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I've been recently considering what army I may want to build next. Locally, we play 2000 points per player. I currently own Orcs & Goblins and High Elves. As a bit of a heads up, this post will be a little long. However, I want to give you all a good idea of what I've tried in Fantasy so that you all can make some educated suggestions as to armies that I might enjoy.

When I first started Fantasy during 5th, I had Lizardmen. Our local store basically skipped 6th edition, as we've always been 40k-oriented. Despite that, I played them exclusively until mid-7th. Basically, I grew tired of having "Dinosaurs" and didn't like an army that really focused on its monsters moreso than its troops. I was always bothered by the fact that everything else moved 6" while the Saurus moved 4".

When I began looking for another army, I quickly gravitated towards Wood Elves. Initially, I was drawn in by Drycha and the fluff, but opted to build a more "normal" Wood Elf list. I had a Treeman Ancient, an Alter Noble, and a couple other mages, 2x10 Glade Guard, 4x8 Dryads, 2x6 Wild Riders, 2x8 Wardancers, and a Treeman. In 7th, speed and charges were key and I did excellently with the army. With the advent of 8th, I quickly sold the army as I found it was rubbish with the models I owned. The inability to knock off an opponent's front rank simply hurt too much.

Part of my reasoning for selling Wood Elves included a friend selling me a massive High Elf lot for $250. I put about another $100 into the army to make it a relatively viable force. Currently, I still own a Lord on a Dragon, several Mages and Princes / Nobles on foot, a BSB, 20 Archers, 40 Spearmen, 10 Reavers, 5 Silver Helms, 14 Swordmasters, 14 White Lions, 20 Phoenix Guard, 5 Dragon Princes, 3 RBTs, and 2 Eagles. My army is fairly fun to play against a balanced or combat-oriented force. However, shooting armies easily handle my T3 and low armor. Dark Elves and Skaven have quickly become my least favorite armies to face. I began to look for an army that contrasted with the elite, glass-cannon nature of my High Elves.

I found a great deal on Bartertown on Orcs & Goblins, so I decided to pick them up in anticipation of the next army book. The army is quirky and fun to play, but Animosity can be frustrating. Additionally, I've found that Boyz get slapped around in a straight up fight against a lot of the tougher units in the game. It's about fighting dirty when I run Orcs & Goblins! I'm currently working on bringing the army up to speed under the new book, but I'm still itching to get my hands on something new.

Here are some of my thoughts on the available armies:

Beastmen - These look intriguing to me as I believe they're a close-combat oriented horde-type army that doesn't have to deal with animosity. I'm concerned that LD may be an issue.
Bretonnia - I'm not interested in an all cavalry force and the book is dated. We have a local Bretonnian player and the army just doesn't seem to work very well
Daemons - I don't like the actual look of the models. I've not quite gotten over the stigma surrounding them in 7th either
Dark Elves - One of our locals regularly plays Dark Elves, I can simply borrow his if I'm wanting to give them a spin.
Dwarfs - I'm not really interested in the Dwarves. I can't quite put my finger on it, but they've never really appealed to me since reading The Hobbit as a kid. Plus, I'm not overly fond of artillery.
Lizardmen - I have considered getting back into the Lizardmen with the changes 8th has brought. I'd like to get a lot of Saurus and Temple Guard on the ground, but I find Slann silly-expensive. I'm still not very keen on using dinosaurs.
Ogre Kingdoms - Similar to Dark Elves, I have a local player I can ask to borrow these. Unlike Dark Elves, I don't think the army would be very fun to play. The complete lack of shooting and restrictions on Slaughtermasters steer me away.
Skaven - There are too many local Skaven players due to Blood Island.
The Empire - I cannot stand the models. I couldn't bring myself to field the army.
Tomb Kings - I don't know anything about the new book, other than I really like the new models.
Vampire Counts - I've always considered building an Undead army, but I specifically did not build Vampire Counts during 7th because of all the hatred towards them. We already had a Vampire Count player who was reknown for using 16+ Power die to spam 1-die spells. This army kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth. However, it seems fairly underpowered in 8th.
Warriors of Chaos - This is another army I've considered. However, one of the guys I play with regularly may just be getting in this army and I'd rather not build exactly what he is. I don't think he'd go as Maurader-intensive as I might, but I would still rather be unique.

With that said, what armies do you all suggest and why?

It's a shame that you won't playa Dwarf army, but I suppose you should play WoC. Even though there are competive builds out there you're still able to build fun WoC units with lots of cool items for your Lord. You can go Khorne theme, Nurgle theme, Slaanesh theme or even Tzeentch theme army!

Personally i'm a big fan of playing against Khorne themed WoC! I know i'm not much of help here but I hope you get my point!