# Interest in WH Fantasy growing...



## Dalamarth (May 26, 2009)

Hi all. Long time WH40k enthusiast here, never played a game of WH Fantasy in my life.

Lately, I've been planning on getting back into 'the hobby', but have been toying with the idea of going WH Fantasy this time, instead of picking up WH40k again.

A few quick questions, if you would indulge me:

1) In _your_ opinion, what are the major differences gameplay wise between WH, and WH40k?

2) I am of the opinion that there are not as many WH players out and about as there are WH40k players (given the traffic patterns I have noticed on this forum alone, my theory has not been dissuaded.) Were I to pick up WH, would I have trouble finding opponents to game with?

3) WH40k has an army (the Space Marines) that GW has a particular fondness for, and as such -- they never seem to be too far behind the curve in the new model/new codex department. Would you say WH has a similar race? If so, which one? And are there a bajillion people playing it as there are with Space Marines? Will I be a little fish in a big ocean if I went with this race?

4) I like the description on this website for The Empire's tactics. Not relying on one, or select mega-units to win, but relying on the cohesion of the army. Given that tid-bit, any other armies I should take a close look at?

5) In 'Sword & Sorcery' settings, I've always had a fondness for the 'Sorcery' aspect. (Always play Mages/Wizards, whatever they call 'em nowadays in D&D. I even always consistently picked Librarians as HQ choices for my Space Marines, even if they weren't the best choice.) Which armies are particularly magically efficient, or 'fun?'

Thanks in advance!


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## jackd334 (May 25, 2009)

1) In my opinion the mafor diffrences are the way the army moves, and the combat system.The army moves as a block, whereas in 40k its more seperate bunch's. Each unit has a total number of wounds, as oposed to each model as an individual. Being in large blocks, monouverability is important for attacking blind spots and shooting. Points are spent on numbers rather than enormous vehicles.
2) I have found it very difficult to have a decent game of fantasy. 40k is played far more in my store than fantasy, and not many of the guys know the proper rules :/ Wich is a real shame, because fantasy games are such good fun. Please dont let this put you off though!!
3) There isnt realy an army that is favoured above the others. If you compare the armies of 40k and fantasy, there are parralels, (orcs-orks, chaos-chaos, eldar-elves etc..). I would have said the empire are the closest to marines, but theyre more like the Imp Guard. People generaly just go for what looks coolest first, get a feel of it. Start of with a small force, if you dont like it, try another. A great one to start with are orcs, theyre funny, cheap, lots of variety and easy to personalise, though many people have them. People often build new armies in time with the new codexs.
4&5) If i were you, id go for High Elves or the Lizardmen. Like the eldar, each of their units does a specific job. They have the best mages in the game, and some of the best melee characters too (carnosaurs and dragons ). Both have had new models released recently, and neither are common armies. 
I dont know if these are the answers you were looking for :S I hope iv helped, and it would be great to see a new fantasy player. If this hasnt swayed you to start fantasy, look for a legendary battle in GW's magazine, or go to gamesday 
Jack,


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## Dalamarth (May 26, 2009)

Thank you! That did indeed help! Empire, and High Elves were the two I was actually considering... I just wanted to hear unbiased, impartial opinions, so I omitted that detail.


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## jackd334 (May 25, 2009)

Coool, well, tbph, neither are my kinda thing. Im more a chaos, orcs, dark elves guy  Nasty spikey evil stuff  But iv played against both empire and elves, and theyre both great. As far as I know, empire magic isnt particularly special, but elves have THE sorceror of the game. Teclis. If I were you, go elves, Teclis your general  What ever path you go down, post pics of your army, and ill see you around on here. Im also new btw, joined yesterday


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## Dalamarth (May 26, 2009)

Very neat! Yeah, if I go evil, I'd probably go Vamp Counts. But not as a starting army.


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## Snoza (May 30, 2009)

Empire is one of the better starting races, cause they have everything, where as High Elves are a more Elite army, but both are great armies to use, i myself have a high elf army so any questions i will be more then happy to answer,

i look forward to how your new army will progress 

Snoza


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## Wiccus (Jun 2, 2008)

1) The biggest differences between the games is the fact that that the movement phase is the most critical in the game what with positioning your troops for the perfect charge whilst staying out of the enemies charge arc or range and the fact that hitting your enemies on multiple sides is damaging to their morale. Not to mention of course the magic phase.

