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Im gonna have to side with Tau. Lots of AP1/AP2 weapons, broadsides have skyfire with good range and strength, basic troops can do alot more damage and have great range, tanks with out of this world strength, range, and 13 armor, plus making a death ball with Farsight. Lots of flexibility and combinations with strong hitting weapons.

Tervigon spam Nids backed up by tyrants and zoanthropes/doom.

That is the list that scares me the most atm.

Tau/Necrons/IG

Not necessarily in that order.

lynxstrife wrote:
I still dont see how necrons are top

Take a look at most every tournament winning list. You'll notice that Necrons take up a disturbingly large fraction of them. The Necron codex is very strong, very flexible, has a ton of options, well priced, has plenty of good units that can be used en masse, can pull so many different kinds of tactics that it's crazy, and can spam high AV better than anyone else in the game due to lots of cheap vehicles with quantum shielding.

Necrons, quite comfortably.

However, I've seen some really, really ugly vanilla Tau and Tau/Eldar lists experimented with locally by some of the better players, but I think with few people owning Tau going into the update, they don't appear as powerful as they may well be just yet. It took a while for the Necrons to ascent their current mound of broken bodies and shattered armies, it's very possible the Tau may ascend as well.

However, your first thought when choosing an army shouldn't be power. I know a bunch of people who like wrecking face, but don't play Necrons because they don't like the style or feel of the army. Most armies now are capable of building a somewhat killy list, which in the right hands will do alright. With Blood Angels and Black Templars, it's more of a challenge, and Tyranids kind of rely on a single effective list with minor variation, it's a dead killy list, but not much room for alternative approaches.

If you're instead considering good beginner friendly armies, where almost no matter what you field, you'll do alright, I'd say GK edge out 'Crons; necrons have some really weak lists, and units which require good synergy to operate well. With GK, you can throw almost anything on the table and have a decent time and slay some fools. You might not win, but you won't get stomped often. They're also one of the most modular armies in the game; capable of building almost any kind of force, from pseudo-Guard, terminator party, specialist infantry, even tank/flier lists. Even the customization-friendly new codexes aren't quite as universally capable as what's in the GK codex. Chaos is probably the #2 in that ranking; few genuinely bad units, but the army as a whole lacks mobility, and relies a bit too much on the heldrake for pure killing power. Allying with Daemons alleviates that to some point, and is a very fluffy allied unit, especially if you're doing a specific god alignment, and match the daemons.

Interestingly things are pretty balanced right now. The big 3, Tau/Necrons/IG are really potent right now, but they aren't trump cards. They won't always beat out everything. And with Eldar getting a new codex (and marines in october?) it'll be interesting to see what happens. So far the codices have been pretty good at keeping a fair amount of balance. Yes Necrons can be spammy crazy, and tau can be really nasty, but luckily most armies are pretty playable right now.

So really the thing to do is choose the fluff you like (as everyone else has said). 40k is a pretty expensive game to play if you just want to win, and it requires a lot of time painting etc. Given the time that goes into painting, modelling,and just looking at your models day to day, fluff and your personal tastes are most important.

Honestly, I see IG as a legacy. They only have one truly outstanding unit, and the more new armies get skyfire, the quicker the myth of guard supremacy will be dispelled.

 Ailaros wrote:
Honestly, I see IG as a legacy. They only have one truly outstanding unit, and the more new armies get skyfire, the quicker the myth of guard supremacy will be dispelled.

Well, you obviously mean Vendettas.

How about Sabres, Vultures, Arty Carriages, blobs and Manticores? All top tier units. Some of the Leman Russ variants, Meduas and Basilisks are probably still above average.

Problem with IG is they really need MEQ allies to shine, they're not really that good on their own (imo at least)

anonymou5 wrote:

 Ailaros wrote:
Honestly, I see IG as a legacy. They only have one truly outstanding unit, and the more new armies get skyfire, the quicker the myth of guard supremacy will be dispelled.

Well, you obviously mean Vendettas.

How about Sabres, Vultures, Arty Carriages, blobs and Manticores? All top tier units. Some of the Leman Russ variants, Meduas and Basilisks are probably still above average.

Problem with IG is they really need MEQ allies to shine, they're not really that good on their own (imo at least)

Vendettas are superb, but they can not win you the game, especially when your enemy is playing infantry-focused list (or the one filled with wave serpents ).

Sabres, Vultures, Arty Carriages are FW stuff. I am not sure, if we should count with them. I would rather stick with codex choices. Blobs are good, but ironicaly they are better as an ally for space marine/GK dudes than beeing the main force of IG list. Manticores? I dont think they are good anymore, in 5th, they were great. Leman Russ variants, Meduas and Basilisks are hardly above average as many IG tournament players can tell you.

Orks. I have far more fun with Orks than I do with anything else, and thats what really matters at the end of the day.

