I've got to represent Lizardmen. I remember sitting as a kid for hours/days trying to pick which army to spend my few dollars on, reading all the descriptions and looking at pictures of every model. I finally picked Lizardmen, and I think it was a mix of:
1. An ancient and "lost" civilization, predating the elves. Now that's history.
2. The Mesoamerican themes and imagery are unique and cool.
3. A sense of righteous adherence to good and order, even if misunderstood by the other races.
4. At the time, they were the best magic users in my opinion, and had muscle too.
5. They seemed easy to paint, my trials of painting human faces had fallen short.
6. Dinosaurs!! A T-rex biting your dragon in half will always be awesome!
7. Lizardmen have killed the most chaos historically, and my friend had a chaos army.
8. If lizardmen were just evil, reptile beastmen, I would have passed, but I find something noble and tragic in the lore of their religion-centered society that I could relate to.
Lizardmen are just awesome. They’ve always had cool themes and great models. I also love the magic frogs. When I first played in 5th I split the starter box with a friend and I took the lizards.
Then when I picked the hobby up in earnest during 6th I did Lizardmen. Now I’m daydreaming about doing them again for oldworls
This right here, plus I love the way TW does their language and dialect.
I love their aesthetic so much that I have 3 Lizardman tattoos and plans for more
For Warhammer Fantasy/AoS, it’s Skaven. I love horde armies, love rats, and love the mixture of humor/seriousness that the Skaven provide. I also play MESBG, and Dwarves are my favorite, followed by Moria. I’ve just always liked Dwarven stuff in fantasy things.
I picked up the Isle of Blood kit as my first starter set and when the description of the Warlock Engineer boiled down to "If I can't control magic, ill make my own magic, with warpstone and hookers." I fell in love. Lol. Skaven are just so ridiculously evil and absurd they become fun.
Yeah, I love Orks in 40k but fantasy Orcs didn't really hit the spot for me, they were a bit too serious. Gobbos however, that's the stuff. Fanatics, doom divers, squigs, all the infighting and fleeing, the image of a bunch of cackling gobbos barely holding on to a wolf chariot going 300mph. Pure chaos and I love it.
Honestly? Empire content I read when I was much younger(dating to around 6th edition’s Storm of Chaos) had such a good narrative around the battle reports featuring the people of Sigmar that, while the aesthetic took longer to take hold….I was sold on the thrilling heroics.
Men, just men, holding the line against the horrors of chaos, greenskins, and more. And with nothing more then Faith, Steel….and Gunpowder.
I usually choose humans In warhammer due to the relatability and the ability to immerse myself into the setting. I don't like the puffy hats but the renaissance clothing with the visored helmets looks pretty cool.
It’s funny, as the “slash and puff” eventually really pulled me in. My army fields relatively few armoured knights, but I specifically sought out the old 6th edition State Trooper sculpts with the more Landsknecht style for the core of my army.
But, you can field an Empire army heavy on Knights instead! It’s cool that both options exist for fans of the Empire. For me? The knights are too pricey; give me a Helblaster or Great Cannon, or a sturdy body of Halberdiers with wings of Handgunners!
I should have phrased it better. You know how karl franz and magnus the pious and warrior priests have a mix of armour and renaissance clothing? Where they have knight elements while not being outright bretonnia? That's my jam. Where they have visored helmets and chest plates but still with that fancy renaissance uniform.
This is why I picked Empire as my second army (and why I'd do imperial guard if I ever play 40k). It's also why sigmarines were so disappointing to me.
Better late than never! Always glad to see another Empire fan!
I lost my old Storm of Chaos book in a move years ago, always wondered where it went. Always remember those times fondly!
When I was 10 I had read the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and I thought elves were the coolest and therefore High Elves, the top elves would logically be best.
Monsters and the Cygor specifically. Beastmen have been kind of stuck in the back of my head for almost a decade and flirting with Tabletop Simulator I'm finally getting an army together for TOW. I love their larger themes of anarchy and entropy. I like that I can support horde-ish style Infantry with big monsters and beefy monstrous infantry/cav. I like that they're kind of nameless Mooks, they're a more grounded and credible threat than Archaon coming to end the world. The things that go bump in the night, that make husbands go missing in the woods, that make the world a dangerous place to inhabit. I like being a foil to all the faith and technology.
I like playing an army where it's just as fun rooting for my opponent because I'm playing the bad guy.
This is why i started beastmen. But i stopped playing when they killed Fantasy for Age of Sigmar.
I haven't touched anything from GW since then.
I just stumbled over Games Workshop again and found out they also re-released my second army....Bretonia.
I got my start playing Beasts of Chaos in Age of Sigmar just before they got their 3.0 battletome in Tabletop Simulator. They had very fun and evocative rules, I felt. And I obviously love the models. Pretty disappointing they decided to remove them for 4.0, but when Beastmen were announced as a mainline faction for TOW I smelled support in that direction, so have been building my physical army on square bases.
I'm hoping they bring back some of the old Forgeworld monsters for Beastmen when they get their full release! Prayton and Skinwolves would be sick!
Greenskins are easy to love, they satisfy the wacky fun goofiness that adds levity to a generally darker fantasy setting, but the lore also shows the depths of their cruelty and makes them a deceptively terrifying foe.
This is the faction that talks goofy and "follows da boss", but also the faction that puts the eyes out of dwarf prisoners because it's fun.
The faction that puts wings and a pointy helmet on a goblin and launches it across the battlefield, and also the faction that throws halflings in a make shift arena and makes it fight snotlings until its stabbed to death.
The faction that most human protagonists show their measure against, but also the faction who's warboss - when stabbed by a legendary Runefang - pulled the Runefang out of his own flesh and removed the weilders arm at the socket with the same motion.
The faction with a character that puts on a cursed helmet but is too dumb for the helmet to dominate the weilder, but they are also one of the few factions to kill an Emperor.
They look great, fun to paint, and fun to play. Gotta love the Greenskins.
