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So I am looking to field another army to battle. I am really looking to mix things up a bit and have more fun then competitive play. What can I look at expecting with Dark Eldar, Eldar, or Chaos Marines? Which one offers more a unique play experience and fun then the other? I just wanna something different then guard. Thank you.

Dark Eldar is going to be very different than guard. Their mobility will really make it feel different. Although some similarities are vehicle dependent and low toughness.

Eldar are also faster and their army can be built in many different ways while still giving you an enjoyable gaming experience. They are not a mono-build army. Almost all of their units are good and serve their purpose. Also you can really have a powerful presence in the psychic phase.

Chaos marines are basically space marines with less powerful guns but with access to a couple cool daemon tools. Daemon Princes are cool, Chaos spawn and sorcerers on bikes are good. The helldrake is still pretty good. Andsince you arent looking for competitive, it's safe to keep this option open.

But really if you are just looking for fun, I'd go with the army you think looks the coolest, and which army you would like to embody.

I second the notion of just going with what you like most. All 3 will play differently than guard.
Although I would imagine that CSM have the most potential for mixing it up between them , daemons and renegades & heretics. And also having the most support from Forge World.

Neither is likely to get any codex soon, except maybe.... and that's one big ass maybe, Tzeentch daemonkin.

Those could be interesting.

Dark Eldar have been described as '40k on hard mode.' Not horribly inaccurate. That being said, I picked them up after playing SM for years, and I've got a passion for them that I never had for my Salamanders. They are easily my favorite army.

 Jimsolo wrote:
Dark Eldar have been described as '40k on hard mode.' Not horribly inaccurate. That being said, I picked them up after playing SM for years, and I've got a passion for them that I never had for my Salamanders. They are easily my favorite army.

I felt the same way, but my first love was Tau. I particularly love the Haemonculus Covens supplement when running dark eldar. Deep striking two large squads of grotesques in your opponents back field is sooooooo much fun.

How about a hybrid? Eldar+DE+Harlequins? You can get a little taste of everything, including the psychic phase, and expand your 40k palate.

DirtyDeeds wrote:

 Jimsolo wrote:
Dark Eldar have been described as '40k on hard mode.' Not horribly inaccurate. That being said, I picked them up after playing SM for years, and I've got a passion for them that I never had for my Salamanders. They are easily my favorite army.

I felt the same way, but my first love was Tau. I particularly love the Haemonculus Covens supplement when running dark eldar. Deep striking two large squads of grotesques in your opponents back field is sooooooo much fun.

One day, I will WWP in a full Grotesquerie, with 20 ravenous, steroid crazed meat devils on the drop. It's going to be epic.

I know that chaos gets cultists and daemons with summoning and all that sweet stuff. I have been thinking of just using my old custom wolves army as a proxy for chaos and just buying the codex and model sets here and there. Just to see how I will enjoy them.

As for Dark Eldar they are sounding more and more the interesting army! So I am able to join together Eldar and Dark Eldar for battles like space marines and guard? What fun neat trick/tactics can I pull off with the Dark Eldar? I know they are fast army so it will be getting use to for that. I didnt realize they could deep assault effeciently. I have never played against the dark eldar before. I just wanna have some good fun playing wildly and it kinda seems dark eldar offer a bit of that haha. Thanks again gentleman!

 Greyguy13 wrote:
I know that chaos gets cultists and daemons with summoning and all that sweet stuff. I have been thinking of just using my old custom wolves army as a proxy for chaos and just buying the codex and model sets here and there. Just to see how I will enjoy them.

As for Dark Eldar they are sounding more and more the interesting army! So I am able to join together Eldar and Dark Eldar for battles like space marines and guard? What fun neat trick/tactics can I pull off with the Dark Eldar? I know they are fast army so it will be getting use to for that. I didnt realize they could deep assault effeciently. I have never played against the dark eldar before. I just wanna have some good fun playing wildly and it kinda seems dark eldar offer a bit of that haha. Thanks again gentleman!

They have ways to deepstrike and not scatter at all, but they do not have ways to deepstrike and assault the same turn.

Well, CSM also have methods to deepstrike and not scatter at all, and daemonkin even get a formation to do this and assault.

But all of those methods either only work under specific conditions or are expensive.

CSM can deepstrike accurately ARMYWIDE, with a relic. That's very difficult to setup though, like pure luck outside of an apocalypse game where you get to choose when reserves come in.
They also can use a Kharybdis from forgeworld (basically a drop pod), which scatters normally but doesn't mishap. The scatter doesn't really matter though as you can still flat out 18" from wherever you landed and then still move 6" the next turn, then disembark 6" and assault.
The daemonkin formation puts 20 Khorne Berzerkers into this thing and lets them assault turn 1. This is super expensive though, both in game and actual money. It's like 600+ points or so just for that.

If you mix with or play daemons, then their icons allow certain units to not scatter near the icon. The same goes for khorne daemonkin. You could mass deepstrike and then deepstrike near icons you just deepstriked and not scatter.

They might have apocalypse formations that have some deepstrike shenanigens, but I don't play apocalypse so I wouldn't know.

We also get an assault vehicle flyer with a 20 man capacity that can also deepstrike. It can get outflank too.
We have the odd deepstriking walker. So yea, chaos also has plenty ways to get stuck in deep fast.