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The other day I decided to start Warhammer Fantasy, having only played Warhammer 40k in the past. I decided to try and learn a bit of information, what armies are over-powered and underpowered by listening to a few podcasts. I then brushed up on the background history for Warhammer on the Warhammer wiki. I then purchased two books, the books were Grimblades and The Chronicles of Malus Darkblade: Volume One. After looking on the Games Workshop site I looked at all the figures and now I'm divided between four different armies I like the look of. I was wondering if I anyone could weigh up the pros and cons of each army I'm interested in. The armies I'm interested in are: Empire, Dwarfs, Dark Elves and High Elves. The things I'd most like to know are, which is better money wise, how popular is each army is in general (I'd prefer to be a snowflake xD) and of course how each army plays out. I'm not to worried about how hard each army is to play with. I mean surely if I start with an army that's harder to learn it'll mean I'll learn from my mistakes faster, right? Also I'm sorry if this is in the wrong place or it has been asked before. Thank you all to those who share their time and knowledge with me, very much appreciated.

I don't play any of those armies so I can't help you out to much. However if you want to go with a unique army there should be plenty of high elf player's in your area from the new starter set. All the armies you mentioned are pretty good in 8th, and Empire has a bit of everything so that may be a good spot for a new player such as yourself to go towards.

For the "snowflake" effect, it's probably best to get a feel for your local area. On a wider scale, none of those armies are particularly rare. On a guess, I'd say Dwarfs, but who knows?

Both flavors of Elves hit hard, and are soft in return. The High variety are probably a bit squishier, and both have decent magic.

Empire allows you a pretty broad set of options, from sub-par but cheap combat blocks, to fast knights, to decent magic, to shooting. (Lots of shooting).

Dwarves bring the gunpower too, but lack the mobility and magic. In exchange, they are tougher, more capable fighters and potentially quite hard to shift. Their war machines are typically fewer in number but higher in quality.

Considering there'll be quite a few new High Elf players from the boxed set, I'd consider Dark Elves if I were you.
Against HE, you get re-rolls to hit every turn in combat, against everyone else, all your ranged options are armour piercing, and War Hydras are scary things to see bearing down on any battle line. Personally I haven't tried much of their magic yet, but from the book and veteran payers, it seems pretty damn awesome.
Financially, DE are still pretty good, you can get 16 spearmen/crossbowmen for the cost of ten empire state troops (more or less), if at doubt, ebay it.

Empire is just great and cheap all round.

Thanks guys. I'm swaying mostly towards Dark Elves, could someone point me in the direction of a beginners guide? That would be great

Possibly check out a few of the Dark Elf articles on the GW website, they've got a good few sample armies and tacticas as I recall.

Dark Elves can really play in all phases well, though their shooting is their least powerful phase (though by no means is it a poor option, indeed their shooting is certainly up there)

Did you have any idea on a particular type/theme of army in mind? If not, a solid purchase would be the Battalion and a Sorceress and Master Blister (Weapons can vary, depending on how you want to equip them) This provides a solid core really, and I can't say that there are any "useless" units in the box (Though some people debate on corsairs, but I find them great against infantry you want to shred) I've played Dark Elves for a couple of years, and they are great for a "beginner" as they can do anything pretty well (except take hits from shooting, Dark Elves boast poor armor)

As for the other factions, Dwarves (Dwarfs? meh) lack much in mobility and spellcasting (barring the Anvil), but they boast good armor and some of the best, if not the best, shooting in the game. I'm not too well versed with Dwarf tactics, Red_Zeke would probably know much more than I. Again, Battalion + Runesmith + Lord is a good start, though you may want another warmachine as well. (A Cannon, perhaps, to complement the almost obligatory Organ Gun.) The Dwarfs are a good "beginner" faction as well, though you may miss out on some spellcasting.