I used to play regularly against a friend who had high elves and another army of Vampire Counts.
I used to play elite armies and most leathally with wood elves.
I wanted a new challenge.
I challenged him to a game against my new army. One with a new black and green colour scheme. Incredible leadership. Massive firepower. Unique magic and lethal mele capabilities. Tough monsters. Huge numbers of attacks. He came ready to take on my new elites
I bought six sets of the battle for skull pass goblin army off ebay and played night goblins.
I had an army with unmatched leadership (5, with my general matching a normal human. Did I mention we feared elves and undead and were subject to animosity fighting ourselves?) unmatched firepower (120 archers with 16 inch range lucky to hit the side of a dragon even if it ate them), unmatched magic (who else had wizards whose heads exploded) and powerful melee units (fanatics who did more damage to my own units than the enemy) and volume of attacks (at Weapon skill 2, strength 3 and no ability to get through armour, yes armour, that thing everyone else has apart from us).
I had unmatched mobility (random moving squig hoppers and snotling pump wagons) and powerful monsters(trolls who failed stupidity tests and picked their noses instead of hitting the squishy wizard in base contact that would have won the game).
I could block enemy strategies (you cant get a flank attack bonus if the unit is as wide as the table).
I destroyed him in the first game of the weekend with a series of lucky rolls. The rematch, half my army ran off the table on turn 1, the rest devolved into mayhem on the next turn. It was insane, ridiculous and gloriously fun.
I chose the Empire because my favorite historical period is the Italian wars (end of xv and first quarter of the xvi century). The empire is heavily based on xvi century warfare, which was also the focus of my dissertation. I also have an army of vampire counts that I assembled back when Blood Dragons were a thing since I enjoy their background as martial and honorable yet extremely corrupted beings.
In 40k I have a joint Bearers/traitor guard army cause I love mutations and shit
Note that I haven't played both games since 2013 so I'm not familiar with the most recent lore events and AoS stuff.
Dwarves. Mostly because the way I got into Warhammer was through vermintide games, then chaosbane, and now Total War Warhammer 3. Plus, I already really liked the dwarves in LOTR as well. So it was just right up my alley.
Literally every dwarf character I read about is so badass. From Ungrim Ironfist, to Gotrek, to Belegar Ironhammer, Thorgrim, Bragi Axebiter, and even Malakai. The ingenuity, fortuity, and strength of the dwarves in Warhammer fantasy is just awesome. On levels I wish the dwarves in LOTR had made it to.
I chose Bretonnia mainly for the heroic knightly aesthetic at first, loving their cavalry heavy army. Repanse as a Joan of Arc type character also helped attract me to the faction. I fell more in love with the faction the more I learned about it later.
For me I like bretonnia because of its parody of knights in a similiar vain to Monty python and classic fantasy knights are just peak character design. The forgeworld bretonnian paladin is one of my top 5 favourite miniatures of all time. Do not get me started on the Green Knight.
Elisse duchard is also great. The forgeworld old world minis are fantastic in general. Emissary of settra, black ork warboss, ungrim and more are all fantastic models that have a balance of detail and simplicity while being dynamic while not leaping of a rock with arms in separate directions. The green knight convinced me into being a bretonnian fan.
High Elf design draws heavily from Imperial Rome, and I thought merging those designs with fantasy, magic, and dragons was really cool. Falling in love instantly with the concept of Dragon Princes probably didn’t help either…
Ogre Kingdoms gave me a chance to pivot from getting false starts with barely supported odd-ball factions (Chaos Dwarfs -> Dogs of War -> Ogre Kingdoms) to a mainline faction that actually kind of ties together the storyline threads of my collection.
My favorite things in fantasy fiction are wizards, elves, dragons, and heroes holding the last line of defense. So the high elves were practically custom tailored for me.
Empire too - Landsknecht swag with the slashed doublets and fluffy hats, insane steampunk Leonardo Da Vinchi war machines, and just that vibe of ordinary humans facing the horrors of chaos.
Vampire Counts scratch a few itches for me at the same time. Traditional Gothic horror, unique and weird mechanics, strong emphasis on magic without sacrificing melee prowess...
But most importantly, the ability for a single human sized character to fight like a monster. I love the 'boss monster' style and strength of Vampire characters, regenerating hybrid spellcasters and frontline fighters. Even if they're not cost effective, they add so much style to a list, and they're a joy to paint and personalize.
Good armies
Bretonnia, I like knights.
High Elves, I like elven knights.
Great, noble hero warriors.
Evil armies
Chaos Dwarfs and Goblins, I like weird little guys.
Neutral?
Lizardmen, I like dinosaurs.
White Dwarf 300 - it introduced a faction of Pirate Goblins called the River Ratz. As a huge fan of all things pirate, I’ve been a greenskin fan ever since.
When I started Fantasy way back, I picked dark elves just because I like dark elves. Took a break, then came back to the hobby, I had some beastmen lying around and decided to practice painting those before painting dark elves. The Beastmen release dropped and I was hooked on goats.
I started during the herohammer era and the Brett's vs Lizardmen boxed set.
I ended up playing high elves as my first faction, bit I always thought that Bretonia had the most striking table presence.
Empire, just because imagining regular blokes with a pointy stick charge at demons, trolls and 7ft tall chaos warriors to kick em in the nuts in the name of Sigmar seemed badass as fuck. Like that take true courage and/or faith to do that.
My 1st ever experience with Warhammer was running a cavalry heavy bretonnian army my buddy had. It was so much fun charging those knights across the table. I've been chasing that high ever since 🤣
I enjoy fae related things and tree people so I naturally liked wood elves. My friends think I'm genetically predisposed to wood elves due to being Vietnamese, and most of my other armies including ways to do hit and runs and ambush tactics.
Doesn't help that wood elves used to be able to booby trap terrain in older editions with punji sticks and spikes log traps.
