StarDestroyer.Net BBS

My brother and his friends play warhammer and want me to get an army (costly, I know). I am trying to figure out what would be good to play. The guys already have dwarves, Imperial Knights, and Chaos w/skaven. I was thinking about Orcs, and I definitely don't want the tomb kings.

What are the strengths/weaknesses of the different armies? What are they good to play as?

I realize I'm asking a drastically broad question, but advice would be good.

If you want an awesomely disciplined and mighty army - you can't go past High Elves. They can be a bit soft due to lack of numbers, but the fact that they are millenia old warriors tends to let them carry the day.

Orcs are cool - lots and lots and lots of minis (which means more to buy), but if you get the right force composition (not sure exactly what under the newest rules) you can march straight across and through ALL opposition... Quantity has a quality all of its own.

Look at some of the other ones like Brettonians or the new Ogre Kingdoms, which I'm not as familiar with, but are just as good.

Or go into a FAR cheaper and better system... Flames of War

Note: I don't play WH, but i pay attention to all the stuff in WD and the games room so hopefully this is correct.

I've not included the armies your friends already have.

Undead/Vampire Counts:
Strengths:
Magically dominant
Lot's of cheap troops that you can easily re-incarnate
Rock Hard characters
Most of the Army causes Fear

Weaknesses:
Average soldier is a pile of crap
Coming up against another magic stronjg army will put you in a world of hurt.

Orcs:
S:
Fairly solid basic troops and characters
Access to some interesting stuff, eg. Giants

W:
Animosity

Brettonia:
S:
Rock hard knights
Good defence against missle fire

W:
Knights are pretty much all they've got

Lizardmen:
S:
Magically dominant (probably the best)
Hard to break
Fairly tough (if they still have the scaly rule)
W:
Low numbers (IIRC)

Ogre Kingdoms:
S:
Fast
Strong
Tough
W:
Few in number
Vunerable to multi wound causing stuff
May go the way of the Chaos Dwarfs and just dissapear.

Wood Elves:
S:
Dominant archery
Fast
W:
Weak

High Elves:
S:
Fast
Magically dominant
Have a unit for everything
W:
Intrigue of the court, you don't know who your general will be.
Not too tough

Dark Elves:
S
Pretty much the same as High elves with a leaning towards archery and less magical dominance
W
Not so tough.

Tomb Kings:
S:
Good magic
Chariots as fast cavalry
Archers hit on 5+ no matter what
W:
Bad against strong magic armies
Basic troops are crap
Archers hit on 5+ no matter what

why do you think I love those magnificent pointy eared bastards.

you can kick some serious ass and still not have to spend a ton of money.

Orcs. Definitely go for Orcs. Unless you are extremely adverse to losing.

Not only are they a strong army, but they're also the funniest. Just about very unit you have has the capacity to go wrong and turn against you(wither through simple Animosity, or things like Night Goblin Fanatics getting released in the middle of your lines.

But when things(mostly) go right, they can inflict some serious damage.

Orcs and Goblins come in different flavors:

Regular Orcs -- Very tough, very strong.

Savage Orcs -- Low armor/ward save, but have Frenzy.

Black Orcs -- Like regular Orcs, but even nastier. Can cut down on the animosity in your army, but are very expensive.

All Orcs ignore the panic caused by fleeing Goblins. Black Orcs also ignore other fleeing Orcs.

Common Goblins -- Can field a whole lot of them, but generally weak and kind of cowardly. Wolf Riders are good, though.

Night Goblins -- Even more cowardly, but have some of the dirtiest tricks in the game, like Fanatics and Squigs. These tricks hurt the enemy like hell, but can backfire on you.

Correction, the ENTIRE Vampire Counts Army Causes fear.
Also they are a good army if you want to change the style of play. Want to go magic heavy, play Necrarch. Want to have an entire army with magic waepons and killing blow, play the Blood Dragons. Also skeletons are cheap money wise, and can be made to soak up poaints, plus they can be raised. Nothing better than watching the army get bigger the closer they get to enemy lines. The down side is, the best unit for the VC are Grave Guard. They cost about $3.50 apiece, but build them up over time, they are rock hard. 3+ save in close combat, always hit on 3's, Str4 Tough4, and killing blow, which are good against characters and heavily armored cavalry.

CaptainChewbacca wrote:My brother and his friends play warhammer and want me to get an army (costly, I know). I am trying to figure out what would be good to play. The guys already have dwarves, Imperial Knights, and Chaos w/skaven. I was thinking about Orcs, and I definitely don't want the tomb kings.

What are the strengths/weaknesses of the different armies? What are they good to play as?

I realize I'm asking a drastically broad question, but advice would be good.

If you want to save money, just play using some good old Green Army Soldier Toys. Paint them in such a way that you can keep track of individuals, etc. I have also used the Battleball figurines (25 figures for $5) and the RumbleWars figures (24 for $5 at participating Toys R Uses).

If you want a tyranid army, buy some toy bugs or something...

As for the game, I'm a Battlefleet Gothic man myself. I love the Imperium.