Tier Rankings:
Trying to rank units in Kings of War is not a perfect science. By pure design, many units are meant to work in combination with other choices in the army and can be hard to judge on their own. For this exercise, it’s assumed the unit is being used to its utmost potential within the army. This is not just a math problem to determine the most cost-effective unit but to also see how they compare in scope, role, and impact across not just a single army but all Kings of War armies. For the most part, units will be treated as one entry; however, if an option or size drastically improves a unit it will be separately mentioned.
S Tier: Reserved for units that are widely acknowledged as either being significantly undercosted or having a combination of rules that perform well above units in similar roles. These units are often called “auto includes” as any list stands to be made better with their inclusion. Expect these units to be addressed in future CoK book updates
A Tier: These units are some of the best the army has to offer. They excel in their specific roles and commonly help form the core of most competitive lists. While not auto include, they are great in almost any army they are taken in and will be seen frequently.
B Tier: These units have a mix of strengths and weaknesses that make them very playable but balanced. These units work great with specific roles in mind; however, their weaknesses mean they do not help every list. In a perfect world, all units would fit into this category.
C Tier: C tier units may still shine in niche lists and roles; however, they will feel underpowered when compared to similar units in other armies. Decidedly suboptimal, you could make them work but frequently will see other things that are just better. You will rarely see many lists take these units.
D Tier: Units that need some considerable love and attention. You will struggle to find any role for this unit that another unit couldn’t do better. Very often you will see these units labeled as “unplayable”.
If you are interested in our other army reviews, you can find them here.
This review has been updated for Clash of Kings 2022. All updates are written in Red.
Ratkin
Right, it’s clash of kings 2022 ratkin update. Ratkin are a brilliant fusion force that can really pack a punch through a bunch of different list archetypes. They’ve changed a lot since version 2 of Kings of War, and in my opinion, continue to just get better. So let’s crack into it!
S Tier
Tangle – The Tangle is an incredible support piece. Keeping it in the right place gives you access to the game’s highest bane chant value, along with near-guaranteed weakness, and a very meaty fireball attack. It’s inspiring, rallying, it’s a -/14 nerve which means it sticks around, and it’s nimble and vicious to boot with a decent attack value for a support piece. Did I mention the fury aura? The fury aura is a crazy-nuts-fantastic mobile waver mitigation. Move 5 compared to your army’s standard move 6, and a defense of 4 makes it somewhat vulnerable, but it’s simply one of the best, if not the best support piece in the game, and nearly every list I write has one (although it’s not mandatory since you’re really spoilt for choices in support pieces). Plus the model is pretty sweet. Great unit. Super. Thumbs up.
Formation: Smoke and Mirrors – The new formation is pretty freaking sweet, I’m not gonna lie. Death Engines got a bump already, as did shredders, and the formation just gives you all the more reason to take all of them. I might be just running away with how much fun it is to run combined arms ratkin right now, but I’m sticking them up here in S tier and you can’t stop me.
War Chief – The simple addition of a vicious aura sticks the war chief right up there. If I’m really honest with myself, I’m not sure the war chief is really S tier, but call it a reflex reaction to getting back the chance to make shock troops half as good as they used to be. He’s pretty much the default choice for inspiring since Cok22, and that’s a good place to be.
A Tier
Brood Mother – Brood mums are awesome. They’re so incredibly suited to support for rats it’s pretty hard to write a list without one. An inspiring 5-attack character that scores, can see over all the infantry you like, and comes with a neato-sweeto drain life? Oh yes please. Rat lists are about either out-trashing, or out-enduring your opponents, and having a battery of drain life is an incredible assistance for that. Plus if they drain your trash units, it’s a super-drain which amounts to a straight heal 5. They’ve won games ogre-style with a final-turn 12” nimble move for objective snaffling.
Mutant Rat Fiend -This is a great giant, and the best option we have in that slot. A static attack line means it’s more reliable than most giants with a 3+ crush 2 melee, and the combination of a -/18 (pre-rally) nerve, regen 5+ and radiance of life, along with all that drain life you have wandering around means that if you don’t one-shot them, they’re so annoyingly hard to get rid of. They’re vulnerable to shooting and war engines due to their towering height and defense 4, but provide a much-needed punch to your line that’s hard to ignore.
