‘Warhammer: The Old World’- The Five Best Light Chariots

Chariots have made a big come back in Warhammer: The Old World, these are the best light ones.

We’ve all had our hands on The Old World for a couple years now. The game has mostly shaken out now. We’ve gotten a decent look at what is good and bad and how people like to play. Today, we are continuing our series, looking at the best units form various categories. While we’ve looked at some of these before changes to the rules and the meta have moved some things around.

So now I want to turn to Chariots. Today lets look at the best of the light class of these. This isn’t a super stacked category so we are including all factions today. However we are going to stick to actual combat chariots, sorry Dwarf Carts. Let’s take a look!

5. Goblin Wolf Chariots – Orcs & Goblins

Let’s start off with the classic Orcs & Goblins Goblin Wolf Chariot. This is a cheap and iconic light chariot – it’s pretty much what you’d expect from this type of unit. It’s fast, light, and doesn’t hit all that hard, but can do some damage. You can take them in big groups and pack in a lot of crew and wolfs. It’s also a jump above some of the bottom-tier light chariots in that it does d3+1 Impact hits. Its main downside is Impetuous, and they are less likely to be close to guys who quell that. But these chariots are very cheap and have their uses.

4. Tiranoc Chariots – High Elves

We are jumping up in price with another classic unit, this time from High Elves. However, these are also light chariots that do d6 Impact hits at S5. That jumps up their charge damage a lot over a lot of other light chariots. They are still fast, light and can do some shooting, but they don’t have any super fun tricks. It’s still a solid unit and getting charged by a block of them is not fun!

3. Scourgerunner Chariots – Dark Elves

High Elves aren’t the best Elves on this list, their Dark kin have what could be an even better Chariot. On the face of things they are pretty similar, the Scourgerunner only has S4 and is a little more expensive. It is however, a lot better at shooting. The crew have repeater crossbows, which are nice. But it also has the Ravager Harpoon, which is a very solid shooting attack. However ponderous, which gives it a -2 to move a shoot, does suck as it means using the Harpoon kind of locks you in place and costs you mobility. As a nice buff they do get a 4+ vs shooting. Arguably these are some of the best light chariots at doing what you want light chariots to do – run around a have some deadly shooting and maybe charge a weakened unit.

4. Tomb Guard Chariot – Tomb Kings

Despite being one of the most iconic chariot-heavy armies, Tomb King chariots aren’t necessarily the best. The Arcane Journal does give them a bit of a buff with the Tomb Guard chariots. (Most of what I’m going to say also applies to the normal chariots, but these are technically better stat-wise.) These are slightly heavier, but still light, chariots. They’ve got a 4+ save, which is pretty nice for a light chariot, a regen. They’ve also got riders with S4, halberds and cleaving blow, along with D3+1 Impact hits they can hit pretty hard. Of course, they are also undead – but they get Reserve Move to cancel out not being able to march. Undead is a bit of a two edged sword. On the one hand they can’t break and that’s nice. However, they also can’t break from a losing combat and then charge back in later, like other light chariots. It’s much more likely they might get stuck in and then ground down.

On the other hand, and unlike most other Chariots Light or Heavy, you can stick some pretty good characters in Tomb King Chariot units. The option to have some good buffs and get strong characters really does change both how the unit operates and what it can do. A big unit of Tomb King chariots is going to act a lot more like a normal unit, or a unit of heavy cav, then the missiles most chariots end up being. A well supported unit is pretty conclusively the best unit on this list.

1. Hellflyer of Slaanesh – Daemons of Chaos

Lastly, topping the list we’ve got the Hellflyer of Slaanesh. This is really a unit where we’ve got to ask: why is this a light chariot? At 145 pts its the most costly chariot on the list, but man does it hit hard! It’s running in with a massive 2d6+1 Impact hits, which is crazy. It’s also got three crew and the two animals, so it just has a ton of attacks. On top of that it’s super fast with Move 9 and Swiftstride, and also First Charge. Unlike almost all other chariots it has Counter-Charge, meaning its really hard to make it not get Impact hits. It does have the downside of being a single-model unit, and not cheap, and not all that hard to kill. Because of that as a large unit its not as good as say a whole unit of TK chariots with support and characters. However, one-on-one, the Hellflyer of Slaanesh is going to beat any other light chariot.

Let us know what light chariots you think are best, down in the comments! 

Author: Abe Apfel

Abe is that rare thing, an Austin local born and raised here. Though he keeps on moving around, DC, Japan, ETC., he always seems to find his way back eventually. Abe has decades of experience with a wide range of tabletop and RPG games, from historicals, to Star Wars to D&D and 40K. He has been contributing to BOLS since almost the start, back when he worked at and then owned a local gaming store. He used to be big into the competitive Warhammer tournament scene but age has mellowed him and he now appreciates a good casual match. He currently covers Warhammer: The Old World, as well as all things Star Wars, with occasional dabbling in other topics. Abe mourned over loss of WFB for its entire hiatus, but has been reborn like a gaming phoenix with Warhammer: The Old World.