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Well folks. I'm finally to the point where I'm sick of looking at marines every time I pull out my army. I've been playing marines ever since I first got started in the hobby and have maintained that to the present. I've always WANTED to start another army, but I never had the funds to make it happen and I was always distracted and never officially started one.

So now, here I am, with a TON of marines (of course it isn't a finished army...) and no motivation to paint them. It's to the point that I honestly don't think I WANT to right now. Ever since I started my Skaven warband, I've realized just how much fun OTHER armies/models can be. The little guys have ruined me to the same old stuff. Oh and not to mention the Dakka Painting Challenges where I paint anything BUT marines.

My question to everyone here is, What should I start playing? I know it's a very open and broad question, so I'll try and narrow the field a bit.

Power Armor is out of the question. - If I wanted to paint power armor, I'd just continue with my GDL.
Small Model count. - I want an army that has a lot of punch, but not a lot of models. I also don't want to be gimped in 5th, but a fun fluffy army that is at least SOMEWHAT competitive would do the trick ^_^.
Character aplenty. - While I've been working on my skaven, I've put a lot of thought into each model I painted and each has it's own little differences when compared to the next. I want to continue that with whatever army I start up next.
40k or Fantasy? - I honestly don't know that I care if I dive into a Fantasy army at this point either. But all things above would still have to apply. Small model count is a bit harder to come by.

That's just a few of the guidelines I can think of right now. If anymore pop into my head I'll post it as a reply.

So what do you all think? Have an army in mind that would fit the bill? I'd love to hear folks thoughts.

Vampire Counts

You'll have to paint a buttload of zombies, but they have
plenty of character.

Sounds like Eldar are right up your alley. Small model count, great minis, great opportunities for customization. Of course, then you're stuck with faeirie elves...

A pure daemon army would work also, at least from what I've seen of the codex (a single read-through). I bet you could do wonders with a Soul Grinder or two...

What about Hordes of Chaos with a lot of cavalry? That could be fun and hard-hitting, but I'm not really that familiar with the new list.

I've always really like Dark Elves, personally, and they seem to have some cool new stuff coming out in the future.

Tau with a lot of battlesuits?

Well... Based on you being sick of 40k Space Marines, I'd suggest:

40k Chaos Daemons - ward saves and a close combat focus, with nary a Bolter or Lascannon to be found. Lots of model variety with Marked Greater, Lesser, Beasts, and Cavalry.

Fantasy Ogre Kingdoms - their big Bulls are the definition of small model count in WFB!

BFG Chaos / Imperial Cruiser-based fleet. Inexpensive and quite fun.

Ogre Kingdoms? Very low model count if you don't take Gnoblars. Plus, Fantasy just plain rules.

HoC was gimped pretty bad.

Bretonians? Every knight is supposed to be painted differently with their heraldry and you can build decent calvary oriented armies.

Ogre Kingdoms for sure. Small model count and tons of room to customize each model.

I would have said Orks, but you specified low model count. Lots of character in that army and tons of opportunities for customization and flavor models.

Demonzilla

run a 5 MC demon list. you can have a 1500 point army with only about 25 models. Maybe fewer depending on upgrades.

Ifurita wrote:I would have said Orks, but you specified low model count. Lots of character in that army and tons of opportunities for customization and flavor models.

What about nob biker armies ^_^?

Let's see, for 40K, your restrictions really cut things down...no Power Armor, that means no CSM, no SM, no SOB (and therefore no WH), no DH. Low model count means no IG, no Nids, no DE, no Orks. Good characters means no Necrons (unless you really want to do C'tan). That pretty much leaves Chaos Daemons, Eldar, and Tau. Personally, with your painting style, I'd love to see what you'd do on Tau. It's pretty rare, but I've always thought that Tau painted up to look like they've been through a battle look really good - I know you could do that.

As far as Fantasy goes, you've definitely got more leeway. I could see you doing some cool Dwarves, or I could also see you doing a really nice job on Dark Elves.

