I recently found out about this game and I had no idea where to start until I stumbled into your videos. I currently live in China and I saw a seller online selling 3d printed 10mm warmaster armies. I'll watch your factions breakdown videos before I decide which two armies to buy. Keep up the great work!
Thank you for this informative video - your arguments are well reasoned and backed up with your experience. Top stuff. I would ask that you don't distract me so much - I'm supposed to be writing software for work!
Hi, thanks for your video. Some points I would like to raise. The strenght of each army varies on size and battle ground. I fully agree that experience is the key to be successful. Personaly I wouldn‘t rate witch hunter or Skaven that low. Outnumbering is a key to win. You can shoot and bring the opponent in disorder. If they attack they will win probably the first attack, but they will use expensive units to hit cheap units. The counterstrike with surrounding will often kill them and they they struggle on points and breakpoint. As larger those armies are it is even challenging to go with your best units into such traps. Good thing in WM: you can win with almost all armies.
On the note of Experience being king I'd love to see a video on more in depth strategies for each faction. More than just "play these guys defensively" or "dont split this army up". More alnog the lines of a battle report but both Comanders are talking openly about what they are thinking, why they make certain moves, and how they go about anticipating enemy moves.
A good, well reasoned list. I’ve played Warmaster, on and off since it was released and my main ‘balance’ observation is that knights have always been under costed. High Elves are still OP, and always have been…..
Played Warmaster since it was released, and yeah, Elves are quite easily the best faction. General with leadership 10, good spell casters, excellent Cavalry, and all their non magic ranged attacks hit on 3+ against targets in the open. Oh, and they have access to Dragon rider units.
Top video! , I've empire/DoW/witch hunter amies and more attracted by bottow of your tiers armies also :) . I've certainly less experience, and don't have play with all armies, in my opinon, the Tomb King deserve more to go one tiers above, with their 4+ confusion artillery, good mix of infantry/cavalery/chariot/monster, and 4 spell caster for 2k points, and the best spell of all: sumon squeletton! who can easly crush a brigade of hevy knight charged by basic infantry. and don't even think to have a giant or something with their doom and despair spell, useless. Also the flaw of max 20 cm order/no initiative is largely compensate with the no confusion/malus ennemy within 20cm.
Definitely disagree about TK, my favorite faction bar none and my biggest irl army….but they are a C tier army No initiative is a huge disadvantage, yes you do get non confusion/terror/command penalty…but it makes getting those critical charges off dice dependent…on the up side you can pull off some cheeky weaving back line charges due to not worry about negatives to command Infantry is garbage, I take max possible….it’s so garbage it only works if you have enough to just survive 2 combats that will likely kill 2-3 units….at which point you can MAYBE counter charger to surround and destroy….they hold, nothing more Cav are crap, mobile infantry, they are thematic but it’s better to just take 2 infantry units instead Monsters are crap, they can be fun but nothing to write home about Chariots are rock stars, take as many as possible….engage with infantry, flank with chariots, they won’t come back after you send them, but they will win or lose you the game Artillery is excellent, fliers are good, initiative hurts the fliers as you need to risk a priest to them rear charge….makes them awkward but still good Magic is critical, if you get spells off, your half way to winning, magic fails you? You might still win but it’s gonna be tough…..I’ve had way more failed raise dead than success I love them, favorite faction, favorite army, I came in breaking 500 in last years tournament….I think Ian ranked them correctly
Just wondering if the 2023 tweaks have moved the pointer on the army Tier list. Are elephants for example still as good when other monsters have come down in points costs?
I've picked Kislev, cause I liked the look of the Winged Hussars, but I really need to get more experience in the game to figure out how to use them effectively. I'm having great fun, though. Now I'm wondering, where would you put the Nippon faction? I do like the idea of having Tengus, Oni and Teppo Ashigaru in my army, that just sounds baller... but I wonder if they are any good. Then again, does it matter if the units are cool and you're having fun?
Is this worth a quick update video to add the 2 new factions and to see 1if you think the points changes are enough to raise or lower ceriatn factions?
Coming back to this over a year later. Having had a bit of time now to play test and have a look at the proposed changes. Can you see anything being changed after the proposed revisions or overall do you still see them in the same places?
@@iainmstanding You have no idea how hard it is to stay neutral and say "alright, kickass!" when the factions I care about are Night Goblins, Skaven, and Wood Elves (I am aware that changes to WE are being playtested). There's always next year! :D
I dont agree with all your rankings but I agree that player skill is the most important. Many of the rankings are also dependent on what you are playing yourself as there is a small element of rock-paper-scissors to the armies.
Nothing can compare the Dice power. General Winter is your worst enemy always. But some Armies can help you more than others to win. Nice considerations in your list.
