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So I'm looking to start a second army, because I want to compose a whole force form start to finish, and paint a unified army (I got a large chunk of my orks prepainted on ebay for cheap? I'm really happy with them, just want a new faction to try). I also realize that orks aren't the most competitive army (for tourneys), so I want to build an army that I can use at a tourney and be proud of all the work I put in painting it myself.

There are several guidelines that I have for picking. I don't want Dark Eldar, CSM, Daemons, or Sisters of Battle. I just don't like their fluff at all. Some things that I want in my army is decent/good shooting (I want to be the one actually killing stuff with shooting for once!). I would also like at least one unit to be really good in close combat. Like, among the best in the game. I know orks are good in combat, but their elites can often crumble to other elites. I want a unit in my army that reaches my opponent's line and mows through stuff. I'm not sure what the play styles for all the armies are, but I'd like something like this for mine. Speed, good characters (I like buffing guys, but absolute beat sticks are also near the top), and a variety if options are also semi-important. I'

m open to any ideas for armies that might fit that build style. So far the things I've thought of potentially fitting my preferences are: Tau (all except melee, which is pretty important to me), Necrons (I don't know much, but they look like they have some good shooting and CC, and also some good characters), or Space Wolves (a bit lower on shooting, but some absolute beasts in CC). All advice is appreciated, even with an army not on this list!

I'd say Wolves looks pretty good for what you want.

From the little I know of Necrons, the units are individually strong but they don't do buffs to help each other out. I'd actually suggest something like Blood Angels. It wouldn't be difficult to play them focussed on shooting even though their strength is in melee. Fast tank types, nearly all the toys that vanilla Space Marines have other than the Centurians and Stormtalons, and between Dante and other Captain builds, there's your beatsstick while Death Company or Sanguinary Guard are your battering ram. Buffs come in the form of Librarians and Sanguinary Priests and even Chaplains have their place with Death Company. Bikes are perfectly usable but Jump Packs are the best flavor and if you are looking for more shooting and less melee, the Flesh Tearers Detachment in Exterminatus doesn't give the Initiative 5 buff but also doesn't require two troop slots. One troop, one Fast Attack, one HQ.

definatly sounds like you're looking at Marines of some sort of another.

BrianDavion wrote:
definatly sounds like you're looking at Marines of some sort of another.

What is the melee beatstick unit for marines? Assault marines? I'd really like a unit like that of some kind...

@SharkoutaWata, on the topic of Necrons, I wasn't talking about units buffing each other, but characters buffing units. I'll have to ask if I can borrow my friend's blood angels sometime because that sounds like a pretty neat play style.

(Sidenote: in my meta, there is already a blood angels player, so I can just borrow his army if I want to play blood angels. The ideas I had were for armies that aren't really in my meta, so I could bring a bit of variety to the group)

BA beatstick marines do well, so do SW. Honestly, Chapter Master on a bike with relic is usually how people run beat sticks. Perhaps White Scars if you want a lot of mobile CC and shooty goodness?

Good guns, murderous melee, powerful characters, speed. Consider Eldar/DE? Both are nightmarishly fast, overloaded with guns, and can run brutal/terrifying elite melee units; keep in mind that they're fragile by comparison to Marines, though. Beatstick characters aren't SM-level one-round everything badasses but they can pick apart a lot of targets.

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in seriousness though, I would honestly recommend trying out either the BA, the DA(lackluster but sooooo much cool), or SW(special snowflakes, even more so than BA)

BA- only dex to have heavy flamers available to our tac squads (yay), its assault, so we can then take advantage of our FC rules.
also, due to FC, we are slightly better in CC (at least for a turn) than any other marines out there, as long as you get the charge, and with BA CC units, you should be.

Dark Eldar is out of the question... I hate the fluff, and I'm rivals with the local Dark Eldar player. The problem I have with blood angels is that they are a bit too assaulty. I also am good friends with the local Blood Angels player, who I play pretty often, so a second BA army in our smallish group is probably overkill.

SW seems like the best assault element force, with TW cavalry, but I'm really fond of the way Necrons look, and they also have some great melee units (or so I've heard). Tau are kind of cool, but have absolutely no melee, so a little bit harder to choose.

Those 3 factions are really the ones I'm considering. While blood angels, and all the others may be good, I can borrow my friends' armies if I want to use those armies, and I don't want to step on toes around my gaming group by starting those armies (I also don't really love the models which is important). Thanks anyway for the feedback about BA etc.

Some Qs I have which would help me compare (among the 3) and decide are:
Which race (Necrons, or SW) has the best beatstick character?
Which race has the best assault unit?
Overall, which race is the toughest to bring down (I should add this to the OP, I don't really like easy to kill guys for this army, I have my orks for that)?
Which race has the best average shooting?
What ranges (long, mid, CC) do the armies most excel at?

Thanks for the help and continued feedback!