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Hello all, I'm new to this forum but have been lurking for a while.
I have started selling my small grey knights army because basically, they're cheesy and generally the fluff is typically disinterested. The models and unit choices are also incredibly bland.
I was looking to start a new army from scratch, although I am a relatively new player with only 3 full games under my belt.
The choices I have whittled down to are Tyranid, Tau or Dark Eldar - on the basis that I love the idea of an alien horde, a regimented "greater good" army, and I love the look of most of the dark elder models.
Which one does dakka think is best? In both models, variety and fluff - this will impact my choice greatly.
Sorry if this is in the wrong forum and thanks for any replies

In my opinion the tyranids can be very flexible in the type of lists they can produce, you can have a horde, or a big monstrous creature list, even then those can be split into different categories. Tau are harder and less forgiving to play , I have both armies and tau is probably not a beginner army. I don't know about dark eldar personally but it seems that they can be flexible with their lists but ive really only seen mass vehicle lists. anyways my recommendation are the nids

I love the look of every Dark Eldar model, I was going to get Necrons (and will sometime) but seeing the Dark Eldar just made me want them first.

Tau I have, I like them, but they aren't easy to get the hang of, although old now, most of them look nice still.

They do feel a touch bland at times, support is pretty much a Tank, a useless tank, or Broadside suits, compared to my Guard who have a tonne of stuff, this gets old quick.


Nids I like aswell, pretty models, lots of colour schemes to play with as they are alien after all, they were overpowered for some time, unfortunatly as they are prone to do GW really swung the pendulum a bit too far in their efforts to rebalance them, removing a lot of fun upgrades and making some good options quite terrible.

More annoyingly, they made the expensive new models a lot better than the old expensive models everyone already owned....

I am only getting Dark Eldar because they look so neat, but nosing through their book, they seem very fragile, I cannot imagine they are easy to use (especially as your used to a forgiving power armour force)

The jump to AS6 guys and gals, has to be kinda challenging. But a challenge is a good thing! It will make your victories more rewarding.

Thanks for the replies, I was aware that both nids and tau are very hard to play armies with ageing codexes. Anyway, based on your descriptions my opinion is swinging in favour of the Tyranids, going for a blitzkrieg style of horde/godzillas. I think when I have more of a disposable income in the distant future i can start with another army, but as for now I'm definitely swinging towards the tyranid masses.

Tyranids are pretty fun in 6th edition, especially now that they get access to some great psychic powers and flying monstrous creatures. The amount of psychic powers a 1500pt army can throw out between Tyrants, the Swarmlord, Tervigons and Zoanthropes is remarkable.

Join the Hive, we got Carnifexen.

Dark Eldar seem to be the most competitive army out of the three. I have heard Dark Eldar are also pretty difficult and the learning curve is very sharp but once you master them, people will fear you. Based on what you have said, I would go with dark eldar.

Normally I am bias towards the Tyranids but a big part of why I switch from SM/BA to Tyranids is because I love the look of them. Giant big creatures and huge swarms flowing over the battlefield like in the movie Starship Troopers except all the marines end up eaten at the end. So if you love the look of the dark eldar, then go with it. You will be spending a lot of time looking at them on the table so they might as well be cool to look at.

You mentioned you were selling the grey knights because they were boring to paint. As a tyranid player I can tell you that, while painting monstrous creatures doesn't get old(they just look so damn cool!) You will get burnt out on the little guys pretty damn quick. The only difference between hormagaunts is whether or not their mouth is open. Don't get me wrong, I love my nids, and when they are fully painted they look incredible, but if looks and fun of painting are big factors for you then I would choose the army you like that look of best.

Well, I would start Tau and add some allies. Tau has decent units and the ally choices are great.

Well I collect Dark Eldar as my third army so far and I love the models and the fluff. I can also build suprisingly different kind of squads if I wish. What they did with the new models also allowes for quite nice kitbashing with the plastic kits. I have never been dissapointed in them on the game table either.

Dark Eldar would be the way to go.

While Tau are rather cool the quality of their miniaturerange ( especialy Crisis Suits and Firewarriors ) is rather low ( seriously, paying 20/30 bucks to have miscasts all over the place sucks ).
Dark Eldar have beautiful miniatures of a rather high quality so i would commend them.

Dark Eldar is a very good army and since you say you like the look of them, I'd say go for them.

Well, Dark Eldar is difficult to play. Moreover, DE got nerfed a bit in the 6th ed. (e.g., overwatch, holding objectives).

Tyranids, I love playing with them, painting them and the overall feel. I liked Cruddace codex playing with it throughout 5th edition, was kind of an uphill battle sometimes though.

Tau battlesuits look like kids toys and totaly not fit 40k imo, they should have made them more evangelion-esque slick if they wanted to rip-off anime. I like firewarriors but that's it, they need a grimdark or more rounded style treatment, Dreadnoughts being boxes on legs is enough for one game (I love dreadnoughts btw but what's not to like about a walking coffin).

Dark Eldar models on the contrary look incredible but the sado maso in the fluff connote them with those cheesy clubs and dominas in cheap lether for me. Go with them though if you don't want tyranids.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I think I will be going with Nids due to the versatility of MC's alongside hordes, even if the DE do have a very silent hill look to their elites!
I think Nids will be the way to go for me, thanks again for your responses

Good decision going with Nids.

Obviously I'm a touch biased here seeing as how they were my first army, but I would say Dark Eldar. I've played both as and against tau and they seem bland. Nids I've never played as but apparently they are tough to use. Now that isn't saying DE aren't...they are insanely difficult to start but once you get the hang of it and get your tactics down they are nasty. You can still run somewhat of a fluff list without having to fall into the venom spam trap, plus their fluff is rather interesting with all the plots and raids, etc. As far as appearance I would say tau are at the bottom of those three. A swarm of nids is nice looking but well painted DE can be gorgeous on the battlefield.