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hey all, i have tried numerous times in the past to pick up 40k and failed to get far. with 8th just around the corner i am looking to make a fresh start with the game.

in the past i had picked up some necrons but i am not sure they are the right army for me.

the armies i like the look of at the moment are T'au, Chaos (death guard, thousand sons and daemons), Space Wolves, and Drukhari

now while i know the look of the models is very important for me the play style is equally important. as far as the models go i would say T'au are my favorite but i fear they are just completely a shooting army and that just doesnt sound all that interesting to me..

as far as play style goes in other games i tend to pick the side that has tricks.. i like to mess with the enemy models (my favorite malifaux master is pandora) so things like debuffing or conditions. i don't know if these kinds of things are in 40k? i also like a decent amount of flexability. i don't expect an army thats great at everything but something that can melee and shoot decently

Hey! Welcome back to the hobby, glad you're giving it another try like a lot of other people.

The thing with T'au is that they are incredibly shooty, but they don't have to be a gunline. They can be incredibly mobile, while being shooty. I've heard their auxilleries (Kroot and Vespids) have been buffed as well, so the melee within the army isn't as bad.

But if you want a good mix of shooting and melee, I'd say Space Wolves are your best bet. They have some incredible melee units combined with the decent shooting of any Space Marine army.

Go wolves melee seems viable again.

If you're a fan of tricks, debuffing conditions and don't mind being pretty glass cannon then Dark Eldar (well, Drukhari) sound right up your street. Plenty of shooting and melee units in here as well.

Death Guard also seem to be heading down the route debuffs and shooting/melee, albeit advancing slowly to close the distance.

Wolves can offer you a lot of flexibility. Iv'e got a sizable army of them and have always found success and that they're rewarding to play with.

Hmmm, it's hard to say right now as the lists are stopgaps.

T'au are a little one dimensional, that's generally a given. You can build around it, but that might frustrate you. Same with with space wolves.

Dark eldar seem a solid fit, they tend to be more scalpel than hammer, with nifty tricks and a mix of mobile shooting and fast melee. However, the current list doesn't have a ton of actual tricks to it. Allied harlequins and even craftworld eldar (particularly psykers) can help for now, until proper codexes come.

A mix of harlequins and dark eldar is, if I had to guess, probably going to be the closest to what you want in the long term. Note that dark eldar don't really suffer from harlequin allies, as each of their HQs tends to be buff a specific part of their army, as they have three keywords where many armies have one.

The other option for what you described is probably unified chaos, meaning CSM+chaos demons. Tzeentch, Slannesh, and Nurgle units in both armies have probably the most deverse set of bonuses and penalties from a relatively self contained set of armies. But this leans pretty heavy on the demons, you'd likely have some shooty death guard to back up the melee demons, with psychics drawing from all five lists. As for how this goes long term... hard to say.

Of course self contained CSM can do both shooty and choppy with a few additional tricks, so that does work. Demons just open up a lot more options. DG are also rumored to get one of the early codexes which could allieviate that.

So my vote goes dark eldar/CSM (DG probably), with harlequin/craftworld or demon allies respectively.

With the removal of JSJ, Tau lost a fair bit of their mobility, and seem to be forced even more into a stationary gunline, sadly. If you're looking for a mix I'd probably go with Space Marines of either flavor.

In a lot of cases they're arguably better at shooting than the Tau now, and far, far more flexible.

Drukhari seem like the closest thing to what you want from that list. They're very high-risk high-reward, have tricks aplenty up their sleeves and they seem good at shooting and close combat in the new edition.

Marines, Chaos (until Thousand Sons get their update, at least) and T'au seem a bit too straightforward for what you say you tend to play, IMO.

Hmm so based on what people have said I think chaos or drukhari will probably be my thing. How are they both looking for 8th?

No one honestly knows till they've had a chance to play.

hobojebus wrote:
No one honestly knows till they've had a chance to play.

Exalted for truth.

nataku17 wrote:
Hmm so based on what people have said I think chaos or drukhari will probably be my thing. How are they both looking for 8th?

A general looks says both armies are fine. It's hard to nail anything down this early. I think CSM generally got a better deal this edition, dark eldar still have some notable issues with expensive but fragile troops (mitigated by fast killy transports and/or going covens) and poison is no longer as great as it once was. But these are just first impressions, 8th edition isn't even technically out yet.

Should choose Drew Carey, they have the most enemy tricks and versatile gameplay.

Dark Eldar are supposed to be amazing now per the the play testers over at Frontline Gaming.

Dark Eldar have some of the most beautiful models in all of GW. And with the Gang of Commoragh box is dirty cheap to have a Dark Eldar army.

Go CSM! I played* with them yesterday and they are a lot of fun
*Manager has the indexes out and allowing people to play with the new rules

They are really fun. And if you want flexibility, apart from normal marines they are probably as flexible as you can get

If you are just starting, then Space Marines is your best bet.
They have the largest variety of units and models.
The starter set with all those nice Primaris Marines is the best way to go.

jcd386 wrote:
Dark Eldar are supposed to be amazing now per the the play testers over at Frontline Gaming.

They are decent, not 'meta' but definitely not bad. Lots of debuffs against them, lots of invulns (almost every vehicle, if not every vehicle) and they are very fast, with almost everything CQC having at least a rend of -1 in combat. Dark lances are good too.

Imperial Guard is quickly shaping up to be the top dogs this time around - albeit, infantry swarm instead of armored company. Leman Russ are looking to be all around pretty weak.

I'd like to see Dark Eldar do well though, they were always pretty cool. As gummyofallbears said though, they don't appear to be meta defining, perhaps just middle of the road "solid".

Ultimately, you can never go wrong with any sort of Imperium as your army - Imperial forces get all the latest models, rules, updates, and buffs. Xenos, well, I hope you like the fluff - Xenos never get anything good, and haven't since the end of rogue trader days. Plus, as an "Imperium" army, all of their models and units are compatible. Go wild, build any sort of army combination you can imagine.

fe40k wrote:
Ultimately, you can never go wrong with any sort of Imperium as your army - Imperial forces get all the latest models, rules, updates, and buffs. Xenos, well, I hope you like the fluff - Xenos never get anything good, and haven't since the end of rogue trader days. Plus, as an "Imperium" army, all of their models and units are compatible. Go wild, build any sort of army combination you can imagine.

Okay, I'm the first person to bitch about Imperium/Space Marine spank on GW's part, but lets be serious for a minute.

Imperial forces get all the latest models, rules, updates, and buffs.

Sisters of Battle say "hello". Imperial Guard have had a pretty typical update schedule and haven't been top-tier since 4th.

Xenos never get anything good

Tau say "hello" and so do the Eldar.