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Hello
I have recently got into WHFB, but i can't decide what army. I like the look of lizardmen, Skaven and VC.
I need to know what army is easy to paint and easy to play with.
(My Birthday is next Saturday, so money isn't much of a problem)
Thanks in Advance!

Rather than selecting an army for you, you'll be much better off if people give you a rundown on each one and allow you to make your own choice. A new army is going to run £200+ and so you want to make sure its the right one before you start.

Assuming you are set on those 3:

Lizards: Excellent beginners army because they can cover everything, and cover it well. They are reliable and have some mechanics built in to make life easier and more predictable. Generally consist of rock-hard Saurus blocks and fluid screens of Skinks, supported by wacky monsters. Saurus are fantastic line-infantry while Skinks give you good, if short-ranged, missile support. Cold-Blood means your infantry are also far more likely to hold their ground and goes a long way towards fixing a botched combat job.
You also have access to the Slann which is probably the best standard wizard in the game. Access to all 8 Lores of magic and some horrifically powerful toys rounds him off.
Lizards are dependable and cover all 4 phases of the game. Good newbie army with a lot of different toys to play with.


Skaven: Hordes and hordes of rubbish yet oddly brave infantry will form your backbone. In Warhammer terms this is perfect because you can lock the enemy down without giving away many points. This is supported by horrifically devastating ranged support and wacky toys. When it goes right, you will obliterate everything against you, but when it goes wrong you will leave some big holes in your own lines. While missile support is probably the best aspect, you also have some heavy-hitters in the form of Rat Ogres, Plague units and the dreaded Hellpit Abomination. Finally you have the Grey Seers for magic, who have some of the nastiest spells going.
Skaven have a weird split going on: Half your units are reliable and will lock the enemy in place, while the support elements will destroy everything- you and your opponent. Generally lacking combat ability outside of the specialists, but probably the best ranged support in the game. Also extremely fun.


Vampires- Similar to the Skaven in that your backbone is unbreakable and used to pin the enemy in place, to slap them about with dedicated combat units later. Vampiric units are absolutely mental in combat and will butcher their way through everything but tend to be squishy for the cost. It's fairly common to have a Vampire Lord over 500pts when he's on foot. However the rank and file are useless in a scrap and only really used to support your working units. Also have a lot of gimmicks which target enemy Leadership, so perhaps more dependant on the armies in your local area.
Vampires are another split between long-lasting blocks of crap, and extremely offensive bulldozers. Magic tends to be more supporttive than destructive, and you lack any significant shooting. They have a lot of special rules and so may be harder to get to grips with, but also have the newest book and so you can be sure that it will last a long time.

pretty much what mozzamanx said is true. But if fluff matters, I can hopefully expand on that...

Lizardmen - personality-less, imo. Basically, Slann are these deep meditating frogs mage masters who try to form the world in to the Old One's plan or something. Skins are pretty witty/cunning and are usually in the officiating positions. Saurus are semi-drones who just do as they're told, like build temples or carry around the fat Slanns ...but are also badarse warriors

Skaven - lots of personality. Very cunning and always backstabbing. Seriously, it's the Skaven way to manipulate and betray in order to work up your way up the ladder! Talk fast and always try to toot their own horn. My favorite line from the book is something along the lines of "the only time a Skaven pauses when he speaks is when he's trying to think of a way to make himself sound better". Major clans include shadowy assassins, mad scientists, disease spreaders, and surgeons who make monster-mutants!

VC - dark, shadowy lord-types who feel entitled to rule the Old World. Old fluff had different bloodlines - some beastly, some more magical, some more sexual (I think) - that sort of set their personality and goals. Obviously a lot of death-related stuff, I assume like rituals and sacrifices? Not too familiar w/ their fluff.

Dr. Cheesesteak wrote:Lizardmen - personality-less, imo. Basically, Slann are these deep meditating frogs mage masters who try to form the world in to the Old One's plan or something. Skins are pretty witty/cunning and are usually in the officiating positions. Saurus are semi-drones who just do as they're told, like build temples or carry around the fat Slanns ...but are also badarse warriors

That's not entirely true. If a saurus lives long enough, he seems to develop some greater degree of personality - look at the Saurus special characters.

Otherwise, yeah - Saurus are pretty much autistic, but wired for combat. Slann are people, but with extremely otherworldly perspectives. I'd say that skinks are basically people, though.

Lizardmen are beyond zealots. They are probably the most single-minded race in all of WHFB. Even Daemons have more uniqueness in their personality traits. But that's not a slam, it's just what they are.

Slann are the oldest living creatures next to dragons and dragon ogres. And they studied with the Old Ones, basically the gods who created all the major races and accidentally opened chaos. Slann are pretty badass but are thinking on other planes, even meditating for centuries. None are ever born anymore and thus the ones that exist are all that will ever exist.

Skinks are the administrators. Since Slann are off thinking Slann things like big big big Big picture stuff, someone has to be around to think about the little things and day to day.

Saurus are all birthed with tasks. They might have some personalities, but it could never conflict with what their task is. Whether it's guarding a particular temple or forest or shrine or whatever.

Kroxigor are pretty mindless and aren't likely to be off doing something without instructions.

Lizardmen are probably the least likely group I could ever see fluffwise fighting each other. They kind of painted themselves into a corner with that. Imagine a Slann army vs. Slann army, there's no way they would ever risk killing a Slann no matter how much they disagreed (and they rarely seem to disagree). About the only thing they disagree on is what order they should implement the Great Plan.

Dwarfs...

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