I'm completely new to warhammer fantasy, I don't even know how to play it.
I really just want to start an army for conversion/painting, and because fantasy looks like fun.

I'm thinking of choosing Warriors of Chaos since there is a lot of potential conversion with the marauders; I wanted to collect an army which wasn't completely male...
Also, I wanted to try adding a "Glow" effect on the Chaos Knights/Warriors (Highlighting recesses, darkening outer plates), and pretty much paint everything in typical Cryx style (Warmachine).


Buuuuut... at the same time, I want to expand my abilities in painting. I have a basic painting ability, mostly just tabletop standard; highlighting, extreme highlighting, washing, blending, wet blending, really bad NMM... etc.

At the moment, I have 2 40k armies;
a mostly-painted Ultramarines second company
a Tau army from a friend (needs to be stripped down and painted)

Someone suggested that I collect Empire, due to the fact that their models are very unlike the ones I have currently (e.g. have a lot of cloth and flesh)...
So now I'm confused... do I collect Warriors of Chaos (to hopefully fulfil my want for a Cryx-esque army which is not completely male-dominated), Empire (For their model range), or some other army (which magically fulfils all the above)?

The females angle could throw a bit of a wrench in your plans. I would say Wood Elves or Dark Elves for their greater number of female models (and general girliness...let the flaming ensue!), but if you're going armor-heavy, there's no better place to start than WoC.

Whatever you pick, I'd still recommend that you pick an army that you could see yourself someday playing with. I know that you're more interested in painting, but I'd hate for you to spend a lot of money and time on a force that looks sweet but that you have no interest doing anything further with. WoC is a pretty easy to start with--generally simple to paint, straightforward strategy to begin, cheap, a lot of plastic--but you really need to just look at the models and decide what you'd rather spend a lot of time painting. Frankly, I really don't like the marauder models, either, but just broke down and secured a block of 50 because they're so GOOD!

Good luck!

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Jason

Armies:

Warriors of Chaos: 4,500-ish points (90% painted)
Chaos Dwarves: 3,000-ish points (85% painted)
Imperial Guard: 2,000-ish points of Elysian Air Assault Troops (80% painted)

Updated 5/20/2013! - WHFB/40K/Dystopian Wars/Terrain WIP here

I seeee... I'll take a look at those models... Maybe I could implement them into the army via conversion (Because female WoC are cooler than male WoC and female Elves by default)

Although, that being said, are Wood Elves or Dark Elves difficult to play?

I agree with you on the marauder models... they aren't that great... They look a little... fat? I don't know. I was thinking of sculpting/converting a few instead; Throw in some beastman parts, convert/sculpt a few pieces... kinda like this;
http://www.coolminiornot.com/161239?browseid=1304128
Which actually looks like a chaotic, thrown-together force.

Also, are marauders a good unit to get, tactically speaking? I might want to start sketching concept designs early

I defer to others on how difficult Wood or Dark Elves are to play, but my understanding is that the latter tends to be easier. It is also a newer army book, I believe.

Marauders are pretty decent; they're a cheap addition to a fairly expensive, elite army book that can pack a real punch (two strength five attacks on the first round of combat with flails and mark of khorne EACH? yes, please!). Plus, it is much less expensive points-wise to have a big block of marauders than chaos warriors, even if the latter are superior in pretty much every way. Would I build an army out of 'em? Nope, but they make for good anvils...

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Jason

Armies:

Warriors of Chaos: 4,500-ish points (90% painted)
Chaos Dwarves: 3,000-ish points (85% painted)
Imperial Guard: 2,000-ish points of Elysian Air Assault Troops (80% painted)

Updated 5/20/2013! - WHFB/40K/Dystopian Wars/Terrain WIP here

Well, time to start sketching! If I get round to it, should I post concept sketches for this army in this thread?

Also, I'm thinking of making a mono-god army, any suggestions as to which one I should use? (I just realised that I don't HAVE to be Slaanesh for my army to have bewbs in it) I kinda want my army to be playable, but I don't like the idea of having multiple gods. Doesn't seem fluffy or aesthetically pleasing in my mind, even if it IS legal.

If you're going for playability, I wouldn't go with Slaanesh, which is universally panned as the weakest of the quad gameplay-wise. If you're going mono, I'd recommend Khorne (berserker-babes) or Tzeentch (magickey-babes) vice Nurgle (rotting babes? ick.)

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Jason

Armies:

Warriors of Chaos: 4,500-ish points (90% painted)
Chaos Dwarves: 3,000-ish points (85% painted)
Imperial Guard: 2,000-ish points of Elysian Air Assault Troops (80% painted)

Updated 5/20/2013! - WHFB/40K/Dystopian Wars/Terrain WIP here

Okay, I'm definitely ruling out Nurgle... I don't want my marauders to get STDs from the rotting babes.

So tzeentch or khorne? I'm not too familiar with everything, so what kind of models will I be looking at for either god? I'm under the impression that some unit selections work better with certain marks...

Depends...Khorne tends to be more offense-oriented (Frenzy = extra attack and immune to psychology until (if) you lose combat), whereas Tzeentch boosts existing ward saves (including parry saves, so most models with Tzeentch take a hand weapon and shield combination, or a magic item that provides a ward save).

Before you go a lot further, I'd pick up the army book.

_________________
Jason

Armies:

Warriors of Chaos: 4,500-ish points (90% painted)
Chaos Dwarves: 3,000-ish points (85% painted)
Imperial Guard: 2,000-ish points of Elysian Air Assault Troops (80% painted)

Updated 5/20/2013! - WHFB/40K/Dystopian Wars/Terrain WIP here

So I decided to try to draw a colour scheme of what the colour scheme could potentially look like, if I chose Tzeentch... Either God, the Warriors are still going to be glowey, so...

Link;
http://fav.me/d4y22pb

Just take a quick look... please?

If you can pull that off, that paint scheme would be awesome. Show us models when you're done please!

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I can't think of a witty signature.

Very nice idea for paint scheme! Looks very tzeentch to me.

I usally run a khonre/tzeentch list. Tzeentch for anvil units and khorne for my killy guys. Dont over look the warshrine!!!

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Fantasy: WoC = 5000, Daemons = 2500, Ogres = 4000, Dwarfs = 3000
40k: IG = 9000
Warmachine: Cryx = 200
Hordes: Legion of Everblight = 85
All 100% Painted

I'm probably not going to start this army for a while, I want to get some more refinement in the designs for various units. With the hammer/anvil combo, does the principle only work if the "hammer" unit is close-combat oriented, or does it still work to have some "anvil" units up front, with sorcerers/hellcannons as "hammers" in the back?

Also, what sort of units would do well in a mono tzeentch list? I wanna start designing early (I know, I still need to actually learn the rules, but I just love converting and designing so much!)

Well, you cant shoot into combat.
Also, when you get a flank charge in, you get extra combat res, and with enough guys in the units, you can disrupt ranks as well. I have a anvil of tzeentch maruders, with hand weapon shield, and warriors on the sides. You can also just go all hamer... WoC can do well at that... mauraders with flails are nice in hordes for that.

You can do well with anything in mono tzeentch... if you give stuff a shield, you get that 5+ ward save, and thats something pretty awesome... ontop of WoC nice armor saves in general... So, a unit of warriors with shields, have a 3+ armor save and 5+ parry.... now that pretty nice. And a tzeentch warshrine might be my favorite thing in all of fantasy.

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Fantasy: WoC = 5000, Daemons = 2500, Ogres = 4000, Dwarfs = 3000
40k: IG = 9000
Warmachine: Cryx = 200
Hordes: Legion of Everblight = 85
All 100% Painted