What is the best big guy, both in terms of throwing teammates and more importantly, overall? Factoring in cost and abilities. Disregarding Star Players.
The better question to ask is what are the best roles for each big guy in the game, really, and many of the same rules apply to other kinds of players.
Board Control
Deathrollers, Kroxigors, Rat Ogres, Rotspawn, and Yhetees all start with skills that grant them some ability to put pressure on your opponent without having to get physical at all.
- Deathrollers start with the Tackle skill, which denies adjacent opposing players the ability to use the Dodge skill. Tackle is also a special case for being good on offence as well, which I will highlight later.
- Rotspawn start with the Tentacles skill, which can and will deny an adjacent opposing player the ability to move on a roll of a 6 (plus the difference in Strength), and the Foul Appearance skill, which forces your opponent to pass a 2+ check just to perform a block action against them.
- Kroxigors and Rat Ogres start with the Prehensile Tail skill, which imposes a -1 penalty to all Agility checks when attempting to leave a square adjacent to them.
- Rotspawn and Yhetees start with the Disturbing Presence special rule, which imposes -1 penalties to Pass, Intercept and Catch checks to anyone within 3 squares of them.
More than anything however, access to Defensive (Agility), Tackle (General), Disturbing Presence (Mutation), Foul Appearance (Mutation), Tentacles (Mutation), Prehensile Tail (Mutation), or Guard (Strength) as advances can all influence the development of such a player. If it's not immediately clear from that list, access to Mutation skills is a big one for board control.
S-Tier (Starting skill + Mutation primary, or multiple starting skills + Mutation secondary): Rat Ogres (Underworld Denizens), Rotspawn (Nurgle)
A-Tier (single Starting skill + Mutation secondary): Rat Ogres (Chaos Renegades, Skaven)
B-Tier (Mutation primary only): Bloodspawn (Khorne), Minotaurs (Chaos Chosen, Chaos Dwarf), Trolls (Chaos Chosen, Underworld Denizens), Ogres (Chaos Chosen)
C-Tier (Mutation secondary only): Ogres (Chaos Chosen, Human, Imperial Nobility, Old World Alliance), Minotaurs (Chaos Dwarf, Chaos Renegades), Trolls (Chaos Renegades)
D-Tier (Starting Skill + access to General and/or Agility): Deathrollers (Dwarf), Kroxigors (Lizardmen), Yhetees (Norse)
F-Tier (access to General and/or Agility only): Mummies (Shambling Undead), Ogres (Ogres), Tomb Guardians (Tomb Kings), Treemen (Gnome, Halfling, Old World Alliance, Wood Elf), Trolls (Black Orcs, Goblin, Orc, Snotling), Vargheists (Vampire)
Throwing team-mates
Trolls, Ogres, and Treemen are the only Big Guys in the game that start with the Throw Team-Mate or Kick Team-Mate traits, and even then not all of them are going to be in teams with throwable team-mates (i.e. Treemen in Wood Elf teams, or Ogres in Chaos Chosen teams).
Treemen in particular also have a leg up with also starting with the Strong Arm skill, which grants them an additional +1 to the roll when performing a Throw Team-Mate special action.
There's some additional caveats to keep in mind:
- Trolls are not only Really Stupid but also Very Hungry. Under ideal circumstances, with the troll starting its activation next to a friendly player, you need to roll two 2+ in a row (69.4% success rate) before you even get to throw the team-mate.
- Ogres are Bone-Headed, meaning that they need to roll a 2+ when activating in order to carry out their action.
- The Treemen's Take Root trait, while impactful for the purpose of movement, does not prevent them from being able to throw an adjacent team-mate.
- The only additional skills worthy of a good team-mate thrower (or runt punter) are Strong Arm (Strength) and Pro (General), which virtually all Big Guys have access to. Additionally, the only other way to improve such a player is by improving the player's Pass characteristic.
S-Tier (starting skill + throwable team-mates + no penalizing pre-throw rolls): Treemen (Gnome, Halfling, Old World Alliance)
A-Tier (throwable team-mates + 1 pre-throw roll w/o Loner): Ogres (Ogre)
B-Tier (throwable team-mates + either 2 pre-throw rolls w/o Loner or 1 pre-throw roll w/ Loner): Ogres (Chaos Renegades, Human, Old World Alliance), Trolls (Black Orc, Goblin, Snotling)
C-Tier (throwable team-mates + 2 pre-throw rolls w/ Loner): Trolls (Chaos Renegades, Orc, Underworld Denizens)
D-Tier (No throwable team-mates): Treemen (Wood Elf), Ogres (Chaos Chosen), Trolls (Chaos Chosen)
F-Tier (No Throw Team-Mate or Kick Team-Mate): Bloodspawn, Deathrollers, Kroxigors, Minotaurs, Mummies, Rat Ogres, Rotspawn, Tomb Guardians, Vargheists, Yhetees
Blitzing
Rat Ogres, Minotaurs, Pumpwagons, Yhetees, Vargheists, Kroxigors, Bloodspawn, and Deathrollers all have starting skills, traits or characteristics that make them the start of good Big Guy Blitzers.
