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Hey Dakka,

I was wondering what everyone thought of all the armies and their different play styles. Personally I've played a few armies (Space Marines , Tau, Eldar, and now Chaos) But have never really been to happy with the play styles. I hope to get some of your opinions and maybe help me decide what is the direction I should go with. Any advice or insight would be wonderful. Thank you all.

Playstyles can vary quite a bit within a single army, for example SM bikes vs drop pods or armour spam. You don't seem to have tried a horde army, that could give you the feeling you're looking for. Putting lots of dakka on the table and cheering as yet another platoon of guardsmen get eaten but the two platoons behind them charge on can be fun ; ) IG are always a good army to consider imo. Cheap and plentiful guardsmen, cheap and plentiful tanks, ally well with SMs of all flavours or chaos (if you ignore the ridiculous lack of battle brothers with CSMs). Another army I like for the different feel is Necrons with their base of durable heavy infantry and vehicles that play just that little bit differently. They tend to be much shorter range which changes how you play than if you have lots of 48"+ dakka.

Thanks, I was thinking of necrons but was waiting for them to be updated. Im not too big a fan of horde armies mainly cause I love to put a lot of detail into my minis. I feel like doing that for every termagaunt or guardsman might drive me nuts but Ill give it a good think

Abzapp wrote:
I was wondering what everyone thought of all the armies and their different play styles. Personally I've played a few armies (Space Marines , Tau, Eldar, and now Chaos) But have never really been to happy with the play styles. I hope to get some of your opinions and maybe help me decide what is the direction I should go with. Any advice or insight would be wonderful. Thank you all.

Used to play Sisters of Battle.

SoB playstyle in a nutshell : bring absurd amounts of flamers and meltaguns, pack them in transports, go for the throat.

If you don't have 10+ melta shots on the very first turn and don't bring 30+ melta/flamer weapons in your 1500 pts army, you're doing it wrong.

Very fun army to play with (and against), but don't expect to win a lot.

You might want to start by choosing a play style and then trying to match an army to it. It sounds like you have a good few games under your belt so work out what elements of the game you like the most and then get an army that highlights them.

Huh I never thought of sisters of battle. My friend plays orks so that would be even better haha.

I usually like cutting my opponents down in a hail of close range fire. Though I have yet to find an army that can do that without making my opponent want to punch me in the face haha.

Abzapp wrote:
Huh I never thought of sisters of battle. My friend plays orks so that would be even better haha.

I usually like cutting my opponents down in a hail of close range fire. Though I have yet to find an army that can do that without making my opponent want to punch me in the face haha.

Unless you're rich or already have a SOB army, I wouldn't start one. Hard to collect and very expensive. Very.
Sounds like maybe you need a little break. Try a different game for a while?

Yeah, most armies can do several things, and some armies can do practically anything.

It would be easier for us to help you if you could provide some more specifics of what you're looking for. "Shooting them at close range" is surprisingly less of a differentiator than you might think.

Litcheur wrote:

Abzapp wrote:
I was wondering what everyone thought of all the armies and their different play styles. Personally I've played a few armies (Space Marines , Tau, Eldar, and now Chaos) But have never really been to happy with the play styles. I hope to get some of your opinions and maybe help me decide what is the direction I should go with. Any advice or insight would be wonderful. Thank you all.

Used to play Sisters of Battle.

SoB playstyle in a nutshell : bring absurd amounts of flamers and meltaguns, pack them in transports, go for the throat.

If you don't have 10+ melta shots on the very first turn and don't bring 30+ melta/flamer weapons in your 1500 pts army, you're doing it wrong.

Very fun army to play with (and against), but don't expect to win a lot.

Yea, SoB seem like their style is to disrupt the enemy battle plan. "Oh, you sniped my Hive Tyrant on turn 1, guess I better try something else."

 MWHistorian wrote:

Abzapp wrote:
Huh I never thought of sisters of battle. My friend plays orks so that would be even better haha.

I usually like cutting my opponents down in a hail of close range fire. Though I have yet to find an army that can do that without making my opponent want to punch me in the face haha.

Unless you're rich or already have a SOB army, I wouldn't start one. Hard to collect and very expensive. Very.
Sounds like maybe you need a little break. Try a different game for a while?

Both statements are true haha. Though the last one is a little harder to swallow.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I guess by the end of it I prefer having smart tactics and mobility to defeat my opponent rather than a hammer.

Tactics and mobility are a key element of the game rather than a specific army. An army that plays smart and can move to capture/control objectives and exploit the enemy position is stronger.

The two flavours of Eldar have mobility as a key factor, Necrons are able to deploy rapidly from flying transports and generally prefer to fight inside the 24" window. Sounds like you want to avoid hordes so that kinda rules out Orks/Nids/Guards (Though all 3 can be played in a more elite fashion should you choose)

Deathwing style armies that used massed deepstriking or drop pod armies require careful deployment as you are often outnumbered by paying for your flexibility of deployment.

There are so many ways to run most of the armies that very few can simply be ruled out completely on playstyle.

Space wolves are a good mid range shooty and CC army. They're also very mobile and flexible. You can make a drop pod, rhino spam, or mech heavy list. They also have a new codex coming very soon which should give them access to a flyer and grav weapons.

I like the "mid-range to long-range" game with opportunities for tricks and feints. I started with Space Wolves, played Crons, and finished out with Sisters as my primary armies. Grey Knights were played a bit and were definitely more mid-to-short range in style.

I never did put Eldar on the table, but I could see them being my favorite.

 MWHistorian wrote:

Abzapp wrote:
Huh I never thought of sisters of battle. My friend plays orks so that would be even better haha.

