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Which gets us back to "what is distinct".

That said, Reaper Deathstar is quite different from Spear Deathstar (although Spectre deathstar wouldn't be that different).

Bharring wrote:
Which gets us back to "what is distinct".

That said, Reaper Deathstar is quite different from Spear Deathstar (although Spectre deathstar wouldn't be that different).

And spear deathstar/seer council play similarly.

Drager wrote:

Bharring wrote:
Which gets us back to "what is distinct".

That said, Reaper Deathstar is quite different from Spear Deathstar (although Spectre deathstar wouldn't be that different).

And spear deathstar/seer council play similarly.

Yeah, my post was more in reference to considering things like Trukk spam vs BattleWagon spam as different builds. Where to draw the line is highly debateable.

Battlwagon spam would rely on nauts and planes for support and target saturation, while transports are supposed to protect expensive hammer units to break down defenses like nobz or Thrakka.
Trukk are (were?) mostly tons of fast boyz and cheap suicide units like MANz missiles or 5 tank bustas.

While the idea is the same, they play very different. However, the point is quite moot since neither archetype can be done well with the current state of boyz and transports.

I'm going Tyranids. Their unit diversity is impressive, and multiple Hive Fleet traits offer pretty wide array of strong builds.

CWE. Pick a strat, you can do it.

I'l lconced that bully boys is more of a sub-build and that orkzilla is similar to the battlewagons, but I stand by that having an army of gretchin doesn't fit in any of the other playstyles, so must be a distinct one. Grots are used to infuriate more than attack, it's a tricky thing to make work. And yeah, they need some big guns backing them up, but it's definitely different to all the other ones. So 7

Have you actually ever played 8th edition orks with a codex?

 some bloke wrote:
Orks can do:
Green Tide (all the boys)
Grot Horde (MSU gretchin, everywhere!)
Dreadbash
Battlewagon Bash
Trukk Rush
Gunline (lootas, mek guns, flash gitz)
biker bash
orkzilla (squiggoths and gargantuan squiggoths)
Speed Freek (buggies, bikes, trukks and stormboys)
Flyboys (all the fliers, with minimal support to make them fit in)
Bully Boys (all elites - 'ard boys, skar boys, Meganobs and nobs)
and of course, a mix of any of the above. I'm sure there're ones I haven't mentioned, as well!
12 to beat! bring it on, 'oomies!

And of those which are competitive? Green Tide can work.....kind of....if its heavily backed up by Mek gunz and Weirdboyz but not really that competitive anymor.
Grot horde is just being a troll. You are literally spamming one of the worst units in the game as troops in order to force your opponent to try and kill enough of them before the end of the game. Not competitive nor any fun.
Dreadbash, I call this a Kan wall or Mek Army. They suck. The Nauts are okish but the Dreadz suck and the Kanz are unplayable in anything but a friendly game.
Battlewagon Bash, in a competitive game you will lose, 9 wagonz at most with 4+ saves against armies that are designed to kill an Imperial Knight in 1 turn....not going to end well.
Trukk Rush: Exactly the same as Battewagon bash but worse on every level, Trukkz are flimsy and over priced and suck in CC.
Gunline: Same as green tide really. With the removal of the Loota Mob up ability it actually is seen less and less often.
Biker Bash: You lose turn 1, congrats. Warbikes suck....in everyway possible.
Orkzilla: Same as Wagon rush but worse somehow.
Speed Freakz: Better then Biker Bash, you lose turn 2. Buggies, bikes and trukkz, 3 of our worst units. Stormboyz are questionable at this point in time.
Flyboyz: Unable to inflict any real damage against T8 which means most armies just outlast this list and kill the infantry which results in an auto-forfeit for the ork player.
BullyBoyz: You lose the turn after your Bullyboyz disembark or appear from reserve. 3 wounds with 2+ save sounds good until Plasma becomes a thing....and its a thing.

Realistically there are about 2 different competitive builds and about 5 truly different play styles.

