Borked it on the Slayers. I made the assumption without checking that Dragonbacks had AP, but yeah they don't xD Went with them as they had the charge defence over Giant Slayers. Meant to test Giant Slayers but totally forgot. But I done did it now and the results: vs Bloodcrushers - 0:35 vs Butchers - 0: 33 vs Dread Saurian - 6000, 5500, 4000, 4800, 5100 1 - 1 - 6 maybe? So perhaps 2nd place. Some strong lads! But I'm definitely going in the book. Balls. Is it obvious I haven't played Warhammer 3 for awhile xD Apologies for the bork. Shit happens.

Tzeench Chosen Hallbirds not only routed most of the enemies but remained half health. That mean you could use them further in battle, so they're the best anti large unit.

For reference, the cost of each unit, in order of appearance: 1300 - Black Guard of Naggarond (Dark Elves) 1200 - Dragonback Slayers* (Dwarfs) 1050 - Celestial Dragon Guard (Grand Cathay) 1300 - Phoenix Guard (High Elves) 1200 - Temple Guard (Lizardmen) 1350 - Council Guard* (Skaven) 1600 - Chosen of Tzeentch, Halberds (Tzeentch) 1200 - Depth Guard, Polearms (Vampire Coast) 1400 - Chosen, Halberds (Warriors of Chaos) Their foes: 1500 - Bloodcrushers of Khorne (Khorne) 1500 - Butchers of Kalkengard* (Beastmen) 3100 - Dread Saurian (Lizardmen) * = Regiment of Renown

Would be interesting to see how celestial dragon guard do with harmony added.

Depth Guard have a smaller regiment size (at only 60) so them killing things this fast is actually pretty decent.

Would have been interesting if you parked an idle ranged unit behind the Cathay boys so they had their bonus. The faction pretty much relies on that synergy.

It's the Dave-Games; to find the greatest Goliath slayer, every dave in the old world is rounded up, handed a Halberd, drilled in infantry formations and melee technique and finally, pitted against an assortment of cavalry, bipedal cow-valry and a Bread Sore Ian, with only the survivors going on to become full fledged Dave Guard, as the dead ones have actually died already.

Would Giant Slayers have performed better than the DB Slayers due to their AP?

I feel like you should have used the Dune Dragons RoR. Done the celestial dragon guard dirty only being 1050 cost unit and no harmony. I know its hard to have cost for cost units against eachother, but putting a 1050 CDG vs a 1600 chosen is savage.

I really really love halberds, both in-game and conceptually, so this is the video I look forward to most.

Despite losing, I'd still say the Celestial Guard did pretty well: Considering they're significantly cheaper than most others, and they were fighting without harmony. Good show by the Cathayans! \o/

chosen with halberds is basicly my favourite unit in the whole game! they so solid in like every melee battle.

9:50 no, they give them weakness to fire, but they don't have fire attacks.

As a high elf main, it pleases me that the Phoenix Guard did so well. Visually one of my favorite units in the game, so I'm glad they back it up by being good at their job. I'm quite surprised by the Depth Guard though. I thought they'd be near the bottom, that was a standout performance

Your cat is worried about you. Alone, sitting in the dark at your computer, AND you were talking to yourself. It had to do something to get your attention. Your cat is the real hero(or heroine), here.

I love that you had them go against what they are meant to fight. Can't wait for you to redo all of your other best unit videos ;)

Good job with the creativity. I didn't think I'd ever see a competition like this, but you proved me wrong!

Always love the "Who's the best" videos you make. May I ask what made you chose these anti-large units from factions over other factions? is it purely because they are all some of the best?

I'd have loved to see how the Severed Claw would fare in this type of comp given their very low model count

Great video as always but why you didn't take giant slayers for the dwarfs?

No surprises here. I played an Archaon campaign and despite access to a massive roster of potential units, I quickly realized that Tzeench chosen with halberds (and, to a lesser extent, Tzeench Chaos knights) were the most reliable option.

I love this type of content. It reminds of my medival 2 and rome 2 custom battles sending units against each others just to enjoy the slaughtering and to see who is better. Wondering how the bretonian beastslayers of bastonne would have performed. Please more olympics

YES! Thank you dude! So pumped. Love this series

This was so great!! Would love to see more tests like this.

Giant slayers would be a better fit, and dragonback slayers don´t have fire attacks, they give -20% fire resistance, so they didn´t have advantage against minotaurs

I was hoping to see this sort of thing. Thanks!

Awesome vid. Really fun to see this play out.

This is what I’ve been waiting for. Purpose driven testing.

Very informative. Thank you, Zerk.