Don't worry, all armies are playable and can win. A lot of the problems highlighted in this list have been addressed in the most recent updates this year. You can see them in my video about this year's changes. czcams.com/video/A3iBLNC2U6M/video.html
Help is on the way with this year's proposed changes. www.wm-revolution.com/articles/news/wmrrc-updates-for-2022.html?fbclid=IwAR0Crfl9KBGEefuZf0wXCIaouG2TB2W5ASbu1h5pCujUjeZBMkXRzyt98JA
Free Warmaster resources here; Warmaster Revolution rules and army lists; www.wm-revolution.com/articles/download.html
Warmaster army list builder here; wm-selector.appspot.com/#/
Warmaster Podcast here; warmasterpodcast.podbean.com/
Experimental Warmaster forum wmrexperimental.freeforums.net/
Facebook page: facebook.com/groups/185937199904
I recently found out about this game and I had no idea where to start until I stumbled into your videos.
I currently live in China and I saw a seller online selling 3d printed 10mm warmaster armies. I'll watch your factions breakdown videos before I decide which two armies to buy.
Keep up the great work!
Why not grab a printer and just print your own?
S tier: Halflings
Halflings are not an army, they are a way of life.
I am thinking to get startet and its lovely to see that someone is putting this mich efort in this game to explain everything
Thank you for this informative video - your arguments are well reasoned and backed up with your experience. Top stuff.
I would ask that you don't distract me so much - I'm supposed to be writing software for work!
Another brilliant video
Hi, thanks for your video. Some points I would like to raise. The strenght of each army varies on size and battle ground. I fully agree that experience is the key to be successful. Personaly I wouldn‘t rate witch hunter or Skaven that low. Outnumbering is a key to win. You can shoot and bring the opponent in disorder. If they attack they will win probably the first attack, but they will use expensive units to hit cheap units. The counterstrike with surrounding will often kill them and they they struggle on points and breakpoint. As larger those armies are it is even challenging to go with your best units into such traps. Good thing in WM: you can win with almost all armies.
On the note of Experience being king I'd love to see a video on more in depth strategies for each faction. More than just "play these guys defensively" or "dont split this army up". More alnog the lines of a battle report but both Comanders are talking openly about what they are thinking, why they make certain moves, and how they go about anticipating enemy moves.
czcams.com/video/1J8MEPetGBI/video.html
We tried this in earlier battle reports such as this
Amazing video once again
Glad you enjoyed it
Thank you sir
A good, well reasoned list. I’ve played Warmaster, on and off since it was released and my main ‘balance’ observation is that knights have always been under costed. High Elves are still OP, and always have been…..
Agreed. Knights are very good for their cost. Knights + command 10 = win.
Hi, thanks for you work it is realy help to bring new players to a table. Also one of our playes ask then Vampire Count Video will be avalible again )
You tube has blocked this video in Russia due to the Music from Bram Stoker's Dracula, but if you use a VPN you should be able to get around this.
Thanks, not expected what vampires will be beaten by copyright cringe ) @@iainmstanding
Played Warmaster since it was released, and yeah, Elves are quite easily the best faction. General with leadership 10, good spell casters, excellent Cavalry, and all their non magic ranged attacks hit on 3+ against targets in the open.
Oh, and they have access to Dragon rider units.
Top video! , I've empire/DoW/witch hunter amies and more attracted by bottow of your tiers armies also :) .
I've certainly less experience, and don't have play with all armies, in my opinon, the Tomb King deserve more to go one tiers above, with their 4+ confusion artillery, good mix of infantry/cavalery/chariot/monster, and 4 spell caster for 2k points, and the best spell of all: sumon squeletton! who can easly crush a brigade of hevy knight charged by basic infantry. and don't even think to have a giant or something with their doom and despair spell, useless. Also the flaw of max 20 cm order/no initiative is largely compensate with the no confusion/malus ennemy within 20cm.
Definitely disagree about TK, my favorite faction bar none and my biggest irl army….but they are a C tier army
No initiative is a huge disadvantage, yes you do get non confusion/terror/command penalty…but it makes getting those critical charges off dice dependent…on the up side you can pull off some cheeky weaving back line charges due to not worry about negatives to command
Infantry is garbage, I take max possible….it’s so garbage it only works if you have enough to just survive 2 combats that will likely kill 2-3 units….at which point you can MAYBE counter charger to surround and destroy….they hold, nothing more
Cav are crap, mobile infantry, they are thematic but it’s better to just take 2 infantry units instead
Monsters are crap, they can be fun but nothing to write home about
Chariots are rock stars, take as many as possible….engage with infantry, flank with chariots, they won’t come back after you send them, but they will win or lose you the game
Artillery is excellent, fliers are good, initiative hurts the fliers as you need to risk a priest to them rear charge….makes them awkward but still good
Magic is critical, if you get spells off, your half way to winning, magic fails you? You might still win but it’s gonna be tough…..I’ve had way more failed raise dead than success
I love them, favorite faction, favorite army, I came in breaking 500 in last years tournament….I think Ian ranked them correctly
This video proves to me that I need new red glow in the dark dice to win my next battle!!
