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Hey all, I have just took up the hobby again and i have a small IG force. I just dont know where to start when it comes to picking an evil army to start up :(
Any help is much appreciated!
Cheers!

Chaos Space Marines is always a good go-to, though I'm still trying to figure out how to make fluffy lists that are competitive so I know what to buy next haha.

If you're not a fan of Chaos Space Marines, then it all comes down to how you define evil and whether or not that's enough for you on the Tabletop. For example, you might think that Tyranids are evil, but you might think that a Renegade Space Marine Chapter (that still uses the Loyalist Codeces, Supplements and Chapter Tactics for the purposes of the tabletop) are more evil since they are seen as having betrayed the Imperium.

Rheumatoid wrote:
Hey all, I have just took up the hobby again and i have a small IG force. I just dont know where to start when it comes to picking an evil army to start up :(
Any help is much appreciated!
Cheers!

Space Marines...

what you think the IoM ISN'T evil?

Rheumatoid wrote:
Hey all, I have just took up the hobby again and i have a small IG force. I just dont know where to start when it comes to picking an evil army to start up :(
Any help is much appreciated!
Cheers!

Like Brian eluded to, the Imperium of Man is actually quite evil.

Really, the only "good guy" army is Tau...and that's only good in the sense that they say they are fighting for the greater good...but if you don't accept their communist hegemony, you're dead. So they're evil too.

Part of the appeal of 40K grimdark is that there are no good guys. So it's more a matter of picking what you think is the most evil. Probably certain marks of Chaos Daemons or certain factions of Chaos Space Marines IMO. Khorne being the most evil for my tastes.

As always, pick the army with the models you like best and the backstory you like best.

Ultramarines.

Orthon wrote:
Ultramarines.

The purest evil hiding in the most plain of sights haha

Inquisition. The best evil is one that's justified.

If you want to start a traditionally "bad guy" army, your choices mainly lie between the (forgive me if I forget something) Chaos Space Marines, Daemons, Tyranids, Orks, and Necrons. CSMs are Space Marines gone bad, Daemons are fairly self explanatory, Tyranids are hungry bio-weapon monsters, Orks say WAAAAAAAGH a lot, and Necrons are ancient metal skeletons. To start, I'd say pick whichever one is the most visually appealing to you and then see if you like that army's play style.

But, if you want to get technical, nearly all of the armies in 40k are "evil" in a sense.

 jasper76 wrote:

Rheumatoid wrote:
Hey all, I have just took up the hobby again and i have a small IG force. I just dont know where to start when it comes to picking an evil army to start up :(
Any help is much appreciated!
Cheers!

Like Brian eluded to, the Imperium of Man is actually quite evil.

Really, the only "good guy" army is Tau...and that's only good in the sense that they say they are fighting for the greater good...but if you don't accept their communist hegemony, you're dead. So they're evil too.

Part of the appeal of 40K grimdark is that there are no good guys. So it's more a matter of picking what you think is the most evil. Probably certain marks of Chaos Daemons or certain factions of Chaos Space Marines IMO. Khorne being the most evil for my tastes.

As always, pick the army with the models you like best and the backstory you like best.

The Tau empire is neither good, nor communist. The corner stone for social organization within the empire is based on a class/caste system which is in its entirety opposite to a classless society. The tau empire is also discriminatory in the treatment of its citizens (All in the name of the greater good).

The greater good is essentially an undefined goal that the society works toward and is used as justification for any and all action whether moral or not. Thus the greater good can then be used as a way to control its population.

 Sledgehammer wrote:

 jasper76 wrote:

Rheumatoid wrote:
Hey all, I have just took up the hobby again and i have a small IG force. I just dont know where to start when it comes to picking an evil army to start up :(
Any help is much appreciated!
Cheers!

Like Brian eluded to, the Imperium of Man is actually quite evil.

Really, the only "good guy" army is Tau...and that's only good in the sense that they say they are fighting for the greater good...but if you don't accept their communist hegemony, you're dead. So they're evil too.

