Strongest and Weakest Warhammer Fantasy Armies

[Sigmar]

The Warhammer Fantasy Army Strengths and Weaknesses Poll (http://www.wfbattles.com/Warhammer_Fantasy_Army_Strengths.aspx) has been added (Member's can vote through their "Profile" page)

I've blogged all about it here:- Battle Reporter - WHFB Army Strengths and Weaknesses (http://battlereporter.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/whfb-army-strengths-weaknesses-opinion.html)

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[Sigmar]

I've added a small scrolling marquee beneath the site banner to ask members to complete any of the 3 army and hobby polls in their profile pages that they haven't already submitted (the scrolling text box disappears when the member has completed their polls).

Hopefully, this will get us some more responses to the opinion polls, I should have done it sooner but it's only just occurred to me that if a member isn't following this page or my blog then they might not even be aware of the new polls !

http://www.WFBattles.com

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[Animastryfe]

This is very interesting. Do you think that the subjectiveness of arbitrarily scaled ratings will pose a problem? That is, a 7 in movement may mean very different things to different people. It may help to suggest objective descriptions for certain ratings, such as a 7 in movement means that an army can do X, while a 3 in movement means that an army can only do Y. Or, make it clear that is about relative power levels and make the ratings completely skilled. This way, the best army in one category will always get a 10, while the worst will always get a 1.

[Sigmar]

This is very interesting. Do you think that the subjectiveness of arbitrarily scaled ratings will pose a problem? That is, a 7 in movement may mean very different things to different people. It may help to suggest objective descriptions for certain ratings, such as a 7 in movement means that an army can do X, while a 3 in movement means that an army can only do Y. Or, make it clear that is about relative power levels and make the ratings completely skilled. This way, the best army in one category will always get a 10, while the worst will always get a 1.

That's a very interesting point Animastryfe, I hadn't really taken it into consideration. As it stands, I'm asking people to submit their own opinions based on their battle experience and the army books they own. I didn't want to make it more complicated but you've given me some food for thought.

[Animastryfe]

I primarily made the point because some of the scores differ by only 0.1. However, upon further thought, the point I made in the previous post might not apply to your polls. Since everyone votes on everything, the scores are already 'scaled'. As long as people in general think that the armies rank like X>Y>Z, it should not matter whether person A votes X as 9 and person B votes X as 8.
I am posting this at a very late hour, however, so I hope that my reasoning is correct.

[Sigmar]

I've added Merry Slaughter (most enjoyable army match ups) and Chosen of the Dice Gods (luckiest winning armies) to the WFB Battlefields (http://www.wfbattles.com/Battlefields.aspx) page [data taken from the Luck & Fun sliders on the Add Battle (http://www.wfbattles.com/AddBattle.aspx) page]

I think the pages make quite interesting reading - it gives me a chance to show off some of the army pics too :-)

Vampires, Tomb Kings and Wood Elves are all quite close to the top when it comes to needing a little lady luck. Interestingly, the two top armies in the rankings (Warriors of Chaos and Dark Elves) present the favourite battle match up and it seems Lizardmen enjoy their games least, the best of which are battles against Daemons.

Orcs and Goblins & Tomb Kings also make an appearance in the top 3 fun games which is somewhat surprising given that they are way down the list on the Army rankings (http://www.wfbattles.com/ArmiesVs.aspx) page - maybe they're just happy gamers or simply enjoy the randomness of their armies - I'm thinking animosity, stupidity, fanatics, crumbling to dust and Tomb Scorpions that got lost :-)

More info about the Battlefields page on the Battle Reporter blog (http://battlereporter.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/best-fantasy-battles-luckiest-winners.html).

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Bitter Rivals...
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Merry Slaughter...
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Chosen of the Dice Gods...
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[Sigmar]

I primarily made the point because some of the scores differ by only 0.1. However, upon further thought, the point I made in the previous post might not apply to your polls. Since everyone votes on everything, the scores are already 'scaled'. As long as people in general think that the armies rank like X>Y>Z, it should not matter whether person A votes X as 9 and person B votes X as 8.
I am posting this at a very late hour, however, so I hope that my reasoning is correct.

Hi Animastryfe, members can opt out of polls and only vote on some of the armies they have knowledge of so I guess some will be rated more than others, esp the lesser used armies and those people don't battle against as frequently, such as Beastmen and Tomb Kings. However, hopefully over time, the weighted differences will become less significant as more and more people place their votes.

[Shades of Gray]

I feel like the army ratings section is biased towards elite armies. High Elves have excellent shooting, magic, and combat, but they can't field as many models as Skaven.

Goblins and Skaven might be individually squishy, but a giant anvil of night goblins will probably last longer than a unit of great swords of equal points.

Also, Vampire Counts are weirdly enough listed as having a low combat defence. Ghouls, Wights, etc. are pretty dang tough. Not to mention ethereal units. Even then, reanimation makes them artificially tougher.

[Sigmar]

I feel like the army ratings section is biased towards elite armies. High Elves have excellent shooting, magic, and combat, but they can't field as many models as Skaven.

Goblins and Skaven might be individually squishy, but a giant anvil of night goblins will probably last longer than a unit of great swords of equal points.

Also, Vampire Counts are weirdly enough listed as having a low combat defence. Ghouls, Wights, etc. are pretty dang tough. Not to mention ethereal units. Even then, reanimation makes them artificially tougher.

It's a fair point you're making SoG.

It's still early days with regards to the Army Strength polls, we've still only had 40 responses. It should start to look more balanced when we get to 100+ I think:-

Warhammer Army Strengths & Weaknesses poll (http://www.wfbattles.com/Warhammer_Fantasy_Army_Strengths.aspx)