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Just got curious about this. Among all the armies HQ's, Whats the top 5 best non unique melee characters? So no named characters.

Well, I don't know about the other 4; but, number 1 would be the humble guardsman. The most consistent of melee fighters.

Well...

Chapter Master with Shield Eternal / Gorgons Chain, with Power Fist on a Bike, and Artificer Armour springs to mind.

Nurgle Daemon Prince with Black Mace and Wings. {?}

Sword and Board Wraithknight.

Necron Destroyer lord with the special Warscythe, and other gear.

The Space Wolf Dreadnoughts with Storm Shields {?}

A chaos lord of the emperor's children who rolls perfectly on their combat drugs and then rolling perfectly on the boon table he can get 4 stat increases and 4 boons. Something like toughness 9(with as bike), fleshbane, shred, instant death, eternal warrior. Then give him a power fist and sword and a unit with a feel no pain banner.

Might be better to just boost up his attacks and initiative instead and hope to kill everything with zero retaliation. When it comes to generic HQ's chaos lords are the best or the worst based entirely based on luck.

We have the ubiquitous Chapermaster Smashfether.

We have whatever flying Daemon Prince with popular Daemon Weapon is hip right now.

We could possibly include the D-Thirster, because *if* he gets to strike, 7 Ws 10 Str D attacks will wreck anyones day.

For pure points efficiency A Warboss with Power Klaw and Da Lucky Stick is very good, if he is up against non-AP 2 he is invincible and throws out a suitable amount of Str 10 attacks.

Could we include the Yncarne here? Keeper of Secrets statline, but with eternal warrior, fleshbane and FnP. Basically the Solitaire on roids. Then again, I guess she counts as unique.

I got surprisingly good result with a Succubus with the armor of Misery and an archite glaive.

Ork Warboss with a lucky stick, mega armor and power klaw is a very reliable killer.

I would not underestimate a Genestealer Patriarch, these guys are really full of ouch! and nasty trick.

A Chaos Lord of Khorn mounted on a Juggernaught with the Daemon Weapon Axe is also a classic in my opinion.

The good thing with them is that they are all very nice looking models that make for great center piece in a collection. The only excepion might be the Ork Warboss since GW, in its great wisdom, didn't thought it be important to make a model for a mega-armor wearing warboss beside Ghazghkull.

 ALEXisAWESOME wrote:


We have whatever flying Daemon Prince with popular Daemon Weapon is hip right now.

Ironically Daemon Princes with Daemon Weapons are no longer hip.

The new hip thing is to take a Daemon Prince of Tzeentch, give it wings, give it one of the Legion armours for a 2+ save and fly around rerolling 1s like a dick.

Bonus if it's Night Lords and gets Stealth as well, so is flying around with a rerollable 2+/2+ cover and a 5++ invuln.

Sadly the Yncarne is unique.

Otherwise I'd take too, and be very eager to include it in here, as in the 2 games i've played it has either solo'd a wraithknight before it got to strike (although I had some lucky rolls)

It has basically made its points back in the two games I've played so far , although I'd almost always rather have a sword and board WK

Destroyer Lord!

5th edition Khorne Chaos lord with Khorne weapon, and Juggernaut of Khorne rolling a 12 on 2D6 would get almost 20 attacks on the charge by himself.

Assuming we're not talking about Lords of War (like Wraithknights, Imperial Knights, etc.), I might say the best non-unique melee characters are:
1: Chapter Master Smashf***er (Iron Hands CM on bike with all the upgrades). You know him, you love (or hate!) him.
2: Chaos Lord. So many good builds, but Khorne or Nurgle ones are probably the best for different reasons. Even in KDK a tooled-up Lord is really nasty.
3: Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf. Give him the right tools and good support and he will wreck face very efficiently.
4: Bloodthirster (all versions). They have the best WS in the game, and the D one gets a bunch of attacks on the charge, although he has to survive to I1 to use them. The non-D ones are I10 and so swing before anyone else!
5: GSC Patriarch: High initiative, plenty of attacks, AP2 or Rending (can't remember which) and gives bonuses to Genestealers in his unit. Combined with Cult Ambush, this dude is brutal!

I don't really know about the patriarch.
4 ws7 attacks, s6 ap3 with shred and rending. Certainly not bad, but top 5 in the game?
The auto-pass LOS is nice. But once his unit is gone he is down to a 4+ armour save.

I think he is more of a utility character, rather than a beatstick. Mainly just hanging around to provide a fearless bubble.

