Fantasy Human Elite Free-For-All

Elite fantasy human soldiers will be thrown together in an empty, open plains to fight for supremacy. I know many of these factions have even better versions of these units, but those truly unique almost 'hero' like units aren't really what we want. I may make a thread about those ones later. They do not suffer from any psychological effects of being 'teleported' and know nothing but the others are out to kill them and need to kill them in turn [or make them flee] in order to return home. There is no 'magic' in this world they have been teleported to, so any magical gear, abilities, etc, they may have will not function in this world meaning the fight will be settled by might of arms, tactical ability and quality of equipment. A good rule of thumb for magic in this thread is if it looks like magic, sounds like magic and smells like magic? Its magic, no matter how vehemently the character or universes tries to say it isn't. The only caveat is the Witcher's potion will work as normal.

Special Note On Equipment

Some warriors will have 'varies' listed in equipment this means they tend to have very varied equipment, as such, you are free to pick and choose what they would bring to maximize their chances [or you can pick the loadout that you feel is the 'most average']. Some may have unique variations such as the Empire Knight and Lot5r Bushi where you can pick their order and clan respectively. If you do not know much about them and need something to google, go ahead and make it a Reiksguard Knight and Lion Clan Bushi. Equipment will be listed in the spoiler with the picture. I am not bothering to list small equipment like throwing knives or daggers, if they have them, then they have them.

Just to be clear, all mounts will be a trained warhorse [armored and decorated as the warrior usually does] regardless of whatever special mount they may be able to claim.

Rounds

Round 1: One fighter from each team, dismounted.

Round 2: One fighter from each team, mounted.

Round 3: Ten fighters from each team, dismounted.

Round 4: Ten fighters from each team, mounted.

The Teams

Team 1: Stormwind Knight (Warcraft)

Equipment: Stormwind Plate, Stormwind Sword, Shield, Lance [When Mounted]

Team 2: Palace Guard [Elder Scrolls]

Equipment: Oblivion Palace Guard Armor, varied weaponry [Axe, Mace, Sword + shield or a two handed weapon, pick your poison].

Team 3: Grey Warden [Dragon Age]

Equipment: Warden Plate, varied weaponry [Axe, Mace, Sword + shield {or dual wielded} or a two handed weapon, pick your poison]

Team 4: Purple Dragon Knight [DnD]

Equipment: DnD Plate, varied weaponry [Axe, Mace, Sword, dual or shield or a two handed weapon, pick your poison]

Team 5: Empire Knight [Warhammer Fantasy]

Equipment: Dwarf Forged Plate, varied weaponry [depends on what knight order you pick]

Team 5: Witcher [Witcher]

Equipment: Steel Longsword, Silver Longsword, Witcher 'Armor', may take any two potions in any combination of [if they will be allowed to drink them is another matter]: Blizzard, Wolf, Wolverine, Tawny Owl.

Team 6: Bushi [Lot5r]

Equipment: O-Yoroi Armor, varied weaponry [Naginata, Yari, Dai Tsuchi, Masakari/Ono, Tetsubo, Katana, No-Dachi, etc, pick your poison(s)] pick a clan [If you don't know, go with Lion. But you may change it up as you wish such as Lion or Crab for dismounted and Unicorn for mounted].

If you wondering where X soldier is from X universe, just mention it, they may make it into the special snowflake free-for-all which is next.

@killerwasp@paragonnate@thekillerklok@decaf_wizard@six-deuce@fullmetalemprah@noah_ouellette@wolfrazer@xlr87t3

@wut: I know nothing.

@wolfrazer:

Stormwind Knights are honestly glorified fodder. They have......embarrassing showings

@wut: Either the Warden or the Witcher. I distinctly remember the Wardens being enhanced by some degree by the Joining and Darkspawn taint, putting them above a number of other combatants physically. The Witcher is also enhanced and has Signs to tip any one on one fight in his favor. Between the two I'm not sure who would win, Witcher has his Signs while the Warden has better gear.

@paragonnate:

There is no 'magic' in this world they have been teleported to, so any magical gear, abilities, etc, they may have will not function in this world meaning the fight will be settled by might of arms, tactical ability and quality of equipment. A good rule of thumb for magic in this thread is if it looks like magic, sounds like magic and smells like magic? Its magic, no matter how vehemently the character or universes tries to say it isn't. The only caveat is the Witcher's potion will work as normal. - My OP

Since magic is innexistent here the Warden wins.

@paragonnate: IIRC, all the Warden Joining does is make the 'attuned' to the Dark Spawn so they don't suffer from the blight sickness thing anymore, can sense dark spawn, and can destroy the Archdemon's soul [via tricking it into sticking its soul into them on death].

I can't remember any instances of it being said that it amped their physical abilities in any way.

@wut: Well, now I feel silly. Eh, doesn't change my outlook a ton, Witcher's still the best here stats wise, and possibly skill wise, although an argument could be made for others being the 'best' given the quality of the fighters here.

Also, why Witcher 'armor'? What's with the quotations? All the sets of Witcher armor that we've seen have been pretty functional stuff. Lots of leather and chain with a little bit of metal plates thrown in.

@paragonnate: Because it seems to vary and be highly personalized unlike the others which tend to just have 'plate' although their universes version of it.

