just a question regarding armies..

[yesterdaysfave]

I was wondering if there was any reference material about all the army play styles, I'm having a heck of a time finding anything that isn't just back story or fluff. I know that space marines are generally well rounded and that tau are more of a long range class but anything about any other armies eludes me. Maybe I'm just bad at the internet...

[Wolfshade]

The trouble is that a lot of the armies can have different builds so that they can do something else.

Take Dark Angels, they can be played as generic space marines but with a penchant for Plasma weaponry, however they can be played as a highly mobile attack force as the ravenwing (with bikes, speeders etc.) or as an elite infantry army in the deathwing (an entire army of terminators).

Orks for instance were always a "fun" army with random things happening and were traditionally quite an assault orientated army, however, there have been a bit of a change that enables them to be quite useful at shooting.

Eldar can specialise in most areas owing to their aspect warriors.

Then it is now made even more complicated since you can take allies and formations.

I think it might be easier rather than write reams if you explain what your prefered play style is and then go from there.

Though I wouldn't under estimate just picking the army that you think looks prettiest and go from there.

For me, I picked the backstory that I loved the best for my first army.

[khambatta]

This is quite useful ...if you can tolerate the tone:
[url]http://1d4chan.org/index.php?search=7e+tactics&title=Special%3ASearch &go=Go[/url]
The link to each faction gives you a page with a summary of their units, along with straightforward advice on how to make use of them.

[Lord Manton]

Though I agree with what Wolfshade said, I think it's still possible to make a few general comments about play styles.

Space Marines: All-rounders. You can build a quick force with White Scars or a more gun line force with Imperial Fists/Iron Hands. They are relatively tough, and have access to a lot of gear. Also to take into account is that there are many different flavours, they come in green, red, bluish-grey, black, white... the list goes on. Basically, though the different chapters have their strengths, they can all play like marines. Medium Psyker level.

Grey Knights: Though a MEQ (marine equivalent) army, they are the Space Marines of Space Marines. They're a truly elite force. Very low model count, but you get a lot of bang for your buck. Lots of terminators. Very Psyker heavy.

Inquisition: Not really a full army in their own right, they are best allied with another Imperium Army. Access to some really crazy wargear. Potential to be Psyker heavy.

Imperial Guard/Astra Militarum: Essentially there are two (classic) builds: troop blobs and tank company. Low toughness, low/no armour, your average troop comes in at something like 6 points per model. They rely on weight of numbers and weight of fire. "You can only kill so many models in a game." Tank Company is just that, an army of tanks. Brutal. Either way it's a gun line. If you want to get into combat, keep moving. Of course there are Valkyrie armies too. Lots of flyers. Medium Psyker level.

Tau: The Xenos gunline. They are a little better on average than Guard, they have access to better guns as well as those shiny mech-suits. Combined with skimmer tanks they are a fairly mobile gun-line army. Pretty powerful in the current edition. No psychic abilities to speak of.

Eldar: As mentioned, there are a bunch of ways to build Eldar, but the general rule is that they are a highly-skilled, highly-mobile army that will die if you sneeze in their direction. They're elves, so quick and fragile. Of course there are ways to mitigate this (like all the armies' weaknesses). Psyker heavy.

Dark Eldar: Like Eldar, except squishier and spikier. The bondage loving, slave taking, horrible experimenting evil cousins of the Eldar. They've got a new book coming out this weekend, so the jury is still out. No Psykers.

Orks: The WAAAAGH!, The Green Tide. There are heaps of them. Sure they can't shoot for s**t, but that will seem a whole lot less relevant when an unbreakable mob of 30 boys smashes into your ranks. They're tough and they're strong. They don't need armour. Problem is, unless you play with a lot of cover, you're gonna have a bad time. Nob bikers are still a strong build - tough and killy! Low Psyker level, I don't think weird boyz get much of a showing these days.

Tyranids/'Nids/Bugs: The bugs from Starship Troopers. The Aliens from... Alien(s). You can have a horde of them, with lots of bodies, or you can build a pretty mean list with a lot of big nasty monsters. Again, they are a combat focussed army that has suffered from the new rules. Can be Psyker heavy.

