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Hey guys, I noticed there are A LOT of 40k players like myself turning their heads and checking out fantasy now. The big thing though, is it seems there are no topics started on the key differences to the armies, their advantages / disadvantages, and what people like to play and why. So I figured I would start one.

I'm sincerely curious and want to know about the different armies, so if anyone is feeling verbose and particularity generous, could you please give an overview of your army and any other army you feel like talking about?
Thank you!

Jamora

Army Overviews so Far:

Beastmen -

Karon wrote:
Beastmen

Advantages: Great in close combat, can put in a lot of models on the table, and can be very low-model count as well. Can ambush, so have a lot of control of the board. Have some good magic as well. Good Toughness and Strength stats all around. Can be an ALL CHARIOT ARMY. Core Chariots on the cheap side.

Disadvantages: Only shooting they have is a monster who acts as a stonethrower, and Ungor Raiders who carry short bows. Most of their units have no armor. Low initiative and leadership all around.

Bretonnia

Nothing

Dark Elves -

Seon wrote:

Advantages: Very offensive in melee and ranged.
High initiative, Weaponskill, Ballistic skill.
Eternal hatred! (allows re-roll to hit all melee attacks) - not sure if this is changed in 8th?
Insanely at good magic, also has lots of cheap awesome magical items.
Can take HYDRAS!
Also because they are elves they are faster movement ;D

Disadvantages: Almost every elf is Toughness 3 apart from the extremely expensive lord.
so almost everything else in the game wounds on 4+ or better.
Even though they can take armour, they can still have trouble surviving
Also Strength 3 is pretty weak.

Super summary: Glass Cannon.

Favorite unit: The black ark corsairs! some people told me to drop them and get hydra's etc. But these guys destroy the most stuff in every game also have very cool looking plastic models its a shame they aren't skirmishers so you can actually see them because of formations :(

Its how i feel about them anyway i don't own shades or hydras or dragons ;D

Casper wrote:Dark Elves

Advantages: Strong Magic, Shooting, High Iniative, Hatred, Core Assassins, Monsters, Black Guard

Disadvantages: T3 with poor saves (they are elves after all), have to pick their CC fights, they are a scalpel (somewhat hard to learn to play effectivly but when done right they are amazing)

Demons

Zenkaron wrote:LORDS

Skarbrand-a lot better with 10+3d6 (drop lowest), better with new frenzy rules, and thunderstomp! Overall –IMPROVED

Plaugefather-No guess range improved his stonethrower and can still move and shoot. Still costly. Overall- SAME

Kairos-Now cannot be fielded in 2250 games weakened him. Level 4 with hand picking spells is amazing not to mention +6 to casting now. Thunderstomp is rather amusing which make him not so bad when small things charge him. Overall – IMPROVED

Bloodthirster- Still great in CC, and with thunderstomp even better. Can assault buildings now which is a huge improvement. Overall – IMPROVED

Lord of Change-Better in CC now, with +4 to cast and if kitted right can access any lore. Overall – IMPROVED

Keeper of Secrets-This demon got a giant buff in 8th. The cheapest GD in the book. Re-roll hits and wounds in the first round of combat (cept against anyone with ASF) -4 to armour is even worse now it seems. The best thing is its thunderstomp is at Int order! Basically striking first then doing its thunderstomp right after its attacks, with soul hunger being able to re roll wounds also. Overall – GIANT IMPROVEMENT

Demon Prince-This might be worth running now with unit str almost useless. Thunderstomp also now. Unsure of this units potential however. Overall – IMPROVED

HEROES

Skulltaker-With only a 1+ armour save he kinda suffers now, but the MR2 helps his unit at least. Being able to go first against most characters and killing blow on a 5+ is even better then before. Still demon characters are frowned upon. Flaming attacks seem to be a lot better and more common also. Overall – IMPROVED

The Masque- WOW! That about sums what they did to this bad girl in 8th. At only 90 points and zooming across the battlefield why would you not field her? She now will strike first due to her Int. and pair her with the Keeper and it’s a deadly combo still. Overall – GREATLY IMPROVED

Blue Scribes- Hard to tell until a errata comes out with the signature spells. Not that good of a choice really with the power dice cap and how brutal magic is. You really don’t want a spell going off period now with the new lores. Overall – POWERED DOWN

Epidemus- Hard to tell with no errata. Regen and Ward can’t be stacked now so I haven’t had a chance to run this guy or any nurgle really. Overall – UNKNOWN

Herald of Khorne-Even better in CC now. Armour of Khorne seems like a must with str6 being enough to take down most things now. Only a 1+ armour save hurts him, but stats make up for it. Overall – IMPROVED

