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Hello!

I quit 40k when my game group dissolved and I moved far away. We ended about 3/4 of the way through 7th edition.

I currently own the Tau codex and the 8th edition rulebook (at least the one that first came out)

What do I need to get with times in 8th?

I'm open to exploring new armies but I currently have 5k of Tau, 10k of Chaos Space Marines, and 10k of Chaos Daemons. and 1 Chaos Knight.

Do you have any suggestions on which armies I should play?

I enjoy Monstrous Creatures, Flyers, and stronger units instead of hordes. I'm thinking of making this more of a hobby project as the closest person I could play against lives 3.5 hours away.

Which armies are currently the most competitive?

Thanks!

Hey there! You have cast quite a wide net with those questions

#1 - You will NEED the codex for any army you play.

#2 - You will NEED to review the Rulebook FAQ, and FAQ for any codex you play as well, which can be found here: https://www.warhammer-community.com/faqs/?orderby=post_created&order=desc#warhammer-40000

#3 - In order to play competitively you will NEED to adjust the points costs listed in the codex with the new ones found in Chapter Approved 2019. 99 times out of 100 though, if you use a program like Battlescribe, you'll be fine.

#4 - T'au don't have a lot of competitive builds at the moment, but their MAIN competitive build is extremely strong! If you have 3 Riptides and a bunch of Shield Drones, you're looking to be in a good spot.

#5 - Chaos is one of the most "in flux" armies in the game, and the competitive lists for them can end up with lots of extremely varied units. However, here's the units that tend to pop up the most frequently:
- Ahriman on a Disc
- Daemon Princes w/Wings
- Sorcerers
- Lord Discordants
- Chaos Knights (Knight Despoiler variety)
- Obliterators
- Dark Apostle

Here's some Chaos Units that have an on-again/off-again habit of popping up, so they can be good at times (like Possessed right now), and then totally disappear at others:
- Possessed
- Khorne Berzerkers
- Forgeworld Dreadnaughts
- either of the Primarchs (Mortarion and/or Magnus)
- Plaguebearers
- Havocs


Thankfully, both Chaos and T'au present to you some great options at not being a horde list!

#6 - Most competitive army in the game is currently the loyalist Space Marines. Their codex is just... wow. It's a cut above the rest. So much so that GW has released a kind of emergency FAQ to tone them down a bit. Casually, you'll find Space Marines are quite potent, but manageable, as people don't go nuts, especially with how the emergency FAQ is toning them down. But COMPETITIVELY you'll likely still find that they sit at the top. Also very competitive are:

- Chaos Soup (mix of Chaos Space Marines & Chaos Knights, also some Daemons)
- T'au (one or two specific builds)
- Craftworld Eldar (now called Asuryani)
- Necrons (one specific build)
- Tyranids (anything that slams Genestealers flying up fast, what I call "Nid Rocket")
- Orks w/Da Jump & Da Souped Up Shokka

You can keep up with who is winning where and with what here for the tippy-top stuff: https://www.40kstats.com/

Good luck!

 Vache Glace wrote:

Do you have any suggestions on which armies I should play?

Yes, start with the ones you already own.
After you've figured out wether you like the current game, THEN worry about building something new/joining the competitive scene.

I'd advise not worrying about the top-tier and trying to aim for the middle-tier; top-tier armies fluctuate wildly, are the frequent target of FAQs/nerfs, and tend to involve a narrow selection of models that may have nothing to do with the models you like even if you do own the army (ex. every Tau tournament list I've seen has been something of a horde list). The middle-tier tends to be broader, more stable, and offers you the ability to put stuff on the table and have a game without just getting stepped on the way the bottom tier might.

I'd strongly second earlier suggestions to stick with the models you own; I presume you like them if you've put the time and energy into collecting 5k-10k of any army, and I find army-hopping to chase the meta leaves people feeling dissatisfied and unhappy a few cycles through after they've shelved entire forces a couple of times.

