To check out the previous article in this series, please go here.

How do they all stack up?
Now we get down to the brass tacks and see how the armies rate against each other given the criteria that I am looking for. I'll be looking at Model Count, Paintability, Mobility, Finesse and Price. (Note, the details about price were given in the previous update, I'm just including them here for an easier side-by-side comparison. I'll go down by section and rate each army on a scale of 1-4 (4 being best) as to how it fits that particular criterion.

Model CountOne of the big interests I had when I started this was to have an army with a very small model count. Not only was I sick of painting all those bugs, I wanted an army that was easier to transport and easier to move on the field of play and also more reasonable to make an effort at painting better. To that end, I looked for lists that would lend themselves to having a low number of models on the board. So, let's see how the armies stack up in terms of the amounts of White Metal and plastic on the board.

Nightlords: 47 models, no vehicles.

Thousand Sons: 44 Models, including 5 tanks.

Tau: 46 models, 12 of which are little frisbees and 6 of which are small vehicles.

Bikes: 35 models, including 3 small vehicles and 5 "big" bikes.

So, that gives us Bikes as the top dog here with 4pts for the smallest number of models. Thousand Sons are next with 3 points, Tau take third place for 2 points. and Nightlords get a single point in this category. This was a very close category, with only 12 models separating the highest and lowest. (Makes sense, this was my first criteria when considering army options!)

PaintabilityThis is a more subjective category. It involves both how easy it will be to paint the army and how well the army will accept good quality painting. Citadel miniatures are spoiled for details, but some still have more than others. In addition, more common figures or armies will be less exciting to look at, even with the same quality paintjob. Even the ease of painting part can be deceptive. Is it easier to paint a small vehicle or 3 individual figures? Having different model types gives a bonus for interest, but a penalty for being harder to paint. That said, let's look at how the various armies rate in this category...

Nightlords: 3 Obliterators, Essentially 16 Raptors, and effectively 28 Chaos Space Marines. Easy to paint, but not much variety.

Thousand Sons: There are 10 Rubric Terminators which will have some cool head crests, 15 Rubric Marines with special crests and insignia and bits to make them unusual compared to standard troops. There are also 2 Flying Sorcerors on Discs and 3 walking Sorcerors, as well as 9 Thrall Wizards which are even more rarely seen than Rubric Marines. Finally, there are 3 Rhinos and 2 Predators. Loses a few points for the difficulty of painting such widely differing models, but gains more by the combination of that variety and the unusual models.

Tau: The Tau have 12 FW and 9 Crisis Suits (I'd be using converted Stealth suits for these) 7 Broadsides, 12 little frisbees (excuse me, drones.) and 6 of small vehicles. That's a pretty good range in terms of variety, though I'm not terribly impressed by the details the models have to help their painting stand out.

Bikes: Of the 35 models in this army, 3 are light vehicles and 5 are likely to be converted light vehicles. While the conversions would be cool and Bikes are a bit unusual, with 27 bike models with very little variation, this would be the most monotone of the armies.

So, that gives us Thousand Sons as the best in show with 4pts for a wide variety of unusual models that have excellent details. Tau are next with 3 points with good variety, but not much detail. Night Lords are in third place with 2 points with an easy to paint army that doesn't have much variety, and Bikes get a single point in this category for having so many near-identical models.

Mobility

Nightlords: The whole army can Infiltrate or Deepstrike, but once they are in play, (or if those rules are not in use for the game) only about 1/3 of the army moves more than 6 inches plus a 6-inch assault. I'd call it more of a very flexible deployment rather than tactical mobility.

Thousand Sons: The Terminators can Deepstrike, the Lords can fly and the squads can all drive around in their rhinos, making this army fairly mobile. On the other hand, it's "mechanized mobility," meaning that losing a few vehicles quickly bogs the army down into static mode again.

Tau: Even though the FireWarriors and Broadsides are slow, the Piranha are very fast and the Crisis suits are extremely mobile. Even though they only move 12" each turn, the fact that they can move after they see the results of their shooting gives them much more effective movement. Excellent tactical mobility here.

Bikes: No model in this whole army moves less than 12" per turn. That's a lot of speed and very good tactical mobility. That gives the option of spreading out, then concentrating where the opponent is weak, then vanishing again.

