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So, given that Fateweaver and Teclis have been toned down, are there any broken special characters out there still?

The Everqueen Alarielle I hear, never faced her yet though

TanKoL wrote:
The Everqueen Alarielle I hear, never faced her yet though

She is not that bad, all things considered. The Everqueen has a lot of fun rules, but is gunked up with too much. The main reason shes strong is shes over 100 points cheaper than teclis and unlocks special stuff for the army.

Arkhan is very cost effiencent, and I think the strongest pure caster, but not broken, due to lthe army he's in.

Throgg is likely the most broken if at all, but what ever I like the theme list.

 pities2004 wrote:

TanKoL wrote:
The Everqueen Alarielle I hear, never faced her yet though

She is not that bad, all things considered. The Everqueen has a lot of fun rules, but is gunked up with too much. The main reason shes strong is shes over 100 points cheaper than teclis and unlocks special stuff for the army.

Alarielle on her own sitting in Phoenix Guard or Spearmen is gak.
Alarielle sitting in a unit of White Lions or Swordmasters w/WardDragon Banner is absolute filth.

Knowingly taking Alarielle vs a Daemon opponent makes you donkeycave... Adding the BotWD as well makes you the type of person that likely enjoys slaughtering helpless puppies.


Overall she's really, really good and an army built to make the most of her strengths is going to be a tough nut for most armies to crack. Even foregoing her special banner and just sticking to High Magic on her in a WL/SM unit, then support it with a Frostheart + PG unit and you've got a front line that simply isn't budging...

everqueen is really only godlike vs. Daemons.

Throgg is super cost-effective, but I don't consider him OP at all. I love Trolls, but if all-Troll armies were a win, you'd see them. Army-wide Stupidity on LD4 makes Animosity look like army-wide Killing Blow. I think Archaon simply shouldn't be in the game. He's OP.

DukeRustfield wrote:
everqueen is really only godlike vs. Daemons.

Throgg is super cost-effective, but I don't consider him OP at all. I love Trolls, but if all-Troll armies were a win, you'd see them. Army-wide Stupidity on LD4 makes Animosity look like army-wide Killing Blow. I think Archaon simply shouldn't be in the game. He's OP.

Alarielle is really good against anyone, as long as you build the army around her.
You'll end up with a main battle line of two elite elf bricks rocking solid ward saves, with the added back-up of Silverhelms, Frostheart and other shenanigans.

Most armies will struggle to deal with that, especially with the Everqueen casting her High Magic at +5.

Now if you include her special banner and Life magic, it's just downright silly how resilient those elves become.


She's simply not a 'point-and-click' type character like say Archaon or the other 'uber beatsticks are. She's all about playing up those synergies, which honestly are some of the outright best in the game whenyou plan properly to make the most of them, especially for a character that's still under 400pts!

I really don't think Archaon is OP these days. The loss of his MR3 makes his unit vulnerable. He only has 4 wounds and is only a level 2 sorc. OFC he is good. If he could take nurgle he might be OP. If he had his NR, maybe. As is, for 650 points I think he is quite balanced.

I am comparing him to a kitted out DP, not to other SC in the WoC book. The other special Lord choices suck.

Throgg is good, but Festus is lovely.

You don't compare him to something that may also be OP.

Like comparing stuff to 7th edition Teclis nothing was OP, even other characters.

Experiment 626 wrote:

 pities2004 wrote:

TanKoL wrote:
The Everqueen Alarielle I hear, never faced her yet though

She is not that bad, all things considered. The Everqueen has a lot of fun rules, but is gunked up with too much. The main reason shes strong is shes over 100 points cheaper than teclis and unlocks special stuff for the army.

Alarielle on her own sitting in Phoenix Guard or Spearmen is gak.
Alarielle sitting in a unit of White Lions or Swordmasters w/WardDragon Banner is absolute filth.

Knowingly taking Alarielle vs a Daemon opponent makes you donkeycave... Adding the BotWD as well makes you the type of person that likely enjoys slaughtering helpless puppies.


