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.

So after playing nothing but vanilla Space Marines for the last 14 years (ever since I started playing at the Wizard's Tower in Nashua, NH during high school), I've finally decided its time to build a second army to play for fun and as a different challenge than the Marines. I'm particularly drawn to the fluff of any of the other races/armies so my army choice is more going to be inspired by difficulty to play. I'm also looking for something with lots of conversion potential. So I've narrowed my choices down to five and am asking you to decide for me. Whichever army has the most votes by Monday will be the one I start building.

I'd go with Tyranids, i had a similar issue with my GK except not as long a time. I just wanted something really different so I made an Nid army and after the first game I had I knew i'd made the right choice. I've had a lot of fun and haven't looked back

Well lots of conversion potential probably goes to Orks, but there's a pretty easy way to figure it out. Take the choices you have and make a list of what you like best and hate about them.

Tau have the benefit of only just coming out so no risk of them being updated for a while. Eldar are supposedly next so may be worth holding out on them. Daemons are in the same boat as Tau. Tyranids are sort of with Imperial Guard and somewhere in between the two.

In play styles, Tau seem to favour a gunline along with the Imperial Guard. Your main challenges are target prioritisation and quick/outflanking melee units that can do some serious damage to your firepower. They do enough and you fall behind allowing the rest of the force to close in.

Tyranids and Daemons are pretty similar. Depending on how you run them you can have a horde of bodies to push at the enemy and grind them away, or you can have a few big monsters to rampage around their deployment zone. But, they seem to have issue with ranged armies. Out of your list Daemons and Tyranids are probably the most challenging, with Tyranids being the most of the two.

Eldar I haven't seen much of for a while. I used to play them back in 5th and they favoured a sort of mobile gunline approach. You pick your targets well, then reposition to react to the enemy and set up traps of sorts. I've been looking at returning to them and quite like some of these new Psychic lores with their Farseers.

But in the end you're after aesthetic appeal and playstyle. We can tell you the playstyle so you can see which seems best to you, but your opinion on the models is entirely up to you.

based on diffuclty alone I'd say eldar

Play orks. Just do it.

gork and possibly mork wrote:
Play orks. Just do it.

no too outdated and realy expensive to set up since you cant get blackreach no more.
better plan please post armies you dont want to play that at least helps.

Well if Youve played nothing but Space Marines then I'd recommend the Xenos for a changeup. Anything Imperium is going to be very similar except Imperial Guard. I like big stompy monstrous creature lists so Tyranids are great fun for me. Can take truly terrible lists full of montrous creatures that shouldnt win and win overwhelmingly. Or watch your opponents face as they focus fire on only one creature to watch it live through 6 or more lascannon blasts. It is quite entertaining to buff your creatures to be toughness 9. People just cant believe you when you say they need a 4+ to wound your critter.

I recommended tyranid cause they are the MOST different from SMs as you listed.

If you wanted to keep with the same army - I would say CSMs

Eldar because they are the complete opposite of space marines. Lightning fast, capable of inflicting horrendous damage but not really able to take a hit back, and mostly comprised of specialist units unlike the much more flexible marines.

They also have awesome psykers that can fry enemy psykers brains incredibly easily and are the only ones in the game with saves against perils.

Plus they have awesome technology and the skill to use it.

Finally, from a future proof point of view, they are likely to be the next codex.

It may be worth waiting until that codex is actually released before starting though.

 Blackskull wrote:

gork and possibly mork wrote:
Play orks. Just do it.

no too outdated and realy expensive to set up since you cant get blackreach no more.
better plan please post armies you dont want to play that at least helps.

I listed the five I'd be interested in the poll. Not really interested in orcs.

If you want a serious answer you should ask a serious question. You have said that you will buy an army that ranks highest in a poll carried out by people who do not know you, have not met you, and have had a paragraph to judge what you should collect.

Unless you are incredibly well off, I implore you to put in more consideration than this into as large a financial investment as a new army.

Otherwise you may regret it.

rohansoldier wrote:
Eldar because they are the complete opposite of space marines. Lightning fast, capable of inflicting horrendous damage but not really able to take a hit back, and mostly comprised of specialist units unlike the much more flexible marines.

They also have awesome psykers that can fry enemy psykers brains incredibly easily and are the only ones in the game with saves against perils.

Plus they have awesome technology and the skill to use it.

Finally, from a future proof point of view, they are likely to be the next codex.

It may be worth waiting until that codex is actually released before starting though.

+1 this.
They also complement space marines as allies - more speed and firepower are always good.

I put Tau.

Which Army Should I Build for the next GT season?
Tyranids Reasonable competitive but I think you are going to find a rather limited build.. (2 Flyrants,2 Tervigons, 20 Gaunts and Doom of Malantai then toss in whatever trips your trigger.)

Eldar Due to age, they have really limited builds. So unless you are truly in love with Eldrad, War Wallkers or love Forge World let it wait until you see the new codex.

