Special Characters?

How to beat those cowardly High Elves?

Moderators: Layne, The Dread Knights

Post Reply
User avatar
Senluthan
Beastmaster
Posts: 333
Joined: Mon Jan 25, 2010 8:36 am

Special Characters?

Post by Senluthan »

Hi..

In my time here on D-Net i have come to think that almost no one use special characters?!

Personally i think they are cool. And one of my friends and myself often gets amazed by their power - often though because of a couple of slight details we overlook - like Hellebrons missing defence... xD

so why is it that no one use them? is it because of their cost? or do they simply suck at what they do? (I practically dont have any gaming experince...)
Senluthan Redskull
Group 36 Mod
User avatar
Blaznak
Beastmaster
Posts: 379
Joined: Mon Sep 11, 2006 1:51 am
Location: Minnesota
Contact:

Post by Blaznak »

I like the special characters. I have Lokhir finished and am going to start on Mallus soon.

The problem is that special characters are often prohibited under tournament rules or by agreement of the players as they can be a bit unbalanced.

~B~
User avatar
Auere
Noble
Posts: 409
Joined: Sat Jan 23, 2010 10:02 am
Location: Denmark

Post by Auere »

I do not like special characters to much. I like to build my own characters - it just feels better!

Apart from that, most of the special characters are somewhat expensive for what they actually do. I think that Lokhir and Morathi are proberbly the closest to actually being worth their points!
User avatar
Dalamar
Dragon Lord
Dragon Lord
Posts: 9675
Joined: Sat Sep 21, 2002 6:42 pm
Location: Designing new breeds of Dragons

Post by Dalamar »

All Druchii Special Characters are currently badly overpriced.
7th edition army book:
Games Played: 213
Games Won: 114 (54%)
Games Drawn: 33 (15%)
Games Lost: 66 (31%)

8th Edition army book W/D/L:
Druchii: 36/4/16
User avatar
Bounce
Malekith's Best Friend
Posts: 1004
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2008 3:40 am

Post by Bounce »

Plus many tournaments, clubs, groups, people do not allow special characters so there is little point to buy, building and painting them.
"I will embrace death without regret as I embrace life without fear"
ImageImageImage
User avatar
Vampboi
Warrior
Posts: 60
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2010 6:31 am
Location: Tenneessee, USA

Post by Vampboi »

I think there's plenty of reason to buy the models myself. The Morathi model doesn't have to be used for Morathi. It could be any sorceress on a pegasus. And currently it's the only way to get a dark pegasus anyway. Shadowblade is a great model, useable for a normal assassin. Lokhir model is kind of goofy though, looks like the bad guy on the latests pirates of the caribbean. But Malus is great, so is the Malekith model. Both can be used for dreadlords/masters so.
Bies
Noble
Posts: 454
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2008 1:53 pm

Post by Bies »

haha thats funny,

I think shadow blade is the weakest.

Lokhir looks cool imho. I've been trying to find out a way to put him in my list thats worth it for a while now.
Not another 1...
W/D/L for 2010
40/7/18
User avatar
Excidium666
Shade
Posts: 122
Joined: Sat Jan 08, 2005 11:28 am
Location: Getting drunk with Tullaris...

Post by Excidium666 »

Special characters are just overpriced for what they can do, so I dont use them. Its better to build your own and pay less points for it.

I only use the to represent lords and heroes in my army.
High elf is an elf after all, therefore he deserves a quick death...
User avatar
Archangel
Executioner
Posts: 161
Joined: Thu Jun 08, 2006 7:27 am
Location: Polishing my draich on the shore of the unknown

Post by Archangel »

i think special characters do get overlooked because of the tourney rules as such but looking at how dear they are when you do try to field them does make them look just a bit bad.

melakith at the dearest i think would be a bit of fun should you field him on foot in battle when your opponent doesnt know what your have bit of a surprise really.

morathi/melakith are very more stay at home types so not seeing them everywhere is a good thing.

malus well i have a bit of a iffy with his rules, i recently read all of the Darkblade novels and his rules dont match with how the story ends at lord of ruin, there is no Tz'arkan he has wickid awesome warpsword o khain, and should have fancy armour givin to him by melakith, and was a hero in the eyes of the warriors he commanded instead of the blokes who where suppoed to be in charge.

shadowblade, is awesome though why he was a potion of strength when its in the army list is beyond me and he doesnt need it give him a rule where he may choose what poisen to use at the start of every round of combat would be much better.

tullarus/kouron need to be rid of and just have unit specific hero much nicer i think.

