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Hello all! I have had a two year hiatus from the game, largely due to work related stuff. I am looking to get back into the game and eventually return to tournaments. I am looking for advice as to which army I should play and maybe some reasons why. Below are the armies i either currently own or have an interest in playing. Thanks for taking a look!

Astra Militarum
Space Wolves
Death Guard
Marines

Interested in but no models:
Chaos Daemons
Tau

One consideration is which one you'd enjoy painting more. If painting hordes of dudes and lots of tanks is not your thing, avoid Imperial Guard (or whatever they're calling it these days). If you have problems getting a smooth, even, and good-looking coat of a given color (whites, yellows, and black give many people problems), avoid Space Marine armies that use that color a lot.

You'll be spending a fair amount of time painting your army; don't cripple yourself by choosing an army you'll hate painting even if it otherwise seems to be a perfect choice.

Thanks for the reply. I don't mind painting so that's not really an issue for me. The armies I own are mostly painted with a few touch ups required. Tau or daemons would require a completely new army and painting effort.

Absolutely no information given to help anybody with your decision. So I rolled a die that was sitting in front of me, with one facing for each of your six options in order.

I got a 2. So, my advice is to play Space Wolves.

Good luck.

 crouching lictor wrote:
Hello all! I have had a two year hiatus from the game, largely due to work related stuff. I am looking to get back into the game and eventually return to tournaments. I am looking for advice as to which army I should play and maybe some reasons why. Below are the armies i either currently own or have an interest in playing. Thanks for taking a look!

Astra Militarum
Space Wolves
Death Guard
Marines

Interested in but no models:
Chaos Daemons
Tau

Prior to the FAQ probably Astra Militarum were the best/most powerful list (especially combines with Imperial Knights...) and of your list Tau probably second best. (This may change now, but it is still too soon to really tell)
Wolves, Daemons etc. are combat armies in an edition designed for shooting.

Death Guard practically requres Mortarion & Bunches of Poxwalkers for a competative list.

Marines of all kinds die really easily this edition, and do not tend to have enough firepower to remove hordes of Guardsmen/Orks/... etc. Quite often @ Tournaments you might see lists with 100+ models at 2k points. (ALthough the new Beta Bolters rule in the April 19 FAQ might help slightly with this).

 The Forgemaster wrote:

Death Guard practically requres Mortarion & Bunches of Poxwalkers for a competative list.

That's just wrong. Death Guard have had tons of success without these models, hell I'd even say more success.

 crouching lictor wrote:
Hello all! I have had a two year hiatus from the game, largely due to work related stuff. I am looking to get back into the game and eventually return to tournaments. I am looking for advice as to which army I should play and maybe some reasons why. Below are the armies i either currently own or have an interest in playing. Thanks for taking a look!

Astra Militarum
Space Wolves
Death Guard
Marines

Interested in but no models:
Chaos Daemons
Tau

Astra Militarum and Tau both play very well and strongly right up to high level competitive play pretty much as you would think they should from the book Both very shooty, both will tempt you to play in a static gunline, neither really requires you to play that static gunline (although arguably Tau are better in the more mobile style than AM).

Space Wolves and Marines are in a funny place right now and tend to hit a hard ceiling of how good they can get - you do see the occasional good result from playing those armies but I'd say they are not really working on the table like you think they should. There will probably be a new SM codex along in a few months and that might shake them right up.

Death Guard and Chaos Daemons probably play quite well together, they can mix and match and this seems to be the way that most chaos players end up running their armies.

Honestly if I had those existing armies I would start back into 8th with the AM and see how it goes, if they feel a bit too boring and static but you are happy enough not going heavy on the fight phase then that would be a good hint to consider Tau. You might just end up loving it in the Guard, in which case you are in luck because they are one of the stronger factions in 8th and have a bunch of good options.

 SHUPPET wrote:
Absolutely no information given to help anybody with your decision. So I rolled a die that was sitting in front of me, with one facing for each of your six options in order.

I got a 2. So, my advice is to play Space Wolves.

Good luck.

What other information do you think would be helpful? I mentioned that I have been away from the game, I intend to eventually play competitively and I listed the armies that I have or am interested in.

