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So I'm almost to 5K worth of Tau in my collection so I'm looking to start a new army. I have enjoyed the challenge of playing Tau over the years so I'm looking for another challenging army to play. Here are the ideas of what I may start.

Dark Eldar
Eldar Bike Army
Ork Bike Army
General Eldar Army

What are your experiences with or against these armies? Any opinions or suggestions are welcome.

Do you not want to play any power armour?

If not I'd go with either Dark Eldar cause they look awesome or General Eldar

because they're one of the few armies where every unit can look completely different.

I'm one of those anti SM players lol I have no beef with SM or their players it just seems that EVERYONE plays them =P

tauxnimrod wrote:I'm one of those anti SM players lol I have no beef with SM or their players it just seems that EVERYONE plays them =P

I see what you mean.
Still, you did leave out Daemons (not SM), Chaos (sorta not SM), IG and Necrons.

I played IG in the past

the Chaos armies don't hold any interest with me

and I have to many friends who play the Necrons lol

I would go DE or Ork Bikers. They are both going to play different than your Tau and both are competitive. I actually own and play all 4 of your choices. The reason I am hesitant about the Eldar in both forms is that they are limited builds and generally will end up another flavor of a firepower army. Basically what your Tau are.

DE while still being excellent at firing, really shine when you combine that with HTH. So they are going to be a refreshing break from your Tau. Orks well they are orks even with TL, the bikers are going to only soften up targets with fire and are going to be decisive in HTH.

Iv played DE a fair amount and find the army to be really balanced and fun.

DE are a very versatile army, with plenty of different list you can make, wych cult/ Warrior Kabal/Haemonculus Coven or a mix.

I also think the model range for them is pretty awesome.

Why not choose Tyranids?
It is challenge to play with them.

As stated above Dark Eldar would play much different to the Tau, and be a fun painting / modeling exercise, I myself have bought a few DE to build and paint just for something new.

So with the DE and Tau, you would have a ying/yang of the 40k universe.

Orks fit that aswell, but the DE have a certain dark elegance to them, I have alot of orks but painting them is pretty low on my fun factor meter.

General Eldar army built on aspect warriors would be fun.

DE.

I have good size armies of marines, IG, 'crons, 'nids, chaos ( marines and daemons), DE.

Although I enjoy them all, I'd say go DE. Very challenging army. Also there are numerous ways to play them. Each time I get a new unit, I find a different play style I can use. I now have around 4k points and have found that you can excel in almost any environment. Also, the models look cool. If you enjoy painting, then they provide a lot of detail to work with.

tauxnimrod wrote:Here are the ideas

I'm sorry, what were your ideas? What play style? What fluff? What model range? What are you actually looking for in a second army?

Just listing ones you're considering gives us basically nothing to work with.

I mean, what you're currently asking is "what army do you play, and do you like it?" If you're wanting to base your choice on what's popular on dakka, then so be it, but if you want real advice...

Ailaros wrote:
I'm sorry, what were your ideas? What play style? What fluff? What model range? What are you actually looking for in a second army?

Just listing ones you're considering gives us basically nothing to work with.

I mean, what you're currently asking is "what army do you play, and do you like it?" If you're wanting to base your choice on what's popular on dakka, then so be it, but if you want real advice...

I shall break it down for you.

With the Orks it would be as it says Orks on Bikes I've faced this army it is very aggressive and holds much interest for me.

With the DE it would be sort of a mess around and find a style that works for me. They are the top army I'm considering ATM just because of the amount of options they now have.

I've never played against Bike Eldar but I have seen them in battle reports. Being that no one at the game club I go to play them they would be refreshing.

I've always wanted to field a generic Eldar army however can never see any practical way to field it.

So you want an army that is "very aggressive" that has "amount of options" and that "no one at the game club I go to plays".

For aggressive armies, that doesn't narrow down the list very much. Less-in-your-face armies are SM, Tau, and to a lesser extent both stripes of eldar. Any other army can be played very aggressively (and even then, the ones I listed, have at least one way that they can be at least sort of aggressive).

For amount of options, look to newer codices. Older codices were written when every army had a niche they were supposed to play. As time has gone on, this has been dropped in favor for armies being able to play with any style, just with different variations on that theme. Generally, the older the codex, the fewer options it has. Once again, this means eldar, SoB, for some odd reason SM, and Tau, and to a slightly lesser extent CSM and Tyranid.

For unpopularity at your FLGS, well, you'll have to answer that one on your own.

As far as "generic Eldar" - if by that you mean food dar, I would agree there are a number of ways to play it and it does work with a couple of exceptions. Foot dar have an inherent problem with mechanized - you either have limited response, range or accuracy to deal with. Also they will die against FNP armies and artillery parks (generally but not restricted to IG) If you can accept these limitations, they are fun.

Eldar specialize in S6 firepower and then specialist troops. For instance one of my "firepower" thoughts was to build an army around vypers with scatter lasers and cannons and two scatter war walkers. Admittedly that is over 1200 points but 133 S6 shots coming out every turn has a certain appeal to it. Likewise you could base your army around elites - say 3 harlequins and then the stuff to support it.

The problem with mechdar is survivability gained at the cost of a lot of firepower. When you look at one wave serpent - moderately outfitted equating to 12 dire avengers you start seeing where your army firepower takes a hit. However, as I stated, you have to understand there are options that you just will be auto dead.

If you like to convert go ork. I have a large csm and tau army and I am starting an ork just for the conversion factor.