Mother Cryza – Mother C doesn’t see much use, but I think that’s because people don’t realize how damn flexible she is. She’s super-expensive for a ratkin list, but I will move hell and high water to get her in my list. She’s our second-best lightning bolt caster, and as well as being inspiring, has a fantastic nerve, has stealthy and ensnare, she scores, and she has cloak of death. She anchors down a line, and is a brilliant road-block for something like a cavalry unit with her 3+ melee and ensnare. I rarely take the body of spells she carries, unless I fancy another bane chanter, because if I need that, I’ll probably put it on a warlock.
It’s tempting to take all the fancy schmansy new spells on her, but she’s really too expensive to be wasting her on that stuff.
Skud’zu’luk, Demonspawn of Diew – Man, that name is dumb. And boy, is the demonspawn expensive. And girl is he worth it if that’s what you want in your list. He’s Ratkin’s only flier, and one of the best dragons in the game with his 13 attacks, rally 2, lightning bolt 5, and 17/19 nerve. He’s just so damn good that I think he can become a crutch for your list. You just want to have him in, but he’s so expensive, your list starts to look super-elite. If I take him, he rarely makes it through the game, because people move hell and high water to eliminate his super-aggressive threat. And that’s a great function because then the rest of your stuff is whittling away their army while the big boy takes the punch. He’s a brilliant dragon, but I don’t think he’s entirely necessary for a functional list.
Shock Troops – So shock troops are another must-take unit in most lists, mainly because they’re basically the only decent infantry choice you have if you want something that, I dunno, actually does anything other than be something for the enemy to chew through. They punch as well as any 4+ melee unit, and their nerve is fantastic. Plus they have plague pots, which are so incredibly great I think should be in the S Tier all by itself. A single-turn ensnare or stealthy is the difference between me hating this unit, and loving this unit, because you should have enough in your line to anchor these killer rats into the units you want to kill, and to stay there. You can also make them phalanx, and plenty of good players do so, but to me, that particular upgrade is way too expensive to make it worth your points unless you’re playing in a supremely cavalry and flier-heavy meta, in which case, take a ton of spear warriors and play accordingly.
Warriors – Warriors? In tier A? Sure, why not. They’re cheap, they’re chaff, they can take plague pots. They’re annoying, and with rally, their nerve is enough to be a pain. Plus they’re drainable by brood mothers in a pinch. They’re good as they are. They’re not the best chaff we have, but they’re perfectly balanced for an 85/145 price point.
Vermintide – Speaking of the best chaff we have, here they are. I haven’t found any reason to take a horde or legion of them, but in the regiment form, they’re fantastically cheap, their defense 3+ is a bonus, rather than a hindrance since they’re guaranteed to die when you want them to, they’re super-drainable, making the brood mother’s drain life up to something like an effective heal, and nimble/vicious as an attack profile means you can’t ignore them in the flank, or god help you, a rear.
Hackpaws – Hackpaws are extremely underrated, and people find out to their cost just how brilliant they are when they’re run with the right support pieces in regiments. They’re so bloody fast, and so bloody cheap for nimble cav, that a couple of regiments out on a flank can make mincemeat of a weaker flank before turning in and winning a battle, although you’re almost certain to lose one due to their horrible nerve. I run them with a supporting ASB with lute and a brute enforcer for the rally. Or why not go all out with a demonspawn for a really devastating hammer that people can’t ignore.
I’ve also been experimenting with troops for chaff, which works surprisingly well. They’re basically goblin scouts without the speed 10, and work exactly the same.
Brute Enforcer – Another unit that doesn’t see the table enough. I think people are still in the mindset where all your rally in Ratkin comes from your hordes. That’s absolutely still a thing, but I think a really successful Ratkin army composition has loads of tiny combat units working together, and a brute enforcer is a great support piece for those with his height, nerve, unit strength, attack profile and rally for a measly 75 points.
Nightmares – Cok22 has seen nightmares’ vicious go from melee only to a generalised vicious, and that’s enough to kick this unit up the table from useful sometimes to useful nearly all the time. Whether in thicc chaff regiment form or all out terrifying horde form. They still only hit on 4s, but so does the rest of your army, so just suck it up.
Tunnel Runners – oh good god, at this point I’m just sticking the whole army in the A Tier. Which is kind of the point. There’s very little in the army that isn’t good any more. It’s just a pick and mix grab bag of amazing units. Tunnel Runners in the horde form still do suffer from needing sharpness to be any good, but the addition of skirmisher’s boots makes the troop (don’t forget: square base) really very threatening indeed.
