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Hi everyone,

I started 40K back when 5th ed first dropped. I was new to the hobby, new to wargaming, and decided to jump in as fully as I could. I purchased and painted enough Tyranids to field a 2500pt list in a local 'Ard Boyz tournament, and this was really my introduction to the game. I made a 'Nidzilla list with Tyrants, Dakkafexes, Sniperfexes, a couple largish groups of 'stealers, and had a damn good time with the army.

As time went on, I wanted something different, so I started collecting and painting Tau. I built up a force of about 2000pts, and enjoyed them as well, finding them a challenge to play effectively, and enjoying catching people off guard when they expected an easy win.

Fast forward through 6th and 7th, and due to many things like allies in general, min-max 'cheese', and many local players being the type to simply cycle out their FotM unpainted army for the next new hotness when a codex dropped, I really stopped enjoying my gaming experience. I also started feeling burned out on having to constantly buy the new $100 model(s) from GW in order to remain even kind of competitive. I sold my armies and books, and got out of the game.

On the advice of some gaming buddies, I'm strongly considering getting back into 40K, but I haven't kept up with the way armies play these days, and how they interact with the new(ish?) allies system.

I would love to hear your opinions on an army that combines as much of the following as possible:
1. Big, strong, stompy models. I might take a turn or two to get there, but once I do, you're in trouble.
2. An Ally structure that 'makes sense', i.e. not just taken for mechanical advantage. Chaos Marines + Demons, Stealer cult + Nids, SM + IG, that sort of thing.
3. Small to medium model count for an 1850 or 2000pt list. I don't want to paint a billion orks, conscripts, or gaunts.
4. Has the ability to be competitive (if played well) at higher levels of play, while avoiding cheese as much as possible. I want my opponents to have as much fun as I do while we play, not sit there wondering whether they should be calling the TO over.

As to the type of player I am - I'm not much of a power-gamer, but I do like to play each game as though it were a tournament. That being said, I've always tried to avoid spam- and/or net-lists, instead trying to take what I thought would be interesting, unorthodox, and somewhat counter to the existing meta. I don't believe in list-tailoring, and tend to build a Take All Comers list, and play it over and over until I really learn how the units all work together. I also have a tendency to enjoy the 'alien' factions (Nids, Tau, Skaven, Beastmen, Necrons, Combined Army, Tohaa), over the 'core' factions (Space Marines, Empire, PanO).

I'm open to potentially non-standard lists or armies, and I'm not against FW. I'm in a pretty good place financially, and wouldn't mind shelling out for something fun and interesting, assuming it has some staying power.

Thank you in advance! I'm really looking forward to your opinions!

A Daemon army sounds like it might fit your bill. Greater Daemons and Daemon Princes should scratch your itch for big stompy models. Screens of Plaugue Bearers and/or Pink Horrors are pretty effective and a couple of Blood Letter Daemon-bombs will help tackle backfield units or castled armies.

Death Guard can also work well. Daemon Princes, Mortarion etc.

So if you're new to 8th and picking a new army, I think the other thing you need to consider is how much does the idea of Stratagems appeal to you?

Armies now generate a certain number of command points (CP), which kind of replace the old force organisation chart in encouraging troops. There's multiple force org charts, a few troop heavy that look like the old one more or less and a bunch of specialists that are HQ & 3-6 Elite/FA/Heavy Support etc. The troop heavy ones give a lot of CPs, the specialist ones just give 1.

You spend these CP on Stratagems, that are like one-off special rules. A tyranid player might use them to let a unit advance twice or let a unit fight twice in close combat, a tau player might use them to add more markerlight tokens to a sucessful hit or to activate their jetpacks to do the old "jump-shoot-jump" manoeuvre which is no longer standard to the unit type (a few units have had old abilities turned into strats as an anti-spam tactic, you can have a single unit that behaved like they used to at a cost of CP, but not multiple units like that as each Strategem can only be used once each turn).

It's quite a big deal in modern 40K, as queuing up combos of these Strats can win you the game if you can pull them off, and can make some units behave quite unexpectedly compared to if you just looked at the index entries along.

Some armies are a lot more reliant on these than others, and some armies (particularly Genestealer cult) will have a bunch of dirty tricks that comes from queing up a set to go off in sequence whilst other armies like IG, marines and chaos just have minor boosts (use a second order, deepstrike etc) or use them for rerolls but nothing too radical.

I quite like the side game they bring, my brother dislikes it and prefers to have units that are just reliably tough/powerful rather weaker units that have the potential to flare up for a turn.

If you like the sound of these, then Tyranids and Genestealer cult might be right up your alley, if this sounds absolutely terrible then Chaos is a better bet.

Thanks for that description, Tasty. I'm not sure how I'd feel about them, as I haven't looked into them yet. I'd probably lean towards using them, and then forget all about them. QQ

Definitely something to think about, though.

Howe about running Knights/Guard? they're a good fluffy allies mix (allies in 8th are much more fluffy period BTW) synergize well. have that big stompy models bit down. can be fairly compeitive, and are also a lot of fun

I seem to have this irrational dislike for Knights. I think it stems from my beginnings where ForgeWorld was a hard 'No!' in any game outside of Apoc. That and I don't like the look. The Pauldrons remind me of World of Warcraft.