Herald of Tzeentch-A wizard that can fly and have access to all lores? Yes please!. With Tzeentch being reduced HEAVY in power (no more 17+ PD) it hurts but isn’t bad having 1 of these in your army. Overall – SAME

Herald of Nurgle-Cant really say much until the errata comes out. Whats the point if Regen and Ward don’t stack. My guess is they will have a new rule or a 4+ ward save. Overall – UNKNOWN

Herald of Slaanesh-A giant step forward for this one. I would always field it with the blade that ignores armour saves or more attacks. Throw it in a unit of troops and watch them goto town! Overall – GIANT IMPROVEMENT

CORE

Bloodletters-MR1 was bad for them in 7th, now with a 4+ against magic it lets them survive a lot longer against spells. Str 5 with int 4 still amazing. No longer really needs to take a magic banner. Overall – IMPROVED

Horrors of Tzeentch-With the way magic works now these have been downgraded a ton. 1 unit maybe if you taking a herald of 2 just for protection. Overall- DOWN GRADED

Plaguebearers of Nurgle-Untill the errata comes out these are terrible. Int 1 and just a ward save. These were a tarpit in 7th and without the errata its not possible to tell. Overall – UNKNOWN

Deamonettes of Slaanesh-These got a huge improvement. High WS and Int and a -1 to armour with a ton of attacks. Throw a herald in there and your most likely to re roll hits over and over. Overall – GREATLY IMPROVED

Furies-With flyers and skirmishers kinda downgraded these got hit. Still have their uses though. Overall – SLIGHTLY DOWNGRADED

SPECIAL

Flesh Hounds-With the new MR rules these are harder to kill then ever. High WS, STR, and Int are also great. Cant negate flanks anymore which is kinda bad, but with a herald in there it’s a hard unit to take down. Overall – IMPROVED

Nurglings-Still a horrible choice, these got even worse. Overall – STILL HORRIBLE

Screamers of Tzeentch-These is almost one of the worst units in fantasy period. No reason they should be on the board. Overall – NEVER SHOULD FIELD THEM
Slaanesh Calvary-With the high amount of attacks, the bonus move before the game and the possible to get a giant charge with no reaction almost this unit got a nice buff. Not sure if I would throw a herald in there, it might make the unit to costly. Overall – IMPROVED

RARE

Bloodcrushers-Still a costly unit, but with stomp now in it kinda makes up for their cost. Would take these in a small unit with no herald. Overall – SLIGHTLY IMPROVED

Flamers of Tzeentch-These bad boys were hardcore in 7th and got a nice boost in 8th. With marching and shooting they have a larger range now. Striking at Int 4 isnt bad also. Overall – IMPROVED

Beasts of Nurgle-Still slow and crappy attacks. A costly unit for not much effectiveness. Overall – DOWN GRADED

Fiends of Slaanesh-Got a nice boost, with high movement and swiftstride they can charge across the board with ease. Now also with the new armour -2 is pretty bad for the enemy. That and the stomp attack running 4 wide is pretty nasty. High Int ensures you’ll prolly take a lot of enemies with you also. No negating flanks anymore so be careful. Overall – IMPROVED.

Dwarfs

Casper wrote:


Dwarves

Advantages: T4 with good saves, Best Magic Defense in the game, Runes, Good Shooting, Tons of Warmachienes

Disadvantages: no offensive magic, slow (M3 not as much of an issue now)

Matt Varnish wrote:Well, I have a few video battle reports of games down in my sig there for you guys, using Dwarf rules, converted chaos dwarf models:

Lets start with Cons: just to be different.

Mobility. Yes we can potentially charge 15 inches. However, everything else charges you from far out. Chariots can march now, so they ARE hitting your warmachines early on. Granted, its NICE to be able to charge on average 10 inches, just realize that 9 times out of 10, they still will be charging you.

Magic: Magic is hugely devastating, and apart from the Anvil, we get nothing, which is fine. Warmachines and shooting for us kind of make up for that. As I like to Joke, my magic is done in the shooting phase, and you cannot dispel bullets

Variety: I can't really think of any other way to put this but: Imagine playing IG gun line in 4th ed (ie without running) You line em up and shoot right? this is how Dwarves play for me so far (pure offence builds aside, they move up to the middle and beat face)

Pros:

Resilience: We have t4 across the board. Our blocks of infantry are survivable to all but the most determined assaults. We get the best item combos in the game for keeping guys alive (runes) There is a saying: Anything that can have shields, should have shields. Even thunderers and quarrelers.

