Who's the BEST Infantry? - Warhammer 3 

"The daemonettes are taking a pounding, but they're dishing it back!" You know, somehow I get the feeling the daemonettes are totally on board with this.

You know, I think an anti-large competition would be cool to see! Take all of the best anti-large units from each faction and put them against increasingly stronger large units. You could start at something weak like Kossovite Dervishes, then go up to Ogre brutes (or whatever their base infantry unit is) and just work your way up, seeing which anti large unit is best

Cathay are also missing their battle harmony buffs, which also knocks em down in this kind of competition. Still fun to watch, great job Zerk

0:55 Aww, that's not fair! I wanted to see how many kills they could get before kicking the bucket! Who knows, they might actually be really cost effective.

The minions of the Blood God are the best at melee fighting, this is actually correct according to the lore. Color me surprised.

Those anti-charge animations on the Dragon Guard were pretty cool, actually - much better to look at than just getting apathetically slammed into.

When I saw the Pink Horrors, I instantly saw Roman Legionaries. Giving me new ideas for the campaign, awesome work!

If Bloodletters had lost, there would be riots. I think their lower cost than Daemonettes is justified given that they aren't as good at flanking and they're on a 1-dimensional roster that *needs* to be good at charging cost-efficient infantry into the enemy frontline because they have no other option.

I think the deamonettes are fairly priced considering how fast they are, which didn’t really matter in this test.

I think counter charging the pink horrors was a mistake. It would've been interesting to see the replays where they kept firing from the back lines, considering their sub par melee stats but pretty respectable missile damage

I saw (GW) and thought Gone wild

When it comes to cathay units they have a "fight in formation" key toggled on by default this actually hurts them in melee battles against other melee infantry and is only good for holding tight formations while your other units support them. You will see a lot of the cathay units turning there back to the enemy and walking back one line in the formation hurting dps of there own and increasing that of the enemy. It probably wouldn't have changed most of the matchups but it certainly would have helped.

Best Infantry Competitions=Weak Worst Infantry Competitions=Strong I also wonder if Sword and Board Tzar Guard would do better since Daemons dont have a lot of armor and the higher melee defense would keep em alive longer

For the weirder inclusions like the Celestial Dragon Guard, it might be helpful to include a metric like "but how long did they last?" since the conclusion is kinda foregone but getting an idea of how much time they can buy you in each match-up might help out a bit too. Sorry if this is a duplicate comment, I didn't see anyone else saying it.

Damn pink horrors are surprisingly good in the melee, I guess its that barrier giving them that wiggle room.

2:17 Premature Swing. They say it happens to about 1 in 10 humans. 3:46 "I do not fear you." "Then you will die braver then most." 17:20 Khorne vs Slanesh. A classic rivalry.

The plaguebearers disintegrating with ~2k hp remaining really puts a damper on their hp advantage, it'll be more like a illusion of sustain when you check in on a unit and see they have 3k hp remaining only for them to delete themselves a few seconds later.

I love that Exalted Daemonettes can be shortened to ED.

Exalted Pink Horrors seem very solid, holding their own in melee and the strong missile attack As expected though, BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD

Great video! Would love more of these tournament type videos : )

I really like these comparisons - thank you! Keep it up.

Yes, more of this. Would love even just some random unit/spell testing even outside of these structured tournament style ones.

These videos are very helpful to become familiar with the units. Thanks!

I think it would be cool if you did more army showcases for the original armies since there’s been so many dlcs and updates I think more showcases and overviews would be cool

Oh yay! These face-offs have always been my favorite of your content! Feels like watching a sporting match.

The plaguebearers feel quite underpowered here. They should beat at least the Deamonettes in a front to front combat considering how slow they are.

Great to see this series back :)

This was fun and informative. Would you consider doing a cavalry and monstrous cav match-up video?

haha I really really enjoyed this video for some reason. the tournament style was really fun.

You suggested during the breakdown at the end that bloodletters may need a price nerf I feel I should point out the big thing that can explain Daemonettes higher price point The Bloodletters performance here was inflated by bonus vs infantry and they'll lose effectiveness against large enemies. The Daemonettes lack bonus vs infantry, they'll perform that well against any infantry, cavalry or monster.

That was fun. Thanks for putting it together.

Great video Zerkovich! From a multiplayer perspective it would be interesting to see the unit costs before the showdown each time for a good comparison. GL HF!

Imo it would've been better to test celestial dragon crossbowmen, as they use swords and shields in melee and have more generalized combat stats. In a way they are more similar to exalted pink horrors than halberds, which are anti large specialists.

Nice video, thumbs up. It would also be very interesting who has the best cavalry units.😊

'Sent back to the Chaos Realm with a good effort badge' on top form as always with your videos Zerk!

