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.

So. Even though I am extremely pissed about the very likely hood of bretonia being dropped from whfb, friends convinced me to play. However now I am at an impasse. I know not which army I would like to pick up. My top three-
Dwarves
Empire
Wood elves.

Reasons for empire- cliché as it is I prefer playing the "best guys" ( not good persay, but the ones I mesh with)
-I like the underdogs.
- I like big, iconic hero's that Inspire the piss out of normal men hurrah Franz!
- flexible armies, horde-elite- gunline
- good magic
-denigryph knights.
-war priests/sigmar
-TANKS

Reason for dwarves-
-drunken tomfoolery fun
-tough as nails infantry that hit hard
-runes, I love the names for the bound rune spells.
-again, I like big hero's.
-good shooting, fun artillery
-like the models overall(my favs throughout the entire army, though some things from others win out onba case by case)
-drunken tomfoolery
-the crippler

Wood elves-
-fast, shooty, deadly
-tactically flexible
-awesome mounted units
Great looking models (not fond of the tree peeps though)
-always had a spot for archers in games
-ASF
-decent magic
-fun lore.


I am mostly looking for opinions on the armies playstyle

I like rather elite armies, (few put offs of empire) , I like magic, but now even dwarves can get in on that fun. Shooting is fun but I prefer mostly melee oriented armies based on one of two styles- outlasting and facepounding, or swift focused strikes and hit and runs.

I can only afford to work on one next few years, I want to pick it right.

Well if the rumours are to be believed then there is a strong chance Brettonia and the Empire are going to be rolled into a combined force.

I'd say that pretty much settles it considering your opening line...

Assuming you at least play 40k incoming Dorian copypasta:

Let's start with the standard 40k fallacies.

You can't netlist fantasy to anywhere near the extend you can in 40k. Fantasy is a game about movement & positioning. About feigns, traps & setting up for 3 turns from now. You cannot just say "give me a basic list" because there isn't one.

Let me put it this way. I have had a 120 point unit of skeletons destroy a 400 point unit of dragon princes (elite heavy cavalry) in ONE round of combat. I sacrificed a unit of 40 point zombie dogs to draw these guys out of formation. Then I charged them in the flank. This means I have a STATIC (before any attacks) combat resolution of 6. I charged for +1, in the flank for +1, with 3 extra ranks of troops for +3 and a banner for an additional +1. He had a static resolution of +1 for a banner. He had 2 elves in base contact meaning those only 2 could fight (you don't get supporting attacks to the flank or rear). He had to do 5 wounds with 4 elf attacks & 2 horse attacks just to NOT LOSE that combat against a unit less than 1/3 of his point cost. He only killed 2, I got lucky & killed one. He lost combat by 4, took a break test at -4ld and ran. I rolled high & caught up with him destroying the unit.

The moral of that story is WHAT you take doesn't matter nearly as much as HOW you use it. That is step one of fantasy, it is NOT 40k don't go in with that mindset.

That said here are some things you will need:
A General - This will automatically be the character with the highest Ld, usually a lord. He allows any unit within 12" to use his Ld instead of their own.
A BSB - This will be a hero level character, the BSB FORCES (note FORCES not ALLOWS) any friendly unit to reroll any failed Ld test. This may also be your general but I don't recommend putting so many eggs in one basket.
A Wizard - Generally anything above 1200 you want a lvl 3 or 4. This may also be your general but I don't recommend putting so many eggs in one basket.

Things to look into:
A Bunker: Generally a tough unit or a unit that can sit back. Essentially they stay out of harms way & act as extra shooting wounds for your mage.
An Anvil: This will usually be a combat block that is durable or hard to break. You get this into combat in order to hold you enemy in place so you can deliver....
A Hammer: This will be a harder hitting but less durable combat unit. Think knights. They come in & hit the flank of whatever i fighting your anvil. This is USUALLY enough to win you the combat pretty heavily.
Shooting: Used to soften up enemy units before combat, often these double as bunkers. Do not expect to delete units with pure shooting like in 40k unless you're spamming heavy shooting or shooting at...
Chaff: Weak cheap fast & disposable. The purpose of this unit is to screen your other units & bloack / redirect / bait charges. This is what my zombie dogs were in the above story.


