I just realized how specialized my playing group is when it comes to chosing our side. Until now, I heavily concentrated on Orks (since Skaven are not a full-fledged faction yet), while my brother only commands Empire, and our third player prefers Chaos above everything else. Reason is that everyone on the table seems to be a huge fanboy for one of the factions. The good point is that every army can be played in different ways and, until now, it has not become boring fighting against my rivals over and over again.

That leads me to my questions for all the glorious / infamous generals gathered here: Is there any tendency like this in your gaming group? Do you happen to play the same faction more than any other? And which is actually your most-loved army in the game? Is it because of its fluff, or because it has a playing mechanic you can use quite effectivly on the battlefield?

High Elf for me, and Orks if I must be disorder. Mostly because of the fluff, and because I love Tyrion and Teclis in particular. I am a huge sword master fanboy, so that is nice as well. I am very partial to Wood Elves and Bretonnia, but neither can field a full army yet, which makes me sad.

I have played every faction, though, to some degree. Lately I have been playing a lot of VC since my opponents have been wanting to try order races, and I have been pretty effective with them, which is making me consider switching from my old Orky habits, but orks are just too much fun...

Rip 'der 'eads off!

Den deyz smaller den you...

Hard to say, The boyz are certainly my favorite from the core set. Vampire Counts are sort of sentimental favorite. However, I'd gotten pretty good with Orcs, and the Counts are a bit more difficult to play well with.

As for Order, I want to like the Empire, but I'm honestly not that keen on them, or any other order army at the moment. I think Lizardmen or Wood Elves could change that. They are my favorite order armies from the Mini's game.

Of course, the best army hasn't been made yet... Of course, I'm talking about the Tomb Kings. Once they come out (I'm ever hopeful) they will be the best army in the game.

You seem to be quite optimistic about Tomb Kings, Mecha. Hope so, too. Would Nagash be one of them? Would be strange, though, as Kemmler should be sided with him.

Also hope for Chaos Dwarves, but I got the strange feeling that I am quite lonely with this here.

Not really. I suspect this game would have to be wildly successful for us to see any new factions added. But I keep mentioning them in the hope that FFG reads this board, and wants to make me happy. I don't think Nagash would be there. I'd expect Settra, Khalida, and maybe the Necrotect Character, whose name eludes me at the moment. IIRC, Nagash sort of hates the rest of the Tomb Kings. Wasn't he the one that gave rise the Vampire Counts? I'm having some trouble remembering the fluff at the moment.

I'd love to see the Chaos Dwarves myself, but I suspect if you see them, they will be lumped in with the current Chaos faction. Though, if the game goes on long enough, you may see enough disks to field a pure Chaos Dwarf army.

Anyway, I think if the game goes on long enough, we may see them introduce neutral factions. If they do, that would mean Ogre Kingdom and Tomb Kings. I for one would love that.

Not really. I suspect this game would have to be wildly successful for us to see any new factions added. But I keep mentioning them in the hope that FFG reads this board, and wants to make me happy. I don't think Nagash would be there. I'd expect Settra, Khalida, and maybe the Necrotect Character, whose name eludes me at the moment. IIRC, Nagash sort of hates the rest of the Tomb Kings. Wasn't he the one that gave rise the Vampire Counts? I'm having some trouble remembering the fluff at the moment.

I'd love to see the Chaos Dwarves myself, but I suspect if you see them, they will be lumped in with the current Chaos faction. Though, if the game goes on long enough, you may see enough disks to field a pure Chaos Dwarf army.

Anyway, I think if the game goes on long enough, we may see them introduce neutral factions. If they do, that would mean Ogre Kingdom and Tomb Kings. I for one would love that.

Come on FFG, give us the Ogre Kingdoms!!!

Yes, Ogres and Tomb Kings would be amazing!

But yes, lately Vampire Counts have proven to be my best army, although I am also pretty decent at the High Elves.

I think I would have to choose from heroes and units rather than races. My list from 2 cores (no expansions yet):

Top 3 heroes:

1. Valkia, Archaeon, or Tyrion: I'm cheating here, but I really like heroes that can have immediate value when you commit to a play and/or limit your opponent's options when you're playing aggressively. They give your army a sense of inevitability and force your opponent to make tough decisions. In other games, I usually play aggro-control or anti-control (very loose usage of those MTG terms), so it's no surprise to me that I like heroes that punish my opponent's ability to stop aggressive plans.

2. Grom: This obese orc is truly a sum of his parts (most of which are flabby ). Relentless, impact 3, 5 movement AND medium size make him one hell of a battering ram. This is, of course, offset by the fact that he's probably the most useless hero in the game while pinned, and a solid defensive line (2-3 Militia Spearmen? Ugh...) can counter his relentless as well. Though, a timely Intimidate does fix all but the most concerted of pinnings.

3. Volkmar: Volkmar is probably the most generically good hero, which isn't a bad thing. I'm sure I don't have to tell anyone that Empower is good and imo the game's strongest mechanic overall. A Mobile body just seals the deal for a hero that is very reliable, albeit not terribly exciting.

Top 3 units:

1. Hochland Pistoliers: Perhaps the funnest unit in the game. I like Mobile units in general, and ones that can threaten activation tokens and have the ability to charge and point-blank fire whatever they're pinning is pretty satisfying.

2. Artillery (Hellcannon/Volley Gun/Bolt Thrower, etc): Simple and effective, artillery encourages melee fighting/use of terrain and game progression which is always a good thing.

3. Militia Spearmen: Love use them, hate playing against them. They're just really efficient for their cost and while it looks like they were designed to be poor offensively, that 5 stamina has proven otherwise. Barring empowerment, the difference between 4 stamina and 5 stamina is significantly larger than I thought it would be...

And that's my favorites list. I only have 2 core sets atm though, so it'll probably change.