What army should I play, and why?

[Veggieburrger]

I'm new to games-worksop products, but i've found myself jumping head first into all of their games, but fantasy has me a little stumped...all of the armys look cool. I mean really cool, and I was wanting opinions on which armies are the best and why? I know games workshop has little write ups of each, but I was hoping for a less...marketing based, I guess, descprion of each one?

If someone could help explain the diffrences in the races for a total nub, I'd really love that...

Thanks guys.

[Drazhar]

It helps a lot if you make a checklist of what you expect from an army. I'm talking whatever crosses your mind here, from your very first model to tournaments and anything in between. There is no such thing as 'best' or 'proper' army.

What I can tell you for sure - don't look at stats and 'power' of the armies. These are very lousy criteria to pick the items you will spend quite a lot of money and time on. The rules change much more often than the models. Pick the models you like, then ask yourself what you want from your army. Do you want hordes of troops or do you want an small, elite force? Cavalry or footsloggers? Monsters or mediocrity? Without knowing what you want there is little help anybody can offer in this matter.

[Lord Azaghul]

So with whatever you want to paint, and the playing skills will come after that. GW releases books often enough the most of the time no army stays on top terribly long.

[wittdooley]

I have to second Drazha; if you can answer his questions and let us know what type of army you want to field, we can direct you to some that would suit you. As a starter, here is a general outline of the type of army that fields well with each faction:

Bretonnia - Cav Based, Good Magic
Empire - Pretty well rounded, specialized infantry, diverse magic
Wood Elves - mobile, great infantry, good MC, poor magic.
High Elves - Again well rounded. Great Magic, elite infantry, chariots, DRAGONS.
Orks & Goblins - The most diverse army. Can field a little bit of everything, unreliable magic.
Lizardmen - Tough Troops, Elite Cav, Great Magic, Very diverse
Skaven - New codex coming soon, but now horde based w/ very good magic
Warriors of Chaos - Elite Infantry and Cav, Solid magic
Ogre Kingdoms - multiple wound units, decent magic
Vampire Counts - Fantastic Magic, based on ressurection of cheap infantry
Tomb Kings - Tricky, but powerful magic. Chariot Cavalry. Ressurection like VC.
Dwarfs - Very Tough Troops, very tough magic
Dark Elves - Tough Elites, Tough magic

[Veggieburrger]

Thanks for the help so far guys. You've asked for a check list so here it is

- Something comeptitive.
- I'd like a fast moving army.
- I'm not really a fan of the horde concept.
- I'm not a huge fan of magic, so an army I can run with little or no wizards would be great.

i don't know if this helps any, but hopefully you all can work off of this.

[wittdooley]

Thanks for the help so far guys. You've asked for a check list so here it is

- Something comeptitive.
- I'd like a fast moving army.
- I'm not really a fan of the horde concept.
- I'm not a huge fan of magic, so an army I can run with little or no wizards would be great.

i don't know if this helps any, but hopefully you all can work off of this.

So based on that, I'd lean towards:

Wood Elves: They can be REALLY fast moving with their elite cav and dryads, they are plenty competetive, and their magic is, really, an afterthought.

Bretonnians: You could totally go with a Knights/Grail Knights/Pegasus Knights list that would be super fast and wouldn't need a ton of magic to go with it.

Orcs & Gobbos: You could most likely build a nice and fast list centered around this that would use magic only to enhance the other units. It wouldn't be super fast, and you'd still get some horde stuff going on, but it would bu fun!

Lizardmen: You can run really fast, really competetive lists of Lizzies without using any magic at all because their units are so hard and they rarely run. Plus, if you ever decide you want magic, they have some of the strongest in the game.

[Drazhar]

I'd second that, and also would think a bit about the Ogre Kingdoms. They are not the easiest nor the toughest army you'd find, but they fill every item on your list save perhaps the 'horde' bit (you do need gnoblars).

