Best Individuals in Kings of War

Hi everyone, recently on Unplugged Radio we were chatting about Individuals in Kings of War, how we use them, and what some of our favorites are. It got me wanting to write an article listing my favorite Individuals for each of the 3 roles we discussed in the podcast episode; Support, Beatstick, and Hazer

If you want to check out the podcast episode you can find it here.

A Support Individual is a character whose role is to stick behind the lines and support. Hazers are those skirmishy characters who annoy, harass, and generally make a nuisance of themselves, but aren’t necessarily killing or supporting. And the Beat Sticks are your combat monsters.

I originally thought about just doing a top 10 Individual article, but it’s really tough to cross-compare characters with drastically different roles, hopefully, this makes the discussion a bit better, while still creating some fun analysis.

Here we go!

Please note, since this article is about Individuals, in order to be discussed the choice needs the Individual special rule, sorry Warlocks and Ogre characters. I also only allow 1 entry from each army per category.

Support Individuals

Most of us are probably familiar with Support Individuals; they are casters that Heal and Surge, Banners for Inspiring, characters taken primarily for their Auras, or other similar roles, which usually lurk behind the lines, helping your units, while trying to stay alive.

5: Wiz- Goblins

The Goblin Wiz, like many Goblins, is cheap, dirt cheap, which is their main strength. They also come with Lightning Bolt 3 standard, which is an amazing starting spell. Often the only other spell you will see on them is Bane Chant, to support their battle line in a grind, but honestly in Goblins, Bane Chant and just a bit more range threat is all you need. Coming in at 45 points, Goblin Wiz’s are also cheap enough to make it extremely easy to invest in important support items, like the Inspiring Talisman, the Boomstick, or Conjurer’s Staff.

Anyone who has faced Goblins regularly will notice the value a couple of Wizs blasting and Bane Chanting away each turn brings to the table. Cheap, useful, and easy to use, what isn’t to like!

4: Druid – Forces of Nature, Herd, and Brotherhood of the Green Lady

Ah the humble Druid, not anywhere near the best spell caster, but they can do almost anything; with access to Bane Chant, Lightning Bolt, Surge, Wind Blast, and starting with Heal they have a lot of tools. Granted, most of their spells are a paltry 2 dice power, but they have options!

Even better, for 65 points they come with Inspiring standard!

Usually, you will pop Bane Chant and/or Surge on them and use them to shuffle along with your line. Lightning Bolt with Boom Stick would be decent if their armies didn’t almost all have better Lightning Bolt choices.

Overall, the Druids are just a cheap, flexible, but usable choice. Very similar to Goblin Wiz, they get the job done for a fraction of what many factions pay. Built-in Inspiring is particularly helpful, as it frees up the item slot for other choices.

3: Elven Archmage – Elves

Elven Archmages are a bit odd, they start with no spells, but they can pay to take almost any spell in the game, all at respectable numbers. When using them you have to be careful, as additional spells add up quickly; however, the flexibility when list building is amazing.

What really makes the Elven Archmage shine though, is their “Master of Magic” special rule, which allows them to re-roll all hit rolls of 1 for casting spells, basically Elite for spell casting. This makes their spells really reliable.

A common way to see the Archmage’s taken is as a Lighting Bolt blaster, slinging Lightning Bolt 5 across the board, Keith Randall has even made great use of a cluster of 3 Archmages that he refers to as the “Duracelf” which all sling a terrifying amount of Piercing 1 hits.

If you don’t want blast damage, consider Bane Chant and Heal to keep your line going. No matter which choice you go with, Elite spellcasting means you will be more reliable than almost any caster in the game.

2: Necromancer – Undead

My number 2 choice may raise some eyebrows, but I really think the Necromancer has completely shifted the average points most Undead players pay for Surge. Coming in at a bargain 50 points with Surge 6, the Necromancer also has access to Heal, Bane Chant, Drain Life, and Weakness giving them a nice variety of ways to support their minions.

50 points for Surge 6 is already really nice, slap Bane Chant or Drain Life on the caster and you have a valuable asset for your battle line for under 100 points. Take a few and spread out the Surge threat zones to give the Undead a ton of flexibility in movement.

