Topic: Second Army

[ZethEphdel]

I still have a while to go with my Tyranids so far, mostly painting, but I'd figure that I will probably want to collect a second army someday. I was thinking of a couple of different armies to choose from but thought I'd see what you guys thought too.
Space Marines - being the forefront of the entire game of warhammer 40k, it seems to make sense to collect these guys at some point, that being said almost everyone has a SM army and can get kind of boring. Good armor saves and all around play style are big benefits as well as being almost entirely plastic.

Guard - I'm thinking of mostly collecting these guys for their tanks. Gunline is also quite a big difference from the Tyranids now (long range fire?). Unfortunately they still have bad armor saves and numbers so I'm not sure how different they'll be and if they're worth the effort.

Daemonhunters - This was the other army I was thinking about collecting when I first started playing. The idea of so few against so many is appealing. They also seem totally different from tyranids (numbers, armor etc.). The biggest drawback is that they are all metal and such a change could be challenging.

Witch Hunters - As far as I know they are similar to space marines (same armor saves, guns and things) but with slight variations. Unfortunately I don't know what those variations are and why they are so much more unpopular than Marines are. Never played against them or even seem them.

Necrons - The only nonhuman army I'm thinking about collecting. Good armor saves, very good range and tank hunting abilities as far as I know. Unfortunately not a lot of tanks (just monolith) which is one of the things I'm missing as a Nid player.

Anyway, I haven't had a lot of experience in general with these armies. I've only played one game against grey knights, and one game against IG. Never played crons and witch hunters so any advice you guys have or opinions would be appreciated.

[4084595657]

Honestly mate i think you should concentrate on your Tyranid army, its like characters on WoW, the more alternative characters (or in this case armies) you make the less time you spend on your main.

But if i had to pick i'd say Guard AND Demonhunters, allie them. Greynights pack a huge punch and guard have the long ranged firepower that greyknights are missing.

[Scalu]

I think that a pure Guard army would give you the biggest change in play style when compared to the nids.  You can have a lot of vehicles and heavy weapons, as well as transports.  I don't think allying them with Greyknights is a good idea, as you can pack in some h2h goodness in the form of Ogryn and Command Squads for the purpose of countercharging, or tying up units that might otherwise roll through your army.

On the other hand, if you don't mind the lack of vehicles, you might have a lot of fun with Necron as well.  A Monolith will make up for the lack of vehicles in any case as it's so hard to take out.  You get to have very tough troops with good rapid-fire weapons.

Witchhunters are interesting to play as they have faith points that they spend throughout the game which boosts their offensive or defensive abilities.  I don't know if I would go with them myself though.

[Lord Alliben]

If you want a quick army then go for marines, DH, or Necrons. Those would be relatively cheap to build up and have on hand as a second army. If you want something with a lot of character then I'd say go with the IG. Just make sure you're in it for the long haul, though, as it will take you forever and a day to paint them and get them battlefield ready. Looks like tanks will be tons better in 5th ed so I would take that into consideration as well.

[mrtspence; Formerly Overkill1]

I too have started a second (and now 3rd) army. I however, have something like 4000 points of nids before I do any over-the-top-biomorphing, so make sure you can play an apocalypse match with your nids before you start anything new. My second army is an armoured company (with infantry  ) my third are kroot mercs. IG have a lot of character, and I gotta be honest, losing can be quite a bit of fun as guard (besides when you win its like 'a kick in the balls when you get beaten by guard'--don't know who it was I just para-quoted but those words are not my own). Kroot are really cool and a lot of fun if you enjoy conversions (and conversions and conversions and conversions and conversions) and eviscerators. My 2 cents.