So, that gives us Tau as the top dog here with 4pts for their swanky assault movement. Bikes are next with 3 points for the whole army zipping around at high speed. Thousand Sons are in third place with 2 points since they have good mechanized mobility, and Nightlords get a single point in this category, since after they Infiltrate, most of the army is no faster than any other army. It's interesting how close the top two spots are, and how close the bottom two spots are. It's a big gap between the mechanized mobility of the Thousand Sons and the 12 inches per turn speed of every model in the Bike army.

FinesseFinesse is the difference between wielding a sword and wielding a scalpel. (Or, to continue the sword metaphor, the difference between a Claymore and a rapier.) I was of two minds when I created this category, and I still am. Partly I wanted an army that would require some finesse to be successful. This is because I am used to playing "smashmouth football" when it comes to my 40k armies. (Smashmouth football: Line up across from the other guy and just smash him in the mouth as hard as you can. Whoever is still standing at the end wins.) Very brutal and direct, not much fancy-pants running about and tactical maneuvers. On the other hand, I didn't just want it forced on me, I wanted an army that would reward finesse tactics and have options that would let me use them better.

Nightlords: The Nightlords are an almost completely Infiltrating army, which can give me a big jump on achieving local superiority with my units. They've also got 3 units of Raptors, which can use their jumppacks to quickly concentrate in an area and wipe out the enemy there. On the other hand, once placed, the bulk of the army isn't any more mobile than any other army, so we have sort of an odd combination of extensive initial freedom, then limited tactics afterward.

Thousand Sons: While the army does have some mobility in terms of the Rhinos and flying Sorcerors and deepstriking Terminators, the actual tactics employed are definitely smashmouth. It relies on the distraction of the Lieutenants and the Terminators keeping the enemy from stopping the Rhinos of the Rubric Squads before they can slam into the enemy lines. The only "finesse" is in keeping the bulk of the army together to prevent the outnumbering you'll encounter from overwhelming you.

Tau: These guys are definitely more about the finesse. While there are a few units that will essentially sit in cover and rely on tough armor and powerful weapons to survive, the bulk of the army relies more on using their assault move to get back out of harm's way after shooting. Jump, shoot, jump. You can't hit what you can't see is how the army works. Crisis suits are not terribly well defended, so if they get stuck out in the open, they'll likely die. This will definitely take some finesse to find the right range and the right terrain to be able to get into range with your weapons and then jump back behind cover to avoid being shot in return.

Bikes: With every model being able to move so fast, the bike army will be able to run rings around most opponents. This is good, because having only 35 models that aren't much tougher than Space Marines means that they'll die quick if you aren't careful. The difficulty is that they don't have the cool assault moves that Tau Crisis Suits get. When they run out to shoot or assault something, they'll have to stay there during the opponent's turn. To be truly successful with this list will require getting enough firepower or assault power in one place to wipe out almost the entirety of the enemy in that location, thus avoiding effective return fire. It will take feints in deployment and misdirection of the opponent to achieve, which is, I think, exactly what I'm looking for in this category.

So, that gives us Bikes with 4pts for the biggest finesse requirement. Tau are next, with their assault moves giving them 3 points. NightLords are in third place with 2 points due to their infiltration and Jump Packs, and Thousand Sons get only one point for being essentially a modified rhino rush. It's interesting how little difference there is between first and second place and third and fourth place, but there's a big gap between second and third, just like in mobility. (Almost as if they are related! :) )

PriceI detailed how I arrived at the prices in the last update in this series, but I wanted to include them here to help in the side-by-side comparison. One thing that I found interesting was how close most of the armies were, despite how different the models were (except for the Bikes, of course.)

NightLords: $390

Thousand Sons: $354-$373, depending on which option I take.

Tau: $404 (if I do the extensive conversions, which I want to do anyway)

Bikes: $747!! (Even if I do the cool conversions, which are slightly cheaper)

So, that gives us Thousand Sons at 4pts for the least expensive army. Nightlords are next with 3 points. Tau are in third place with 2 points (only $14 more expensive than the Nightlords!) and Bikes get a single point in this category.

Overall ScoreOkay, let's total up the points and see who fared best in our comparison. This is, of course no guarantee that I'll actually start the army that wins overall here, but it's a good indicator as to the one that fits my criteria the best...

Nightlords: 9pts

Thousand Sons: 14pts

Tau: 14pts

Bikes: 13pts

Well, we ended up with quite a tight race. Tied for first place are Thousand Sons and Tau, with Bikes trailing by a single point, then a large gap to the Nightlords in last place.