The OP question is not about competitive builds, though, just about playstyles. Therefore the codex with the most different units and unit types should probably win.

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
The OP question is not about competitive builds, though, just about playstyles. Therefore the codex with the most different units and unit types should probably win.

by that definition then its got to be codex space marines by virtue of having the most entries by far.

 G00fySmiley wrote:

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
The OP question is not about competitive builds, though, just about playstyles. Therefore the codex with the most different units and unit types should probably win.

by that definition then its got to be codex space marines by virtue of having the most entries by far.

And is only true if you ignore unit overlap and redundancies. Using this artillery unit in place of this artillery unit doesn't make it a different play style.

New SM codex is also certainly going to be up there as far as variety goes with Angels of Death giving Marines some much needed melee boosts.

 G00fySmiley wrote:

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
The OP question is not about competitive builds, though, just about playstyles. Therefore the codex with the most different units and unit types should probably win.

by that definition then its got to be codex space marines by virtue of having the most entries by far.

Its not Marines I'll tell you that.

To count as a different build it needs two things.

First it must play different. Swapping an apothecary for an ancient doesn't give you a new list. Adding a few devistators doesn't make a new list. But putting everyone on a bike or in a rhino does.

Second. The list must work. You don't need to be winning at major tournaments but it needs to be a credible threat. It needs to be competitive in your local tourneys. Shooting lists need to kill or cripple a couple targets a turn (or better) assult lists must make it to their targets with enough left to crush them. You don't have to win every game but there needs to be a chance you could win.

Pandabeer wrote:
New SM codex is also certainly going to be up there as far as variety goes with Angels of Death giving Marines some much needed melee boosts.

agreed. a melee centric space marine army looks like it will now be VERY viable. White scars will play COMPLETELY differant from Ultramarines.

Headlss wrote:

 G00fySmiley wrote:

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
The OP question is not about competitive builds, though, just about playstyles. Therefore the codex with the most different units and unit types should probably win.

by that definition then its got to be codex space marines by virtue of having the most entries by far.

Its not Marines I'll tell you that.

To count as a different build it needs two things.

First it must play different. Swapping an apothecary for an ancient doesn't give you a new list. Adding a few devistators doesn't make a new list. But putting everyone on a bike or in a rhino does.

Second. The list must work. You don't need to be winning at major tournaments but it needs to be a credible threat. It needs to be competitive in your local tourneys. Shooting lists need to kill or cripple a couple targets a turn (or better) assult lists must make it to their targets with enough left to crush them. You don't have to win every game but there needs to be a chance you could win.

False. Someone commented about my reply that the list DOES NOT have to be competitive. So therefore it just has to be legal which means it goes by the army with the most units. SM's have a TON of units that can perform any task, maybe not well but they can do it. If we are going to move the goal posts to "Competitive" then that is a different matter.

I can give you a strong competitor for least.


Ta`u

SemperMortis wrote:

Headlss wrote:

 G00fySmiley wrote:

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
The OP question is not about competitive builds, though, just about playstyles. Therefore the codex with the most different units and unit types should probably win.

by that definition then its got to be codex space marines by virtue of having the most entries by far.

Its not Marines I'll tell you that.

To count as a different build it needs two things.

First it must play different. Swapping an apothecary for an ancient doesn't give you a new list. Adding a few devistators doesn't make a new list. But putting everyone on a bike or in a rhino does.

Second. The list must work. You don't need to be winning at major tournaments but it needs to be a credible threat. It needs to be competitive in your local tourneys. Shooting lists need to kill or cripple a couple targets a turn (or better) assult lists must make it to their targets with enough left to crush them. You don't have to win every game but there needs to be a chance you could win.

False. Someone commented about my reply that the list DOES NOT have to be competitive. So therefore it just has to be legal which means it goes by the army with the most units. SM's have a TON of units that can perform any task, maybe not well but they can do it. If we are going to move the goal posts to "Competitive" then that is a different matter.