High Elves are similar to Dark Elves, they can play very well in every phase. Due to the ASF + Higher Initiative bonus they have, they'll usually strike before their enemies and they will probably be able to re-roll missed hits. They have access to all the lores of magic in the BRB, as well as High Magic, which is far from a bad spell list. They may not hit as "hard" as Dark Elves, but they have access to Dragons and other such things. A Battalion + a Mage and Hero would be a great way to start. Again, I'm no expert on High Elves, so I may be wrong here. Again, Elves rarely have the best armor, but this faction is another good "beginner" faction.

Finally, we have the Empire. They have much cheaper troops than the aforementioned, which allows them to field bigger blocks of troops. They, much like the elves, can preform well in every phase. However, they boast better armor than their dainty elvish allies, though not as much as their dwarfish neighbors. Ultimately, the Empire functions similarly to a mix of Elves and Dwarfs, with good shooting, good magic, and good combat troops. However, they will need to rely upon their strength in numbers to overcome the fact that they have relatively average stats as compared to the myriad of core troops in the Warhammer game. I'll keep endorsing the Battalion + 2 Heroes concept, though you may want to be careful with the Greatswords, as these are easily one of the more expensive monetary-wise unit boxes GW sells.

Hopefully this helped somehow. And welcome to WHFB.

The only units I don't really like are Witch Elves, Harpies and Chariots. I was considering getting the battalion but I hear mixed things about Cold One Knights.

You can certainly get away with not fielding those units.

The fundamental problem with Cold One Knights is that they have Stupidity, which can sometimes mess with your key charges. Though, I've never had it interrupt any of my games, but that's mostly due to my dice rolls, really. They're far from a bad unit, really. I try not to spend too many points on them, I just take a minimum 5 man unit and add a Musician for the free reform. Though they aren't game breaking on their own, they can certainly earn their points back.

Oh I see, so I'll just stick with five then, over the next few days I'll buy the army book so then I can see what hero/lord I want and how to kit them out, because I have no idea what options there are xD

Heh, cool cool, no problems then. =D

I'd love to see your progress on the army in a P&M Blog, there's not enough Fantasy/LOTR in there, IMHO.

Still, best of luck to ya.

I'll consider doing an update if the painted models turn out half decent (which they probably won't) Thanks for all the advice

The thing is, you can take a HE chariot and use the CoK bits to make a DE chariot fairly easily. My one bit of advice on making the Corsairs make sure to take enough time to get them to rank up properly, they are a pain to figure out later on.

Your also going to want to pick up some spare shields when you get time, the Battalion only has 12 (enough for the spears)

To begin with, I actually wouldn't bother with spearmen. Reapeater Crossbows are so much more useful. But... even so, you will want those shields eventually, because shielded RXBs are magnificent. They are the most durable infantry DE have (5+ Armor is common, 6+ ward is not), and make great late-game infantry blocks to reinforce your depleted battle line. Even better, most opponents never even consider the possibility that you might charge you missile-troops into melee. But why not? They have the same stats as spearmen, and save better!

Okay, they are only S3 shooting. AP helps, but you're not going to wipe out whole units with them. You can bleed units to soften them up, though.

Of course, if you get the hex off that lowers your target's toughness, that's a whole different ball game...

So you'd advise that I should make them all Crossbow men with shields? Is there anywhere I can get the shields cheap? Because I looked at the battalion plus the the shields on Games Workshop i'd need to buy and It comes in cheaper if I just buy everything separately. At least I think it does.

Spearmen are quite cheap units to field though, if you take a 40 man unit and field them 10 wide, they'll fight in 4 ranks, that's 41 attacks with hatred, and put a BSB in there and they won't be shifted for ages, perfect for your killy units to come in and flank charge them. Crossbowmen are rather nice too, but pricey in comparison. Spearmen are also good to pair up with a Sorceress with a sacrificial dagger, they're only 7 points each.

So, I should get spearmen and not get spearmen? xD

Aaronofawesome wrote:So, I should get spearmen and not get spearmen? xD

Yes.

Some people, like me have had better luck with spear elves where as others have had better luck with corsairs. Its just going to depend on your play style and your local meta.