Top 5 Best Lords

#5: Vampire Lord (Vampire Counts)
If he didn't make onto this list, then I would have to put myself in a straight jacket and lock myself in a padded room with no windows. Like many of the characters on this list, his reputation proceeds him and I shouldn't necessarily have to explain why. It's not often you can field a Level 4 caster that can also remove ten models a turn. Couple this with the fact that the mounts he has access to make him even more dangerous, and you have a combination that will terrify even Chaos Dwarf Gun Lines. However, he has a few major concerns that put him at the bottom (or top if you want to be a smartass) of the list. One, he's very expensive. This is kind of made up with the fact that everything else in your army is pretty cheap, but still a well kitted out Vampire Lord will easily run you over 250 Skaven Slaves in terms of points. Second, he is very hard to replace. In any Undead army once the general goes so does the rest of the army with him. Third, putting him on a mount basically makes the rest of your troops useless, because they can no longer march. There are ways to negate these problems but they are very concerning, so thus I put him at the bottom of the top. Sorry Dracula, I still love you.

#4: Slann Mage-Priest (Lizardmen)
If you have ever played a game against the Lizardmen, you know and fear the power that is the Slann. While easily no longer in his heyday, he's still one of the most competitive Lord choices available out there. He's also able to take some pretty banging abilities in terms of Disciplines of the Ancients. However, what makes the Slann the BMF that he is the fact that he can be a BSB. Besides the special Goblin character Grom, no other Lord can do that. He also has the highest Leadership in the entire army, meaning your Slann will be both your General and your Battle Standard Bearer. Stick him in a unit of Temple Guard and they will be Stubborn on a Leadership 9 re-roll. Plus, he can take a 100 point magical banner as the BSB in addition to up to 4 Disciplines of the Ancient, and 100 points of magical items. Now, this will result in your Slann quite possibly maxing your Lord allotment out on a single unit. However, the power of the Slann is so great that there is practically no downside to doing this. He also comes with a 4+ Ward Save. If you want to spend more points on support gear, then you are perfectly within reason to not spend any points to give him a better save. The amount that your Slann can do for the Lizardmen army is absolutely insane. He is perhaps the quintessential caster out of all the armies available to you in WFB. He can very easily be kitted out to be an Ethereal caster with a 2+ Ward Save, making him all but immune to Magical Attacks. He's both a master of a single trade and a very flexible character. To me, that's really all I could want in a character. Again, he is very expensive and he has absolutely no business being in combat. That's what Temple Guard are for. At the end of the day, this guy still ranks high and deserves a spot on this list.

#3: Tomb King (Tomb Kings)
God that felt weird to type! Not just because of the redundancy of the statement, but also the seemingly profound stupidity with which it was typed. See, the Tomb Kings are considered to be one of the weakest armies in the current meta. So saying anything related to the Tomb Kings are in a Top 5 list is like saying the Pinto belongs in the Top 5 Greatest Muscle Car list. Before you all go out and hang me with torches and pitchforks, let me explain. While the Vampire Lord and the Slann are both very powerful for more of a single reason, the Tomb King is powerful for a number of reasons. See, the King is Leadership 10, meaning the crumble rate for troops within his Leadership bubble is going to decrease quite significantly. He's also rocking a very impressive stat line, and perhaps the most awesome fucking rule in the entire Tomb Kings army book. The rule is called My Will Be Done, and if you've never heard of it then I implore you to read further. In addition to lending the unit he's in his leadership, the King also allows them to use his Weapon Skill value as their own. This rule was really overlooked at the beginning of 8th edition when the book came out, but now it's really starting to shine. This makes any unit the King is in (except for other characters) Weapon Skill 6 across the board. In the era of Elves surviving because of this, it's nice to see something able to do the same. Plus, the King is no pushover in combat either. Pop him in a unit of Tomb Guard with halberds, and watch them go to town on pretty much anything they get into combat with. Hell, he can make Skeleton Warriors into tar pit from hell. At WS6, very little is going to be able to touch you at that point. Wait, there's more! He's also pretty damned affordable too, making him a sweet buy for your TK army. You can mount him, but I think the optimal build is on foot in some Tomb Guard. He does have some weaknesses that almost put him at #5, but I reconsidered when I saw his price tag in comparison to both the Vampire Lords and the Slann. He is Flammable and he is only Initiative 3, meaning most things are going before he is. However, he's a tough as a bag of anvils and hits like jackhammer along with any unit he's in. Thus, for the power he can bring the Tomb Kings up to, I put him at a #3 spot.