Imperial Guard Boring. Boring. Cower in the corner. Shoot your barrages and wait for the Vendettas to show up.

Chaos Now if you go Demon heavy with a small CSM contingent maybe. Otherwise you are going to find CSM plays too close to your Vanilla SM.

Tau- Definite gunline without the sturdiness of SM should provide a challenge. While you can go standard Crisis Suit heavy list, I am seeing a lot of viable alternate options that this is an army that you will be challenged by and yet not get bored of. While there may be an optimal build, I really don't see any truly crappy build. For instance, I think you could challenge yourself with a Firewarrior gunline or a Pirhana based force and still be competitive.

gork and possibly mork wrote:
If you want a serious answer you should ask a serious question. You have said that you will buy an army that ranks highest in a poll carried out by people who do not know you, have not met you, and have had a paragraph to judge what you should collect.

Unless you are incredibly well off, I implore you to put in more consideration than this into as large a financial investment as a new army.

Otherwise you may regret it.

I would basically say this..... dont make a mistake when it costs $$$$$$. Thats six whole $!

I would suggest either imperial guard or tau. Because they will be different, and because you can ally them with what you have so you can play them as you build them, and then ally your sm with them.

I voted tau just because I decided long ago that would be my next army after sm. (hasn't happened yet, but one day...)

gork and possibly mork wrote:
If you want a serious answer you should ask a serious question. You have said that you will buy an army that ranks highest in a poll carried out by people who do not know you, have not met you, and have had a paragraph to judge what you should collect.

Unless you are incredibly well off, I implore you to put in more consideration than this into as large a financial investment as a new army.

Otherwise you may regret it.

I've been saving for a new army for a few months now and plan on taking roughly a year to build it. The finances are not difficult when you've got patience and aren't planning on fielding it until December 13/January of 14. This is step one of the plan. Poll Dakka for an army to build. Step two is to borrow models and play tests some lists from the rest of the gamers in my local area. Step three is to start buying, converting, and painting units one at a time.

Fair enough. I was just making sure you had thought properly about what you're doing. The world has enough un used models.

Nids, it's the most different of the options to marines.

I'm going to say CSM/Daemons (doesn't matter which or both or how you play them)

Simply for the pleasure of going "through the looking glass" to see the IoM from the perspective of the "bad guys"
You never know, maybe you'll discover you had it wrong and you were a closet heretic the whole time
If you are, you might be castigated by the Inquisition but you can always add spikes to your marines and your new buddies will welcome you with open arms

If you want stuff with conversion potential than chaos is the way to go.

Eldar are strongly indicated to be getting an update this year (Fall time) So if you pick them, I would wait until the release.

I voted Tau. I think they might float your boat as beiing a bit more inspired by a somewhat more modern combined arms approach to combat.

Eldar are quite old now and supposed to be getting an update later this year (maybe next year), so I wouldn't recommend starting them now. They're also difficult to convert in an attractive way; I've seen expert modelers do it, but it's tough. Although otherwise they'd be ideal, if only for the irony.

Tyranids are quite competitive with psychic power shananigans, but a bit of a PITA to play, generating all those powers and casting every turn. They're also a tricky one to convert, with all the organic shapes, unless you're into sculpting.

CSM/Daemons could also be a good choice, as CSM lend themselves easily to conversions, and you'd have the option of using some power-armored guys to ease the transition. OTOH, the actual CSM units in the codex are not amazing, so in building a competitve army you probably wouldn't use a lot of them. You can easily transition over to using more Daemons, too, even over to Daemons primary and CSM ally over time. It's a choice which would give you a pretty easy transition and lots of options.

I'm not into IG, really. You have human dudes and tanks IRL, and can also get those in historical games like FoW.

Screw all those options... play sisters of battle

Chaos, especially nurgle (IMO) have the greatest conversion potential out of your list given, plus they are just so much fun!

 Mannahnin wrote:
I voted Tau. I think they might float your boat as beiing a bit more inspired by a somewhat more modern combined arms approach to combat.

Eldar are quite old now and supposed to be getting an update later this year (maybe next year), so I wouldn't recommend starting them now. They're also difficult to convert in an attractive way; I've seen expert modelers do it, but it's tough. Although otherwise they'd be ideal, if only for the irony.

Tyranids are quite competitive with psychic power shananigans, but a bit of a PITA to play, generating all those powers and casting every turn. They're also a tricky one to convert, with all the organic shapes, unless you're into sculpting.

CSM/Daemons could also be a good choice, as CSM lend themselves easily to conversions, and you'd have the option of using some power-armored guys to ease the transition. OTOH, the actual CSM units in the codex are not amazing, so in building a competitve army you probably wouldn't use a lot of them. You can easily transition over to using more Daemons, too, even over to Daemons primary and CSM ally over time. It's a choice which would give you a pretty easy transition and lots of options.

I'm not into IG, really. You have human dudes and tanks IRL, and can also get those in historical games like FoW.

The irony of me playing Eldar would be pretty good. Although very few people still understand why that would be so.