Magic Defence: Runesmiths grant the + to dispel dice, and the 50 point Master Rune takes one dice away from your opponent and gives it to you. This means you normally get about the same dice to dispel as your opponent, and thats with only ONE runepriest. Not bad, but witha few more , you can really stymy the enemy magic phase. So far, I've only used the one guy and have had success

Shooting

Here is where we shine. Imagine having a demolisher shell that you could reroll the scatter dice, and THEn choose to reroll how far it goes if you didn't get the hit? Master engineer: meet the runed stone thrower. These things hit small base units (20mm) for 20+ models if you hit. Devastating. We can field so many warmachines, its not funny. This is the spot where dwarves shine, and if youare remotely thinking of playing dwarves, its because of shooting.

Empire

VikingScott wrote:
Horde style troops. 3/8 are 5ppm.
Heavy cav as troops with a 1+ save. Thier already good shooting got better with 8th.
Cannons that cause D6 wounds.
Mortars, and what is essentailly a guy on horseback with a minigun (outriders)
Greatswords are now pretty poor (and £25 for 10 which is outragous)

A tank. powered by steam.
2 artillery pieces that can blow units off the board.
More of a summery of the units in the empire but i think that helps more.

High elves

Nothing

Lizardmen

Eyclonus wrote:Lizardmen
Pro:
-Slann are good, REAL GOOD, magic casters. They can also gain buffs that make them scarier.
-Strong Magic in general.
-Strong heavy infantry core unit Saurus Warriors and efficient skirmisher support core unit Skink Skirmishers.
-Old-Bloods/Scar-Veterans are tough characters.
-Lots of poison ranged attacks thanks to blowpipes.
-Strong Bodyguard unit for the Slann.
-Dinosaurs.
-Lizard Knights on Dinosaurs. Big tough cavalry unit, not the best in WFB and somewhat pricey, but proven workhorse for a mobile power unit.
-Engine of the Gods is a strong booster for nearby units and makes the Skink Priest riding it more powerful
-Terradons are good for hitting isolated units or warmachines
-Stegadon with Great Bow is a big dinosaur with a nasty warmachine strapped on its back and shoot the unit its in combat with.
-Ancient Stegadon with Twin Giant Blowpipes minces light infantry units, especially when used as a mount for a Skink Chief with Stegadon Spear, as between the 2D6 S6 impact hits, the 4D6 S3 Poisonous Blowpipe shots, there usually isn't much left for the big lizard to munch on.
-Nasty magical items, the Black Cube is the last word in magic defence.
-Lord Kroak has an epic spell and Kroq-Gar is scary and makes a single Cold One Cavalry unit a Core choice.

Con:
-Only 2 core units worth taking.
-No long range weapons excluding the Stegadon with Great Bow.
-All other special characters are meh to crap.
-Losing a Slann due to a miscast will rip a hole in smaller armies.
-Many magical items are in the "Neat but what the hell can I use it for?" category.
-Slann are quite costly to pimp out which makes their use in the 8th edition % system a little tricky.
-Some units (Chameleon Skinks, Swarms, Rank and File Skinks, to a lesser debatable extent Hunting Packs and Kroxigors) lack any sort of stand out "Take Me" advantage over the units mentioned in Pro.
-The Stegadons are costly and EotG even moreso.
-GW's Tactica advice for Lizardmen doesn't really make much sense.

Ogre Kingdoms

Nothing

Orcs and Goblins

heacy hitter wrote:
advantages:
horde style troops
orcs toughness of 4
size matters rule: snotlings don't panic goblins goblins dont panic orcs, orcs don't panic black orcs black orcs don't panic trolls and trolls don't panic giants
very reliable core units
cheap core
range of war machines
FANATICS!!!!!!!

disadvantages:
animosity rule can hold up your plans
a lot of units got only average leadership
some units are expensive
most units only got movement of 4

Minsc wrote:

heacy hitter wrote:cheap core

Expanded: 8 Core Choices. 3/8th five points or less, half less than eight points / model. Two of the other core options are cheap Fast Cav, and a Swarm. None above 20pts / model.

About the "horde-style troops": Only really applies to Common Goblins with a Spider Banner BSB. Otherwise, you're better going deep.

heacy hitter wrote:a lot of units got only average leadership

This is less a disadvantage now since pretty much any unit in the army can bounce between Stubborn 9 or Stubborn 10.

4M2A wrote:

Advantages
Cheap infantry- very easy to bring huge blocks to the table now.