They are somewhat fast-ish, despite being infantry-oriented (M6 almost all-round), they almost always are outnumbered, but after getting to know all the odds and ends they do have game-winning potential, even in cutthroat tournament play.

I wouldn't discard magic altogether in your force, at least one scroll caddy is a safety valve.

[Veggieburrger]

What about Beasts of Chaos, and Dark Elfs? How are they to play with?

So far I'm looking at Orger Kingdoms, Dark Elfs (the guy with the squid mask looks crazy), and the walking Diniosaurs, but I was curious as to why Beasts of Chaos was left off his list of armies?

[HammerofVaul]

Beasts of Chaos are extremely horde based, and a bit underpowered at the moment. Dark Elves are very fast and elite,but magic can be a pretty big deal for them, but they are very competitive. High Elves might be worth looking into, very fast and quite competitive, and very good if you don't want to use alot of magic (their magic is mostly defensive). Ogre Kingdoms are good, quite fast, but you'll have to put a bit of extra effort forth to make them really competitive. Lizardmen can be fast, but in my experience usually aren't, but they are tough and very competitive.

[rabscutle]

You could do Warriors of Chaos and Mount most, if not all of the army. You can very easily only build the army with defensive magic in mind (a couple of level 1/2 scroll sorcerers).

Your core would be Marauder Horsemen, leaning on Knights for your punch.

[Aldramelech]

Yep, Chaos. Marauder horse, Khights, chariots, Spawn. You wont need to paint too many, it'll move fast and it hits hard.

[Lord Azaghul]

Resist the forces of chaos! Mortals are good fighters, but can't take many casualties.

Seriously If you want mobility and punch - Lizards and DE can go powerful magic, but both are also very, very good in close combat.

Lizards can take Old Bloods as lords, and rip apart most anything in CC, and their standard sausur warriors are not only tough as nails, but great fights, and can handle artition

If you want speed and punch, and tactical flexabilty - without being called a power games (ie don't do VC or Daemons) DE are a very solid choice, however DE aren't as durable as the lizards


My 2250(didn't buy just barrowed the models!)
Dread Lord armour of darkness, Kaaleth, Crimson Death 225
Black dragon 320
Master BSB, cold one Seal of Grond 161
Sorceress scroll 150 (scroll caddy)

3x5 Dark Riders MU, repeater bows, spears 351
(10)Repeater xbowmen sh: 110
Assassin: manbane Rune of Khane extra hand weapon 146
5 Harpies 55

5 Cold One knights FC Standard of Slaughter 210
8 Shades greate weapons Repeaters xbow 144

Hydra 175
2 Repeating bolt throwers 200
2247

This army has magic for defense only, it very aggressive and moble I played it a couple a times, but I'm not really and 'evil' army kind of a guy!

[j-orge-287]

High elves have a great mix of troops and can be very competitive and tend to have smallish armies-your only problem would be the magic based army as a defining elf trait is magic-oh and they are pretty quick
Ogres are very fast movers and have small or large armies depending on selections-they're also big and scary.

[Lord Azaghul]

No disrespect intended - but seriously avoid ogres! As an army they do not lend themselves very well to a learning curve. Currently they are considered a bottom tear army, and unfortunately they aren't on the update radar anytime soon.

HE - are a solid army, but so often suffer from the out number, and usually take on a mix max feel (min core, max specials and rare)

[Kieranator K82]

I'm going to jump in here with a suggestion of sorts... did anyone think to mention an Empire Knight army?
You can take an entire cavalry army, headed by a Templar Master or evem Kurt Helborg.
Knightly Orders, with a 1+ armour save in melee can hit hard with few casualties. And for an extra 3 points, each model can be upgraded to Inner Circle knights with strength 4.
Here's a sample 2000pt Empire cavalry army:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=cat1510574&categoryId=400015&section=&pIndex=8&aId=400002&start=9

You can make changes to the list of course.
As you can see the army is fast, small and hard hitting.

