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Hi guys I've been playing off and on since 2000 I've the last year I have started playing a lot averaging twice a week and the time has come to give into peer pressure and play a xeno army as I have always played power armour. I would like to play a xeno assault army but not tyranids as to put it frankly I hate them.

I'm toying with the idea of dark Eldar but I'm put off the idea when I think about the long game as I can't see them getting another codex for a very long time. I know they only got an update last year but I'm concerned about getting wasted a couple of years down the line when there getting out matched point for point. But I do like the look of them and like the idea of a incubi and drazhar unit eating anything it comes into contact with.

On the other hand there is Orks I think there rather cool but sometimes think they just seem a bit silly and hard to take seriously and I'm not sure how effective they are at combat in 6th as I have only came across them once in 5th not to mention expensive to collect
Aswell as a lot of painting.

Eldar look kinda smart probably due a update soon and will probably be very competitive at almost all types of play but for some reason not overly keen on the looks.

What's everyone else's thoughts on a xeno assault army? Except tyranids (sorry for poor grammar posted from my phone)

Tau are supposed to be finally getting a new codex, so you could look into them.

Orkz iz da funnest uv dem all, fer shur.

Eldar are really underpowered and difficult to play for now, but when they do get an update, I'm sure it'll be a good one.

Dark Eldar, while still rather squishy, can be very powerful if done right. They're fast, have long range guns, and don't care about the typical Nurglespam you'll be prone to seeing. As long as they're all in their Raiders/Ravagers/Gunboat things, you can typically kite your enemy and shoot them down before they can catch you.

Either way, look at the Ally Matrix. Look at the armies you want to play, and see if they can get along together. That way you could play one full army, test the second one, and see which one you like the most.

Well it seems to me that you have only one option to play an Assault specialized force that are also Xeno................................
Wait for it.............................................WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH

ORKZZZZ Baby. I love the feel of Orks even though I don't play them. All of the Batreps I watch on them it seems the guys playing them have an absolute blast and still win with a varity of lists. Go Orks bro, I don't think you will regret it!

Eldar don't have any assault in their army worth it at the moment.

Not being able to charge from vehicles has wrecked banshees - now they have to stand about for a turn in the open before they can charge. T3 and a 4+ means any shooting annihilates them.

Scorpions are ok - just not infiltrated. If you infiltrate, unless your farseer is footslogging you can't support them with psychic powers. (blessing are cast at the start of the turn), so you fly up turn one. Turn two disembark. Turn three cast fortune etc

Harlequins are good, but again need a farseer.

Hopefully, the new codex won't be too far off.

In the meantime have you thought about a mixed DE and CE force?
They work well together

Incubi which can charge out of the cardboard skimmer, Harlequins could run up while the incubi fight.

Deldar Beastspam is supposed to be powerful right now. Orks are the most pure assault army and have effective elites and horde. Dark Eldar have very fragile, but hard hitting melee units and a few tough ones. Tyranids and Eldar are both considered underpowered.

Decide whether style of play is more important to you, or looks/fluff. If converting is your thing, you could probably make an ork army that is more mutant and scary and less silly (head swaps, maybe use mantic marauders). That's what I'd do.

Or, the eldar/dark eldar builds throw out some mean assault army, and with those two being battle brothers, might be some benefit in the future when eldar get a new 'dex. I think any xenos army that you do, is probably going to be on the expensive side and a lot of models to paint, compared to space marines.

As above.

Dark Eldar Beaststar with Farseer allied in. It's the King of Assault-Cheese right now and you get to paint up some Eldar models for the next Eldar Cheese Codex to come. Hard to beat that.

IMHO if you're looking for a Xeno assault army and dont like 'nids - it has to be Orks.

Oh, an assault army?

Yeah, Orkz iz da way ta go. Dem blue fishes iz weaker dan grots, an' dem Eldarz iz too buzy playin wit deir magiks to learn how ta fight.

Or, if you want, the new Daemon codex is pretty nice. If you're just looking for non-Power Armor, give them a check.

So the popular argument is orks what would a typical ork assault army consist of?

Orks are always a good choice
Chaos Daemons have some nice assault units.
Necron can actually make for a good assault based army if you build for it properly.

kelewan wrote:
Hi guys I've been playing off and on since 2000 I've the last year I have started playing a lot averaging twice a week and the time has come to give into peer pressure and play a xeno army as I have always played power armour. I would like to play a xeno assault army but not tyranids as to put it frankly I hate them.