Overall she's really, really good and an army built to make the most of her strengths is going to be a tough nut for most armies to crack. Even foregoing her special banner and just sticking to High Magic on her in a WL/SM unit, then support it with a Frostheart + PG unit and you've got a front line that simply isn't budging...

I was doing this w/ an Anointed & lvl4 with High Magic, because I don't normally take Special Characters. End result is my gaming group hates facing Whitelions. After looking at Alarielle, it's disgusting how much better she'd make that same list run.

Guess I've found my tournament/Frakkyou list.

mrfantastical wrote:

Experiment 626 wrote:

 pities2004 wrote:

TanKoL wrote:
The Everqueen Alarielle I hear, never faced her yet though

She is not that bad, all things considered. The Everqueen has a lot of fun rules, but is gunked up with too much. The main reason shes strong is shes over 100 points cheaper than teclis and unlocks special stuff for the army.

Alarielle on her own sitting in Phoenix Guard or Spearmen is gak.
Alarielle sitting in a unit of White Lions or Swordmasters w/WardDragon Banner is absolute filth.

Knowingly taking Alarielle vs a Daemon opponent makes you donkeycave... Adding the BotWD as well makes you the type of person that likely enjoys slaughtering helpless puppies.


Overall she's really, really good and an army built to make the most of her strengths is going to be a tough nut for most armies to crack. Even foregoing her special banner and just sticking to High Magic on her in a WL/SM unit, then support it with a Frostheart + PG unit and you've got a front line that simply isn't budging...

I was doing this w/ an Anointed & lvl4 with High Magic, because I don't normally take Special Characters. End result is my gaming group hates facing Whitelions. After looking at Alarielle, it's disgusting how much better she'd make that same list run.

Guess I've found my tournament/Frakkyou list.

Yep, I'd say that both Alarielle & Epidemius are easy head-and-shoulders the two most OP/broken special characters in 8th edition due to their unit or army-wide buffs.

Another way to run the Alarielle bunker is to give her Life magic + BSB w/Banner of Averlorn and add in a Lv2 High Mage w/Ring of Fury. Enjoy the T5/7 & regrowth while the the Lv2 has 3 High Magic spells and is +3 to-cast just for added giggles.
That unit will never budge unless the dice decide to kick you in the teeth.

Eppi might be just slightly ahead of Alarielle though, because you can actually keep him out of play entirely by hiding him in the Portalglyph while still making use of his army-wide buffs to all Nurgle units!
The downside being that you need to effectively waste your GUO/Nurgle Prince's Exalted Gift slot to do so AND the accompanying price tag of over 400-500pts for the model itself. (assuming the Prince is made into a Lv3 or 4 wizard)

Even with the best special characters in this edition the list has to be built around them as opposed to when you could take a SC and auto-win (for the most part), the fact that the whole list is built for them does push us even further away from the hero-hammer days

 Acardia wrote:
Arkhan is very cost effiencent, and I think the strongest pure caster, but not broken, due to lthe army he's in.

Throgg is likely the most broken if at all, but what ever I like the theme list.

which book is Arkhan in?

Tomb Kings, also he's not that good as he's easy to kill with T5 W3 and no defenses

edit: by "not that good", I mean he's not OP, being squishy keeps him balanced

Who plays the special characters anyway?

You can typically get better results building your own and they're banned from most competitive play to start with.

Probably a gross exaggeration but my experience is that when you see them they are a crutch and typically used ineffectively.

Really depends Atlantic
I know that in Ireland for instance, I never saw em being banned, ever (some are comped though)
Some are indeed ridiculous in one way or the other (old Teclis, Alarielle ...) while a lot are crap (Ogre Executioner, most Skaven ones, nearly all heroes-level ...)

TanKoL wrote:
Tomb Kings, also he's not that good as he's easy to kill with T5 W3 and no defenses

edit: by "not that good", I mean he's not OP, being squishy keeps him balanced

I disagree,Got to get to him first. I've played him in about 15 tourny games, only lost him twice. Once due to miscast the other to failing dangerous terrain tests...... He generally will have a 6+ regen from being hierophant.