I'll go with Ogre Kingdoms, but take it a step further: alternative model Ogre Kingdoms. You mention your Skaven, so I'll use my own slowly growing Ogre army as an example: Clan Moulder Rat Ogres. Basically my way of doing the Clan Moulder list from WD, but being able to use it in Tournaments and without all the non Rat Ogre models. It's taken me awhile because of the converting and cost(2 Rat Ogres per box?!). I also considered an Ushabti Kingdoms army, but the metal...*shudder*

Cygnar!

JohnHwangDD wrote:BFG Chaos / Imperial Cruiser-based fleet. Inexpensive and quite fun.

Oh yes! I vote for this idea too! BFG is quite fun!

BFG is a great game with a low model count, cheap to buy (if you do Chaos or Imp) and ridiculously easy to paint!

Not sure about the character though - the only really nice conversions I've seen are for nurgle fleets (unless you can get your hands on slaanesh man 'o war models, ,in which case slaanesh works too )

If you want to stick to 40K I'd go toss up between Eldar and Nidzilla, for WFB Ogre Kingdoms or a magic heavy army such as Tzeentch chaos or even High Elves with dragon-riding wizards (you could always do the comedy 4-model Tzeentch army if you really wanted to go small!)

Chimera_Calvin wrote:(you could always do the comedy 4-model Tzeentch army if you really wanted to go small!)

I feel like I should know this, but what is included in that 4-model army?

Death By Monkeys wrote:Let's see, for 40K, your restrictions really cut things down...no Power Armor, that means no CSM, no SM, no SOB (and therefore no WH), no DH. Low model count means no IG, no Nids, no DE, no Orks. Good characters means no Necrons (unless you really want to do C'tan). That pretty much leaves Chaos Daemons, Eldar, and Tau. Personally, with your painting style, I'd love to see what you'd do on Tau. It's pretty rare, but I've always thought that Tau painted up to look like they've been through a battle look really good - I know you could do that.

Actually I think he´d be able to put ALOT of character into a Necron army.
Its been done before, just take a look at the decepticrons.

Yeah, go with Chaos Daemons, either Fantasy or 40,000. Pretty low model count, full of character.

grey_death wrote:

Ifurita wrote:I would have said Orks, but you specified low model count. Lots of character in that army and tons of opportunities for customization and flavor models.

What about nob biker armies ^_^?

A Kult of Speed army would be definately be low model count and the customization and flavor opportunities would be quite large. Sounds like it would also be quite a break from your current project types.

I've been digging through what has been suggested and I've been trying to figure out what lists will fit the bill. I don't have all of the army books so it's sort of hard to come up with a rough idea without seeing what people mean by their suggestions. I did look up some of the lists here on dakka though, as well as checking out GoatboyBBMA's blog for his Ork nob biker list. It's looking like I'm not going to get out of spending at least $250-300 on whatever army I decide on. That's going to be over time though so it'll feel like less ^_-. The plan for whatever army is going to be buying a unit and painting it before buying another.

Cathayan Ogres - Inspired by the ninja ogre. A warband of Ogres from the Cathayan hills. This would end up being a lot of GS work, and the issue being I've never worked with GS before >.>....

Strike Force Eldar - I love the Striking Scorpions models. I want them to be a major factor should I go this route.

Deamonzilla - I have no idea what a deamonzilla includes, but I am intrigued. Unfortunately I'm not a HUGE fan of many of the new demon models.

Nidzilla - I've always liked the idea of a nidzilla. I love all of the big bugs. Not sure how keen on ranged Fex's I am though. I like my fex's to be choppy.

Orc Nob Bikers - This would be about a 25-30 model count army depending on the size of force I'd go for. Lots of customization options though. Lot's of character.

Bretonian Rough Riders - The idea here is based off of the thought that the Warhammer World is part of the 40k Universe, just sort of out of touch with the greater universe. But somehow a group of rough riders crash land after a warp storm engulfs their ship. You only have so much ammo, so they would end up reverting to Fantasy tactics and methods of warfare. Lots of conversions which would make the army take FOREVER.

