Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

i need an army suitable for a begginer as i am new to fantasy

Whew, that's quite a question. So before I answer, let me ask a few for you:

- what are you looking for? Something that will be competitve and awesome? Or something with a gentle learning curve/easier to play tactics? Or something that offers the widest variety, so you can learn the game? Or one that's cheap to build or easy to paint?

I'm going to assume it's one of those things, since I have zero ideas of your personal preferences (i.e., I'll assume that the suggestion "play lizardmen 'cause dinosaurs are cool" isn't what you're looking for).

So...I'd have to say that Warriors of Chaos are probably the most competitve. Them and Ogre Kingdoms and (maybe) Dwarfs have relatively straight-forward playing styles. Lizardmen are probably the most varied army, able to build a legitimate force of infantry, missile troops, monsters, magic, cavalry, or any combination of those. Ogres may be easier to assemble and paint due to low model count (though they're bigger and thus more expensive and harder to paint, I'm pretty sure you still come out ahead, or rather, behind, in model count/paint time).

So...there you go.

Probably dwarfs, but if you want to cast magic skip over them. But their anti magic is top notch, their warriors are cheap and very effective. Their leadership and toughness is high which is awesome as you will find in fantasy leadership plays a huge roll. WoC and OK are also good, they are just pretty straight forward for a beginner, go forward and smash (and eat in the case of Ogres). Skaven are great too, competitive, very fun, well written army book maybe the best, and with IoB sets cheap to get going.

Skaven, Lizardmen, Empire and Dark Elves probably have the widest range of unit types, allowing you to learn every aspect of the game. Dwarfs (no Magic Phase) and Vampire Counts (no Shooting Phase) are lacking entire Phases of the game, so I would stay clear of those if you are looking to learn every aspect of the game.

Warriors of Chaos and Lizardmen are pretty forgiving armies (more opportunities to correct your mistakes). Wood Elves, on the other hand, are probably the most difficult army to play.

If you are looking for a competitive army, stay away from Wood Elves, Tomb Kings, Ogre Kingdoms, Bretonnia and Beastmen.

Overall though, I would advise you to pick your army based on their looks and background. Selecting an army based on the strength or variety of the current Armybook is almost never a smart idea, as these aspects of an army may change with new releases.

I started with lizardmen and had a great time assembling dinosaurs riding dinosaurs and loved painting them even more! But if I were you, don't go with an extremely varied army to start off, I got overwhelmed by the choices and ended buying all the stuff I like, and so now I have a VERY mis matched army... But it Looks cool

I started with Empire (and it's still my only army...) The thing I love from them are the blackpowder weapons. My advice: Start with something you think is 'cool' and just look at Gamerworkshop.com and look at some models.

Yeah chose what you like the best, consider the back grounds too. If you like the look of an army but hate their fluff it may be hard to be into them.

I started off with dwarfs, and never regretted it... Except for one thing: dwarfs get boring to paint after a while, since they are all... well, dwarfs. But I cannot agree more with the fact that you should pick an army based on fluff and looks. It is easier to do something if you really like it ^^

Have to 3rd that thought, I too started with Empire (Knights are cool!) then moved to WOC when the new models came out (Knights are still Cool!) having an army that you like the look of and the fluff of can make all the difference

As to a choice - WOC, Dwarves or Empire would be my votes

cheers
Papasmurf

begginer wrote:i need an army suitable for a begginer as i am new to fantasy

First off, decide what you like the look of. Rats vs. guys in armor wielding swords vs. lizard vs. typical humans with fluffy hats vs. demons vs. shambling zombies and skeletons, etc.

From there, take the armies that you like the LOOK of, then decide which ones are competitive and easier on beginners and which ones take a lot of practice or are just very out dated.

Solid choices are Lizardmen, Warriors of Chaos and Skaven.

A good rule of thumb, the way the hobby works, is that the newer the army book, the better off the army is
With that being said, I would personally stay away from Wood elves, Bretonia, Ogre Kingdoms and Tomb Kings(new book in May) and maybe even stay away from Vampire Counts till you have a better feel for the game and all the subtleties (fear took a massive nerf in the latest edition).

Unlike everyone else, I don't believe I can give you a reasonable choice before knowing a lot more about you:

1) Out of the armies available, which ones appeal to you the most model-wise?

2) Out of the armies available, which ones appeal to you most lore-wise?

3) Out of the armies available, which ones appeal to you most rules-wise (if you have access to the army books)?

4) Do you have any play preferences? Do you like the thought of hanging back and filling your enemy full of lead, marching forward and gutting them with steel, or leaving it all up to magic? Is there a mix, like magic and combat? magic and ranged? Ranged and combat? or all three?

5) Have you any experience with tabletop games before (gaming, painting and modelling)? If yes, do you prefer plastic models or are you fine with metal? Do you want an army that is relatively simple to model/paint?

