Need new army

[PeG]

I currently play WE and daemons and have access to HE. WE are struggling a bit at the moment and the majority of games in my group are small ie 500-1200 points (ie not what daemons prefer) Most frequent opponents include WoC, Lizards, Brettonia and skaven. I would like to add something new to the group and am thinking about getting a new army.

I want something that is competitive at the point range and I dont want the same as anyone else is already playing. Suggestions are welcome. One possibility I have considered is dwarfs but I dont know enough about them to determine how they would do at this point range against the listed opponents

[Lord Dan]

Dark Elves are, for the moment, rather effective at low point games because their heavy hitters are so comparatively cheap.

That said, I might recommend that you expand your current armies up to 2,000-2,500 points, rather than start another 500 point army.

[Verchild]

I would suggest increasing your points values a little as well. My friend and I start a new campaign every few weeks. Starting at 500 and build up to 3k. Just to see the escalation, and how the tactics change.

That being said, you could build a huge Zombie army with 1200 points, I say you do that. ( What could go wrong?) :P

[PeG]

Thanks for replies I have above 3k WE and probably 1k-1500 daemons but the group prefers smaller games (time and size) and since I like the people.....

[Hashut-Up!]

Well, if the points limit wasn't there I would advocate Chaos Dwarves (they're a ton of fun and the new line of models is AMAZING), but I can't see them being very fun to play at such low points as all their really cool toys sit right around 200 points per model (or more). Ogres or Vampire Counts would be good at that points limit and add something fresh to your group, more so the vampires than tubby ones. Seeing as you don't have a reanimating army in those listed, the mechanics behind the Vamp Counts would add something fresh (although unstable will make you severely miss daemonic instability) that has a very solid and fun book to go along with it. Lots of unit choices, even at a max of 1200 points, and a great model line-up (except zombies). Plunking down a terrorgheist at 1200 points would be a lot of fun to boot!

[Charistoph]

So what armies are useable at 500 Points?

1000?

1200?

And by useable, not gimped with only naked characters.

[Lord Dan]

Everyone can do just fine at low point levels. The only armies that struggle are those that either rely on magic support (VC and TK, for example), have specific composition requirements, or those with very expensive and fragile unit choices.

At 500 points you shouldn't take magic weapons on your characters. A non-wizard hero with mundane equipment will do just fine.

[Doommasters]

One way of getting everyones armies up in points is to try an Escalation League . Best way to do this is agree to play the league once a month or so and agree on a points increase per week, before you know it you will all be playing at higher points levels and the games get much more interesting.

Most people can afford to add a small unit to their army once a month but workoing out where the balance is for the group is the most important thing to not leave people out.


If you really are set on building a new Army I would go with Brettonia and here is why;

1) They function well with lows points
2) Knights have great models
3) Knights are fun to paint and look fantastic on the table
4) Brettonia has strong ties to Wood Elves in fluff
5) Played well they are a competitive army in 8th

[DaBob]

Im not sure what skaven will be like in 8th edition, but they are IMO the second funnest army besides O&G. random, weird units, and unique!

[totzro]

Lizardmen does very well at low level games imo, saurus hits hard as hell, skinks are excellent harassers and salamanders are just plain nasty!

[GotrekFan]

VC also do well at low points. You can combine a low caster and fighter in the vamp, loads of cheap troops that won't run and can came back.
My 1000 pt list has 3*wraiths. A mortis engine, a necro, a vamp and the rest filled with blocks of skeletons/ zombies.
At that level BSBs should be rare, so fear tests should fail regularly and there shoul be little the can hurt the wraiths. The engine is there for fun


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[Ultimate Life Form]

Lizardmen does very well at low level games imo, saurus hits hard as hell, skinks are excellent harassers and salamanders are just plain nasty!

Strange, from my personal experience Lizardmen start to suck badly at 1000 points and below. I have lost every single low point game that I played. Like, totally. It's because I'm usually heavily outnumbered and can't afford to bring the vital but expensive support units LM are reliant on. Lack of Stegadon and Slann hurt as well of course. But I don't have many Skinks; maybe a Skink heavy list could do better? I'm looking for excuses to increase my Skink counter anyway...

[Flydd]

Ogres are quite fun at 500 pts, you can quite easily take a Firebelly as your general at 500 pts and then just take a couple of small size units like Ironguts, Leadbelchers and even Maneaters.

[Snake1311]

Ogres are quite fun at 500 pts, you can quite easily take a Firebelly as your general at 500 pts and then just take a couple of small size units like Ironguts, Leadbelchers and even Maneaters.

From my experience, Ogres are really really sucky at low points, especially considering they are one of the stronger armies normally. Here is what I've seen from my games:

- Lord Allowance: this pretty much doesn't apply to Ogres below 1000 pts
- Hero Allowance: heroes are expensive-ish, which means you can't take general+bsb+caster (and at lower points you can only take one of the three!). Since Ogres have crappy leadership, the first two are kinda needed to avoid panic; casters are really really good value for points with small games, as magic missles CAN actually devastate a combat unit.
- Core Allowance: ogre units need to be big-ish to do anything due to their relative squishiness (11+ pts per WS3 T4 Wound with questionable armour) and low initiative. Gnoblars are the potential solution, but in all fairness they are kind of meh.
- Rare Allowance: scraplauncher is eeeeeh, ironblaster (if you can take it!) will likely have no decent targets, monsters only at the higher point levels - one is a support monster (meeeeh), the stonehorn may be able to wreck some havoc. Overall, nothing that great.
- Special: OMGWTF Mournfangs! This section almost makes up for everthing else, except not quite. Leadbelchers and Sabretusks are awesome too.


I don't know why wood elves aren't working out for you at low points. With a near unit-free board, they can kite indefinitely, and don't give up anything important compared to other factions.

TL;DR, try harder to make WE work, and put the money towards something else If your group likes small battles, maybe you guys should try pick up Malifaux.

[TornadoCreator]

At low points you could use Orcs & Goblins extremely effectively. Empire is pretty good at small games too. Dark Elves can be good but you'll have rather small units which may make you easy to overwhelm with the likes of Skaven. Honestly my answer is always increase the size of your games to over 2000 points if you can, it's a far better game beyond that threshold.

[Dark Aly]

I love playing games in that point region too. You don't see many WAAC players willing to try it. O&Gs, Empire and my vamps all work well below 2000 points. my vamps are currently top in the 500 point league

My advice to anybody starting a new army is to pick the models you like and then read the background and if you like that too then that's your new army right there.

[Toshiro]

OnG are amazing at low points due to the high number of models you can put down, at that points level you can easily put down several big blocks and getting both the flesh of night goblins, the strength of the orcs, some fast re-directing wolf riders and some heavy hitting trolls... and a warmachine or two

[PeG]

WE usually do fine at 500 points. HoD hero, a couple of units of dryads and some glade guard. Some issues with Skaven horde but most armies has that at 500 points. However most games become very similar and the cost for getting a 500-1k army isnt that bad. At 1k I start seeing abombs, chaos knights etc and I can add a lvl3 caster. Bigger than 1k and multiple T5 or above or alternatively multiple units with high AS starts causing issues.