I started with Dwarfs because it was the starting box in 7th Ed and I loved dwarfs from LOTR. But a few years ago, after a pretty long break from WHFB, I decided to come back with Empire. Why? History is both my job and my hobby, especially the Late Middle Ages and early Renaissance. Having such an army with Da Vinci’s inventions, monsters and magic added sounded far too cool to be ignored!
Warriors of chaos.
Reasons:
Paul Sawyers army in white dwarf.
The almost "roman" feel of heavy infantry with tall shields that the now previous iteration of sculpts brought to the table.
Both of those meant when I started fantasy years later, it became one of my main armies
When I first started playing WHF in the 6th edition, I had just read Trollslayer, Skavenslayer, and Daemonslayer. I loved Thanquol's character and wanted to play Skaven. I was also obsessed with the Rat Tank; the predecessor of the doomwheel.
In the end, my brother convinced me that Skaven would be too expensive to play because I needed so many models to make an army. I went for my 2nd choice, Dwarfs (with some slayers), and had heaps of fun. I even won my first game against a veteran when my Ironbreakers ran down Empire Knights Inner Circle with his general in them (rolled double 6s after the knights fled 11" from combat)
I also have a soft spot for elves (especially High Elves) because I first got interested in the world by painting my brother's Silver Helms. After which he recommended the books.
I’ve started various different armies over the years. Skaven, warriors of chaos, vampiric undead, chaos dwarves, whenever the mood took me.
My brother has remained strong and true to his one army - Dwarves, for the past 35 years. It’s quite admirable. He loves a good gun line.
They were there only ones that “weren’t taken” out of the cool ones I liked by my modeling (the miniatures stuff, not being zexy) club buddies. I have always been afraid of death (not, but what comes after) so I did tend to play necromancers and similar in video games. I have also always liked Egypt for some reason, ancient lost culture which left such huge footprint behind was incredibly fascinating.
When you merge that together, I got really interested in TK. Then I have seen ushabti and learned what they are. Yeah now I’m actually hyped.
Then I’ve read about their history, their hatred towards vampires and the fact they are not mindless minions, but rather bound to servitude by oaths and loyalty and it was slam dunk.
Dawi, always liked the dwarf aesthetic and the combat plays right unto my jam, slow deliberate positioning and overwhelming firepower, backed up by an anvil of armored units
I'm a huge Landsknecht fan and like the era the Imperium is presenting. And I love Zweihänder.
And funny big hats and cockpieces.
The bigger the hat, the more important the carrier, which was a real thing too!
And I like the feeling of mere men, clad in steel, fighting all kinds of horrific creatures and dying while standing their ground.
Orks scare the shit out of me.
I read Skarsnik, I started playing them. Great book, great character but I always liked the greenskins in general so I was already a fan but that book tipped the iceberg.
I always liked Reptiles so I picked Lizardmen way back when. I still like them and his versatile their roster can be though I am still in the process of finding out which unit is good against what.
I recently picked up Orks because I still had some from my old starter box and I like the casual play style of just rushing in and seeing how it goes. So far I never picked up any black Orks because I like my boys being an unruly, disorganized mob just looking for a good fight.
I also very much like the style of the empire and since I also have some empire models from my old starter box I might get some more empire models as well.
Skaven.
I was introduced to GW through Talisman 3rd edition (my Mums friend had a copy webwould play together) and the skaven had the coolest ability, and is my favourite character in the game to this day (if you roll a 6, you can tunnel to any space on the same section of the board as you)
Then I bought the WHFB starter that had lizardmen vs. Bretton because I didn't really "get" how warhammer worked. I think I painted 3 models from it before buying a box of clanrats and forgetting the hobby entirely. Fast forward to now, and I have a skaven vanguard + friends waiting for the AoS 4 box to be my entry into actually playing warhammer.
Empire for me - I really liked the HRE history aspect of it, and then between the balance of Faith, Steel, Gunpowder, the aesthetic of state troops and combined arms, and then Karl Franz on Deathclaw with the titular Warhammer got me
Chaos, i love both 40k and fantasy chaos, but fantady in particular the lore and aestetic of warriors of chaos is so perfecly uniquely warhammer fantasy. It ties so well into so many aspects of the wider lore of the world, and gives you such a great reason for why your army has the hardest lads. Its just peak.
Vampire counts are my favorite faction. I just love the idea of hordes of expendable cannon fodder grinding down enemy units just to be resurrected again.
"There will be no blood for the blood god or skulls for the skull throne for this field of blood and bones is ours." - some vampire count, probably.
I chose Vampire Counts as a teenager because Buffy the Vampire Slayer was my favourite TV show at the time. Vampires bro.
I've started a TOW Bretonnian army because I was obsessed with Arthur and his knights as kid so just fulfilling a childhood wishlist army.
Empire for me, I got into Warhammer through the RPG in the late 80s and that was rather Empire centric so when a buddy got the 4th ed starter box some years later I jumped at the chance to play them.
Trolls the fact they have made troll horde a thing is the reason I have retired from 40k darkness and into the wonderful happy land of trolls doing stupid crap and being so loveable 😂
Dark Elves and Chaos Dwarfs are my favourites because I love elves and dwarfs and GW adding spikes to them and making them evil just makes them cooler.
Tomb Kings. Something about a massive horde of bones shambling around has always intrigued me. In SW Legion I play Droids, in 40K I played Necrons, in Song of Ice and Fire I played FF. I just love hordes and what they bring to the table
It's like asking which child is your favorite. So Chaos obviously.
Love the Chaos gods bouncing between "I am a lovecraftian horror marching on the world" and "four best frenemy monsters constantly undermining each other."
Dwarfs, because dwarfs. And also undead, did there a 180° turn. I used to hate undead in all forms, actively avoiding them in games like TES, but now they're my favourite among the more evil factions.
For some reason, I have always loved the bad guys. Specifically the bad guys who don't have a just cause or a lofty ideal that they use as justification. I just love the dudes who live just to fuck shit up!!!!
-This post has been made by the Chaos Undivided Gang
My favorite for models and fluff is the Dogs of War army. My favorite army to play would be Wood Elves, I love the movement phase and they are the most mobile army.
