Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Good evening everyone,

I'll be starting a second army soon, as I just finished my Imperial Guard.

I was looking at armies and was satisfied until a problem came up.

It was another army that relied on shooting and hated assault.

Basically, what I'm looking for is an army that doesn't flinch at the sign of close combat.

Any suggestions? Thank you in advance.

-Dinkins

Orks and Tyrannids are more than able to slug it out in melee, so perhaps one of those?

Grey knights and Dark Eldar probably.

Most armies can work well in combat (and vice versa), it just depends on your build. In general, stay away from IG, Eldar, Necrons and Tau if you're looking for something good in Close Combat, but even those armies have some good CC opportunities. Except Tau. Tau are just awful in combat.

I guess also it's the type of combat you're looking for. Orks, for example, tend to roll lots of dice and force your opponent to take lots of saves, and then finish it off with a Nob slicing the heads of three things with its PK. That's a kind of combat I really enjoy On the other hand, stuff like Tyranid combat often involve you having one thing that takes no damage and then just swats stuff out of the way with its tail or talons or face or something.

CSM also do various varieties of close combat, though they are generally the slow, ponderous but increadibly deadly kind, not the really fast turn 2 assault of the blood angels. Those are the two elite armies that do most of the assaulting.

Otherwise, Dark Eldar can do the epitome of Alpha melee strike, though they've gotten a bit of a nerf.

Stay away from grey knigths if you want pure assault tho. Grey Knights are actually one of the most shooty armies there, and you need to utilize the shooting to get over how outnumbered you are.

Otherwise, ofcourse the horde armies, Orks and even more nids, are the typical assault forces, but I'd assume you wanna stay away from another horde army.

Avoid Sisters of Battle. We do have a decent CC unit or two (Celestine mainly, Battle Conclaves can do okay but lack assault grenades, and I've heard mixed things about Repentia) but generally we like to shoot stuff.

ORKS!!!!

If you want an army that doesn't shy aware from close combat, they are the guys for you. They are almost on the opposite end of the spectrum from Imperial Guard, and they are a TON of fun to play.

There is also quite a huge difference between the clans of orks (like the chapters of marines). You can have huge mobs of boyz running across the field towards the badguy's gunline yelling and screaming, or tons of super fast bikers and buggies and trukks, or a small force of elite Ork "Kommandos" sneaking about.

WAAAAAAAGGHHHHH!!!

(Or I guess you could just play Blood Angels or Dark Angels like every other tom, dick, and harry that plays 40k)

Black Templar LRC spam! Shove metal bawkses filled with CC Crusaders and Termis down your enemies throats! NO PITY NO REMORSE NO FEAR

Orks are better at shooting than melee IMO

spartiatis wrote:
Grey knights and Dark Eldar probably.

avoid DE if you want CC. Most of their CC options arent very good and were nerfed hard in 6th.
GK arent that close combat oriented either, even with all the power weapons.

 Gargantuan wrote:
Orks are better at shooting than melee IMO

They certainly are in 6th ed.

I had a massive Choppa Boyz heavy force in 5th that did a lot of stompin! However in 6th I never won a game or even came close, a lot of failed charges + overwatch etc. Switched to a more shooty list and hey presto.

If it were me I would look at Space Wolves, they can shoot and do Close Combat and you can always ally them with your IG until you get a big enough force.

Daemons!!!
The entire army is almost purely dedicated to close combat, with only Heralds, Greater Daemons, Princes, Horrors, Flamers & Soul Grinders being able to shoot.

Even Tyranids or Orks can be built shootier than Daemons... (though Daemons have 'better' shooting tricks)

 Exergy wrote:

spartiatis wrote:
Grey knights and Dark Eldar probably.

avoid DE if you want CC. Most of their CC options arent very good and were nerfed hard in 6th.
GK arent that close combat oriented either, even with all the power weapons.

I agree, i don't understand why anyone would recommend them as a CC army. they have good CC ICs and 1 or two good CC units but in this edition shooting is their strong suit.

ORKS!!! Orks are epic at CC, with mobs of choppa boyz, and fixing up warbosses with PKs can take out vehicles.

I've also heard SW are pretty badass now, and one of their core units (grey hunters I think) is a good bang for your buck pointswise.

Daemons! If you want an elite assault army, nothing does it better than Daemons. Screamers, Fiends of Slannesh & Bloodcrushers are some of the best assault units in the game. You'll end up with a fairly low model count army, which is also a nice contrast to IG. There's also very good synergy between Daemons & IG, so you could still use some of your Guard models as allies - they fill in the anti-air & objective holding weaknesses in the Daemon codex very well, particularly whilst you are building up your Daemon collection.

However if you want a hoard style assault army go with Orks or Nids. Daemon troops are pants & very overcosted for what they do, use them for support, objective holding and paying the force-org tax.

