Hi CDO This topic is not restricted by what game system you all play, or the scale of the armies.
Most of us have build our armies differently over time, but often not with the same steps or end results. I’m interesting in hearing which steps has your army building been through?
Examble of build ideas: As many different units as possible → More common with newer players, that want to have as many entries from the army lists as possible Big favorite unit → "I always start with my 40 White Lions!" Lord choice first → "I need the perfect Vampire/Chaos/Dwarf Lord to keep my army together, so I’ll start with that" Rare units first → “Double Hellcanon or K’daii Destoryer? This is essential to later choices” Fluff army → "forrest goblins/savage orcs/spiders would look really cool!" Death star → "How do I make the most unkillable, unavoidable hammer of a unit that my list allows?" Clear strategy → "Do I want a gunline, mass infantry, MSU, Fast flank or an avoidance list?" Flexible army → "How do I make an all-comers list, that responds well to most armies?" What do I want to force my opponent to do, and how do I force him to do it? → "I want my opponent to force himself forward into weak positions, so that i can exploit his flanks! How do I achieve this objective?" Pick units I think is fun fluff or games wise → "Fanatics, Manglers and Doomdivers are too fun to not bring! I need em in my list!"
Feel free to add your own build ideas!
Then try to show how your build strategy has changed over time like: Many different units → Fun units first → Lord Choice first → Balanced army → Death Star → Clear Strategy
Lastly, consider explaining how you have grown as a player (optional): WFB 5th edition: I was 10 and just wanted to amass units WFB 6th edition: Started my second army (Dark Elfs), and centered it around my 30 Executioners. Tried for a year to make it work but they sucked… WFB 6th edition: I always chose my Lord first as it said the tone for the rest of the army. For 2 years my first decision was always "Morathi or Dreadlord" WFB 7th edition: After being introduced to MSU tactics, I began focusing on balanced armies to work around the weak Dark Elfs. WFB 7th edition: The new 7th ed. army book, which was insanely strong was introduced and I began rocking a Cold One Deathstar with multiple characters and the First strike banner. It was wonderful! WFB 7th edition: As I switched to Chaos Dwarfs (Ravening Horde pdf) I realised their low movement and high point cost meant I could excel in everything anymore. Since then I have always chosen whether I want to go gunline, mass infantry, or focus on faster units.
You know, I like this topic. I generally like the idea and would love to hear more about people’s armybuilding practice.
For myself, it has always been your first option - As many different units as possible. My favourite WFB army was and is the Dogs of War precisely because of the whole aura of the weird, the wonderful and the exotic it so uniquely exhudes.
And while that phylosophy usually means I am mostly losing my battles, I try to lose with as much style as I can! That is, fielding all and as much different units as I can and avoiding ‘redundancy’. I rather pick both 20-men Teutogen Guard AND 20 Greatswords than a single 40-men unit, for example. My Chaos Dwarf army usually has as many different models as I can field, and I do not repeat over War Machine choices, picking one of each as possible.
I believe that also couples with being a Fluff-driven army. I wield most of my different troops as I can.
As to how my Strategy has changed… it was less on armybuilding and more on actually battlefield experience as I started to understand how to wield cavalry, heavy infantry, redirectors and such. Essentially went from a very diverse army that was picked piecemeal to a very diverse army that has a plan on what it can do and what it should not.
With the Legion of Azgorh I will usually allow the enemy to approach and then try to force the flanks with K’daai and Bull Centaur Renders and probably Drazoath the Ashen as well while Infernal Guard anchor the middle of the battleline.
My growth, now that is interesting. I’ll use your template, Malorndk, it looks easy and succint.
WFB 6th edition: Started to get interest in WFB but didn’t actually play or even own miniatures. I would go to a friends house being around 12 back then and we’d print the images on GW’s old site so we fought mock battles with our imagination alone. I loved Dwarfs back then. WFB 7th edition: Here I actually started to play, with Chaos Dwarfs and an Empire Army set I’ve converted poorly into Dogs of War. In hindsight I ought to have made them all into Empire, would have been easier! Also tried to convert a BFSP set into Chaos Dwarfs to use with the Ravening Hordes list, it was a complete disaster! Here I didn’t get as many games as I wished, WFB had started it’s decline. WFB 8th edition: Finally I got an actual Empire army, and I’ve tried to field it either with or mimicking as many different Dogs of War units as possible without having many of them at all. Since DoW are rather rare, my choice selection went first towards my favourite Regiments of Renown → the ones I own at least, so Long Drong Slayer and Braganza Besiegers are always on my list regardless of the grande army plan.
I haven’t changed much in that regard. I still try to field as many different units as possible, and only recently started to really get how I could use that to my favour.
AND then there was Age of Sigmar! Oh man! The game that injected me into playing with Chaos Dwarfs so much I’ve eventually expanded my army
I think I’m a decidedly un-tactical player who hasn’t any real evolutionary processes involved. (and hence why I lose a lot)
to that point the majority of my early games were O&G v’s VD’s and it was always masses with a varying fast component to try and break through the inevitable FN Gunline.
only twists would be a surprise punch somewhere. So no evolution there at all.
As for CD’s I really cannot get away from trying to have a balanced force purely because that’s what I prefer to believe would be around. Unless I have a nice fluff-wise reason, like a scouting or a fast raiding party or a heavy relief force, for having an unbalanced army
I’ve always started with a couple of units I liked due to fluff/models, then balanced the rest of the army around them. Often around a crazy conversion idea I have had.
I planned at one stage to build a forest goblin army, but they killed off forest goblins shortly afterwards so that ended quickly with only one unit. A switch to savage orcs followed, but I never quite had the enthusiasm for it.
In more recent times, I’ve gone for the model looks first, then either worked with its existing rules or crammed it into a counts-as role.
I take pretty much the same approach as Cornixt, I have a core of units that I just think are really cool fluff wise, then I revolve the rest of the army around them to make them work tactically. I think I have become much more tactically minded over the years, but I will always have �?omy pet units�?� like my war gamming friends call them�?� until I swoop in and steal the win with my underdogs! Raptors! Take The Point!
Note: I think raptors are pretty decent nowadays, but when I was building my first army and playing allot of 40k�?� Ooof
As far as my Chaos Dwarves I guess my pet unit is my Bull-Centaurs, initially it didn�?Tt seem like they fit in my list very well but I have reshaped how I played a bit and found a good role for them with much play testing. Also Bull-Centaurs are just soooo cool, although I kinda wish The RA Rozmax Bullcentaurs had come out in time�?�. I might still grab them (If they ever come out! I feel like I have been pineing over the greens for ages!) and play around with either since Kings of War has stats for Big Bullcentaurs and more normal Calvary sized ones
As a pupil and during my studies I simply bought models which I liked and then played with them in my gaming group. Most of the time this was fairly easy because this happened regularly when a game was newly published, like Mordheim or “VOR-The Maelstrom”. So warbands/armies grew with new releases. So the lists were actually the available models.
There was nearly no present internet at that time and so there also was no maximizing army lists ruleswise. That was a really great time :cheers.
The last years I built my army lists according to ideas. That may be theme armies for casual games like “The temple guard of the great ziggurat” with some bull centaurs and close combat orientated.
Or a tournament list which focuses on flyers. Or a tournament list which focuses on indestructable infantry blocks and war machines.
I try to find synergies between troop types and then combine these to a (hopefully) functioning army.
Luckily I have a lot of infernal dwarf models available and if I try a new list with some models I don`t have yet there is a justification to collect some more ;).