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I am a 40k player looking to slowly start a fantasy army. I am not looking to play a horde army. I also would like to play an army that is at least decent in magic. If anyone has the time to give me a breakdown on any army, I would greatly appreciate it. I have considered the following armies (but not limited to):

Daemons of Chaos
Empire
Wood Elves
Ogre Kingdoms

Daemons of Chaos - are farily elite. You need to like daemons, obviously. They have cool lore, lots of monsters, some very wacky magic options. No magic items, they have buffs instead (same thing). With some units can make a claim to the best magic in the game (but there's like 3 who can make that claim...). Infantry and calvalry and fliers and monsters. No ranged units in Core, no war machines. Some of the best, most cost-effective heroes.

Empire - Humans. Codpieces as far as the eye can see! Lots of really powerful war machines. Options for ranged, infantry, calvarly. Tanks. Can magic, but no special awesome at it.

Wood Elves - don't know.

Ogres - Fatties! Probably the cheapest army in the game to purchase and start playing. You have to like big fat guys, which I suspect a lot of people don't. They are an old codex and don't have a ton of options, but they can be very brutal, especially at low points. Their magic isn't blasty stuff like the other races, it's just buffs to their own troops. Very unhorde. Super elite.

I'd like to add that ogres are not fat. Their vital organs are much lower in their bodies than in the bodies of men and the like. To be quite honest, beneath a layer of insulation (they wear barely any clothes so after living in the mountains for so long they sort of have to have it) there is nothing but muscle. Muscle everywhere, even in their stomach. How do you think they manage to digest rocks?

I know, I got the book. They "aren't fat," but they look fat. And I honestly wonder if they didn't make the original models fatties, find that people were really turned off by that, and fluffed them to be...muscular fat. Yeah, that's it, their eating contests and greatest Lord who can't even walk on his own is all about muscle.

If you see models of them and most pictures, that's blubber. Muscle doesn't muffintop and dimple like a Great Unclean One's butt.

muscles give you the ability to digest rock?

Empire is your best bet on being a jack of all trades army. Good magic, good shooting, good combat. Not GREAT, but good in each area.

Magic: Full access to all 8 lores in the BRB. Also relatively inexpensive compared to other army equivalents.

Shooting: Cannons are good this edition, mortars are also very strong, and with an engineer they will usually do what you want.

Combat: detachments are semi useful, but you can field a variety of infantry and cavalry depending on taste. Nothing great as Empire infantry stats are the "baseline" by which all other stats are measured.

I think I have narrowed it down to Ogre Kingdoms and Chaos Daemons. I like the looks of both models. I am also intrigued with the fact that I can start an Ogre army for relatively cheap. I just need a breakdown of each army. Strengths/Weaknesses. Thanks guys!

aerethan wrote:muscles give you the ability to digest rock?

As the book describes it, they have some insane muscle contractions within their stomachs, and it creates a sort of grinding effect. In other words they're bodies have the ability to crush just about anything before going into the stomach acids.

The only daemons I know are 40k, and I'm unsure how they transfer over into fantasy.

As for ogre kingdoms, strength wise they have brutal CC, as it should be. Nobody wants to get charged by a block of bulls, and on top of that tyrants can be kitted out to be CC nightmares.

As for weakness, I would say it's in their ranged and magic (sorta). Ranged wise, the only unit I believe that has any real sort of ranged capabilities is the leadbelchers, which are a terrible unit because of how unreliable they are, and how frequently they blow themselves up. As for magic, on one hand you can stack buffs like +1 S, +1 T, or Regen in one turn, but on the other hand it's pretty easy for an expensive spell caster on the other team to shut you down with dispels. Butchers have some offensive spells, but they generally suck, so stick with the buffs.

The biggest thing ogre players fear is skinks and death mages with purple sun. Skinks because they ignore toughness with poison attacks, and sun because it can ravage a block of bulls with it's effects. I've also heard witches with mind razor are pretty scary, but I have little experience dealing with those.