Part of the appeal of 40K grimdark is that there are no good guys. So it's more a matter of picking what you think is the most evil. Probably certain marks of Chaos Daemons or certain factions of Chaos Space Marines IMO. Khorne being the most evil for my tastes.

As always, pick the army with the models you like best and the backstory you like best.

The Tau empire is neither good, nor communist. The corner stone for social organization within the empire is based on a class/caste system which is in its entirely opposite to a classless society. The tau empire is also discriminatory in the treatment of its citizens (All in the name of the greater good).

The greater good is essentially an undefined goal that the society works toward and is used as justification for any and all action whether moral or not. Thus the greater good can then be used as a way to control its population.

@Sledgehammer Well yes, Tau are not really communist, but calling them communist is kind of a meme, so I usually refer to them that way anyways.

@Jasper While I do think Khorne has that "classic" evil appearance, especially how Bloodletters compare to IRL depictions of demons, I actually think that's the Chaos god I would most prefer to deal with. A violent death there, yes, but he values killing foes honorably. Like the Predators, but even better. Meanwhile Tzeentch and Slaanesh are kind of dicks in their own different ways, and Nurgle would terrify me as I have something of an aversion to ugly diseases. So yeah, Khorne is evil, but perhaps the lesser of four evils?

@OP I also started with IG. If you're looking for a more iconic enemy of the Imperium for the sake of fluffy/cinematic battles, I would advise Chaos, Orks, or Tyranids. I personally went Orks, but I think if any of those factions suit your taste, go for it.

I personnaly have a certain fondness for both Dark Eldars and Orks.

I love Dark Eldars due the ability to custom their forces in three neat subfactions (the Kabalites, the Wych Cults and Haemonculus Covens). Their models are pretty much high quality and customisable. Its pretty easy to kit bash them to make your models stand out more. There is still two or three units in finecast (Incubis, Beastmaster's packs and Mandrake), but that's not such a big issue. Their vehicules are both elegant and baroque. They offer a style of play that rewards both agressivity and speed making them rather challenging to master. Their fluff makes them both cartoonishly, monstruously and tragicaly villainous depending on your preferences.

Orks on the other side have a wide array of unit choices and vehicule to which you can add a few Forge World units if so you would like. Their scrappy look gives them a very Mad Max style and rather impressive vehicules and cannons. Their plastic kits offer a lot of diversity and are easy to assemble. While their army is pretty homogenous in terms of style, they offer a more varied style of play than Dark Eldars that ranges from clanking walkers hordes, green tides and multiple, small and fast units. Their fluff makes them iconic and hillarious amongst the 40K universe.

The problem with both these armies is that their codex dates back from the very early days of 7th eddition. While both compare pretty well to one another, they are seriously lacking in terms of competitivity. While its still possible to pull a win, they are mostly good for casual/semi-competitive gamming groups. On the brighter side, both Dark Eldars and Orks have room for further expansion, were rather competitive in their precedent incarnation which gives hope for them to return back to mid-tear.

Tzeentch is the closest you can get to actually good in this, chaotic neutral.

 Sledgehammer wrote:

 jasper76 wrote:

Rheumatoid wrote:
Hey all, I have just took up the hobby again and i have a small IG force. I just dont know where to start when it comes to picking an evil army to start up :(
Any help is much appreciated!
Cheers!

Like Brian eluded to, the Imperium of Man is actually quite evil.

Really, the only "good guy" army is Tau...and that's only good in the sense that they say they are fighting for the greater good...but if you don't accept their communist hegemony, you're dead. So they're evil too.

Part of the appeal of 40K grimdark is that there are no good guys. So it's more a matter of picking what you think is the most evil. Probably certain marks of Chaos Daemons or certain factions of Chaos Space Marines IMO. Khorne being the most evil for my tastes.

As always, pick the army with the models you like best and the backstory you like best.