Chaos Daemons - Army is built around assault. Seems good. Still to early to tell.
CSM - Run cultists, DPs, spawn, and helldrakes. Non MEQ assault army.
Dark Eldar/Eldar - Beastpack armies are extremely good. One of these won the Templecon GT last month.
Eldar - People are talking about jetseer councils. This also uses the DE allies.
Necrons - Wraithspam. Bringing 18 wraiths is still dead hard, and I hear its really big in England.
Orks - Strong assault. Meganobs are very good this edition. Mega-armoed warbosses rock.
Tau - Avoid this army until the codex is released. I expect big changes.
'Nids - Very strong psychic choir list. Anyone who tells you differently has not faced it.

Daemons, are great. IF you like hordes, they can do it, and do it damn well, if you like big monsters, you can do it, and even have them all flying as a flying circus (2 bloodthirsters/lords of change and 3 daemon princes of khorne/tzeentch respectively)

Back to subject what's the usual make up of a ork assault army?

Daemons intrigue me but I'm concerned about the speed at which they can get into combat.

kelewan wrote:
Back to subject what's the usual make up of a ork assault army?

Daemons intrigue me but I'm concerned about the speed at which they can get into combat.

A lot of boyz usually, trucks are still good because there's so many, stormboyz, battlewagons with deffrolla, burna boyz, Nobz in transport and on bikes, and usually lootas, lobbas or dakkajet for support.

kelewan wrote:
Back to subject what's the usual make up of a ork assault army?

Daemons intrigue me but I'm concerned about the speed at which they can get into combat.

Daemons get into assault on turn 2. They are stupid fast.

kelewan wrote:
Back to subject what's the usual make up of a ork assault army?

Daemons intrigue me but I'm concerned about the speed at which they can get into combat.

Well, for starters, every unit has the option of deepstriking.

Daemonettes get extra 3+ to their run.

But practically everything other than troops, can either fly, or is a beast, meaning they move 12, ignore dangerous terrain, and have fleet. Plus, Herald's like Karaknak or whatever it is called, can give them an extra move before the game begins, with scout. So, Karaknaky chap, and 20 khorne dog's, can have moved 24 inches, and charged 36, turn one.

Amaya wrote:Deldar Beastspam is supposed to be powerful right now. Orks are the most pure assault army and have effective elites and horde. Dark Eldar have very fragile, but hard hitting melee units and a few tough ones. Tyranids and Eldar are both considered underpowered.

You cannot charge on the turn you scout. That's a no-go.

My friend runs an ork army. He uses 2 squads of meganobs, Ghaz, a warboss in mega armor. He uses truuks and 1 battlewagon. Its quite effective. Meganobs are very good in this edition.

 labmouse42 wrote:

Amaya wrote:Deldar Beastspam is supposed to be powerful right now. Orks are the most pure assault army and have effective elites and horde. Dark Eldar have very fragile, but hard hitting melee units and a few tough ones. Tyranids and Eldar are both considered underpowered.

You cannot charge on the turn you scout. That's a no-go.

My friend runs an ork army. He uses 2 squads of meganobs, Ghaz, a warboss in mega armor. He uses truuks and 1 battlewagon. Its quite effective. Meganobs are very good in this edition.

I forgot about this. Either way, my post above still means, you are right in their face turn 2

Oh yea. Daemons have no reason not to be in assault the turn after they arrive on the table.
Your either deep striking and landing in assault range from your target, or you have run up the table and are ready to assault.

Foot troops have some disadvantages that the seekers/khorne dogs do not, but they are still a solid choice. What I have tried to success is to put some icons and instruments in your squads.
Deep strike squad A with a icon. Use the instrument in squad B to have it auto-come down. Use the icon in squad A to land it. Then drop squad C within range of the icon. Use the instruement in squad D to come down with squad C, etc....
Its not that hard with 2 instrements and two icons to have a nice grouping wherever you want to go.

 labmouse42 wrote:

kelewan wrote:
Hi guys I've been playing off and on since 2000 I've the last year I have started playing a lot averaging twice a week and the time has come to give into peer pressure and play a xeno army as I have always played power armour. I would like to play a xeno assault army but not tyranids as to put it frankly I hate them.

