Best Hero

[bliss-giver]

I was just wondering about people's opinions on the best heroes in the game.
I'm pretty new to fantasy and so don't have a lot of experience, but:

I've found that Exalted heroes for chaos can be very good in combat and as a BSB, and can even take the book of secrets for some sorcery.
Warrior priests can also be helpful for hatred and extra dispel dice whilst at times their prayers are also useful.
And of course mages of all kinds are extremely useful.

But as my views are extremely limited, what does everyone else think?

[BallsOfSteel]

First question I have for you is... does this include hero-level Special Characters or no?

[bliss-giver]

I was really talking about non-heroes, but really I don't mind too much, especially if people use them regularly.

[Lyzaru]

I would say the following:

Best Fighter:
- reg: WoC Exalted Champion or whatever they are called, or a Herald of Khorne. (as both have weapon skill equal to most lords)
- spec: Named PG guy, or skulltaker.

Best BSBs:
- Wight King, or any Daemon Herald. (very hard to kill / can have a daemonic banner & gifts)

Best Mage:
- High elf mage, can provide lord level defense for hero level cost.

[Marnepup]

For overall contribution to the collective effort, warrior priest. Four reasons. They're cheap enough to spam, give bonus DD, healing spell as an innate ability (when you really need it, being able to delibetately boxcar it without miscasting is pure money), and they give hatred and +1LD to a unit. Consolation prize goes to the engineer. A naked one standing between two or three artillery pieces, ensuring that you hit what you're shooting at is one of the best investments in warhammer.

For buffing one unit, tomb prince. WS2 to WS5 is amazing. Not to mention that they virtually eliminate crumble if the hierophant dies.

For BSB, wight king or exalted. Wight king wins for me in the abstract, even over DoC heralds, but if you include the BSB bus in your considerations, it swings towards WoC.

For mages, I'd actually say Empire, for their access to the colleges and some great items, like the rod of power and the seal of destruction. Consider the reverse ward save DE lord... A level one alchemist with the signature spell (incidentally not a bad choice for a secondary mage for empire in an all comers list!) insta-zorches him. That's just one example, several of the lores have signature spells that are fantastic for Empire, making L1 mages a good investment (who'da thunk it?)

For a hero-star unit, I'd say high elves with a solid line of melee heroes in front of a min-sized block of phoenix guard, with a beast mage in the second row where he can wildform them without being targetable.

[rothgar13]

I have to give the Hero-star title to the Cairn Wraith. Wall-o-Wraith and some Skeletons to negate ranks and absorb any magical ranged attacks is something few armies are equipped to deal with (and even if you are, it's majorly slow going, thanks to attack allocation rules), and a Vampire Hero can take Forbidden Lore to Wildform them (and even fish for Savage Beast of Horros... you're in for a WORLD of hurt if he rolls that up). High Elf Heroes are far too expensive and far too fragile to be truly considered efficient.

Mages I can go any one of several routes. Beastmen love their Herdstone dancing crew, Empire can carry all sorts of nice arcane items with their super-cheap mages, High Elf Mages can pack up to +4 to dispel without much investment, and O&G can do something similar to Empire with NG mages, plus those generate dice for themselves. There's not a clear winner there in my mind, though I'm leaning toward the armies that actually can generate extra dice.

BSB I give to either the Wargor Beast Banner BSB (because +1 Strength to an entire unit is a BIG deal, and he's decently protected at T5/2+ armor), or the Wight King. Those are the guys that find their way into the vast majority of their armies' lists. I'd give the Beastmen BSB the edge, though, now that the Drakenhof Banner has become a thing of the past.

Buffing a unit... I'd say the Tomb Prince as well. That WS bump is just such a big deal for Skellies and Tomb Guard.

Not going to argue the point of Warrior Priests bringing lots of overall impact to the table. All-around impact is what they're there for.

[Marnepup]

I haven't seen a wall-o-wraith, so I can't comment on that, but I have to dispute one thing, if only a little. I'm not completely sold on hero-level MWBD for TG. Reason being points efficiency. A TP lacks KB, so WS5 is all he provides, and one less KB swing is an additional cost (obviously, against unarmored foes, no problem!). At a cost (assuming 30 TG) of 5ppm, a 40% points premium! The two most common WS values are 3 and 4. +1WS does nothing against WS3, and the only impact against WS4 is hitting on 3s instead of 4s. That's nice, but it's not worth 5ppm! Contrast that against core skellies with the same 150 point prince. The cost (assuming 50 skellies -40 might be more common, but I run two blocks of 50, and the math is easier-) is 3ppm. What you get is instead of hitting most enemies on 4s while they hit you on 3s, it's the opposite. Now, THAT is worthwhile!

For TG, a necrotect, preferably the named one, is better than a prince.

[rothgar13]

I'd dispute that. Even the Prince is a big deal for Tomb Guard, though obviously you want a King if you can get him. WS3 --> WS5 takes WS4 troops (which some armies have on all their guys) from hitting you on 3's and you hitting them on 4's to the opposite situation, makes you hit WS3 guys on 3's and makes WS5 guys (which comprise a significant portion of elites, including nasty stuff like White Lions and Chaos Warriors) hit you on 4's. One less KB swing is also not a big deal when you get access to Great Weapons for S6 swings and triple the attack output as compared to a normal Tomb Guard.

Ramhotep is pretty ace... if he lives long enough to get his benefits across. At T4 with a 6+ save, that's no gimme, and Tomb Guard only strike at I3, so it's not like they're getting the drop on a lot of armies (especially if they have access to Miasma). The Tomb King is miles more durable, and still provides a solid benefit.

[bliss-giver]

I've got to say, warrior priests can be either very frustrating or very useful depending on which side your playing, and heralds too, especially khorne ones with the number of hordes I see, it puts me in the rare position of not always winning a combat with my warriors in their normal 18-man units.

From another point of view, throgg is great whenever I face someone who fills their list with lore of metal, the last thing they expect is a horde of trolls as my core.

[Marnepup]

I'd dispute that. Even the Prince is a big deal for Tomb Guard, though obviously you want a King if you can get him. WS3 --> WS5 takes WS4 troops (which some armies have on all their guys) from hitting you on 3's and you hitting them on 4's to the opposite situation, makes you hit WS3 guys on 3's and makes WS5 guys (which comprise a significant portion of elites, including nasty stuff like White Lions and Chaos Warriors) hit you on 4's. One less KB swing is also not a big deal when you get access to Great Weapons for S6 swings and triple the attack output as compared to a normal Tomb Guard.

Ramhotep is pretty ace... if he lives long enough to get his benefits across. At T4 with a 6+ save, that's no gimme, and Tomb Guard only strike at I3, so it's not like they're getting the drop on a lot of armies (especially if they have access to Miasma). The Tomb King is miles more durable, and still provides a solid benefit.

Whoops! I had TG pegged for WS4. In any case, the core skellies benefit more, so I'd only give the TG a prince if all (both) of my core warriors already have one (not that it's hard to scare up the points for three princes), but a king is tough... I'd have to be playing at least 3k points since I'll always have khatep and a L4 lore of light before considering a king.

And in terms of ramhotep, I'll see your "what if they get hit with miasma," and raise you a "what if they get hit with speed of light or timewarp?". With four spells, a L4 priest is almost certain to get at least one of those...