6) Do you have any budget restrictions? Can you afford to shell out on hordes of models or a lot of metal figures?

7) Do you want a small, medium or large army? Smaller armies can be quicker and more elite, but go down to massed enemies easier; medium armies can field a good number of varied models but can suffer from being a jack-of-all-trades but a master of none when it comes to what you have in your army.

Larger armies allow you to field a lot of troops but can become unwieldy quickly, and require a good general to use effectively (the same can be said for most armies, but it's a lot harder to hide 60 Skaven Slaves than it is to hide 15 Chaos Warriors or 6 Ogre Bulls).

8) How good are you with special rules? Can you recite the smallest passage from a labyrinth of rules or do you have to look up each part as you come to it? An army with a lot of special rules can become frustrating to play with and against if you can't remember them or you keep needing to check a reference sheet.

9) What kind of a general are you? Do you cross each bridge as you get to it, or do you prefer to take a step back and survey it all? In some aspects, Warhammer is like Chess, especially when it comes to forward planning. As chess players plan their moves in advance and anticipate responses, so must you, but an army that requires this skill to function at even a basic level is not very forgiving to a beginner.

10) What is your local meta like? In 40k, having a GW full of Space Wolves and you as a Necron player is like dipping your face in honey and shoving it into a beehive, it's going to sting whatever happens. The same can be said for Fantasy, if your army is going to be crushed ruthlessly by every player, you won't have fun playing it.

There is also the possibility of having the same army as everyone else, in an ideal world, every meta would have unqiue armies, but you will find some armies are more popular than others, and it'd be wise to avoid them or to avoid using similar builds, as battles can quickly get tedious and boring.

11 - AKA: The most important question) Which army do you see yourself having the most fun playing?

JOIN THE EMPIRE... sorry, old recruitment method resurfacing. In all seriousness though, I think for beginners its the best option, not neccessarily the most competative (we are only human, Chaos being human...ish). It has diversity in all of the phases without being the best at any, so its easy to get a feel for all the phases. If you think the tights, feathers and ridiculous moustauches arent cool, trust me, they grow on you (get it, moustauches, grow on you HAHAHAHAHAHAhaaaaaaa its funny).I know I swayed towards heavy calvary supported by ranged support, but with the Empire, the oppurtunities are endless.

okay guys, thanks for all input and i think i shall start either lizardmen (even though they are not best suited for a begginer) because i just love the look of them, look amazing imo
chaos looks fun too!

thanks again
callum

I have always stuck to what army has a look that you are going for. After all you (unless you are paying someone else) will be painting them. and when you like the look of a certain army it makes you more motivated to finish them.

begginer wrote:okay guys, thanks for all input and i think i shall start either lizardmen (even though they are not best suited for a begginer) because i just love the look of them, look amazing imo
chaos looks fun too!

thanks again
callum

I started with Lizards, they're fine for beginners, even better if you like the look of them

General advice (because there are two lizardmen tactics thread in the Tactics forum already, should only be 2 or 3 pages back, if that):

Special Characters: All pretty much useless and overpriced, hardly ever worth using them.

Lords:
Oldblood: A scar veteran is cheaper, but doesn't have the access to equipment that the oldblood has, and unless you really splash out, you can kit him out and still be well underneath the Lords cap for 1000pts. There isn't much that can go toe-to-toe with him and come out victorious until at least 1500pts, so you can really smash face at 1000-1250pts.

Slann: 1500pts and onwards are the levels you can use him, and you should. Being one of the best casters in the game, and possibly the best non-special character caster is great. Best taken with Lore of Life or Lore of Light and a unit of temple guard. Cupped Hands of the Old Ones is usually a must unless you're taking Life, then it can used as back up for if Throne of Vines fails you, but it becomes optional. The top 3 Disciplines in order of greatness are: Focussed Rumination, Focus of Mystery and Becalming Cogitation for a temple guard Slann, for a lone wandered, you want to be immune to all but magical attacks first and foremost.

Heroes:
Scar Veteran: A scar-veteran is a solid hero choice, one of the best you'll find in all the armies. He's quite cheap, he has a great statline, and his only real drawback is his initiative, but that can be remedied by making him more durable or giving him a weapon such as the Gold-Sigil Sword or Sword of the Hornet/Swift Slaying that offsets the low initiative. The amount of builds are staggering, and you can experiment a lot if you're not totally happy with your current ones.

Skink Priest: I don't like the skink priest. He's quite expensive for his frailty and having just the Lore of Heavens to choose from limits his ability. The only spell you'll really be casting from it is Iceshard Blizzard, so I prefer to take him as a level 1 with a dispel scroll/cube of darkness and perhaps something like the ironcurse icon. If you take a priest, always always always take a unit of skink skirmishers to put him in, he doesn't belong in a unit of combat models like regular skinks or saurus, and on his own makes him a sitting duck (sitting lizard?), especially with his lack of armour and T2!

