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So, I have been war gaming for a while now and I was considering stating a new army
there are three that I would really like to try but I am not sure which one...

in any case i would appreciate any help you guys could give me!

the three armies I was thinking about are:

Eldar: I like their look and their fluff and also I love the aspect warriors and weapons in general
however I already play a "good guy army" SM, and I kinda want to play a evil one.
also i don't really know how they play having never seen them in action.

Nids: I love MC and I love tons of gaunts and i really love the way they look and their fluff
if I did start a nid army I would definitely play it nidzilla with lots of fexes (they look so cool)
and hive tyrants(ditto). Sadly I am a bit put off because I really like special characters
and thier fluff as opposed to a nameless horde.

and finally
Thousand sons: I seriously love the look of these guys (hmm bit of a patter here) but really they
are totally badass they also have sorcery and I like that and Arhiman is one
of the coolest baddies out there (despit not being able to break into a library guarded by clowns )
only negative side to them is that almost everyone at my FLGS plays chaos and one
of em plays 1ksons so...


anyway feel free to comment on anything or even suggest a different army
also some tips on tactics would be nice because I dont know much about what to
do with any of these.

thanks for the help
Humbaba

well...... nids are probably the strongest of the 3 you picked.... if army strength is a big consideration for you. eldar are ok. they'll probably get a new book in the next year. even though the one they have now is old you can still do some pretty killy stuff with it. if you do play elves just dont be one of those guys who spends the whole game running away and taking pot shots with his bright lances. those people make me want to go on a stabby rampage.

thousand sons are a very difficult army to play. I'm not sure there even is a "right" way to use them. they're good in a close range fire fight but chaos sorcery powers are basically just shooting attacks, and usually not very good ones. one thing thats cool about a thousand sons army is spamming gift of chaos and turning all their leaders into spawn. I turned logan into a spawn one time and will never forget it. so much fun. the other guy got really mad. Its just a nasty way to assassinate their best guys because if the power goes off there's nothing they can do about it. but it doesnt go off all that often unfortunately. thousand sons are way overpriced and rank absolutely last on the power scale of chaos cult warriors.

Thousand Sons are a support unit only, and were largely designed for 4th edition due to the fact that they ignore armor but not cover saves. In 5th (where everyone gets a 4+ save near everywhere) their invul save and AP3 isnt that worth it. A Sorceror is probably their only perk, but again the points can be better spent elsewhere. a pure 1k sons army using only the cult troopers would leave you seriously lacking in bodies.

For Nids, you gotta realise the the MC list is falling out of favour due to the larger amounts of Poison weaponry and insta-kill weapons out there. Tyranid MCs do not have an invulnerable save, and do not have Eternal Warrior. If you dont focus on MCs then you can have a very competitive army (I know, my nids have never lost a battle. However I only use 2 MCs in total).

Eldar is a good army if you know how to use them. synergy is important with any army but moreso with them. Some of the units are really powerful, like the Pathfinders and Dire Avengers. Be aware of their 4+ armor save and S and T3, this means that most things will give you a hard time and plasma guns and autocannons will insta-kill your characters very easily.

thanks guys this helps alot
competitiveness is not the most important thing for me but I do like to win so
mabey I'll just wait a year and see if chaos or Eldar get a new dex.

shame about the 1ksons they just look so cool!

does anyone have a really awesome army that they think would be
really cool as a alternative?

well there are probably more armies to pick from right now than there ever have been..... I like marine armies that focus on a particular troop type...



you can make a pretty cool bike army with codex marines. not a whole lot of people play it and its really quite strong, provided you know what to do with all that mobility.

space wolves can make an all terminator army that's pretty strong. not a top tier army but should be more than enough to handle situations at your flgs. it doesnt require all that many models and its a cool concept.

I'm building a blood angels sanguinary guard army. I think its neat, and you definitely wont see many of them around. I believe it will be a challenging army to play but definitely strong when used properly. You can put the whole army together for less than $300, so thats another good point....

I've always wanted to try an Iyanden Eldar army too, for whatever reason. Wraith guard are a little underpowered but they have a great gun and some armies just cant deal with toughness 6/8 all across the board. besides its unique. you dont see iyanden armies very often. I've seen exactly 1 in all the years I've been playing.

so..... those are some ideas...

Out of all the Space Marines, Space Wolves are probably the most fun to play as and will earn you the least ire from non-marine players. Their motif is just so awesome, plus all of their sets come with everything you ever need for the squad in question, cutting down on the skills you need for conversion, but in no way limiting it (however if you want some of the more unique stuff, say Thunderwolves, you gotta get really creative).

Iyanden Armies are expensive to play, both moneywise and poitn wise. two squads of 10 Wraithguard + Spirit Seers will chew up a huge amount of points and they need to get within close combat distance to shoot. It's one of those armies that is devastating to Nidzilla armies, but otherwise is severely lacking in other departments. Tanks will murk them from a distance and hordes will tear them to shreds close up.

