Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Since I was out of the hobby for such a long time and sold all my models to pay for my wedding I am looking to get back to the collection I once had. I currently am working on a Deathwing project but I am always looking for new forces to start. I am a pretty decent painter and enjoy armies that flow well together when painted. I know most of the codexes but since I have been away from the game for so long I am not sure what types of lists are out there. I do not like the I have one unit that can beat your whole army lists so things like Draigowing are out of the question. Yes I know this list can be beaten but I think you get the point I am trying to make. I want a list that has some challenge to play but can be successful if played well. As this will be secondary to my Deathwing army I am only looking for 1250 to 1500 points in the list.

- I like doing conversions
- I like themed armies (Deathwing, All Khorne daemons, armies that have a color scheme that makes them all united)
- I like armies that are good at doing something specific (Shooting, Melee)
- No Space Marine forces please as I already have a Deathwing list


I figured since this is the best 40k community I have ever come across I would see what my fellow Dakkaheads could come up with.

Thanks guys/girls hopefully I can get some interesting lists!

If youe doing a deffkopta list GW are doing a new fleet of ork planes or bommers and I'm not sure if their transport or nots (haven't seen the WD with their rules) and it could be possible to build a whole list with planes!

Bump after edit... maybe I'll get some more responses with it written like this.

So, you're looking for a horde army (no single superpower units), that aren't marines, that have lots of conversion opportunities?

Your answer is orks.

You could probably fill these criteria with any xenos army, really, but orks seem the best fit here. I'd note, though, that things have changed somewhat since you were last around. They make codices now so that you can make a good choppy army or a good codex army from the same codex. The only exception to this at the moment is tau.

Non-MEQ theme army? Good conversion options? Focused on shooting or melee?

Well you have a deathwing army, so I will assume melee is out of the picture.

For shooting armies, you can really customize the hell out of an imperial guard force, I've seen armies that looked like they came from the American civil war.

A tyranid force can focus on shooting, and tyranids do have conversion options.

Tau are a shooting focused force, and their battlesuits can be reposed in amazing ways. The rest of the army not so much, but I'm sure you could make do.

Nercons, while a shooting army, aren't that easy to convert.

Dark eldar can be a shooting army very easily, and would allow for lots of fancy conversions, specifically if you fancy pirates and such.

Trautor Guard armies seem to be the rage these days, they give you a whole host of conversion opportunities, the ability to use parts from chaos, IG from 40K or alot of different WFB ranges along with a tonne of third part pieces. And it also lets you utilise a the IG codex which is pretty good powerwise.

Other than that a great codex to use for conversion is the grey knight one (bear with me), if you use a coteaz henchmen list it can create any of a wide range of themed armies (ad-mech, rogue trader, cultist (genestealer, machine, chaos, xenos), mercenary etc) and gives you access to some nice GK vehicles for counts as too.

Orks!. They arnt marines, very focused on melee, great at conversions. The only downside from your criteria is that they are melee, which if you have a DW army you might be looking for something different.

You can play shooty orks. Shoota boyz and lootas are amongst the most points efficient units in their class for any army, despite their poor BS.

Shooty Orks eh? I've heard the rumors just never seen em in action.

I wouldn't say that melee armies are out of the question. I just like armies that know what they are good at. I wouldn't have any reservations about playing another melee focused army. Maybe something not as slow but yea. Orks seem to be a decent choice.

As far as guard goes I had thought about that but I played with a friends guard list once and it was almost too easy to play with. Mass troops/heavy weapons teams - roll dice - win. That's pretty much what happened. Traitor guard does seem like it would be fun though so that is idea number 2.

Dark Eldar list seems like it could be fun. Maybe a mass Wyches list Or a Haemy Wrack list. Good ideas going so far def created a lot of thoughts so far I had not thought of.

If you like conversions and want that to be the main focus of your army try picking out an aspect of 40K that you feel is under represented or really fires up your imagination. Then if there isnt an army for it, or a list you feel can do it justice then you could quite easily create a counts-as list for an existing codex list.

Brutish, Feral mutant tribes (count as orks)
Cybernetic rogue AI army (count as necrons or tau)
zoooombies (count as tyranids or guard)

Orks a re a great wacky army so you may want to consider them.(orks are really pretty good at assault, little lacking on per model shooting but made up for by volume of shots.)

Tau are fun but their codex is very out of date and it really shows.(great shooting, laughable CC )

Necron can be fun to play their fairly straightforward but have allot fo variety in what and how they do things.(great shooting, decent CC)

airburne traitor guard are fun to play and heretic valkyries are VERY fun to build and convert