Chaos Daemons - Army is built around assault. Seems good. Still to early to tell.
CSM - Run cultists, DPs, spawn, and helldrakes. Non MEQ assault army.
Dark Eldar/Eldar - Beastpack armies are extremely good. One of these won the Templecon GT last month.
Eldar - People are talking about jetseer councils. This also uses the DE allies.
Necrons - Wraithspam. Bringing 18 wraiths is still dead hard, and I hear its really big in England.
Orks - Strong assault. Meganobs are very good this edition. Mega-armoed warbosses rock.
Tau - Avoid this army until the codex is released. I expect big changes.
'Nids - Very strong psychic choir list. Anyone who tells you differently has not faced it.

I would have to agree with this 100%. The only caveat I would add is that the Tau becoming an assault army is unlikely but not impossible.


The orks are excellent escpecially the cult of speed which is incredibly fun to play as or against. Ork green tide are good but a pain to play as or against.(all horde armies that have to move are like this) You can ally with tau for broadsuits if you ever feel like it.

The new daemons are awesome with alot of great units/lists already and you can ally with chaos SM and necrons for some pretty great combos. The new models are also some of the best in the game with a unique aesthetic.

You can choose 'nids, daemons or orks.

If you play SM, it will be a nice change. Orks seem to have been lucky with fluff and retconning, with a very consistent background to date, and have plenty of tactical options and models around. Almost unending conversion possibilities and customization capabilities too, something others lack or are not so able to. they only look silly as people usually is not able to comprehend their alien behaviour out of the clown aspect. But they are not sillier that much of the 'nid weaponry or the daemon one for that matter.

And if you want assault and a theme, go the ork biker way. Give them character and power klaws and let them loose.

Orkz can be as silly as you want them to be. On the one hand, they have a lot of interesting, crazy, and amusing fluff. On the other hand they are a pure, destructive force of nature that can consume entire systems when their Waaaghs get going. They infest almost all of the known universe and are a constant threat to any and all who cross their path. The ultimate goal for orkz is war without end.

Orkz are going to give you many assault options both fast and slow, hardy and numerous. You have huge mobs of footslogging boyz with KFF meks to support. You have Battlewagon spam where twenty boyz hop in an enormous contraption with front armor as tough as a leman russ and barrel at the enemy. You have MAN Missiles where you dump three Nobs with armor as tough as a battle transport and fling them headlong at the enemy. Options make orks an incredibly fun army to play.

If you want glass cannons and finess, play DE

If you want hordes and reasonably tough killy melee, go Ork

 ansacs wrote:

 labmouse42 wrote:

kelewan wrote:
Hi guys I've been playing off and on since 2000 I've the last year I have started playing a lot averaging twice a week and the time has come to give into peer pressure and play a xeno army as I have always played power armour. I would like to play a xeno assault army but not tyranids as to put it frankly I hate them.

Chaos Daemons - Army is built around assault. Seems good. Still to early to tell.
CSM - Run cultists, DPs, spawn, and helldrakes. Non MEQ assault army.
Dark Eldar/Eldar - Beastpack armies are extremely good. One of these won the Templecon GT last month.
Eldar - People are talking about jetseer councils. This also uses the DE allies.
Necrons - Wraithspam. Bringing 18 wraiths is still dead hard, and I hear its really big in England.
Orks - Strong assault. Meganobs are very good this edition. Mega-armoed warbosses rock.
Tau - Avoid this army until the codex is released. I expect big changes.
'Nids - Very strong psychic choir list. Anyone who tells you differently has not faced it.

I would have to agree with this 100%. The only caveat I would add is that the Tau becoming an assault army is unlikely but not impossible.


The orks are excellent escpecially the cult of speed which is incredibly fun to play as or against. Ork green tide are good but a pain to play as or against.(all horde armies that have to move are like this) You can ally with tau for broadsuits if you ever feel like it.

The new daemons are awesome with alot of great units/lists already and you can ally with chaos SM and necrons for some pretty great combos. The new models are also some of the best in the game with a unique aesthetic.

all horde armies that have to move are like this a remedy to that could be use warhammer chariot bases, ie multibasing, effectively creating epic 40k but in 28mm/normal 40k scale, and mount several on a modded movement tray.

Orks are definitely the top one. They don't have to be silly either. Take Ghazgkull and his Waaagh! not a single Ork joke in sight there.


However, I think Orks aren't the type of army you would want to go for if you don't like comic relief. There just isn't something right when you play against an ork player who doesn't see the funny side to his shokk attack gun blowing up. . if you take them, just consider that they are supposed to fight well but be funny at the same time.


GA