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Hi everyone,

I'm a long time Ork player looking to branch out to something else for a change of pace. Preferably I'd like to have more shooting, a little less reliability on stratagems/CPs and lower model count (durable preferably). Without being able to pick up an army at a whim and try games out, I was hoping you all could share some input/advice from armies you play. I play at a moderately competitive level so I don't want to buy into something bottom tier, but the hobby aspect is important to me. Armies I am interested in are below:

1. Tyranids - love the bugs, but doesn't really seem to fit low model count right now or particularly good at shooting.

2. Dark Eldar - not particularly durable except for Coven units, but lower model count and quite shooty. Absolutely love the model range. Can also ally in Harlequins/Craftworlds which I also enjoy the look of.

3. Death Guard/mixed Chaos - Death Guard were my old secondary army in 5th ed so it seems a natural choice. Love the model range, love the theme, durable, lower count. Death Guard seems pretty mid tier, but mixed Chaos opens a lot of doors.

Any other suggestions? I think there are some other factions that would fit the bill but I don't enjoy the aesthetic (Tau for instance). Appreciate any advice!

If you want something shooty without having to rely on stratagems/CP, and that has a low model count, you could do something like an IG tank company.

Have you considered an eldar wraith host? I can't really speak on how it plays but it's something I think is cool. Marines also obviously fit that criteria or custodes which are competent in melee and shooting.

Deathguard competitively require either pox walkers or plague bearers if I recall correctly which goes against the low model count. But super fun I love having a zombie horde

Of the three factions you mentioned only Death Guard remotely fill the critera

Thanks for the input guys. I agree Death Guard probably best fits the criteria.

Guard - I am more of an infantry/monster fan so a tank army doesn't appeal to me much.

With regards to all the plaguebearers used in competitive armies...yeah its usually 60. But even that feels low count compared to orks!

I hear Iron Hands is good at the moment :p

It actually fits all your criteria. Shooting, lowish model count, not CP reliant and competitive.

 Dendarien wrote:
Thanks for the input guys. I agree Death Guard probably best fits the criteria.

Guard - I am more of an infantry/monster fan so a tank army doesn't appeal to me much.

With regards to all the plaguebearers used in competitive armies...yeah its usually 60. But even that feels low count compared to orks!

You want the feeling of elite and durable infantry? Could go half way into guard and do a Militarum Tempestus army. You’re looking at between 50-70 infantry total with 4+ saves and SM shooting with -2 AP lasguns and a bunch of special weapons. You are fast and hit hard, but fold if not done correctly.
It’s the epitome of special ops commandos.

Go Knights.

Small model count, giant robots, somewhat competitive. What's not to love?

As an ork player myself I chose Ad-Mech as my second army whilst we were waiting for the ork codex to drop.
They felt like the opposite of orks both in style and game play. It also gave me the opportunity to field knights but in a way that felt authentic and not cheesy.
I've found them a satisfying army to build, paint and play with although since orks can now shoot it has narrowed the gap somewhat.

Well, I'd vote for DE.
Lots of different units and models to choose from, most of them semi-competitive or more.
And you can mix Kabal, Wych Cult and Coven using different detachments.

 Dendarien wrote:
Hi everyone,

I'm a long time Ork player looking to branch out to something else for a change of pace. Preferably I'd like to have more shooting, a little less reliability on stratagems/CPs and lower model count (durable preferably). Without being able to pick up an army at a whim and try games out, I was hoping you all could share some input/advice from armies you play. I play at a moderately competitive level so I don't want to buy into something bottom tier, but the hobby aspect is important to me. Armies I am interested in are below:

1. Tyranids - love the bugs, but doesn't really seem to fit low model count right now or particularly good at shooting.

2. Dark Eldar - not particularly durable except for Coven units, but lower model count and quite shooty. Absolutely love the model range. Can also ally in Harlequins/Craftworlds which I also enjoy the look of.

3. Death Guard/mixed Chaos - Death Guard were my old secondary army in 5th ed so it seems a natural choice. Love the model range, love the theme, durable, lower count. Death Guard seems pretty mid tier, but mixed Chaos opens a lot of doors.

Any other suggestions? I think there are some other factions that would fit the bill but I don't enjoy the aesthetic (Tau for instance). Appreciate any advice!

I was faced with the same choice when I got sick of green tide all the time at the beginning of 8th, and chose Death Guard. I wanted to to be able to solve my problems through shooting, while not completely giving up close combat capabilities.
Playing DG as ork player feels completely different and yet familiar. When fielding orks, you pretty much assume that anything of value will be dead by turn 3.
When fielding death guard, people keep shooting and pouring firepower into everything and somehow you still have half your army left afterwards. Between blight lords, drones, PBC and blighthaulers, people struggle to generate enough shooting to down everything, so you often still have your big guns available by the time the game ends.
In addition DG have plenty of decent special weapons that are worth something on durable platforms - plague spitters, plasma guns, blight launchers and combi-bolters are all great against their respective targets, where orks pretty much shoot everything with rokkits and hope for the best.

On the other hand DG have plenty things that are similar to orks. Pox walkers are durable gretchin, a daemon prince is their warboss and both armies don't really have the ability to reach across the board and take out a hard target reliable- you usually want to get within 18" of your opponent or closer.

In general, I found Death Guard to be very relaxing to play compared to orks. Pox walkers usually just serve as objective campers, and even a pox walker horde usually has no more than 40 - that just barely more than a single unit of boyz. And even then, they are not doing the heavy lifting for your army, so there is much less need for perfect movement, pile-ins, and despite most of their effective range being 18-24" you can usually just gun down the target you want, removing all tactics and thoughts surrounding screens from the equation.

And one the last thing that's not to be underestimated - Death Guard are cheap as dirt to start. The starter set is all over ebay and contains some pretty competitive units and most of their boxes have a pretty good points-to-money ratio.

I'd say Death guard. DE is fun but to play it right you can easily end up with more models than you'd like as they are cheap units, mostly.

AngryAngel80 wrote:
I'd say Death guard. DE is fun but to play it right you can easily end up with more models than you'd like as they are cheap units, mostly.

Both are fun to play. The learning curve with DG is a bit steeper, while DE is harder to master.
Have you seen the DG army in the new WD? The theme is snow-world. Very nice!

 Dendarien wrote:


2. Dark Eldar - not particularly durable except for Coven units, but lower model count and quite shooty. Absolutely love the model range. Can also ally in Harlequins/Craftworlds which I also enjoy the look of.

Any other suggestions? I think there are some other factions that would fit the bill but I don't enjoy the aesthetic (Tau for instance). Appreciate any advice!

I would say this because so different from orks, really challenging as a player to mix up styles,
plus new models should be out which should be good timing to build.

Moreover, DG would be more green, lots of H2H, high toughness, the same sort of thing that you might have with orks...
so, meh as a collection imho.

Nids... hive-mindless hordes... already have orks.

I started with orks and adopted nids from a good friend afterwards.
When killteam arrived, i bought myself a 1Ksons killteam. You know, only one box of rubricon marines. One year later and now i've got 2K+ 1Ksons and a chaos knight desecrator in tzeentch thema.
I do love the difference in playstyle they offer, so maybe worth thinking about it. Knight, magnus and termies are good in close combat, bolters, pistols and flamers are all ap-2, and sooooo many spells.2K games have easy 20+ spells.
Pure 1K sons army is probably not the most competitive army out there, but it can have a very low bodycount (I have only 45 ish models in total for more than 2K points). It has a completely different playstyle and better shooting than orks . I keep my army mostly infantrybased so without vehicles I do lack anti tank weapons. That's something to keep in mind.