Tale of 4 Gamers - Who to pick?

My friends and I have been suffering with some serious Warhammer burn out recently, I have been so burnt out I've been playing Malifaux almost exclusively for months but we are all keen to re-vitalize our love for the game that has kept us (relatively) out of trouble for years. We are planning on doing a Tale of Four Gamers style escalation league with some fairly simple ground rules which are as follows.

We will start with the initial start-up costs (Army Book, Magic cards, cases etc)
400 Points Escalation per month until 2000-2400 points.
Each Army must be brand new (AKA an army we have never collected or at least no longer own)
Each army must have a named Character. (Preferably the General although not mandatory)
Each army must be fluffy and thematic based on the chosen named Character.

So far we have got 1 confirmed Army which is a Tetto'Eko - Skink Army with possibly the other Skink Characters in there as well. Others being considered are a Durthu & Drycha army/Orion Army and one guy who doesn't have any ideas but may be leaning towards Karl Franz.

I've narrowed my choices down to Dark Elves probably but also Empire. I am however struggling to decide, I already own Ogre Kingdoms, High Elves, Tomb Kings and Warriors of Chaos and I am struggling between the following in order of interest.

#1. Malus Darkblade w. forces from his series of books.
#2. Lokhir Fellheart and the forces of the Tower of Blessed Dead.
#3. Belthazar Gelt w. ??? (Haven't read much of his new fluff.)
#4. Luthor Huss and a Holy Crusade.
#5. Grimgor Ironhide and Black Orks.

So please vote, let me know who you voted and why you think it would be a cool fluffy army.

Run him with a bunch of Corsairs.  The army will look AWESOME!

Have you thought about Morathi?

I love Lokhir, I love the model, I love his fluff, and if I ever did a Delf army, I would probably try to hand build The Tower of Blessed Dead. I'm envisioning Corsairs, Corsairs with repeater crossbows, Black Arc Fleetmasters, Corsairs as Charioteers, Corsairs modeled everywhere!

Also, depending on how fluffy you go, get a Kharibdyss (or two). They are pretty awful, but they look great, and you can model it coming out of the depths next to the beastmasters in little ships or something.

Also, Grimgor is a KILLING MACHINE...just in case you were thinking about greenies...

I voted Luthor, as he is my personal favorite special character. Although, at low point levels I don't know how effective he'd be... Later on, when you can have some buff-wagons and flagellants for fluff (maybe even get the pope-mobile going at the last 2500 with some infantry blocks?), then I think he'll work out better.

Other'n that, since I only get one vote, I like the idea of Lokhir as well. Sounds like a good solid fluffy-but-viable army choice

Luthor's not bad, since if you're playing Empire you'll probably have Knights and therefore he'll fit the role of Mounted Priest fairly comfortably.

Lokhir probably lends himself more to a theme list mind. And Gelt might not really have much of a theme, despite being awesome...

Grimgor all the way.

I would have said Grimgor. I am starting an O&G army myself and I suspect that an Orc build will be the army that will offer the most longevity for future games.

I didn't vote for Grimgor though. I was tempted by Lokhir great model, nice fluff but un mounted character with some player flaws didn't quite sell it for me (as amazing as the model is).

Nope, for me it has to be Luthor. If you have to build a one-off army with some great fluff lead options for a theme then this is the guy.

I would be going hell-for-leather on the religious zealot angle, with loads of conversions of the religiously perverted applying the laws of the good book in a corrupt and abusive way that is far removed from the original text or from the following of their hero god.

Just like in real life there are lots of parodies of zealot factions that can be applied to this army as their are fanatics (non gobo ones) that can be seen all over the world and this can easily be transposed into an army implying the warped corruption of a religious text. This would be the most fun to build for me and would allow loads of opportunity for unit fillers, conversions and some sick tortured models; all in the name of religion!

That's my two-pennies worth.

G_H

Dark Elves are definitely the more powerful army, and tie with O&G for versatility.  That being said, a new DE army with new models is going to be EXPENSIVE.  Just a warning 

Not really, if you go full frontal male nudity with the cheese.  Convert some characters on horse back, buy a couple piles of Brolocks and Dark Riders, and toss in some shooty stuff.  Its not as cheap to start up as Ogres, but compared to an army like Empire, Orcs, or Empire its a lot less to get to a powerful playable state.

Having said that, I think a Gelt run Empire army would be the most fun of the options.

Wow there's been quite a response so thank you all for your 2 cents.

Run him with a bunch of Corsairs.  The army will look AWESOME!

Have you thought about Morathi?

