Mkay, so the rest of the armies I actually play:
Dark Angels: Well, I play them as Deathwing, the lads are painted up in the ancient Legion colors, probably do them as Consecrators once I get better at free handing the symbol… Originally they started as a random squad I had painted up from WAY back… Actually from the RT era, so Legion colors, pre-"Green DA" and "Bone White Deathwing"… Magnetizing the mess of Terminators I inherited, so it will be a bunch of TH/SS and LC armed Terminators with the one Cyclone/squad… For 235 points, it is awesome. Fearless, scoring Terminators with 2+/3++ saves loaded out as Assault Terminators but with the nice Cyclone… The only army I cannot easily take down is a Horde of light Infantry… Small, ultra elite force just doesn't throw out enough fire or pain in HtH to take down so many bodies… Against a lot of other things, the boatload of Str 8 shots coming from lots of places makes running "MSU" or a light Mech force a real challenge against the DW… I also especially like the Deep Strike option of "Deathwing Assault"… I MAY strike in with up to half of my reserved DW squads, but I do not HAVE to do so… Gives me the option of reacting to someone who goes all reserve against me…
That and I have to remember to play the mission, not just try to kill the enemy… Staying on target is even more important with a small force like the Deathwing…
Fleshtearers: Mkay, this was my 3rd edition "I'm just proving a point" army… I only used it in really competitive tournaments and against other "highly optimized" forces… Or if the other player annoyed me enough to just make me want to wipe him off of the field in the most brutal and efficient fashion I could. So, it was a lot of line squads in rhinos, Scouts doing their thing, devastator squad maybe… Attack bikes usually were point fillers, but were really good… Oh, and the cc Dreads… the army was led by a Chaplain w/jump pack to take advantage of the free Death Company… Got some small random number free, then you rolled with each squad, 4+ sends a guy to the DC IIRC, and on a 6 you sent 2? Note, if you sent the Vet SGT, he got a Power Weapon or Fist free as well… So you'd see a LOT of "naked" Vet SGTs out on the field to take advantage of this… I usually at least put SOMETHING on mine since 4+ is still just a 50/50 shot… But then you'd get the "Rage" rules, which could move you forward before your actual move followed by your normal move, then their rhinos got some additional "supercharged engine" that got me more move… So it was something like d6 + 6 (or 12?) + d6 for movement on a rhino… made turn 1 Assaults likely… And with the bad Assault rules, you consolidated into the next squad in line… The worst I remember doing was against some kid that annoyed me in a tournament… I wiped out the bulk of his army by the end of turn 2 by just crashing a lot in on turn one before he got to move his "Osama Bin Laden" themed Tallern army… He made it to annoy and anger his opponent. It worked, but when I do get angry, that cold anger is the worst for the people around me, I usually think much clearer about the most efficient way to kill the things annoying me… Pretty sure he chipmunked my "sportsmanship" score, but since this was just after GW removed the "Best General" from the categories, I wasn't really in the running for anything…
Anyway :-)… I broke them out when I happened across the ancient GW cases full of them that I packed away in the basement after I burned out on the "competitive tournament" stuff back in the 3rd edition… So, another complete army that was lost in the warp/basement for a number of years there. Not painted great, "3 color minimum" was the standard, and that's what they were… but painted as Fleshtearers, with a LOT of the correct shoulder pads, etc… I broke them out using the PDF codex, and it actually worked fairly well… jump troops as "Troops" was a good thing, and the army did fairly well for me until the 5th Ed codex came out… So, if you play hyper aggressive berserker types in character and bring say…. Loads of really good jump troops to deep strike into the enemy forces… Well, a LOT of the local players REALLY were not ready for that. Vanguard Vets that can assault out of deep strike riding in on a homing beacon or just trusting their "Decent of Angels" special rule (only 1d6" deviation) following in the first wave of DNs in drop pods… it is VERY quick and extremely decisive. Not subtle, and since I also like to use my Death Company who are still technically troops, with the disadvantage of never being able to score I tend to win mostly by simply wiping the enemy off of the field… Unfortunately, that is the usual outcome… jump army with Feel no Pain, loads of Power Weapon/Fists backed by DNs with the "Claws of Eternal Chopping" (Blood Talons… Silly and stupidly powerful against say, Marine armies) and all of their Rhino hulls being Fast…
Fast Rhino hulls are the other major build I see out there, the BA Predators are all just better than any other Predators out there, and the Baal class scouts… Flank attacking Fast Predators… Razorbacks that can roll 12" and fire their main weapon, and the one time the Las/Plas Razor can move 6" and fire both of its weapons making for a LOT of firepower going downrange… And the Assault squads get Razors for almost nothing giving up their jump packs so they are a REALLY cheap option to run a MSU type army… I've just always had a bit of a problem with GW's mysterious belief that the "Red Ones Go Faster" transferring from the Orks to the BA armies… It's a powerful thing, and I think it makes the BA codex just a bit overpowered since it affects ALL Rhino hulls with no real disadvantage to balance it…
So, basically, a fun army concept, but moving toward the upper end of the current power spiral really… Some armies it cannot handle well, others it simply crushes… Making 40k a bit like an elaborate game of rock/paper/scissors…
Grey Knights: Ah, the last one I think… Still have a bunch of random other figures, but not really enough to field any other armies (so, only 6)… Well, the book just came out, but I've had a few squads of GKs as the ancient Terminator squads since RT… They were REALLY expensive, but could be insanely powerful as a squad of lvl 4 psychers in Terminator armor with Force weapons and the strange one shot Storm Bolter built into their FW… They've changed a bit since then… "Lost and the Damned" (I think) had them as psychic blanks, largely immune to warp/psycher powers, then they became part of the 3rd ed "Demonhunters" codex… I picked up more models here and there over the years, but I primarily still just use them for the Terminators, but I'm starting to see the usefulness of the Powered Armor (PA) lads… Fun to play, but not as powerful at the lower point levels as most of my other ones… I think they will really come into their own over 1500 points… Even 1500 is a bit tight, but it could be that I just want to bring too much out there…
So, hoping I can get the bike all set up, hoping to be riding to work next week…
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