Thanks for the video. Time codes would be great next time 😉

Excellent commentary as always!

the blood god is pleased, not only with his champions winning, but also the blood shed that was done during this test.

Hey zer awesome video man absolutely appreciate it

This soon? Mad lad, we love it!

was just watching your video on this topic for warhammer 2!

cool test, although cathay gets doubly screwed because they're also balanced around yin/yang which would give them up to 12 more melee defense and better leadership. In isolation I wouldn't be surprised if cathay doesn't have the worst units of every type regardless of the type tested.

Chosen w/ GW vs Exalted Bloodletters is a matchup I’m really looking forward to. Thanks for the great showcase! I wonder if the Monkey King will bring with him some more aggressive melee infantry for Cathay? Also, I’m curious whether the daemons will eventually all get chaos warriors and chosen devoted to their god. The future is exciting!

I did not expect to see the pink horrors do that well. I'm proud of my tzeentchy boyz

Zerk I love these tests this is what brought me to total war warhammer . Goooooood man

Would love to see a Who’s the Best video about roles that are not 1v1 matches. For instance: who is best against cavalry. Letting each faction put their best anti large units against a set amount of cavalry (3 empire knights or something) and see who puts out the most damage. If you worked then on a higher you could test how 2000 of goblin spears fared vs a 2000 cost, anti-large monster. It would simulate a scenario where you send X unit off to your flank to deal with a cavalry unit. Would be interesting to see if budget equivalent groups of cheap units can keep up with the expensive specials.

Think you missed an important step in determining Cathays relative power rating. If you're going to allow the 2 units to use their ranged attacks, you should probably also have a ranged unit (with fire at will turned off) standing near the cathay infantry for the yin/yang stat bonus. May need to consider balance of power issues added by the ranged units, even if they are not shooting. TLDR yin/yang gunna be an important component of accurately determining relative unit power. Probably should also be considered when you do the best ranged unit testing for a future video.

Damn I like that there's a lot of maps with stuff on them, but I also like flat open maps to fight army to army on a wide scale :( I hope they have them in mortal emps

Can't wait to watch these videos when all units are available

I would really like to see how ogres would have performed here.

looking forward to your missile unit comparisons!

In Celestial Dragon guard defence they do get yin/yang aura when ranged unit is nearby but then it is 2 vs 1. Would be nice to see if that aura can make any difference (ranged unit not attacking)

Dragon guard also do t have their yin/yan bonus

Already doing unit competitions while the game isnt even out yet, man you make the hype and the waiting game so hard.

I'd be interested in seeing this again but with each of the Dragon Guard having an archer unit behind them (facing the wrong way not shooting of course). The extra melee defense from harmony makes a pretty big difference.

hey Z cool video as always. It would be really nice if you used they/them for slaaneshi demons.

I enjoyed this so much and you’ll make a great sports commentator 😂

Did you turn of formation attack on the dragon guard? it hampers their performance by around 11% or something. Great video as always!

When you do the mortal empires you have to put dwarfs iron breakers since you are allowing some range.

11:00 If you want backline ranged units to keep shooting you must either issue a shoot command or have them just stand with autofire On. Once you issue melee attack command, they won't shoot anymore.

I think it's awesome to note that a straight-up slashy slashy wasn't really possible here. The caveats about pink horrors also having ranged or Cathay preferring to hold their ground against large and even OK being disqualified for being large are part of what makes this game so awesome.

Yes, Awesome work. thank you

Excited for this! (Hopefully a cav sequel)

17:45 lmao.. that one Red just missed that wall of Pink and kept on going.

Finally one of the "who is da best?" videos, i was expecting these so much

Here we go, this is what I've been waiting for

I was hoping to see how Khrone warriors and berserkers do too, still a good showcase

What you really wanna do with the hybrid units like the various Horrors and Kossars is counter-charge with a melee attack order and then follow up with a normal ranged attack order so they can shoot and slash at the same time while still getting the charge bonus.

CDG currently have a anti charge perk by countercharging, sometimes proving much better that way. You really should try that

how does ammo work when the backline is firing into the combat of the frontlines is that a - to the ammo of the entire unit, or will the front models if they survive get to fire those shots later?

My boy zerk is back with more videos

One thing I'd have liked to have seen would be Exalted Daemonettes hitting the Bloodletters in the rear to see how much the Devestating Flanker makes a difference in that match up.

It's a little weird that the Pink Horrors didn't shoot into the Tsar Guard after their counter charge. I wonder if that would help the plague bearers as well. I wonder if a more square formation would help the ranged units fire into combat for longer, even if it means their engaged models are outnumbered more often.