The option that really brings them up to amazing in my mind is the ability to take an Aura giving Vicious to all Zombie units, this means Zombies, GoreBlight, and Zombie Trolls. While Vicious on Zombies themselves is just ok, it is phenomenal when taking multiple units of Zombie Trolls or GoreBlights.

Put Inspiring Talisman on one Necromancer and plop it behind your lines Surging, Healing, or assisting where needed, it’s cheap but exceedingly useful to the shambling Undead hordes.

1: Ulpgar the Mad- Orcs

And my final choice for best Support Individual in the game, Ulpgar the Mad from the Orcs. Ulpgar came out in the Halpi’s Rift campaign, but their rules can be found in Easy Army. Basically they are a powered up Godspeaker.

Ulpgar has Bane Chant 3 and Fireball 7, respectable, but not groundbreaking. However, like Godspeaker’s Ulpgar’s spells power up when other Orc units are near. Even better, with the “Magic of the Bloody Knife Tribe” ability, whenever Ulpgar Bane Chants a unit, for each success that unit gains Lifeleech, up to a max of 3+. Basically providing Bane Chant and Heal in one go! Finally, Ulpgar Inspires! All of this for a bargain price of 120 points!!!!

Ulpgar doesn’t have the flexibility of generic casters, no further options or items, but what they do, they do amazingly well.

Well, there you have it, my list for top 5 Support Individuals in Kings of War, before I moved on I wanted to note how frequently the cheap costs of a unit came up when I considered how useful a character was. Support Individuals are almost never scoring many points, and they can’t score objectives, so the support they bring needs to be at a bargain value. While the more Surge dice an expensive caster like a Lich King brings might be tempting, cheap Necromancers can often do the job just as well, without paying extra points for things like higher Nerve and Regeneration. When looking at support individuals remember, keep them cheap and their role focused!

Next up are the Beatsticks.

Beatstick Individuals

The Beatstick’s role is pretty straightforward, hit things, kill them, rinse, repeat. Beatsticks are particularly skilled at protecting versus flyers, adding a few extra damage to make sure to pop units in one charge, and just generally raking in kills.

I want to remind people that each army can only be represented once in each category, so if you notice choices missing that could be why.

5: Exemplar Redeemer – Order of the Green Lady

The Exemplar Redeemer may surprise some people by making the list; however, they slap! Coming in at 180 points, already mounted, they are the second cheapest choice in this group, and all the points are spent well. Speed 8, Melee 3+, Defense 5+, 7 Attacks, and a 13/15 Nerve is pretty solid. To top that off they also get Crushing Strength 2, Headstrong, Inspiring, Mighty, and Regeneration 5+. There are no wasted rules on this hero!

7 attacks, on 3s, with minus 2 to defense is phenomenal, for the price it’s even better, then you realize the Redeemer comes with built-in Waver protection (Headstrong) AND Regeneration to keep it going! Amazing. I think the biggest reason people don’t talk about these more is just that Order of the Green Lady is a less common army.

4: Berzerker Lord on Brock- Free Dwarves

Some people may wonder why Sveri, the super version the Brock Lord, isn’t in this spot, well Sveri is Large Cav, so loses Individual, thus disqualifying him, sorry Sveri.

However, the Berzerker Lord is still very good. Once mounted on a Brock, they are 140 points, have Speed 8, Melee 3+, Defense 4+, 7 Attacks, and a -/16 Nerve. They have only Crushing Strength 1, Inspiring Berzerkers only, and Vicious thanks to the Brock.

One thing easy to underestimate is the value of Fearless on a combat character, Waver can cost you valuable turns of fighting, but with the Brock Lord you don’t have to worry. The value you get for the package also makes them easily equipped with surplus items to supplement the specific role you want for them. Pop Blade of the Beast Slayer on one of these and suddenly it is a terrifying opponent for all monsters, and it’s cheap enough this still ties it for cheapest in the top 5! Characters giving trouble? Put on the Mournful Blade and hit them with 14 attacks! Want extra speed? Put on the Mead of Madness to outdistance most cav!

In many ways, the Berzerker Lord is like a toolbox that can be kitted specifically to your list’s needs, though it almost always will get Blade of Beast Slayer to protect versus those nasty flyers.

