Thought I'd give a status update on how my Empire building has been going.

I now own Claire, Yuri, Daniella, and Kronen for the Empire faction, don't plan on getting any of the remaining members of the Empire until Samiel and Vayl come out.
Still have Evangaline and Tsubasa as filler for when I play light instead of Empire.
So far I have been sticking to 150 point games and experimenting with the different characters.
So far, I have found that Kronen + Raphaela's gift takes FOREVER to kill, unless he gets pasted with some nasty status effects (such as Doom or Paralyze), but I have also found he is quite unreliable on the offense, as his low accuracy and lack of offensive skill rears its ugly head. He makes a great interceptor for the rest of the team, but he definetly can't lead the charge.
Claire is an offensive beast, I have found that when she gets the charge, she wins the fight easily due to her abilities, and she rarely misses. Getting her in posistion can be tricky, especially when your opponent knows how dangerous she is, and they will attempt to charge her first, but I do my best to buddy her up with Kronen so he can intercept for her, and then she can set herself up to charge whoever is in her range. Her one time ranged attack is also great for 1 shotting un-shielded support, and well worth her hit in damage to take out nasty characters like Bael, who is the bane of all Empire soldiers.
Yuri, although I have only used him without leadership abilities (houseruled), he has proven quite solid, his various passive abilities make him a strong warrior, and Queen's round is quite accurate, if not quite as damaging as I would like.(Haven't rolled a critical yet

) His King's tower has proven to be a lifesaver against charging opponents, it definetly makes it much easier for characters to withstand powerful charging abilities. Hope I get to use him at his full capacity someday soon.

Sadly, I haven't gotten to use Daniella yet, but looking at her abilities, she seems quite nasty, and I imagine the enemy will find her quite frustrating to deal with due to her Advanced Deployment and Accuracy. Not to mention she can easily turn the tide of a battle with her Seal ability.
Evangaline has seen alot of use with my Empire warriors, Bless is a great passive bonus, and Holy Armor has made Kronen close to unstoppable in certain games. She is quite vulnerable though, and in small point games it can be quite annoying defending her, especially against the likes of Harod, but she is well worth the effort.
I have found that status effects are really a big problem for the Empire with their low Resistance score, but Daniella helps deal with that problem with her anti-caster abilities, or at least I hope it does.
Doom and Paralyze are definetly NOT some of my favorite things.