He's been in combat a few times but not against anything serious, war sphinx and skelly hordes do that. He's fought buckets of zombies and core empire infantry and won with his block of 19 skelly archers.

I play Arkhan because I can't get a lvl 4 death, without paying for a lvl 4 Nehek, Arkhan is 360 vs 2 lvl 4's being 410. And when you add a hierotitan and casket it gets really efficient in the magic phases.

 Atlantic wrote:
Who plays the special characters anyway?

You can typically get better results building your own and they're banned from most competitive play to start with.

Probably a gross exaggeration but my experience is that when you see them they are a crutch and typically used ineffectively.

No they are not banned from most competitive play... Maybe a few tournaments ban SC's and/or other problem items, but the only thing in the entire game that is pretty much universally banned is the Folding Fortress. (and even then, some smaller, local tournies will still allow it)

Outside of a comp heavy tournament, SC's are typically fair game.


Typically, yes, you can get better results with a generic character build than plugging a SC into your list.
However, there are some that are really, really well worth their cost, (ie: they're under-costed or outright broken). So far in 8th, really good 'bang-for-buck' SC's include:
- Epidemius (broken. like, beyond stupid broken to the point you will make people quit Fantasy altogether broken!)
- Alarielle
- The Blue Scribes
- Arkhan the Black
- Teclis
- Kairos

Those guys all bring either some downright busted shenanigans to the table, or else they can be used to really plug a hole in your list/tailor to your opposition.

TanKoL wrote:
Tomb Kings, also he's not that good as he's easy to kill with T5 W3 and no defenses

edit: by "not that good", I mean he's not OP, being squishy keeps him balanced

why? He never was part of the tomb kings...

BaconUprising wrote:

TanKoL wrote:
Tomb Kings, also he's not that good as he's easy to kill with T5 W3 and no defenses

edit: by "not that good", I mean he's not OP, being squishy keeps him balanced

why? He never was part of the tomb kings...

Well, considering that Arkhan was one of Nagash's top generals/priests... and that their armies where basically 'undead versions' of the Nehekaran Kings' armies... cause they both inhabit the same region!

While he might still be considered an enemy of the re-awakened dusty ones, his armies are still Tomb King'ish in appearance and fight in a similar manner with similar units.

Experiment 626 wrote:

 Atlantic wrote:
Who plays the special characters anyway?

You can typically get better results building your own and they're banned from most competitive play to start with.

Probably a gross exaggeration but my experience is that when you see them they are a crutch and typically used ineffectively.

No they are not banned from most competitive play... Maybe a few tournaments ban SC's and/or other problem items, but the only thing in the entire game that is pretty much universally banned is the Folding Fortress. (and even then, some smaller, local tournies will still allow it)

Outside of a comp heavy tournament, SC's are typically fair game.


Typically, yes, you can get better results with a generic character build than plugging a SC into your list.
However, there are some that are really, really well worth their cost, (ie: they're under-costed or outright broken). So far in 8th, really good 'bang-for-buck' SC's include:
- Epidemius (broken. like, beyond stupid broken to the point you will make people quit Fantasy altogether broken!)
- Alarielle
- The Blue Scribes
- Arkhan the Black
- Teclis
- Kairos

Those guys all bring either some downright busted shenanigans to the table, or else they can be used to really plug a hole in your list/tailor to your opposition.

I've played in 25 or so tournaments in the last 18 months. The only one that allowed special characters was the "Whine and Cheese" tournament - 3000 points - w/ grand army rules and encouraged you to bring the most insane list possible.

as I said Atlantic, it really depends on the opinion of people where you're playing
Here it's mostly lightly comped (nasty points for filthy stuff, but you can still bring it, except for stupid ETC of course) and nothing is completely banned (I think)

Experiment 626 wrote:

 Atlantic wrote:
Who plays the special characters anyway?

You can typically get better results building your own and they're banned from most competitive play to start with.

