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| This is going to be good. |
Haven't done one of these for a long time, so I figure why not, let's start up a discussion. I've been playing a good amount of games lately with my Daemons army and before that, I played the crap out of High Elves. Without further ado, let's get down to it.
S-Tier - Warriors of Chaos, Skaven
Tier1 - Vampire Counts, Ogre Kingdoms, Dark Elves*
Tier2 - High Elves, Lizardmen**, Orcs and Goblins, Empire, Daemons of Chaos, Dwarves
Tier3 - Bretonnians, Wood Elves, Tomb Kings, Beastman
Dark Elves are in limbo right now because they're getting a new book very soon. Right now, they kind of ridiculous. Lizards are still very new so they currently have no solidified tournament results, but I'm expecting them to sit in Tier2.
Let me explain some of these:
- Warriors of Chaos stand on the view top of the pyramid because they have some of the best units in the game. Arguably the best core selection, strong monsters, powerful magic and ridiculous lord/hero builds. There's several powerful builds and they have the strongest showing in several tournaments.
- Next comes Vampire Counts and Ogre Kingdoms. Vamps have their scream lists and blenderlords, Ogres have their cannons, chaff and the fact that the book is just very solid. If you think about it, both of these books are very well-designed internally.
- The next tier hangs pretty comfortably as a fairly balanced lot. High Elves actually have a very well-designed book internally, but lacks external power. The rest of the armies here either have one or two things going for them, or answer specific things in the meta that prevents other armies from ascending.
- Tier3 simply means there's very limited builds, poor power, or a mix of internal balance issues that's keeping it from being competitive.
Alright folks, the floors open.
Poor Tomb Kings, i cant dispute that ranking at all really.
ReplyDeleteI think your ranking makes more sense than most of those I've seen. That said, a few disagreements.
ReplyDeleteBiggest one is that I'm not sure there is a Tier-S. Skaven is a very strong book, but if we're talking well-designed list vs. well-designed list, there are fewer armies than ever that Skaven just roll over. But I'd still say Tier 1 there.
Chaos Warriors, on the other hand... Well, they're a really tough matchup for several armies (they tend to whip ogres), but also complete fail against certain others. There are a couple common ways to run High Elves that crush every Chaos Warrior build I've looked at. Was watching a game recently, two very skilled players, two very well-tuned lists, and the Chaos Warrior guy played well and got lucky--so it took all six turns for the High Elf to table him, having lost maybe 500 points. I think Empire hold up just fine against them as well, though not so much as High Elves. All that to say that, yes, they're strong--but the hype is ridiculous. It's a good book that's totally beatable in a tournament environment.
I guess I'm not sure about your VC ranking, either. It's a nice book, but the premium on keeping your general alive really restricts the viable lists. I don't think they're really better than the tier 2s.
Biggest takeaway for me is that the game is starting to get pretty well balanced, which I can't think anyone saw coming.
Im agreeing with you perfectly Hero. As a fellow high elf player (resurrecting my empire right now). My meta has WoC/Ogre/VC lists out the wazoo. It is a really tough match up. The biggest issue I have with high elves, is that they dont have the utility to answer every threat THAT well. Not enough punch. And I dont like how Phoenix Guard are almost mandatory. I was really hoping swordmasters would be a bit more viable. As suicide units, they are still pretty good. So I would place high elves on lower tier 2 personally. Ill get back to you on my averlorn/caledor list with Alarielle how they perform. WoC just have so much defense and offense its gross. Nurgle is so devastating, especially when our punch units (WL) no longer have rerolls. Sisters are a big help though.
ReplyDeleteSo almost 2 months later, where do you see Dark Elves?
ReplyDeleteI'd say Tier2 with High Elves :)
ReplyDelete