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Ok, so i play 40k and I love it. But fantasy also looks interesting. I was wondering which armies are to be avoided for beginners. Which armies are best for beginners? A basic overview would be good and Ill decide which one looks best later. What should i pick up to start an army. How much money would it cost me? Is it cheaper, more expensive than 40k?Thank for the help! Rod

I'm fairly new to Fantasy, but I'll provide what insight I can. I'd say its about as expensive as 40k, depending on what army you pick. For a beginner I'd advise something not so swarmy, unless you'd really perfer it. I would also avoid Ogres at first, they're not quite as bad as everyone says but it does take alot of experience and skill to win with them consistantly. That said, this is what I know about them;

Beastmen: Just got a new book so alot of the "How good are they really?" arguments are still going, seems like their infantry is incredibly squishy but the Minotaurs and other big units are very good.

Bretonnia: Most of the army is cavalry, its greatest strength is that its incredibly powerful on the charge and even has its own "lance formation" to be more effective at charging. This is also its greatest weakness, because when you don't get the charge your Knights don't quite pack the same punch.

Daemons of Chaos: Oh man, these guys are rough. Alot of people call cheese on them, they pretty much broke fantasy in half with how powerful some of their lists are. Its possible to create a fair list with them still, but some people might be against playing it anyways.

Dark Elves: These guys are considered to be a top tier army. They have very powerful light cavalry and scouts, and their Eternal Hatred rule makes their warriors effective in combat too, if a bit squishy. Their Hydras are also very powerful. Dark Elf Magic is also very very potent, but almost always at a cost.

Dwarves: They don't use magic, but are very resistant to it. They have powerful infantry and lots of cannons.

Lizardmen: Lots of monsters and some powerful infantry, also very potent at magic. A very "Quality over quantity" army for the msot part.

Skaven: Insane machines and technology, powered by hordes of very squishy infantry. That about sums it up.

The rest I don't know enough about to comment, but I hope this helped.

rodt777 wrote:Which armies are best for beginners?

Daemons of Chaos, by a landslide.

Daemons has very few downsides, so it's an easy army to learn to play. Let the other guy worry about Psychology, Break tests, etc. Plus, you win a lot, which is a great confidence builder starting out.

Now some people will say, ohh, Daemons are cheese, and you should lose a lot of your early games, builds character, and so on. Nonsense. You can always pull your punches later.

Of course, starting by playing a 'point and click' army that totally ignores a major section of the rules (Psychology) isn't going to teach you very much about how to play the game well.

If you want to play a top-tier army that forces you to learn how to play, I would reccomend the Dark Elves. Sure, they are powerful. They are also squishy and prone to dying if used wrong. You learn a lot more about how to play from a hard-fought loss than an easy victory.

Oh, please. That's no different than how SMs ignore most AP and 40k Psych risks. Besides, as Daemons uniformly causes Fear & Terror, the nice thing is that he gets to see how the enemy is affected by Psych.

And the OP can always pick an army that loses easily later.

Movement is quite different in WHFB. I started with dwarfs(I don't win much, but i get lots of draws ).
Pick an army you like and go with it. Fantasy cost a bit more because some armies require big blocks of infantry. I have found I field more minis in WHFB then in 40k at all point levels.
Deployment and movement can be very unforgiving in WHFB. Being out of charge range or moving into charge range can break a unit or an army.
Get a few games under your belt and you will enjoy it. The over view of that was given is good. I would add this
Dwarfs: slow, no magic, good armor saves and toughness, lords and heros get nasty with runes. You can shoot an army of the table.
Str 10 cannons can solve lots of problems(hydras, wizards, dragons, etc) when used right.
High Elves: Squishy units, lots of units have ASF(strike first).
Lizards: Solid units, decant magic, some skirmisher units and dinosaurs (might be my second army)
Skaven: Horde army, warmachines and some cool magic. very squishy.
WoC: No range units(ok one ), good/great magic. strong troops and Calvary.
I played one daemon army, a mono khorne army. He won, but I still shot his army to pieces in the process.

i would start an army by how they look like not how they work or what there stats are.