You might wanna try Death Guard. They possess the resilience of Thousand Sons (perhaps even moreso) and the close combat ability almost on par with normal Chaos Marines and have a good amount of options. Plus no other army does Rhino rush better (since they're not afraid of actually being charged due to Blight Grenades). Plus, they're Zombie Space Marines IN SPACE!

Dark Eldar might also be a good stepping stone until the Craftworld Eldar get an update. While they dont play much like their good counterparts, they still possess much of the fundimentals. Plus, the entire range is awesome.

Finally, if it's characters you like, try the Imperial Guard. In a universe of cosmic horrors, ancient gods and undead mechanical monstrosities, the Imp guard are just normal Humans, and they're badass! (both fluff and game-wise). Plenty of character and room to make your own.

There's nothing to stop you fielding thousands sons as counts as normal chaos marines. Just make sure you clearly tell you opponent what counts for what. If I was to do a Chaos army it would definitely be having a thousand sons force. Plus the dreadnought of theirs you can get on forgeworld is great looking.

I'd go Tyranids since they have special characters now.

thanks guys you have given me alot of ideas, now ill prolly have to start 2 armies.

A bike army would appeal to me and I like the idea of
space wolves and sanguinary guard.


I didn't know that nids had characters, are they from the new dex?
could someone please tell me who they are and what they do?

really appriciate the help!

Humbaba

The Tyranid special characters are:

Swarmlord, super hive tyrant.

Doom of Malan'tai, super zoanthrope.

Death Leaper, super lictor.

Parasite of Mortrex, can cause rippers to explode out of people if they are stung.

They're obviously more complicated than this, but that's the short version.

I think a big factor is if you want a big army, mech, or small and elite army . I started with orks and i loved them but after a while, having an army of only ork boyz and ork boyz with different toyz gets... boring and repetetive. I had SM and from them moved to blood angels where I am now becuause they're more flexible and i like how they look and the Angel theme...

however I'm looking to move to a more elite amry, so I'm waiting for the new Grey Knights codex because their army iis so various, with allies, inquisition storm troopers, assasins and everything...

but out of your choices, eldar are fun, they have a variety of units all with nice models and they have special characters/pheniox lords.Jus gotta remember with eldar, each units have its purpose..

Well, the Bad Guy outfits are:

CSM - heavy, elite
Necrons - heavy, elite
Nids - mixed, horde
Dark Eldar - light, elite
Orks - light, horde

Eldar and Tau are somewhere in the middle in the Bad Guy stakes II guess. Both are mixed armies, and neither are too Elite, just disciplined

SM are a heavy, elite army - the biggest difference are Nids, Orks or Dark Eldar.

So of your choices Id go with Nids. Though I must tell you I have played nearly all the 40K armies and Dark Eldar are the most fun to play IMO

Oh man, when i read the new nid codex i was scared! Also thinking that i would have to do some conversion work that's way out of my league!! Oh well, you only get better at it by trying eh?

That said its a big improvement over the last edition!

I am starting my second army (well actually my sixth, but the second one i still own) and I chose the Eldar. I have been painting blood angels for the last six months so its a nice change. I chose them based on their futuristic look, partially on their fluff, but primarily because they have bright vibrant colors and I dont think you could get bored of painting them. I wanted something different from the grueling task of painting marine after marine in the same color!

go with eldar!

freecloud wrote:Well, the Bad Guy outfits are:

CSM - heavy, elite
Necrons - heavy, elite
Nids - mixed, horde
Dark Eldar - light, elite
Orks - light, horde

Eldar and Tau are somewhere in the middle in the Bad Guy stakes II guess. Both are mixed armies, and neither are too Elite, just disciplined

SM are a heavy, elite army - the biggest difference are Nids, Orks or Dark Eldar.

So of your choices Id go with Nids. Though I must tell you I have played nearly all the 40K armies and Dark Eldar are the most fun to play IMO

Hey hey hey, 'Nids are not evil OK? They're just hungry. That's all. Telling me you've never gone out for a quick burger around the corner? They're just hungry.

SumYungGui wrote:

freecloud wrote:Well, the Bad Guy outfits are:

CSM - heavy, elite
Necrons - heavy, elite
Nids - mixed, horde
Dark Eldar - light, elite
Orks - light, horde

Eldar and Tau are somewhere in the middle in the Bad Guy stakes II guess. Both are mixed armies, and neither are too Elite, just disciplined

SM are a heavy, elite army - the biggest difference are Nids, Orks or Dark Eldar.

So of your choices Id go with Nids. Though I must tell you I have played nearly all the 40K armies and Dark Eldar are the most fun to play IMO

Hey hey hey, 'Nids are not evil OK? They're just hungry. That's all. Telling me you've never gone out for a quick burger around the corner? They're just hungry.

Galaxy threateningly hungry..

Tau arnt bad. they want everybody to be friends for crying out loud

Mr Nobody wrote:I'd go Tyranids since they have special characters now.

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I like that they gave nids some special characters! Too bad old one eye is just an overpriced carnifex :(

Nids are alot of fun to paint, and take quite well to washes and drybrushing. Just my .02