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I normally play historical wargames, but I'm having a lot of fun building an Imperial Guard army at the moment.

I live a good while away from any of the main gaming groups here, but I've got the space to build a dedicated wargaming room. My problem is this; for 40k, I'll need to but and paint up enough models for both sides in any game I'll play in the near future. As I say, the IG is on its way to completion, but I'll need to build some opponents.

I've got a few Grey Knights, and they're lovely, but I like my games to make sense, fluff-wise, so I'd like to know what you'd advise for second force that isn't imperial, and won't be horde based.

Try Eldar or Dark Eldar, They are both non-Imperial non-horde armies.

Thanks, Castiel. Eldar were on the list, because I picked up a Warseer just when I was getting back into painting, so that's some kind of a start.

No problem!

I would recommend Eldar second and Chaos Marines first.

Eldar will give you a very different "feel" and are a more elite force. However, CM will give you excelllent training in dealing with 4 statlines in PA. Since so much of the game is MEQ, Chaos marines will give you that different feel, make sense fluff wise, and present challenges that the IG typically have to overcome in fighting all the PA armies out there.

That's interesting. I haven't seen the CSM codex, but I presume it would be a lot more points per model, compared to IG.

Chaos are a neat army to play and model. You can get a 1500 pts army with only 60 models (and that's a bigger one), so if you can get the minis at a discount it probably won't cost you as much as some armies. They can great stats and play quite differently from marines (on paper they might seem like they'd be good at shooting, which they are, but its all down to crippling melees), which may be a good thing if you do come up against marine players a lot. =P

Green Army wrote:That's interesting. I haven't seen the CSM codex, but I presume it would be a lot more points per model, compared to IG.

About twice as much if I recall correctly

15pts for a basic CSM, or 20+ for a cult trooper. 60 models in 1500pts is almost a horde in CSM. The list I brought to the Vegas Throne of Skulls was around 45, IIRC, and I think I might have had the highest model count of any Chaos player there.

I think Lobukia's advice is excellent. Chaos is enormously important in terms of the 40k fluff, and there's excellent aesthetic and dramatic contrast between the more numerous, semi-realistic and somewhat historically-inspired IG, as opposed to the superhuman, elite, gothic and mutated Chaos Space Marines. It also will have the practical benefit of familiarizing you with the basic space marine statline/equipment suite, which will be extremely helpful if you ever do get to play with strangers.

Why didn't I think of CSM? I even play them! But I'm going to echo Lobukia and Mannahnin, CSM would make an excellent contrast to the IG. Plus they are great fun!

Thanks for the replies. Odd work hours meant I couldn't stick about to chat last night.

I've never been fond of the Chaos stuff, it's always been a bit too blatant for my tastes, but there seems to be a strong consensus here, so I'll look into it.

Again, thanks for the advice, folks. And if anyone else has any ideas, please chip in.