 Lothar wrote:

anonymou5 wrote:

 Ailaros wrote:
Honestly, I see IG as a legacy. They only have one truly outstanding unit, and the more new armies get skyfire, the quicker the myth of guard supremacy will be dispelled.

Well, you obviously mean Vendettas.

How about Sabres, Vultures, Arty Carriages, blobs and Manticores? All top tier units. Some of the Leman Russ variants, Meduas and Basilisks are probably still above average.

Problem with IG is they really need MEQ allies to shine, they're not really that good on their own (imo at least)

Vendettas are superb, but they can not win you the game, especially when your enemy is playing infantry-focused list (or the one filled with wave serpents ).

Sabres, Vultures, Arty Carriages are FW stuff. I am not sure, if we should count with them. I would rather stick with codex choices. Blobs are good, but ironicaly they are better as an ally for space marine/GK dudes than beeing the main force of IG list. Manticores? I dont think they are good anymore, in 5th, they were great. Leman Russ variants, Meduas and Basilisks are hardly above average as many IG tournament players can tell you.

Ever seen a Manticore under prescience? It's a horde slayer, and a great compliment to a MEQ/IG list. LR, like all av14, have a place depending on meta and list synergy. Basilisks I'll probably give you, although good verus MEQ with prescience.

 Lothar wrote:
Sabres, Vultures, Arty Carriages are FW stuff. I am not sure, if we should count with them. I would rather stick with codex choices.

Well, we shouldn't count them as Guards 'awesome units' because they're not awesome, not because they're not in the codex. They're useable and good, but that doesn't make them awesome.

The guard remains good because it's quite flexible and overall a quite solid codex. But like all cruddace books it's internal balance is highly suspect, with super awesome units like Executioners and Vendettas sharing a book with really quite poor units like Rough Riders and Ogryns.

To be honest, every time I plop down my Necrons, I feel like it will be an uphill battle.

And then they barely breach my Av13 Hulls, the server as distractions for my flyers (or vice versa) and the game is usually in my favor distinctly by Turn 3.

It's a WEIRD army. But loads of fun.

Right now I consider necrons, IG and CSM as the big 3. They have the most powerful codices and will show up in numbers at your tournaments as either main forces or allies. They are also the armies with the best fliers (go figure ) When building a list you should ask yourself can you beat this?

Nids and Demons offer flying monsterous creatures and psykers. They are both good but not amazing. However, if you are not prepared for them they can beat you easily. So even though they may be lower on the list don't just forget about them.

Tau are the new bad boys on the block. I have been doing great with them and most battle reps I have read people have been winning more than losing with them. Nothing in their codex makes me think they are over powered, but they have great synergy, they are highly flexible, and have tricks that make them very good against the big 3 (ie. skyfire, ignore cover, etc)

Marines are only okay. GK, SW and DA are the best of the marines but overall they can be lumped into the category of good but not oppressive. IMHO marines are too jack of all trade master of none. They get a lot better with IG allies.

BLOHD REVEHNS. THEY SHALL NEVER TAKE OUR METAL BAWKSES!

40k is mostly an idea of making/telling a story/good loking setting. if you want more of a tactical challenge, Epic should do for you (or at least I think so). what im saying is that 40k isnt THAT much of a 'best army'.

 Sazzlefrats wrote:
I am considering getting back into 40k. I haven't bought anything new in at least a year.

I've got

Eldar
Tau
Chaos

Whats the best overall army and whats the best army if its not one of those three?

Are you talking strictly competitively?

Necrons in that case, they take best advantage of the 6E ruleset moreso than any other army and have lots of mitigation against things 6E sought to nerf. Their vehicles are high enough AV to make HP's less of an issue, they take wicked advantage of HP's against opponents being able to strip them from opponents with basic weapons no matter the AV, Tesla weapons make Snapshots almost as good as normal shots, they take better/more advantage of character rules and Nightfight, their CC units largely don't care about transport/reserves changes for assault while actively gaining in terms of charge moves through terrain and things like that. and their flyers are plentiful and capable, and their flyer transport largely ignores the downsides of being a flyer transport.

 Dakkamite wrote:
Orks. I have far more fun with Orks than I do with anything else, and thats what really matters at the end of the day.

I've been playing 40k pretty regularly for about a year now. I can honestly say that I have alot of fun with Orks as well just because they are so random! Weirdboyz, Shokk Attack Gun (personal favorite!), looted wagons, ramschackle... They have alot of different things yo ucan play with and decent flexibility.

That being said, winning is also fun. The orks are so squishy right now its rediculous. Boyz, which are the core of any ork army, are just so damn easy to thin out. A buddy of mine plays Tau- before the update, it was pretty even (When he didnt use Farsight) with us both trying new tactics on each other. But now with their update i am severely outgunned AND getting within charge range is damn near impossible. Flyers are pointless because of broadsides skyfire (twin linked....OP much?)

I dunno. Orks are alot of fun but Im glad I bought a Necron army to play with as well. Being competitive is part of the fun too!