Hi all.

I have recently contemplating a potential second fantasy army after my Lizardmen (once I'm done my 40k Sister of Battle army, that is). Of all the Warhammer Fantasy armies, there are two that, after Lizardmen, really inspire my imagination: High Elves and Hordes of Chaos.

In both cases, however, I've decided that I would try to do something interesting. If I were to do the High Elves, I would do a very fluffy mercenary army (Morien's Mercenaries)) that would mix and match High Elf and Wood Elf plastics. I've always liked the Elven background, and I really like the idea of a group of High Elves who have fallen from grace, but have retained the nobility and honour of their kind rather than fall into bitterness and hate like the Druchii.

The alternative is a Chaos army: of the four Chaos gods, Tzeentch is easily my favourite: there's just something about an army that blasts people with magic and knows the outcome of a battle before it has even begun that appeals to me. As such, I would collect a Chaos army with a strong Tzeentchian theme to it. Like with the High Elves, I'm tempted to do lots of conversions for this army, including a mostly green-stuff spawn, winged Horors to represent Furies, mix/matches plastic Mutants to represent Beastmen (something likethese guys (middle of the page)) and heavily mutated Minotaurs and Giant-- all under the leadership of a mysterious Tzeentch Lord.

Of course, there is the question of the new High Elf rulebook that will be coming out this summer, but I, personally, am not anticipating major changes to the HE army list (though I do hope they get rid of Intrigue at Court-- God it is a stupid rule). I would probably have to adjust to the playing style of both armies, though, since HE are infinitely more fragile than Lizardmen and have no throwaway units, and Chaos revolve a lot less around "hit and run" skirmishy tactics and more on going for the jugular.

What do you guys think?

Well, I like both ideas really since HE was the first fantasy army that I started (really looking forward to the new rules and models!) aswell as I play a tzeentchian beastman army. That army has been both really fun to play and I´ve had some great success with it aswell.

The mortal side of the army really gives you a high potential in the magic phase, but the army is likely to be small an elite. Therefore it would be wise to incorporate some beastmen and/or daemons in there aswell :).

Yeah, that was what I was thinking as well. I even managed to get a sample list done with help from Limekiller.

Both armies have their pros and cons, from what I can see: both are small and fast-moving, and both rather "elite." The cons are that the High Elves are fragile and really can't afford mistakes (especially since I plan to be doing a 60% infantry list-- no "Silver Helm Army of Death" for me), and that Tzeentch armies are really, really dependent on magical firepower. Paint schemes are also going to be tricky, since I know from experience with my Dark Eldar army that I need improvement at painting Elf flesh, and the "rippling blues" effect usually used in Tzeentch armies might be tricky as well.

Personally I prefer High Elves. They're my favorite army, though I don't play them.

But I must admit Tzeentch is pretty cool. I think he's the Chaos god I prefer (closely followed by Slaanesh). Matt Birdoff's army, the one you linked us to, looks really awesome, especially the Chosen Warriors. The bases are nice too.

Mercenary High Elves is an interesting idea, but I can't see it working very well as an image. Mercenaries are often tired, overworked and underpaid soldiers whose employers treat them like meatshields. The dogged look wouldn't work particularly well for High Elves, but the clean and pure look wouldn't work at all for mercenaries.

I'd be interested in seeing a few sample miniatures, if you manage to figure out a plan.

I'm interested in your Tzeentch army, but Chaos armies run the risk of becoming generic and tired. The Cult of Change that you linked to is one of my favourite chaos armies out there- fresh and fairly interesting, without attacking the core premise of a Tzeentch army.

So some more detail on what you plan would be nice. Lots of bird-themed mutants? A cult-themed army, with lots of white/blue/both robes concealing the mutations of the 'normal' cultists (Marauder stats) and a bluish tinge to the armour of the Knights/Warriors who represent the Cult's Inner Circle? An insane sorcerer lord and his mutated army of devoted fanatics?

What are you doing with them?

But for now, I'd be more inclined to selling my soul rather than my sword, if you follow me.

I'd go with Tzeentch. High Elves, for now at least, are a very constricted army. My fear would be that you would set out to build a very themed and individualistic army, and then when it was finished, realise that it looked played just like Vanilla High Elf Army X with a different hairstyle (Too many 0-1 choices and competition for the special slots, if'n you ask me. Which you didn't). That could change with the new book, but I operate on a policy of not trusting GW to make significant improvements to anything, so that it is a nice surprise when they do.

Also, I like Tzeentch, as all you roleplay people know. And are about to have reinforced in a horrendously painful manner.

The reason I decided on Elven Mercenaries was simply because I wanted to break away from the "sparkly clean" image of the High Elves and instead try to portray a group of Asur who have been cut of from their homeland and been forced to survive on their own. If I can get the spare parts, though, I'll try mix/matching some Asur and Asrai plastics, painting them, and seeing how they turn out (though I might have to see what the new High Elf plastics look like)

As for the theme of my Tzeentch army...so far, the only thing I've come up with is a scattered group of Chaos tribesmen and mutants uniting under the banner of a mysterious, millennia-old Tzeentch Lord.

@Chili: I'm under no illusions about creating a HE army with a unique style of play: I know that I probably would wind up playing them like a standard HE army, and that creating an army list based solely on "fluff" is very difficult to win with. Even so, I don't mind the prospect of playing "yet another High Elf army with this, this and this" (so long as I don't wind up doing a mostly-cavalry army) provided I can still make an army with a unique visual theme.

At first I thought the mercenary elves wouldn't work: then I realised it's actually a very similar image to the wood elves. If you went halfway between wood and high elves it would work great IMO.

Just make sure you get the 'rebellious' parts of the wood elf image, and not too much of the woody bits. I mean: give them the messy hair, disorderly look but don't put the leaves / sprites on.

It is a unique idea though, far more than just another Tzeentch army. If the rules don't work for you, you should be able to switch to wood elf rules anyway.

Tzeentch is awesome! Not only will a mortal Tzeentch army devastate opponents, they are cheap to buy too (small army, lots of plastic models available)