# Want to start WHFB again



## search116 (Aug 9, 2010)

I need help choosing a new army to get back into fantasy. So here are the choices: skaven,vampire counts, bretonnia, High Elves, Dark Elves.
So can someone help explain the play style of these races as I only own a warrior of chaos army and all the people at my local hobby shop own OnG,Ogres,Wood elfs, lizard men.


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## Masked Jackal (Dec 16, 2009)

search116 said:


> I need help choosing a new army to get back into fantasy. So here are the choices: skaven,vampire counts, bretonnia, High Elves, Dark Elves.


Skaven: Lots of cheap, expendable troops, and shooting. One of the powerhouses of eighth right now.

Vampire Counts: Has relatively poor internal balance, but there's a few winning combos. A lot of the weight of the army is in the vamps, as the troops are usually pretty sucky.

Bretonnia: Fairly gimped by the new rules, as cavalry aren't nearly as good. Not recommended.

High Elves: The other powerhouse of eighth, plenty of expensive troops, but they're rape enough to warrant the cost. Also have some very broken mages.

Dark Elves: Cheaper than High Elves. Tend to rely on one overwhelming charge to break the enemy. Powerful magic and great synergies, though the troops are quite fragile.

There's a brief rundown on each one.


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## MrPete (Mar 5, 2011)

High Elves are really fucking high on the tier list for 8th due to how Always Strikes First works, sure they're still fragile but they even get to hit first with great weapons, and the changes to magic benefit them nicely too. 

Skaven are the other high end one, but its a LOT of models to paint. You need numbers with Skaven - you get that and the army really starts to steamroll things. The downside is low toughness/leadership and a tendancy to lose lots of guys per turn, but any Skaven army worth its salt will keep taking those losses and just stroll onwards. Plus Hellpits and Doomwheels are just nasty.

With Vampire Counts, you can currently make a ridiculous powerful unit of Blood Knights with a tooled up Vampire Count and a specific BSB build. However, skeletons really don't last long, theres very little in the way of long range offence, Varghulfs are (in my opinion anyway) almost useless now. The meat of the army is in Vampires, and Ghouls can be pretty awesome in horde with poisoned attacks. 

Brettonians, haven't played them so I can't comment, but with the way cavalry works now they'd be on a lower tier than most things. 

Dark Elves are like a reckless High Elf army. You can get some nice magic off due to the ignoring 6 power dice limit thing, but your spellcasters usually die (albeit in amusing ways). Cold One Knights (imo) hit harder than Dragon Princes, but the drawback is Stupidity. I personally prefer the Dark Elf long range stuff, i've seen it do horrific things, Hydras are nice but now suffer horribly to cannon fire. 

Out of all the ones you've suggested, and bearing in mind you have WoC already, i'd say go with either of the Elves. Both have strengths and weaknesses, i'd say High Elves are the stronger due to ASF though.


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## alonekissofavamp (Jun 11, 2011)

So far, all i've actually played is High Elves. They are kind of expensive, but they are worth it. For being my "Pasty-white-Tall headed- Pretty boy Army" they can go toe to toe with my Bf's Ogres. Bretonnian's.... I have an army, but with the fact that thier book hasn't been updated in 30 years makes them not all that great of an army. From what i can tell armys get stronger with each new book and my poor Brets haven't had an update at all.


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

Out of those choices, from a gaming PoV I would say go for Dark Elves.

VC are a challenging army to play; their rules/army don't really work with the new game rules so they aren't as powerful as they once were... the same is true of Brettonians but to a much greater extent since they are meant to be cavalry heavy and cavalry get nerfed almost to the point of uselessness.
This is not to say they can't win- both have strong lists and in the right hands are very daunting foes... but its hard to learn how to play/win with either.

HE are my 3rd army... but I never play them. I just never got the feel for them: their units are weak but powerful; capable of winning, but are so very fragile that a few bad roles or a little enemy shooting/magic and your unit disappears. They are a good army and their magic is some of the best around, but don't rely on their shooting: S3 archers are pretty poor and bolt throwers really suck in the new rules.

DE on the other hand have everything. Their magic is devastating, they can pump out enough shooting (even at S3) to hurt almost anything, have solid combat units, cheap infantry, one of the best monsters in the game in the hydra (I think it is the best) and excellent fluff. However... you have to like the style of their fluff. If you read through their story and don't like the army you'll never enjoy playing them as much as you might.
On the table they can be as fragile as HE, but with cheaper models and the ability to counter most enemies (or just use assassins to confuse and mislead.. then kill) they can be immense.... but if you don't co-ordinate your army into 1 combined force you will lose, a lot.



Mostly I think that armies should be picked based on fluff, models and playstyle. If you like all 3 then its a good match for you. The first 2 can be circumvented by either creating your own backstory and/or re-modeling... but I wouldn't advise it for a first army.


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## ChaosDefilerofUlthuan (Jan 25, 2011)

I think WoC have a very different play style to most other armies as they have almost no ranged. If your used to this possibly Dwarves or out of the question :smile:

If you face ogres DE are great because they can poke out enough shots to bring IronGuts down 
Plus can take out enough when they get close enough to mainly stop their ogres running straight through.


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