Do you want to play with the best of the best armies in Warhammer: The Old World? Then these are ones for you.
Warhammer: The Old World has been out for around 20 months, and we’ve gotten a lot of games in. Around the world, people have been playing in both casual games and a growing number of large events. It’s been just stellar to see the game grow and expand. We’ve also seen a meta, or multiple metas (metii?) evolve and change through a few cycles. When the game had just come out, I went and ranked the various factions, breaking them up in the core and legacy factions.
However a lot has changed since then. We’ve gotten more FAQs, including a big one in June. Moreover all the core armies have AJs and we’ve even gotten both a brand new army and matched play book. And we’ve seen a lot more events, and I’ve been to more myself. So today I want to go back and look at what I think are the top five armies in the game, combining all the lists out there.
Now this particular ranking is going to be partially based on numbers, and partially on my general feelings on the lists and how they’ve been doing at events. I think there are some very strong lists that for reasons, either thanks to being new or composition rules (comp), haven’t shown up a lot yet. In addition, a challenge we face is that competitively, there are really two metas, the comped and the un-comped meta. The un-comped meta is events playing with army lists straight out of the rule book. The comped meta are events that impose some additional rules to how you can build armies. I’ve tried to account for this, but I’m sure there will be debate.
5. Warriors of Chaos
Warriors of Chaos are of course a very classic WFB/ToW Army. And they’ve been pretty strong throughout the whole of the game. They’ve got a lot of great units and one of the stronger AJs. They can build some really strong armies and have a good AoI in Wolves of the Sea, which opens up some options. The recent infantry buffs also open up some nice play for them. They have the best dragon lord in the game, though he’s limited now by some of the matched play comp. Overall its a scary army that can do monsters, cav, and infantry very well. It’s also a pretty easy army to run, and one of the most popular.
I’ve put it up here as I really think of it as the biggest gatekeeper army in ToW. WoC don’t win a ton of events and aren’t as flashy as some armies. They can win, and have bowled people over with dragons before. But they are also so common that they show up a ton. So you really need to be able to beat them. If you can’t, you are in trouble. I think some armies, like Dwarves, might have better single builds, but WoC are just very forgiving and make the top armies list for me.
4. Grand Cathay
If we go purely by the numbers, by win ration, then Grand Cathay would based on most reporting, be the best army in the game right now. However I’m not quite ready to put it that high yet. Yes they do have what is likely the best/most problematic unit in the game with the Sky Lanterns. However outside of that I don’t think the army is all that bonkers. It has some mid units. It’s also one of the least played armies and so new that people haven’t really adjusted to it and started building in counters. For those reasons I think we need to wait a bit to see how strong it really ends up being.
The army is also knocked down a bit to me by just being really limited. The upcoming AJ might open it up a little, but that really limits the fun for it. If a major nerf were to ever hit the Sky Lanterns, then the army would drop a lot I think. So for now, it’s on the list, but lower.
3. Tomb Kings
Tomb Kings in general are a strong army and have both benefited and been hurt by the recent changes to the game. The magic changes have made the Mortuary Cult less attractive and no longer have it running towards the top of the game. However Tomb Kings are very good at holding objectives in attrition games, so have benefited from the matched play guide. All of this puts them in a very strong place.
The Tomb Kings army still has good magic and an amazing unit roster. It’s got a couple infantry units that benefited from the buffs there. TK also have a lot of cheap choices, so its very easy for them to grab a lot of objectives. I think as people figure out how to build lists geared towards the missions they will remain really strong.
2. Kingdom of Bretonnia/Bretonnian Exiles
Like Tomb Kings, Bretonnains are a really strong army Now I’ve previously listed them at the top of the game, and in particular I think the Exiles AoI is the best version, though all three of their armies are pretty viable now. Brets have taken a few hits with recent changes. Pegasus Knights (and Royal Pegs) got more expensive. Skirmisher’s have gotten a few nerfs. You can no longer vanguard and charge. And infantry buffs have overall hurt cav and cav heavy armies.
However they’ve also benefited a bit. They have several very cheap but still decent infantry options for objective claiming. Meanwhile Foot Knights have become a very decent unit. On top of that they still have some of the best combat characters in the game with lots of mobility and some of the hardest hitting units around. As an army with fairly mid magic, the hits to magic also don’t really hurt them a ton.
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Exiles make the army very reliable with Stubborn and Veteran going around to almost everyone. Cannons and the Frontier Axe are also great. They might not be quite the meta dominator they were, but they still have a strong win rate and a lot of build options. Maybe I’m a little biased, but I’d put them up here at number 2.
1. Vampire Counts
Well, since I just wrote a whole article about why VC are the best, this really shouldn’t be a surprise, right? Vampire Counts have a lot going for them these days. Being undead lets you ignore a ton of rules. Having the option to bring models back is totally amazing of course. A few months ago Scream Lists were all the rage. These are built around spamming Wailing Dirges ( Banshees, Mortis Engines and Terrorgihsts get these). These force the enemy to take a LD test at -2, losing a number of wound equal to what they fail by.
A magic heavy VC also has a number of ways to lower enemy LD. Tying the enemy up with cheap chaff, and then hitting them with 5-6 screams and some LD de-buffs can see powerful units, even dragons, just vanish. And these lists are good, but the meta has moved away from them. Vampires simply have some very hard hitting units, and a lot of staying power. Infantry buffs really helped them out as they have a lot more infantry than TK. Meanwhile basically no one scores objectives as well as them. Overall they’ve kind of hit the jackpot right now. But of course the meta is always changing and I’m sure we will be back here with a new line up in a few months.
Let us know which armies you think are the best, down in the comments!
Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers Warhammer: The Old World, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe mourned over loss of WFB for its entire hiatus, but has been reborn like a gaming phoenix with Warhammer: The Old World.