Just a suggestion. :D

[Veggieburrger]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. But I think I've decided on Lizardmen for the final choice. They look cool, plus I was give three of the big stegadon things, which really helped make the descsion for me...That being said. I don't own the army book yet, but I'm curious as to common tactics that I could use? If anyone has exprence with the walking dino's that'd be great.

[Kieranator K82]

Lizardmen? COOL!
3 Stegadons? BRILLIANT!
Here is an article outlining an unfriendly army with 4 of the monsters:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=cat1510576&categoryId=400021&section=&pIndex=1&aId=11600001&start=2

Take a look. :D

[jamesTFL]

I play Lizards, competitively. If you don't like magic they are not a great army for you. People will chime in about the old blood and how tough he is, they are wrong. The old blood is a mid range combat lord, his base profile is great but he can't get sufficient defense to keep up with any of the other proper top tier combat lords, a prince on a dragon a dark elf dreadlord with reverse ward save, a blood thirster (or even skull taker), or a combat vampire can all take him. The carnasaur is an over priced mount (unles syou are playing ogres). I haven't seen an old blood led lizard list do anything of note in any tournament I have been to.

However they are cool and the model is great so if you are just playing with your friends by all means chop away.

the three best things in the book right now are
1.)slann in a block of temple gaurd: they are tought as nails t4 2+ armor, stubborn immune to psych, they allow the slann to cast as a large target, and can get static CR7 enough to break most units without even doing a wound.
2.) the engine of the gods: it does whatever you need, gotta kills some knights use the AoE, need a little cover as you chase the gunline, throw up the bubble, want to really hammer home the magic phase make your slann cast 1 better. All this on top of a respectable monster.
3.) terradons, they can drop rocks and wipe out opposing fast cav then chase off warmachines and archers, all while march blocking and rear/flank charging the enemy.
Honorable mention: skink skirmishers anti-shooting screen, charge redirectors, table quarter cappers, and moster assasins.

the basic strategy is use your fast movers to foul up the opponents plan exposing them to counter charges by your hammers, engine, saurus cav, tg etc.

last point: try to make sure you use the engine to its full effect, don't get glamoured by the impact hits on the charge you are most often better off using the AoE and lining it up for charges on turn 4-6 then charging it out early to see how much damage you can do.

hope that helps

[Ajjaxx]

I also play lizardmen and if you are looking for a fast close combat army, they can do it effectively. If you take an oldblood on a carnasaur, you have a dangerous killing machine. Attach him to a unit of 5 (or more if your feeling dangerous) cold one calvary, you have a very powerful charge happy killing unit. Recommended if you are putting him on a carnasaur, give him an enchanted shield (5+ instead of the usual 6) light armor and with his scaly skin gives him a 1+ on a monsterous mount! Next you can choose to give him an amulet of ______ (cant remember name) that makes all attacks at -1 to hit to give him more survivability, or you can give him the blade of realities. WONDERFUL weapon regardless of cost, for every hit you inflict your opponent takes a leadership test (you have 5 base +1 when your mount goes frenzy) if they fail it, they instantly die, no save of any kind allowed. You hit 3 times most LD 9 or lower auto die from it, and if not doesn't your str. 7 mount that does D3 wounds will!IF going with a mundane weapon the poisen of the tree frog for 10 points makes your weapon magical and poisoned. Plenty of fun gear for a great lord choice. However, never leave home without an engine of the gods! Movement 6 will keep up with you and the skink can caddy for you. Good luck with your lizarmen army! May the old ones smile upon you.

[L192837465]

I cannot believe no one has said deamons. They ignore 2/3 of Warhammer, have the best point for point shooting, combat, movement, magic (just for arguments sake) and the most rediculous units in the game.

[Lord Azaghul]

I cannot believe no one has said deamons. They ignore 2/3 of Warhammer, have the best point for point shooting, combat, movement, magic (just for arguments sake) and the most rediculous units in the game.

because you don't actually learn the game with daemons! And after 1 month no-one will really want to play against you anymore!:D