3: Vampire Lord – Undead

Put a Vampire on a horse and you get a compact killing machine, for only 200 points. On a mount (the only way to take them) they are Speed 8, Melee 3+, Defense 5+, 7 Attacks, and 14/16 Nerve. In addition, they get Crushing Strength 2, Duelist, Inspiring, Lifeleech 2, and Mighty. You can pay extra for spells, but honestly, this is never worth it. You want your Vampires moving to get in position, and then slicing and dicing.

I have used Vampires I LOT in my own Undead army, they are great at padding on a handful of extra damage to a charge, jumping into Cav regiments, and winning over the course of a few turns, or just generally making a nuisance of themselves. Duelist means they are an extreme threat to most characters, so opponents will try their best to keep characters out of the line of fair, which can give some great board control.

Lifeleech 2 can keep the Vampire alive longer than it has any right to be, as it should do 2 damage to nearly anything in the game every turn.

Just a really solid choice.

2: Brakki Barka – Abyssal Dwarves

Choosing 1 Beatstick to represent the Abyssal Dwarves was tough, it was a toss-up between Brakki and Basu’su the Vile, Brakki narrowly took it in my opinion, though both are amazing choices.

Brakki Barka has Speed 8, Melee 3+, Defense 5+, 6 Attacks, and a 14/16 Nerve, start to a very solid character. He also has Crushing Strength 3!!!, Mighty, Regeneration, Dread, Vicious, and Very Inspiring.

I have used Brakki in every single game I have played with the Abyssal Dwarves, and he never fails to earn his points back. His support rules are surprisingly good, with Very Inspiring and Dread letting him hold your army together while debuffing the enemy. However, the thing that is bonkers about Brakki is Crushing Strength 3 with Vicious! This creates an absurdly killy character that will damage pretty much everything reliably.

Granted he can’t nuke characters like a Vampire, but I have lost count of the number of times Brakki has killed hurt units by putting 3-4 damage on them, and that combined with Dread leads to very easy kills. With Regen 5+, if he isn’t killed in one go, he can spin away and regain all the damage back!

1: Mikayel, Lord of Nightmares – Twilight Kin

Speed 9, Melee 3+, Defense 5+, 6 attacks, and a -/16 Nerve, Mikayel is an absolute beast. He also has Crushing Strength 2, Dread, Elite (Melee), Inspiring, Iron Resolve, Mighty, Stealthy, and finally, Mikayel’s unique rule Sword of Umbra, which means while attacking Heroes, Monsters, or Titans in combat double his attacks! He is not cheap, coming in at 260 points, but still wow!

So basically unless hitting infantry or cav, which tend to be less threatening anyway, Mikayel is smashing enemies with 12 attacks, that’s more than most dragons! With Elite those 12 attacks hit with great reliability, and while he only has Crushing Strength 2, that should be plenty versus many threats.

I absolutely love that his speed is 9, this means other than flyers and elf cav, he outspeeds most things. Stealthy and Individual lets him avoid most threats of shooting, helping guarantee he gets some turns of combat in.

Higher Defense is a bit of a problem, but as long as you don’t expect him to solo unhurt units, you should be ok.

Yeah, Mikayel, what an absolute beefcake!

That is it for the Beatsticks, it’s worth noting that these were all significantly more expensive than the support choices, this is because in order to truly be a combat threat you need Crushing Strength, Thunderous Charge, and the attacks to back it up, all which cost points. Some cheaper combat characters can be taken en masse to make up for individual poor comparative stats (Eric Trowbirdge brings a ton of Orc characters), but this is top 5 Beatsticks, not top 5 cheap beatsticks.

Hazer Individuals

Hazers are some of my favorite characters, but also some of the hardest to fit into lists. Their job is to harass and plink away at enemies, to jump in the way and block things up, and to just generally be a nuisance, unlike Beatsticks and Support Individuals, Hazers role is more flexible and tough to pin down but can be SO much fun on the tabletop.

5: The Baron – Rhordia

The Baron comes in at 60 points, and should always be upgraded to being on a horse for 25 points still putting them at a dirt-cheap 85 points. For that, you get Speed 8, Melee 3+, Defense 5+, 4 Attacks, 10/12 Nerve, Very Inspiring, and Crushing Strength 1.

