So the wild ride that has been 2020 is almost over. While our collective ability to play games both casually and at tournaments has taken a massive hit, Third Edition has been out for long enough that we have been able to get a good feel for the types of lists people have come up with and the units they are taking. Below are my Top 5 Units of the Year 2020, defined loosely as the units that have most impacted or defined a faction’s playstyle and/or had the greatest effect on the Third Edition meta.
1) Tree Herder (including Wiltfather upgrade) – Putting aside the allied Wiltdaddy meme which I expect to be FAQ’ed any day now, the Tree Herder is probably the most improved unit from Second Edition. It gets the top spot due to its ubiquity in lists from so many different factions. You will rarely see a Nature or Sylvan Kin list without at least one Tree Herder, and its also common in Herd and Elf lists. The improved Tree Herder has brought Forest Shambler hordes off the shelf and made a completely unique playstyle, the heavy Scouting army, viable. Pretty hard to beat all those effects from one unit which is why the Tree Herder is the top unit in 2020.
2) Soul Reaver Infantry – Undead lists have been very successful this year and Soul Reaver Infantry are a huge reason why. Wights are great too but there is probably no other unit that has benefited more from the Third Edition meta than these vampires: less shooting, less alpha strike and more powerful/popular Phalanx are all music to their ears (it doesn’t hurt that they have amazing delivery systems in Revenant Calvary or Wraiths). Soul Reaver Infantry have the exact same stats as in Second Edition but the context in which they are being played now is wildly different. They are thriving amazingly well.
3) Snow Foxes – Snow Foxes win the award for best new unit in Third Edition. I’ve literally never seen a Northern Alliance or Varangur list in Third Edition without at least two regiments of these and it’s easy to see why. They have taken over the top spot from Gargoyles as the best pure chaff in the game and the power levels of the two armies they are in have benefitted a lot from access to the diminutive but powerful Snow Foxes.
4) Angkor Heavy Mortar – The Angkor Heavy Mortar has taken a nerf and Abyssal Dwarfs don’t have many top tier tournament success stories this year, but War Engines dominated so much of the conversation earlier this year that it feels wrong not to include at least one representative here. Abyssal Dwarfs have been a consistent terror on the battlefield in a lot of metas and it’s a rare AD army that isn’t sporting at least two of the Heavy Mortars. War Engines kept the gunline dream alive this year; it remains to be seen whether any of the newly regular shooting units such as Kindred Gladestalkers will challenge the Angkor Heavy Mortar as the #1 shooting boogie man.
5) Ceremonial Guard – Ceremonial Guard are the poster child for the buffed Phalanx rule. I’ve been saying since the beginning of the edition that Phalanx is only truly powerful when combined with another defensive rule like Defense 5 or Ensnare, and the Ceremonial Guard have been the best example of that theory. Like the other members of the top 5, these lizards are seen in almost every Salamander list and there isn’t another unit in the game which has buffed its army’s tier ranking like they have. This unit single handedly poses the question to every other army—what’s your plan for dealing with a high nerve, Defense 5 Phalanx horde dominating the middle of the board? So many armies this year have failed to answer adequately.
Honorable Mentions: Spear Phalanx, Idol of Shobik, Mindscreech, Revenant Calvary, Butchers, Frostfang Lord, Earth Elementals
I feel like the community is only really sinking its teeth into Third Edition and there remains a lot to discover about the armies and their units. That’s very exciting to me and I can’t wait to see what people come up with next year.
Do you agree with the rankings above? Disagree? What do you have as your units of the year?
Thanks for reading!
I’d argue that Phalanx—like any rule, really—is also powerful on a suitably cheap body such as Skeleton Spearmen, but +1 for the Ceremonial Guard nod. They are indeed an excellent unit helping personify what an anvil is in 3rd Ed.
It’s a pretty good top 5! Not including unique units (which I like) I agree with a lot of it. Thanks for writing it up and sharing.
(the following is all ‘imo’)
-Tree herder deserves top spot! I think a year of seeing the Wiltfather frequently will get this unit restricted/gently nerfed.
-Soul Reaver infantry are fairly spectacular. The killing power of a Greatax horde on an infantry base at sp6 with def 5 for the same points seems amazing (and a timely reminder for me to paint mine up)
-snow foxes. I’m yet to put them into my Varangur list but they do seem like excellent chaff. Given that chaff is more important this ed it’s a worthy inclusion
-Heavy Mortar – post nerf (both to this and to cannon) this is probably close to a balefire for top war machine. Still probably deserves to be here but no longer certain
– ceremonial guard. Best phalanx unit in one of it’s best homes. Given that the boomstick doesn’t count as a unit I like seeing these here but they don’t stand clear above the crowd for me. I’d rather do without these than go without Tyrants in a Sallies list.
Honorable mention to rev cav seems reasonable post nerf as they are no longer crazy, but still solid.
Probably Wights and Butchers belong on the list more than Foxes and Ceremonial guard. Grotesques and Enslaved guardians are extremely good, as are Abyssal Hunt knights, Ogre Palace guard and Siege Breakers.
There are plenty of extremely strong characters but I prefer putting the focus on units.
It’s a great list and a good talking point.
What do others think?
Forgot to mention troops of Abyssal Beserkers who seem ridiculous for the points. They’ve been hidden by the sheer ludicrous general quality of the other Abyssal Dwarf units but I struggle to see what they were pointed against.