Good infantry and character combinations- Now that percentages are being used it's easy to include a lot of cheap goblin characters. These can really give your infantry blocks a nice boost. Can help to remove Ld problems.

Warmachine spam- 35 point bolt throwers let us bring a lot to the table.

Disadvantages
Low Ld- Units can run away often. The new rules go a small way to reducing this.

Animosity- Makes units unpredictable. It's fun but it can be very annoying.

Skaven

Flashman wrote:

Essentially "The Empire" of the evil races, except they have monsters (Rat Ogres) instead of cavalry.

Pros

Large numbers of troops
Potentially devastating war machines (a Doomwheel is fully capable of fritzing a Bloodthirster in one shooting phase)
Hard hitting monsters
Powerful magic especially the Dreaded Thirteenth spell
Deathmaster Snikch

Cons

Ill disciplined troops, not great in hand to hand
Low toughness and low armour saves
Elite troops don't really measure up to elite of other races
Potentially devastating war machines (to your own troops!)
Tretch Craventail

Tomb Kings

Nothing

Vampire Counts

Nitros14 wrote:Vampire Counts:

If you seek an army of Good look away, for Vampire Counts are among the most Evil and despicable of Warhammer Armies. Vampire Counts at their simplest are an army of unbreakable, completely reliable and totally subpar units paired with some of the most complete and devastating characters in the game. They rely heavily on the synergy between characters and units and their magic, almost all Vampire Counts characters are Wizards. They best fit the visceral imagery of hordes of shambling dead pulling down the living. Every single entry in the army book causes fear or terror. They grind their enemy down through attrition, replacing their own losses as the enemy cannot replace theirs.

Vampire Characters are very expensive. A Vampire Lord can easily run 400 points and a Vampire Hero up to 200. Vampire Counts units are very expensive for what they do alone. Skeletons for example will run you 8 points a piece for a unit with WS2 S3 T3 I2 A1. They fight poorly, so you will need to exploit your ability to raise more of them as the battle progresses.

The Lore of Vampires is heavily bent towards summoning. You can raise D6 Undead back with Invocation of Nehek(3+), create a new unit of Zombies with Raise Dead(3+), create new Spirit Hosts with Wind of Undeath(12+) and raise 3D6 Undead or 5D6 Zombies with Summon Undead Horde (12+). Vanhel's Danse Macabre(7+) allows you to make an instant 8" march move or charge in the magic phase or always strike first and re-roll to hit in close combat. Critically, Necromancy spells can be cast multiple times upon the same unit by the same Wizard, making Vanhel's Dance Macabre and Invocation of Nehek very hard to stop.

Vampires are extremely customizable. They can be awesome combat monsters or tremendously powerful Wizards or something in between, it's all up to you with their Bloodline powers. They are all Wizards though and you can also purchase cheap Necromancers to one dice your reanimation spell (Invocation of Nehek) meaning Vampire Counts are easily turned to a very magic heavy army. Vampires can take any lore of magic from the Rulebook (except Life!) in addition to their own special Lore.

If Deathstars are what you seek there are the Blood Knights and the Grave Guard. Blood Knights (55 points a model) are a whole unit of Vampires with Strength 5 (7 on the charge), 4 attacks each at Weapon Skill 6 and with spammable Vanhel's it is very easy to give them Always Strikes First and Re-roll to hit. They may also take a magic banner for Regeneration, 4+ Ward Save outside of close combat, or Hatred. Grave Guard with Great Weapons are 13 points a piece with S6 T4 and Killing Blow. They can have all the banner options of Blood Knights as well as the Banner of the Barrows causing them to hit on 2's.

You also have access to many Ethereal Units (Spirit Hosts, Wraiths and Banshees, Black Coaches and Vampires can become Ethereal) which can be a nasty surprise for anyone who forgot their magic weapons at home.

Vampire fast and flying units are subpar. Dire Wolves and Fell Bats/Swarms are fairly weak and expensive. Zombie Dragons are overpriced.

Finally, if you wish to shoot your opponent you'll need to find another army. Vampire Counts have only one shooting unit: The Banshee with a whopping 8" range.

Vampire Counts were very strong in 7th and though weaker will likely still be very playable in 8th. None can stand against the coming darkness.

Warriors of Chaos

barlio wrote:
Advantages:
*Most models have an Initiative of 4 or higher.
*Chaos Warriors have a nice range of weapon choices and access to marks
*Affordable cannonfodder in the form of Warhounds and Marauders
*Chaos Knights are some of the hardest Heavy Cav units in the game. They also have access to a variety of Marks.
*The Lord and Hero choices are very hard. Even the Sorcerors are WS5, have 2 Attacks, and a 4+ AS.