Indeed I have but one of the other guys has already been playing a Morathi based list against us recently. It always seems to come down to the wire with my ogres and his Morathi list. They sure look good fun but I'm trying to go for something completely different that nobody has played with or against yet.

I love Lokhir, I love the model, I love his fluff, and if I ever did a Delf army, I would probably try to hand build The Tower of Blessed Dead. I'm envisioning Corsairs, Corsairs with repeater crossbows, Black Arc Fleetmasters, Corsairs as Charioteers, Corsairs modeled everywhere!

Also, depending on how fluffy you go, get a Kharibdyss (or two). They are pretty awful, but they look great, and you can model it coming out of the depths next to the beastmasters in little ships or something.

Also, Grimgor is a KILLING MACHINE...just in case you were thinking about greenies...

I too love Lohkir Fellheart he's really cool and I like the idea of a tonne of Corsairs for core, this is definitely an appealing choice. As for Grimgor, I suggested I'd be looking at him to the group and they all gave 1 word responses "FILTH!". Ok he is pretty badass but OnG aren't that filthy as an army and I'd build it around his Immortulz and maybe a few smaller tribes of goblins etc.

I voted Luthor, as he is my personal favorite special character. Although, at low point levels I don't know how effective he'd be... Later on, when you can have some buff-wagons and flagellants for fluff (maybe even get the pope-mobile going at the last 2500 with some infantry blocks?), then I think he'll work out better.

Other'n that, since I only get one vote, I like the idea of Lokhir as well. Sounds like a good solid fluffy-but-viable army choice

Luthor has been a big favorite of mine for many many years now and I've never really had the opportunity to go for it. he's also a hero which means I could take some seriously kitted out lords. Pimpmobile HOOOO!! 

Gelt is also on of those models I've been eyeing up for years now and never got round to him. He does seem really good fun, especially as he is only allowed to use the Lore of Metal. A lore I very rarely get to use or have any incentive to use so that could be good fun, additionally though he does lack a dominant theme other than being the head honcho wizard and having ties to the Engineers through his experimentation with black power. It basically sounds like his army is guns and magic which is probably fairly cheesey for a friendly fluffy 4 gamers group.

At the moment I'm torn between OnG and Dark Elves. I think I'll have to go to my local GW over the next couple of days and see what really jumps out at me then just buy the army book so I'm committed.

Everyone does DE. Grimgor and a Black Orc army isn't common at all. Sprinkle with some Goblin love and you've got the recipe for a fun list to play!

Everyone does DE. Grimgor and a Black Orc army isn't common at all. Sprinkle with some Goblin love and you've got the recipe for a fun list to play!

+1 to this. If Empire's out of the question, I'd go Grimgor in the long run. Although, you can't go wrong with any sort of themed army, because the fun in it is making it themed, not making it competitive

Well I want to start by saying thanks to everybody who helped me out in the decision making process. Ii went to my local GW store yesterday afternoon with the intent on picking Lokhir or Grimgor and at the time I seriously leaning towards Grimgor. A friend came along with me and we got chatting and whilst we were perusing through the army books and discussing the various characters and themes the store manager jumped in on the chat.

At the time I was just having a gander through to Dwarves book because I'd never actually looked at it and some how the manager managed to Jedi Mind trick me into Belegar Ironhammer. After reading his fluff and a bit of the story behind Karak Eight Peaks I took a look at the new plastics which I had also not bothered looking at becase well... Dwarves have always been considered fairly cheesy in my area. I decided to go with Dwarves after being Mind Tricked so I was content with just picking up the book. I was then Jedi Mind tricked AGAIN and bought the Belegar Ironhammer model as well! To b fair it is a lovely sculpt and I'm thoroughly looking forward to building a tunnel fighting force built around the theme of Belegar's incursions into Karak Eight Peaks in an attempt to reclaim his families fallen hold.

Ii think this is a really cool theme, I'm planning on going with a fairly combat focused army using Warriors, Longbeards, Ironbreakers, Irondrakes and minimal black power weaponry. Grudge Throwers seem quite thematic as he is kind of hell bent of revenge. I'm now trying to convince on of the other gamers to go for a Skarsnik or Queek Headtaker army to further the fluff of our campaign.

Lokhir does sit well with a bunch of Corsair models. Looks really coherent Although I guess that's the point, considering that he is the master of a Black Ark, hence he's a leader of Corsairs

However, kudos for the Dwarf choice. The Dwarf fluff has always appealed to me (most likely due to their fondness of ale... ), so I can't wait to see what you come up with!

- Loran