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Includes: Phoenix Lords, Cypher, crazy Dark Eldar arena peeps, Kharn, major Necron figures, etc.
Basically, if they all go 1-on-1 (then are resurrected) to fight in a round-robin style where everyone fights everyone at least once - who ends up with the most wins?

Are we including 30k stuff as well? Cos then it would end up being a Primach fight.

Okay, we can split it up to 30K and 40K lore to make give it some extra spice.

Includes any named character in existence, with their standard kit.

Any non fractured C'tan

Luscious the Eternal.
According to the fluff, the thread would end here.
Anyone who beats him, would become him.

 Talizvar wrote:
Luscious the Eternal.
According to the fluff, the thread would end here.
Anyone who beats him, would become him.

Well, the magic of resurrection means that both combatants revert to their default status. For example, if someone gets clipped with Axe of Khorne and loses their soul, they get it back for next fight.

This is purely skills-based. If Luscious the Eternal wins one fight, that's only +1 to him. Then it starts again next fight.

Get the party started

Questions like this are notoriously hard to answer. Are we including psychic powers? Because Daemon Primarch Magnus would sweep everyone away with Hellfire.

But I think I get what you mean, in an arena fight based purely on martial skill who would win, excluding the likes of Gods and Daemon Primarchs.

Jain Zar, The Solitaire and Lilth are up there as the most skilled, acting like Mr Anderson from the matrix, but not necessarily the ones to win. But by god a Solitaire vs Lilth fight would be epic.

Imperial representatives would probably be the likes of Dante, Grimnar, the melee assassins. Space Marines can take punches and give them out, hard to imagine Grimnar going down to Lilths blades.

Ghazskull is probably the heaviest hitter here, due to the chaos gods being fickle while Gork and Mork have a special interest in Ghaz. Plus feat wise he easily put down Belial so it shows he can duel with the best SM and come out on top.

Chaos brings Kharn, Abbadon, Lucius, Typhus, all strong contenters but only really kharn can swing with the big boys in terms of skill.

Kharne and Eldrad are two of the top contenders IMO.

Kharne because he's ridiculously fast and strong even for an Astartes, and could bulldoze his way through most characters in the setting with sheer physical ability.

Eldrad because of his insane combat precognition ability. He basically has tens of thousands of tries to beat you before you've even started the fight.

 ALEXisAWESOME wrote:
Questions like this are notoriously hard to answer. Are we including psychic powers? Because Daemon Primarch Magnus would sweep everyone away with Hellfire.

But I think I get what you mean, in an arena fight based purely on martial skill who would win, excluding the likes of Gods and Daemon Primarchs.

Jain Zar, The Solitaire and Lilth are up there as the most skilled, acting like Mr Anderson from the matrix, but not necessarily the ones to win. But by god a Solitaire vs Lilth fight would be epic.

Imperial representatives would probably be the likes of Dante, Grimnar, the melee assassins. Space Marines can take punches and give them out, hard to imagine Grimnar going down to Lilths blades.

Ghazskull is probably the heaviest hitter here, due to the chaos gods being fickle while Gork and Mork have a special interest in Ghaz. Plus feat wise he easily put down Belial so it shows he can duel with the best SM and come out on top.

Chaos brings Kharn, Abbadon, Lucius, Typhus, all strong contenters but only really kharn can swing with the big boys in terms of skill.

Castellan Crowe is definitely worth considering for being the top dualist in the Imperium. Considering he is also a respectably powerful psyker adds to his deadliness.

Lore wise, some of the custodius could be pretty deadly.

there space marines +1

Why no one mention skarbrand? Swarmlord?

 jhe90 wrote:
Lore wise, some of the custodius could be pretty deadly.

there space marines +1

They weren't too impressive in Throneworld, though.

 Robin5t wrote:

 jhe90 wrote:
Lore wise, some of the custodius could be pretty deadly.

there space marines +1

They weren't too impressive in Throneworld, though.

30k ones seemed so.

i read the odd one and one held off two world eaters in combat at same time and managed to take down both before being slain.
two who where in full battle range.

 jhe90 wrote:

 Robin5t wrote:

 jhe90 wrote:
Lore wise, some of the custodius could be pretty deadly.

there space marines +1

They weren't too impressive in Throneworld, though.