I am leaning towards Astra Militarum, probably Tallarn or maybe Catachan. I prefer some mobility instead of a static gun line type army.

You just said return to tournaments, people of all aspirations attend tournaments. Most people explain a bit more in depth what sort of army they are looking to play. If you just want the strongest competitive army, of the ones you listed it's AM or Tau. Decide which one you like the look of better or whether or not you want to play Imperium or whatever sort of thing influences that decision I guess. But don't be surprised if the tiers look completely different by the time you've finished building your army.

For me the most important question is always; "how do you want the army to play?"

You have tough shooty armies. And wimpy shooty armies. Plus death guard who I don't think shoot much, and deamons who really aren't very good at shooting.

What play style are you looking for?

I don't know the contents of your armies, can't really speak to what is best.

In terms of likelihood that your army is competitive I"d say it's Astra Militarum>Death Guard>Space marines>Space Wolves, but your Astra Militarum list could be like a tempestus force with valkyries and your marines could be a perfect competitive guilliguns list, so I don't know.

I have a lot of Guard and can field most options outside of Forge World stuff. I am looking at playing a primarily shooting based army but not a static gun line and a little close combat capability mixed in. My initial thoughts center around a trio of Tank Commanders, some infantry squads with company commanders backed up by some artillery and Bullgryns. Initially, I'd like to stay faction pure but I know there is value added by including some smash captains and assassins.

Welcome back.

Peronaly really like spacewolves because space vikings are friggin awesome. Defo an army id like to have if I had inifinte resource.
Also demons are pretty bad ass too imo. Id like an army of those.

From a compatative standpoint, with the amount of changes coming out of FAQ's & CA the meta could very easily change by the time you get a beardy army list painted. (depending on your standards & speed of course). So whats strong today might not be strong in 8 months time.

Pragmaticaly dont think you can go wrong with a homebrew SM chapter you can play as xyz along the side of the guard you already have. (pretty sure you can do that at tourneys as long as the units themselves are WYSIWYG?). Seems to fit the bill of the mixed of shooty/CC.

Bottom line is pick the one that you think is most coola nd will give you most enjoyment building/painting/convering and fielding.

Wish you luck!

 crouching lictor wrote:
Hello all! I have had a two year hiatus from the game, largely due to work related stuff. I am looking to get back into the game and eventually return to tournaments. I am looking for advice as to which army I should play and maybe some reasons why. Below are the armies i either currently own or have an interest in playing. Thanks for taking a look!

Astra Militarum
Space Wolves
Death Guard
Marines

Interested in but no models:
Chaos Daemons
Tau

If you're looking for competitive, Go guard they are good tournament wise but not the must have outside of soup heavy allied lists. As a mono dex they are strong though.

Marines, Space wolves are fun but you'll be pushing stuff up hill to use them in tournaments and win aside from cheeky G man lists.

Deathguard can be pretty good but you'd need some of the new models to be really high end operating.

I think Imperial Guard are your best bet, but that is just my opinion YMMV, and if you want to use Knights, Guard are the go to ally for command point batteries which may be less needed now but still nice to have and to bubble wrap your really really big men.

Honestly they are all fun armies though, I have them all in fact..oh and Deathguard can have nurglings, blessed be the little nurgling..am I right ?

 crouching lictor wrote:
I have a lot of Guard and can field most options outside of Forge World stuff. I am looking at playing a primarily shooting based army but not a static gun line and a little close combat capability mixed in. My initial thoughts center around a trio of Tank Commanders, some infantry squads with company commanders backed up by some artillery and Bullgryns. Initially, I'd like to stay faction pure but I know there is value added by including some smash captains and assassins.

Sounds like you want to run a terditional combined arms force. I think the guard do that better than anyone else. Space Marines can do it, but not as well and Tau can do it, with more strenght and longer average range but poor CC and no artillery.

Imperial guard is what you want.

I think Guard is what I am going with for now. I'll probably reevaluate once I get more experience with 8th edition.

Thanks for all of the constructive feedback and ideas.

Now, on to figuring out a list!