2500 pt Elspeth Empire Army list

Okay,plenty of options for your magic dice.
4 demis is not bad. I prefer 5 but yeah. The champion is for challenges? Usually don't take that.
Dragon is cool.
No engineer or witch hunter, but who has points for that

Original list, go for it

With 2 Cannons & a Steam Tank already is the Luminark really worth it? I would perhaps put those points into something else like some Knights or a Hellblaster

Well, there are a couple of reasons I included the Luminark.

First, my usual opponent is a VC player. (That's also the reason for the Lv1 Light Wizard. I did consider a Life Wizard for the very point of healing her.) The Luminark's Cannon would be a great thing to counter to many of their units. With that weapon, it also brings this list up to 4 cannons! I know that I said that this would be an "All Comers" list, and I want it to be, but it is very likely that I will be facing VC and WE a lot. I MIGHT be facing an Ogre army soon though too.

Secondly, since Elspeth is already rather defensive in the magic phase with her Lv4 + 1 to her dispel roll, adding 1 dispel dice from the Luminark can really help to shut down a magic phase. The Lv1 Light mage is little more than a scroll caddy, but the threat of his magic missile is still nothing to overlook.

Third, the infantry would need as much protection as possible while Elspeth does her thing and the cannons go to town. A 6++ ward save can come in handy. If I trimmed some points off the Militia and added a Witch Hunter in with the Swordmen, then that'd give them a 4++ vs magic. Not too shabby. I'm still wrestling with that one.

The Champ on the Demigryphs is something else to consider. I don't have my book with me, so when I added him, I was thinking of putting a cheap magical weapon on him so that they don't get pinned down by Etherial units, but I can't remember if he can actually take a magical weapon. Does anyone know? The other reason for adding him is because of Vampires. They kill pretty much everything they touch. He could at least challenge and take the hits for the unit.

I have played a few games with two Lv4 Wizards, and it's certainly nice to have the spell options, but I've found that I rarely use nearly all of them. Elspeth is clearly going to be the main threat and the entire army will be revolving around her, so the majority of my Power Dice will be devoted to giving her optimum match-ups and taking out my opponents characters. When you add in other spells like the Luminark's cannon, the warrior priest's prayers, and the Light (or Life) Wizard's spell, then that totals 12 different spells to choose from. Adding another 3 spells won't make that much difference, IMHO.

Anyway, these are some of my preliminary thoughts behind this list. Please keep the ideas and comments coming! If I'm just wrong on things like the Luminark, tell me! This is the whole point of the thread. I'm not saying that anyone is wrong, I'm just trying to think through any and all reasons for including things and letting you guys know my thought process. Let me know my errors!

Bar the dragon it looks similar to many an empire list that has spanked me