‘Warhammer: The Old World’- Ranking The Legacy Armies

Take a look at how Warhammer: The Old World’s legacy armies stack up against each other.

The Old World has been out for just over three months now. In that time a good number of events have taken place. Thanks to this we are starting to get some real data on the game and the current meta. A huge shout out to the fine folks over at Woehammer.com who have been tracking win rates and compiling a ton of data. Now a lot of people will say its far too early to really know what the balance of the game is. And that’s totally fair. It is early days and a lot of things are skewing data, most people are playing with leftover 8th Edition (or older) armies, and not all armies are fully out. However I do think there is enough data to start to take a look at armies and give them some tentative rankings.

Since we looked at the Core Armies last week, today we will take a look at Legacy Factions.  Overall the game does appear to be relatively balanced with a few outliers. However the Legacy armies tend to get less play, so their numbers may be more skewed than the core ones. With that in mind, let’s jump in.

7. Skaven

No-no, man-things put us at bottom of rankings? Yes, sadly the servants of the Horned Rat are the bottom of the (rat)pack in rankings. Their total win rate is sitting at a pretty bad 41% (only beaten by Empire), and since the most recent FAQ, it dropped to a dismal 27%. However, since those rankings are based on only 11 games I don’t put a ton of stock into them. Overall Skaven suffer from being a Legacy army, which by and large don’t play as well as the core armies. They also lost some rules (such as shooting into combat). I also think we have to look at the players here. Skaven are a pretty big and decent AoS faction, and I suspect a lot of the competitive players converted their armies to that system, leaving only the diehard Skaven fans to hold the torch in ToW.

6. Dark Elves

Next up on the list, we have Dark Elves. Their overall win rate sits at 44%, which is just shy of the “balanced zone” of 45%-55%. Since the FAQ they’ve dropped to 39%, but like Skaven, this is based on very few games (22) and could just be a fluke. Overall it’s clear however that the faction struggles a bit, which is slightly surprising considering they have one of the better dragons in the game. The list however, just isn’t all that impressive and often feels like “High Elves – but worse”. I think this is clearly the case of the legacy army curse at work here. It doesn’t help that Witch Elves seem very lame right now.

 5. Lizardmen

Lizardmen are kind of all over the place and a hard army to track. Their overall win rate is pretty much middle of the pack at 47% making them a balanced mid-tier army. However, if you look at their data between the initial January FAQ and the April one they have a whopping 59%, the highest, win rate! Post April FAQ however that swoops down to 38%. This is a pretty clear case of too little data as Lizardmen are the lowest played faction with a total of only 37 tracked 2000 pt games. The majority of those games were post-April FAQ, which suggest they are on the lower end, but really nothing here is conclusive. I do think they are an army that is hurting for really fast, hard-hitting units.

4. Chaos Dwarfs

Sitting just above Lizardmen we have the strange and mysterious Chaos Dwarfs. This is an army that hasn’t been a real part of Fantasy/The Old World in decades – and yet somehow still keeps getting played! They might be the second least-played army, but somehow they’ve beaten out Lizardmen in number of games. The army is tied with Lizardmen at 47% overall win rate, but have done a little better post FAQ at 44%. They also have more games (though only about 20 more) then Lizardmen, so I trust those numbers… slightly more. I think in a lot of ways, Chaos Dwarfs are an army that wins just by being different, and something a lot of players have never faced. The data suggest they are in decent shape as a balanced, but maybe slightly underpowered army. Which is pretty much what you’d expect from a legacy list.

3. Ogre Kingdoms

Ogre Kingdoms are rocking a mid-tier 47% overall win rate. This has gone down to a 42%, between Dark Elves and Chaos Dwarfs post FAQ, but there is very little data for that. They seem to be a decently balanced army that has a good chance of winning games. I think they, like Lizardmen, are hurt by not having any kind of super-mobile hard-hitting unit or character. Ogres are still pretty good however, and can be a pain to chomp though. Overall, there doesn’t seem to be anything super wrong with the list.

2. Daemons of Chaos

Chaos Daemons are one of four legacy armies tied with an overall 47% win rate. All of these armies have less than 60 games total, and less games than the lowest- played core army, Beastmen. Post FAQ, they’ve gone up to a strong 53% win rate. However, as with other legacy lists, this is based on less than 20 games and doesn’t mean a ton. I think it’s clear they are a middle of the pack and fairly balanced list. Their post-FAQ performance puts them a little above the other 47%ers to me, but I think you could likely argue for a tie between the lists.

It’s pretty interesting that based on this data more than half of the Legacy armies fall into the 47% win rate bracket. As I said before this seems to be where you’d really expect a legacy army to be, balanced, but a little weak compared to the core armies with their extra rules and books.

1. Vampire Counts

Vampire Counts have proven to both the best and the most popular of the legacy factions. They’ve clocked in a full 76 2000 pt games since release, putting them 3 games above Beastmen the least popular of the core factions. They’ve also got the highest win rate at nearly perfectly balanced 49%. Post April FAQ, they’ve gone up to 61%, second only to Warriors of Chaos. Again however, we need to throw out the caveat that this is based on very few games.

However it’s not super surprising that VC would end up on the top here. Undead have always been a strong faction due to not having to worry about psychology and being able to bring back the dead. They are also a hard-hitting faction, with some great and fast units. They’ve got some of the best characters among the legacy factions and arguably the best dragon lord. Blood Knights, and Mortis Engines, among others, are very solid units. Overall Vampire Counts is an army that is pretty balanced and deserves top spot among the legacy factions.

Let us know how you think the armies rank up, down in the comments! 

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers 40K tactics and lore, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe remains in mourning over the loss of WFB to this day.