I always choose armies based on a mix of lore, overall aesthetic and if I think they will be fun to paint. Ease of miniatures is also important tho, i.e, are they gonna be reasonably cheap and easy to purchase or are half their miniatures out of print, or all made of resin/metal etc.
Back in the day I used to play Skaven and Orcs&Goblins, but had just started a small Bretonnian force just before The End Times
Chaos, mainly because the Chaos Warriors and Chaos Knights are just so cool.
But also the Marauders, Chaos Spawn, Dragon Ogres... just all really cool units.
I played a Khorne army most often, but also sometimes undivided, because Archaon is the pinnacle of Chaos cool.
And also, because Chaos can take the coolest units from other units and make them their own. For example Khorne Minotaurs and Chaos Ogres.
For me I only ever go by aesthetic when it comes to any warhammer. Hence I can't ever have one favorite. I reckon I will be building many old world armies. atm I like tomb kings as well as lizardmen. The new tomb kings box definitely pushed that a bit, but I also just like the models and am excited to paint them. Lizardmen will be my next buy (once they release) as I love the colors and aesthetics there. Down the line I will probably dabble with elves in 3rd place. I already own a ton of orks from back in the day so not sure if I will continue with that army.
Skeletons. Just skeletons.
Imagine being a kid during lord of the rings times, getting into lotr strategy battle game for a few years. Then stepping into a hobby store trying to pick something for this "Warhammer" thing.
And then seeing it. A skeleton. A single, boney, undead piece of art. That wasn't in the lotr! It was like straight prop from the Sinbad, Conan, Xena or Hercules!
And then seeing an box art for a skeleton regiment. Oh boy. That was it.
Now I'm 20 years older and I'm stil "undead" main in every game I pick.
Dwarf characters in fantasy, has always been my favorites. The stubbonness, grudge and high hornor codex
For orcs it was my inner chaos agent that fell in loved with rules for fanatics and trolls.
Skaven which visuelle got some uniqe cool models.
Dark Elves, because I was a li'l goth nerd, and they have a decent mix of men and women in their army - even ladies that are NOT scantily clad, starting in 6th!
Got to respect the tomb kings too. They have a fair amount of female characters and believe in equality of treatment. They don't care about your gender and only care if you are a corpse or not.
When I was first trying to get into fantasy from 40K I was always jealous of the guys in my shop that would play Fantasy with these huge armies. I remember checking on Craigslist and by chance saw someone selling 3,000 points of ogres obviously a tournament comp who decided never to build it and I ended up pulling the trigger. I went from thinking about one day dreaming of starting to being able to engage in massive full-scale battles as soon as I was able to get it built which really kicked it up from 0 to 100. They were pretty easy to paint so I was able to get my Army fully painted against people who were actively playing in the tournament circuit winning awards on the national circuit. I think I'll always kind of love ogres because they were a vehicle for me to get into the hobby, and later learning the floor it really doesn't hurt that they're badass
I love Chaos especially undivided cause I just love so many themes:
The baseline is great a dude in 3 tons of stell blessed by f'ing hell is catchy and metal AF. Nurgle is great cause of the fact that his emotions are happiness and dread so contradictory. The circle of live and death is fun and the designs are awesome. Tzentch is so great as he just is there everything is always changing and he's so tricky I love it and I' am a wizard simp. Slannesh is in his base concept really relatable and so terrifying. Khorn is basic and sometimes fun. The black Knight and Herold of apocalypse is a concept I just enjoy.
Sidenote: I also fucking love the concept of Malal and I've planned on and off about theming a mordheim warband or even an whole army around him.
I'm also a sucker for Dark elves especially the corsairs elves but not just elves evil, murderous, emo pirat elves, count me in. It is amazing.
When I was young it was HE because Elric and d&d elf comb rocks. Only fully painted army still
Got sick of T3 and moved on to Green skins. 85%
Now I am building Cult TK and I am so pumped! Most will on spurs.
I love Bretonnia, I love the Empire, but my dirty little rat boy heart will always belong to the Skaven.
Between the arrogance, the narcissism, the paranoia, the cowardice, the mad scientist tendencies, the single-minded treachery, the absolutely casual disregard for life... it's hard to pick just one interesting and deeply entertaining trait!
For as terrible and horrific as they are, their general tendency of oscillating between complete incompetence, shocking lack of foresight and utter insane luck is immensely fun. They're always the baddies, they know it, and they absolutely revel in that fact and happily chew scenery (and the bones of their foes) whenever they can.
Helps that they're cute rodents with a vast array of weaponry more fit for a steampunk battlefield.
We got rats, but the Christian church. We got rats, but are ww1. We got rats, but are the black plague. Finally, we got rats, but they are Scooby-Doo villians.
I've got to represent Lizardmen. I remember sitting as a kid for hours/days trying to pick which army to spend my few dollars on, reading all the descriptions and looking at pictures of every model. I finally picked Lizardmen, and I think it was a mix of: 1. An ancient and "lost" civilization, predating the elves. Now that's history. 2. The Mesoamerican themes and imagery are unique and cool. 3. A sense of righteous adherence to good and order, even if misunderstood by the other races. 4. At the time, they were the best magic users in my opinion, and had muscle too. 5. They seemed easy to paint, my trials of painting human faces had fallen short. 6. Dinosaurs!! A T-rex biting your dragon in half will always be awesome! 7. Lizardmen have killed the most chaos historically, and my friend had a chaos army. 8. If lizardmen were just evil, reptile beastmen, I would have passed, but I find something noble and tragic in the lore of their religion-centered society that I could relate to.
Lizardmen are just awesome. They’ve always had cool themes and great models. I also love the magic frogs. When I first played in 5th I split the starter box with a friend and I took the lizards. Then when I picked the hobby up in earnest during 6th I did Lizardmen. Now I’m daydreaming about doing them again for oldworls
This right here, plus I love the way TW does their language and dialect. I love their aesthetic so much that I have 3 Lizardman tattoos and plans for more
These are all the reasons I also love the Lizardmen.