Disadvantages:
*Very limited shooting. Hellcannon and Marauder Horsemen are the only units (outside of a couple of Magic Items) with a shooting attack.
*Magic needs an all or nothing approach. You also will have to sacrifice your combact effectiveness in order to get that effective Magic phase.
*Without taking a Special Character or a Chaos Lord you are limited to Leadership 8. This can be dealt with as a lot of units are either Immune to Psychology or can ignore Fear, Terror, and Panic (i.e. Mark of Slaanesh).

Strategies/Army Builds:
*WoC can be an effective all Cavalry army.
*Magic Heavy Tzeentch or Nurgle armies can be devastating.
*Marks allow for diversity in the army.

From my experience with WoC you either win big or lose big. Because of the high point cost units like Chaos Warriors and Knights you can build an army on a tight budget. I like playing them, but it takes some time to figure them out.

Wood Elves

Nothing

I guess, it would be cool to have a sticky for such a thing.

---------

Beastmen

Advantages: Great in close combat, can put in a lot of models on the table, and can be very low-model count as well. Can ambush, so have a lot of control of the board. Have some good magic as well. Good Toughness and Strength stats all around. Can be an ALL CHARIOT ARMY. Core Chariots on the cheap side.

Disadvantages: Only shooting they have is a monster who acts as a stonethrower, and Ungor Raiders who carry short bows. Most of their units have no armor. Low initiative and leadership all around.

Dark elves! - im still a bit newish myself but i think this summary would be correct.

Advantages: Very offensive in melee and ranged.
High initiative, Weaponskill, Ballistic skill.
Eternal hatred! (allows re-roll to hit all melee attacks) - not sure if this is changed in 8th?
Insanely at good magic, also has lots of cheap awesome magical items.
Can take HYDRAS!
Also because they are elves they are faster movement ;D

Disadvantages: Almost every elf is Toughness 3 apart from the extremely expensive lord.
so almost everything else in the game wounds on 4+ or better.
Even though they can take armour, they can still have trouble surviving
Also Strength 3 is pretty weak.

Super summary: Glass Cannon.

Favorite unit: The black ark corsairs! some people told me to drop them and get hydra's etc. But these guys destroy the most stuff in every game also have very cool looking plastic models its a shame they aren't skirmishers so you can actually see them because of formations :(

Its how i feel about them anyway i don't own shades or hydras or dragons ;D

Dark Elves

Advantages: Strong Magic, Shooting, High Iniative, Hatred, Core Assassins, Monsters, Black Guard

Disadvantages: T3 with poor saves (they are elves after all), have to pick their CC fights, they are a scalpel (somewhat hard to learn to play effectivly but when done right they are amazing)


Dwarves

Advantages: T4 with good saves, Best Magic Defense in the game, Runes, Good Shooting, Tons of Warmachienes

Disadvantages: no offensive magic, slow (M3 not as much of an issue now)


Picking an Army
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=&categoryId=cat210002§ion=&pIndex=3&aId=12200001&start=4

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=&categoryId=cat210002§ion=&pIndex=4&aId=12200001&start=5#

This is a great idea! I'll try to add some thoughts for wood elves later today

Ill write up a DoC review over the next few days, ill cover everything.

Beautiful. This is going to be very informative once we get some solid reviews in here

I would also say please keep everything in mind with 8th Edition.

I'm very much concerned how my TK Chariots are now going to work/perform seeing as I have used Heavy Cav as my main troops.

It looks like I'll have to start taking pretty good sized blocks of archers and hope my magic stays the same (getting to shoot twice per unit per turn). Hitting on 5+, but just the sheer numbers should soften up some big blocks for the chariots/cav - hopefully...

Still looking for army Overviews

Empire.
Horde style troops. 3/8 are 5ppm.
Heavy cav as troops with a 1+ save. Thier already good shooting got better with 8th.
Cannons that cause D6 wounds.
Mortars, and what is essentailly a guy on horseback with a minigun (outriders)
Greatswords are now pretty poor (and £25 for 10 which is outragous)

A tank. powered by steam.
2 artillery pieces that can blow units off the board.
More of a summery of the units in the empire but i think that helps more.

Warriors of Chaos
Advantages:
*Most models have an Initiative of 4 or higher.
*Chaos Warriors have a nice range of weapon choices and access to marks
*Affordable cannonfodder in the form of Warhounds and Marauders
*Chaos Knights are some of the hardest Heavy Cav units in the game. They also have access to a variety of Marks.
*The Lord and Hero choices are very hard. Even the Sorcerors are WS5, have 2 Attacks, and a 4+ AS.

