‘Warhammer: The Old World’ – The Five Best Special Characters

Take a look at the best named characters in Warhammer: The Old World. The heroes and villains you want in your army!

Warhammer: The Old World is full of super cool characters. Over the various Arcane Journals we’ve gotten a number of these heroes and villains have gotten rules. Others still need to be added to the game. Now the use of named characters in games of Warhammer can be a bit controversial.  Some groups and some events don’t allow them. Others do. I think at this point the majority of events are allowing them. With that in mind I thought it would be worth taking a look at which of these are the best and worth taking these days. Sadly only core armies have named characters, so the Legacy factions are out of luck, for now. But we’ll take a look at what we do have.

5. Ungrim Ironfist

First up we have Ungrim Ironfist, King of the Slayer Hold. Ungrim is a decently solid combat character, with strong attacks (though no multiple-wounds) and an ok save and even a ward. Not having a ward is often the downfall of named characters and he avoids that. Now you can build a better combat Dwarf, but he also does some nice things for the Dwarfen army. Outside of the new Slayer Army of Infamy, an army led by Ungrim was pretty much the best way to build a Slayer army. And if we are being honest it’s stilly probably to build a good Slayer Focused army. He also make a unit of Hammerers unbreakable and has MR2. Both are totally solid. Sadly at the end of the day he’s still a M3 combat character which does hold him back.

4. Miao Ying

In terms of RAW power Miao Ying is sitting up there are the top of the list of special characters. She’s got piles of rules and does a lot. The option to switch between a powerful caster and a powerful dragon, that can still cast a bit, is strong and she is very flexible. She also gives Grand Cathay something it can’t get any other way, a big dragon. She’s also their only native way to get a caster into a unit of infantry. All of those things are really great, and she had a real chance of shooting for the top of the list. However a few things do hold her back.

First off, she costs a lot. She’s also pretty complicated and hard to use. It’s really easy to mess up playing with her, she had a high skill threshold. On top of that, like a lot of combo characters she’s not that best at either of the things she does. There are better dragons out there. There are better casters out there as well (though she is up there and has access to really great spells). However the number one thing bringing her down is just the rest of her list. Cathay has some other really good and more cost effective options. So even though she’s pretty good she doesn’t show up as much due to other stuff just being better.

3. General Hans von Löwenhacke

Löwenhacke is a pretty common take in Empire lists these days. Aside from LD he’s a better version of the Empire General on foot. He’s got a decent save, a ward and immunity to killing blow. He’s also got a pretty decent weapon that does 2 wounds. Overall he’s one of the better foot combat characters around. He also takes away the misbehaving mercenaries rule from mercenaries (and lets them act as more a part of the army), so if you want to use them that’s pretty nice. This does provide a unique place for him and is cool, though Empire doesn’t yet have enough Merc options to really make this a great rule.

However lets be honest you aren’t taking him for any of those things. You take Löwenhacke because of Strategic Mastery, which lets you apply +1/-1 t to the roll to go first. Given how Empire builds are it’s almost always going to be a +1. With this and a small drop Empire army, possible with lots of warmachines you can have a really good shot at getting a +2 to go first. This makes him one of the most reliable ways to get a first turn in the game, and that’s pretty strong. If only he was in a better army!

2.

Duchaard has gotten a pretty big glow up following the 1.5 Update. Before it she was mostly overlooked, now just about every Bretonnian list that can take her is. Being a lvl 3 is no longer a big down side for her as it used to be. And she comes with some great casting options, making her one of the best buffing casters around. This is thanks to the option to take 2 signature spells, and Brets have some really great options. She also comes with all the normal buffs a Bret Damsel does as well.

Even just that would likely be enough to think about taking her. However she also has some other crazy rules. She is one of, if not the, best dispellers in the game. With +1 to dispel and auto dispelling on doubles she can shut down a lot of casting. On top of that her doubles to dispel do wounds to the enemy caster, meaning that she can slowly chip away at enemy casters. She also gives nearby enemies a -2 to LD test they take to use a special rule. In particular this can help shut down Undead resurrection (it can also help prevent Cathay Lanterns from escaping combat). Dealing damage to casters and shutting down resurrection makes her a huge threat to Undead armies, which happen to be some of the top lists.

To cap that all off at 225 points she is very cost effective, and barely costs more than a normal LVL 3/4 for Brets. The only real downsides she has are being stuck on a Unicorn (which does make her a bit harder to kill also) and not being able to be taken in Bret Exiles. This last one does mean you might not see her in every Bret army, but she’s a staple of the other lists.

1. The Green Knight

The Green Knight has almost single handled ruined named characters in ToW and is a huge reason some events have banned them. He is a really good option. At his base he’s a decent combat character. Post 1.5 he’s unlikely to straight up break big blocks alone, but he can still put out some decent damage. Being Ethereal with a 3+/5++ also makes him really hard to kill, unbreakable and terror add to this, and give him chances to make the enemy run away. All of that is super good, but not what makes him kind of broken.

The first big thing he has that pushes him up there is the ability to arrive from terrain. Not only can he arrive from it, but he can charge the turn he arrives (though many events have put in rules saying he can’t). This rule can be insane allowing him to show up without warning and chew through the enemy backline. Now it does require a die roll and you do have to have terrain in the right places so its not 100% reliable, but its pretty solid. Added to that is the ability for him to come back after being killed. This not only lets him keep dealing damage, but also makes it pretty hard to score points off of him. A lot of events have also put in rules to change this as well.

Now the Green Knight is still a bit luck based. He needs to roll decent in combat. He needs the right set up and rolls to come in. But, if things go well, and there is a high chance they will, he can be devastating. For all that, and his cheap cost, he tops the list.

Let us know what named character you think is 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.

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