Lower Tier


By no means completely useless, can even win tournaments, but have a limited range of viable tactics and lack super powerful or seriously underpriced units.

Beastmen (updated February 2010) - Their latest armybook, released just before the arrival of the 8th edition Warhammer rules, is generally regarded as a complete flop. Poor magic lore, overpriced monsters, unimpressive core units, and not all that exciting to play. Many people don't like their new models either. As with all armies, they can still do well in the hands of a skilled player, but don't expect it to be easy.

Wood Elves - An old and slightly outdated army book. Wood elf units tend to be highly maneuverable but expensive and fragile. They can struggle to damage tough or heavily armoured opponents. There is only one really good army build for Wood Elves - lvl4 Spellweaver with lore of life, noble with hail of doom, treeman or two, 6 treekin, eagle or two, lots of glade guard and dryads. This doesn't leave too much room for variety and experimentation. *Should get a new armybook in 2013 (rumoured to be already completed).

Bretonnians - Another old armybook. Can be effective in the right hands but too reliant on cavalry charges and their armour save. *Should get a new armybook in 2013.


Lower-middle Tier
Not considered particularly powerful, but have certain strengths to balance out some of their weaknesses. Can still be very dangerous in the right hands.

Empire (updated April 2012) - Excellent variety of different units and army styles. New demigryph knights are very popular.

Orcs and Goblins (updated March 2011) - One of the most fun armies to play, with lots of characterful and humorous units. A really balanced armybook, that has no really bad choices and lots of potential for variety and fun themes. They are just very unpredictable and not especially powerful overall compared to the top tier armies.

Vampire Counts (updated January 2012) - Suffer from a lack of shooting and the army can crumble if the vampire lord dies. Core units are a bit weak. They can still be a tough army to beat with skeletons units that come back to life and nasty flying monsters.

Tomb Kings (updated May 2011) - Powerful magic, some nice unit combos, cheap skeletons. Some powerful choices for experienced players. No auto-win button but no serious flaws. Effective tools for dealing with various challenges and solid, if not spectacular, all round.


Upper-middle Tier
Above average strength, with some deadly combos and units available, but just short of being considered 'top tier'.

Dwarfs - Potential to shut down opponents magic phase, tear them up with artillery, then grind them down in combat. Very slow moving but tough to kill. Great warmachines (apart from the flame cannon).

High Elves - Versatile and powerful magic, army-wide Always Strike First rule, strong elite infantry, awesome special character in Teclis. Can be a little fragile at times and core units are a bit overpriced, but generally a strong choice and fun to play. You get a good starter army in the 'Island of Blood' boxed set.

Ogre Kingdoms (updated September 2011) - Strong characters, good warmachines, good at close combat and fairly fast. Mournfangs and Ironblasters are considered undercosted. The main weakness is in having a fairly small number of expensive units in your army; if one gets wiped out by a big spell or some bad luck, you will be in trouble. They are not very heavily armoured and don't have particularly high leadership. Ogre Kingdoms have a very nice range of models and are quite popular in tournaments.

Warriors of Chaos - Possibly the strongest army in close combat and quite easy to play. The main risk is getting outmaneuvered by your opponent and unable to get into combat. Two Hellcannons, two warshrines, big blocks of Marauders with great weapons and mark of Khorne, Warriors or Chosen with Halberds and Shields, magic items that screw around with the whole magic phase... there are some seriously nasty combos out there for Chaos generals to take advantage of. You can also theme your army based on different chaos gods, and have fun converting models to match. ** New armybook expected in late 2012.

Top Tier
Few weakness, lots of powerful or underpriced units, very competitive, may even put off opponents for being overpowered or 'cheesy'.

Skaven - Powerful warmachines? Check. Nasty magic? Check. Cheap massed infantry? Check. Huge scary monsters? Check. Awesome magic items? Check. Skaven have pretty much got it all in terms of their rulebook. They also have a cool range of models, various fun themes (ninja style, steampunk, plague-ridden, monstrous experiments...) and a 'Uniforms and Heraldry' book to give you more ideas. Two 'A-Bombs' supported by masses of slaves and a few warp lightning cannons can be very tough to beat. Can be difficult to learn for a beginner, as they have a lot of special rules. Can sometimes go spectacularly wrong when they accidentally blow themselves up.

Dark Elves - Downright vicious in 7th edition, and still deadly in the hands of a skilled player. Great magic items, and great synergies when using the Cauldron of Blood and lore of shadow. Hydras are seriously under-priced. However, dark elves are quite fragile and can be taken apart by a more experienced opponent if you don't use them right.

Lizardmen - Slann are the best casters in the game and also count as your BSB, Skinks and Chamelions are great skirmishers, Stegadons and Salamanders are really nasty. Lizardmen can reliably compete in every phase of the game and will always be a difficult army to defeat. Perhaps not the easiest army to use, but can be effective in a variety of builds.

Chaos Dwarfs - Most of their spells feel like the "oh my god I must stop this" type, they have solid, reliable basic troops (if a bit expensive) who can reliably compete in CC and the shooting phase. Let's be honest though the warmachines are unsurpassed, extremely powerful weapons at their disposal such as the K'daai who mince everything. Overall an army with very few weaknesses.

Daemons of Chaos - Utterly unstoppable in 7th edition, and still very strong in 8th. Only weakness is a lack of cheap lord choices. Rules for flamers and screamers were officially updated in August 2012, making them slightly less powerful.