Chaos Space Marines: The spiky version of Space Marines. But worse. They can get Daemon Princes and a couple of monsters. If you like Dragons, the Heldrake is the best you'll get in 40k. You play this army for the love, they have some really nice models and a ton of flavour. Psyker heavy.

Chaos Daemons: Do you like bookkeeping? Do you like your army doing what IT wants, rather than what YOU want? The Daemons are for you! They're random as. Even a lot of their wargear is randomised. It's ridiculous.

Necrons: Undead Space Robots. You shoot them, they get back up. You punch them in the face, they get back up. It's an army of T-1000s. They are a fairly slow-moving, very durable gun-line. Good toughness, good armour and the aforementioned ability to come back after being killed means they're hard to budge. No Psykers.

Sisters of Battle/Adepta Sororitas: Haha! Ah, good one, that's funny. But seriously, this army is ALL METAL and not in a "that's brutal \m/" way, but full metal miniatures range. The book is old. This is the red-headed step child army of 40k, unloved, unremembered by GW. Fans love them! From memory they are a slightly less Space Mariney Space Marine army. Lots of flamers. No Psykers. "Burn the Witch!". - Although allied with Inquisition they could be worth a look in (any wisdom on this would be interesting). To be honest, they're rare, I've been playing for 15 years and have yet to play against these girls.

The good thing about 40k is that the fluff is actually a pretty good indicator of what an army is like/capable of on the table top. The other good thing is that, as Wolfshade said, you can build pretty much what you want from any army, within a few limits. Eldar for example can be static gun-line, close combat oriented or super fast. But don't expect them to have the take-all-comers versatility of Space Marines.
If you're new to the game, first of all welcome, and might I suggest picking the army you like the look of, as well as the play style. You'll never get an army finished if you don't enjoy building and painting it.
Otherwise, I hope this little run down was helpful. This isn't an exhaustive list, but the tactics section of the forum is a great resource on this sort of thing too.

[Ang56]

You can get advice on general tactics and strong points about armies, but they are more flexible then that, even tau which are generally considered long range gun line field some of the best for their cost mobile rapid fire units, as well as jet units being very deadly mobile units and have viable short range builds.

When I look for a new army I tend to look for a few I like the look of first and think I'll enjoy modelling and painting. The 'A Galaxy of War' book that comes with the BRB is a decent source of just pictures. Browsing Galleries online as well. I'll then make a short list of armies I'm interested in the look of. After that Youtube is a really good source, codex review videos will tend to go over most of the units in a codex, or army showcases will give me an idea of their lists, decent builds to kind of get me started. Once I've landed on the army, I get a patient friend to let me proxy some games with one of my other armies as the one i want to pick up so I can trial run different builds and units in a few games before I start buying buying.

Youtube though is a very good source. Just search for a faction, then overview, review etc.

[YorkNecromancer]

I was going to 'recommend' 1d4chan, but Khambatta got there first.

It is a pretty despicable site - the 'funny' misogyny and endless rape jokes are a little (read: utterly) wearying, but the actual tactical suggestions are usually solid. There's also a fair bit of out-of-the-box thinking because of its nature as a Wiki.

Just, yeah. It's pretty horrible, so be warned.

[JMichael]

My two cents as an Eldar and Sisters player.
I and many others play Edar as a fast mechanized army. Hard hitting Alpha strike, but with no staying power. Glass cannon as it were. But my whole army can move 36" in a single turn without shooting!
A friend plays an Iyanden Wraith army. No skimmers, all Wraithguard and WraithKnights all on foot that marches across the battlefield. High toughness and psykers keep them alive.

Sisters. I just won our GW store's 9 week league with them (undefeated). I use 4 large 15+girl squads as a marching gun line while my Dominions outflank in Immolator tanks and the Exorcists lay down anti-armor/MC. Think spamming Tactical Space Marines.

[Charon]

I and many others play Edar as a fast mechanized army. Hard hitting Alpha strike, but with no staying power.

[daboarder]

Maybe he's not running serpents? maybe......