Heroes or More Units?

[Mike the marauder]

I am curious as to what is better, to include some nice juiced up heroes or just include more core or elite units in your army? With the high cost of heroes, it seems like it would be better to just include another unit of spearman, but maybe I am really underestimating heroes as most of the armies I see are pretty hero heavy. I only have 1 level 2 Sorceress in my 2,000 point army; am I shortchanging heroes?

Thanks!

[Minigrift]

It depends,

In a 2,000 point army I've found 2 or 3 characters to be the best use. Usually a Lord (dreadlord or SS), and two heroes, a BSB (mandatory at 2,000 points) and a pegasus mounted character, or a BSB and a sorceress (mounted on a pegasus if you like).

A BSB is a must at 1,500 points or more (I only don't use one in my dual pegasus list). At 1,000 points I only take 1 character (sorceress on pegasus). I have also found it more useful to have a purpose for each character. ie, 'unkillable' dread to hold up units, pegasus master for warmachine/mage hunting, SS to overwhelm your enemy with magic etc. And, of course, a BSB to keep your battle line intact.

You may have guessed - I like pegasus mounted heroes

[Mike the marauder]

Good point about the BSB. It has been a while since I have played, but they can be extremely useful. As far as the others, do you find difficulty making up for their points cost in a 2,000 point battle? My thought is, that hero or Lord needs to take out at least as many points as they cost or prevent my units from getting destroyed. If they can't do that, I'd rather take an extra unit of witch elves, harpies, etc. which I know provide an advantage in battle. I have had trouble in the past justifying the points cost, but I really may be playing them incorrectly.

[Calisson]

BSB is close to be mandatory if you have stupid-prone units, or if you have a chance to roll Ld tests in uncertain melees.
A COB is highly useful.
At least one sorceress is almost mandatory, a second one is not bad.
The unkillable lord is very useful, so is the Peggy Master.

However... the more characters, the least bodies, and in the 8th edition, bodies are highly useful.

By the way, the alternative is not necessarily more units, it could also be more bodies in existing units.


So to say that there is no definitive answer.
Take only characters that you need absolutely. If they are just nice to have, then units are nicer to have.
As a rule of the thumb, anywhere above 40% total is probably too many characters (heroes+lords+assassins), unless you're deliberately playing pts denial with unkillable characters on monsters, evading/bunkered sorceresses & COB.

[Tethlis]

My general rule of thumb is to use characters to fulfill roles that my rank-and-file units cannot do. Magic, leadership rerolls courtesy of a bsb, durable stubborn models, dangerous flying combat threats, leadership 10, augments like the cauldron of blood, these are all advantages that heroes bring that cannot be accessed without taking them. As a result, the most useful characters are the ones that enhance the effectiveness of the rest of your force.

[Thanee]

I have made good experiences with a 2500 pts army, that included only a Lvl 2 and a CoB BSB (though I have also made a variant with a Lvl 4 and CoB BSB).

This was for games with quite heavy tournament restrictions, though.

Bye
Thanee

[Mike the marauder]

Cool! It sounds like a Sorceress and a BSB on a Cold One are both no brainers in a 2,000 point battle. So now I just need to decide on Supreme Sorceress or just a Sorceress. For a 2,000 point battle, I am leaning towards just the regular Sorceress...

[Ichiyo1821]

As a rule of thumb I tend to get one character per 1k points. My 2500 army only has 3 characters. A Sorceress (can be a SS or level 2), A Dreadlord and a Hag BSB. Tethlis has nailed it practically. Since we are an ellite army, thus expensive units and characters, we cannot use them as force multipliers as much as Skaven does or Empire and the likes. Going too character heavy makes you prone to shooting armies and pose less threats to affect the movement phase and well, actual close combat. Going too character light however makes you prone to getting trashed by other elite armies with deathstarlike units or RnF killing characters.

[Thanee]

...and a BSB on a Cold One...

or (usually) a Death Hag with Cauldron of Blood.

Bye
Thanee

[Infekted]

I usually aim for roughly 1/3 of my points on lords/heroes. Sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less. But that's the ball park I aim for.

[L1qw1d]

agree with Infekted.

On my expensive list, I max things out with a L4, L2, DL, CoB, oh yeh- one wrong step and it gets expensive, for the most part, I like couching a unit in blocks of 20 and 30, or 10-15 for Cav.

One of my current tests is built around NO RARES.