Disadvantages:
*Very limited shooting. Hellcannon and Marauder Horsemen are the only units (outside of a couple of Magic Items) with a shooting attack.
*Magic needs an all or nothing approach. You also will have to sacrifice your combact effectiveness in order to get that effective Magic phase.
*Without taking a Special Character or a Chaos Lord you are limited to Leadership 8. This can be dealt with as a lot of units are either Immune to Psychology or can ignore Fear, Terror, and Panic (i.e. Mark of Slaanesh).

Strategies/Army Builds:
*WoC can be an effective all Cavalry army.
*Magic Heavy Tzeentch or Nurgle armies can be devastating.
*Marks allow for diversity in the army.

From my experience with WoC you either win big or lose big. Because of the high point cost units like Chaos Warriors and Knights you can build an army on a tight budget. I like playing them, but it takes some time to figure them out.

LORDS

Skarbrand-a lot better with 10+3d6 (drop lowest), better with new frenzy rules, and thunderstomp! Overall –IMPROVED

Plaugefather-No guess range improved his stonethrower and can still move and shoot. Still costly. Overall- SAME

Kairos-Now cannot be fielded in 2250 games weakened him. Level 4 with hand picking spells is amazing not to mention +6 to casting now. Thunderstomp is rather amusing which make him not so bad when small things charge him. Overall – IMPROVED

Bloodthirster- Still great in CC, and with thunderstomp even better. Can assault buildings now which is a huge improvement. Overall – IMPROVED

Lord of Change-Better in CC now, with +4 to cast and if kitted right can access any lore. Overall – IMPROVED

Keeper of Secrets-This demon got a giant buff in 8th. The cheapest GD in the book. Re-roll hits and wounds in the first round of combat (cept against anyone with ASF) -4 to armour is even worse now it seems. The best thing is its thunderstomp is at Int order! Basically striking first then doing its thunderstomp right after its attacks, with soul hunger being able to re roll wounds also. Overall – GIANT IMPROVEMENT

Demon Prince-This might be worth running now with unit str almost useless. Thunderstomp also now. Unsure of this units potential however. Overall – IMPROVED

HEROES

Skulltaker-With only a 1+ armour save he kinda suffers now, but the MR2 helps his unit at least. Being able to go first against most characters and killing blow on a 5+ is even better then before. Still demon characters are frowned upon. Flaming attacks seem to be a lot better and more common also. Overall – IMPROVED

The Masque- WOW! That about sums what they did to this bad girl in 8th. At only 90 points and zooming across the battlefield why would you not field her? She now will strike first due to her Int. and pair her with the Keeper and it’s a deadly combo still. Overall – GREATLY IMPROVED

Blue Scribes- Hard to tell until a errata comes out with the signature spells. Not that good of a choice really with the power dice cap and how brutal magic is. You really don’t want a spell going off period now with the new lores. Overall – POWERED DOWN

Epidemus- Hard to tell with no errata. Regen and Ward can’t be stacked now so I haven’t had a chance to run this guy or any nurgle really. Overall – UNKNOWN

Herald of Khorne-Even better in CC now. Armour of Khorne seems like a must with str6 being enough to take down most things now. Only a 1+ armour save hurts him, but stats make up for it. Overall – IMPROVED

Herald of Tzeentch-A wizard that can fly and have access to all lores? Yes please!. With Tzeentch being reduced HEAVY in power (no more 17+ PD) it hurts but isn’t bad having 1 of these in your army. Overall – SAME

Herald of Nurgle-Cant really say much until the errata comes out. Whats the point if Regen and Ward don’t stack. My guess is they will have a new rule or a 4+ ward save. Overall – UNKNOWN

Herald of Slaanesh-A giant step forward for this one. I would always field it with the blade that ignores armour saves or more attacks. Throw it in a unit of troops and watch them goto town! Overall – GIANT IMPROVEMENT

CORE

Bloodletters-MR1 was bad for them in 7th, now with a 4+ against magic it lets them survive a lot longer against spells. Str 5 with int 4 still amazing. No longer really needs to take a magic banner. Overall – IMPROVED

Horrors of Tzeentch-With the way magic works now these have been downgraded a ton. 1 unit maybe if you taking a herald of 2 just for protection. Overall- DOWN GRADED

Plaguebearers of Nurgle-Untill the errata comes out these are terrible. Int 1 and just a ward save. These were a tarpit in 7th and without the errata its not possible to tell. Overall – UNKNOWN

