Army Comparison: Warriors of Chaos vs. Daemons of Chaos

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This Fantasy Battles Army Comparison pits the forces of the Chaos Gods against each other in a battle royale.  Each of these armies fared rather well in 7^th Edition, where Daemons were widely considered one of the top tier armies.  In 8^th the Daemons have fallen from the top of the pedestal but are still considered quite strong.  The Warriors have had a rougher transition to 8^th Edition, as the units that were considered powerful or weak respectively are almost completely reversed.  This change took a while for players to understand, but it appears that Warriors of Chaos are also quite competitive.

Army Comparison: Orks vs. Tyranids

Continuing the request for Army Comparisons (yes, I'll be getting to some of the other popular ones as well) we have Orks vs Tyranids. Both of them are nominally horde armies (but don't really play that way because hordes are kinda awful in 5E) with a good combination of shooting and assault potential. Orks can bring Battlewagons and other armor to the table, while Tyranids will usually be leaning heavily on their T6 critters to even the field for them. Neither side has a clear advantage over the other's primary strategy, so in most cases it ends up being a pretty brutal slugfest no matter who ends up winning- which, from a fluff view, is hardly inappropriate.

Army Comparison: Brettonia vs. Wood Elves

Nikephoros here.  You wanted it, you got it: by popular request we have a comparison between two of the Warhammer Fantasy 8^th Edition whipping boys going toe to toe in the pillow fight of the year.  Do the heavily armored knights have what it takes, or do the Athel Loren All Stars crush them under the weight of their tree branches?  Let’s see.

Army Comparison: DoA Blood Angels vs T6'R'Us Nidzilla

Two very iconic armies - who shall come out on top!

Advantages - Tyranids

Nidzilla is a Tyranid list based on lots of T6 wounds and plenty of Monstrous Creatures supported by little critters - the point is to overwhelm the opponent's ability to deal with so many high toughness wounds and eventually get beaten down in combat by the big critters and a sea of little gribblies.

Future Army Comparisons

What comparisons would you like me to look at next? Specific match-ups (i.e. build arch-types) obviously allow us to go more in-depth compared to general armies overall so be as specific as you like :P.

This is for 40k obviously though perhaps if any of you are looking for Fantasy army match-ups or Warmachine/Hordes caster pairings we can have our resident authors for such take a gander at them if they please so no harm in asking about them either.

Army Comparison: Tyranids vs Necrons

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Has another codex hurt the Tyranid cause? Let's see.


Tyranid Advantages -

They're an army which likes to get close and nom you - Necrons are a short-ranged army with little nomming ability of their own. Super-gants, Genestealers, the array of MCs, Warriors/Shrikes, Ravengers, Hormgaunts, etc. are all going to do a number on your basic Necron. Even the tougher Necron units like Immortals or Lychguard are going to be wounded pretty regularly with lots of high-strength and/or poison attacks in combat. Once Tyranids get into combat the advantage is obviously theirs and they have some speedy units and the durability to get there against an army without lots of high strength/low AP weaponry. 

Army Comparison: Dark Eldar and Grey Knights

I've heard every opinion possible on this match-up. Ranging from the extremes of Dark Eldar dominate to Grey Knights dominate with everything in between. This might indicate a perfectly awesome normal distribution of player experiences...ya right. Rather, I think these extreme opinions are based upon players seeing/participating in battles where one general continually exerts themselves. Why? Well personally I believe the two armies are well matched-up but are HUGELY different armies and much like Dark Eldar and Tyranid match-ups, both armies do quite well at hurting each other but at significantly different portions of the game. This is why I feel a lot of people have been led to extreme opinions as whichever army is able to get a stranglehold with their strengths is very likely to obliterate the opposing army and perhaps lead to fewer close games.

Enough conjecture though! Let's actually look at how the armies match-up. Remember, this is the whole codex against the whole codex and whilst common themes in most armies will be discussed, we aren't comparing specific lists or looking to tailor lists against opponents.

Marines - Differences Between Codices

With four 5th edition and two fourth edition Space Marine armies out there battling, players looking to invest in some poster-boys of 40k have a lot of choice. Now a lot of people think some of these choices suck such as Dark Angels or Space Marines but thanks to good codex design within the 5th edition books and some recent and decent FAQs for Black Templars and Dark Angels, this is not the case. In this post we'll do a quick breakdown of the strengths and weakness of each codex and look at generally effective builds as well as themes within the book. This will give players a better understanding of each book and where one might like to start within the Marine family. Later posts will look at general codex comparisons in a broader sense of the word and focusing on two armies and the major differences (i.e. Space Wolves and Space Marines).