'ol matey with the kraken face (cant remember his name please forgive me) is great i dont no anything wrong about him.

All in all, to each his own, we really cant say much unless we got the development teams ear and they listen to everything we say.
I sing the hymn of the conquered, who fall in the battle of life,
The hymn of the wounded, the beaten who died overwhelmed in the strife.
Greg
Cold One Knight
Posts: 202
Joined: Sun Nov 03, 2002 3:47 am

Post by Greg »

Of them all I think Lokhir can be worth it. He can be highly effective versus a variety of lists plus the victory point bonus does have tournie implications.
User avatar
van Awful
Highborn
Posts: 690
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 10:23 am
Location: Ammerzoden, metropole at the Maas

Post by van Awful »

Doesn't MAlus'fluff in the the 6th ed book states that when he goes after his Tzarkan and his soul some screaming child god imprisons Tzarkan again in Malus body to spite them both? His reroll to wound an no AS sword isn't the warpsword then?
To be honest in 7th edition i only tried Lokir and Hellebron. Lokir and his unit of corsairs ran from the table before they saw combat. Hellebron kicked some orc but though!

I like to throw in a SC every once in a while. In agrement with my opponent that is. Tobalance the game either both or none of the players uses a SC.

Some are just to much, others are like said to expensive for what they do.
Nothing should keep you from buying the models if you like them and use them as "normal" characters though.
Nec spe, nec metu

I am an Extraordinary Druchii Gentleman
User avatar
Minsc
Malekith's Personal Guard
Posts: 828
Joined: Sun May 21, 2006 8:34 pm
Location: Glade of Kings or Ghrond.

Post by Minsc »

Malekith - Really cool, but at the end of the day he's just a very VERY expensive level '5' wizard with some decent fighting capabilities and some cool sideffects. (Rebound MR for instance.). Ergo quite counter productive.
He's also extremely squishy against magical attacks.
Summary; Overpriced 'Level 5' Battlewizard.

Morathi - Also pretty cool. You can on the other hand make a custom lvl 4 that does nearly the same as she does for more than 100 points less and without the Black Pegasus.
Summary; Really overpriced Level 4 on a Pegasus.

Hellebron - Biggest glasscannon in WFB. Needs Standard of Hag Graef badly or she'll die instantly. Pretty good rules for the right price I'd say.
Summary; Fairly priced glasscannon.

Shadowblade - Wins the price of "most overpriced specialcharacter ever". I can't believe his price in addition to his hero cost, and he doesn't even have Rune of Khaine.
Cool abilities but he's a really expensive one-trick pony.
Summary - Stupidly overpriced.

Malus Darkblade - Haven't tried him as a Hero yet. Seems abit overpriced on paper with his drawbacks and whatnot. Pretty fragile as well unless he unleashes Tz'arkan in wich case he'll start chewing on his own army.
Summary - Maniac, headcase, nutjob, whackadoo.

Lokhir - Decent abilities, decent rules, decent price I guess.
But I find him pretty...lame. No coolfactor what so ever.
Summary - Balanced but uncool.
User avatar
Red...
Generalissimo
Posts: 3750
Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2009 3:09 pm
Location: Baltimore

Post by Red... »

Malus:
Overpriced by himself, but Spike's "not just a dumb brute" rule (negates stupidity for any other cold ones in the unit) goes a long way to making those points worthwhile.

Hellebron:
really really good in a unit of always striking first blackguard - BUT if you're playing against a remotely saavy opponent then he will avoid that unit like the plague once he realises she's in there.

She's also quite fun on a manticore, as she can do A LOT of damage and is almost certain to get the charge. Just don't use that combo against a shooty army!

Shadowblade:
Should only really be used against armies with characters you NEED to kill (e.g. tomb kings). He can be quite fun against high elves too. He is a bit of a gamble, but it can be fun to include him once in a while (particularly if you play regularly against the same group of opponents) just to keep your enemy on his toes (few things scares someone quicker than when you give them an "oh my god, a WS10, S7 ASF assassin of uberness just appeared in my own ranks" moment :)

Lokhir:
All round okay, but overpriced. I've yet to field him though. I imagine he's excellent against horde armies, but it seems that no one I know really fields horde armies often, and they're generally easy to dispatch with dark elves anyway.

