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WFB-Getting Started Part 2: Picking Your Poison

3 Minute Read
Feb 8 2014
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Whether a brand new player or a veteran player deciding to change it up getting started with Fantasy can definitely be overwhelming.

I talked in early articles and on my personal blog about how I got started playing Fantasy, and how I chose my first army. Had I been smart and followed some of the advice or suggestions I am going to say in these articles I may not have started with Wood Elves. I have been thinking for some time about making a change from my Bretonnians to something new and discovered that I still have a have a hard time choosing an army type and an army list.

Choices, Choices, Choices
There are so many armies to choose from and each is different in so many ways that you should really do some form of research before you start buying. Do you want elves? Humans? Orcs? Chaos? Rats? Chaos you say? Is that daemons, warriors or beasts? Warriors? Well are you going to do Tzeentch, Nurgle, Khorne, Slanesh, or a combo? (Imagine me rolling my eyes at the tedious list of questions) 
What you buy is contingent on what you want to accomplish and requires some thought–if you want to play very defensively you want to look at something like Dwarves whereas if you want something with a lot of monsters Dwarves would not be the right choice.

Finding Advice


Whether you’re new to the game all together or if you’re a vetran player: talk with gamers, read forums, watch games, and read various army books is my suggestion before you buy a bunch of boxes that you don’t know anything about (you may need one box of Chaos Spawn and five boxes of Chaos Warriors so buying three Spawn boxes would have you kicking yourself later)

The best research, in my opinion, is done by watching games and talking to people who play. Game stores, and tournaments are great places to find games and gamers, as are forums (Bell of Lost Souls has some great forums), podcasts and gaming clubs (not all communities have clubs). Using these sources you can find a great deal of information about every army, including opinions of armies in general, specific units and discussions of fluff.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

When I started my Wood Elf army I had no idea what it was capable of but what I learned playing them is that they are too slow moving for my taste and did not pack the punch or speed I wanted. I was still able to build lists and enjoyed playing them but I never found a list I was happy with. I did, however, like the way they looked and the cohesion of how they worked together.

Some people choose an army based strictly on model appearance, some because of how strong they appear to be on paper, some because it’s the newest toy on the shelf. I moved to Bretonnians because I read and discovered I could get across the table faster and a charge from a bus of knights can be devastating…and I loved the Arthurian aspect of it.

Time for you to decide what army you want. Will it be High Elves with their shiny armor? Ogres with their Thundertusks? Tomb Kings with their skeletons?

In my current search for something new I chose Empire. It has the flexibility of being able to be anything I need or want it to be. It has great models, flexible unit choice, monsters and no one single build that it really excels at over all others. I am excited to try out the builds.

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So pick your poison and tell us why you chose that army and check back for my next Getting Started article on choosing the units that are right for you.

Jen A
Author: Jen A
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