Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi all, I'm getting a little tired of my Flesh Eater Courts (I've found big hordes aren't really my thing) and I'm looking at doing another faction. Problem is, I am insanely indecisive (some of you may already know this from frequent 40k posts ).

Since I don't like a horde type army, I want something closer to an elite army. But, being a very picky person, I don't like how Ironjawz look (I was never a big fan of Orks) or how Beastclaws look. I did consider ye olde Stormcasts, but I feel I'd get insanely bored with painting them since I hate painting armor (reason I don't like painting Space Marines in 40k), or at the very least cut a lot of corners and make them look like gak. I'd prefer something other than Order because I'm not big on Seraphon or Sylvaneth.

Do I have any options or should I re-evaluate my aesthetics? I was curious about Nurgle but I really want a mixed warband (I had wanted an oldschool Realm of Chaos vibe), and that doesn't seem quite possible due to Matched Play (which I have to keep in mind as this is an army to game with, not for display on a shelf). Could I do a solid mix of Daemons + Mortals that had an elite vibe, but doesn't use summoning (which I'm not at all fond of and is a big reason why I dislike Death).

Elite army? Hmm.. how about the everchosen? Varanguard are ridiculously good, though pricey. A couple of those with a gaunt summoner and some added chaos units and your have an elite army. However, demons play like horde armies. Nice thing about chaos is everything fits together well I appearance and function.

Otherwise I'd go with stormcast or seraphon. They look amazing and are an absolute blast to play. Lots of synergy in theit rules. You can also paint the stormcast however you want. Orcs are green with colored war paint... you could paint stormcast units all green with splashes of color too. Think of the minis as a canvass and not just armor.

Mixed Chaos is more than possible under Matched Play - you can even incorporate Skaven if you wanted to.

Perhaps start off with some Chaos Warriors, add the odd Varanguard and some Bullgors, and you would be well on your way to a small but elite mixed force...

Not too fond of Archaeon's boys, but they aren't off the table either (also someone else has the Archaeon model, not that I would field him). I'm mainly worried about Stormcast suffering from Space Marine syndrome and being frustrating to paint, but I think I might try to get that "getting started" magazine with the free Liberator just to see how painting them feels (I tried an experiment with a spare Space Marine, but the visuals are really different), but I do really like how they look and I actually like the fluff for them, but I'm worried about "samey" look and boring paint scheme.

Nurgle is still kinda my go-to because I think they would look super cool and be really fun to paint (like, I think I'd actually be excited about painting them, while with Stormcasts I think all the armor wouldn't be fun), but I'm not sure how to build a mixed force since I like both the daemons and the Blightkings/Rotbringers, but Rotbringers don't seem fleshed out enough on their own, but with Chaos I'd feel a lot more comfortable fielding an alliance than I felt with Death.

Nurgle can do a really elite army, but you'd have to fiddle with the list. Pure Nurgle Glottkin is pretty elite - you really only have Blightkings and the big gribblies to choose from.

Mixed Nurgle could be good. Chaos Warriors/Plaguebearers as Battleline, Knights/Blightkings/Drones as Elite dudes, backed up with a GUO/Glottkin/Maggoth Lord. Maybe a couple Plague Claws on the back side. I'd have to fiddle with it to make a reasonable list, but I think it could be fluffy and still work.

You can add to the nurgle theme with chariots pulled by old nurgle beasts and make knights with undead like mounts.lots of cool ways to model the mortals to be more demonic.

Well elite you could go warherds. At 1000 points you can get 11 models. At 2000 it goes up to 22 for my list.

Slaves to darkness are great for making a core of a chaos force and at 180 points for 10 warriors are elite for battleline. The warrior models are in rather rigid poses (designed to rank up), but a few bits from bigger things or spawn solves that nicely.

Chaos is definitely fun to paint and invites conversion, so a great choice if you're worried about getting bored.