B Tier
Clawshots – I’m going, to be frank, I nearly put clawshots in A tier. I only didn’t because I don’t take a lot of ranged in my ratkin lists. Clawshots are super-good still, and I think by far the best ranged option we have. But to be really good, you need multiples, and they start to eat up your points pretty fast. They’re very efficient, but they’re so short you’re nearly always shooting on 5s unless you happen to be playing on really open tables, so I’m not convinced of their value in the current V3 meta.
Night Terror – Pre Cok22, I’d charitably put the Night Terror into the A Tier, but as time has worn on, even without other upgrades, I’ve seen my liking of the hero decline. He’s definitely a good threat, but for nearly the same price you can have a whole regiment of hackpaws, which are infinitely more fun and project more threat.
Shredder– Ok so Shredders got considerably better in Cok22 thanks to an extra attack, but I’m still leaving them languishing down here in B Tier, simply because you’ll never take one without the formation. End of story.
Warlock – Ok, so I still struggle with this. I love Ratkin warlocks, I think they’re brilliant casters, and the new spells just make them better. But there are just better options in nearly every case for their utility in the list. Still good though.
Death Engine Spewer – Ok so death engines are cool, I’ve decided .Not just because I bought one. But mainly that. Again, they’re cool in the formation (like, super-cool), and if you’re going down that route, you might find yourself taking two. But weirdly now, they’re actually the less good death engine. Imagine!
Death Engine Impaler – The impaler has been seriously, seriously upgraded. Rampage (the better new rule) and wild charge makes this a serios threat, especially since its height and chariot base mean it can do a variety of nasty flanking charges which make up for its disappointing melee 4.
C Tier
Swarm Crier – As is the case for the majority of standard bearers ,the removal of conditional inspiring removes their utility for most lists. Unless you’re desperate for a lute somewhere, and ratkin has much better bane chant on tap from at least 3 other casters.
Spear Warriors – Spear Warriors. They’re expensive warriors with phalanx. Good for them. Look, I’ll be honest, I don’t see the point in taking phalanx in ratkin. Everything’s going to die, and when you win, you’re going to win with maybe 4 units left on the table. Just position your stuff right and use your pieces well. Why spend the points? Still, if you like that sort of thing, here are some spear warriors. Go crazy.
Wretches – I’m gonna be honest, I do take wretches, but it’s always because I don’t have enough points to take the warriors I’d really rather take. They’re big blocks that will die, but they tend to be my nearly-bottom choice. I did put the crystal pendant on them once, which was pretty funny..
Scurriers – I want to like Scurriers, I do, but they’re just so expensive for what you get. I mean, straight vicious is great, and scouting up a regiment of these would be pretty annoying, but they’re paying points for duelist that I don’t think would ever really be used and I’ve yet to find a decent place for them in an army that relies on attrition to win. I kind of feel they’re the ratkin hipster choice, and cool people like them. I’m just not cool enough to understand them. By all means, talk about how you liked them before they were popular.
Weapon Teams – Ok, so I’ve seen weapon teams used to devastating effect, even post cok22, but I just can’t shake the feeling that points are better spent elsewhere. Like on shredders in that formation. They are ok, but only if you’re going all in on shooting, and if you do that you’re dicing with death, because that stealthy list’s gonna come kick your arse.
Master Scurrier – People love this assassin. They really really love him. But there’s so many other options I’d take before I ever consider taking him that he’s right down the bottom of the list for my options. Put him in your hipster bucket with your scurriers and feel cool when you take him and he gets one-shotted game, after game, after game.
D Tier
Birthing Daughter – The new kid on the block pretty much only exists because there’s a vanguard model. I want to like her, with her quirky little pistol, and strider aura for expendable units. But the problem is that expendable units already hit on a 5 or worse, so strider is just… kind of wasted? Hopefully she gets tuned a bit, because it’s a cool concept.
Twitch Keen’ear – It’s… the other new kid on the block. Twitch is pricy, and you can see where his special ability is intended to do away with some of the randomness of rolling 4s to hit. But the chances of him bane chanting the right unit at the right time to make it worth using is pretty slim, and while hex is cool, it’s not 120 points cool. You’ll just end up taking a warlock instead. Plus his wand looks like a big willy. Which you might like. Takes all sorts.
