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i want to get into 40k after 8 years of fantasy so i want an elite army because in fantasy i played every kind of hoard
(skaven 3500pts, fast goblins 2500pts,vampire zombie list 2000pts,maruders 1500pts etc) so i want a change.

Any of the marine lists could fit the bill or perhaps an Eldar army list. Both can be small and very effective. Or even Speed Freaks.

Go with Chaos and do tons of Plague Marines. You won't have that many guys but the ones you do have will be really resilient a pack a big punch.

Grey Knights...

But if you take Grey Knights you can't win...

he just said he wanted an elite army, he didnt mention winning.
I cant think of an army thats more elite than GKs (maybe eldar)

We'll I think by elite he means low model count, in which case, Plague Marines are more expensive than Grey Knights. But I guess fluff wise GK's are about elite as it gets. Unfortunately you can't win any games with them unless you play 5 year olds.

PistolWraithCaine wrote:We'll I think by elite he means low model count, in which case, Plague Marines are more expensive than Grey Knights. But I guess fluff wise GK's are about elite as it gets. Unfortunately you can't win any games with them unless you play 5 year olds.

With tactics, Grey Knights can be better than plague marines.

Wait, who am I kidding....

explain how you can't win with grey knights

and what about khorne and thousand sons? are'nt they elite too

I guess they are too, I was suggesting deathguard because they're the most competitive imo. You can't win with grey knights because everything they have is over pointed and bad. You don't get any extra for paying more points for the troopers.

If you want low model count, you probably want to go marines. Of which probably Blood Angels would be the best. Seeing as they have the most expensive troops in the Jump Marines. Plus, they have Death Company!

ork big mek army... With LOT'S of meganobz and battlewagons.

for the "elite troops" in fluff yes grey knights are the best, but that would be like shooting yourself in the foot and then running a marathon.

for a competitive list that has elite troops do something like DA, plague marines, or something more basic like lots of assault marines. however if your tempted at all to play regular marines (SM codex) wait till the new one comes out, then you can use that codex to make a kick arse list

so right now you are telling me that the lists available for me would be marines, blood angels, plague marines,eldar and maybe some elite ork army.

which one would be the most competitive buti don't need tanks for it to be that competitive (i prefer troops to tanks)

probably some ncarnation of marines or orks, as eldar really do need some form of vehicle

Or he could just go all Tau for shooty death army from hell, just sink points into crisis suits and hammerheads and there is a good chunk of your army :p

no hammerheads, they aren't as good as broadsides

what would be an elite but competitive 750pts list for 40k what would be the best

for tau, a bunch of fire warriors, some pthfinders, and then fill in with battlesuits.

for marines, termies with AC's, and vets with plasma

Deathwing are pretty elite and i have found them fun to play but only really start to have a chance at 12-1500 points.
At 1500 points you are only going to have 21 termies and 2 dreads.

Raven wing would be a good bet as well. Seeing as you can get a whole attack squadron rather cheap if you get the battleforce version.

i was thinking of either ravenwing (because i like the idea and the models) or a vostroyan army (i like the models and the theme) which one would you choose? and which is more competitive

also what kind of list would you do for ravenwing

Ravenwing is the more competetive right now. Also the Vostroyan are OOP so you probably can't get very many of them. A list for Ravenwing would probably be as many attack Squadrons as possible with the Master (Sammael) in his landspeeder. (since he is a compulsory choice for the army and his landspeeder beats the pants of his jetbike) Thats pretty much it, the anti-tank would be your attackbikes and your anti-inf would be landspeeders with assault cannons. If you need some inf of a kind just get one or two squads of deathwing and drop them where needed using the teleport homer. Works like a charm once you figure out its limitations.

Just keep in mind that all of the players responding to your original post are marine players, tempting you to join their ranks. It's a microcosm of the warhammer 40k community, where everyone plays the imperium's "few and the proud"... which is quite ironic.

Marines, from a 'fluff' perspective, are elite. In game, they are just very durable. With very few exceptions they have very little in the way of great combat units or characters, and shooting often depends on many multiples of minimum sized squads. Armies tend to be repetitive and uniform, as that is the most effective way to play marines. Most alien armies, even "horde" ones, tend to have way more "elite" units, far more capable of outdoing the marines in any way shape or form depending on what they are. Marines just don't seem elite to me. They seem boring and too common, but that's just my opinion. No offense to you guys, keep on keepin on. A marine player is better than not playing 40k at all.

Armies I would personally suggest (at least to give you a different viewpoint than all of these marine players) would include:

Eldar, very low numbers, often lower than marines actually. Their units, rightfully named "aspect" warriors, are very specialized, unlike most marine units, which tend to be very generalized. Eldar are fragile for their point costs, but tend to be very deadly in an offensive manner. Their vehicles are much to be feared, and in the current edition get a lot of flak from the masses as being "cheesy." It may or may not be true, but there are many rumors that GW is nerfing how strong skimmers (such as most of the eldar vehicles I am referring to) are, which may suggest that they are perhaps a bit strong in the current version.

Chaos - Chaos Marines have essentially the same basic statline as a loyalist marine, however have a lot more options. They have access to different, chaos-perverted marines with greater powers and some specialty. Chaos tends to have larger, more expensive units, and tend (not always, by any means) to lean more towards close-combat specialty than their loyalist brothers.

Mechanised Tau - Mechanised Tau, meaning tau that use all models either mounted in vehicles, vehicles themselves, or models in battlesuits. Battlesuits form the core of this army, and are quite expensive. Although horrible at close combat, this army has great mobility and firepower. They must use their agile jet-packs to dart back and forth inbetween cover and whither their opponents down, while their huge "hammerhead tanks" pound the enemy to dust with their railguns.

Speed Freaks/Mechanized Orks - While they definitely aren't super elite, they aren't horde either. Speed freaks have to be very smart about their movements (which are the fastest in the game, no doubt) as their numbers are quite limited (compared to foot-slogging orks) and their transports and vehicles are fragile. This breed of orks has low numbers, and are very fragile, but have insanely high speed and awesome combat ability, especially on the charge. The most common, and usually the only way these orks can win is by safely getting their trukks to the enemy, and timing a Waaagh! that allows as many of these orks as possible to hit at once, attempting to break the enemies back in one thunderous wave, while their support vehicles mop up the ensuing rounds. Also, besides the basic ork boy, which is very cheap and expendable, orks have access to many very expensive units. Nobs/Meganob units can easily soar into several hundred points even before all of their upgrades or transport options. Some of these combinations join them amongst the most vicious of close-combat units in 40k. Their other elites tend to have very specialized shooting weapons, such as lootas, tankbustas, and burnaboys, but have the same fragility as the basic ork.

Hope I spiced things up a bit.