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Hey mates. With my Militarum Tempestus army already near completion, I am already looking forward to my next project and if I'm honest I am currently leaning towards the new Space Marines when they come out or possibly SOB. However many friends of mine suggested I actually try to look for a xenos race to play instead, as they claim it would be boring to play just the Imperium and nothing else. Can be honest I haven't looked at the Xenos races a lot, but I would like to attempt to try to keep it an opposite playing style of my current army, which is a Mechanized Militarum Tempestus force with Taurox Primes, but not a big deal. Anyways, please feel free to share on what Xeno Race is the best to go in your opinion and I wish you luck in your attempts to convert me to your camp .

Necrons or eldar. I don't play em but they're both simply amazing right now

If you're still digging the Imperial side of things, just stick with that. Especially considering you can easily ally with yourself for new combinations. Plus, you can be more consistent with the stories that play out in your head by having recurring characters!

That said, Xenos are pretty fun. I'm having trouble spending money on imperial forces because I keep hearing the siren song of all the xenos factions.

If you're looking for a change in playstyle, and your current playstyle is basically to roll forward and shoot, why not play something either more gunliney or more assault-oriented?

Orks are fun to collect and convert, and your taurox would make reasonably good proxies for truks. The army will be familiar with its mediocre durability and need to advance, but your meat and potatoes will be assault and lots of bodies rather than special guns. Unless you collect special gun orks, of course.

Dark eldar can sort of let you split the differences, flying forward and shooting out of cars with special guns while also having plenty of units to dip your toes into close combat with. They're pretty unforgiving though. Don't be surprised if your battles often feel uphill. Plus, you have to buy (or make) lots of vehicle for this army.

Tyranids are about as opposite of imperials as it gets. No vehicles. Lots of assaulty bodies backed up by monstrous creatures. They're pretty expensive to collect though, and depending on how competitive your meta is, you might not like the lack of upper-tier options.

Tau are more shooty and more durable than you're used to while still being (arguably) heroic elite trooper types. If you want to try a long-ranged army without relying on imperial forces, Tau are a good way to go. They also have lots of cool advanced tech as wargear options, which might appear to your storm trooper sensibilities.

Eldar are my main army, and there's really no way to go wrong with them right now, but you'll probably earn a lot of hate if you star them up right now. You can build all sorts of armies with them from durable, slow, short-ranged wraith blobs to tricky aspect warrior specialists to lightning-fast bike armies. It's hard to summarize them.

Necrons are tough as nails. If you want an army you can push forward and erode the enemy's defenses with, necrons aren't a bad choice. They have lots of neat tricks, but their defining feature is probably the way they shrug off damage regardless of the source. Careful though. This is another army that will earn you a fair bit of hate right now.

I guess I should probably mention harlequins too. They're expensive, squishy, fast, and hard-hitting. Basically dark eldar, but even moreso. I find them to be a lot of fun, but they can be really hard to make work, and I think the army lends itself better to those that are in love with their fluff.

The biggest factor with xenos armies is playstyle; all play differently to IoM in general and Space Marines in particular, as well as playing differently to each other.

Eldar are about mobility and firepower, with specialized units for every battlefield task.

Dark Eldar (Harlequins as well) are even more focused on mobility, but with a greater focus on close-combat ability over firepower compared to Eldar.

Tau are the shootiest army in the game, but fall apart to a stiff breeze in melee. JSJ is their biggest source of mobility.

Necrons are the toughest army and have strong shooting and melee. Can also be quite mobile, though not as fast as Eldar.

Orks have lots of relatively tough bodies charging into melee. Solid mobility, with more limited ranged support.

Tyranids have the potential for the highest model counts in the game, more than the IG/AM. Average at shooting and melee, and relying on key models to push the game in one direction or another.

BrianDavion wrote:
Necrons or eldar. I don't play em but they're both simply amazing right now

Seconded.
Necrons are killy and hard to remove.
Eldar are fast, hard hitting, very shooty, but fragile.
I'd go one of these routes. Leave the boring SM at home.

They are all "good" in their own way.

