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Basically, I've been out of Warhammer Fantasy for a fair length of time now, I haven't played any since about 1-2 months after the launch of 8th edition. I'm now looking to get back on the horse, cold one, pump wagon etc.

My problem with Fantasy I find for me is finding an army to suit, I've been playing fantasy since the end of 6th (beginning of 7th-ish), I usually play Dwarves and I did for quite some time play Lizardmen.

Ideally I would start a new Dwarf army but I would rather wait for a new book but that may be some time and to be honest I fancy something new. Lizardmen I just wouldn't play again, I found them very bland, I had to take the same lists to get positive results and to be perfectly honest the army just didn't feel right to me. I'm not particularly gaming minded, I don't tend to care if I lose more than I win, I just don't want to lose every game.

I've been looking through my choices that are available and I've narrowed it down to 3 possible candidates.

High Elves, Beastmen and Skaven.

High Elves - I like the general theme and an elvish army has always interested me but it's something I've never gotten around to.

Beastmen - I really love the models and the lore, plus I like the idea of making a losely khorne based Beastmen list.

Skaven - Seem like they would be quite fun and interesting, although I fear the 'random' elements and things generally blowing up on me may get old quickly.

So I pose it to you Dakka-ites. Can you give me any advice on any of the three and if possible could you rank them on the following sort of foundations.

Skill Level - (How easy/hard they are to learn)
List Making - (Do they have many builds or are they a mono-type etc.)
Fun/Interesting Rules etc. - (Things that make them stand out or outright annoying/awful)
Competitiveness - (Speaks for itself)
Likelihood of Update (If its something that may be close to getting updated or miles away etc, wouldn't want to start now if they are being updated shortly.)

Thanks for any assistance, also if you feel there is some other army that may suit me better then feel free to advocate.

Rysaer

Okay for Skaven (I'm still working on my High Elves so no opinion as of yet.)

Skill Level - (How easy/hard they are to learn)

Skaven are challenging to get started with. They feature many special rules and affect that do not match everyone else. However once you learn how to run them they are Great fun

List Making - (Do they have many builds or are they a mono-type etc.)

I can make legitimate use of every core, special or rare. The Special characters are a bit lackluster. I started by using Large blocks of steadfast slaves, now I use a more elite plague monk and stormvermin list.

Fun/Interesting Rules etc. - (Things that make them stand out or outright annoying/awful)

Strength in Numbers, Warp Lightning Cannons, Gutter Runners, Hell Pits, Doomwheels, Expendable slave blocks, Weapons teams. The list goes on.

Competitiveness - (Speaks for itself)

Look up Skaven and OP they kinda go together.

Likelihood of Update (If its something that may be close to getting updated or miles away etc, wouldn't want to start now if they are being updated shortly.)

Not til Late 2014 at the Earliest

Can't speak for High Elves and they will get an update before the other 2 which were the last 2 books of 7th I believe.

Beastmen take some skill, since you aren't new I would not totally abandon the idea of using them.
There are a few lists primarily Herdstone and Minobus but Oncebitten360 runs more unique lists and has success I recommend checking out his youtube channel
They have the best rule in the game IMO in Primal Fury, rerolling to hits every round of combat provided you pass a LD test with which LD10 and a BSB there is less then a 5% chance you will fail
They get a lot of hate for Competitiveness but in the right hands they dominante thanks to being able to dominate their magic phase, cheap chaff like raiders, harpies and razorgor to provide drops at deployment and tie up and redirect units setting up combat on your terms
Update is fairly well off.

Skaven are just a fun army they lack high leadership but have strength in numbers so the more ranks the higher the LD and since they are dirt cheap you will have ranks
There are a few lists running around out there that do well, really can't go wrong when you have a ton of tools, all their units are average to great there are maybe 3-4 units in the army book that are crap.
They have a lot of fun and quirky rules, you can win big or blow yourself up
They are competitive and have a lot of broken rules like dirt cheap slaves, WLCs and Hell Pits that do not die
Probably the best written army book IMO fun and competitive

Having said all that if I were to recommend an army I would say Beastmen, you have Dwarfs which I assume are shooty and with war machines, Beastmen are the complete opposite they have to use magic to make themselves better and the enemy weaker, they have no warmachines unless you take a cygor. Although Skaven are always fun for both sides of the table and with IoB you can get rats fairly cheap.

These are all imo of course

HE
Medium skill, good magic and good specials and rares. But you'll fold over like a paper bag against any sufficient S attacks
They have quite a few options for lists. Namely revolving around their specials.
Rule wise they're quick in combat have core that can fight in some extra ranks so they're good if you want people to attack before your opponent. Though once your opponent attacks best be careful.
Medium competitive, solid army
I dont know update schedules

Beastmen...oh boy
Medium High skill level. Most of your dudes are running around with a +5 save at best, naked though most of the time so even some basic S3 hits might do a number on them.
List building is a bit limited. You can pretty much toss out your rare slot, most people go for minos and bestigors. If you're feelign crazy you could try a chariot list but thats not much of a competitive thing
Ambush is a bit funky, could do decently or do terribly. Primal Fury is one of the few saving graces for their otherwise somewhat expensive infantry. Lore of Beast bonus is terrifically good for them, especially since you wont be using the Lore of the Wild
Medium Low competitive. If you're lucky, you can smash the enemy. But most of the time you need to be quite cautious
I dont know update schedules

Skaven
Medium skill, while they have some of the best stuff in the game you have to be smart about it!
Plenty of builds, I dare say that if you really wanted to you could make any of the 4 main clans (though I think pure eshin is the weakest). Plenty of mix and matching
Its skaven, fun and interesting rules are their bread n butter
Medium high competitiveness. Its 8th edition so their numbers really maxes out their power. They've got some scary warmachines, tough monsters, high M. Even their LD aint bad when you get a lord in a big unit.
I dont know update schedules

Skaven are definitly competitive and in many cases have stuff thats pretty OP. This does mean when they get updated they'll only get toned down.