For Warhammer Fantasy/AoS, it’s Skaven. I love horde armies, love rats, and love the mixture of humor/seriousness that the Skaven provide. I also play MESBG, and Dwarves are my favorite, followed by Moria. I’ve just always liked Dwarven stuff in fantasy things.
I picked up the Isle of Blood kit as my first starter set and when the description of the Warlock Engineer boiled down to "If I can't control magic, ill make my own magic, with warpstone and hookers." I fell in love. Lol. Skaven are just so ridiculously evil and absurd they become fun.
Yep!! Mad scientist rats with nuclear weapons, doesn’t get better
It’s gota be the green skins for me. Specifically goblins. They are literally just weaponized shenanigans and I love it.
Waaagh is definition of a hype train to the extreme.
Yeah, I love Orks in 40k but fantasy Orcs didn't really hit the spot for me, they were a bit too serious. Gobbos however, that's the stuff. Fanatics, doom divers, squigs, all the infighting and fleeing, the image of a bunch of cackling gobbos barely holding on to a wolf chariot going 300mph. Pure chaos and I love it.
Honestly? Empire content I read when I was much younger(dating to around 6th edition’s Storm of Chaos) had such a good narrative around the battle reports featuring the people of Sigmar that, while the aesthetic took longer to take hold….I was sold on the thrilling heroics. Men, just men, holding the line against the horrors of chaos, greenskins, and more. And with nothing more then Faith, Steel….and Gunpowder.
I usually choose humans In warhammer due to the relatability and the ability to immerse myself into the setting. I don't like the puffy hats but the renaissance clothing with the visored helmets looks pretty cool.
It’s funny, as the “slash and puff” eventually really pulled me in. My army fields relatively few armoured knights, but I specifically sought out the old 6th edition State Trooper sculpts with the more Landsknecht style for the core of my army. But, you can field an Empire army heavy on Knights instead! It’s cool that both options exist for fans of the Empire. For me? The knights are too pricey; give me a Helblaster or Great Cannon, or a sturdy body of Halberdiers with wings of Handgunners!
I should have phrased it better. You know how karl franz and magnus the pious and warrior priests have a mix of armour and renaissance clothing? Where they have knight elements while not being outright bretonnia? That's my jam. Where they have visored helmets and chest plates but still with that fancy renaissance uniform.
Oh! Then yes, absolutely. Early Modern period heavy plate, a few devotional seals, and a massive hammer is definitely pretty awesome too!
It's definitely something that grows on you and once it does, it's strangely endearing. Almost like pawns in DD
This is why I picked Empire as my second army (and why I'd do imperial guard if I ever play 40k). It's also why sigmarines were so disappointing to me.
I got into Warhammer around Storm of Chaos too! Good times! Also chose Empire for much the same reason.
I may have read that stuff….but I only jumped in this year! Delayed start, much? 😅. But I’m gunning for it now. No brakes on this hype train!
Better late than never! Always glad to see another Empire fan! I lost my old Storm of Chaos book in a move years ago, always wondered where it went. Always remember those times fondly!
It was PEAK aesthetic too! A professional army, a stylish army. With….shoes! What an extravagance!
Haha definitely peak then! Sigmar is proud for sure!
If you're going to war in your black and yellow striped pyjamas. You had better have a colossal codpiece!
Averland forever!
When I was 10 I had read the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and I thought elves were the coolest and therefore High Elves, the top elves would logically be best.
Monsters and the Cygor specifically. Beastmen have been kind of stuck in the back of my head for almost a decade and flirting with Tabletop Simulator I'm finally getting an army together for TOW. I love their larger themes of anarchy and entropy. I like that I can support horde-ish style Infantry with big monsters and beefy monstrous infantry/cav. I like that they're kind of nameless Mooks, they're a more grounded and credible threat than Archaon coming to end the world. The things that go bump in the night, that make husbands go missing in the woods, that make the world a dangerous place to inhabit. I like being a foil to all the faith and technology. I like playing an army where it's just as fun rooting for my opponent because I'm playing the bad guy.
This is why i started beastmen. But i stopped playing when they killed Fantasy for Age of Sigmar. I haven't touched anything from GW since then. I just stumbled over Games Workshop again and found out they also re-released my second army....Bretonia.
I got my start playing Beasts of Chaos in Age of Sigmar just before they got their 3.0 battletome in Tabletop Simulator. They had very fun and evocative rules, I felt. And I obviously love the models. Pretty disappointing they decided to remove them for 4.0, but when Beastmen were announced as a mainline faction for TOW I smelled support in that direction, so have been building my physical army on square bases. I'm hoping they bring back some of the old Forgeworld monsters for Beastmen when they get their full release! Prayton and Skinwolves would be sick!
I'm the shortest of my friends and also the stockiest. I don't think I need to say more.
Especially seeing as your flair reads “Dwarfs” 😂
Greenskins are easy to love, they satisfy the wacky fun goofiness that adds levity to a generally darker fantasy setting, but the lore also shows the depths of their cruelty and makes them a deceptively terrifying foe. This is the faction that talks goofy and "follows da boss", but also the faction that puts the eyes out of dwarf prisoners because it's fun. The faction that puts wings and a pointy helmet on a goblin and launches it across the battlefield, and also the faction that throws halflings in a make shift arena and makes it fight snotlings until its stabbed to death. The faction that most human protagonists show their measure against, but also the faction who's warboss - when stabbed by a legendary Runefang - pulled the Runefang out of his own flesh and removed the weilders arm at the socket with the same motion. The faction with a character that puts on a cursed helmet but is too dumb for the helmet to dominate the weilder, but they are also one of the few factions to kill an Emperor. They look great, fun to paint, and fun to play. Gotta love the Greenskins.