I thought forsaken of tzeentch would make it but they must be monstrous

Dude you make me laugh every time 😊 Also I practically learned how to play tww2 because of your vids. Thanks for your vids

Got a question about bracing in the new game, if a non-spear (therefore without charge defense) unit brace, does it mitigate disruption from the charge only?

Nice video, however I would have liked to see how the Ironguts would have behaved against these infantry of the same tier

Have you thought about doing a best anti large? Something like each faction against a control monster/monstrous infantry?

Could you increase the UI scale for these videos so we can clearly see the info box for each unit?

Seems about fair, good balancing. The tactical acumen of the player, and support units/characters abilities, should make the difference.

Counter charging Pink Horrors makes as much sense as counter charging with your other missile units. Let them keep shooting.

Definitely looking forward to see how WH1 and 2 infantry holds up. What is the best TW:WH infantry? Cavalry? Monstrous infantry? Anti-large monster?

I recently saw a video showing that formation attack can pretty significantly lower infantry's performance, maybe that had some impact in this competition

I think exalted daemonettes and bloodletters are priced appropriately, given that in a battle the exalted daemonettes are angling to activate their Devastating Flanker bonus, and are charming enemy units to help preserve squishy slaaneshi units--other roles than sole butchery.

Was definitely not expecting Celestial dragon guard to lose

I'm pretty sure that the Celestial Dragon Guard would fight a lot better with a Yin unit nearby since harmony is such an integral part of the mechanics of Cathay. & extra Melee defence (or 12 if there's also a hero or lord nearby) are a gamechanger for sure. Also - the Pink Horrors have no place in this test at all because they are not a Melee infantry unit, they are classified as missile infantry. You have to use the Blue Horrors in this test because they are the only Melee infantry unit in the Tzeentch roster. Or would also put some Sisters of Avelorn or Waywatchers into this type of competition because that's the exact same unit type as Pink Horrors.

@Zerkovich The missile units firing in melee is a mechanic based on the order of attack. Enticity has a great video explaining it in warhammer 2 here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qV7Vyf50soM.html

You know, what I'd really love to see is a ranking of infantry-chasing or hero-chasing units, because so often I'll send units to chase after a routed enemy only to be utterly unable to finish them off before they leave the battlefield. It's not an issue with routing monsters, but infantry often just get knocked around without taking damage.

Think the stats will be changed before release? And, I know that infantry isn’t the main thing in battles, but watching this makes me wonder if the humans actually have any units that are better, unit on unit, than the chaos factions.

These are my fav vids!

I think that both bloodletters and deamonettes should stack up really well in a price/performance scale with other elite infantry, since there is an awful lot of high armour ap dealing units in that elite field.

oh let's go il love so much this series hopes a good new ammount with warhamemr 3 !

Blood letters violated those daemonettes

Eh, I know you said that this isn’t a perfect test, but it’s rather unfair to Cathay, given that usually you’re going to want to have the Harmony buffs going, which would make the CDG probably outlast at least a few other units.

just a thought how did the celestial guard do with the harmony bonus, (a peasant archer facing the wrong way could activate this)

Aren't pink horrors supposed to split into blue and then yellow? Also good video dose makes you wonder who to use for your front line units or supports for the front line.

Can the plaguebearers also shoot while engaged in melee like the pink horros?

Man, I cannot wait to see the sixty-seven hour video of a comparison between ALL high-tier infantry when the game finally drops. I've gotta see if the Crimzun Killers get dethroned by some demons.

It would've been rather poor on CA's part had Khorne's EBs not won in a relatively straight up melee contest. Curious to know if the Exalt Plaguebearers might have done better against the Exalt Pinkies had they used their missile attack a few times. I've seen them apparently do a lot of damage to the shielding of Tzeentch units. Not sure if you tried it, but am curious if it might have mattered. Always fun to watch, thanks.

11:58 weird movement on those demonettes, seemed like half of the unit was left behind when charging into the plaguebearers really surprised they won that with a front charge, might have been underestimating them did you test not charging the pinks vs bloodys, having less units in the melee where the bloodletters can deal damage could have won them the time they needed to deal their damage bloodletters are all about dealing lots of damage fast and the loose horror formation might be a decent counter to that similar with the demonettes more relevant with those two then the tzarguard since they have the armor to also stay in the fight so drawing things out a little wouldnt make as much a difference once things waver demonettes have already won, the buff they get from that is pretty good that alongside the rear charge is really what makes them good (tho they did better in the front fight then i expected) rear charge to get the enemy to waver, giving them the buff to finish the job fast and move on to the next unit to charge while also getting a buff for running down the survivors does make me wonder, do they only get that buff from enemy wavering units? or can they enjoy the fear in their own army letting you use it as a comeback enabler? hope you do something similar for the chaff units want to see blues vs peasants vs marauders vs nurglings? dont think khorne has chaff