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Im starting fantasy so could someone give me a rundown of what all the armies are like in the field?

Thanks

http://warhammer.org.uk/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12169

Thanks!

Play Tomb Kings! Khemri needs the love.

Basically as follows :

Beasts of Chaos: Fast horde army with many chaotic monsters to supplement their hordes of infantry. They have the possibility to ambush. For seriously offense minded players and no shooting

Bretonnia: Much cavalry, poor infantry. Iffy magic. Focuses very heavily on charges. Offensive style of play

Daemons of Chaos: Play this army and prepare to lose all your gaming friends. Just kidding, but they're very solid. Offensive playstyle

Dark Elves: I refer to it as the "whatever style fits you best" army. Great cavalry/infantry. lotsa monsters as well. Good overall. No elf army survives prolonged combats though.

Dwarfs: Stand back and shoot, mostly. Strong infantry, great shooting and magic defense. good for those defensive players.

The Empire: Same as the Dark Elves. good for you all around type players. I love this army personally.

High Elves: Quite defensive minded. Like all elves, long drawn out battles kill them off easily.

Lizardmen: Large blocks of strong infantry supported by monsters of every and all description.

Ogre Kingdoms: Purely offense. Combining charges is a must, they also rely heavily on kills. Good magic

Orcs & Goblins: Random. One turn can see you gain extra movement or causing wounds on your own units. I consider it as the most fun army.

Skaven: Much infantry, decent shooting/magic. They seem to have an offensive playstyle, though I wouldn't know. No cavalry, but they have monsters.

Tomb Kings: good magic. either highly offensive or defensive, not too sure about the middle ground. Better than average shooting.

Vampire counts: Very strong characters, can cast magic and engage in CC. See the daemons entry above. offensive

Warriors of Chaos: Close Combat Monsters. Somewhat like a mix between daemons and beastmen, with strong infantry with monsters and even expendable units. Offensive

Wood Elves: Shooting. Lots of it. Unlike other elves, they have very few CC troops (Dryads, Treekin/men, Glade Riders, wardancers etc.) Defensive

Any other questions just simply PM me. I'd love to help you should you have any questions/ army lists.

There is a lot more variety in Fantasy than 40k, in my opinion.

Beasts and Wood Elves are armies of frustration. They are all about evading the enemies potential charges, and mass ganking single units with overwhelming force.

Warriors of Chaos and Brettonia however, are all about striking hard and fast. Although some consideration is always needed, their basic troops can be depended upon to duff up pretty much anything in a fair fight. And in a favourably unfair fight, they should chew up and spit out anyone.

Dwarfs are boring. Do not play Dwarfs.

For first armies, I would advise avoiding Vampires, Tomb Kings and Daemons. Because of their nature, you will get a fairly false experience of the game. Your troops don't run, and can survive fairly disastrous combats in a way other armies don't. I think you will end up a better player if you embrace a more traditional army to begin with.

OVerall, for a beginner, Empire or Dark Elves are solid choices. Lots of different play styles open, so if you find your collected force not quite to your taste, just switching out a unit or two is as good as getting an entirely new army. Dark Elves would be the cheaper of the two to collect cash wise, and have a particularly choice Batallion. 3 Core Choices and 1 Special Choice. Add in a couple of characters, a Hydra or a couple of Bolt Throwers, and you'll have a decent enough 1,000 point force for under £100. A good start. Plus, the Batallion is useful for expanding your force even further, keeping overall costs down.

The only army I can really tell you about is Ogre Kingdoms.

Ogres are absolute beasts on the playing field. Three wounds per model (!), cause fear (!), another extra attack on the charge (!), fast moving, and fairly high strength and toughness. Thanks to this, though, you will only be able to field so many Ogres. This really puts a damper on things if you're facing an army that has a lot of units at their disposal, and you don't have the forces to spread out over the table like you would with another army. Getting flanked can become a huge problem for Ogres.

Ogres rely almost completely on being able to be the first to charge, due to their extra attack on the charge. Since they move and charge over fairly long distances, this is easier to do, but you can't afford to miss more than a charge or two with Ogres if you're looking to win a game. You don't want to be the one getting charged either, as losses hit you much harder than they would with any other army. While Ironfists (An Ogre-only weapon that can either be used for an extra attack or as a shield) are nice in theory, the lack of units causes you to always use that extra attack anyway. Gut Magic is very nice, and also unique to Ogres, but the consequences for failure are much worse than with the normal magic tables. Ogres almost completely lack long-range capability, which can also be a problem at times.

Ogres give you a completely different experience in WHFB. They are a radically different army, most due to the extremely small amount of models you're able to field. Their special rules call for a total change in your opponent's strategy. I would argue that they give you more of a 'false experience' than undead armies, though this isn't necessarily a bad thing, if you're looking to just stick with one army.

Main advice in Fantasy...even S3 is deadly.

Ogres main advantage I feel, is that with their 3 wounds, even if the enemy is striking first (they usually do!) they have to go some to deny you your full attacks, whereas normally, the more wounds you cause, the fewer attacks you face.

Gnoblars ARE your friends with them. Cheap, cheerful, pretty weedy, but get off a flank charge with them, and they more or less guarantee a win against the charged unit. They swing combat in your favour by +1 Combat Resolution for the flank, +3 for their Ranks, +1 for outnumber, and most importantly, -3 to your enemy for taking out their ranks. Even with just their own benefits added in they bring +5 combat res to the fight. Sure, the enemy can scrape some of that back by beating the Gnoblars up a bit, but assuming a 4 deep enemy formation, the most they can get is 4 models fighting the Gnoblars. Unless said unit has multiple attacks, they are still totally 100% beneficial. This +5 can be enough to send the enemy packing of it's own accord. Added to the clobbering the Ogres will dish out, and you are pretty much laughing.