Arson Fire wrote:
I don't really know about the patriarch.
4 ws7 attacks, s6 ap3 with shred and rending. Certainly not bad, but top 5 in the game?
The auto-pass LOS is nice. But once his unit is gone he is down to a 4+ armour save.

I think he is more of a utility character, rather than a beatstick. Mainly just hanging around to provide a fearless bubble.

In my experience, considering his stats line and the fact he has access to psychic powers to buff himself, he is extremely powerful. Regular armor saves are rarely an issue in close combat duels since power weapons are so common amongst HQ units. While he does lack an invulnerable save, he does have a way to compensate for this with psychic powers or simply killing most ennemy before than can kill him thanks to his high initiative. He is probably not the biggest beatstick normal character, but, for his point cost, he is certainly amongst the best.

Arson Fire wrote:
I don't really know about the patriarch.
4 ws7 attacks, s6 ap3 with shred and rending. Certainly not bad, but top 5 in the game?
The auto-pass LOS is nice. But once his unit is gone he is down to a 4+ armour save.

This. Patriarchs are must-have models in a GSC army because of the Fearless bubble, and they're not horrendous in melee, but they're not tanky or killy enough to be top 5 material.

Also, no grenades. I7 is only an advantage if you get to use it.

Edit - My bad, read that wrong.
Daemon Prince
Wolf Lord
Blood Angels Captain
Ork Warboss
Space Marine Captain

Ork Warboss w/ Da Lucky Stkk, Mega Armour, Cybork Body

4 attacks, WS6, S10, AP2, Hatred*, Shred*

T5, 3W, rerollable* 2+, 5+ FNP

I 1... Well can't win them all.

I think he could take 3/5 of zergsmasher's list, including number 1.

*To a point. It's a good point tho.

Is a solitaire actually any good? Relying on rending, T3, and only a 3++ have always made me hesitant.

I would also be leaning towards an ork warboss kitted out he is instagibbing most things even those pesky daemon princes for half the cost. If you get lucky and they dont die first which should be the case as in a game if he is by himself theres something wrong usually at least 10 other bodies and a few characters to eat the challenge.

Raven guard CM with Arti Armour, Bike with Swiftstrike & Murder Relic. 6 attacks on the charge getting and extra attack per successful hit usually means 8-10 hits with shred at AP3.

He rips through squads in combat.

 kingbobbito wrote:
Is a solitaire actually any good? Relying on rending, T3, and only a 3++ have always made me hesitant.

The Solitaire is fantastic when the Laughing God is with you. Which I suppose is the point. Relying on 6's for all but 1 attack (FAQ says you can use caress and kiss at the same time), he'll be lucky to cause 3 Ap 2 wounds a turn. But on the other hand, I've also had 5, one of which was instant death, and he killed a Wraithknight in a single turn.

The Solitaire has a sweet spot of low attack high priority low Ws opponents. Knights, Wraithknights, DreadKnights, Ripknights...I mean tides. He'll reliably grind them down while they don't even touch him. Against actual squads, he'll rarely cause many wounds, but he ties the opponents unit up until his turn, kills 2/3 then hit and runs 3d6 out, moves 12 and charges 2d6 fleet and he's somewhere else entirely. Ludicrously mobile. That's the solitaires strength, the fact he can redeploy in perfect conditions (turn 6, cegorarchs revenge for run and charge) 12 d6 inches in any direction ignoring terrain. Thats 3d6 hit'n'run, 6d6 blitz on turn 6, d6 fleet run, 2d6 fleet charge. He's basically supersonic at that point.

Got to give the Necron Overlord with the void blade a shout.

S7, armour bane, fleshbane, AP2 master crafted and tough as nails. With him, it's not about the amount he can dish, but the absolutely STUPID amount of damage he can tank while essentially killing a TEQ squad in 2 assault phases and instakilling T3 opponents.

Add in a lychguard squad and it's guaranteed to make an opponent think twice to assault.

non-40k, BUT the Legio Custodes Shield-Captain. Costly, but you get:

2+3++(rerolling invulns) 5's across the board stat wise, with WS and I 6, 4 Wounds, and LD 10.
7 S: 6 AP: 2 attacks with ID on 6's on the charge, and -1 to hit him in CC.
Additionally, he has Eternal warrior and Fearless. He can deepstrike, and can screw with Deepstriking enemies landing around him.


Trade off is, as I said: 275 Pts., but you get a guy who can go toe-to-toe with basically any Named Character in 40k (and non-primarchs in 30k)

Just sticking to 40k, I'd give a shout to the Tech-Priest Dominus & Datasmith.