Deamonettes of Slaanesh-These got a huge improvement. High WS and Int and a -1 to armour with a ton of attacks. Throw a herald in there and your most likely to re roll hits over and over. Overall – GREATLY IMPROVED

Furies-With flyers and skirmishers kinda downgraded these got hit. Still have their uses though. Overall – SLIGHTLY DOWNGRADED

SPECIAL

Flesh Hounds-With the new MR rules these are harder to kill then ever. High WS, STR, and Int are also great. Cant negate flanks anymore which is kinda bad, but with a herald in there it’s a hard unit to take down. Overall – IMPROVED

Nurglings-Still a horrible choice, these got even worse. Overall – STILL HORRIBLE

Screamers of Tzeentch-These is almost one of the worst units in fantasy period. No reason they should be on the board. Overall – NEVER SHOULD FIELD THEM
Slaanesh Calvary-With the high amount of attacks, the bonus move before the game and the possible to get a giant charge with no reaction almost this unit got a nice buff. Not sure if I would throw a herald in there, it might make the unit to costly. Overall – IMPROVED

RARE

Bloodcrushers-Still a costly unit, but with stomp now in it kinda makes up for their cost. Would take these in a small unit with no herald. Overall – SLIGHTLY IMPROVED

Flamers of Tzeentch-These bad boys were hardcore in 7th and got a nice boost in 8th. With marching and shooting they have a larger range now. Striking at Int 4 isnt bad also. Overall – IMPROVED

Beasts of Nurgle-Still slow and crappy attacks. A costly unit for not much effectiveness. Overall – DOWN GRADED

Fiends of Slaanesh-Got a nice boost, with high movement and swiftstride they can charge across the board with ease. Now also with the new armour -2 is pretty bad for the enemy. That and the stomp attack running 4 wide is pretty nasty. High Int ensures you’ll prolly take a lot of enemies with you also. No negating flanks anymore so be careful. Overall – IMPROVED.

@Zenkaron

You telling me the cheesiest army just got cheesier???

Did you take a look at who wrote the 8th ed rule book?

Orc and Goblins
advantages:
horde style troops
orcs toughness of 4
size matters rule: snotlings don't panic goblins goblins dont panic orcs, orcs don't panic black orcs black orcs don't panic trolls and trolls don't panic giants
very reliable core units
cheap core
range of war machines
FANATICS!!!!!!!

disadvantages:
animosity rule can hold up your plans
a lot of units got only average leadership
some units are expensive
most units only got movement of 4

heacy hitter wrote:cheap core

Expanded: 8 Core Choices. 3/8th five points or less, half less than eight points / model. Two of the other core options are cheap Fast Cav, and a Swarm. None above 20pts / model.

About the "horde-style troops": Only really applies to Common Goblins with a Spider Banner BSB. Otherwise, you're better going deep.

heacy hitter wrote:a lot of units got only average leadership

This is less a disadvantage now since pretty much any unit in the army can bounce between Stubborn 9 or Stubborn 10.

Keep it coming guys
I'd love to see a lizardman overview and maybe a vc one.

Hey guys what does ppmm stand for? I see it get mentioned alot when talking about fantasy

Points per model I believe

Still looking for more army Overviews guys.

Try this section of the site :

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Category:Warhammer_Fantasy_Army_Book_Summaries

Another Orcs and Goblins review:

Advantages
Cheap infantry- very easy to bring huge blocks to the table now.

Good infantry and character combinations- Now that percentages are being used it's easy to include a lot of cheap goblin characters. These can really give your infantry blocks a nice boost. Can help to remove Ld problems.

Warmachine spam- 35 point bolt throwers let us bring a lot to the table.

Disadvantages
Low Ld- Units can run away often. The new rules go a small way to reducing this.

Animosity- Makes units unpredictable. It's fun but it can be very annoying.

Skaven

Essentially "The Empire" of the evil races, except they have monsters (Rat Ogres) instead of cavalry.

Pros

Large numbers of troops
Potentially devastating war machines (a Doomwheel is fully capable of fritzing a Bloodthirster in one shooting phase)
Hard hitting monsters
Powerful magic especially the Dreaded Thirteenth spell
Deathmaster Snikch

Cons

Ill disciplined troops, not great in hand to hand
Low toughness and low armour saves
Elite troops don't really measure up to elite of other races
Potentially devastating war machines (to your own troops!)
Tretch Craventail

I'm going to update the Original post tonight for easier viewing. Don't have a whole variety yet though, so keep it coming guys

Doesn't have to be all about 8th. The armies will still have the same style and feel (For the most part), or atleast enough that 40k players like me won't know any better

Updated

Someone needs to give an army overview of Vampire counts on this thread, that would be really helpful.