2) For this it really depends on your area. In my hometown 40k was far and away more popular but in the town I live in now our fantasy group is much larger and more dedicated always going to tournaments and such. 

3) not too sure on this one but like SM are GWs poster boys so are Empire for fantasy. That said I see far more SM players than I ever do Empire. It seems to me that fantasy has a much more diverse group of players so you run into a wider variety of opponents than with 40k.

4) Well to be honest most armies in fantasy really rely on supporting eachother to win. But Empire is not as strong as some armies so they do really rely on it. Other armies that depend on support from their buddies are Wood Elves. They are much different than any other fantasy army however and I dont know if it would give you the feel you want in the change from 40k to Fantasy.

5) Magicy armies are High Elves, Lizards, now Dark Elves and VC (to my knowledge). I would say that maybe the army for you would be HE. They have a pretty awesome magic phase and badass mages as well as having a wide variety of units that are good by themselves but are still elves (thus very poncy and unable to take a hit) and would do well to be supported by one another


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## Dalamarth (May 26, 2009)

Thank you for all the answers! Looks like I've got me some research to be doing!


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## Dafistofmork (Jan 9, 2009)

where i come from, 40k is more popular with the younger kids (big guns and tanks and all that) but the older players prefer and equal mix, 40k for the "i am going to smash you into the ground with my power list" and fantasy for the " i am going to spend 3 turns setting you up for a fall with superior tactics, then smash you into the ground with my power list like a hunter killing a wounded deer."
depends weather they want the fun of crushing you with a sledgehammer in 3 turns, or crushing your balls with a sledgehammer after 6 turns.
its all good.


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

In my opinion, WFB relies more on skill/stradegy more so than dice rolls which in my opinion 40k seems to rely on more. 

The main reason i primarily chose WFB over 40k originally was the magic phase, the idea of pooling your 'power dice' together from wizards of varying skill from across your army. Where as 40k came across as just shoot, shoot, shoot. :biggrin:

As a few people have said WFB stradegies are made in the movement phase. There is a lot to think about (charge arcs/range, flanks, etc etc)

Also yes i believe there are a lot more 40k players out there, more mature players in my opinion tend to play fantasy whilst the younger ones play 40k (big guns, tanks, space marines etc)

And i generally think the army distribution/attention from GW is roughly equal (with a few notable exceptions) - unlike in 40k where Space Marines seem to get a new codex every 6 months and Dark Eldar have to wait over a decade! I think there may be a tilt in favour of the Empire/High Elves over some others, but its not that noticable.


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## newsun (Oct 6, 2008)

Some great posts so far. One thing you should think on is what type of core you want to build your army on. You already stated you like magic for your lords which many armies can field from High Elf magic draining, Plain lore magic with lots of bounds from Empire to more meta game magic in movement and unit healing from Vampire Counts or Tomb Kings.

Do you like playing the good guys or the bad guys? Do you want lots of guys or smaller elite forces? Speed and shooting, amour? Chariots? Maybe some overall balance. Are you interested in monsters?

For example, my main two armies both rely on magic, yet are played totally different. I have an empire knightly force which has a lot of fairly hard hitting armoured guys supported by magic which can be offensive or defensive with the rod of power.

Where as my TK have magic which keeps all my weaker blocks alive and allows me to setup flank charges with magical movement and such.

The two both have 3 casters in my leadership group and totally different play-styles.

I hope this helps.


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## NagashKhemmler (Apr 28, 2009)

newsun said:


> Some great posts so far. One thing you should think on is what type of core you want to build your army on. You already stated you like magic for your lords which many armies can field from High Elf magic draining, Plain lore magic with lots of bounds from Empire to more meta game magic in movement and unit healing from Vampire Counts or Tomb Kings.
> 
> Do you like playing the good guys or the bad guys? Do you want lots of guys or smaller elite forces? Speed and shooting, amour? Chariots? Maybe some overall balance. Are you interested in monsters?
> 
> ...


I love the bad guys and the ones with honour (good or bad ). I like elite forces personally, but that's debatable, I see tomb kings as elite of a sort, because they fight to the death.

I love monsters and big things, partly from the painting challenge and partly from the intimidation of the model itself.

I always prefer a balance of shooting and melee and magic. Never going after those 'ultimate' in a single area armies.


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## Dalamarth (May 26, 2009)

Still great stuff. I may be getting a job at GW, so I might get some hands on experience with the rules, and the game system before I choose. We'll see.


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