I used to play regularly against a friend who had high elves and another army of Vampire Counts. I used to play elite armies and most leathally with wood elves. I wanted a new challenge. I challenged him to a game against my new army. One with a new black and green colour scheme. Incredible leadership. Massive firepower. Unique magic and lethal mele capabilities. Tough monsters. Huge numbers of attacks. He came ready to take on my new elites I bought six sets of the battle for skull pass goblin army off ebay and played night goblins. I had an army with unmatched leadership (5, with my general matching a normal human. Did I mention we feared elves and undead and were subject to animosity fighting ourselves?) unmatched firepower (120 archers with 16 inch range lucky to hit the side of a dragon even if it ate them), unmatched magic (who else had wizards whose heads exploded) and powerful melee units (fanatics who did more damage to my own units than the enemy) and volume of attacks (at Weapon skill 2, strength 3 and no ability to get through armour, yes armour, that thing everyone else has apart from us). I had unmatched mobility (random moving squig hoppers and snotling pump wagons) and powerful monsters(trolls who failed stupidity tests and picked their noses instead of hitting the squishy wizard in base contact that would have won the game). I could block enemy strategies (you cant get a flank attack bonus if the unit is as wide as the table). I destroyed him in the first game of the weekend with a series of lucky rolls. The rematch, half my army ran off the table on turn 1, the rest devolved into mayhem on the next turn. It was insane, ridiculous and gloriously fun.
I love Assyrians and I love Dwarves, so Chorfs was kinda obvious. Second place is hard fought between High Elves, specifically Caledor, and Middenland
I chose the Empire because my favorite historical period is the Italian wars (end of xv and first quarter of the xvi century). The empire is heavily based on xvi century warfare, which was also the focus of my dissertation. I also have an army of vampire counts that I assembled back when Blood Dragons were a thing since I enjoy their background as martial and honorable yet extremely corrupted beings. In 40k I have a joint Bearers/traitor guard army cause I love mutations and shit Note that I haven't played both games since 2013 so I'm not familiar with the most recent lore events and AoS stuff.
Dwarves. Mostly because the way I got into Warhammer was through vermintide games, then chaosbane, and now Total War Warhammer 3. Plus, I already really liked the dwarves in LOTR as well. So it was just right up my alley. Literally every dwarf character I read about is so badass. From Ungrim Ironfist, to Gotrek, to Belegar Ironhammer, Thorgrim, Bragi Axebiter, and even Malakai. The ingenuity, fortuity, and strength of the dwarves in Warhammer fantasy is just awesome. On levels I wish the dwarves in LOTR had made it to.
I chose Bretonnia mainly for the heroic knightly aesthetic at first, loving their cavalry heavy army. Repanse as a Joan of Arc type character also helped attract me to the faction. I fell more in love with the faction the more I learned about it later.
For me I like bretonnia because of its parody of knights in a similiar vain to Monty python and classic fantasy knights are just peak character design. The forgeworld bretonnian paladin is one of my top 5 favourite miniatures of all time. Do not get me started on the Green Knight.
The Green Knight and Lady Elisse Duchard are easily my top favorite models of all time. The Forgeworld Paladin is great, I can’t wait to get one.
Elisse duchard is also great. The forgeworld old world minis are fantastic in general. Emissary of settra, black ork warboss, ungrim and more are all fantastic models that have a balance of detail and simplicity while being dynamic while not leaping of a rock with arms in separate directions. The green knight convinced me into being a bretonnian fan.
High Elf design draws heavily from Imperial Rome, and I thought merging those designs with fantasy, magic, and dragons was really cool. Falling in love instantly with the concept of Dragon Princes probably didn’t help either…
Dragon Princes are incredibly cool, and the lore of the kingdom of Caledor is fantastic!
Ogre Kingdoms gave me a chance to pivot from getting false starts with barely supported odd-ball factions (Chaos Dwarfs -> Dogs of War -> Ogre Kingdoms) to a mainline faction that actually kind of ties together the storyline threads of my collection.
My favorite things in fantasy fiction are wizards, elves, dragons, and heroes holding the last line of defense. So the high elves were practically custom tailored for me.
Empire too - Landsknecht swag with the slashed doublets and fluffy hats, insane steampunk Leonardo Da Vinchi war machines, and just that vibe of ordinary humans facing the horrors of chaos.
Vampire Counts scratch a few itches for me at the same time. Traditional Gothic horror, unique and weird mechanics, strong emphasis on magic without sacrificing melee prowess... But most importantly, the ability for a single human sized character to fight like a monster. I love the 'boss monster' style and strength of Vampire characters, regenerating hybrid spellcasters and frontline fighters. Even if they're not cost effective, they add so much style to a list, and they're a joy to paint and personalize.
I like Arthuriana. I like knights. I like knights smashing evil things. It seemed like the obvious choice, really. ⚜️
Settra does not serve! He rules!
Good armies Bretonnia, I like knights. High Elves, I like elven knights. Great, noble hero warriors. Evil armies Chaos Dwarfs and Goblins, I like weird little guys. Neutral? Lizardmen, I like dinosaurs.
I have pretty much the same reasons for liking Bretonnia and the High Elves. I like knights and heroes who fight evil.
White Dwarf 300 - it introduced a faction of Pirate Goblins called the River Ratz. As a huge fan of all things pirate, I’ve been a greenskin fan ever since.
When I started Fantasy way back, I picked dark elves just because I like dark elves. Took a break, then came back to the hobby, I had some beastmen lying around and decided to practice painting those before painting dark elves. The Beastmen release dropped and I was hooked on goats.
I started during the herohammer era and the Brett's vs Lizardmen boxed set. I ended up playing high elves as my first faction, bit I always thought that Bretonia had the most striking table presence.
Empire, just because imagining regular blokes with a pointy stick charge at demons, trolls and 7ft tall chaos warriors to kick em in the nuts in the name of Sigmar seemed badass as fuck. Like that take true courage and/or faith to do that.