#2: Daemon Prince (Warriors of Chaos)
The first thing I said/thought when I read the new Lord allotment for End Times was; "Fuck me, double Daemon Princes are coming." Thank god my area practically ignores End Times, so I've never had to face that terror. This guy is terrifying. He's Unbreakable. His hits are Magical. He can be marked to one of the four Chaos Gods to give him a perk that will only make him more dangerous. He can be upgraded so that he can Fly. He can very easily get a great armor and ward save without touching his magic item allotment. Unless you have lots of artillery and the person fielding the Prince has no other targets, then he's going to plink the first cannon shot off with his Charm Shield (which every Daemon Prince build should have) and then be in combat by turn two. This thing just magically fucking murders anything he gets into base contact with. He's at a base Strength of 6, meaning nothing that gets hit by him will have any form of decent armor save. The best I've ever managed was my Bretonnian Lord with a 4+ re-rollable armor save and a 5+ Blessing Save. If he's marked to Nurgle then you might as well not even fucking bother trying to hit him, because you're not going to touch him, like fucking at all! To top it off, he's expendable. Yeah, he's a shit ton of points and he's going to be your general. But Warriors of Chaos are rocking such terrific stats than I'm not really sure you even need a general in their army. Just take an Exulted Hero BSB and fucking Rick-Roll your opponent with 4+ Armor, 5+ Parry CORE CHOICES! The ability to on turn one fly up the opponent's flank, 6-dice the Purple Sun or Pit of Shades, and kill over half the opponent's battleline is such a powerful ability that you will almost never see a competitive Warriors list without a Daemon Prince. And my friends, if you play with End Times rules, then I suggest you start playing Chaos Dwarves,  cause no other army is going to be able to effectively counter the fucking Daemon Prince duo. I fucking hate this guys so much, but I do respect the power that is the Daemon Prince. Thus, only one question remains, who is the winner of the Top 5 Best Lord choices?

#1: Knight Lord (Bretonnia)
Okay, before the comments starting piling up about how much shit I'm filled with, let me make one thing perfectly clear. There is no other character in the game that can simply stroll up, roll a 6, and delete whatever is in front of him. Daemon Princes, Tomb Kings, Slann Mage-Priests, Vampire Lords, all the big bad and uglies, my Bretonnian Lord has at one point strolled up and just killed it in one shot. The best part, even kitted out with full point allotment and mount, he's cheaper than every other choice on this list. I've had Chaos Champions on Dragons marked to Khorne back off from my Bretonnian Lord. Steam Tanks, Iron Daemons, Kadai Destroyers, Giants, Great Unclean Ones, Plague Furnaces, you name it, it's fallen before Lord Ducaine, the Grail Knight with the Virtue of Heroism. I had my Vampire buddy tell me straight up he'd be terrified to field Nagash against my Lord. Hell, I even managed to kill the sisters special characters from the Wood Elves a while ago in a 1v1v1 match I had with some buddies of mine back in Baltimore, on their Dragon! Bottom line, the Bretonnian Lord is rocking a solid enough stat line and price tag to compete with some of the best, and the Heroic Killing Blow ability just makes most things he hits obsolete. On top of the fact that in an army that everyone really snubs their nose at, this guy can prove a great way to give those smug Dark Elf and Chaos Dwarf players a metaphysical middle finger. Yeah, maybe I'm a bit biased but if you've ever had your 500 point character Heroic Killing Blow'd off the table by a model that clock in at less than half his cost, you know how powerful this guy is.