30k ones seemed so.

i read the odd one and one held off two world eaters in combat at same time and managed to take down both before being slain.
two who where in full battle range.

I guess, but a Shadowseer and Death Jester went through dozens of them like a warm knife through butter.

That said, the only other time we saw a Shadowseer fighting in the fluff, they had Ahriman on the back foot, so maybe that's not much of an indictment.

Warning! The following post contains sarcasm and is only tangentially related to the primary topic.

Anyway, its obviously got to be someone from the Imperial guard. My top 3 are Creed (no one said you can't fight them after they've just been stomped by a titan), Sly Marbo (because duh) and Ciaphas Cain, who of course was running away from a small group of Orks/something comparatively nonthreatening and found himself stuck in the competition.

I think that the best duellist in the galaxy is the Swarm mind. The Swarm is endless, inmortal and it has no psychical form, it is a gestalt.

Khorne.

Another vote on Crowe.

He effectively wields a stick into battle. It's a daemonically possessed sword that he refuses to use the actual daemonic ability, and more as just a plain old unpowered sword, yet he is still regarded as the best duellist in the Grey Knights, who are very much superior to regular Astartes.

I'll put my money behind Lelith Hesperax.

It depends on how you define 'one on one'. A Revenant Titan has a single pilot, after all.

 Jimsolo wrote:
I'll put my money behind Lelith Hesperax.

This or Kharn the betrayer

Kharn the Betrayer. Dude has been taking skulls for ten thousand-plus years.

Ulrik the slayer of the space wolves. We actually have fluff evidence of his dueling prowess in an arena type environment.

Asurmen, he's founded the phoenix lords and is pretty beast in combat. He's even capable of killing greater daemons outright in single combat. Not only that, but I've never lost him in game during cc. And I get into alot in close combat.

Uhm, are everyone forgetting the Daemon Primarch Angron?

The problem I have with naming Kharn is that his rules go the opposite way of normal CSM; they're so super that it seems like he can do things in-game that he can't do in fluff (he can punch out a Knight in a single round of combat, something I doubt he has ever done in fluff).

In terms of absolute best combatant, Khorne himself takes the cake simply because he's the literal god of war (and not a fake pretender like that Calgar chap). I doubt even Tzeentch can go toe to toe with Big-K alone even with all the magic trickery the latter has.

In my opinion, arguing this based just on the fluff will quickly become mired in the same debates as comic books, which while interesting, don't go anywhere. Everybody is the best in some way, at some times.

The OP is suggesting something interestingly specific, namely a round robin, one on one, arena style fight. That's a very specific form of fighting, and one that heavily favors flexibility and duelists skills. Lillith is a clear favorite, being a gladiatorial champion, although I'd worry about her ability to handle monstrous opponents. Lucius is another choice, but the ability to resurrect implies that he loses a decent number of fights.

Most of the SM characters are known as much for their tactical acumen as their sheer fighting prowess, with Kharn and Draigo as some of the bigger exceptions.

The daemon primarchs are really among the most powerful beings, and combine strength and skill at a level mortals would struggle to match. I'd go with Angron, because he couples the highest level of martial prowess with a potent psychic defense. I think that magnus would do very well, but any ability to shut down his psychic powers would limit him.

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
The problem I have with naming Kharn is that his rules go the opposite way of normal CSM; they're so super that it seems like he can do things in-game that he can't do in fluff (he can punch out a Knight in a single round of combat, something I doubt he has ever done in fluff).

Dude destroys a Reaver Titan in Traitor's Hate.

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
The problem I have with naming Kharn is that his rules go the opposite way of normal CSM; they're so super that it seems like he can do things in-game that he can't do in fluff (he can punch out a Knight in a single round of combat, something I doubt he has ever done in fluff).

He does exactly that in the Traitor's Hate fluff, on top of destroying the aforementioned titan. The bloke's an absolute beast.

I have not read Traitors Hate yet. My bad. Still though, Papa Khorne will grass his ass nonetheless.