My 1st ever experience with Warhammer was running a cavalry heavy bretonnian army my buddy had. It was so much fun charging those knights across the table. I've been chasing that high ever since 🤣
Kharadron. I've always been into dwarves, and machinery-steampunky stuff. Combine those, and boom
I enjoy fae related things and tree people so I naturally liked wood elves. My friends think I'm genetically predisposed to wood elves due to being Vietnamese, and most of my other armies including ways to do hit and runs and ambush tactics. Doesn't help that wood elves used to be able to booby trap terrain in older editions with punji sticks and spikes log traps.
I started with Dwarfs because it was the starting box in 7th Ed and I loved dwarfs from LOTR. But a few years ago, after a pretty long break from WHFB, I decided to come back with Empire. Why? History is both my job and my hobby, especially the Late Middle Ages and early Renaissance. Having such an army with Da Vinci’s inventions, monsters and magic added sounded far too cool to be ignored!
While HRE isn't roman. It is fore sure very interesting to learn about and was one of the powerhouses of Europe back in the day.
Warriors of chaos. Reasons: Paul Sawyers army in white dwarf. The almost "roman" feel of heavy infantry with tall shields that the now previous iteration of sculpts brought to the table. Both of those meant when I started fantasy years later, it became one of my main armies
I got that roman vibe too, both as the serried ranks with shileds but also.as their antithetical barbarian counter.
When I first started playing WHF in the 6th edition, I had just read Trollslayer, Skavenslayer, and Daemonslayer. I loved Thanquol's character and wanted to play Skaven. I was also obsessed with the Rat Tank; the predecessor of the doomwheel. In the end, my brother convinced me that Skaven would be too expensive to play because I needed so many models to make an army. I went for my 2nd choice, Dwarfs (with some slayers), and had heaps of fun. I even won my first game against a veteran when my Ironbreakers ran down Empire Knights Inner Circle with his general in them (rolled double 6s after the knights fled 11" from combat) I also have a soft spot for elves (especially High Elves) because I first got interested in the world by painting my brother's Silver Helms. After which he recommended the books.
I’ve started various different armies over the years. Skaven, warriors of chaos, vampiric undead, chaos dwarves, whenever the mood took me. My brother has remained strong and true to his one army - Dwarves, for the past 35 years. It’s quite admirable. He loves a good gun line.
They were there only ones that “weren’t taken” out of the cool ones I liked by my modeling (the miniatures stuff, not being zexy) club buddies. I have always been afraid of death (not, but what comes after) so I did tend to play necromancers and similar in video games. I have also always liked Egypt for some reason, ancient lost culture which left such huge footprint behind was incredibly fascinating. When you merge that together, I got really interested in TK. Then I have seen ushabti and learned what they are. Yeah now I’m actually hyped. Then I’ve read about their history, their hatred towards vampires and the fact they are not mindless minions, but rather bound to servitude by oaths and loyalty and it was slam dunk.
Dawi, always liked the dwarf aesthetic and the combat plays right unto my jam, slow deliberate positioning and overwhelming firepower, backed up by an anvil of armored units
I'm a huge Landsknecht fan and like the era the Imperium is presenting. And I love Zweihänder. And funny big hats and cockpieces. The bigger the hat, the more important the carrier, which was a real thing too! And I like the feeling of mere men, clad in steel, fighting all kinds of horrific creatures and dying while standing their ground. Orks scare the shit out of me.
I read Skarsnik, I started playing them. Great book, great character but I always liked the greenskins in general so I was already a fan but that book tipped the iceberg.
I always liked Reptiles so I picked Lizardmen way back when. I still like them and his versatile their roster can be though I am still in the process of finding out which unit is good against what. I recently picked up Orks because I still had some from my old starter box and I like the casual play style of just rushing in and seeing how it goes. So far I never picked up any black Orks because I like my boys being an unruly, disorganized mob just looking for a good fight. I also very much like the style of the empire and since I also have some empire models from my old starter box I might get some more empire models as well.
Skaven. I was introduced to GW through Talisman 3rd edition (my Mums friend had a copy webwould play together) and the skaven had the coolest ability, and is my favourite character in the game to this day (if you roll a 6, you can tunnel to any space on the same section of the board as you) Then I bought the WHFB starter that had lizardmen vs. Bretton because I didn't really "get" how warhammer worked. I think I painted 3 models from it before buying a box of clanrats and forgetting the hobby entirely. Fast forward to now, and I have a skaven vanguard + friends waiting for the AoS 4 box to be my entry into actually playing warhammer.
Empire for me - I really liked the HRE history aspect of it, and then between the balance of Faith, Steel, Gunpowder, the aesthetic of state troops and combined arms, and then Karl Franz on Deathclaw with the titular Warhammer got me
Chaos, i love both 40k and fantasy chaos, but fantady in particular the lore and aestetic of warriors of chaos is so perfecly uniquely warhammer fantasy. It ties so well into so many aspects of the wider lore of the world, and gives you such a great reason for why your army has the hardest lads. Its just peak.
I love Bretonnia not only do I really like the high medieval fantasy aesthetic but I love how unapologetically over the top it is.
Vampire counts are my favorite faction. I just love the idea of hordes of expendable cannon fodder grinding down enemy units just to be resurrected again. "There will be no blood for the blood god or skulls for the skull throne for this field of blood and bones is ours." - some vampire count, probably.
I chose Vampire Counts as a teenager because Buffy the Vampire Slayer was my favourite TV show at the time. Vampires bro. I've started a TOW Bretonnian army because I was obsessed with Arthur and his knights as kid so just fulfilling a childhood wishlist army.
the dino says bok bok
Empire for me, I got into Warhammer through the RPG in the late 80s and that was rather Empire centric so when a buddy got the 4th ed starter box some years later I jumped at the chance to play them.
Trolls the fact they have made troll horde a thing is the reason I have retired from 40k darkness and into the wonderful happy land of trolls doing stupid crap and being so loveable 😂
Dark Elves and Chaos Dwarfs are my favourites because I love elves and dwarfs and GW adding spikes to them and making them evil just makes them cooler.
