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Hey all,

I recently decided to take the plunge into Fantasy. The biggest issue I'm running into is my complete lack of knowledge about the game. I've played 40k for about 10 years now, and know my way around that really well. As such, I don't know which armies currently fit the 'competitive' side of things, and which are easy vs. difficult to use

Any advice as far as what are decent armies, both from a standpoint of learning to play as well as being reasonably competitive is appreciated

Thanks

The only armies I would advise staying away from (as far as staying reasonably competitive is concerned) are Wood Elves and Brettonnia. Pretty much all the other armies can compete decently (some are more powerful than others, but the difference in power of the Armybooks is a lot smaller than it is between Codici in 40k).

The best advise I can give you is go with an army that you like the look of. Additionally, you may want to read into their general playstyle, to see how that fits your playstyle.

Woc.
You have warriors 16 pts a piece so low number of models.
Lords are 200+ points before upgrades.

They area good starter army since they do not depend on magic buffs or you debuffing your opponent.

If you want a real challenge go WE. Bretonia is not very strong it is not impossible to win with them its just really hard.

But other than that the other books are all solid some are just more dependent one one phase where as some are good all rounders.

But ya go with the models you like if thats a tie go with the fluff you like best.
Like the models tho you will spend lots of time with them.

How many models do you want?
Orcs and Goblins can have 100s of models for low points.
But Ogre Kingdoms are high point value.

I'm not too worried about overall model count. I've painted up 2 3000 point Guard armies and so am no stranger to a flood of guys needing paint.

Simply going off of which models I like, I'm kind of partial to the new Beastmen. Does anyone have any game experience with them? Good/Bad to learn with?

They are definitely not a point and click army. They have almost no shooting and are reliant on slightly above average troops with a combination of buffing your troops and debuffing enemy troops on top of combo charges with other cheap flak units like harpies and razorgor. The ambush rule is gimmicky but what sets us apart is primal fury, being able to gain hatred and tehrefore rerolling misses at any point in combat not just the first round like most hatred by passing a leadership test, which is almost gauranteed with BSB rerolls and a high leadership general within 12 inches. For more info check out the herdstone: http://z2.invisionfree.com/herdstone/index.php? If you have time I also recommend listening to this podcast: http://baddice.co.uk/episode-56-beastmen-review/ Mark has had a lot of success with his list and they begin talking about it around the 43:00 mark.

I did take this list oput once and had success:
Great-Bray-Shaman- Level 4-Crown of Command -Hagtree Fetish -Talisman of Preservation 334 Lore of Death
Wargor -BSB -Heavy Armor -Shield -Gnarled Hide -Beast Banner 206
Bray Shaman -Dispel Scroll 100 Beasts
Gor Herdx40 -Full Command -Additional Hand Weapons 345
Ungor Raidersx6 36
Bestigorx27 -Full Command -Banner of Discipline 369
Razorgor 55
Harpiesx5 55
1500

Crown of command keeps the bestigor in the game after the first round, the standard of discipline with that gives the army a Ld9 bubble for primal fury rerolls. BSB goes with the gor giving them S4 with hopefully some more help from the level 1 in casting Wyssans on them. For the level 4 hagtree fetish makes it so that failed rolls to wound must be rerolled which is great for death for Caress of Laniph and Bjuna causing them to reroll those dice to wound.