All the super strong stuff has a chance of exploding in your face, which counters the fact that if it doesn't it will explode in your opponent's face. You do not want a WLC to misfire, but when it doesn't it'll take a chunk of your opponents army out with it.

They have a good variety of builds avaliable as well.



High Elves. Its kind of a mixed bag here. The book itself is fairly meh overall. Then we get to magic and Teclis. High Elves have a couple magic items that make their generic mages pretty powerful, and they have access to all the main book spells plus their own lore.

And then we have Teclis. The most overpowered broken special character in the game. He's why special characters are disallowed at almost all major tournaments.

Magic in general is powerful in 8th edition, but it does have some drawbacks. Random power dice generation, dispelling with IF, and miscasts. Hgh Elves have items that generate even more Power dice. And Teclis basically ignores the other 2 drawbacks.

He has 2 items. One makes him get IF on any roll of a double, although he still needs to meet the minimum casting value at least(unless its double 6s)

His other item means he ignores the first miscast he makes each turn. So that first double 6s doesn't give him the miscast it normally would.

Plus he's a Lore Master of any of the 8 lores of magic.

High Elves are rumored to be updated this year sometime.



Beastmen. This is playing Fantasy on Hard mode.

Core infantry are just average. Nothing really amazing.

Magic is pretty good, but it mostly just covers the shortcomings of the rest of the book.

Specials have Minotaurs, which are the best Monstrous Infantry in the game for their points. Then there are the Bestigors with great weapons. These are what tends to do the actual fighting in the army.

Rares? Don't bother. Which is a shame because there are some awsome models here.

For the general its basically a choice between the more killy Doombull or the higher leadership of a Beastlord.

 Rysaer wrote:
Skill Level - (How easy/hard they are to learn)
List Making - (Do they have many builds or are they a mono-type etc.)
Fun/Interesting Rules etc. - (Things that make them stand out or outright annoying/awful)
Competitiveness - (Speaks for itself)
Likelihood of Update (If its something that may be close to getting updated or miles away etc, wouldn't want to start now if they are being updated shortly.)

what others have said is pretty accurate. But I figure I'd add my 2 cents just for further justification

HE
List Making - pretty much mono-type, no real flexibility. Large amounts of the 3 15pt Special units and Teclis/heavy magic are basically "mandatory".
Fun/Interesting Rules etc. - have army-wide ASF.
Competitiveness - Pretty good. Can beat any army fairly easily w/ Teclis and a good general. If you play some random list, you will struggle vs any army.
Likelihood of Update - rumored to get an update later this year

Skaven
List Making - lots of flexibility.
Fun/Interesting Rules etc. - Doomwheel, Abom, etc all have interesting and unique rules. In general, the self-destruction is more punishing and unique than other armies' BRB misfires/miscasts.
Competitiveness - one of the top-tier armies out there.
Likelihood of Update - per the rumors, probably 2+ years away. One of the last books updated before 8th (the last book?)

Beastmen
List Making - not too much flexibility. Lists are mostly magic-heavy w/ big blocks or the Minobus, afaik.
Fun/Interesting Rules etc. - ehh, a weird Ambush and the chance for Hatred each round. Minotaurs have some interesting extra killy rules but are prevented from pursuing.
Competitiveness - lower-tier. But not impossible to beat any army (it's how WHFB is now - any army can beat any army).
Likelihood of Update - probably 2 years away at least. One of the last books updated before 8th.

Thanks for all the assistance guys.

I've been reading through and I think I've narrowed it down to Beastmen/Skaven.

The idea of Beastmen being 'Hard Mode' both scares and kind of excites me as the challenge may give me a reason to really throw myself back into the game after my far too long hiatus. Also I've never played anything close to a combat orientated force in Fantasy everything is usually ranged, even my Lizardmen were more ranged than they should have been

Although the Skaven also sound like a lot of fun and a bit more usable, also they seem quite fun. Although the concept of blowing myself up a lot I think will probably wear on me pretty fast.

I personally prefer the Beastmen models and theme, but I like the Skaven playstyle and the fact that I can still have some range.

Thats me almost down to a coin toss, anybody got a coin or another 0.02USD on the subject?

Thanks again

Rysaer

I dont play Skaven but back in the days with the old squabbling rules and fanatics it was pretty funny when you lost a game but were able to make fun of your opponent because you've killed more of your own stuff than him. I love that random selfdestroying factor. Skaven is a bit similar. You will blow stuff up but maybe it's your own stuff I really like it but I know it's not everyones business.

Also high elves new book in May.