Thanks

Lizardmen
Pro:
-Slann are good, REAL GOOD, magic casters. They can also gain buffs that make them scarier.
-Strong Magic in general.
-Strong heavy infantry core unit Saurus Warriors and efficient skirmisher support core unit Skink Skirmishers.
-Old-Bloods/Scar-Veterans are tough characters.
-Lots of poison ranged attacks thanks to blowpipes.
-Strong Bodyguard unit for the Slann.
-Dinosaurs.
-Lizard Knights on Dinosaurs. Big tough cavalry unit, not the best in WFB and somewhat pricey, but proven workhorse for a mobile power unit.
-Engine of the Gods is a strong booster for nearby units and makes the Skink Priest riding it more powerful
-Terradons are good for hitting isolated units or warmachines
-Stegadon with Great Bow is a big dinosaur with a nasty warmachine strapped on its back and shoot the unit its in combat with.
-Ancient Stegadon with Twin Giant Blowpipes minces light infantry units, especially when used as a mount for a Skink Chief with Stegadon Spear, as between the 2D6 S6 impact hits, the 4D6 S3 Poisonous Blowpipe shots, there usually isn't much left for the big lizard to munch on.
-Nasty magical items, the Black Cube is the last word in magic defence.
-Lord Kroak has an epic spell and Kroq-Gar is scary and makes a single Cold One Cavalry unit a Core choice.

Con:
-Only 2 core units worth taking.
-No long range weapons excluding the Stegadon with Great Bow.
-All other special characters are meh to crap.
-Losing a Slann due to a miscast will rip a hole in smaller armies.
-Many magical items are in the "Neat but what the hell can I use it for?" category.
-Slann are quite costly to pimp out which makes their use in the 8th edition % system a little tricky.
-Some units (Chameleon Skinks, Swarms, Rank and File Skinks, to a lesser debatable extent Hunting Packs and Kroxigors) lack any sort of stand out "Take Me" advantage over the units mentioned in Pro.
-The Stegadons are costly and EotG even moreso.
-GW's Tactica advice for Lizardmen doesn't really make much sense.

Well, I have a few video battle reports of games down in my sig there for you guys, using Dwarf rules, converted chaos dwarf models:

Lets start with Cons: just to be different.

Mobility. Yes we can potentially charge 15 inches. However, everything else charges you from far out. Chariots can march now, so they ARE hitting your warmachines early on. Granted, its NICE to be able to charge on average 10 inches, just realize that 9 times out of 10, they still will be charging you.

Magic: Magic is hugely devastating, and apart from the Anvil, we get nothing, which is fine. Warmachines and shooting for us kind of make up for that. As I like to Joke, my magic is done in the shooting phase, and you cannot dispel bullets

Variety: I can't really think of any other way to put this but: Imagine playing IG gun line in 4th ed (ie without running) You line em up and shoot right? this is how Dwarves play for me so far (pure offence builds aside, they move up to the middle and beat face)

Pros:

Resilience: We have t4 across the board. Our blocks of infantry are survivable to all but the most determined assaults. We get the best item combos in the game for keeping guys alive (runes) There is a saying: Anything that can have shields, should have shields. Even thunderers and quarrelers.

Magic Defence: Runesmiths grant the + to dispel dice, and the 50 point Master Rune takes one dice away from your opponent and gives it to you. This means you normally get about the same dice to dispel as your opponent, and thats with only ONE runepriest. Not bad, but witha few more , you can really stymy the enemy magic phase. So far, I've only used the one guy and have had success

Shooting

Here is where we shine. Imagine having a demolisher shell that you could reroll the scatter dice, and THEn choose to reroll how far it goes if you didn't get the hit? Master engineer: meet the runed stone thrower. These things hit small base units (20mm) for 20+ models if you hit. Devastating. We can field so many warmachines, its not funny. This is the spot where dwarves shine, and if youare remotely thinking of playing dwarves, its because of shooting.

Ancient Stegadon with Twin Giant Blowpipes minces light infantry units, especially when used as a mount for a Skink Chief with Stegadon Spear, as between the 2D6 S6 impact hits, the 4D6 S3 Poisonous Blowpipe shots, there usually isn't much left for the big lizard to munch on.

surely you can';t shoot the giant blowpipes on the turn you charge.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=cat210002&categoryId=500004§ion=&aId=9900050a

Perhaps something like this was what the OP was after? Website sez article was released July 2010, so this seems like a good starting point for people new to Fantasy.