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So, I was just curious, What do people think is the most durable army, And what do you think is the least durable? I personally thing Wood Elves are the least durable since they die if the enemy sneezes in their general direction. And I think Warriors of Chaos is probably one of the most durable ones.

Merellin wrote:
So, I was just curious, What do people think is the most durable army, And what do you think is the least durable? I personally thing Wood Elves are the least durable since they die if the enemy sneezes in their general direction. And I think Warriors of Chaos is probably one of the most durable ones.

Remember though, by the time you have finished sneezing at Wood Elves, chances are they have moved and are shooting you from somewhere else .

Durability is a big word. You've got LD tests, characteristics tests for doom spells, wounds, armor/regen/ward save, toughness, WS, Init, and toughness:per point.

I mean every race can field some mega super unit that is not cost-effective.

-Dwarfs because of all their wacky runes, nice armor, low cost, decent T, very high LD.

-Ogres, crazy wounds and high T. Can have some buffy magic.

-WoC, great armor. Great Daemons. But very high costs. If you want to limit your army test to just pure wounds, then WoC wind with a Throgg list.

-Chaos Dwarfs are very hardy. They have 4 stats. 3+ armor with 5+ ward vs fire on their basic troops. And their monsters and war machines are all tough.

Undead.

It matters not how weak your troops are when they just get back up again =)

High Elves are surprisingly durable, especially for elves due to all their magic items, stackable ward saves, 2+ save Core option, Frosties, Alarielle/Banner of Averlorn etc...
Their T3 means poop when you can have an infantry units with 3++ supported by a heavy cav bus with 2+/5++/2++ vs flaming attacks. Or else the ability to cast area-effect bubbles of things like Pha's Protection/Speed of Light/Birona's at +8 to-cast!

WoC with their naturally above average stats and better than average armour saves. Like High Elves, they're also very resilient to the majority of the 'test or die' spells as they laugh at the initiative test ones, and only suffer marginally more vs. Dwellers & Final Trans. (Dwellers at least eats 50% of most elven units it hits)

Ogres are naturally resilient due to being an entire army of Monstrous Infantry/Cav, but they don't sport many good armour saves and Pit/P.Sun are game-wrecking vs. them.



DoC is kinda funny in that it's both one of the most resilient and yet also one of the least resilient.
Nurgle is up there with the best of 'em and becomes utterly stupid-good when you add in Epidemius. (because he's simply broken!) Their only downfall is again like Ogres getting hit with Pit/P.Sun due to most of the army sporting only I2.
The rest of the Gods on the other hand are incredibly weak in terms of the damage they can take outside of a couple stand-outs. (Doggies/Khannon) Non-Nurgle Heralds are the game's least resilient characters due to their inability to get anything beyond a basic 5++ for being a Daemon.

Their own Reign of Chaos table can really screw them over too - Khorne especially due to being whacked by the table's harshest 'Gods get angry' result.
The worst result overall is easily landing the -1 to ward saves, while getting double 1's is usually a death sentence for all of those support units like your Furies/other chaff/Khannons, etc...


Wood Elves & Tomb Kings are probably the least resilient of the rest of the armies.

WE's are simply overcosted & have ancient rules that really hinder them due to being 2 entire editions behind the times. They really need an expert hand to get the most out of them right now.

Tomb Kings probably tilt towards being slightly overcosted in general and their 'raising back the dead' mechanic is tied to how successful they are with their own lore in each magic phase. (Constructs also don't get nearly enough raising support from it)

Both armies are also hurting in todays meta of 1+/2+ saves and Monstrous units being everywhere as neither army can field decent saves beyond one or two options, and thus, have a difficult time grinding it out in combat. If the enemy doesn't break/explode from Unstable on the charge, odds are you're going to lose that unit.

The answer is the same for both questions; High Elves. Before the magic phase the high elves player is fielding some of the least durable units in the game (per point cost; ie sword masters, spearmen, etc.) and then after the magic phase he is the most durable (that big block of spearmen can now have a 3+ ward if lucky).

Seriously though I would say ogres, WoC, or VC are very durable but there aren't really fragile "armies" as each can be built to be tough. WE treemen armies are more durable than most armies but have trouble breaking steadfast. VC without their heroe/lord fall apart without you even needing to sneeze at them. It is all about synergy.