Give the Dominus Anzion's Pseudogenator, Digi-weapons, Infoslave Skull [Ld 10 isn't running off any time soon], Conversion Field.
5 of his 6 possible WLT's are a real cherry on top for any mélée shenanigans.
Reroll FNP, Master crafted weapon, Haywyre on everything, Eternal Warrior, Max strength Canticles.... Ooooh.

And then there's the fact that the Datasmith can pretty much pull off the same thing, only with a dandy Powerfist instead of Axe.


However, bringing a smidgeon of 30k into this:

Archmagos Prime Reductor & Malagra.
Real killy sob's, these chaps. Kit them out to the brim with the good stuff, and you're looking at a 330 point beast that can tango with Primarchs.
Get your opponent's toughness down by 2, maybe 3 if you're lucky? Yes please.

The Ordnance Tyrant. Why bring a fancy knife when you can simply have your artillery fire into melee?

I'm curious what people think about, of all things, a Tau Fusion Blade Commander?

Tau Commander with Fusion Blades, Stim Injectors, Shield Generator, and Iridium Armor.

That gives you 4 8/1 armorbane attacks at I3, 5 on the charge, with a T5/2+/4++/5+++ defensive profile and 4 wounds.

Tough to kill before he gets to attack (you basically need ID or a metric ton of AP2 wounds), and will often get at least two 8/1 hits against most opponents - that will ID T4 characters.

There is the possibility that he'll lose his melee weapon, though he's at least guaranteed to get one round of attacks.

There's also a few other variants that could be worthwhile - the commander could instead take Vectored Retro-Thrusters to get Hit & Run (he does still have a BS 5 TL'd Fusion Blaster as part of the Fusion Blades, after all), replacing either the Stims (so no 5+++) or the Shield Generator (taking instead the Talisman, so 5++ instead of 4++).

Certainly not the best, and probably not top 5, but perhaps a contender?

I think that, instead of a Daemon Prince with the Black Mace, I'd go with a Balesword/Plague Flail combo prince. 345 (385 with Grotti), but has ML 3 (on Biomancy, of course), one greater reward he doesn't have to trade for a weapon, wings...

The Dark Eldar have some pretty cost efficient melee characters. They won't stand toe to toe with the guys mentioned here, but 95 points for a succubus with a glaive outputs 4 S4 Ap2 hits at ws/I 8, with combat drugs to buff that is rather nice. An abberation costs 45 points and can output up to 8 S5 poisoned, instant death on 6's attacks.
Both of these can be buffed even further by power from pain.

Hmmm, for Eldar CC characters you can get some nasty guys, but so much relies on lucking out/previous turns. Plus, even fully tooled up they're way off top 5.

An Archon with Shadowfield, Agoniser and Soultrap who's munched a few characters in challenges and is sitting at turn 4. Sure he's only T3, but he's WS/I7, 5A, Poison 4+ (re-rollable if the soultrap's bumped his strength up higher than the enemy's toughness), with a 2++/5+++, with either Rage or Hatred if you're lucky with Warlord Traits all for 130pts. Far from a sure bet, but cheap and you might luck out :S

The only nasty trick I can see Craftworlders getting is an Autarch on a bike with that broken sword from the Iyanden supplement that gains +1S for each kill you make and is also AP2 at initiative. Either that or Shard of Anaris that in CC is Fleshbane Instant Death Rending (no AP though which sucks) With only a 3+/4++ I can't see them being anywhere near top 5.

As for a Solitaire, the Ynnari relic The Lost Shroud can give him FnP and IWND, and if he can Blitz full distance he'll have 12 attacks to play with. Not bad, but again definitely not top tier. T3 and 3++ see to that.

How about a Corsairs Collector Prince on a bike with a Shadowfield and Shard of Anaris in a Headtakers Cotorie? T4, 2++, Fleshbane/ID/Rending in challenges re-rolling 1s to hit. Still nasty, but not top tier.

How are we doing psychic powers? The Corsair Prince can roll on Divination ML1, so Precognition cast on himself can mean he can re-roll to hit, to wound and all saving throws. Like nearly all Eldar beatsticks, needs a lot of luck to get dead killy though...

The Night Lords mark of tzeentch prince is a good shout. Extremely hard to stop with firepower and practically untouchable in combat against anything without AP2 weapons. Great value for 220 points.

I'd throw an attack squig on the mega armour, lucky stick warboss. You'll usually miss at least one attack so the attack squig reduces the dependence on the lucky stick, and means you have those LS re-rolls for failed to-wound rolls, armour saves and FNP rolls

For overall effectiveness I think it's a toss up whether the warboss is better served with mega armour or on a bike, but whatever the case ork warbosses must be right up there for CC effectivness given their cheapness