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Well, I'm more 40k player for the most part and I finally got my fiance to start table top with me. Now, she's always liked to watch me play, liked going to games with me, helping me put my guys together. Well, she had to be a pain in my ass by picking WHFB (which I have no army for. ). She has picked the Dark Elves and has already started putting them together and playing. Now, I enjoy the idea of playing fantasy (it's a nice break from all the future space stuff) but I don't know what army to pick. I was thinking Lizardmen or Skaven (I'm sort a soft spot for anthros) but I don't know which I is better. I'm just going to build my own bit of fluff for my army so that won't be much of an issue as well as me doing a good bit of custom building.

So, my fellow Dakkas, who should it be: Lizardmen or Skaven?

My advice would be to go Skaven. They can field literally hordes of rats (2p. each IIRC) to just overwhelm the opponent with attacks, have some nice special units and can hold their own in the magic phase.

The biggest boon for them, however, is that they will be one of the armies featured in the new Starter box, due for release on September 4! I'm helping a friend of mine (GW employee) paint up the new guys from that box and they look amazing - you can't tell them apart from regular models and all that for a fraction of what they'd be worth if bought seperately.
40 Clan Rats, 2 Rat Ogers, 2 Weapons Teams, a Grey Prophet, and a Warlord - plus the Rules and ~1000 points worth of High Elves you could trade with someone for their Skaven - for just 78€ (I'm guessing 85-90$ in the US). Add the contents of a Batallion Box and you're easily at 1500 Points, over 2000 if you find someone to trade you their Starterbox Skaven.

If money is a non-issue, you may want to think about what style of play you prefer: hordes of cheap "cannonfodder" to swarm the enemy (Skaven) or smaller units of elite warriors (Lizardmen). Both can be competitive, though I personally rank Skaven a bit higher due to the advantages of horde unit rules. Lizardmen have the amazingly powerful jack-of-all-trades, the Slann (army general, extremely strong mage, and standard bearer, all in one model), but he obviously is an attention magnet and sucks up hundreds of points.

I'm split right now down the middle now... I may go with Skaven as my prime because I've seen some very effective hoarding and every once in a while get me a Lizardman here or there and build them up second. Thanks for the help mate.

The only thing about Skaven is that unless you take it slow they can be expensive and you'll have way too many to paint very fast.

Of course, there are a ton of solutions to that, of course. I just like to put out that disclaimer.

I'd also say Skaven though. Loads of fun.

I have a 2250 Lizardmen army about 75% painted up if you are interested in starting them. Slann body and Terradons are only things that need full paint.

PM me if you want pics of them.

I also have some Dark Elves if your lady is interested in adding to her army, also painted.

I'm going to give you advice from a contrary point of view. If you got a fiance that is into gaming, and you want to keep her into gaming, I would go for:

High Elves/Dark Elves
Brettonia
Empire
Lizardmen

Probably in that order. While I don't know her or her interests, I've met a lot of gamer gals who like painting, and I've not seen one who liked painting sickly disease rats. Ogres probably out too. I don't even like looking at Daemons. Not to say she wouldn't like them, but they're just not as colorful and (IMHO) gal-centric. But that's just my stereotypical hunch.

Well, she is a dark woman, writes stuff on par with Stephen King, bought a box of High Elves so she could 'kill them' for a corps cart, and love animals. That's why the choice in Skaven and Lizardmen was such a hard one. (She loves her Cold One units but that's just because she see them more like dragons )

LeBaron wrote:Well, she is a dark woman, writes stuff on par with Stephen King, bought a box of High Elves so she could 'kill them' for a corps cart, and love animals. That's why the choice in Skaven and Lizardmen was such a hard one. (She loves her Cold One units but that's just because she see them more like dragons )

Have a go with Skaven or Lizard men for sure. Theyll face off well with your partners Dark Elves and both have some great models that are enjoyable to paint. Go skaven if you like hordes of clanrats and powerful ( if slightly unreliable) war machines. Oh and take some jezails ( Sorry for spelling. Those longrifle weapons). My friend uses them a lot in his army and they always kill their points worth. Even accounting for the odd malfunction blowing them up ! A great performing force with bags of character and humor.

Lizardmen are great if you want very solid melee and skirmish units. Along with amazing big monsters and combat characters. As well as some of the best mages in the game. Plus the whole Meso-American style of the army is cool. Also perform great on the table.

I'm actually pulling more toward lizardmen right now (I'm a reptile person myself and my girl likes dragons, how can I go wrong?).

LeBaron wrote:I'm actually pulling more toward lizardmen right now (I'm a reptile person myself and my girl likes dragons, how can I go wrong?).

Win win then. The Carnosaur you'll both like.

So, Lizardmen it is. Thanks everyone!

Yeah, lizardmen is a good army for a beginner