Probably a gross exaggeration but my experience is that when you see them they are a crutch and typically used ineffectively.

No they are not banned from most competitive play... Maybe a few tournaments ban SC's and/or other problem items, but the only thing in the entire game that is pretty much universally banned is the Folding Fortress. (and even then, some smaller, local tournies will still allow it)

Outside of a comp heavy tournament, SC's are typically fair game.


Typically, yes, you can get better results with a generic character build than plugging a SC into your list.
However, there are some that are really, really well worth their cost, (ie: they're under-costed or outright broken). So far in 8th, really good 'bang-for-buck' SC's include:
- Epidemius (broken. like, beyond stupid broken to the point you will make people quit Fantasy altogether broken!)
- Alarielle
- The Blue Scribes
- Arkhan the Black
- Teclis
- Kairos

Those guys all bring either some downright busted shenanigans to the table, or else they can be used to really plug a hole in your list/tailor to your opposition.

Of all the things people could ban, they ban folding fortress?

What are blue scribes like now?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Ability wise I mean, I've never seen them used but their listed above as being very good

They dont get free dice, just more channel attempts. But their casting is the same.

Their casting is worse, it's bound item, not innate bound. I've used them as chaff and maybe I get lucky with a spell. But doesn't always work.

 Acardia wrote:
Their casting is worse, it's bound item, not innate bound. I've used them as chaff and maybe I get lucky with a spell. But doesn't always work.

For their cost though, they're pretty spectacular considering what you get; only 81pts & you can just keep them behind some Screamers or Beasts, then just keep rolling random Lore of Shadow spells.
The potential for added Channeling attempts is just icing on the cake.

Not exactly OP, but they are the Saint Celestein's of fantasy. The Sisters of Twilight are the most troll-y things in the game when riding there eagle, because they simply ignore most of the rules of the game. Masters of the wild says that hits at the rider are randomised between both riders, but because the eagle is a monstrous mount all hits hit the rider anyway. This means that the eagle is functionally immortal until both sisters are dead because it can't be targeted. Usually this means the eagles dies, because monstrous mounts don't live on after the riders die, but because both the book and the FAQ both state the eagles gets an auto 5/6 on monster reaction table, this means he gets treated as a monster and lives on! Not to mention that as a monstrous mount both sisters get to use the eagles strength and toughness, making each one W3 and T4 instead of W2 and T3, all the harder to kill in one phase. It also has the virtue of a single cannon shot can never kill them, because it says the cannon hits rider and mount, mount cannot be targeted and the cannon can only kill one rider. This is the ultimate troll unit that if played right can NEVER die, and even if they do there eagle decides to become a monster anyway and goes and frenzies things. My Meta finds these Gals EXTREAMLY annoying

HAHA I forgot about the sisters, they are down right annoying, lol.

Experiment 626 wrote:

 Atlantic wrote:
Who plays the special characters anyway?

You can typically get better results building your own and they're banned from most competitive play to start with.

Probably a gross exaggeration but my experience is that when you see them they are a crutch and typically used ineffectively.

No they are not banned from most competitive play... Maybe a few tournaments ban SC's and/or other problem items, but the only thing in the entire game that is pretty much universally banned is the Folding Fortress. (and even then, some smaller, local tournies will still allow it)

Outside of a comp heavy tournament, SC's are typically fair game.


Typically, yes, you can get better results with a generic character build than plugging a SC into your list.
However, there are some that are really, really well worth their cost, (ie: they're under-costed or outright broken). So far in 8th, really good 'bang-for-buck' SC's include:
- Epidemius (broken. like, beyond stupid broken to the point you will make people quit Fantasy altogether broken!)
- Alarielle
- The Blue Scribes
- Arkhan the Black
- Teclis
- Kairos

Those guys all bring either some downright busted shenanigans to the table, or else they can be used to really plug a hole in your list/tailor to your opposition.

I would add Archaon, Festus and Throgg to this list. The latter two are cheap and add functionality to whole units.