New player; First army

I am about to purchase a 6th ed rulebook and was wondering if anyone had any advice on the first units to purchase for troops and HQ. Is it better to get a mix of Warriors and Wyches or to spec for CC or ranged as far as Troops go? Is the option to take Wracks as troops at all competitive? I like the Haemonculus, but from most of the lists I have seen, people tend to run Archons. Is there any particular reason for this? Any help would be appreciated.

Welcome to the Dark City.
I, as of yet, do not have the 6th ed rulebook, but I am sure there are some people here that can help you out.

Enjoy Commorragh.

Really, that's funny, most of the lists I am used to seeing are headed by a haemunculi simply because they are a cheap pain token. At the moment we haven't had enough test games to find anything conclusive. What we do know is that wyches weren't as good as they were last ed but whether they are still competitive is still to be seen. Welcome to the city though!

I've run a Wrack/Coven-heavy list for quite some time. I usually sprinkle a couple of Wyche units in Raiders and a 5-man Kabalite unit in a Venom or two. I think that all of the builds are competitive if you tailor your lists to support those choices. I nearly always play with a Haemonculus as my HQ with an Archon added hear and there as a Grotesque unit minder. the army is flexible enough that you should really figure out what you like to play/paint abd learn to roll with it!

Welcome to the Dark City-

ESE

That's good to hear. I like the look of pretty much every model in the codex. Only thing that bothers me is that the Mandrakes seem a bit sub-par. Likely I will paint some anyway as they look awesome regardless (irregardless?).

Raxorflail wrote:

That's good to hear. I like the look of pretty much every model in the codex. Only thing that bothers me is that the Mandrakes seem a bit sub-par. Likely I will paint some anyway as they look awesome regardless (irregardless?).

That's how most people feel about Mandrakes. There's a running joke that whenever someone brings out Mandrakes, their opponent asks what unit they are "counting as."

"Regardless" is correct. "Irregardless" is a common error, not a real word. (If it were a real word, the meaning would be something like "not without regard," which is one of those fun English constructions like "not uncommon" that seem redundant but have a distinct shade of meaning.)