Woodelves: Don't do combat. They can't and won't win. They shoot & Magic you down then hopefully kill you in one charge with wild riders. If they don't they're boned. Don't expect to see big blocks or protracted combat, it won't go well for you.

Dwarfs, have no magic and are MOSTLY shooting oriented if you want to do well, their low M means the opponent dictates where & when combat will happen. From what you have said, avoid them. You say even dwarfs can get in on magic now... no they can't. Ungrim has ONE bound spell and since you get no bonus to cast, it's never going off. "tough as nails infantry that hit hard " you're thinking WoC. Dwarfs really aren't that strong or tough comparatively.

Empire they are flexible. Their magic is medium. It's very middle of the road, not great but not bad. TANKS, don't work like they do in 40k. They're pretty good but you'll want to look up the rules for how they operate. They start to go downhill fast once they take some damage, again they are good but they are nothing like 40k tanks.

Something you didn't mention. Warriors of Chaos.

I like rather elite armies, (few put offs of empire) , I like magic, but now even dwarves can get in on that fun. Shooting is fun but I prefer mostly melee oriented armies based on one of two styles- outlasting and facepounding, or swift focused strikes and hit and runs.

They do literally all of this except shooting. They have THE most elite troops, amazing magic, for shooting they have 2 "cannons" that are daemonic stone throwers. They can do outlasting and facepounding by using infantry or swift focused strikes and hit and runs using chariots and knights / skullcrushers. They have very flexible army lists. Infantry, monster mash, magic heavy, no magic, fast. You can have an army with nothing under M7 if you want.


My recommendation: Pick the army you like the look of the best. Fantasy has a LOT more models than 40k so you need to be sure you like the models as you'll spend a lot of time on them. Eventually you can adapt your playstyle to fit what you like.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

The anvil of doom comes with some runed spells doesn't it? He had three when k saw my friend play them. Rune of Hearth and home. +1 armor and a "attack" rune that never got off.

The reason I say tough is because I saw a unit of 30 (iron something he called them) that counted as not having a flank chew through several units. I only have the empire codex my friend gave me when his sold his small empire aemt.

Never seen WoC in action so no idea :p how are tzeentch themed WoC?

Quite honestly, i would wait until 9th, its only 2 months away (April) and it will completely change how fantasy is played and consequently its armies.

I would go for wood elves as you mentioned they have great models, and that is really what matters in my opinion

I also like cavalry, and love menoth in war machine :p


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So, I'd like to actually win a fee games I play with my army so models/units I def. Want to use.

Dwarves- Lords, Iron warriors, organ guns,

Wood elves- eternal guard, glade warriors, wild riders, limited to no tree people

Empire- demigryphs. Lords on pegusus, grestswords, rieksguard+ more knights. And swordsmen. Some - several mages.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Can armies be succueful when built heavily on/around these units?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I think I'm going to go wood elves. I like a lot of there models, their lore is hilariously awesome, they are great shooters, and several viable armies to work with. Idk how I will be doing but I'm gonna probably use mostly glade warriors and eternal guard, with wild riders and some waywatchers with waystalkers.

 raiden wrote:
I also like cavalry, and love menoth in war machine :p


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So, I'd like to actually win a fee games I play with my army so models/units I def. Want to use.

Dwarves- Lords, Iron warriors, organ guns, A lord can be solid but I usually see Thanes as they are cheaper but still Ld10, Organ guns are fantastic, ironbreakers / drakes can do well but there are better choices

Wood elves- eternal guard, glade warriors, wild riders, limited to no tree peopleEternal guard suck, glade guard are the better choice. Wild riders rock. Tree-things tend to fall flat

Empire- demigryphs. Lords on pegusus, grestswords, rieksguard+ more knights. And swordsmen. Some - several mages. demigryphs are almost an auto include, rieksguard can do very well. Swordsmen are ok, usually you see halberds. Lord on peg is a no-no he just isn't as effective and you can't do target saturation.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Can armies be succueful when built heavily on/around these units?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I think I'm going to go wood elves. I like a lot of there models, their lore is hilariously awesome, they are great shooters, and several viable armies to work with. Idk how I will be doing but I'm gonna probably use mostly glade warriors and eternal guard, with wild riders and some waywatchers with waystalkers.

