A Second Faction? Possibly

[ElectricPaladin]

I've been thinking about it, and I've realized that having a second faction for every game I play is important to me. My Tau have sat on the shelf, largely, almost for as long as I've owned them. If they were the only Warhammer 40k faction I played, I would be incredibly disappointed. Luckily, though, I have my Blood Angels and my Blood Ravens (codex marines), so I always have something to play.

In Fantasy, though, I only have my Lizardmen. I'm beginning to wonder if that was a mistake.

So, what do you recommend as a faction that compliments Lizardmen in terms of giving me a variety of Warhammer Fantasy experiences?

[Wildeybeast]

Depends really. Do you want something similar or totally different? What sort of background and/or playstyle do you like?

[T-ORK-amada]

Do you play a Slaan.Magic Heavy list, or do you use lots of Saurus, perhaps skinks? If a magic build is what you run, then Dwarves would be diametrically opposed. If you play large blocks of Saurus with limited shooting, I would say Wood Elves as an antithesis to your army. Lots of Skirmishing shooty skinks? Beastmen. I know that I listed armies that are perhaps not favorites in the power balance, but Lizards can be super competitive. I like the armies listed because they have neat options and even though some people say they suck, with the right builds and tactics, they can be hard armies to deal with. Wood Elves are about Denial, Beastmen are about the hordes and redirects while Dwarves, can be very shooty and pretty good at hand to hand with a large hunk of no magic.

[ElectricPaladin]

All good questions - thanks.

At the moment I play my Lizardmen with Slaan (possibly double Slaan, someday - I own an unpainted and unassembled Lord Kroak model who I someday plan to field as a generic relic priest alongside the normal Slaan I've already painted), Saurus warriors and cavalry, supported by a couple of small squads of Skinks to redirect charges and harass the enemy's flanks. I also own a heavily magnetized stegadon that I can field as a warchief's mount, a priest's mount, or an ordinary stegadon of normal and ancient variety.

Perhaps someday I'll get him painted up.

Anyway, I really enjoy the magic phase of Fantasy - it's part of what drew me to the game - so I'm leery of a faction like Dwarves that can't participate in the magic phase at all. That said, despite my relative inexperience, I can definitely say that my Lizardmen are basically about being tough, durable, and magical. Dare you close and melee with me? Bring it - I can take it, and my cavalry will outflank you and make you regret getting pinned down in melee. Hang back and shoot at me? Ok. I can hammer you with spells while I close, and when I get the charge, you will regret it.

*Ahem* I think I'm definitely looking forward to getting these guys painted and taking them out for a spin. I've been in a 40k mode lately, but once I finish my Blood Ravens...

Anyway, I hope that this gives you some good information: I like my Lizardmen Slaan and Saurus-focused, heavy on the magic, with support from a couple of squads of shooty skinks. I like magic enough that I wouldn't want to play a faction that totally ignores it, but I think I could enjoy a faction that doesn't focus on it quite as much.

[Nightstalker]

Vampire Counts definately are strong in magic have killer character slots and some heavy hitters. but your shooting phase is pretty short
if you dont mind that you have almost nothing to do in the shooting phase warriors of chaos (except Khorne of course) could be your type of army.
if you dont mind the toughness of 3 Dark elves or highelves could be your thing.
or empire of course.

[ElectricPaladin]

Vampire Counts have some attractive models - I'm tempted.

I have elf rage - a condition where you find elves impossibly snooty and unappealing - so High Elves are right out. However, I do like to play evil elves caught in a state of eternal torment because of terrible decisions they have made (Everblight), so Dark Elves have a certain charm. I'll have to google their models to determine if I like what I see - it would certainly give me an excuse to field more Cold Ones...

The Empire also has a certain charm. I particularly enjoy their kind of dungeon-punk-ish clockwork aesthetic. Engineers on clockwork steeds, steam-powered tanks, artillery, and so on. Are there viable Empire builds that would let me maximize those?

So, I guess what I'm saying is, tell me more about Vampire Counts, Dark Elves, and Empire.

And anything else that I might have missed.

[Wildeybeast]

I play Empire and you can make any build you like with them, that's why they are so cool. Artillery has taken a nerf AND price hike, but it is still definitely viable if you want to go that way. Steam tanks are better than ever now, as well as being cheaper. Engineers are still pretty useful either for war machine support or sniping characters, though putting one on a mechanical steed would be a vanity choice as they serve no useful purpose in the game. If you are going artillery heavy you'll need plenty of cheap troops to make up the numbers, but the Empire has those in spades.

As for Dark Elves - the plastics are really nice, but anything in FC is at best showing it's age and at worst utterly horrible (harpies). DE are great to play with at the moment because they are so cheap and stupidly powerful in the magic phase with some nasty magic items, but with rumours of a new book in the next year or so, expect a sound beating with the nerf stick when that comes.

[ElectricPaladin]

If you are going artillery heavy you'll need plenty of cheap troops to make up the numbers, but the Empire has those in spades.

I should have mentioned that I generally don't enjoy horde armies. I'm not saying that I need to run elite armies - though I do tend to enjoy them more - but I want an army that is at least average on this measure. Too many grunts to paint and I get bored. Too many grunts to play with and I feel like the moments of awesome heroism are being drowned in tide after tide of boring models.

How does this change the calculation?

[ElectricPaladin]

What about Warriors of Chaos?

I don't like the aesthetic of the Daemons, but the Warriors have a little more... finesse. Plus, many of them are mostly human, which would help them contrast with my Lizards.

A thread on DakkaDakka describes the WoC thusly:

"Warriors of Chaos - Their playstyle centres around magic and solid close combat core troops which pack a punch, with characters which outshine most other races in terms of stats. These units can be further buffed with marks of the chaos gods and through warshrines, especially the chosen of chaos which can begin the game with both.

These come at a price however as you will be fielding a lot less characters and can field a small elite army full of warriors and chosen, or pad it out with the cheap marauders. They also have a smattering of monstrous infantry in their list (trolls, dragon ogres and trolls) and of course the shaggoth and giant.

Their casters have access to what is seen as some of the most powerful lores in the game and a lot of lists centre around this with ability to manipulate the magic phase in ways."

(Emphasis mine)

It looks like the WoC enjoy a lot of variety, both in terms of models and playstyles. I could still use a lot of magic, but take on a contrasting side in Warhammer Fantasy's conflicts. Best of all, I don't have to go hoard, but I can if I want to.

The only thing that may give me pause is that they are yet again another close combat focused army...

[Deadlift]

Ogre Kingdoms

Everyone loves large, fat men with beards who like a good feed

Seriously though they are nice to paint and putting together a reasonable army isn't
too hard due to the low model count.

I love the models, loads of fun and I think quite unique compared to the other armies.