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Getting back into the hobby after a 3 year hiatus, and can't decide on what I want to pick up. I played Orks back in the day but want to try for something new. Grey Knights look pretty nifty and the models are awesome. But are they any good? A simple question borne out of ignorance and in need of an objective answer. I am a competent enough player that it wont deter me if they require high play skill but if they are down right not that great then I will just pick up a couple models to paint and run something else. I guess this partially comes from hearing people talk about how easy it is to wipe them with armies like Eldar and Dark Eldar since they field such a small number of models.

All comments and advice welcome.

GK are a very strong force with a new codex. However, the more popular and successful builds are considered over powered and ridiculously repetitive by many players. If you chose this option, you WILL be accused of playing GK just for their strengths (sorry, its the way stuff rolls).

Dark Eldar mix fair builds and a recent codex. they are not overpowered and have a variety of possible builds, though most like fast venom spam. These guys play very differently to orks (unless you played speed freaks), and require a bit more skill to play than GK, as they cannot all go around in terminator armour.

Eldar are the hardest to play due to an aging codex and a generally harder style of play. Most people on here will claim Mechdar is the only way to go, but I disagree, having only ever played Footdar and mixing rather sucessfully.

All the armies above have different styles than orks. It really depends it you want a small force of elite warriors with super armour and weapons (GK), a fast deadly force of elegant warriors who rely on speed to kill (DE), or a force with which your tactics and use of squads will have to be very good if not excellent to succeed (Eldar).

From a purely objective and gaming point of view, I would say go for DE. They offer a good play and a different style to orks, as well as vastly different painting and conversion opportunities.

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated. And I didn't play speedfreeks in the truckboyz sense but I did run a lot id battle wagons.

Lord Rogukiel wrote:GK are a very strong force with a new codex. However, the more popular and successful builds are considered over powered and ridiculously repetitive by many players. If you chose this option, you WILL be accused of playing GK just for their strengths (sorry, its the way stuff rolls).

Dark Eldar mix fair builds and a recent codex. they are not overpowered and have a variety of possible builds, though most like fast venom spam. These guys play very differently to orks (unless you played speed freaks), and require a bit more skill to play than GK, as they cannot all go around in terminator armour.

Eldar are the hardest to play due to an aging codex and a generally harder style of play. Most people on here will claim Mechdar is the only way to go, but I disagree, having only ever played Footdar and mixing rather sucessfully.

All the armies above have different styles than orks. It really depends it you want a small force of elite warriors with super armour and weapons (GK), a fast deadly force of elegant warriors who rely on speed to kill (DE), or a force with which your tactics and use of squads will have to be very good if not excellent to succeed (Eldar).

From a purely objective and gaming point of view, I would say go for DE. They offer a good play and a different style to orks, as well as vastly different painting and conversion opportunities.

What about all the other codexes?

IG, from what I know, is the most similar to Orks. At least if you footslog. Lots of infantry, supported by some of the best armor in the game. That is how the IG roll.

I thought about IG but I have over 120 fully painted and based Ork Boyz and I'm trying to avoid spending that much time painting again as I'm working now and don't have nearly as much time for my hobbies.

Also I'm a perfectionist who makes it a point to blend at least 30% of every model I paint and ink and multi layer everything else. Needless to say my armies look pretty damn good, but my 2500 point ork horde army took my almost 6 months of constant work to finish.

I'm hoping to pick an army with a much lower model count so that ruled out IG. Honestly I'm liking grey knights just for the sake that It won't take me for fricking ever to paint my army and the models are awesome. Also now I have been told from several separate sources that GK are strong and I can assume that they play differently from Orks (duh).

But I'm still not sure.

Maybe Space Marines of one flavor or another. They would be a smaller army that you could take your time painting.

It all depends on what kind of play style you want to go with.
If you go GK, people WILL scream at you for cheese...not your fault, its just the way that a lot of wargamers are. If your coming back from haitus, SMs would probably be a good idea for you because of their overall versatility, but eldar are
also pretty good

Quick question: does a grey knight box set come with enough halberds to equip the entire squad?

My advice is if you want to play GK play them. I have found that it doesn't matter what you play someone is going to say you are just doing it cause they are the in thing or they are the cooler choice. Yes the GK do come with enough halberds to field an entire squad I believe as they are set up to be different squads...
Also if you play what you want to play you will have more fun painting and playing. Whichever way you go GL and have fun and welcome back...