Eternal guard suck. Go with Gladeguard & wild riders for shooting, hagbane / trueflight arrows. Wildriders to clean up.

EG look good on paper imo, specifically used as a defense force for when your opponents units finally close on you, you have the ability to force them into combat where you please, force them to fight your EG in a forest... Where your ranks still count. And you get all those lovely bonuses. Most importantantly I looooove the eternal guard model :p that said, most of my army will be comprised of glade guard w/ true flight arrows waywatchers/waystalkers
Wild riders with a decked out glade lord on a stag, and plenty of life magics. Well, eventually at least. plus, I can have tree beard! (And likely never use him XD)

Thanks for your input though! It does help with purchasing priority.

As Sas O'Dorian mentioned: How you use your units decides if you win.
So thinking that, there is no difference which one you choose, but by common sense thereare some basic characteristics of each army.

"Empire" and "Orks and Goblins" are the most normal armies and the measurement for others.
Elves are very few but specialists in particular areas (Usually Movement, Magic and shooting)
Chaos is the best in everything except shooting, but they are the big evil, so they are supposed to be difficult to beat
Dwarf are immobile, but hard as stone. So instead of moving around you use the terrain and defend yourself until the enemy is dead. Avoid open terrain.
and so on.

In your case, I would recommend Empire and later you can add some dwarfs and bretons as allies.
I'm not a big fan of woodelves, but that might be because my Gobbos are scared of them.

But just ask yourself 2 questions:
1) Which armies background do you like? Black Library might help here, or old army books
2) Which models do you like? You can use proxies from many companies, for the armies you mentioned, so feel free to be not imprisoned by GW.

Don't really like chaos, the only Chaos army Ihave in 40k is a T-sons themed army based around ahriman fighting Tzeentch and chaos with the power of chaos :3.

I love the beards on the dwarves, and there models in general look appealing, but I LOVE the rangereqse look to almost all the wood elves models.

 raiden wrote:
I also like cavalry, and love menoth in war machine :p


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So, I'd like to actually win a fee games I play with my army so models/units I def. Want to use.

Dwarves- Lords, Iron warriors, organ guns,

Wood elves- eternal guard, glade warriors, wild riders, limited to no tree people

Empire- demigryphs. Lords on pegusus, grestswords, rieksguard+ more knights. And swordsmen. Some - several mages.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Can armies be succueful when built heavily on/around these units?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I think I'm going to go wood elves. I like a lot of there models, their lore is hilariously awesome, they are great shooters, and several viable armies to work with. Idk how I will be doing but I'm gonna probably use mostly glade warriors and eternal guard, with wild riders and some waywatchers with waystalkers.

dont you mean iron breakers for the dwarfs???

Ejay wrote:

 raiden wrote:
I also like cavalry, and love menoth in war machine :p


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So, I'd like to actually win a fee games I play with my army so models/units I def. Want to use.

Dwarves- Lords, Iron warriors, organ guns,

Wood elves- eternal guard, glade warriors, wild riders, limited to no tree people

Empire- demigryphs. Lords on pegusus, grestswords, rieksguard+ more knights. And swordsmen. Some - several mages.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Can armies be succueful when built heavily on/around these units?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I think I'm going to go wood elves. I like a lot of there models, their lore is hilariously awesome, they are great shooters, and several viable armies to work with. Idk how I will be doing but I'm gonna probably use mostly glade warriors and eternal guard, with wild riders and some waywatchers with waystalkers.

dont you mean iron breakers for the dwarfs???

Nope. Iron Warriors. After the thrashing dwarves receive in ET: THanquol, they've turned to desperate measures. There's an entire company of Iron Warriors inbound to Karak 8 Peaks. Hey Skaven and Goblins : hide ya kids, hide ya wife.