Go to your game store and read some codexes, look at some art work and play a few games with someone who can explain all the rules and will let you borrow their minis. thats the advice i'm giving.

my 2 cents worth :
you should consider orks and goblins or empire . the reason is simply that with a new rules set due out this summer and a new core starter kit this summer you will likely be buying the kit anyway and it will give you a solid place to start from . also there are rumors that the orks will begetting a new codex late this summer or early fall . so you will have an army that is suited to what ever the new rules will be , which in theory should make it easier to play .

hopefully interest in FB will go up with the new release . no one at my gaming group plays ,FB so my FBarmies are for modeling only :(

hope this will change .

Well, if you ask me. Don't go for the flavor of the week armies. Sure, Daemons might be a very strong list now, or others might be extremely weak lists, but all of that changes.

Pick the army that appeals to you the most as far as philosophy, model range, and playstyle goes.

The invincible armies today might be complete crap in a half of a year, so go with what will bring you the best experience.

no matter how good an army is, there is always the possibility of defeat from a less good army if the player has made a good army list.

the best is to choose the one that you like the most.

I personally did Daemons to start. VERY expensive if you use plague bearers or pink horrors but plastics are quite cheap (To bad only two are plastic...)

Another tip I would say is to go to GW's beginner classes. They're free and can get you into the game very quickly.

osumicrobio wrote:Sure, Daemons might be a very strong list now, or others might be extremely weak lists, but all of that changes.

The invincible armies today might be complete crap in a half of a year, so go with what will bring you the best experience.

True, things change, and nothing stays on top. But why knowingly handicap yourself with a weak army that *might* get better at some undetermined time later?

- Start with Daemons? Worst case, you get 3 years of strong play before they're nerfed.
- Start with Ogres? Best case, you slog thorough 3 years before they're bumped.

Or, convert to RL, and it's like saying: Marry the toxic psycho chick, because one day, maybe she might get her head together and not be completely horrible to you, your friends, and your family? Maybe she'll just become merely unpleasant, as opposed to having you ostracized from everybody who ever knew you? What kind of plan is that?

Or, it's like you're saying: Don't marry that super-hot, super-nice girl who's loaded with cash, because maybe, one day, maybe it's possible that she'll let herself go and might become some evil demon? Again, who thinks like that?

I say, if jumping intp WFB, stick with the top tier exclusively. At least you're not handicapping yourself while you're learning.
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rockabill-gr wrote:no matter how good an army is, there is always the possibility of defeat from a less good army if the player has made a good army list.

Anything's possible. But why not start with a strong army?
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aromasin wrote:I personally did Daemons to start. VERY expensive if you use plague bearers or pink horrors but plastics are quite cheap (To bad only two are plastic...)

You didn't convert from Dryads / Ghouls / other misc plastic? Shame on you!

With new rules coming out this summer, there's a lot of things up in the air. Go with what you like and don't worry too much about the tiers, etc... it'll drive you batty

Not to thread-jack, but I can't justify creating a new topic of the same question.

My gaming group is all 40k players. We've decided to make the shift to Fantasy, and we are all going to at the same time.

Is now a bad time to jump in with editions changing? Is transitioning from 40k to Fantasy difficult?

Where do Lizardmen stand in terms of playability? They are one of the few armies that stand out to me. They look neat and their story is cool, so 2/3 are already appealing to me. I'm not looking to play to win, but I don't want to jump into the gimp leg of the game.

Schnitzel, I would wait a few months and start when the new rules come out. That way you can better tailor your new armies to the new rules.

I hear that rank and file infantry is getting some sort of boost. Right now, R&F infantry is a weak choice, so people tend to use less of it. After the rules change, that might change. That is the sort of thing you probably want to dodge. Besides, you probably don't want to shell out the bucks for the 7E main book... and then need to do it again in a few months when the 8E main book comes out.

Schnitzel wrote:Is now a bad time to jump in with editions changing?

Is transitioning from 40k to Fantasy difficult?

Where do Lizardmen stand in terms of playability?

Right now is horrible time to jump in, because the rules will definitely change. Don't bother learning rules that will change in a very short time. Wait 6-8 months for the new edition, and learn a ruleset that will stay the same for the next 4 years.

Not really. The core mechanics are similar, but there are a lot of fiddly details that are very different. Also, you'll be buying and painting an awful lot of glorified wound markers.

Lizards are a good army, with good magic and good Ld. Those two factors matter a lot in WFB.