Skink Chief: Unless he's mounted on an ancient stegadon with a stegadon warspear, he's inferior to the scar veteran on all counts bar ranged ability, which isn't great to start with. Usually not worth it bar the aforementioned Stegadon build.

Core:
Saurus: Saurus, like the scar-veteran, are one of the best units in the game, they're tough and can take punishment yet also dish it out equally as well. At 500-1000pts, you will want to take a unit of probably 10-15 with a standard bearer and a musician (a champion is personal preference) and without spears, 1250pts you might want to branch out to units of 20, and at 1500pts + or whenever you get a Slann, spears become good, especially with a Life slann, who can give you the resillience of HW/S saurus and keep enough of you alive to strike back hard with those spears and shaft the enemy.

Skinks: Little 5pt wet paper bags. Blow at them and they'll die. They're only really viable when taken with expensive Kroxigors to augment their power or with a Slann that can increase their surviviability, so wait until you hit 1500+ points until you consider them.

Skink Skirmishers: Unlike their little useless cousins, these guys are pretty damn good and will be responsible for a lot of the annoyance your enemies will feel. They're skimishers, so can move better, they can pepper enemies with blowpipes and run rings around larger enemies like giants and simply poison them to death without fear of retalliation. It takes skill to use them effectively, but when you learn how, you'll be surprised just how much mayhem they can cause on their own.

Jungle Swarms: 99.9% of the time, they're useless.

Special:
Cold-One Cavalry: Their models are crap, they look like dinosaurs riding jungle cows. If that wasn't enough, their effectiveness has been slashed in 8th. They now need 10 models minimum to break ranks, and they're expensive for what they do. Striking last on most occasions doesn't help, and nor does cold-ones having Stupidity, which can really mess up your day if you fail the Ld test for it. Verdict: Not really worth it.

Terradons: Useful in 7th, not seen them much in 8th; they're quite significant targets and can take a while to get in range; couple that with banners and magic items that counter fliers and you don't get much for your points anymore; chameleons do stuff better and cheaper.

Chameleon Skinks: One of the better units in the army book. Their main use is to use scout moves and get close to enemy artillery and war machines, at which point they pepper them with blowpipes to kill off the crew or hurt the war machine, or simply go into combat with it. Since most war machines have a crew of 2 models who usually have little or no fighting capability, even skinks can win combat; even if they don't, you've held up the artillery and kept it off your army, which is good enough. Usual unit sizes are 5-6 at this points level, stretching to 8 later on, 10 is usually overkill.

Kroxigors: Okay in skink units, usually not worth it on their own, small unit sizes makes them easy to pick off from range.

Stegadon: Giant triceratops lookalike? Hell yes. Even though large models like this will suffer against war machines, clever use of chameleons to disable or tie them up can leave your steggie to run rampant. The giant bow hurts a bit, but slam him into a flank and he'll flatten anything in his way. Leave him unsupported though, and you could find him swamped by a horde unit and tarpitted all game or killed under buckets of attacks.

Temple Guard: No Slann? Don't take them. Slann? Take a unit of them per Slann unless you want the Slann to run solo. 16-20 at 1500-2000pts, moving up as the points level increases.

Rare:
Razordon Hunting Pack: Usually not worth wasting the rare slot, leave it for a salamander.

Ancient Stegadon: See Stegadon and + some more awesomeness.

Salamander Hunting Pack: The holy grail of lizardmen armies. They have a template that decreases armour, causes panic with just one casualty and can march and fire. They are the bane of hordes and elite units alike. 1 at 500pts, 2 at 1000pts and 2-6 at 2000-3000 points is usually fine, it's best to go for unit of 2 maximum though, 3 can become overkill and unwieldy. Also, always get the extra handler, there's nothing worse than misfiring and eating all your handlers in one go, so a 4th handler can mean a crisis is averted and you stay in control.

Disclaimer: These are my opinions, and it is 2:30am here, so apologies for typos etc. Anyone is free to disagree with me on any points or add their own, and any units i've missed are probably not important anyway.

If you go with chaos I recommend beastmen just because they have a core ranged unit the ungors.

The thing with Beastmen is that they aren't very good, and you need to be tactically capable in order to pull out wins with them in their new book; whereas WoC, whilst lacking any ranged units bar Marauder Horsemen with Javs/TAxes and the Hellcannon, are a bit more forgiving thanks to their basic core unit (marauders) being varied and competative in a good few builds, similarly so with Warriors.

Beastmen are like Tau in 40k in a sense, there are few competative builds and those builds are quite rigid in their design, with little room for experimentation or digressing from the build.