I am the OP. clarification is not goal post shifting. And to clarify the list must "work" it must do what it supposed to do. A ramdom sampling of the units in the codex doesn't count.

Second I did state in the OP that the lists must play radically different. So again a random sampling of the units in the codex doesn't count.

Headlss wrote:

SemperMortis wrote:

Headlss wrote:

 G00fySmiley wrote:

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
The OP question is not about competitive builds, though, just about playstyles. Therefore the codex with the most different units and unit types should probably win.

by that definition then its got to be codex space marines by virtue of having the most entries by far.

Its not Marines I'll tell you that.

To count as a different build it needs two things.

First it must play different. Swapping an apothecary for an ancient doesn't give you a new list. Adding a few devistators doesn't make a new list. But putting everyone on a bike or in a rhino does.

Second. The list must work. You don't need to be winning at major tournaments but it needs to be a credible threat. It needs to be competitive in your local tourneys. Shooting lists need to kill or cripple a couple targets a turn (or better) assult lists must make it to their targets with enough left to crush them. You don't have to win every game but there needs to be a chance you could win.

False. Someone commented about my reply that the list DOES NOT have to be competitive. So therefore it just has to be legal which means it goes by the army with the most units. SM's have a TON of units that can perform any task, maybe not well but they can do it. If we are going to move the goal posts to "Competitive" then that is a different matter.

I am the OP. clarification is not goal post shifting. And to clarify the list must "work" it must do what it supposed to do. A ramdom sampling of the units in the codex doesn't count.

Second I did state in the OP that the lists must play radically different. So again a random sampling of the units in the codex doesn't count.

Well if it must "Work" but it doesn't have to be competitive then SM's win yet again.

SM's can do horde: Army of cheap Scouts and not much else.
SM's can do Vehicle gun line: Any number of units, focusing around predators.
SM's can do T8 spam: Land Raiders
SM's can do Flyer spam: Again a number of flyers.
SM's can do assaulty infantry: Assault squads
SM's can do armored fist: Rhino's/land Raiders loaded with infantry.
SM's can do Biker spam: Bikers and scout bikes
SM's can do a speed list: Rhinos for troops and land speeders and some flyers.
SM's can do Heavy infantry: Centurions and Termiantors.
SM's can do gunline infantry: Devestators, Dev Cents, min tac squads with a heavy weapon, etc.
SM's can do a Walker list: Hell, they have more walkers then Orkz do now.
SM's can do a specialist list: Primaris and the like.

So yeah, if the goal posts is "Works" then SM's win because they have the most units. Again, if you want to make it "competitive" that is a different story.

SM should have the biggest range and capabilities

Orks should have the biggest range and capabilities.

Nids should have the biggest range and capabilities.

Tau should have the biggest range and capabilities.

Admech has quite a few.

You have:

1. Cawl-Ball gunline that groups up in a big ball and slowly moves up the field.

2. Mass Skitarii, usually Graia or Lucius

3. Aggressive Assault, using dragoons, infiltrators / sicarians and fulgurites / hoplights in transports

4. Ryza mid-field blaster gunline with kataphron plasma

5. Gunline + dragoons with Stygies

 Valentine009 wrote:
Admech has quite a few.

You have:

1. Cawl-Ball gunline that groups up in a big ball and slowly moves up the field.

2. Mass Skitarii, usually Graia or Lucius

3. Aggressive Assault, using dragoons, infiltrators / sicarians and fulgurites / hoplights in transports

4. Ryza mid-field blaster gunline with kataphron plasma

5. Gunline + dragoons with Stygies

Don't forget Kataphron Breacher Spam, Ironstriders & Skorpius for agressive mobile shooting.

Guard should have the biggest range and capabilities.

I'm really not buying into the Eldar being that diverse.

I suppose you could argue that Dark Eldar have Kabal/Wych/Coven and Eldar have Footdar and Fleetdar. But whichever list you choose there is almost no decision making process involved in what you take because so few things actually work.