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So a friend of mine has recently been contemplating going into Fantasy. She already plays 40k, but has been holding off of Fantasy for a while because she has been deciding what army she would want to collect. Because she (1) likes fielding lots of big monsters, and (2) doesn't want to field hordes of regular grunts, she has been hoping for a small, elite-ish army with lots of monsters. Her top choices at the moment, based on background and look as opposed to rules or play style, are:

-Empire
-Vampire Counts
-High Elves
-Dark Elves

Can any of those really work as "small elite" or monster-heavy lists? Off the top of my head, I can see Dark Elves working well with multiple Hydras/Dragons.

Vc would work too with the new dragon and other thing.
Backed by grave guard and ya the bat things.

HE not really that great for monsters.

DE would be hydra.

as a VC player myself, i think the models are great, and with the new terrorghiest we have a good number of monsters running around too. However, they are a horde army. they depend strongly on infantry to do their jobs. for instance, my standard, take all comers 1000 point list has 20 skeletons and 25 + ghouls. That being said, we do have some beautiful monsters

Never really seen a monster for empire, and very few for HE.

DE have a couple tho and are much more elite-ish.

Empire and Vampire Counts are both less elite more numerous armies. Vampires especially rely on enduring hordes of poor quality infantry.

I mean my 2,500 point Vampire Counts army has ~150 models.

Hmmm, not sure how Empire got on the list either. My last 2K list had 110+ models (could have got to 150 if I dropped some artillery) and nary a monster in sight.

Wouldn't want discourage anyone from playing Empire, but as has been mentioned, they are kind of the opposite of "small and elite."

To dispose of your suggestions, the new Ogre book sounds right up her street. Lots of big monsters, lowest model count in the game.

The aesthetic (man-boobs!) is an acquired taste though

Yeah I was going to suggest ogres too but I figured from the OP that someone was too good for my beloved walls of muscle and hunger.

From the choices listed in your post, I'd say DE are the most elite army that also can be monster heavy. VC do need hordes, Empire also uses numbers and had little to no monsters and HE only have the dragon but is indeed an elite army. Maybe Chaos Warriors would also be good for your friend, elite and hard-hitting.

+1 to the reccomendation of Ogres.

None of the armies you listed really fit the bill for monsters or no gruts.

Empire only has the Steam Tank, which isn't a monster and you can't have more then 2-3 of them realistically. they also REALLY use hordes of little guys unless you go for an all cavelry army.

Vampire Counts have some monsters, but again focus on large LARGE blocks of Undead gribblies.

HEs and Dark elves are the same thing. they have more elite grunts, but they are grunts all the same. they have some monsters, but not very many.




Ogres are what you are looking for.

You can run several units of 9-12 ogres, each one is absolutly mean.

They also have plenty of Monsters like Stonehorns, Thundertusks, Slave Giants, Mournfang Cavelry, and Sabretusks. they also have some ranged support from leadbeltchers(ogres running around with cannons), Scraplauncher(a chariot that has a small catapult on it), and the Ironblaster(same as scraplauncher, except it has a REALLY big cannon on it)

Going to be sexist and say I can't see her, based on her list of choices, going for Ogres. Or Beastmen (maybe if she didn't read lore).

Lizardmen can be beastly. TK as well, with some nice female models, but they have lotso skellies. But I think VC was practically custom built for Twilight--I mean women gamers.

DukeRustfield wrote:But I think VC was practically custom built for Twilight--I mean women gamers.

If I ever met a player who called his vampire general Edward I would just pack up and leave without saying a word.

Do I need to point out Isa-Bella Von Carstein?


Joking aside, Fantesy came first.

If anything, the BA/SW comparason with Twilight is better then the Fantesy one.

I'd say DE or Ogres. DE since that was one of the listed ones. 2 Hydras, 2-3 boxes of warriors for some repeater xbow action, the new sorceress and some shades and she be set for like up to 1500.

What about a specific theme army, an all tree WE list, or all troll WoC?

Wood elves, ogres, or Woc.
Wood elves cam field lots of monsters and monstrous beasts/infantry, in rare, special and heroes, and their ability to move trees is game changing, but they are hard to do right.
Ogres are made up of monsters and such
WoC are a hard-hitting, elite army with trolls and ogres and giants to back them up

I'm all for ogres they have awesome models the basic infantry is monsters and with their new kits they have some awesome stuff to ride into battle.

Demons
Ogres
Lizards

Ogres sound like they would probably work. I am also a fan of WoC for hard hitting power. Only needing like30 models for a 1k game is pretty nice.

and yea, i have never, EVER, seen a vampire counts player use a Twilight themed army. Yes, girls tend to like the vampire counts, but not because of the sparklies.

New ogres look sick still havent had a look see at the new book but models look cool and been hearing a lot of good stuff

Still nothing beats the feel of warriors they just awesome.

Warriors Of Chaos
Ogers