The Tau empire is neither good, nor communist. The corner stone for social organization within the empire is based on a class/caste system which is in its entirety opposite to a classless society. The tau empire is also discriminatory in the treatment of its citizens (All in the name of the greater good).

The greater good is essentially an undefined goal that the society works toward and is used as justification for any and all action whether moral or not. Thus the greater good can then be used as a way to control its population.

Fair enough...looks like I need to bone up on Tau before commenting about them

My vote is for Chaos Space Marines, they are a lot of fun right now and it's possible to build competitive lists. They also harmonize with your IG army, which you can run as a Renegades and Heretics auxiliary.

Here's some advice on how to start with them.

1) It takes a lot of books to run a good CSM list. You need a copy of the Codex, Traitor's Hate, and Traitor Legions.

2) With rumors of 8th edition swirling, my advice is to buy these books on the cheap via eBay. No sense in buying books that will only be useful for a year.

3) With Traitor Legions, you have the option of getting special rules based on Legion. Decide which legion you want to run before buying models. Some units do better in some armies.

4) The Legions commonly recognized as the best right now are Death Guard, World Eaters and Black Legion. You don't need to go with one of these, but read the rules for your Legion before you start. I know many unhappy Word Bearers players right now.

5) Then buy models. The Start Collecting box may or may not be useful, depending on what kind of army you want to field.

 KommissarKiln wrote:

@Jasper While I do think Khorne has that "classic" evil appearance, especially how Bloodletters compare to IRL depictions of demons, I actually think that's the Chaos god I would most prefer to deal with. A violent death there, yes, but he values killing foes honorably. Like the Predators, but even better. Meanwhile Tzeentch and Slaanesh are kind of dicks in their own different ways, and Nurgle would terrify me as I have something of an aversion to ugly diseases. So yeah, Khorne is evil, but perhaps the lesser of four evils?

In my mind, Tzeentch at root is about change, and Burgle is about decay, which are just basic facts of life. Slaneesh is a little worse, being about hedonism, but as an American, if I say hedonism is evil, I'd be condemning the majority of my fellow citizens .

Khorne seems the worst of the bunch to me, because I take him as slaughter for its own sake. But I'd also agree the models look the most evil and demonic.

Dark eldar, by far the most cruel faction in 40k and not very common on the battlefield.

Also tyranids can be considered evil as they're the only army that can have any allied forces.

Orks are not evil at all, they're just savages and actually most of their fluff is funny and hilarious.

All the humans factions are evil but they're always wrongly portrayed as the heroes of 40k so despite being a bunch of fascists and religious fanatics they're not typical villains.

 Blackie wrote:
All the humans factions are evil but they're always wrongly portrayed as the heroes of 40k so despite being a bunch of fascists and religious fanatics they're not typical villains.

Don't quote me on this, but I believe the Imperium is portrayed as "least bad" because GW already markets its products to us humans much better than extraterrestrial races. Jerks.

Genestealer Cults, Chaos Space Marines or Daemons. All "evil" factions that can actually win games.

We're not evil, we're just misunderstood...

Genestealer Cult

 don_mondo wrote:
We're not evil, we're just misunderstood...

Genestealer Cult

Oh for sure. I like to imagine the Neophytes going door to door to ask harangued Imperials if they have a few minutes to talk about our lord and saviour, Deathleaper.

 don_mondo wrote:
We're not evil, we're just misunderstood...

Genestealer Cult

*Knock Knock* Excuse me.Do you have a minute to talk about our savior, the Hive Mind? haha

 IllumiNini wrote:

 don_mondo wrote:
We're not evil, we're just misunderstood...

Genestealer Cult

*Knock Knock* Excuse me.Do you have a minute to talk about our savior, the Hive Mind? haha

Now I have an urge to paint my Genestealer Cult in tie dye and swap out the autoguns for bongos.

 jasper76 wrote:

 IllumiNini wrote:

 don_mondo wrote:
We're not evil, we're just misunderstood...