- If you just want the shortest path to winning games, then take Necron or Eldar.

- If you want really easy to paint models, take Necron

- If you like a horde army, Orks are cool. And they look awesome, if you are into greenskins.

- If you miss Macross and like to shoot things from far away take Tau

- If you're into Jurassic Park or you dig the critters in Aliens, you'll love Tyranids.

The last thing I would do is to play a faction that I hate, just because they have advantageous rules. First of all, that might not last forever, and second, you'll get bored of them at some point.

Going back to Space Marines, which are actually a very solid faction:

- Space Marines are a modelling boon, because there are a bazillion pieces that are all interchangeable for infantry AND for vehicles. There are more kitbash possibilities in SM than any other type of models in 40k.

- Space Marines are a PAIN if you don't like the modelling/customizing aspects of 40k, because there are a bazillion equipment options, and none of the kits really come with enough specials.

Haemonculus Covens (Dark Eldar). Slower, way more resilient, lots of tough guys and monstrous creatures,more at melee capacity; pretty much the opposite of MT in every way.

Just a note: Space Marines are probably different enough from MT that I don't think they'd be boring for you simply because both are IoM armies. Plus you could Battle Brother ally with both of your armies.

But Xenos armies are fun too.

if you are competitive then Eldar or Necrons. If you are into it for the fun of it or like kit bashing models together I'd say Orks. Just the mere unpacking of Orks onto the table will grant you the honours of 'fun guy to play with'. I also think Ork armies look pretty cool and unique to each player's flavour considering all the conversions.

Disgusting. Stay in the imperium brother.

Appreciate the feedback mates. As it stands, both Eldar and Necrons are two of the most popular armies currently at my gaming store, so I most likely would not go that route at the moment. Do like the idea of Orcs as a possibility, but would most likely go with a Elite army such as the War Bike list supported by rokkit boys, or the Tau Farsight list with a lot of Battle Suits.

However I can admit that the Space Marines are still a very tempting choice, but honestly surprised that no one has mentioned Chaos. Granted they are not a Xenos list but they are different from the Imperium. And would Sisters of Battle be a good choice or are they not worth it?

 Ironwolf45 wrote:
Appreciate the feedback mates. As it stands, both Eldar and Necrons are two of the most popular armies currently at my gaming store, so I most likely would not go that route at the moment. Do like the idea of Orcs as a possibility, but would most likely go with a Elite army such as the War Bike list supported by rokkit boys, or the Tau Farsight list with a lot of Battle Suits.

However I can admit that the Space Marines are still a very tempting choice, but honestly surprised that no one has mentioned Chaos. Granted they are not a Xenos list but they are different from the Imperium. And would Sisters of Battle be a good choice or are they not worth it?

Chaos are pretty much bottom of the totem pole. They need a new codex, as they just don't have much going for them currently. And Sisters models are all metal and very expensive from what I've heard.

 krodarklorr wrote:

 Ironwolf45 wrote:
Appreciate the feedback mates. As it stands, both Eldar and Necrons are two of the most popular armies currently at my gaming store, so I most likely would not go that route at the moment. Do like the idea of Orcs as a possibility, but would most likely go with a Elite army such as the War Bike list supported by rokkit boys, or the Tau Farsight list with a lot of Battle Suits.

However I can admit that the Space Marines are still a very tempting choice, but honestly surprised that no one has mentioned Chaos. Granted they are not a Xenos list but they are different from the Imperium. And would Sisters of Battle be a good choice or are they not worth it?

Chaos are pretty much bottom of the totem pole. They need a new codex, as they just don't have much going for them currently. And Sisters models are all metal and very expensive from what I've heard.

Pretty much exactly this. Chaos Demons are better off than their marine bretheren. CSM got a few lists with little to no variation that does all right at best. It is not a fun codex to play right now.

Oh, also. There are rumours about plastic sisters in the foreseeable future, the time span I have heard being something like sometime next year. But yeah, sister rumours have been around for ever with very little to deliver upon it before.

Good to know lol just thought I would ask. Besides Orks and Tau, not many other races stand out right now but I will keep on digging and researching them.