Would’ve been cool to have a graph for avg HP remaining for the units as well. Would help knowing if they’re going to have enough HP to help in the rest of the battle Fantastic video as always

Finally, I was waiting for this video. Great job. Although, you forgot to mention that the Phoenix Guard have a good amount of physical resistance as well, which is probably why they did quite good.

Great vid and commentary, game graphics are looking sweet on your setup

Good video. Harmony bonus aside, I'm not surprised to see CDG underperform in a contest of damage dealing, since their only job is to hold the line while their factions ranged units handle the damage dealing.

Thank you so much for this comparison. Even when the TWWH 2 was released, I wrote under the videos where KZfaqrs compare units that it's stupid to pit anti-large against each other, and they should arrange a competition to kill monsters. But you're the first one to do it all this time. The only remark is that it would be nice to show the remaining HP units to better reveal its effectiveness. Let's say the temple guards are slowly killing monsters, but maybe they have a lot of hp left, which makes them a good defenders? Perhaps even better than others? Or can they fight longer and take on more large units? Showing the remaining amount of hp would help answer these questions. Google Translator helped me with this message.

Just picked up TWW3 on sale and then found your channel. I really enjoy your vids, insights, tactics, and humor. This is by far the best Royal Rumble vid. The amount of time and testing is great. Bless your cotton socks (if you wear any.)

Great content, also excellent commentary, Zerkovich seemed to be in a good mood lol The only change I reckon is the dread saurian test could be done by averaging out the numbers, just to make it clearer. I will go chuck the notes in the bin :P

It's a good day when Zerkovich posts

I figured Depth Guard would do well because those ocean encounters show you who's who. DG always stands last. Great vid! Maybe my fave so far in this genre.

I wonder how doing this test with some archers sitting behind the celestial dragon guard to give harmony buff would change their performance. Harmony buff is pretty huge for Cathay.

Fell in love with the black guards of Naggarond on my first ever campaign which was malekith on wh2.

I’ve been waiting for this!

This was awesome! Total War is a game of asymmetric warfare so this is actually a way better way to ascertain relative unit strengths. I'm curious what determined the final time in each engagement. Is it the unit with the longest time, shortest or an average across all 5 engagements?

I would have liked that you could elaborate more in the end how unit size, frenzy, charge reflection and physical resistance affects the results. I was quite impress with the Skaven

I've always loved this series! Since the anti-large role is often more about screening and holding vs pure killing speed I personally think that how much health the unit has remaining is overall more important than time to kill. Especially for SEMs where you just need the unit to hold while your ranged blast them down, etc. But then I realized that's partly reflected in the results since the units that keep their models alive longer (like Tzeentch chosen) also output more damage in general so it's probably balanced out somewhat. Also, every time I see Cathay in these test I think it would be great to see their harmony bonus accounted for by parking a sky junk overhead without firing since that really their "ideal" stat line. Not that it would have made much of a difference, I just feel bad for the poor gits 😂 Great stuff as usual!

3:39 I love how they fuckin' leap at the chargin Skullcrushers. Godspeed you little madlads.

Nice work :)

I recently found out that there is a hidden mass multiplier with regards to the amount of ranks that a unit has. You can see how few council guard get knocked back compared to the depth guard, depth guard are heavier. I believe the mass cap is at 8 ranks deep, so if you have to take a charge, getting a thick unit is recommended.

Hate to be that guy, Bloodcrushers*. Skullcrushers have mortal riders!

IMO it would have been more meaningful to see how much damage the units sustained rather than looking at how fast they got the job done. Most of these are defensive units by design and staying power rather than killing power is what you want out of them first and foremost. But I get that adding up the remaining health dividing by the initial amount would have been super tedious. Great vid either way.

I love seeing the Dread Saurian

Thank you for the vid

Love the Sports Saturday presentation :)

Thank you for saying the explicit length of time a charge bonus lasts. It’s surprising how hard it is to find that out.

Love the video Zerkovich, but I do think another measure of BEST would be how much health the anti-large has at the end of the fight, the way you're doing it favors units with high attack slightly. Obviously for the fights where the anit-large don't survive, then it's clear the attack is important to finish the target (can't just be 100% defense).

I think having a versus competition 'in the traditional style' would be a good supplement to this test. It would help show which units are more versatile and which are the most situational and only good versus large.

I love these types of videos

I guess the Cathay unit did worst, cause they got the Harmony bonus working for them in an actual battle. Would have been curious to see how it goes with a Yin unit standing nearby

I love this method way more than the previous one

No harmony bonus really puts the dragon guard at a disadvantage

I would love to see losses/ damage taken in these as well, not that it should change the competition outcome but just that it's fun to think about Love your stuff

I admit I didn't expect any Dread Saurian to rout, that was a very nice surprise there, kudos also to the rattos who did better than I expected

I'm really glad they had to deal with a daemon and a mortal unit to see whether units' magical attack made them more valuable overall.

