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Hi, I have been out of the hobby for quite a while but looking to get back into and have been thinking about which army I would like to start collecting as I miss that side of the hobby quite a bit. I used to have serious case of army ADD and would bounce between armies regularly and never really complete one of them as such I am looking for something to just get into and have narrowed it down (from a modelling and painting point of view) to;

1) Eldar
2) Dark Eldar
3) Tau

My reasoning is that while I like Orks with the new edition out very soon and likely an Ork codex on the horizon I want to wait for quite some time before giving into my more Orky nature and let the dust settle on that one. I am sick of Marines and imperial forces in general having played and played against them to death before I left the hobby for University. So all those factions are out, from the Xenos factions left I don't really like the Necrons as much as they remind me too much of Marine Xenos with T4 and 3+ AS and Tyranids just feel too impersonal to me even though I like the models.

Of those three I listed I am most interested in the models of the two Eldar races though picking between them is slowly giving me a migraine. As such I was hoping for some more informed opinions on them especially on how they play now-a-days and the difference between them as my knowledge ends with the status quo of about 6 years ago.

If you like space elves, go for Eldar.

If you like perverted space elves, go for Dark Eldar.

If you like space hippos, talk to a professional, then if you still like space hippos, go for Tau.

More seriously, if you like gunlines, that's what Tau do. If you like synergistic armies with tons of strong options go Eldar. If you like heavily synergistic armies with super-specialized unit functions, Dark Eldar. I have played against all 3. Eldar are the meanest when someone knows what they are doing with them, followed by Tau. In total honesty, I have yet to play a game against pure Dark Eldar where I didn't table or nearly table them, and I am no special good player or anything. However, Eldar armies with Dark Eldar allied detatchments are viscious.

Thank you but I don't want the world to know about my Space Hippo thing just yet. @_@

Thanks for the response though, is the issue with Dark Eldar just their codex is bad or is it just that the current edition doesn't treat CC based armies with low saves very well?

I've honestly never looked at the DE codex. My friends who play them tell me that alot of the strategy is really interdependent between different unit functions, so that if any part of their strategy fails, the whole thing kind of falls apart.

Its also possible that they just don't know how to play with that army very well. I'm basically talking about 3 guys with around 1500-2000 point armies tops, and what they've told me after the game didn't go well for them. These are not their "go-to" armies.

All of them usually play Dark Eldar as Allies to Eldar these days

So what you said was that you want to play orks, but can't for some technical reason and so are putting up with a second choice.

Your technical reason is bunk, though. By the time you're done painting and collecting an ork army, who knows what things are going to look like then? Who knows what things will look like for any army in that time?

You shouldn't make decisions based on nothing but fear of the unknown as the unknown is precisely just that. You're basically saying "I want to play orks, but I don't know why I can't".

The answer to which, is play orks.

You know, the army you actually want to play.

Dude, if you are inclined to Orks, probably every vehicle in that Codex is convertible.

I play against an Ork player regularly, and other than the Boyz and some defkoptas, everything he has is homemade and also looks friggin awesome, usually better than the GW models. Due to their funky, junky, thrown-together aesthetic, with a bit of how-to research you can make yourself a LOADED army on the cheap.

Best thing about orks, its REALLY hard to screw up thier conversion, as any mistake in modeling can be ruled to be the ork's fault XD

Teadlane wrote:
Hi, I have been out of the hobby for quite a while but looking to get back into and have been thinking about which army I would like to start collecting as I miss that side of the hobby quite a bit. I used to have serious case of army ADD and would bounce between armies regularly and never really complete one of them as such I am looking for something to just get into and have narrowed it down (from a modelling and painting point of view) to;

1) Eldar
2) Dark Eldar
3) Tau

My reasoning is that while I like Orks with the new edition out very soon and likely an Ork codex on the horizon I want to wait for quite some time before giving into my more Orky nature and let the dust settle on that one. I am sick of Marines and imperial forces in general having played and played against them to death before I left the hobby for University. So all those factions are out, from the Xenos factions left I don't really like the Necrons as much as they remind me too much of Marine Xenos with T4 and 3+ AS and Tyranids just feel too impersonal to me even though I like the models.

Of those three I listed I am most interested in the models of the two Eldar races though picking between them is slowly giving me a migraine. As such I was hoping for some more informed opinions on them especially on how they play now-a-days and the difference between them as my knowledge ends with the status quo of about 6 years ago.

Well, I like Eldar, and they are a formidable force on the table. As a bonus Dark Eldar, and Craftworld Eldar play well together, so you can use them together, and you can make some high powered forces that way. My son plays Eldar, and he is very happy with them, and he is considering adding in some Dark Eldar units. Me? I play Tyranids

Dark Eldar models are simply unreal. If you are going for an aesthetically pleasing army thats fun to role play as well, Dark eldar for the win.

Tau are my actual favorite army and are the ones I started with so long ago in 2004. So incredibly versatile and synergistic, you can do almost any kind of an army you want with them. Here is a retrospective article I just wrote on them but the blog has a lot on the subject of Tau:
http://www.40kunorthodoxy.blogspot.com/2014/05/tau-empire-approaches-in-late-6e.html

The Eldar are elegant, have one of the coolest looking tanks and they are super specialized plus if you love playing Wizards, Psions and Clerics in D&D or just love magic in general, this army brings it. They are the undisputed masters of mind bullets and that makes them fun.

So is it Aesthetics, synergistic play or super specialized Psions you're looking for?

One thing you need to know about Dark Eldar is that they are a dark horse in many metas. Not many people play them, but those who do and can play them really well, are very tough to beat.

DE when played right, are unbeatable.

Thank you for the replies they are really helpful, the reason I don't include Orks is the idea of collecting, painting and modelling the armies I mentioned appeals to me more than the Orks do. I like playing Orks but I don't really have much in the way of time or people to game with at the minute. So I want something I can enjoy collecting and painting to get back into the hobby.

Overall I am certainly leaning towards the Space Elves, though which flavour I dunno, I am thinking I will probably do a bit of both since they can ally and just see which one I like most and run from there.

Are battleforces still a good place to start I notice they are about £20 more than I remember so how does the value for money work out now? If not those £70 box sets what would be a good place to start?

Well, I'd wait until the new ed. comes out. Then you'll see the major changes the armies will undergo.

I'd opt for Eldar or Tau, and then for Taudar.