Favorite Armies

Even when I first got into Warhammer 20 years ago, I wanted Dark Elves. I love the aesthetic, the lore and the gameplay. #1 in my book for sure. There's all sorts of infantry, pretty good shooting, strong characters/magic and some monsters.

My first army was Wood Elves, and they are still right up there for me. Good shooting and mobility, some hard hitting stuff. I like the look and the idea of guerrilla warfare, though given how annoying they can sometimes be to play against I don't field them as much as I may have liked.

And although I like High Elves well enough they are not completing my trifecta, #3 in my book is Lizardmen. It's a very varied army, with heavy magic, some big stompy monsters, big blocks of strong infantry and some shooting.

I don't have any skycutters but they are on my list (good thing they still make them). I do have 8 eagle claws and 90 Sea guard lol. 40 are painted and the rest are mustering (various stages of work done). I do have 2 sea helms though, that is one of my favorite models. I have drawn out plans for 2 Elvish warships and started to cut up some wood but that's as far as I got. My army's 2 main units are Seaguard and Dragon Princes (both old sculpt and new).

I can't answer this poll. Too hard, they are all awesome in their own way. I MAY be able to come up with my three least favorite armies but even that would require much thought.

Skaven and orc. Wacky yet powerful, so many options while still staying strong.

Yeah, I guess you could... but...
I respectfully disagree. Most tournament Empire armies I have faced are VERY boilerplate. Debatably the MOST boiler plate of all armies.

I remember playing a tournament overt the course of the weekend, five games.
Three of my five games were against The Empire and I could not tell the difference between the three army lists.

They all had 1 to 2 units of Inner Circle Knights, 10 to 12 to 15 models w. 1 or 2 characters. They all had Demigryphs. They all had at least 1 Steam Tank. They all had 1 or 2 or 3 cannons.
This is commonly referred to as the "Armored Wall" as everything that matters in the list has a 1+ or 2+ armor save.

True, maybe some had 30 Spearmen instead of 20 Halberdiers. Maybe some had 2 units of 10 archers instead of 20 Crossbowmen.
A very small %age of points would be spent on an extra mage, or perhaps a Helblaster. None ran any Wizard Wagon; none ran Flagellants. 

About 75% of the points in each of these armies was identical. I have seen this "Armored Wall" army more times than I care to remember.
I have seen it from many different players and opponents. Don't get me wrong, it's a very GOOD army list... just not unique and not creative.

Yeah, but that's in tournament world.

I don't play tournaments. 1 person comes up with a list that does relatively well, then EVERYONE else copies it instead of using their brain. It's just too serious. The tournaments I've attended weren't fun at all because they all took it too seriously. The last tournament I went to at my local GW store (where I ran my Empire army - which included 1 cannon, two units of Pistoliers, two units of Outriders and a horde of Flagellents. No Stank.) I ranked up so many VP in my first three games that about 50% of the other players decided to quit, go somewhere else to play and started blasting nasty messages on the store's Facebook page. We had around 30 people participating at the beginning. I am not an "in your face" guy! I typically go out of my way to ensure that everyone is having a good time. Most of the players who left had never even shown their face in the store according to the manager. He was offering a prize (something like a $100 gift certificate to the store), but when that backlash happened, he decided to just call it. Simple face of the matter was, they weren't prepared for my list! They were expecting ONE play style from "the Empire player" and didn't know how to compete against this "new" take. Typical WAAC players.

Now, I admit, this was probably a rare, unpleasant occurrence, but tournaments will draw those players every now and again. But that's why I avoid them. Places like Da' Boyz tournament sounds like a blast with you guys! Things like that I love. More of a Beer and Pretzels guy.

Just because some people play their armies one way all the time, doesn't mean that's the only way to play them. How many Dwarf players run gun lines? They can easily run an aggressive list (with much success), but that's not typically what's taken. I just think that Empire is one of the most versatile armies available. Maybe not the best army with the highest win-rate, but it can be run in more various ways than most. I'd say O&G, HE, DE are some of the other versatile armies out there and then MAYBE Lizardmen, Wood Elves and Skaven. Undead are pretty much locked in with keeping their heroes alive in bunkers and rely heavily on magic. You pretty much have to have those, IMHO. Brets, well, knights. Beastmen, WoC - virtually no shooting. DoC - rely on magic. Ogres - Ogre bus. Maybe I'm off, but this has been my impression of the various armies through my experience. I'm not saying that "This one is not as good as this one". Definitely not. WoC is, IMHO, one of the best.

I hope I haven't stepped on any toes with this ramble!