Self-Supporting Heroes

My friend brought up an interesting idea:
'A cheap character who can survive on his own and reek havoc on small units/war machines, or even mess with a large unit in close combat'

While saying this, he proceeded to run across my lines by charging all my war machines and flank (or rear) charging all of my units, either alone or in support of another unit, and almost always coming out on top (he failed once against a big unit, but passed his leadership)

To counter this, my orcs and goblins army came up with this character:

Night Goblin Bigboss: 145
Goblin Wolf Chariot
Extra Crew
Sneaky Skewerer
Tricksy Trinket
Enchanted Shield
Light Armour

This character is cheap (under 150 points), relatively fast (movement 9) and can wreck a unit all on his own. And, just in case you run into more heavily armoured units/units with a ward save, they don't get any ward saves against anything (impact hits, wolf attacks, crew attacks, etc.) and everything (except wolves) reduces armour saves by a good amount on the turn they charge (-2 for impact hits, -1 for goblins with spears, and -4 for the goblin boss). On top of all that, it also has shooting attacks (2 short bows)

So, my question for you is: what builds would you make for a cheap, effective self-sufficient hero (no lords, they're too expensive) and what role would you use him for?

No special characters, please. Originals only!

I don't have the High Elves army book on, but I was thinking of mounting a noble on a Giant Eagle with some regular gear, probably a GW, and having him go war machine hunting. Of course, he'd be supported by 2 more giant Eagles. But since I don't have the book on me, I'm not sure if I can do that option with the High Elves.

I'm not sure how well this tactic could work in the long run.
With ranged units getting a lot more shots, magic getting better and warmachines being more accurate.

A single cannonball to the face will kill these units most of the time.
A unit of tomb kings archers don't suffer any modifiers to hit and will love to see the easy kills of lone characters.
Goblin units are cheap, archers or spear chuckkas should be able to bring them down.


That said, vampire counts were built for this tactic.
A vampire with etheral is immune to all none magic attacks. He can have flying or the ring of lychni for speed. There's the armour that gives an addition -2 to hit when shot at. I might be wrong, but I think they even have a magic item that gives the bearer a 3+ ward against warmachines and magic missles.
With fear, high weapon skill and init, and strength 5, he should be able to drive off even dwarven warmachine crews.

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Originally Posted by Old_Paladin

I'm not sure how well this tactic could work in the long run.
With ranged units getting a lot more shots, magic getting better and warmachines being more accurate.

A single cannonball to the face will kill these units most of the time.
A unit of tomb kings archers don't suffer any modifiers to hit and will love to see the easy kills of lone characters.
Goblin units are cheap, archers or spear chuckkas should be able to bring them down.


That said, vampire counts were built for this tactic.
A vampire with etheral is immune to all none magic attacks. He can have flying or the ring of lychni for speed. There's the armour that gives an addition -2 to hit when shot at. I might be wrong, but I think they even have a magic item that gives the bearer a 3+ ward against warmachines and magic missles.
With fear, high weapon skill and init, and strength 5, he should be able to drive off even dwarven warmachine crews.

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You make a good point. I am going to try it a couple of times to field test it and see how it actually works. I'll probably give my noble a ward save of some kind to increase longevity. My other ideas are to use shadow warriors and reavers. Probably a combination of all three. That way I have a 3 pronged attack against war machines.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DarkAngelHopeful

You make a good point. I am going to try it a couple of times to field test it and see how it actually works. I'll probably give my noble a ward save of some kind to increase longevity. My other ideas are to use shadow warriors and reavers. Probably a combination of all three. That way I have a 3 pronged attack against war machines.

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I just feel that pretty much every army has at least one type of unit that can do this better then a single 150-ish point hero (that is probably better off being tooled-up to assist big infantry blobs).

Any fast-cav archery unit (goblin wolf/spider riders, empire pistolliers, tomb king light horseman, every elf army has a similar unit); if it's a core unit, then an additional bonus
Or a heavy hitting monster or unit of infantry with special deployment rules (dwarven miners, skaven with a warp grinder, tomb scorpion, marauders led by Wulfric, beastman using ambush); again some of these units can also be spent on core units.

Personally, I'd be alot more worried about 15 dwavern miners or 20 gors walking onto my rear without me having been able to shoot them at all; then I would about an empire captain on pegusi with a hydra-blade flying into my flank. Units that break ranks and get a rear charge will wipeout whole units; the hero on the flank will hold down a unit for a few turns and do a handfull of kills.


However, I guess a unit like a woodelf hero with spear and hail of doom arrow on a giant eagle could hurt a big unit and then attack a warmachine in melee pretty well (if he isn't shot out of the sky first).

My personal take is one of "recognized" distractions. By this I mean something that your oponent recognizes that you are trying to draw attention from another unit, but the distraction is too much of a threat to simply ignore. In order for a "solo" hero to properly funtion you need to give your oponent a catch 22. When you are flying behind your oponents flank you make sure that there are atleast 2 threats (one namely your solo) the other a more traditional threat. This can include anything that has atleast movement 7, as is the case with most heavy cavalry, since your goal is flank disruption/war machine hunting. I tend to opt more towards fast cav, as the bonus 12 inch move at the start of the game will allow them to keep up with the generaly "flying" solo.
Fast units also present another option which I personaly enjoy. Many of the units that now have the Vanguard rule also have some form of shooting attack. The vanguard rule also states that the unit does Not count as moving in the first turn if it makes this move. It does however state that if any movement is taken with this rule the unit Cannot make a charge move in the first turn. I recomend using it to manuve a unit such as Empire Pistoliers or High Elf Reavers into an optimal possion very close to the flank of a unit. This will be anoying enough for your oponent to have to shift ranged fire/make leadership tests to march all the while being shot at. The "Two" to this "One Two" punch is the solo.
In my case I use an Empire Captain, mounted on a Pegasus. I keep him cheap yet still efficient at exactly 120 pts.
Equipment: Full Plate, Shield, Lance, and Pistol
This gives me the option to spend 1 turn taking a shot at something, then following up with a charge that delivers 3 strength 6 attacks, 2 at strength 4, and a final Stomp hit at strength 4. While not as flashy as other units this character costs about as much as a small unit and holds about the same hitting power with a bit more survivability.
Again the point of solos is hunting small vulnerable targets. I personaly advise focusing on mobility for this so you can quickly close the distance to your target and move off before a reaction is feasable. Always try to keep your units in pairs so that even if one fails, the other will be there to finish the job.