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I am debating on taking up WHFB as a side hobby from 40k and had a couple of questions:

1. Is the WHFB population growing/shrinking/stagnating after 8th? I have heard a lot of different opinions on this.
2. Are tournaments with comp/ban lists the exception or the norm?
3. Do armies tend to revolve around spamming single unit types or do combined arms approaches work? (aka do you have Razorspam?)
4. How expensive is it compared to 40K to make a competitive army and which army would be the cheapest (and/or most competitive) of:
a. High Elves
b. Dwarves
c. Empire
d. Lizardmen

I am a dedicated 40k player trying fantasy at the moment so I will try to answer your questions with that in mind.

1.Is the WHFB population growing/shrinking/stagnating after 8th?
I have heard a lot of different opinions on this. Its bigger in my area then I thought so you might get lucky like I did.

2. Are tournaments with comp/ban lists the exception or the norm?
They are the norm in oz.

3. Do armies tend to revolve around spamming single unit types or do combined arms approaches work? (aka do you have Razorspam?)

Seems like every army does have does have certain units or warmachines that show up alot but a combined arms aproach seems to work best. (and spamming in warhammer takes the forms of massive blocks of infantry and thats fine by me)

4. How expensive is it compared to 40K to make a competitive army and which army would be the cheapest (and/or most competitive) of:
a. High Elves
b. Dwarves
c. Empire
d. Lizardmen

At first it seems to be expensive then you relise you dont have to buy a friggin transport for every unit and suddenly its alot cheaper. Ive only sunk $200 bucks so far and I can already play decent little games.

Gornall wrote:I am debating on taking up WHFB as a side hobby from 40k and had a couple of questions:

1. Is the WHFB population growing/shrinking/stagnating after 8th? I have heard a lot of different opinions on this.
2. Are tournaments with comp/ban lists the exception or the norm?
3. Do armies tend to revolve around spamming single unit types or do combined arms approaches work? (aka do you have Razorspam?)
4. How expensive is it compared to 40K to make a competitive army and which army would be the cheapest (and/or most competitive) of:
a. High Elves
b. Dwarves
c. Empire
d. Lizardmen

Well firstly I hate 8th.. having played it for 13 of my 25 years of life I have to say that 8th sucks IMHO. I don't know if it's growing. 40k was always popular (the 'simpler' game) so I don't know if its growing shirking or staying the same relative to 40k (which i think is better in 5th compared to 8th)

Most tourneys I've gone to are generally ok. They used to be no duplicate rares, but that's gone now AFAIK

Spam tends not to be like 40k - people may spam some units for core to take minimum or for theme but generally spam isn't like 'compeditive' 40k games.

I would say high elves - as they would be cheap to collet due to the starter kit, empire as they are flexable and compeditive or lizarmen as their troops are great and magic is some of the best.

So of those armies are any of them super cheap/expensive compared to the others?

Warhammer Fantasy used to be a lot more competitive and balanced than 40k. Now 40k, is far more competitive and balanced. Fantasy is extremely random and has some armies that are so unbalanced, they aren't worth playing.

If you want to make a cheap army, remember the golden mantra:

Unit fillers.

Basically a unit only needs about 10-15 models and the rest of the unit can be filled with scenery that matches the same size as all the bases of the models you pay the points for, but don't feel like paying GW for.

Also Mantic games and the guys who do Avatars of war are making great plastics that are way cheaper than GW's. Right now they have undead, elves and Chaos Dwarves and Avatars of War is making normal dwarves.

Of the four armies you listed, play High Elves or Lizardmen. They are both armies that fight in all the phases, are very strong, and look good on the table.

There is at least one Mantic player where we live, Gornall. I am seriously thinking about starting an Abyssal Dwarf army for their system since there is already another player.

Gornall wrote:I am debating on taking up WHFB as a side hobby from 40k and had a couple of questions:

1. Is the WHFB population growing/shrinking/stagnating after 8th? I have heard a lot of different opinions on this.
2. Are tournaments with comp/ban lists the exception or the norm?
3. Do armies tend to revolve around spamming single unit types or do combined arms approaches work? (aka do you have Razorspam?)
4. How expensive is it compared to 40K to make a competitive army and which army would be the cheapest (and/or most competitive) of:
a. High Elves
b. Dwarves
c. Empire
d. Lizardmen

1. In my area its growing, there are a lot of VERY vocal people that say 8th edition is ruining the game, however most people I talk to love 8th edition. People that hate something tend to complain on forums, people who love it dont go on a forum just to praise the system.

2. The are the norm, very rare that you will find a tournament that dont have comp scores/list restrictions (at least in my area)

3. In 8th edition armies are much more balanced then they were in 7th edition. There are always going to be some "must haves" for every list, but its getting better.

4. Lizardmen are fairly cheap, lots of plastic, and the models are pricey points wise. They are also a very solid army.