Before we dig into each army we'll look at the overall similarities. Each Marine codex has a core of WS/BS/S/T/I 4, W/A1, Ld8/9, Sv3+ models all of which have And They Shall Know No Fear (ATSKNF) and wargear focused on bolt weapons. This makes them expensive but very sturdy Troops most effective at range but no push-overs in combat (generally limited by their own lack of attacks). Whilst ATSKNF isn't fearless, it can quite often be better and forces your opponent to escorting fleeing units off the board or wiping them out completely. Each army has access to cheap vehicles based on the Rhino chassis and for 35 points base, these vehicles are a steal and quite popular. Marine armies in general are very flexible and their units excel at being generalists with specific units to support them in particular roles. Overall, each Marine codex presents an army which is flexible, good at both shooting and combat and very durable.

Army Comparison: Grey Knights and Mechdar

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Ah Mechdar, how we used to love you. So annoying to take down, so fast, so shiny and with so many pointy ears. How unkindly 5th edition as treated you. Odd how you are perhaps one of the most annoying match-ups possible for Grey Knights, the new poster boys of 5th edition and ironically shiny in their paint.

Although Eldar are quite restricted in their current build paradigms (Mechdar, Footdar and Wraithzilla), all of which have varying and questionable levels of competitiveness, for the most part Mechdar isn't terrible. The problem of course stems for the over-expense it pays for its Vehicles (90 points base!), lack of FoC swaps (seriously: Phoenix Lords make their Aspects Troops, please?) and in general some pretty blah units (Scorpions, Banshees, Dark Reapers, Warp Spiders, Shining Spears, need I go on?). Despite all this, Mechdar can put around 10 vehicles on the table and most of them are AV12 with annoying survivability traits such as Energy Shields or Holo-fields. Add in they are all fast skimmers and have reserve manipulations and they can be a pain to bring down. And that's how Mechdar generally work. They put out a bunch of S6 firepower, run circles around the opponent and hope their vehicle survivability remains high.

Space Wolves & Army Comparisons

With the Imperial Guard codex winding up soon (once I finish the final post and fix up my fail on the first Heavy Support article) and still waiting on VT2 for the Grey Knights codex review, I think it's time to look at Space Wolves. They are regarded as one of the best armies in 40k and whilst flexible within their list design, they have several units which barely see the light of day.

So what issues, or potential army match-ups, would you like to see covered in the Armies in 5th and codex review of the Space Wolves. Obviously looking at internal balance and comparison to the other Marine books will be paramount in these posts but anything else or specific questions can be addressed.

Also, what army comparisons are top in people's minds currently to look at? Any armies not just Space Wolves. I know quite a few people want me to look at Tyranids and Tau atm but specific armies or generic army lists anyone wanted compared? If so put them in the comments here as well.

Also, final call for dice. This will likely be the last time these are ever sold as next batch we are aiming to do the 3++ in place of the three pip so if you want some, do so now. I'll be ordering the 2nd wave my Tuesday (everyone else's Monday usually) so order on the weekend. Any combination of quantity or colors can be ordered at this time but NO DICE BAGS ARE LEFT. Again, all profits go to running of the site, prizes, etc.

Army Comparison: Grey Knights and Tyranids

The nail in the coffin? This match up receives the most whining I've ever seen. Anywhere. Some of it is justified. Some of it isn't. Let's take an objective take on it then! When the Grey Knights codex first hit, this was a match up that was poured over obsessively and the usual advantages were thrown around. In general these are quite right but I feel people have gone too far and basically ticked Grey Knights as auto-win. They are far from it but certainly have the tools for the job in removing both the big Tyranids and small gribblies from the table. Their strengths often play straight into Tyranid weaknesses whilst Tyranid strengths often play into the hands of Grey Knight strengths. This is where we get a severe match up disparity and all the whining the Internet can throw at us.

