In Warhammer: The Old World, when building a 2000-point list, you’re required to allocate at least 500 points to core units. But what’s the best way to do that?
This post was originally written before 1.5, when core units didn’t matter for scoring because missions didn’t exist—so the goal was to spend exactly 500 points, keeping the rest of the list focused on more aggressive stuff (dragons).
Some events might still be played without missions, so I’m updating this post to 1.5, but keeping that same mindset: trying to spend as little as possible on core.
Option 1: Sisters of Avelorn and Silver Helms
- 16 Sisters of Avelorn (with a champion equipped with the Ruby Ring)
- 5 Archers
- 7 Silver Helms with shields and a champion
This combination provides strong shooting power and solid combat presence. The Archers and Sisters of Avelorn serve as support units, while the Silver Helms act as the main combat force in the list.
The Sister champion is there to challenge any lone character that charges them and win through combat resolution bonuses—you’ve got 16 models, so even after she dies, you still have 2 ranks plus unit strength. She also lets you cast Fireball from outside enemy wizard range.
Sisters of Avelorn are one of the best shooting units in the army, and if we can take them as core, we absolutely should. But is it worth bringing a character just to unlock them? Personally, I don’t think so—doing that means you can’t take any character with Leadership above 8. I’d rather run them as a rare choice and go for a different core setup, especially since there are plenty of strong options.
Why 7 Silver Helms?
Now in 1.5, your opponent has to kill 6 models to get 50% of the unit’s points. If they kill fewer than that, they get nothing.
Don’t deploy them in two ranks of four. In this edition, models with only one attack can fight entirely from a single rank, so keeping them in a straight line is the most efficient setup.
Option 2: A More Aggressive Variant with Elyrian Reavers
- 5 Ellyrian Reavers (with spear, short bow, musician, skirmishers)
- 5 Silver Helms with shields and a champion
- 16 Sisters of Avelorn (with a champion equipped with the Ruby Ring)
If you’re a fan of the Ellyrian Reavers, even though they’ve lost quite a bit of value in 1.5, this setup could be a solid choice.
By swapping Archers for Reavers, this version gains more mobility and charge redirection potential right from turn one, since Reavers are very fast.
The Silver Helms unit is less punchy here, but it can still serve as a redirector, go after support units, or charge alongside a character or chariot.
A common question: Why run the Ellyrian Reavers as skirmishers? Because it gives them greater movement flexibility, helps them avoid getting bogged down, and allows them to cover a flank thanks to their 360º vision and spears. Plus, a fast unit with both shooting and redirecting potential can be a real game-changer in a competitive match.
Option 3: A List Without Sisters of Avelorn
If you’d rather not rely on Sisters of Avelorn as core choices, you can build the list using other efficient units instead:
- 7 Silver Helms with shields and a champion
- 11 Archers with a champion
- 11 Archers with a champion
- 5 Ellyrian Reavers (with spear, short bow, musician, skirmishers)
A solid block of Silver Helms, paired with a redirector and long-range shooting support. If you prefer to split the Archers into units of 5, I’d drop the champion.
The reason for running 11 instead of 10 is that if you field them in ranks of 5-5-1, that last model still gets to shoot. You’d only lose 2 shots if they don’t move and use volley fire—so the setup gives you maximum shooting efficiency in most situations.
Option 4: Flexible Frontline with Multiple Support Units
- 5 Silver Helms with shields and a champion
- 5 Silver Helms with shields and a champion
- 5 Ellyrian Reavers (with spear, short bow, musician, skirmishers)
- Three small units of Archers (5 models each)
This approach works well whether you want to run a flexible frontline with small, mobile units or if your list already includes large units in the special slots.
If your army already features Dragon Princes, Phoenix Guard, or Swordmasters, spending your 500 core points on more big blocks would be a mistake, as you’d lose flexibility and key support units.
The Old World 500 points games
This isn’t a game that’s really optimized for such a small format like 500 points.
Still, a lot of people do play Warhammer Old World 500 points games— especially when they’re just getting started, learning the rules, or testing the game out. These small battles usually include just basic units, since adding characters or special units can eat up your points super fast.
That said, I hope this post helps those of you playing at this size put together a solid little army — and maybe even inspires you to jump into bigger battles down the line.
The way you fill your 500 core points should align with the rest of your list. Personally, I focus on avoiding units that don’t perform any role well and look for core choices that can cover gaps in my army’s strategy.
Why haven’t you seen a single Spearman or Sea Guard unit here? Because they were terrible before 1.5, back when missions didn’t exist. Here’s the post that breaks down all High Elf core units in detail, so you can adapt your list to the new missions and deployment setups:
If you think there’s an error in the post, feel free to reach out at theoldwarrior@theoldwarrior.com, and I’ll review it. Hope you enjoy ToW!