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Hi, I have been looking at getting into 6E. I want to create 2 1000 point armies so I can learn/introduce people to the game. I've downloaded the relevant army books, and I'm pretty set on one of the armies being Skaven (consisting of 20x Stormvermin, 2x 20x Clanrats, some giant rats, rat ogres, some heroes, and a warp-lightning cannon).

The choice for the 2nd army is between Beasts of Chaos (mainly beast herds, a big blob of bestigors, and a giant) , Lizardmen (Scar vet on coldone, 2 blocks of saurus warriors, some skinks and some knights), or Hordes of Chaos (champ, 2 units of chaos warriors and some marauder horse).

I'd want them to be a fun match-up, with pretty balanced abilities. Any pointers are welcome!

If it's for intro games, I would be inclined to have Lizardmen for the second army. Few reasons:

- It's a great match up against Skaven (fluffy, and gets a evil vs good thing going on).
- Lizardmen have easy access to a bit of everything (shooting, magic, cavalry, etc...). Easy to build something balanced&fun.
- So from the start, you can show the ropes of every phase of the game (I think this is quite important when showing a game).
- Beasts and Hordes of Chaos are more niche in play style, the former being sometimes a bit complicated to wield accurately. So maybe not so beginner friendly.

That's how I see it. 6th is so great!

As much as I'm about to vomit blood just for typing this, Empire is your "middle of the road" army which gives room for the most play styles.


Be prepared to not stop at 2 armies, though. If enough people bite, you may need to diversify your model pool. There was a poster on this very forum that was doing several armies based off of Starter Set forces, and I'm pretty sure that poster also aimed his sights at 1,000 point armies.


One more caveat. A rather knowledgeable poster will no doubt be along to recommend almost every starter set GW has at its store currently, but bear in mind some of those sets wouldn't make a "legal" army for 6th without supplemental purchases.


Last, but DEFINITELY not least, check the link in my signature.

Thanks for the pointers.

Out of the two armies being suggested, I'm leaning more towards Lizardmen, as I kinda prefer the models, so the next question would be how balanced are match-ups between the two armies?

TBF, there seems to be quite a lot of bargains on ebay, especially for older models, so there seems little need to get the current starter sets from GW.

That link is fantastic, thanks!

Lizards? Unless you go Skink heavy you will be outnumbered. Once Saurus are stuck IN, though, it takes absolute horrid rolling to get them unstuck. 3D6 LD and discard the highest is really good, not to mention the St and A the Saurus get.

Lizards are a great middle of the road army. That's my vote

I agree with the rest, Lizardmen would be a nice rounded army to learn with. Hordes of Chaos with Chaos Warriors would be so expensive that you wouldn't fit a lot in 1000pts. And Beasts of Chaos I think might be a little too complicated with the Beast Herd and ambushing rules for a starting army.

For introductory games, the key is to show off as much of the basic rules and limit any army specific rules. Likewise you also want to have evenly matched armies with good resiliency and are mistake friendly if possible. The choice of armies that you have are not my personal favorites for introductory games, but I would use all but one in an introductory game.

I think that Hordes is a good choice, and used them for introductory games in the past. They don't show much in the form of shooting which my only problem with them. Their cost is not that much of an issue if you keep them basic and with plenty of marauders. If you do use them, use a regular sorcerer, and not a marked character to teach magic.

With Lizardmen, they have more of the phases working for them. It is a good choice in introductory games, and was used as one of the "Box Armies" for the 5th edition. My only issue is that cold blooded is army specific, and thus not the best thing to teach a newbie on the first game. On the other hand this rule does make for a resilient army.

I would not pick Beasts of Chaos. They are not a mistake friendly army, and it has army specific rules that significantly alter its play from the normal play. It is also as limited in shooting as Hordes are.

Were I to teach WFB to anyone, my personal pick for an introductory game would be to use The Empire, and Brettonian with at most two knight units each. While I agree a bit bland, both armies are more or less evenly matched, and have all phases of the game represented. From there I would introduce other armies that interest the newbie.

I am backing lizardmen suggestions because you can get an army together very quickly. Three boxsets, a Seraphon getting started, Skink getting started and some more saurus and once you have sourced bases (the hard part) you are good to go.
Painting lizards is simple with contrast paints or a watered down paint over white technique. Seriously, it's a five minute job. You will find this the fastest route to a new army so you can get started sooner and your effortless entry will likely encourage you to get a third army. Three armies not two is what I say, as you get three match ups not one. Rats vs Lizards is a decent match up as others have said, I think dark Elves would be a decent third match up as its a semi local opponent and plays very differently to the other two. Dark Elves can wait though until you have finished the first two armies, and recovered your next cycle of hobby monies.

Dark Elves are a good suggestion, as are High Elves now that I think about it.

 Just Tony wrote:
Dark Elves are a good suggestion, as are High Elves now that I think about it.

I would concur with this sentiment.

Am I the only one intrigued as to how the OP is doing with this so far?