Hi!
So the next stage of my journey into 40K 8th ed. is to pick an army. Having played tabletop games for years I have a process for doing this (but I have never codified it in this level of detail before) but basically there are lots of things to consider (not in any specific order):
- Playstyle. I’ve never been a ‘stand back and shoot,’ gamer but then again, all the armies I’ve had that just rush forward and start chopping have been fairly unsuccessful (or even just as boring as standing back and shooting). I’m a bit of a Liberal Democrat when it comes to playstyle – I try and do a bit of everything; I like to be active in every phase.
- Models. Very subjective this but if I’m going to be building, painting and playing (and blogging it all) with these models then I want them to look good. #Spoileralert as I’ve just painted a whole 30K EC army, I’m not interested in any Power Armour at the moment
- Elite vs Horde. Having owned both of these types of armies (Beastmen in WHFB and IK in 7th ed. 40K) I must say I prefer playing with horde armies. However, I have to be realistic with my painting time and my aspirations for making the army look half decent. I will try and get a variety of units into the army but, realistically, I won’t have the time to get an IG blob army done any time this lifetime.
Once I’ve picked an army I’ll go through the process of lining it up with the rule book to write a half decent (I hope) list but to keep this top level:
‘It’s a no from me,’ for the following because they’re power armoured:
Space Marines, Ultramarines, Blood Angels (might do these in 30K at some point though), Dark Angels, Deathwatch, Grey Knights, Space Wolves, Adeptus Ministorum, Chaos Space Marines, Death Guard, Thousand Sons, Necrons (not power armoured but I’ve bought a box of these before and started cutting myself before I finished them it was so boring).
‘It’s a no from me,’ for the following because they’re too ‘hordey:’
Astra Militarum, Orks, Tyranids, Adeptus Medhanicus
‘It’s a no from me,’ because they’re too limited in model choice / should be allies etc
(Yeah, weird one this but I’m stuck on armies only coming from one codex. It’s just a quirk of mine but I’m not into allies (and I get very suspicious of people that play with allies, I instinctively believe them to be exploiting a loophole)).
Custodes (also because they are the most hated army in 30K and that may the case in 40K too – I don’t know), Sisters of Silence, Inquisition, Officio Assassinorum, Harlequins (shame because I like these), Ynnari, Genestealer Cults.
So that leaves:
Knights(actually not Knights, I’ve got them already)- Daemons
- Craftworlds
- Drukhari
- Tau
Hmm, that looks like quite a tasty list actually. Ok, lets go through these in detail…
Daemons
This would be a great army for someone wanting to play 40K and AoS (I think, I don’t actually know if it would be great but it would definitely be functional). Some of the models are absolutely amazing (the most recent (which is still nearly a decade old) Slaanesh stuff especially) but then lots of them really look their age. Also, they are a bit ‘cartoony,’ for me. And I’ve just painted a chaos army in 30K. So these probably aren’t making the final cut to be honest.
Drukhari
Now, on the topic of great models, here’s an army I can really get behind. But there’s an issue. I’m planning on playing a tournament next year with a good mate. He’s a Drukhari player. His army is sensational (he’s probably wallpapered his house with some of his ‘best army,’ awards) – I’ll ask him to write a bit about it on here. A lot of my games are likely to be against him (outside of tournaments) so maybe this is one to skip too. They also sound fairly unforgiving from a game play perspective.
Tau
Fuck this looks like a good army. Really nice models, cool but goofy lore. I love the look of the bigger units like this:
Photo is from GW’s webstore (https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Tau-Empire-XV104-Riptide-Battlesuit-2017)
But the biggest drawback here is the lack of action in the psychic phase. I want to be active in every phase so this is going to kill it for the Tau. Which brings me to…
Craftworlds
So, as a child of the ’80s these are called Eldar to me. And I’ve always loved them. How can you not love this:
(http://eldritchepistles.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-bryan-ansell-collection-rogue.html)
??
They’re active in each phase, they’re quick, the models are gorgeous, they’re a balance between elite and having a decent sized force. And I’ve always loved them – time to get involved!
Ah PSYCHE(R)!! I actually always knew it would be these dudes – I just had to write all this to make sure!
I’ll post a list writing article soon!
Any comments, I’d love to hear them!