🔹 High Elf Rare Units Old World Tierlist

In this post, we’re going to talk about the High Elf Rare Units in Warhammer: The Old World. But hey, if you don’t feel like reading the whole thing, I’ve got you covered—here’s the tier list right away. That way, you can save yourself a solid four minutes of your life.

But if you do have those four minutes, stick around—I’ll break down all the units with proper comparisons.

Remember when the only Rare Units you’d see in competitive High Elf lists were Repeater Bolt Throwers and the occasional Great Eagle? Well, things have changed a lot since then. Let me explain.

Which is Better for Support Fire: Repeater Bolt Thrower or Sisters of Avelorn?

One of the classic Rare Unit choices for High Elves is the Eagle Claw Repeater Bolt Thrower. It’s primarily used for long-range support fire, just like the Sisters of Avelorn, so in most cases, it comes down to personal preference.

Aside from minor differences—like the Bolt Thrower having 2 Wounds at Toughness 6 versus the Sisters’ 5 Wounds at Toughness 3—the Bolt Thrower fires at Strength 4 by default and has the option for a single Strength 6 shot, which forces monsters and heavy cavalry to be careful with their positioning (no one likes getting hit by a bolt in the flank). It has a major drawback: in this edition, it suffers a -1 penalty when using multiple shots, so you’ll be hitting on 4s or 5s initially.

On the other hand, the Sisters of Avelorn have several key advantages. They have greater Armor Bane (2 instead of 1), higher accuracy (hitting 3+ usually, cause they should be firing long range or moving to be short range), increased mobility, magical attacks, and the Evasive rule, which, when played at max range, can help them avoid incoming damage.

In Old World 1.5, bolt throwers are way worse than Sisters — mostly because of their lack of mobility, the fact that they’re not infantry, and that they can’t handle combat at all (Sisters at least strike first and don’t get wiped out by five Harpies, plus they can stand and shoot).

Sisters can take a unit champ with either a bolt thrower bow or the fireball ring (if you’re running two units, take both). Even though the ring got nerfed, it’s still amazing to have it on a unit instead of wasting a character slot — especially since its range is so long it can fire from outside enemy dispel range.

The only real downside with Sisters is that if you ALSO want them to score objectives on top of everything else, you have to field them as Core, which means paying for the character and giving up Nobles or Princes as your general — since they’ve got Ld 9 and the Maiden (who has to be the general) only has Ld 8.

Great Eagle or Lothern Skycutter: Which One Fits Your Army Better?

Another option to consider is the Great Eagle of the Elven Realms, a fantastic redirector unit that excels at taking out weak support units, war machines, and disrupting enemy movement. However, there’s also the Lothern Skycutter, which serves a similar function but is more expensive and deals more damage.

The Giant Eagle costs 60 points and has a small base (50×50), which makes it easy to hide on the battlefield. It fits into almost any list. I actually like it even more in 1.5, since we’re not going to see many Ellyrian Reavers, and the problem before was that their roles often overlapped.

The Lothern Skycutter has better durability and damage output but costs 30 points more. Since chariots can now march, it moves just as fast as the Eagle.

It can also be equipped with a Repeater Bolt Thrower, but with a miserable Strength 5, and on top of that, if you want to shoot, it can’t march. For me, paying extra for this is not worth it. It turns the unit from a solid specialist into something that fails at doing two different roles at once.

It can be equipped with a bolt thrower that hits with a pathetic Strength 5 and also forces you to choose between shooting or marching. Personally, I don’t think it’s worth paying for but since in Old World you can move and shoot (as long as you don’t march) on the turn you rally after fleeing, you could give her the role of redirector-rally-move in-front-shoot-repeat. That’s honestly the only reason I’d ever pay for the bolt thrower. I mean, it ends up costing 115 points — that’s a lot for 4 wounds at Toughness 4. I’d rather take two eagles.

See the deal on Wayland

Lion Chariot of Chrace: Is It Worth It?

Before we get into the Phoenixes, let’s talk about the Lion Chariot. Honestly, I wouldn’t take it. It feels like a bad choice compared to the other options we’ve discussed—and another one still to come.

Sure, it deals six attacks plus impact hits, but it’s just 1d6, only Toughness 4 and a 4+ armor save. For 125 points, it just doesn’t make sense. I’d swap it out for two Great Eagles or even eight Sisters of Avelorn without hesitation.

Flamespyre Phoenix vs. Frostheart Phoenix: Only One Is Competitive

The Flamespyre Phoenix is, in short, a complete disappointment. It’s fragile, doesn’t hit hard, its stomp attack is pathetic, it only has Toughness 5, and its revive/explosion mechanics are barely relevant.

You can’t even use it to charge something behind an enemy unit and hit the front unit with the D6 hits from the fire trail, because those hits happen in the remaining moves phase, not during the charge phase.

So, if you have one of these… Just field it as a Frostheart Phoenix.

The Frostheart Phoenix costs 35 points more, but it’s way more viable. It hits harder, tanks better, and its ability to make enemies strike last is super useful against other elves or specific enemy characters.

Now, keep in mind this mechanic loses some value within a High Elf army, since they usually strike first anyway thanks to high Initiative and the +1 Initiative in the first round of combat. But if you know how to pick its targets each game, you’ll definitely get mileage out of it.

That said, it’s not a must-have in a competitive list, and I think it’s taken a bit of a hit in Old World 1.5. It no longer gives +1 to combat resolution from Close Order, and infantry now dishes out more attacks—so even some random lucky 6s to wound are going to chip away at it.

War Lions

You can only include them if you have a unit of White Lions of Chrace, so honestly, I wouldn’t bother. BUT, if you’re already running Lions… then sure, go for it. I actually wrote a full post about this already — I’ll drop it below in the related posts to avoid repeating myself (you know how Google loves to penalize that stuff).

In 1.5, since infantry sees more play, they could give your Sea Guard Swiftstride when pursuing, for example. Or they can just act as a cheap charge blocker for 36 points. Still, I wouldn’t run a unit of 6 — I’d rather take an eagle just because it flies and can’t be easily blocked.

Merwyrm

Before 1.5, it was COMPLETELY off my lists because you had to include Sea Guard to unlock it.

Now that Sea Guard is actually viable, I feel about it the same way I do about the Frostheart Phoenix — it’s usable, but a bit weaker than before. What puts me off the most is the 5+ armor save. If it charges into infantry, odds are those Strength 3 dudes will still sneak some 6s through to wound it. Even with Toughness 6 and the enemy taking -1 Strength, that bonus feels a bit underwhelming now.

I also wrote a full breakdown of all the High Elf Core Units in The Old World, which will help you optimize your army even further. You can find it below.

And if you want a full faction tierlist, here you have it the old world tier list it’s in the first Answer/question 🙂 can’t link it directly.

🔹The Chracian Warhost Analysis (v1.5)

🔹Sea Guard Garrison Army Analysis in TOW 1.5

🔹 Optimizing 500 Points in Core Units | High Elves Old World

🔹 High elves Old World | Core Units Analysis (v1.5)

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