22:36 "Archeon wills it!" LMAO

I loooove this kind of videos :)

It sure makes me happy to see so many staunch lines of spears.

The council guard suffered the in the first 2 rounds purely due to the fact their numbers can't be utilised properly in a proper fight they'd surround their enemies and attack from all sides

Props to the Depth Guard for doing better than I thought they would

lizard on lizard action... my favorite :D

16:41 Slayer in the lower right side of the screen got yeeted into orbit.

YES Please more these videos!

Can we get a list of the units? Comparing the recruitment and upkeep cost, while seeing how well they did in the tournament.

When I tested celestial dragon guards with harmony right after formation attack was buffed, they beat elite bloodthirsters charging headon. It was just regular harmony too, no lords nearby. Before the nerfs to formation attack 2 peasant spears would beat skarbrand due to harmony and formation attack.

the best of "Who's the BEST" videos

I'm still learning warhammer and videos like this are very helpful for noobs like me.

cavalry test: I'd like to adjust the ranks with some opinions, Celestial Dragon Guard are by far the cheapest of the units here which makes their lower performance far more acceptable considering their foe's almost 500 gold difference. They're more valuable than the video suggests. The Depth Guard on the other hand almost had a complete leak, and in unisolated conditions this would've caused their foe to easily dump into the backlines where their damage matters while the depth guard were able to tank it, and spank it. They were not able to stop it. Which makes them far less valuable. Council Guard performed... about as well as a Skaven unit can be expected... terrible performance but the best Skaven will be able to give. Slayers are garbage. With Squad monsters it seems that the ones that can deal the most damage (since it's easier to surround) Pair off better defensively. The more attack, the better the outcome.

Great video!!!!!!!

Was genuinely surprised at how well Depth Guard did against cav. They might be my new go to for fighting Brettonia as the Vampire Coast

I wouldn't mind seeing anti-large vs anti-large with your commentary, but I just like watching your vids so I'll take whatever you put up.

Temple Guard definitely aren't living up to their tabletop and lore reputation, they just take too long to kill things, sad as a LM player. Celestial Guard seems a bit weaksauce as well, though they probably are meant to be given the whole combined arms shtick Cathay has across the board.

Happy V day Zerk and my boys

I actually wonder how much better the Celestial Dragon guards would have done with their harmony bonus activated

Damn the dwarves grudge is strong. That wee slayer that get decapitated at 3:50 still had enough in him to do a final sweeping attack as he falls dead 🤘

I want to point out 2 things in this test. 1. The dwarven giant slayers have more Ap as far as i remember so they would probably do better overall in these tests. 2. Choosing a regenerating large unit is somewhat unfair to the infantry with lower attack/damage as they have to fight longer anyway and the regen just drags it out further.

This sort of video is very pleasing to my OCD

My most expensive large fighting unit is always the siege engine I forgot to protect.

intresting ! juste sad you did not include a flying cavalry / monster charge. I wounder if the flying part does any difference in a charge deffence !

Dude, ty so much, can we have the mid and low tier vs mid and low tier cav/monster too? Please...:)

I would love to see how all of these hold against war Mammoths. I think they are bigger threat then Dread Saurian. But it was nice to see Big lizard as well.

would love to see the giant slayers and the ironbreakers, giant salyers have more bonus vs large and ap and ironbreakers have the best charge defense i guess?!

Blood! BLOODCRUSHERS! Skullcrushers for the Skullthrone, BLOODCRUSHERS FOR THE BLOODGOD! Ahem.

I definitely understand the dragonback slayers, but what about giant slayers as a more expensive option? That way you have majority AP like all the halberds. Also somewhat surprised asrai speardancers weren't included. They are a lot like the slayers, way more fragile but excellent stats and much faster than the more heavily armored options. Really impressed with how the depth guard did here though. I think they are a really cool unit and in battles tend not to be seen as very good because of their price tag and vulnerability to missile fire. But if doing thw job they want to do, they are quite good at it.

Thanks bro.

Aktshually, regeneration does help depth guard with dishing out more damage. If they lose less models, they have more models that can deal damage. Look up Lanchester's square law.

did you use the sacred version of the temple guard? its not a renown unit but it does have magic attacks would have made a diff i think in the first.

Your who is the Best videos are always great 👍

I like to see how regiment of renawn temple guards do in this competition

It’s not the most common unit but I’d be interested in seeing how giant slayers would stack up in this test.

9:19 couldn't agree more.

This was the highlight of my valentine's day

I love the dwarves chasing the minotaurs.