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Heya there guys!

I recently got a good deal on some Chaos Space Marines, and decided instead of selling these units off, I wanted to trade up for a new army. I've always been a mediocre painter at best, but I'm not opposed to it. So I was wondering if you guys could give me some advice on armies?

I really like the the look of CSM, Tau, IG, and some SM armies if some of these guys weren't painted I in Khorne fashion I'd probably jump on this wagon. So I have a lot to think about, I've watched some Batreps, seen some games, etc.

I figure I should seek some council before I make a big decision and regret it later. Here are what I have at the moment, I have a horrible Space Marine Land Raider, some IG tank, and whole bunch of chaos on me at the moment if you want to see.

http://s284.photobucket.com/user/Bluhtsturm/library/?sort=9&page=1

Once I decide what I even want I'll probably be looking to trade off some of these units. But if you guys dont mind the chatting I'd like that, and it'll give me a chance to get to know some of you

I think the most important thing to an army, especially the first one, is that you like the aesthetic.

Secondly, you need to figure out what playstyle you favor, and then look for an army that works well with that.

I would have recommended Necrons if you're not that great of a painter, drop in silver done

Agree with Talys, pick the army that you like the look of and do your research. For example, Imperial Guard do gunline extremely well, but if your idea of fun isn't sitting back and shooting, then you'll want to look else where.

Well looks alone I like Tzeentch CSM, Tau, and IG. I also think the Shitarii look cool as a supplemental force.

 Sanguinetempest wrote:
Well looks alone I like Tzeentch CSM, Tau, and IG. I also think the Shitarii look cool as a supplemental force.

Wow, huge variation of look between those armies.
Not narrowing down your esthetic or game style preferences.
I have or had all these armies... so I will see what I can do:

CSM : Tzeentch: low model count expensive, durable mystic Egyptian marines, royal blue and yellow/gold.

Tau: Gundam, Japanese culture esthetic, stomping cool robots with much shooting, kroot for some peasant / barbarian flavor for the Samurai.

IG: Any historical or present real world army you want. They are the Joe human, quantity has a quality all it's own.

Skitarii: Gypsy mystical tech priests. They are the mobile arm of Mars: travel light, be prepared, record everything, knowledge is power, trust (revere) your war gear (implants). Oh and rust red, lots of it and steel... rust and dust (not to be confused with a Necron and Thousand sons team-up though!)

If I was to do it again, probably Tau.
Really do not like the flimsy feet of the suits though.
They have a consistency of esthetic in their tech that looks great and all the more jarring with their Kroot and Vespid friends.
They have a little bit of everything that seems more integrated than the IG mish-mash.

I can only recommend Eldar or Necrons at this point.

Neither eldar nor necrons. Literally anything else is good. You want friends, don't you?

 Sanguinetempest wrote:
Well looks alone I like Tzeentch CSM, Tau, and IG. I also think the Shitarii look cool as a supplemental force.

Of those four I would say Daemons is the strongest with Daemon Factory to keep summoning units and dominate the Psychic Phase but Daemons as a whole are extremely expensive to collect.
Tau and IG have decent Codexes too. Skitari I'm yet to face but they seem quite vicious, particularly when allied with SM.
CSM is unfortunately perceived at the bottom of the barrel from those choices. That said, I have seen people do well with them.

Honestly, I would go with Space Marines. They have an awesome codex, with lots of replay value. Just build a small marine army to start and then go with whatever your heart desires! Plus easy tradability means you can pick them up cheap and expanding your army is no problem. If you get tired of them, well trade em off to the next new or returning player.

Or do one better and paint them Sons of Medusa colors and trade em to me when you're done with them! Mwuha!

Agree with Talys, pick the army that you like the look of and do your research. For example, Imperial Guard do gunline extremely well, but if your idea of fun isn't sitting back and shooting, then you'll want to look else where.

As a matter of fact, IG has many to play with, from blob to admech and include aerial assault or armoured battle groupe (moar TANKS). You can have a blast in conversions if you feel to really get involve in your army and - it's a good point - you can find second hand tanks/vehicules pretty much everywere on the Internet.

I have to recognize IG current codex is not the most original nor powerful but, again, if you really want to, you can build a very cool army, both pleasant to watch and to play on the tabletop.

Obviously, I'm not really objective but it's just my opinion =).

using your current models, you can easily run them as space marines with a minimum of effort. personally, I prefer tau, more because I'm a sucker for powered armor and I dislike the SM stuff more than anything else. Also, when you choose the esthetic that you like, remember that there is a tremendous amount of customization available to each of the forces that you are interested in - meaning that you can play them reliably just about any way that you want. If you like flyers, Tau, Space Marines and CSM all have viable units for you to choose from. If you like elite forces, CSM have obliterators, SM have sternguard, and tau have Farsight Enclaves. If you want to run unbound, you can do that as well - SM in particular have a really strong unbound option as long as you take Pedro Kantor - which gives Sternguard Obsec (which isn't supposed to be possible when it comes to unbound). Getting CC reliability in Tau is a bit trickier, but it is possible - I've heard of unarmed Crisis suits doing fairly well in CC, as well as reaper suits - suits that function a bit closer to the enemy than you really want them to be (armed with 2 flamers or 2 burst cannons and VRT).

Regardless of which force you choose, you will be able to use whichever tactics you want with that force, is what the TLDR of the above is all about, and I wish you many years of contentment with the hobby.

IG are an army you can seriously grow with. The more you play them the more you will grow with them, discover new tactics. They have many many builds from filling the ground with boots, armored vehicles and tanks everywhere, air force, deep striking tactical units, etc.

I really enjoy my IG since i've started playing them.. also, nobody ever thinks it is a cheesy codex.

After looking over the suggestions I'm thinking I'm going to try trade up to either a SM army or Tau army. I have a small love for the IG playstyle too, but not sure about esthetics.

Thanks guys, if you want to give me a hand in regards to building an actual army I'd appreciate it. PM me and I'll gladly listen