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Recently, I have seen a lot of people saying that "gunlines are boring to play against" and such, which I can understand, but it got me thinking. What kinds of armies do people, in general, find the most fun to play against? I'm not talking about codecies, but style of play.

A style that matches my own, for whatever that mood might be. Let me explain...

If I am bringing my A-game hard lists and am looking for a seriously tough and challenging fight, I want to play someone looking to do that. And that is the best style of play.

If I am bringing in a soft, fun list, I'm looking for someone in the same mood as me. And that is the best style of play.

I think if I had to sum it up, it isn't so much a style of play, but I want an opponent who wants the same things I do for that specific game. Some days, I want to kick back and have myself a game full of laughs, other days I want the toughest, nastiest and roughest battle I can get that pushes my limits.

Any army that challenges me to think about unique ways to use units or new tactics. Really any tough army that won't let me steam roll them without a fight.

I have lots of fun against everything except leaf blowers.

Curran12 had a good answer.

That being said, though, I think we can identify some general qualities of an army list that most people will enjoy facing.

1. A variety of units. Excessive repetition gets boring, making the play experience less varied, and making for more predictable tactical decisions.
2. An army which moves. Playing against a static opponent is generally dull. When both armies are maneuvering, that adds interest and makes more use of the terrain on the table.
3. An army which sustains damage. Armies which have few or no easy to kill units, or which are designed to avoid contact and alpha-strike from afar, are not as satisfying to face. Even if a player is losing badly, if he can see his guys blow stuff up and draw some blood from the enemy army, his experience is usually more satisfying.

A game where both armies deal and take alot of damage from turn one

Any army that actually give me a challenge, rather than trying to win the game on turn 1 with an artillery bombardment before i get to move.

My favourite would be the quirky armies that aren't optimised to all hell and kind of samey. A memorable army with a bit of character to it.

An example would be a full-on Haemy coven themed DE army, or a Mek-based Ork army. Those are the games i tend to remember, whereas the net-list games all blur into one another after a while.

I'm hoping my Saim-Hann themed will shape up as fun to play. Aside from a small elite core of units like Dark Reapers, Wraithguard, and a Wraithlord, everything is either on a jetbike, or mounted in a Wave Serpent/Falcon, or can jump like Swooping Hawks. So many things zipping around the table should be fun.

I like playing vs Nids or Orks.

I like when I have lots of targets to blow up.

I like playing pretty much anything as long as I have options.

A game against a gunline where I'm basically charging across an open field? Hell no. I wouldn't even play.

A game against a gunline where I have terrain, secondary objectives and so on? Awesome.

Personally I have the most fun on city fight boards, although that does have the advantage of breaking up monotype armies who rely on specific tactics to get their easy win. Admittedly, there is a little bit of "Dense city boards give me an advantage" in that since all my armies basically cap out at 24" with only one or two guns having longer range than that. ^^;

I love playing against the IOM. Guard and especially Marines, It's a challenge trying to take out some of the heavy vehicles with Ork weapons. I also like racing against the "clock" turn wise when it comes to the shooting turns, where it's mostly my Orks running at the enemy trying to get to combat before they all get shot up.

I love playing against strongly themed armies,someone thats put alot of time and their own personality into their army.

I have been playing since 3rd ed ,I have had games that have been a damn close run thing,ties,games Ive been slaughtered,games Ive slaughtered folks,to me the best are close games,that go either way,back and forth. Mainly though its the other person Im playing against,some of the most enjoyable games Ive had Ive gotten spanked but had a blast because of the other person.