Just a small bit of inspiration from what I've gotten so far from folks. I really appreciate the help so far. But I'm far from committed to an army at this point. Everything is still in super speculation phase.

Anyone have any other ideas? Any lists that I might not be thinking of that will fit what I'm going for?

If you went DaemonZilla you could always use lots of off brand "Rawr I am a big daemon!" models. Those things are thick upon the ground, and many are quite nice. The daemon army in general plays VERY differently from just about everything else, so it might be a nice change for you.
Just so long as no one near you plays SoB. The girls rip daemons a new one :-P

necrons.

Offset the real decision for a few months by buying two Necron battleforce boxsets. Convert one Destroyer into a Lord with bits. These two purchases with the book will provide a viable army.

Sure it doesnt do everything you want, its an Meq army for a start, with a fairly high model count, but you can paint it with a single can of spray metallic paint, and inkwash then PVA glue in the light rods.

All you really need extra is a Monolith, and a metal lord model if you dont want to be cheap and do a conversion as recommended. You dont need anything else, Immortals are good, but you can do without.

Simple, different, relatively inexpensive and it will give your marine army a run for its money if you host a game with both armies.

Then late in the year you can go back to your eventual answer for the 'next army' that you have mulled over, you will still have your small Necron force, and will be able to make a THIRD army.

Cathayan Ogres by MMMNNNMMM

http://www.felixnation.com/otsignal/?p=192

grey_death wrote:
Bretonian Rough Riders - The idea here is based off of the thought that the Warhammer World is part of the 40k Universe, just sort of out of touch with the greater universe. But somehow a group of rough riders crash land after a warp storm engulfs their ship. You only have so much ammo, so they would end up reverting to Fantasy tactics and methods of warfare. Lots of conversions which would make the army take FOREVER.

Just a small bit of inspiration from what I've gotten so far from folks. I really appreciate the help so far. But I'm far from committed to an army at this point. Everything is still in super speculation phase.

Anyone have any other ideas? Any lists that I might not be thinking of that will fit what I'm going for?

For foot troopers for this, bret peasants with british army heads from West Wind's SoTR line would sci-fi it up a bit. It's a kettle helm with a gas mask, which would mesh well with the standard heads packed with the peasant set.

http://www.westwindproductions.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=126_149&products_id=1139

Orlanth - I'm not a huge fan of the necrons. If I'm going to drop a good chunk of cash into anything, it's going to be my final pick of an army for a while. I do appreciate the thought though ^_^.

Wehrkind - That would be a good reason to pick up some stuff from Ultraforge ^_-.

Malfred - Thanks a ton for that link. It definitely has the gears turning a bit more on that idea. The GS work doesn't look like it would really be all that hard to pull off...

Valhallan42nd - I really like the kettle helm, if I went that route I'd definitely have to get some heads from westwind, sans gas masks I think though. Who's the guy with the bretonian and cadian mix for 40k? Something along those lines with fantasy weaponry would do the trick here I think.

Well, I would actually advise orcs for Warhammer Fantasy, you can make a decently low model count army using as many black orcs and big uns as you can squeeze in or you could even go the all chariot and wolf cav route for more mobility but less power. (though going up against 9 chariots and three units of light cav can ruin just about anyones day...)

Even though you don't want a swarm army, I'd go with imperial guard.. for one, they'll be getting a lot of cool new stuff in their new codex. You could even do all conversions and have it be renegade/traitor guard. Throw in some FW stuff here and there for spice. If you don't want tons of guys, you can still do pretty decent mechanized armies ... or even do it like an armored company if you're not gonna do tournaments.

What about a Blood Bowl team? For the cost of one army, you could build several. Self-contained, small model count, good fun.

Depends on if he wants it for playing or not, I'd think.

If not for playing, then I'd say Necromunda gang.