In general, you're looking for Big Guys with movement values of at least 5, and either start with skills that only come into effect when performing a Blitz action (i.e. Juggernaut or Horns) or are otherwise unable to stay put due to either starting with Frenzy or being able to take it.
- Rat Ogres and Kroxigors have the highest starting movement of any Big Guy in the game, starting at MA 6.
- Minotaurs, Pumpwagons and Deathrollers all start with skills that only come into effect when performing a Blitz action.
- Rat Ogres, Minotaurs, Yhetees, ,Bloodspawn, and Vargheists all start with Frenzy, which obligates them to be much more mobile than most other Big Guys.
- Deathrollers have the Tackle skill, which as pointed out for Board Control is also good on the offence due to being able to prevent adjacent players from being able to use the Dodge skill.
The ideal skills to take for a Big Guy Blitzer are Block (General), Tackle (General), Horns (Mutation), Claws (Mutation), Juggernaut (Strength), and Break Tackle (Strength). With the sole exceptions of Horns and Claws, every Big Guy has access to these skills.
S-Tier (starting Blitz-only skill): Minotaurs (Chaos Chosen, Chaos Dwarf, Chaos Renegade), Deathroller (Dwarf), Pumpwagon (Snotling)
A-Tier (MA 6 w/ Frenzy): Rat Ogres (Chaos Renegades, Skaven, Underworld Denizens)
B-Tier (MA 6 w/o Frenzy, or MA5 w/ Frenzy): Kroxigors (Lizardmen), Yhetees (Norse), Vargheists (Vampire), Bloodspawn (Khorne)
C-Tier (MA 5 w/o Frenzy): Ogres (Chaos Chosen, Chaos Renegades, Human, Imperial Nobility, Ogre, Old World Alliance)
D-Tier (MA 4): Tomb Guardians (Tomb Kings), Trolls (Black Orc, Chaos Chosen, Chaos Renegades, Goblin, Orc, Snotling)
F-Tier (less than MA 4): Mummies (Shambling Undead), Treemen (Gnome, Halfling, Old World Alliance, Wood Elf)
Blocking
For the most part, all Big Guys can fulfill the role of Blockers pretty well for their respective teams, but some certainly can do it better than others. Of particular note, Deathrollers, Trolls, Ogres, Treemen, Kroxigors, Mummies, Rotspawn, and Tomb Guardians all have starting skills, traits or characteristics that lend themselves best to this role. Specifically, all that I've listed here at least have a minimum starting AV of 10+.
- Treemen are the strongest starting players in the game at ST 6.
- Treemen and Deathrollers are tied for having the highest starting AV values in the game, starting at AV 11+. Both also have the Stand Firm skill, meaning that they can choose not to be pushed back as part of a block result against them.
- Kroxigors, Ogres, and Treemen all start with the Thick Skull skill.
- Tomb Guardians have the Brawler skill, which while offensive in nature does not require the player to be declaring a Blitz action to use.
The ideal skills to take for a Big Guy Blocker are Block (General), Fend (General), Tackle (General), Iron Hard Skin (Mutation), Brawler (Strength), Guard (Strength), Multiple Block (Strength), Stand Firm (Strength) and Thick Skull (Strength). With the sole exception of Iron Hard Skin, virtually every Big Guy has access to all of these skills.
S-Tier (starting skill + ST 6 + AV 11+): Treemen (Gnome, Halfling, Old World Alliance, Wood Elf)
A-Tier (starting skill + AV 11+): Deathrollers (Dwarf)
B-Tier (starting skill + AV 10+): Kroxigors (Lizardmen), Ogres (Chaos Chosen, Chaos Renegades, Human, Ogre, Old World Alliance), Tomb Guardians (Tomb Kings)
C-Tier (AV 10+): Mummies (Shambling Undead), Rotspawn (Nurgle), Trolls (Black Orc, Chaos Renegades, Goblin, Orc, Snotling, Underworld Denizens)
D-Tier (AV 9+): Bloodspawn (Khorne), Minotaurs (Chaos Chosen, Chaos Dwarf, Chaos Renegades), Pumpwagons (Snotlings), Rat Ogres (Chaos Renegades, Skaven, Underworld Denizens), Vargheists (Vampire), Yhetees (Norse)
F-Tier: N/A