The real standout difference between similar choices is that the Baron has 4, rather than 3 attacks, which when given Blade of Slashing or Mace of Crushing makes them very reliable to do that all-important single point of damage to ground units or hold them up.

10/12 Nerve isn’t amazing, but I have an opponent who regularly uses 2-3 of these and it’s more durable than I expect every time.

Very Inspiring is also a really nice little perk, letting the Baron support their army while waiting for a chance to block things up.

Not a game goes by against Rhordia that I am not cursing the Barons and their damn 4 attacks!

4: Mau’Ti-bu-su – Forces of the Abyss

Speed 10, Melee 3+, Defense 4+, 5 attacks, 12/14 Nerve, Crushing Strength 1, Duelist, Ensnare, Fly, Fury, Inspiring, Stealthy, and Terrible Majesty which gives the unit Brutal D3, coming in at a pricey 160 points.

Mau is a bit pricey, but her rules make her incredibly useful. Flying means she can get exactly where you want her without fail, and she is great at helping protect versus flyers. Terrible Majesty lets her hit much harder than people may expect and is one of the best combo chargers in the game. Duelist lets her be a major threat if she pops behind the lines and begins hitting characters.

Mau’s biggest weakness is she is a bit squishy, with Defense 4 and only 12/14 Nerve, but Stealthy and Ensnare means usually things will be hitting her at minus 1 to hit.

3: Artakl – Salamanders

Speed 7, Ranged 3+, Melee 3+, Defense 4+, 5 Attacks, 11/13 Nerve, Duelist, Inspiring (Ghekkotah only), Pathfinder, Scout, Stealthy, Vicious, Blowpipe 18″ Piercing 1 attack, and Monster Hunter which means Artakl has Piercing 2 versus Monsters and Titans. All of this for the very affordable price of 135 points!

Artakl brings a lot to love in a Hazer, she Scouts, letting her get into great positions early on, Shoots well making a nuisance of herself from the get-go, and can be particularly threatening versus Monsters and Titans. Generally, Artakl’s role is to scoot around in terrain, firing away, making a nuisance of herself, and putting 1-2 damage onto units a turn. If given the chance, she can also charge low Defense heroes and take advantage of Duelist, though no Crushing Strength means this isn’t a great idea against Defense 5 and higher.

2: Eckter – Trident Realms

Speed 5, Melee 3+, Defense 6+, 6 Attacks, 12/14 Nerve, Crushing Strength 2, Ensnare, Inspiring, Mighty, Phalanx, Wind Blast (8), and Krakenmaw which means while casting Wind Blast, in addition to moving the target, roll to damage for each hit scored. All this comes in for 165 points.

Similar to Artakl, Eckter is the epitome of a hazer, but in a different way. Ecker has a combination of rules and stats that makes him perfect for blocking enemy units. With Defense 6, Ensnare, and Phalanx he is incredibly hard to kill on a front charge.

Wind Blast and the Krakenmaw lets him be a nuisance while trying to get into a blocking position. At speed 5 this can take a little time, but with how tough he is to take off the board this is totally fine.

1: Hexcaster – Abyssal Dwarves

Speed 5, Melee 4+, Defense 5+, 1 Attack, -/11 Nerve, with Hex 3, the option to replace Hex with Weakness for free or take alongside for 20 points, Feedback which means after rolling to hit with Hex or Weakness, roll to damage for each hit scored with Piercing 1, and finally Dampening Runes meaning the Hexcaster is only hit on 6s by spells, all this for a bargain 70 points.

The Hexcaster basically lurks around battlelines Hexing and casting Weakness on the enemy, damage dealt is icing on the cake, but its primary role is to debuff the enemy. With the generally high Defense, most Abyssal Dwarf units have, Weakness is particularly amazing to keep your line alive, while Hex can spell doom for casting dependent forces like Surge heavy Undead lists.

What makes the Hexcaster so good is just how cheap they are, at 70 points they are super easy to work into most lists, and will always be able to make their presence felt.

And there you have it, my top 5 Individuals for all three different types of characters in Kings of War! What do you agree with? What do you think I got wrong? Comment on the article and let me know!