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As the title says, im kind of leaning towards starting up a fantasy army, if only for a bit of a break from 40K and its spess marines.

So first off, how does the game play? Ive heard its tactically superior then 40K, although ill be honest that doesn't seem to hard. I generally play 40K because I enjoy the feel of the armies and the fun awesome stuff that can happen rather then for a competitive aspect. Is fantasy similar?

Secondly, what kind of point level should I be aiming for to get a reasonable experience? I happily played 40K between the 500 to 1000 point bracket and enjoyed that level of it, what would be a similar point feel for fantasy?

And lastly, is Mordheim any good? I really enoy Necromunda and would love to carry over into a fantasy setting.

Thanks for you time guys, any feedback would be appreciated!

1) The game is indeed far more tactical because it has far less shooting and movement is much stricter. It's therefore a lot harder to apply your uber-beatstick of death if your opponent doesn't want you to, and tactics like diverting or pulling units away from a fight are totally legitimate ways to play. When a unit is much harder to apply, it becomes a test of generalship to actually get your pieces where you want them and even the weakest army can topple the strongest if you get enough of them into the flanks with enough magic. Some armies are still 'better' in that they are easier to apply, and a well-played Beastmen/Tomb King army will still have a hard time against a well-played Elf/Warriors army, but the whole balancing act is much closer because player ability plays a much greater part. It is completely possible to lose the game in deployment if your General is on the wrong flank, or you manage to block your own units in.
Player enjoyment is always a subjective thing but it certainly has just as much appeal as 40k does IMO. If nothing else, a win feels like a win and you can create a solid army without falling back on Riptides/Serpents/Heldrakes etc. Magic is especially good for cinematic elements, like dropping meteors into enemy lines or summoning hordes of the dead to surround an enemy that thought he had you cornered.

2) Most tournaments operate at 2-3000pts, with 2400 being the most common size in my experience. This is because you generally have access to the entire spectrum of units, and you don't have to cut corners to fit a Dragon into your list. That said the game works just fine at lower points because unit availability is based on % rather than slots. It means that, say at a game of 1000pts, you only have access to 250pts of Rare units and so you won't run into 'that guy' who brings 2 Steam Tanks and 3 Cannons. I can't think of anything that really breaks down in small games other than you losing access to the really big toys like Dragons, Greater Daemons or Slann.

3) Mordheim is fantastic but GW have done just about everything they can to bury it. If you can find the rules and willing opponents, it's fantastic. Just make sure to use lots of terrain.

Ah thanks for your feedback! I dont tend to build/play power armies in 40K so this does seem to feel much more up my street.

Im thinking I might grab a couple of boxes of the Empire faction, see if I enjoy painting them and go from there. At the very least I can use them for Mordhiem which I have high hopes for

Speaking as someone who just started it is a bit more complicated than 40k but not that hard if you do it piece by piece rather than as one big load of new rules.

 captsabre wrote:
Ah thanks for your feedback! I dont tend to build/play power armies in 40K so this does seem to feel much more up my street.

Im thinking I might grab a couple of boxes of the Empire faction, see if I enjoy painting them and go from there. At the very least I can use them for Mordhiem which I have high hopes for

Empire are a great beginners army, since they're "jack-of-all-trades, master of none" and they'll allow you to field an army fitting almost any playstyle, to see which works for you best. If you like the models/lore, then I'd definitely say to go with Empire.

Read the sticky at the top. It contains a breakdown of each army, their play style and little bit of the background. Models look a lot cooler when fluff is attached to them.

Remember to get some movement trays as well!

Moving 40+ Halberdiers without is no fun.

GrafWattenburg wrote:
Remember to get some movement trays as well!

Moving 40+ Halberdiers without is no fun.

that's why I like tournaments that require trays. moving 40 state troops without it is something I don't have the patience for

About the miniatures, my main advice is to NOT take GW miniatures as much as you can when it comes to human armies
I'll just paste one of my previous posts

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As the other said, look at historical ranges
They're as good looking (and often better-looking), offer more choice and are MUCH cheaper
The best are Perry Brothers, the plastic Cav has metal barding so they're perfect for the Empire
The infantry fits in just fine (I'm using the guys from the War of the Roses for the Brets, expanding into Empire with the "European" mercenaries)
They also have a very large metallic range (Azincourt fits the bill perfectly), including cannons and bombards
Then you have:
- FireForge (good plastic Teutonic / Templars)
- Gripping Beast (great ranges of metal, a few good plastic boxes too [Hastings period though])
- Kingmaker
- RAFM miniatures for the Trebuchet
- and so on

If you google it a bit, you will also find decals or sticker-style banners, barding and shield heraldry that are all designed to fit precisely for this or that range of miniatures (also designed to be resilient for gaming models)

One thing about the GW Empire boxes that makes your decision quite good, is that a lot of Empire parts are pretty awesome in any army.

I've used steamtank parts for my Skaven, there are a lot of awesome heads to put on the pikes of other armies and the hands/weapons work nicely for most other armies to make some alternate hand weapons.

You're gonna have a good box of bits even if you change to a different army at some point.

TanKoL wrote:
About the miniatures, my main advice is to NOT take GW miniatures as much as you can when it comes to human armies

Only issue is that my local store is a GW store, so if I wanna play somewhere ill need GW minis.

Empire it is