@wut: @paragonnate: this guy is right. Although I'm pretty sure the wardens have heightened physicals, maybe not strength though. But their agility is definitely mentioned as 'beyond' others without the joining.

Not to mention random people who are alright fighters suddenly become amazing ones after drinking the blood..

@noah_ouellette: Like who? I can't think of any Wardens that suddenly became amazing after drinking it.

It's between the Empire Knight, Witcher, or Warden. Even if the taint doesn't amp Wardens they have enough skill on their own to contend. Question, could a Witcher get through dwarven plate? If not I'm giving the edge to the Imperial Knight.

@fullmetalemprah: Depends on the one you pick, I imagine. White Wolves have a tendency to not wear their helmets. Probably because it hides their glorious beards and Ulric does not approve of the hiding of beards. Outside of them, can half-sword into gaps or try and murderstroke them.

Round 1: One fighter from each team, dismounted.

Witcher or ES Guard

Round 2: One fighter from each team, mounted.

Empire Knight curbstomps

Round 3: Ten fighters from each team, dismounted.

Witcher or Bushi

Round 4: Ten fighters from each team, mounted.

Empire Knight curbstomps

@wut: Every warden ever imo. Become suddenly so much better than even a king.

@wut: I agree, White Wolves would probably have a higher chance of losing but a knight of the Blazing Sun for example would be really hard for them to take out. With that out of the equation I do think the Witcher wins otherwise after giving it some thought. I think he has more skill than the Warden.

@noah_ouellette: Being a king =/= being a good fighter. In the least. Again, post an example as I am not aware of any.

As lets look at people we know we see before and after Warden:

Human Noble: Was fully capable of defeating multiple opponents and killing their way out of their estate despite being heavily outnumbered. No noticeable skill increase. They were always that good.

City Elf: Highly trained and killed their way through a noble's estate and their various guards. No noticeable skill increase. They were always that good.

Dalish Elf: Honestly don't recall much of their start. I never really played Elves.

Dwarf Commoner: Won the Dwarf tournament who had a roster full of some of the best warriors among the dwarf and fought their way through a criminal base.

Dwarf Noble: Highly trained warrior that fought their way through the deep roads with no equipment but what they scavenged. Also optionally won the arena.

Oghren: Highly skilled dwarf warrior that gets no noticeable skill increases after becoming a Warden.

..... Yeah.. all those people were supremely skilled individuals to begin with. There is no grounds for suggesting they suddenly got better.

@wut:

This is correct.

Take it from a guy whose favorite game of all time is Dragon Age: Origins.

Wardens were very powerful warriors because of their versatile skill set.

All the Taint granted them was the ability to sense the Darkspawn, this is even explained in the game by Duncan. This is what allowed them to beat the Darkspawn, they didn't get any extra abilities, they were really skilled to begin with.

The only abilities related to the Taint are 2 you get from an old Warden magician who used blood magic in the past. But that after giving him time to experiment on it. No extra ability from the Taint itself.

I would be inclined to say witcher or to a lesser degree warden as well. The dwarfen plate is worthy of note however, I am unsure that either witcher or warden could pierce it without magical weaponry. If they cannot then blazing sun or whathaveyou.

Researching/learning about real armor and weapons have soured me in looking at fantasy armor and weapons...they are just so bad...I'm sad..

Leaning towards warden for solo unmounted combat. (Sword and board, Duel welding would get ranked dead last because duel welding two long weapons is bad)

I'll take team warhammer for all mounted.

and for the group unmounted I'll take Faux samurai because polearms.

@wolfrazer: Most Empire/Bret armor in WHF is very realistic. I'll post two examples down below [A real life suit of armor and a Empire knight]. Considering the Empire is meant to be a very late/early renaissance HRE, they did very well. Their greatswords use a gothic-style half-plate. State troops use munitions grade [so poor] breastplates, and sometimes more depending on the wealth, etc. Outside of a bit of flair [the feathers which wasn't unheard of in the time period, ornate armor which wasn't unheard of for the wealthy, and skull kneecaps don't really take away from what just is maximilan-style armor.]

@wut: Yeah I figured that much. I'm just throwing it out there.

@wut: IIRC people mention things like 'legendary stamina of the Wardens' and things along those lines. Now it could be true that the Wardens are just that good at selecting amazing recruits, but given that the Joining seriously messes with their bodies metabolism, Alistair references raiding the pantry as a regular thing for him and the PC Warden eating more than several companions together, I'd say it's a safe bet that the Taint is doing something to their bodies. Maybe they aren't super soldiers, but the fact that they, to a man, wade through Darkspawn with ease while everyone else dies in droves, says something about their physical ability.

@wut: could you be more specific about dwarfen made armor? You mean stuff from nuln with dwarfen influence or a full on human sized ironbreaker?

@paragonnate:It does something. They go crazy/die after 30 years. But I question them 'to a man cutting through dark spawn'.

Don't exactly see Wardens just 'wading' through the Inquisition soldiers. Don't really see a single warden fighting off entire groups of them by themselves.

@six-deuce: Empire knights use dwarf forged plate armor. It isn't Gromril, so not Ironbreakers, its steel. But their armor is forged by dwarf smiths, not by humans inspired by dwarfs.

@wut: ES Palace guard stomps all rounds :D