Army Comparison: Tyranids and Imperial Guard

The other army commonly heralded as a major issue for Tyranids, Imperial Guard have shooting out the wazzoo and this suprises no one. What's different from Space Wolves is they are going to generate more wounds on both the tougher and smaller targets and at greater ranges. Whilst all of these shots may not be as powerful and as such allow normal saves and FNP (i.e. S7/6 and not AP2), there is a lot more shots coming downfield. There are also generally a lot more targets to neutralise and the strong combat ability of Tyranids doesn't mean as much against the cheap and weak Guardsmen. Let's take an army by army analysis again.

Army Comparison: Tyranids and Space Wolves

One would expect this to be a short post right? I mean missile spam and Jaws is about as anti-Tyranids as you can get when the Tyranid army relies heavily upon high toughness/wounds, low initiative models. Let's look at the whole picture however as  I think this is the match up that is one of the worst for Tyranids but too often people claim it's an auto-lose (or as close as) for Tyranids when it's not. The combination of missiles, lasplas and jaws is certainly powerful and hard to beat with an MC based Tyranid list but just by taking Jaws out of the equation the game is quite a bit more balanced. Let's get to it then.

Comparison: Grey Knight Terminators & TH/SS in 'Thunderbubbles'

Earlier in the chatbawks we had a conversation going about how effective a GKT 'Thunderbubble' could be. Let's take a look at these two units within this construct then and see how it plays out. This post will focus on two things. The strengths, weaknesses and ultimate differences between GKT and TH/SS Terminators and how they interact and support with the army built around them. This latter part is important in determining the effectiveness of the list whilst the former is more of a comparison of units.

Army Comparison: Blood Angel Jumpers and Grey Knights

This has been talked about a bit and I've had a couple e-mails about it so here's an army comparison for Jumper based armies in the Blood Angels codex against the Grey Knights codex as a whole. This is a bit different from other Army Comparison posts as we are looking specifically at a certain arch-type of build within the Blood Angels codex, basically anything with a core of Jumper/Jump Pack models (yes including Hybrids) and how it matches up with Grey Knights in general. As usual in these posts, I'll be looking at advantages and disadvantages of both armies, pitting them against each and reaching a conclusion on which, if any, army has the potential advantage over others.

We'll begin with some brief outlines of the armies which is going to be obviously detailed for the Jumper armies and deliberately vaguer (wow that's word) for Grey Knights. We'll start with the Jumper armies.

Blood Angels Jumpers Summary

There are tons of articles on these type of armies on this website and I'll link each list as I throw them out to you as well as this great (if I don't say so myself) summary post of a lot of their tactics, choices and general gameplay.

So Kirby wants me to write something, again!

The bloody cheek of it! Jeez.

Right, well if I'm writing something it may as well be interesting. I could do how I plan on winning Cent with and Ork list I've had 4 vassal games with (and 2 don't even really count)... But nahhh.... I could do why I think the 3 best armies in the game are BA, SW, and IG. Maybe. Hm. See, the problem with this blog is a lot of stuff is covered already. They like nids here. Oh, I might do one on why Tyranids aren't good.

Haha, that's happening. ^^

Disclaimer, if you're wondering what to use this article for, errr.... use it to beat nids. :P

Ok, that's a bit misleading. I don't think tyranids are bad either. No, they can compete. But you'll be hard pressed to win a really competitive tournament with them, against people of the same skill with you, using certain... "other" armies. Ok, fine. Imperial Guard, Space Wolves and Blood Angels. You happy? Making me feel like I'm some dick from BoLS (and you can say dick on BoLS btw, so I'm assuming you can say it here) preaching to you about how the world is ending and manticores and jotww and blah de blah de meta fucking blah.

Army Comparison: Tyranids & Dark Eldar

<-- It's from Kennedy!

To kick start the Army Comparison series we'll take a look at Tyranids and Dark Eldar. With the release of Dark Eldar a lot of people moaned (even more) about Tyranids being crap. This is due to the unique advantage Dark Eldar have in having anti-infantry and anti-tank which is very effective in dropping Tyranid T6 creatures. Luckily for Tyranids though, all is not lost for them.

This match-up is one of the most likely to result in gutted armies on both sides. Both armies have strengths which focus on their opponent's weaknesses as well as nullifying their strengths and games between these armies can often come down to who strikes the first telling blow. This may not necessarily be who goes first but reserve denial for protection against damage on both sides may be quite important. So let's break down the advantages and disadvantages for both lists and major build archetypes which might be better or worse off compared to others.