On the forces you've got:
-Tau have weird internal balance problems, they're capable of being great, but to do so requires very specific heavy battlesuit/drone-spam lists that can feel dull to play and frustrating to play against, since it's a very point-and-shoot army that doesn't really interact with the other side. The Tau lists I see played tend to leave the lighter battlesuits at home and build a core out of Ghostkeels/Riptides/Stormsurges with infantry and drones for screening, chaff clearing, and objective holding; I think whatever models you end up using the general play philosophy of the Tau is going to remain about finding a way to protect your big heavy units and let them do their shooting. More fun/less meta-conscious Tau may involve more Crisis and Stealth teams but will still probably play the protect-the-Battlesuits game.
-Chaos Daemons by themselves are badly-designed; GW can't make up their mind whether they want them to be four standalone mono-god armies or one Codex, so if you play them together they won't interact with each other and if you play them apart they won't have enough tools to really play the game. Everyone I know who's tried to play a Daemons army has given up and gone back to Chaos soup with them.
-Chaos Marines and Chaos soup both tend to rely heavily on using your psychic powers and stratagems to full effect; they don't have the stats or the cost-efficiency to just sort of plonk models down on the table and play the game, they are their bag of tricks. The central element of most Chaos soup lists I've seen is a big blob or two of something durable (usually Plaguebearers or Possessed) that you then stack buffs on to make absurdly durable and use to either cover characters as you get them somewhere they can do choppy things, or use to protect your gunline elements.
-What you do with a Chaos Knight depends largely on what sort of Knight it is, but most sorts of Knights are assets to a Chaos list in that they're big tough fire magnets that don't require a lot of support. I generally recommend people either go two-guns on a Knight to maximize firepower since the real melee weapons are overkill against most targets, or dual-melee to save points on a Knight you're trying to get into melee.

Hey thanks for the reply!

 Yarium wrote:


#3 - In order to play competitively you will NEED to adjust the points costs listed in the codex with the new ones found in Chapter Approved 2019. 99 times out of 100 though, if you use a program like Battlescribe, you'll be fine.

I am quite new to chapter approved - Is there a chapter improved 2020? If so does that supersede CA2019 entirely?

 Yarium wrote:


#5 - Chaos is one of the most "in flux" armies in the game, and the competitive lists for them can end up with lots of extremely varied units. However, here's the units that tend to pop up the most frequently:

- Chaos Soup (mix of Chaos Space Marines & Chaos Knights, also some Daemons)

Interesting! Does anyone ever play strictly Chaos Knights?



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Hey thanks for the reply!

 AnomanderRake wrote:

I'd strongly second earlier suggestions to stick with the models you own; I presume you like them if you've put the time and energy into collecting 5k-10k of any army, and I find army-hopping to chase the meta leaves people feeling dissatisfied and unhappy a few cycles through after they've shelved entire forces a couple of times.

Indeed, this happened to me in before in 6th/7th and it was incredibly frustrating. I'm looking for something that will last test of time in terms of relevance. I have a friend who collects Eldar flyers and skimmers which when I was playing were always relevant.

 AnomanderRake wrote:

-What you do with a Chaos Knight depends largely on what sort of Knight it is, but most sorts of Knights are assets to a Chaos list in that they're big tough fire magnets that don't require a lot of support. I generally recommend people either go two-guns on a Knight to maximize firepower since the real melee weapons are overkill against most targets, or dual-melee to save points on a Knight you're trying to get into melee.

I have a vanilla equipped Chaos Knight. Is it worth it to buy the new Chaos kit? Should someone buy an Imperial one and then convert from there? Does anyone play mono-Chaos Knights?

Thanks!

 Vache Glace wrote:
Hey thanks for the reply!

 Yarium wrote:


#3 - In order to play competitively you will NEED to adjust the points costs listed in the codex with the new ones found in Chapter Approved 2019. 99 times out of 100 though, if you use a program like Battlescribe, you'll be fine.

I am quite new to chapter approved - Is there a chapter improved 2020? If so does that supersede CA2019 entirely?

 Yarium wrote:


#5 - Chaos is one of the most "in flux" armies in the game, and the competitive lists for them can end up with lots of extremely varied units. However, here's the units that tend to pop up the most frequently:

- Chaos Soup (mix of Chaos Space Marines & Chaos Knights, also some Daemons)

Interesting! Does anyone ever play strictly Chaos Knights?

CA always comes out at the end of the year. So there won't be a CA 2020 until December.

Take a lot of the advice you hear on this forum with a grain of salt, people tend to be hyperbolically negative on here.