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I would like to ask a question similar to Warzoner here. I started 40K in fourth edition then had a hiatus during all of sixth. I am came and the factions are not really the same as they used to be (duh!). I keep going back and forth on whether or not I am using the right factions, or whether I should be playing something else.

My first army was Sisters. I picked them because I liked the general aesthetics, lapped up the Nuns with Guns bringing down righteous fire fluff and found that the old Acts of Faith rules were the cherry on top. Seven(?) years later, there are no new models (so my collection is essentially 'complete') and their rules have become less interesting (the new Acts of Faith system). I have 116 Sisters models (mostly infantry), along with the six Assassin models, and they are almost all painted (six unpainted vehicles). Honestly, I doubt Games Workshop will ever update these guys, and if they do they will surely just be another Imperial semi-faction (eg Militarum Tempestus, Skitarii). I could add allies to make them more viable and add some variety, but that is essentially just starting a third army anyway, so I am currently thinking of just leaving these guys in a dark corner and (likely) never bringing them out again.

My second army was Tyranids. I again liked the general aesthetics (I love the Giger Xenomorph look). While the fluff was relatively dull (omnomnom, oh darn we got beat again!), I did like the biological weapon ideas (eg firing flesh-eating parasites). For rules, I liked how customisable the Biomorphs made the faction. In fifth edition, Cruddace ripped the guts out of them and really did nothing to fix the issues in the current book. I have 198 models, with most of these also painted (Gargoyles and MCs remaining). Lots of nice new plastics I can collect and paint, but most of the options are worthless in even the most casual games. Perhaps they will give the book to Phil Kelly next time and the Nids will get their goodies back, but who knows how long I could be left feeling like I need not bother showing up (I refuse to play a Penta-Flyrant list).

I am not the best painter out there, but I do enjoy it. I used 10+ colours per Gaunt on my Nids and loved it, so painting a three colour Necron army would be kind of boring. The aesthetics of the models are important to me: I do not like the spiky/mutated Chaos Space Marine or Dark Eldar models, the monotonous look of Necrons or the primitive/ramshackle look of Orks. After the Sisters, I am not wanting another metal army, though I do not think they really exist any more (outside, say, Vostroyan Guard). I am not a good enough player to say if I am offensive or defensive. I usually get tabled too quickly to tell I know I like mobility: I think a static gunline would bore me silly. I also think I lack the finesse to play something technical like an Eldar or Dark Eldar. I like to run a fluffy list, even if it is not the most competitive (eg I run hoard Nids), so I am not looking for the army that wins tournaments. I would like to win a game, however! I think what I REALLY want is some darn variety! I started the Nids to get away from the monotony of only a single viable unit with the Sisters and they got hit with the same problem Perhaps I am being too much of a special snowflake, but I feel like Marines are simply wrong to play. I have always avoided them because they are so darn common. The Mary Sue fluff many of them seem to be surrounded by bugs me, as well as how Space Puppies jumped the wolf with their fifth edition book.

Play space marines. Its what the game is about. If you ain't keen on that, then play HH instead. GW is all about the variety.

"The thing about your models are, you gotta like what they look like, and you gotta like what they do on the Tabletop." - Miniwargaming's Dave.

Let me tell you, as an aesthetic painter who loves finesse armies: the harlequins are the most fun I've had in years. I painted every single model a different color. Then for variety I added Dark Eldar allies and used the spare harlequin bits to hybridize them.

 Fenrir Kitsune wrote:
Play space marines. Its what the game is about. If you ain't keen on that, then play HH instead. GW is all about the variety.

If you aren't keen on playing space marines, play Horus Heresy?

Some options for getting away from "single viable unit"

-Tau are an okay middle of the road army likely to receive an update soon: You may have seen a lot of dull static gunline builds, but they do actually have varied tactical options if you break from that pattern.
-Eldar, if you dodge the most broken builds, have a ton of variety in units.
-Surprisingly, Necrons are okay for variety, especially if you're a converter: Almost every unit in the codex is great with only minor duds, so if you steer clear from the monotonous Decurion builds you could theoretically go a decent distance past minimum army size and field different viable lists every day.

You don't need the slightest drop of finesse to play Eldar. Having said that, that doesn't mean Eldar players lack finesse. If you make mistakes with eldar, the book is very forgiving, if you play with no mistakes what so ever, your opponent doesn't stand a chance unless they are necrons or marines, even if using a large guardian base. They do look a nice army and can take many (or few) colours based on your preference. They are not gunline and they are not spikey. Seem like an ok fit from what you say.

Skitarri may interest you. Whilst not having biological weapons, I think theirs are the second most interesting fluff wise after nids.
No spikey bits, pretty strong even without allies (really strong with the right ones), kinda the same army as mechanicus (think of them as the same dex with both combined), require multiple colours on a model and a HUGE variety of different models. Whilst vanguard and rangers may look similar and infiltrators and ruststalkers look the same, everything else looks completely different to the next unit. Not even close in looks or rules. Skitarri definitely has the greatest variety. Not a gunline.

Space wolves may also be a good shout. Pretty strong, no spikey bits, multiple colours, decent variety. Lots of wolves. Not a gunline.