I usually like cutting my opponents down in a hail of close range fire. Though I have yet to find an army that can do that without making my opponent want to punch me in the face haha.

Unless you're rich or already have a SOB army, I wouldn't start one. Hard to collect and very expensive. Very.
Sounds like maybe you need a little break. Try a different game for a while?

Why do you do this? Why does anyone do this?

Abzapp can read. They can see for themselves how much the army costs. They're not exactly 'hard' to collect, anyway - what does that even mean? Model availability?

Getting really annoyed with people saying "don't collect Sisters, they're expensive." It means nothing. This entire hobby costs a fricken mint, so why do people always feel the need to put down Sisters specifically because of cost?

 Furyou Miko wrote:

 MWHistorian wrote:

Abzapp wrote:
Huh I never thought of sisters of battle. My friend plays orks so that would be even better haha.

I usually like cutting my opponents down in a hail of close range fire. Though I have yet to find an army that can do that without making my opponent want to punch me in the face haha.

Unless you're rich or already have a SOB army, I wouldn't start one. Hard to collect and very expensive. Very.
Sounds like maybe you need a little break. Try a different game for a while?

Why do you do this? Why does anyone do this?

Abzapp can read. They can see for themselves how much the army costs. They're not exactly 'hard' to collect, anyway - what does that even mean? Model availability?

Getting really annoyed with people saying "don't collect Sisters, they're expensive." It means nothing. This entire hobby costs a fricken mint, so why do people always feel the need to put down Sisters specifically because of cost?

While I thank you for protecting my literacy and I agree with you on the price of the hobby. The hobby has a community of people who want to help others save money which make sense. While I agree that not playing an army because its expensive is a silly reason in this hobby I think I might go another direction. Im currently stuck between choosing Eldar and Necron atm. SOB would be cool but Im not a big fan of their theme.

 Furyou Miko wrote:

 MWHistorian wrote:

Abzapp wrote:
Huh I never thought of sisters of battle. My friend plays orks so that would be even better haha.

I usually like cutting my opponents down in a hail of close range fire. Though I have yet to find an army that can do that without making my opponent want to punch me in the face haha.

Unless you're rich or already have a SOB army, I wouldn't start one. Hard to collect and very expensive. Very.
Sounds like maybe you need a little break. Try a different game for a while?

Why do you do this? Why does anyone do this?

Abzapp can read. They can see for themselves how much the army costs. They're not exactly 'hard' to collect, anyway - what does that even mean? Model availability?

Getting really annoyed with people saying "don't collect Sisters, they're expensive." It means nothing. This entire hobby costs a fricken mint, so why do people always feel the need to put down Sisters specifically because of cost?

The guy said he hadn't thought of SOB, which means he probably hasn't looked into it. When I say its expensive, I mean $80 for a single squad of sisters. That's just regular troops which you'll need more than one of. So, yes, SOB are more expensive than any other army I can think of. I thought it fair to warn someone that it's really expensive because for some people price is a factor. It would be worse if I didn't warn someone about that.
Also, warning people of the difficulties of collecting SOB isn't a personal attack on you. Don't get offended and take a breath.

GK are a good CC to mid-range army and definitely to me define what a jack-of-trades army should be since almost every single unit is a psyker, has a force weapon, and a storm bolt/psycannon. They are also more mobile than people think since they are an army that utilize deep strike and teleporting which is where I think GK really shines. Want to push your enemy? Arrive with a whole bunch of units in their face. Need to bolster defenses? Deep strike them in to help out your backfield. The problem is just being able to shoot from long range, they aren't an army that sits back to shoot.

To me an army that plays like this but fills in the gaps of long range are the Space Wolves which I almost started instead of GK but this was when their 5th edition codex dropped. But SW Long Fangs are beastly little units and then drop in Grey Hunters and DS hammer and shield termies to pressure your opponent. I am thinking of picking them up actually.

I use Imperial Fists and I want to use an Imperial Knight for better range and some more anti-armor to fill in the gaps for GK.

Awesome. This thread has been super helpful to me.

A pro and con list of every army being the eventual outcome.

Abzapp wrote:
Awesome. This thread has been super helpful to me.

A pro and con list of every army being the eventual outcome.

What are you thinking of going with? (I'm just wondering how everyone's opinions have affected yours)

To be honest Im still quite far from making a decision but I think Im leaning towards DE.

I was thinking of SOB for a while but their price and my aversion to their fluff make them unlikely.

Grey knights are are awesome and have some of the coolest and most detailed models in the game but again suffer from the same zealous fluff as the SOB.

Necron sound fun but their lack of diversity and slowness make put them down a peg in my list.

Eldar are cool and I love the models and the fluff but they dont seem that fun to play in casual games. Especially with the amount of popularity they have right now. They just wouldnt be as fun to me.

DE seem really intersting and unique. They are lighting fast and have a whole load of tricks up their sleeves. They have paper for armor and some of their models are a little creepy but still seem fun to paint.

Any other suggested ones that Im missing? Or that people want to weigh in on?

Also thank you changerofways, for giving your opinion on my numerous posts and being so helpful in my decision.

Oh man, I read this thread part way down and saw that you said

"I want to bring my enemies down in a hail of short-range gun-fire"
and then you said "I want to play using smart tactics and mobility"

I think that describes the Dark Eldar exactly. I have played a few games with them on vassal, and it's very fun and rewarding to play and win with them. Although, things can easily take a turn for the negative. You have to balance getting in close enough to shoot and do damage, but must also make the best use of positioning and cover.

If you do want to go into Dark Eldar and want to talk tactics, DakkaDakka is frankly a poor place to do that. Here is a website dedicated totally to Dark Eldar. Great community.

http://www.thedarkcity.net/