Orks and Nids are probably your best bets, both very cool armies with a plethora of interesting toys to keep things interesting. Orks have the problem that Shoota boys are better than Slugga's in all but the most protracted of combats and people lean heavily on Loota's and so tend to end up quite shooty buts thats purely a preferance. Nids are melee to the core with a small amount of shooting to engage key targets, have great hordes like the Ork's in upgunned Gaunts but also have some very nasty shock troops like Stealers, Ymgarls, Trygons and the like which outside of Nob Bikers I find Orks lack.

Nids of course have access to the funky new psi powers which would make quite a change from IG and really give you a great opportunity to create some more synergy and deliver maximum force where required. They are also MC heavy with no vehicles which would be another departure from the force you currently play.

Plus, evil super predator from beyond the stars, they are one of the true villains of the piece, they can't be negotiated with, can't be bargained with, they just want to eat your face, it's you or them. I love the idea of a force that either must be defeated or will tear down all life in the galaxy and move on and leave nothing to show there was ever anything there at all...

Anything khorne flavored is the obvious choice. Slaanesh daemons could be an option too.

Blood Angels and Space Wolves can be built for cc while still having some pretty not bad shooting. Vanilla marines with se forgeworld characters is another way to go to if you aren't looking to be ultra competitive.

As mentioned above, nids and ,to a lesser extent, orks are always cc options.

The biggest problem you will run into with any of these armies is going to be rolling for assault distance though. If you make it when you want then.you can win, if not then you're toast.

Go demons. CC and would work (fluffwise etc) brilliantly well with guard while you build them up.

I very much enjoy playing Tyranids, and would recommend them.

To the OP - make sure you pick something that can ally with Guard. This will let you play some of your units while you play your guard. Since guard mix with nearly everything, this should not be a big problem -- but it does rule out Nids.

DrDuckman wrote:CSM also do various varieties of close combat, though they are generally the slow, ponderous but increadibly deadly kind, not the really fast turn 2 assault of the blood angels. Those are the two elite armies that do most of the assaulting.

Wow, you apparently need to look at the new CSM builds. Assault CSM lists are consisting of 18 chaos spawn or 30 nurgle bikers, combined with fleeting maulerfields moving 12". CSM are up there with the fastest assault army in the game now if built correctly.

The Shadow wrote:Most armies can work well in combat (and vice versa), it just depends on your build. In general, stay away from Eldar, Necrons and Tau if you're looking for something good in Close Combat, but even those armies have some good CC opportunities. Except Tau. Tau are just awful in combat.

+1 to this. Necron wraiths are nasty. Eldar have bike seer councils. Tau have... allies?

ChaosDog wrote:Daemons! If you want an elite assault army, nothing does it better than Daemons.....

Daemon troops are pants & very overcosted for what they do, use them for support, objective holding and paying the force-org tax.

This is also very true. I modeled my IG as traitor guard, and have allied in daemons a number of times. Daemons are very nice combo with IG. You stick your IG chimera wall behind an aegis defense line so they are in 12 AV with a 4+ cover save. You then move forward with your daemons. The IG take the objectives, and the daemons do the heavy lifting.

As stated above, the true melee based armies are orks and nids.
CSM can be pretty nasty in close combat, since the regular traitor marines can take a CCW for +2 points, MoK gives them +2 attacks on the charge, and the Khorne icon gives +1 strength on the charge. Berzerkers are decent as well, but honestly Plague Marines will destroy faces (4+ plague knife, combined with T5 and 3+/FNP). Noise/Slaanesh marines are decent too, since they hit at I5. Nurgle Bikers are nigh unstoppable.
Necrons are a mixed bag. One attack at I2 for most of the codex? However, they do have some awesome CC units. Wraiths with whips can absolutely destroy just about anything, especially if the unit is small enough to get most models in base to base. If you want to use cheese, Vargard Obyron and Nemesor Zandrekh are a pretty nasty combo. Put Vargard with some Lychguard, deepstrike to Zandrekh (who should be in a chariot) and let the slaughter begin. If you want to sacrifice a unicorn heart and the blood of a newborn, you can get the Forgeworld Tomb Stalker, which is an absolute monster.

The good thing about nids ia that they can be made to really like like a cc army. If you have the right build you can make them look totally feral and vicious, loads of rending claws and scything talons. Look at a load fo hormagaunts, raveners, trygons, carnifexes, etc.

However, IMHO a cc horde nid army is not the most effective use of the codex at present, I tend to go for a more balanced force with plenty of hive guard.

They can look great sweeping forward however!

A big question for you would be "do you want to do another horde army/" That is unless you did mech guard. I love orks they are flavorfull and can do most anything. Plus your bits from the guard can go a long way towards kit bashing. But there something about Khorn based Deamons.