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My store only sees about 10 armies played regularly (6 of which are chaos) so I'm curious what are some of the strongest units in the game are. From my own experience I've found the following to be really effective:

Spider Riders
Stonehorns
Necrosphinx
Mourngul
Bloodletters

I suppose you included units of medium strength (bloodletters, spider riders) because of their ability to do mortal wounds on a 6 hit roll. Retributors then? They have better save, wounds and combat stats then the latter two (albeit with lower movement).

I had considered doing the units as stand alone, perhaps I should have gone this route, but I was referring to how those with common hero abilities for their respective factions can put out devastating amount of damage. Take the spider riders for instance doing 2 mortal wounds on a to hit roll of 5 or 6

www.louisvillewargaming.com/AOSStats.aspx

Thanks a lot

I fought some Stonehorn monsters and the ice mammoth thing. They're pretty disgusting.

Yep they are. And my data model shows that they are also the top of the damage stack for units which reflected my unfortunate experience with them lol.

 auticus wrote:
Yep they are. And my data model shows that they are also the top of the damage stack for units which reflected my unfortunate experience with them lol.

Yeah, first battle against them was a multi battle. I'd killed Archaon and the Order armies were really pounding the Chaos ones. They almost swung the battle in one charge. They killed:

1 Stardrake

5 Kurnoth Hunters with scythe

2 K Hunters with sword

Durthu

20 Dryads

We only brought them down through massed shooting and charging them with Paladins. I think he had 2-3 stonehorn, 2 of those beast riders and one mammoth. Still had the mammoth and riders left if I remember right.

As always, it depends on what you are fighting.

A dwarf bolt thrower can be just as effective as a Paladin unit against the right targets.

I'm still a big fan of the Knight Venetor and his Star fated arrow along with Bow Judicators.

 Uriels_Flame wrote:

I'm still a big fan of the Knight Venetor and his Star fated arrow along with Bow Judicators.

I think I have a faulty one of those. His star-eagle always dishes out more damage than him, and that Star-fated Arrow never, ever hits and wounds. Never.

Playing my Tomb Kings so far I see "Necropolis Knights" being very powerful.
I have had several people concede the game because too much of their army died eliminating a 3 man unit of Necropolis Knights to avoid me tabling them with what I had left.

"Tomb Guard" and "Skeleton Warriors" can be very powerful if you buff them in a Tomb Kings army.

Ushabti, Sepulchral Stalkers, Skeleton Chariots, and Tomb Scorpions look potentially powerful but I have not tried them yet.

I've watched a unit of six chariots soak up 18 chariots worth of wounds because of the banner that lets them keep coming back.

Very cost effective.

Yeah, I echo the Necropolis Knights, they can be absolutely devastating. Love 'em!

Hell cannon...
multipul shots
improved to hits vs certain targets/movement
no line of sight needed
d6 mortal wounds per hit
also good up close in combat as well

Its a real monster.

Grudge thrower if you can find them!

In comparison, grudge throwers are meh. They do on average 4.75 damage after saves. There are other missile units in the game that can do better. The indirect fire option redeems it a bit. Vs the unit its grudged against its marginally better. While functional I wouldn't call it one of the top units.

Hellcannons are ok. Definitely worth having but not one of the best units in the game. Its doing on average 7.01 damage.

Its really good, however, for sniping normal 5/6 wound heroes.

Dreadquake Mortar with a Daemonsmith nearby, with the +1 to hit Command Trait. One shot at 40" range, no LoS needed, that hits on 2+ (3+ normal) and if in the Battalion rerolls of 1s. Wounds on a 3+, and if a Banner is planted rerolls of 1s against Order. -2 Rend at d6 (2d6 if unit is 10+) and if any models are slain that unit cannot run next turn.

Plus with the Daemonsmith you have a 50% chance to get to fire it again and take a mortal wound. Also it doesn't get worse the more wounds it takes and has 8 of them. Oh yea and a 3+ save vs. shooting attacks!

I played the Mourngul. Very , very nasty ...... No rend is huge. Mystic Shield them and they are nigh unkillable.

 auticus wrote:
In comparison, grudge throwers are meh. They do on average 4.75 damage after saves. There are other missile units in the game that can do better. The indirect fire option redeems it a bit. Vs the unit its grudged against its marginally better. While functional I wouldn't call it one of the top units.