Love me some warmaster!
Agree with both the F tier and S tier 100%! And why I also love Warmaster so much. Easily the best game GW ever made ... followed by Mordheim.
Bretonnia grail knights with banner of shielding and a enchantress on unicorn to cast shield of combat. Waiting for a game to test it out.
Ogres dead last, oh well, they are still my favourite fantasy army ☹
*me wearing headphones*
Ian: Araby!
*Elephant does sexual violence to my eardrums*
Thank Iain!
That was a real horror move like screamer )
Love all your videos. How would you rate the Beastmen after all the changes in 2022/2023? Thanks, and awesome to see you enjoying 3e as well!! 🍻
Beastmen still need work IMO. But they are getting there slowly.
Mumm-Ra the Ever Living!!!!!
Just wondering if the 2023 tweaks have moved the pointer on the army Tier list. Are elephants for example still as good when other monsters have come down in points costs?
I will do an updated version once I have reviewed cathay and nippon
I've picked Kislev, cause I liked the look of the Winged Hussars, but I really need to get more experience in the game to figure out how to use them effectively. I'm having great fun, though.
Now I'm wondering, where would you put the Nippon faction? I do like the idea of having Tengus, Oni and Teppo Ashigaru in my army, that just sounds baller... but I wonder if they are any good.
Then again, does it matter if the units are cool and you're having fun?
@@h.a.9880 czcams.com/video/-r7ghPdQ4cw/video.htmlsi=xTOPNPVUY4xdBcAe
I'm glad you are having fun, and ive done a newer list with nippon and cathay.
@@iainmstanding Thank you!
Is this worth a quick update video to add the 2 new factions and to see 1if you think the points changes are enough to raise or lower ceriatn factions?
Yes, once I have some data to support a new list.
Coming back to this over a year later. Having had a bit of time now to play test and have a look at the proposed changes. Can you see anything being changed after the proposed revisions or overall do you still see them in the same places?
I think once nippon and cathay are ready to be added to the list, I will revisit it and move some of the rankings around.
Glad I chose to look to see if someone asked before asking, super excited for the narrative campaign and the updates 😁!
@@iainmstanding Any discussion in the rules committee about making the lower ranked factions more powerful?
@@MagisterMagnificum Yes, Ogres, Witch hunters, Deamons, Dogs of War and Beastmen have all received positive changes.
@@iainmstanding You have no idea how hard it is to stay neutral and say "alright, kickass!" when the factions I care about are Night Goblins, Skaven, and Wood Elves (I am aware that changes to WE are being playtested). There's always next year! :D
do you reckon the changes in 2022 have shaken this up much?
Time will tell. Chaos dwarfs, Dogs of War and ogres are all better under the changes
Where would Nippon sit on this list? Not that it will change my mind on making Nippon my second army after Daemons
Interesting question. Unfortunately there is insufficient data to provide a good answer at present.
But a new, up to date tier list is coming soon.
@@iainmstanding I’m half tempted to push ahead with Nippon now purely from an aesthetic point, there’s some good stuff out there to print!
I dont agree with all your rankings but I agree that player skill is the most important. Many of the rankings are also dependent on what you are playing yourself as there is a small element of rock-paper-scissors to the armies.
I'm glad you disagree, Warmaster should be your own personal journey of experience.
I think TK should be A tier with the original ruleset. The revolution nerf made them C
how so? Seems to me skeleton infantry got a big boost under revolution.
I would also like to know what was nerfed, I am very new and I love the TK, so i would love to know your opinion!
Mum Ra approves of this message.
i dont like these "meta"-videos, but i cant resist. lets see where my arabies landed
Nothing can compare the Dice power. General Winter is your worst enemy always. But some Armies can help you more than others to win. Nice considerations in your list.
What about giving slayers cavalry movement.
Is this tier list still accurate?
Started building ogres without watching it and now I'm scared that I've picked worst army possible.
Don't worry, all armies are playable and can win. A lot of the problems highlighted in this list have been addressed in the most recent updates this year. You can see them in my video about this year's changes.
czcams.com/video/A3iBLNC2U6M/video.html
@@iainmstanding thank you very much for your work!!!
My poor Dogs of War! At least they are better than ogres!
Help is on the way with this year's proposed changes. www.wm-revolution.com/articles/news/wmrrc-updates-for-2022.html?fbclid=IwAR0Crfl9KBGEefuZf0wXCIaouG2TB2W5ASbu1h5pCujUjeZBMkXRzyt98JA
@@iainmstanding I honestly hope that these changes help push the Dogs of War to be a bit more competitive as their models and fluff are my favorites.