remembered that they’re missile cavalry, not fast cavalry so they need to stay OUT of melee.
Bat out of Hellblaster
It feels a bit off to say this, as a committed tabletop Dwarf player, but the Imperial artillery in this game is rather good. Mortars can fire over hills, Cannons can blow enemy monsters and formations to bits, the Hellblaster volley gun just rifles through armoured troops, Hellstorm Rocket Batteries can hit a wide area inaccurately, and the Luminark of Hysh is literally a giant-killer.
If Da Vinci designed a tank, you might get something like the Steam Tank. It has a cannon on the front, the strongest armour in the game, horrifying charge damage and causes terror. Every army should have one.
Essentially, the faster you max out the Foundry building chain, the better. Guns are expensive to maintain, but a solid infantry line with an artillery group and cavalry waiting on the wings is classic Total War.
The Imperial battle manual
Whilst all these troops make the Empire nicely flexible, able to field strong cavalry armies, reasonable infantry troops, and hideously overpowered artillery forces, they are missing some elements. They have no recruitable flying units—they’re restricted to just a couple of heroes that when levelled-up can ride pegasi and griffons. And they have no monstrous units, unless you count the Steam Tank (which can have problems if it gets stuck in melee.)
From the tabletop game, they’re also missing their ‘detachments’ special rule, which allowed them to recruit smaller units of troops to protect their larger units’ flanks. That means tabletop Empire players might find their infantry much more ‘squishy’ than they’re used to.
Against the Dwarfs, the Empire has a straightforward strategy. Dwarven artillery is supposedly better than your stuff and their infantry are better too. However, they don’t have either magicians or cavalry and their slowness means that they can’t chase your troops down if they retreat. Against Dwarfs, use your shock cavalry if you’ve got them, close the distance quickly and pull them out to re-charge if you can. Watch out for gyrocopters and gyrobombers as you’ve got no flying units to take them down. And make use of your magical advantage to break up their formation with top-end vortex spells.
Against the Greenskins, the Empire struggles a little more. Goblins are no threat, except if they spit out a lethal spinning fanatic into your troops—don’t risk expensive cavalry on them. With no monstrous units of your own, trolls and giants can be problematic, so they need pinning down with halberdiers. Similarly, the Orc infantry units are normally stronger and tougher than your equivalents, but they have terrible leadership, so break them with flanking attacks and missile fire. Orc units will often reform after breaking, so keep your shock and missile cavalry ready to cut them down when they run.
Against the Vampire Counts, defend your artillery! The wide variety of Vampire flying and vanguard deployment units means it’s worth leaving a unit of spearmen and swordsmen with your gun emplacements, and possibly some handgunners and outriders too—only the Terrorgheist and Hexwraiths will still be a threat, but if they send one of those after your guns, then they’re wasting them. Your infantry should be able to defeat their basic troops with ease, but don’t rush into combat—use your artillery to weaken them first. Their monstrous creatures have low leadership, so just surround them with halberdiers. And always, always, target their general with your heroes, cavalry and wizard—if you can take them down, the army will fall apart immediately. (The Witch Hunter is exceptionally useful here.)
The Imperial space invaders
As the Empire, you will fight Chaos, and you won’t like it. Though the lower level Marauders and Hounds are less of a threat, the Chaos Warriors, Chosen and Chaos Knights are superior to nearly all your units. And let’s not start talking about monsters like the Dragon Ogres, Chaos Giants, Shaggoths, Chaos Lords and Chaos Spawn. If you can hit them with artillery fire, that’s great, so they’re already damaged when they get into close range. Then it’s a matter of making sure you pin them with the appropriate units and survive long enough to hit them with your cavalry from the sides and/or rear. Watch out for their magic, as it’s just as good as your own.
It’s worth noting; when Chaos does invade, the Empire, Dwarfs, Bretonnians and other human factions become a lot more friendly. Military alliances to defeat Chaos and their Norscan allies are essential. Defeat them and you’ll find any surviving human factions are much more well-disposed to you, making reforming the Empire a formality—assuming the Vampires haven’t taken the chance to attack from behind whilst you were doing it.
For Karl Franz, Sigmar and the Empire!
That’s the Empire army—balanced, varied and very much like a traditional Total War army. They’ve the easiest diplomacy of anyone in the game, the best artillery (sorry Dwarfs) and the best selection of mounted units. If you can survive the Chaos invasion, then your Empire should reign supreme.
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