Hellcannons are ok. Definitely worth having but not one of the best units in the game. Its doing on average 7.01 damage.

Its really good, however, for sniping normal 5/6 wound heroes.

While I agree with the ultimate sentiment, raw damage isn't everything even on a straightforward model. The hellcannon does that damage in the form of mortal wounds, at a huge range, ignoring line of sight, and can still fight in melee better than most warmachine hunting units. It's balancing factor is the price tag, not the number of wounds.

dragonlord.....really really good at just killing things and tanking

Thats why I said I think that hellcannons are "ok". I'd definitely take one but I don't consider them one of the strongest units in the game.

I had a unit of 5 plague monks eat through a unit of 10 Sea Guard, an Archmage and a Phoenix (!) with only losing 2 models. Wow.



I mostly play against Elves (MY ELVES!) and Duardin, so I don't know what units are really good.

After some thought, and taking into account the context of army/allegiance, I'd have to go with a Huskard on Thundertusk. Ranged mortal wounds, solid melee, durable, heals, and very underpriced for doing all of that.

I've found war altars to be very good, decent shooting and combat attack and then prayers, unbinding two spells and having a shield bubble

 auticus wrote:
I've watched a unit of six chariots soak up 18 chariots worth of wounds because of the banner that lets them keep coming back.

Very cost effective.

I almost always run 2 units of 6 chariots at 2000pts, and if you add in a mounted Tomb Herald, each unit is getting two full chariots back a turn. Its one of the grossest things I've seen in AoS. The tarpit to end all tarpits, and murderous on the charge with buffs.

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:

 auticus wrote:
I've watched a unit of six chariots soak up 18 chariots worth of wounds because of the banner that lets them keep coming back.

Very cost effective.

I almost always run 2 units of 6 chariots at 2000pts, and if you add in a mounted Tomb Herald, each unit is getting two full chariots back a turn. Its one of the grossest things I've seen in AoS. The tarpit to end all tarpits, and murderous on the charge with buffs.

That works with Necropolis Knights as well except the spell from their warscroll REANIMATE NECROPOLIS KNIGHT "add(s) one model to the unit" so you can get three of them back a turn.

 arclance wrote:

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:

 auticus wrote:
I've watched a unit of six chariots soak up 18 chariots worth of wounds because of the banner that lets them keep coming back.

Very cost effective.

I almost always run 2 units of 6 chariots at 2000pts, and if you add in a mounted Tomb Herald, each unit is getting two full chariots back a turn. Its one of the grossest things I've seen in AoS. The tarpit to end all tarpits, and murderous on the charge with buffs.

That works with Necropolis Knights as well except the spell from their warscroll REANIMATE NECROPOLIS KNIGHT "add(s) one model to the unit" so you can get three of them back a turn.

True, but a critical difference is that, on the charge they do mathematically identical damage, but Chariots fulfill all your battle-line requirements (if you want), meaning saved points on a Skeleton Warrior tax. Also, Necropolis Knights pull ahead when a Liche Priest is present, but they're equal without one, making the Priest a further (albeit useful) tax.

Doing it with Chariots means plenty of points left for further gross things like a Necrosphinx. ;-)

I feel Seraphon have a pretty strong base. Saurus guard with a star priest nearby are a serious head ache.

Varanguard are pretty strong.

 Bonachinonin wrote:
I feel Seraphon have a pretty strong base. Saurus guard with a star priest nearby are a serious head ache.

With the Pitched-Battles casting nerfs, Saurus Guard have become even stronger, and IMO are one of the best battle-line options in the game. Seraphon work well self-contained anyway so having Seraphon Allegiance is almost a given. Saurus Guard are one of the few things left with such easy access to a 2+ rerollable save (ignoring Rend -1 no less), and their formation with the Eternity Warden is dirt cheap while adding a lot of value as well.

I would say Seraphon are definitely one of the stronger armies currently in the game, insofar that they can built quite a few very good styles of list, but they don't quite reach the top-top tier of popularity for competitive play because they don't have as many fire-and-forget, idiot-proof units. Its an army that benefits a LOT from positioning and synergy.

If the casting rules hadn't impacted Kroak so harshly, I think their mortal-wound-factory list would've stayed a top-top level army for a while too.