Tomb Kings. Something about a massive horde of bones shambling around has always intrigued me. In SW Legion I play Droids, in 40K I played Necrons, in Song of Ice and Fire I played FF. I just love hordes and what they bring to the table
Because I have a book with several empty pages
Because Dwarfs!
I’ve been High Elves since 1994, I got the 4th ed starter box for my birthday that year.
Dwarfs because dwarfs
It's like asking which child is your favorite. So Chaos obviously. Love the Chaos gods bouncing between "I am a lovecraftian horror marching on the world" and "four best frenemy monsters constantly undermining each other."
Vampires be cool.
Dwarfs, because dwarfs. And also undead, did there a 180° turn. I used to hate undead in all forms, actively avoiding them in games like TES, but now they're my favourite among the more evil factions.
For some reason, I have always loved the bad guys. Specifically the bad guys who don't have a just cause or a lofty ideal that they use as justification. I just love the dudes who live just to fuck shit up!!!! -This post has been made by the Chaos Undivided Gang
Big dinosaurs. Rawr
My favorite for models and fluff is the Dogs of War army. My favorite army to play would be Wood Elves, I love the movement phase and they are the most mobile army.
Dwarves! Ever since I read the hobbit they have been my go to fantasy race!
Because they're hilarious, same for 40k
I always choose armies based on a mix of lore, overall aesthetic and if I think they will be fun to paint. Ease of miniatures is also important tho, i.e, are they gonna be reasonably cheap and easy to purchase or are half their miniatures out of print, or all made of resin/metal etc. Back in the day I used to play Skaven and Orcs&Goblins, but had just started a small Bretonnian force just before The End Times
Chaos, mainly because the Chaos Warriors and Chaos Knights are just so cool. But also the Marauders, Chaos Spawn, Dragon Ogres... just all really cool units. I played a Khorne army most often, but also sometimes undivided, because Archaon is the pinnacle of Chaos cool. And also, because Chaos can take the coolest units from other units and make them their own. For example Khorne Minotaurs and Chaos Ogres.
For me I only ever go by aesthetic when it comes to any warhammer. Hence I can't ever have one favorite. I reckon I will be building many old world armies. atm I like tomb kings as well as lizardmen. The new tomb kings box definitely pushed that a bit, but I also just like the models and am excited to paint them. Lizardmen will be my next buy (once they release) as I love the colors and aesthetics there. Down the line I will probably dabble with elves in 3rd place. I already own a ton of orks from back in the day so not sure if I will continue with that army.
Skeletons. Just skeletons. Imagine being a kid during lord of the rings times, getting into lotr strategy battle game for a few years. Then stepping into a hobby store trying to pick something for this "Warhammer" thing. And then seeing it. A skeleton. A single, boney, undead piece of art. That wasn't in the lotr! It was like straight prop from the Sinbad, Conan, Xena or Hercules! And then seeing an box art for a skeleton regiment. Oh boy. That was it. Now I'm 20 years older and I'm stil "undead" main in every game I pick.
Dwarf characters in fantasy, has always been my favorites. The stubbonness, grudge and high hornor codex For orcs it was my inner chaos agent that fell in loved with rules for fanatics and trolls. Skaven which visuelle got some uniqe cool models.
Dark Elves, because I was a li'l goth nerd, and they have a decent mix of men and women in their army - even ladies that are NOT scantily clad, starting in 6th!
Got to respect the tomb kings too. They have a fair amount of female characters and believe in equality of treatment. They don't care about your gender and only care if you are a corpse or not.
Vlad Von Carstein is the rightful ruler of the Empire and I refuse to accept otherwise.
When I was first trying to get into fantasy from 40K I was always jealous of the guys in my shop that would play Fantasy with these huge armies. I remember checking on Craigslist and by chance saw someone selling 3,000 points of ogres obviously a tournament comp who decided never to build it and I ended up pulling the trigger. I went from thinking about one day dreaming of starting to being able to engage in massive full-scale battles as soon as I was able to get it built which really kicked it up from 0 to 100. They were pretty easy to paint so I was able to get my Army fully painted against people who were actively playing in the tournament circuit winning awards on the national circuit. I think I'll always kind of love ogres because they were a vehicle for me to get into the hobby, and later learning the floor it really doesn't hurt that they're badass
I love Chaos especially undivided cause I just love so many themes: The baseline is great a dude in 3 tons of stell blessed by f'ing hell is catchy and metal AF. Nurgle is great cause of the fact that his emotions are happiness and dread so contradictory. The circle of live and death is fun and the designs are awesome. Tzentch is so great as he just is there everything is always changing and he's so tricky I love it and I' am a wizard simp. Slannesh is in his base concept really relatable and so terrifying. Khorn is basic and sometimes fun. The black Knight and Herold of apocalypse is a concept I just enjoy. Sidenote: I also fucking love the concept of Malal and I've planned on and off about theming a mordheim warband or even an whole army around him. I'm also a sucker for Dark elves especially the corsairs elves but not just elves evil, murderous, emo pirat elves, count me in. It is amazing.
When I was young it was HE because Elric and d&d elf comb rocks. Only fully painted army still Got sick of T3 and moved on to Green skins. 85% Now I am building Cult TK and I am so pumped! Most will on spurs.
I love Bretonnia, I love the Empire, but my dirty little rat boy heart will always belong to the Skaven. Between the arrogance, the narcissism, the paranoia, the cowardice, the mad scientist tendencies, the single-minded treachery, the absolutely casual disregard for life... it's hard to pick just one interesting and deeply entertaining trait! For as terrible and horrific as they are, their general tendency of oscillating between complete incompetence, shocking lack of foresight and utter insane luck is immensely fun. They're always the baddies, they know it, and they absolutely revel in that fact and happily chew scenery (and the bones of their foes) whenever they can. Helps that they're cute rodents with a vast array of weaponry more fit for a steampunk battlefield.
We got rats, but the Christian church. We got rats, but are ww1. We got rats, but are the black plague. Finally, we got rats, but they are Scooby-Doo villians.
I play Bretonnia because I love Knights. Simple as