Those are the 3 I'd suggest based on what you've said.

I'll second what poly said regarding possible factions, all 3 seem to fit

To be honest, I think that Dark angels Raven wing would be a good army for you, they can be painted simple or very extravagant and they are as mobile as they come.

Poly Ranger wrote:Space wolves may also be a good shout. Pretty strong, no spikey bits, multiple colours, decent variety. Lots of wolves. Not a gunline.

Thyhadras wrote:To be honest, I think that Dark angels Raven wing would be a good army for you, they can be painted simple or very extravagant and they are as mobile as they come.

Ummmm... He said he didn't want to play Space Marines... Also singled out SWs.

Unless you were specifically referring to the vanilla Codex, OP?

 Elric of Grans wrote:
I would like to ask a question similar to Warzoner here. I started 40K in fourth edition then had a hiatus during all of sixth. I am came and the factions are not really the same as they used to be (duh!). I keep going back and forth on whether or not I am using the right factions, or whether I should be playing something else.

My first army was Sisters. I picked them because I liked the general aesthetics, lapped up the Nuns with Guns bringing down righteous fire fluff and found that the old Acts of Faith rules were the cherry on top. Seven(?) years later, there are no new models (so my collection is essentially 'complete') and their rules have become less interesting (the new Acts of Faith system). I have 116 Sisters models (mostly infantry), along with the six Assassin models, and they are almost all painted (six unpainted vehicles). Honestly, I doubt Games Workshop will ever update these guys, and if they do they will surely just be another Imperial semi-faction (eg Militarum Tempestus, Skitarii). I could add allies to make them more viable and add some variety, but that is essentially just starting a third army anyway, so I am currently thinking of just leaving these guys in a dark corner and (likely) never bringing them out again.

My second army was Tyranids. I again liked the general aesthetics (I love the Giger Xenomorph look). While the fluff was relatively dull (omnomnom, oh darn we got beat again!), I did like the biological weapon ideas (eg firing flesh-eating parasites). For rules, I liked how customisable the Biomorphs made the faction. In fifth edition, Cruddace ripped the guts out of them and really did nothing to fix the issues in the current book. I have 198 models, with most of these also painted (Gargoyles and MCs remaining). Lots of nice new plastics I can collect and paint, but most of the options are worthless in even the most casual games. Perhaps they will give the book to Phil Kelly next time and the Nids will get their goodies back, but who knows how long I could be left feeling like I need not bother showing up (I refuse to play a Penta-Flyrant list).

I am not the best painter out there, but I do enjoy it. I used 10+ colours per Gaunt on my Nids and loved it, so painting a three colour Necron army would be kind of boring. The aesthetics of the models are important to me: I do not like the spiky/mutated Chaos Space Marine or Dark Eldar models, the monotonous look of Necrons or the primitive/ramshackle look of Orks. After the Sisters, I am not wanting another metal army, though I do not think they really exist any more (outside, say, Vostroyan Guard). I am not a good enough player to say if I am offensive or defensive. I usually get tabled too quickly to tell I know I like mobility: I think a static gunline would bore me silly. I also think I lack the finesse to play something technical like an Eldar or Dark Eldar. I like to run a fluffy list, even if it is not the most competitive (eg I run hoard Nids), so I am not looking for the army that wins tournaments. I would like to win a game, however! I think what I REALLY want is some darn variety! I started the Nids to get away from the monotony of only a single viable unit with the Sisters and they got hit with the same problem Perhaps I am being too much of a special snowflake, but I feel like Marines are simply wrong to play. I have always avoided them because they are so darn common. The Mary Sue fluff many of them seem to be surrounded by bugs me, as well as how Space Puppies jumped the wolf with their fifth edition book.

I play Nids, they are fun to mod and paint.

It is not true that you must play 5 tyrants to win a Tourny. That is just one currently popular build...mostly in reaction to Eldars becoming lol class OP.Necrons, and Space Marines are right behind. I will say that you need 4 or 4 for any tough fight though..:(

Tau, but don't do gunline Tau. Play Farsight Enclaves style mobile Tau. Ie "Kauyon" style by out terminology.

Or the new style Great Strength, Great Strike. Representative of the new KX Supremacy Armor.

We've got sleek a sleek look and our top tier army out there currently is mostly a mobile force with some fixed units that drop ML.

If you wanna win then play Eldar. If you want to beat Eldar, play daemon factory.

 CrashGordon94 wrote:
Unless you were specifically referring to the vanilla Codex, OP?

No, I do not consider there to be any significant difference between one SM and the next. I cannot understand why they are not all in one book with the subtle differences hammered out there. At least Blood Angels players would not be complaining every single edition about Ultramarines getting new toys that they missed out on!

If it's variety you're looking for, consider DE. I'm the only DE player at my FLGS. There's not too much finesse to them, just do some research.
Although, if you do enjoy painting, variety, and mobility, I would say Harlequins (and they're rare). There are all kinds of crazy kaleidoscope schemes out there that make for some beautiful models.
A fun army for converting/painting/general good times army is Orks, although from what I hear, they're having a rough go of things nowadays on the tabletop. A Speed Freeks army is all mobility.