Genestealer Cult

*Knock Knock* Excuse me.Do you have a minute to talk about our savior, the Hive Mind? haha

Now I have an urge to paint my Genestealer Cult in tie dye and swap out the autoguns for bongos.

I will now have nightmares about Jehovah's Witnesses dressed in Astartes Power Armour with four arms and bongos knocking on my door. Thank you very much

Like many, I'd suggest Chaos Space Marines. I chose CSM way back in the day for the sole reason that everyone I knew played Space Marines and I wanted to play Space Marines too, but the idea of 2 loyalist Space Marine armies fighting each other made no sense. So I went CSM simply because I was so similar to the loyalists and I could justify attacking anyone. But this was back when CSM and Loyalist were much more similar. These days the armies are much more distinct so the choice would be much harder today. Thankfully (or unfortunately depending how you look at it) I'm a huge Thousand Sons fan so I'd probably always have them to fall back on.

That said, I strongly suggest you hold off for the time being with any large purchases. You can't go wrong with a start collecting box or the starter box, but beyond that try to limit yourself to kits that are fairly new (raptors, brutes, fiends, and drakes).

A lot of the CSM line is quite old and showing its age. On top of that, we have an entirely new edition of the game coming out that no one knows what direction they'll take us. They promise us they won't AOS 40k, but that doesn't mean everyone will make it out unscathed.

Focus on the background or choosing an army that you like the look of for now and make purchases slowly until we get a better idea of what the future holds.

 jasper76 wrote:
In my mind, Tzeentch at root is about change, and Burgle is about decay, which are just basic facts of life. Slaneesh is a little worse, being about hedonism, but as an American, if I say hedonism is evil, I'd be condemning the majority of my fellow citizens .

Slaanesh isn't about hedonism. She's about excess. In that regard her followers have the potential to be the worst of the lot, depending on what it is they are excessive about.

Khorn's followers kill to honour him, Slaanesh's followers kill out of overwhelming personal hate, a need to inflict suffering on others, an irrational thirst for revenge, wanting that person's loved ones to suffer, an urge to swim around in an Olympic swimming pool full of blood and organs, anything in between.

There's a certain selflessness to Khorn's followers, while Slaanesh's are, by their nature, extremely selfish. Overall I think they best embody cartoonish self-acknowledged evil out of all the chaos pantheon.

"The audience likes a good hero, but they love a great villain", as a wise (and possibly dead) man once said,

Therefore, as far as an "evil" army you should really be basing the decision on what gives you the most fun to channel. There's nothing better than having two armies that are perfect foils for each other, or having three armies in a good/bad/ugly arrangement - you can't really tell which side is which between each battle.

I personally favor my "evil" to be on the anarchic destructive side or those armies that seem to be led by James Bond villains. Orks are a staple for this sort of thing, as are Renegades and Heretics from Forge World, in fact you could have years of fun playing just these armies against each other. Because I also have Blood Angel marines, I found the Dark Eldar to be their perfect foil, but depending on what you play you will most likely choose something different.

When in doubt though, choose daemons.

Anything Tzeentch.

One second you're an integral part of of a grand master plan, the next, you're a pawn distraction or tangent at best.

Imperial Guard.
There are absolutely brilliant models for building an army based around everybody's favorite 20th century "Evil" armies.
One of the guys at my FLGS has a beautiful German SS army.

Legion of the damned, the best kind of daemons.
Forget khorne these guys are the true kings of skulls and flames.

Tyranids and Orkz mostly just want to murder things and fight.

EDIT, Orkz make a great enemy. You shoot them they run. Most of our leaders have no Invul save so every little good guy hero with a power weapon murders us in a challenge typically before we swing. All of our vehicles are open topped so they can be shot with a Bolter and explode. Most of our good weapons have poor AP or low rate of fire so your space marine pals get to roll all the big Armor saves against everything but a power klaw. Our boyz mostly have no save so every shot 'good guys' can muster becomes a kill typically.

Shoot enough of the big Nids then the little ones kill themselves.