Morathi and Malekith:
Both fit into the category of "overly expensive, overly ward saved" special characters that I refuse out of principle to play with. They're very good, although "death by biting blade" makes Malekith kind of easy to kill.

Tullaris:
Overpriced, but still good. He's the only realistic way of giving fear to a unit of executioners.

Kouran:
He's not bad, but a bit overpriced. It is nice not to have to worry about rolling that 10 if you lose combat :) and his magic armour does make him hard to kill. But if you take him then you can't take the ring of hotek with the unit :(
"While all answers are replies, not all replies are answers. So answer the question."

Don't be a munchkin?

Image

I am an Extraordinary Druchii Gentleman
User avatar
Senluthan
Beastmaster
Posts: 333
Joined: Mon Jan 25, 2010 8:36 am

Post by Senluthan »

it seems not even all here agree with who is overpriced.. but I myself dont find Lokhir overpriced.. his terror/reg helm and the red blades he wield makes him very good as one pointed out against horde armies..
Malus though can be quite deadly when used right.. if he charges in to a unit (not spear) he have to kill only three to not being hit back.. which against most units he is able to..
Senluthan Redskull
Group 36 Mod
User avatar
Red...
Generalissimo
Posts: 3750
Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2009 3:09 pm
Location: Baltimore

Post by Red... »

I played using Hellebron on a manticore and tullaris recently, both performed admirably:

Hellebron on the manti charged a unit of blood knights led by a Vampire hero and a Carstein lord (the magicky one with 5 wounds). She accepted the challenge from the hero in the first round, slew him and eliminated all 5 of the knights and did 4 wounds on the Carstein lord (from the combat res). On my opponent's turn, she survived a flank charge by a corpse cart (11 hits are terrifying against her, even if each was only WS2 S2, but she took no wounds :) ) then slew the Carstein lord, while her manti slew the two regenerated knights. We called it there - at the end of turn 2! =P

Tullaris made a valliant showing against a nasty Warriors of Chaos army. Not needing to roll to test for fear when charging (and later recieving a charge from) a unit of dragon ogres was very nice indeed. His ability to reroll wounds is a bit overkill, but helps to reassure you that he will deliver (no roll of 1s is going to stop this badass). At the end of the to-and-froing there was no more dragon ogres (how they took a charge from two of them and won remains beyond me - they did not have the banner of ASF) and just a nice juicy open space between me and his two wizards (both dead shortly after).

My sense is that they both remain overpriced, but do deliver well when used right :)
"While all answers are replies, not all replies are answers. So answer the question."

Don't be a munchkin?

Image

I am an Extraordinary Druchii Gentleman
User avatar
Layne
Arnold Layne
Arnold Layne
Posts: 3398
Joined: Mon Nov 12, 2007 1:44 am
Location: On Her Majesty Morathi's Secret Service

Post by Layne »

Tullaris you got lucky. Not the dice - your opponent seemingly didn't know what he was dealing with. You used him as right as he can be used, I guess, but your opponent really ought to have directed some attacks onto him.

Hellebron perhaps had the perfect match-up for her. Both her and her Manticore, their greatest weakness is shooting. VC have none. Plus she makes Witch Elves core ; Vamps greatest strength is Psychology and Witches have none. Next greatest is steaming craploads of low-T troops ; Witches have craploads of low-S attacks.

The thing about those special characters - and all the rest of them - is that they are, unlike some we could name, rather situational. They need the right opponent to be of value - as in the examples above. The second an example of an army that has no answer to what she brings, and the first of someone who seemingly just lacked experience. I bet when he found out that the guy who murdulated his Dragon Ogres had one wound at T3 he ran his head against a wall.
Layne
Global Moderator. Everything but the weather.


Caveat Numptor.


Karonath - WS6 / S4 / T4 / D5 / I3
Equipment: Bloodfeather, heavy armour, helm, Sea Dragon Cloak, rope x 2, month rations x 2
Inventory: longspear, 2 short swords, glaive, winter gear, shade cloak,
Mount: Dark Steed (Shiny), talisman of kurnous
Gold: 2294
Skills: Ambidexterity, Controlled Frenzy, Basic Ride, Drukh Kaganth
Class: Khainite
Post Reply