I'm actually doing something similar for a 'winter project'. I'm working on a cav/fast based Slaves to Darkness army with Chaos Knights as its core and a Lord on Steed and mounted Sorcerer at its head, with supporting gorebeast chariots, a warshrine or two, ranged maruader horsemen, and maybe a war mammoth. Very much on the elite side of things (5 knights are 200 points) and way different to what I usually play with my duardin/human-focused Order.

ninjaDance wrote:
I'm actually doing something similar for a 'winter project'. I'm working on a cav/fast based Slaves to Darkness army with Chaos Knights as its core and a Lord on Steed and mounted Sorcerer at its head, with supporting gorebeast chariots, a warshrine or two, ranged maruader horsemen, and maybe a war mammoth. Very much on the elite side of things (5 knights are 200 points) and way different to what I usually play with my duardin/human-focused Order.

Mounted StD would be what I played if I went Chaos, honestly. The only downside is that it keeps you from getting stuff from other Chaos armies since Knights are only battleline if you're StD Allegiance. Still, it's a solid army by itself imo.

Requizen wrote:

Mounted StD would be what I played if I went Chaos, honestly. The only downside is that it keeps you from getting stuff from other Chaos armies since Knights are only battleline if you're StD Allegiance. Still, it's a solid army by itself imo.

Yeah, it's one of those where that's where I'll start, but almost certainly eventually expand a bit sooner or later. I already have a bunch of brayherd and warherd stuff sitting around waiting to paint, but can't bring myself to do a bunch more shirtless guys right now after Fyrseslayers and some ogors (painting flesh gets a little old). Plus, the sorcerer can summon in daemons to change things up a bit without losing their allegiance.

ninjaDance wrote:

Requizen wrote:

Mounted StD would be what I played if I went Chaos, honestly. The only downside is that it keeps you from getting stuff from other Chaos armies since Knights are only battleline if you're StD Allegiance. Still, it's a solid army by itself imo.

Yeah, it's one of those where that's where I'll start, but almost certainly eventually expand a bit sooner or later. I already have a bunch of brayherd and warherd stuff sitting around waiting to paint, but can't bring myself to do a bunch more shirtless guys right now after Fyrseslayers and some ogors (painting flesh gets a little old). Plus, the sorcerer can summon in daemons to change things up a bit without losing their allegiance.

Yeah totally! Not to mention you can summon stuff like Seekers, Drones, Bloodcrushers, and Chariots to keep up the mounted theme.

Mixed Nurgle using mortals and daemons is very viable, especially in an Epidemius list. Both Glotkin and Orgotts Daemonspew have command abilities that affect any Nurgle model, and the former is ludicrously undercosted for their power.

Really as it stands right now (although I might stick with FEC a bit longer) a new army is likely to either be Stormcasts or Nurgle (Daemons + Mortals). On one hand, the way the Stormcasts look is pretty darn cool, but I hate painting Space Marines with their flat armor so I'm not sure if I'get bored of the Stormcasts too because it's 90% armor (although at least it has actual edges).

The Nurgle force I know I'd love to paint because I can have a variety of models but use a similar palette to have a unified theme across the army, but I'm certain to want to go mono-Nurgle which would limit what I can take (although also include things like Pestilens if I desired)

Mono-god is perfectly viable.

Forgive my ignorance, but why hasn't anyone mentioned aelfs? Are they not elite, is it it just the "no order" qualifier?

 Bloviator wrote:
Forgive my ignorance, but why hasn't anyone mentioned aelfs? Are they not elite, is it it just the "no order" qualifier?

Good question, it's mainly that I want to wait and see what they do with them, since it seems like the faction is going to be redone (although no idea when, not until next year)

I was going to say Icewind Assault when I read your title. Then I read you don't want Beastclaw since you doin't like how they look.

But I am still going to say Icewind Assault. Why? Because I didn't like how Beastclaw looked, but I love the Ice/snow look on them. Just looks freaking awesome.

So how about Icewind Assault?

Davor wrote:
I was going to say Icewind Assault when I read your title. Then I read you don't want Beastclaw since you doin't like how they look.

But I am still going to say Icewind Assault. Why? Because I didn't like how Beastclaw looked, but I love the Ice/snow look on them. Just looks freaking awesome.

So how about Icewind Assault?

LOL there are a few people at my area who have Beastclaws, not sure about Icewind Assault.