I know this has been asked a ton of times with 40k armies, but I couldn't find one for fantasy.

Who are the space marines of fantasy warhammer? Which army is the most prolific? Will my spelling every get better?

I really never noticed any smurfs of the WHFB world. That's one thing I love about it.

Though the power creeps do worry me a little.

-AFG//

I dont think there is an army played as much as the space marines in fantasy, atleast not what i've seen. There are a few more 'popular' armies in my area such as: Wood Elves, Vampire Counts and when the Dark Elves came out they saw play from some vets in the area, but everything in WHFB seems to get its fair showing and not a singular predominant army.

Sam

There are some underplayed armies like Dwarfs, Beasts of Chaos and Tomb Kings but I can't think of any overplayed ones on par with that of SMurfs in 40k.

EDIT: Though this would of course vary depending on your local area.

There are some underplayed armies like Dwarfs, Beasts of Chaos and Tomb Kings but I can't think of any overplayed ones on par with that of SMurfs in 40k.

You'd think so, huh, but it varies, seriously the three armies you just mentioned are in fact played pretty often here. On My end it would be Skaven, DoC and Empire that show 'least' and there are a fair few players, who play them.

Weird no? Sam

There aren't any armies used to the extent that the SMurfs are used, but I have seen Empire and Dark Elves used quite a bit. I must be honest though, I am more of a 40k player, so I don't see as many WHFB games as others.

I see Dark Elves and Tomb Kings quite a bit around here.

my area is dominated by elves (high,dark and wood) and VC but other than that we are quite ballanced...

There is no space marines/everyone else dichotomy like there is in 40k. While Empire, Bretonnians and Warriors of Chaos are all technically human (particular the latter) they aren't really that alike.

I think Chaos, Dwarfs and Empire have usually been slightly ahead, but even then not by much. While Chaos has often been regarded as the favoured child of Warhammer, there never has been an army that is pretty damn good at everything (Empire could be considered closest, but they're usually average at everything).

In my area, its Wood Elves, Dwarves, Empire and Orcs & Goblins that are the most played, but, as everyone else said, not to the extent of marines.

At leagues I always see wood elf and empire players the most.

I would say that Dwarves are probably the most played around here.

for states in tassie I think nearly 1/3rd of the armies were vampire counts!

Usually at m stoere the fantsy 'space marines' are anything new that comes out forst high elves then vampire counts and nowdark elves. If u look at Empire books though then they are pretty much space marines just a couple of hundred generations back.

ive noticed with fantasy there doesnt seem to bea single army that many people use

Ive seen a lot of wood elves and dark elves at my local store. I have yet to see someone play a tomb kings army.

For those keeping count, Lizardmen, Daemons and Ogre Kingdoms haven't been mentioned yet. I think the large variety of answers really answers the OP as a no, there isn't a SMurf equivalent in Fantasy.

A few reasons why you don't see the same thing in fantasy are, first, all fantasy armies are pretty time consuming to build. It's pretty easy to acquire 1500 pts of marines. Second, every 40k rules box has had marines in it, as opposed to fantasy where they've varied. Third, fantasy's rules aren't built around a standard unit archetype like the marines are.

One thing I think you'll see more of is newer codex armies being played more often than the older ones. Yes, I realize this is stating the obvious, but fantasy is in the midst of pretty bad codex creep (worse than 40k in a lot of ways). Empire, Orcs, and Dwarves missed this, while High Elves, Daemons, Dark Elves, and now MoC look like they're all getting better books. That means it'll be a long time before those three armies are going to be competitive again outside of set builds.

Where I live we get HE, Dwarfs, and Empire, but we have at least one person playing almost everything, except no Tomb Kings, and im the only one in my area (that I know of) who plays VC and Lizzies.

Where i live Deamons of chaos are everywhere i dont mean a couple peaple play them i mean practicly everone and there brother has a deamon army at least at the tournies

My gaming crowd is pretty small so the most played army usually means that 3 or more people play them! Any way 40k is way more dominant in my region be for WHFB I'd say Dwarfs (3 people including myself!) are the most played followed by O&G and skaven (2 each) and then 1 Brettonian, BoC, Daemons, HE, TK, and one OK player.

Oddly enough in my area CSM are the dominant army for 40k. I seriously think about 1/3 of our players play them, but Daemons and Orks are catching up quickly. I'm the only IG player and we only have 1 codex marine player!

The armies i see most often are the various elf armies. Nothing to significant, just a bit more frequent!

Here Daemons get used the most, followed by Vampire counts. Many of these are people who jump the bandwagon and do an army just because its new and all the rage for that particular month/months till the next army comes out.

Where I am, it's nearly all Elves of various breeds (they are all just about equal...maybe fewer Dark Elves than the others) and then Chaos. There are a lot of Chaos armies out there.

That said, and to re-iterate, Warhammer was not created as, and is not marketed the same way as 40k. The Humans-only rule for 40k books that players will be naturally sympathetic toward the Guard and the Marines. As such, they are the most heavily marketed.

