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Hi I am struggling to decide on an army to do for warhammer fantasy, I have played Orcs and Goblins but not very much and want a new army, what I am looking for is:

1) I dislike massive horde units.
2) Cavalry are some of my favourite models aesthetic.
3) Something relatively cost efficient (like avoiding horde units).

Any help on deciding will be greatly appreciated as I can not decide easily, open to any army but preferably the ones mentioned in the title.

Thanks in advance.

Well dwarfs don't do calvary

Elves have some cool calvery units (dragon prices) and rock the magic phase, their troops are pretty good and the army isn't very horde like. Common practice is to take the least ammount of core troops (25% of points) which I think would be about 50 spearmen (for a 2000pt army) broken up into 2 groups of 25.

Dwarfs... I don't know much about, most basic troop is 7pts per model which is 2 less than the elves

Empire... I know nothing about either. I'm guessing they do more with massed infantry than either elves or dwarfs.


Have you looked at Bretonnia?
All their dudes are on horseback.

I have looked at Brettonia however they do also have peasants which seem to be required for some balance in the army.

Also Dwarf warriors are 8 points without upgrades

Dwarfs = NO MAGIC (i love this fact makes the game so much easier)
Dwarfs = best range units around.

However, if you are serious about cavalry, Dwarves are not going to be the way to go. They have no cavalry at all. They are all very different armies. Empire has a very good balance, has alot of cavalry and alot of variation. The elves have some of the coolest creatures, and their units tend to be more on the expensive side (from what I understand) which means fewer models.

One last thing to take into account....

- there are plenty of dwarf and High elf starter sets on ebay from the last 2 starter sets GW created. (cheapish option to test the waters)

-GW is releasing a huge empire starter set for Xmas great price vs unit value deal.

As an Empire player I can tell you that Great weapon wielding calvary hits quite hard and can stay around due to their high saves. Since you can take them as core you can migate the horde aspect of this army.

That said a 'stronger' empire army would be built around large blocks with ranged detachments.

Still with Demigryph calvary and 3 types of horse calvary you've got a bit of variety going.

Dwarfs love hordes and need them to do well in close combat.

Well, everyone does. But empire and elves have more ways to do well apart from hordes. magic, monsters, multilpe attack infantry units.

Dwarfs have the shooting phase and hordes.

Thanks everyone much appreciated and I have decided on a High elf list, due to a friend of mine will trade me some elves, cheap guys on ebay from starter and their models are nice, anyone who wants to help me out more please check my list topic.