In Fantasy, the older game and much older source material means that people go into the game knowing what races they prefer before they even lay eyes on the game. Any D&D experience or even any fantasy novels you have read put an indelible impression in your head of what you like in high fantasy. GW does little to shake up these archetypes. (i.e. Elves are ageless, lithe, and skillful, communing with the winds of magic or the wilderness; Dwarfs are hearty and hale underworlders, slow to make friends but ever loyal; Orcs are the numberless horde embodiement of mindless war and the human race is caught in the middle, still establishing its place in the world in that world that is ever-changing around them.)

In short, people play Fantasy not for what they've read in the rulebooks or in the Black Library fantasy novels, but from what they read in Tolkien twenty years ago.

tolkien had skaven, lizardmen, ogres, vampires and dark elves ? :P

I play tomb kings. I cannot say I see a single army that is overused. The system has so much variety and no one army is better then another. They seem to have a resonable balance down for the system. 40k You always see space marines. In my local hobby shop there is at max 1-2 of each army. Orcs and goblins are probally one of the more popular followed by chaos.

WAY too many Ogre Kingdoms going around...

Seriously, though, there are quite a few Dwarf players in my area due to the insanely cheap battle box.

When the Ogres first came out, tons of people got into them because they figured it would be a rock-hard army that would own on the tabletop and there would be a very small number of models to buy and paint.

Since those myths were dispelled, I still see plenty of Ogres, but always used in their Dogs of War capacity for other armies.

In short, people play Fantasy not for what they've read in the rulebooks or in the Black Library fantasy novels, but from what they read in Tolkien twenty years ago.

But twenty years ago I was just over two months old...are you telling me I was reading Tolkien back then? I don't remember! ;)

Lord-almighty. I was speaking metaphorically! Aigh! ;)

My point: the prevalence of commonality between various races within the high fantasy genre has created de facto archetypes within the genre. GW follows these archetypes very closely, ergo, people have more of an idea what they want to play in a WHFB army before knowing anything about the game than they do picking an army for 40K or Warmachine.

"Follow"? My good sir, I would contend that many of the archetypes were, in point of fact, originated by GW. Case in point: The exact variegation of Orcen dermis. There even existed, at one point in time, a hue dubbed "Orc Brown", but, at some point, this shifted over into today's beloved green sheen. GW may have followed faithfully in the Tolkeinian footprints, but never forget - they were influential enough to effect, not one, but two ripoffs by Blizzard - Warcraft and Starcraft.

Word of the Day: "point".

Minor clarification: the original Warcraft was intended to be the Warhammer RTS until GW was unable to pay Blizzard for it. Blizzard changed just enough to avoid copyright infringement and changed -hammer to -craft. Not really a rip-off, more like payment.

The idea that the Dwarfs are a long-lived stout race of underworld dwellers, mining and crafting superior weaponry, that has been in Germanic myth since time immemorial; as have the elves, Álfur in the old proto-Germanic, as a nigh-immortal race of mystical beings who lived in perfect commune with nature.

And for the non-traditional races, I'm sure the idea of a cursed, undying, ancient Egyptian mummy existed long before the Tomb Kings' Army Book was first leaked onto BitTorrent.

GW is old enough to have come up with some of their own stuff, but by and large, there are very few surprises in the army books.

For example, the following will never occur
"I just read 'Lord of the Rings' and I really dug Gimli and the Dwarfs, I should play Dwarfs in WHFB."
...
"Wow. Here's something unexpected: instead of the Dwarfs being industrious miners and masters of the battle-axe, these GW Dwarfs are frail in body, but metaphysical masters of space and time. That's not what I expected."

However, compare this to 40K, where there is a lot more original material on GW's part, and you have much less idea of what each race plays like from just hearing the name. Sure, you have an idea that Space Marines may be pretty tough from watching Sci-fi, but the Imperial Guard should be the elite of the elite being the guardians of the emperor. For that matter, did you know what a Necron was before you saw them? All you can get from them is that they may have something to do with death from the root 'necro-'.

C'mon! The Terminator! We Will Be Back, anyone? All 40k armies can have similar parallells drawn, though admittedly not as strongly as FB. Did you know what Skaven were before you saw them? If, however, you switch that with "omnicidal ancient androids" and "evil plague-spreading ratmen", you might at least have a clue of what it is.
My point is, yes, FB is somewhat generic, but it's also unique in many ways. For instance, the Tomb Kings don't have mummies, period. The Liche Priests could be defined as mummies, but only in the same way any corpse that has spent a few millenia in a desert could. They were never mummified. Somewhat unusual for an Egyptian-themed army, yes?
The Wood Elves are rather mindless, and strike me as being evil from what I've read, rather than the wise, noble, tolerant and understanding guardians of nature usually seen elsewhere.
And I wouldn't be surprised if FB was the high first fantasy setting to place a gun in the hands of a Dwarf.

My point: FB is more generic than 40k, but still relatively unique. If this is your point of view also, we agree.