Magnificent, all colour, 8th edition updates to the unofficial (and FREE) Albion, Amazons, Araby, Estalia and Norse armies.

WFB 8th edition army reviews, plus links to ALL 28 of the below pictured FREE unofficial army books.

Daddy likes, although I think they could have added more on cathay and nippon, but this should work

Every time i see things like that I start to wonder how balanced they are compaired to all other armies.

Only one way to find out cold,
I'm going to give the regiments of renown, knightly orders and maybe the special characters books a try.
(sooner or later)

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Cold73, the armies are getting more and more balanced with each revision as new feedback and comments are taken into account. Try one out and you'll see what I mean. Overall, I think they are probably all slightly weaker than the official GW armies so they represent a new challenge - at least that's the way I look at it :-)

Personally I feel that they are rather good and fun.

Sigmar, would you happen to be involved in the creation of these armies?

Battlescribe .cat file for Nippon:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o8p6u700sw4lvyi/Nippon%208th%20Ed.cat

thanks for that sigmar. I have been wanting to due a fluff celtic army and the albion book fits the theme perfect

Whoa! I had no idea. There has been an awful lot of time and effort out into those. Well done, whoever made them!

Of the armies listed, I am pretty sure that Cult of Ulric and Kislev should be relatively balanced. From what I recall after recently glancing through some old White Dwarf issues, both of these were used in the Storm of Chaos Campaign 10 years ago as GW-endorsed armies. If I recall correctly, both armies had been tested by GW nearly a year before then (around 2003?) to bring them from home-brew level to balanced enough for the worldwide campaign.

As always, if in doubt, ask your opponent in advance if you can use either one.

Edit:

Dogs of War and Regiments of Renown have made appearances in various WD issues and have generally been given GW's blessing as legal for gaming purposes (at least at the time the article was printed - early 2000s). As always, ask first.

Bretonnia and Dwarfs...what can I say? They're updates of existing armies.

Empire Knightly Orders have been around for a while but haven't ever really had their own book. Although I haven't actually read this book yet, I imagine that it pretty much expands on what existed in 6th and 7th - namely orders of knights each with their own history, unique characters, etc.

I am actually in the process of hammering out some stuff so we can play with these army books and the guys version of 9th edition rules so we can play a big campaign online

Pretty much all of what you said is correct IIRC, apart from one thing; as I recall, GW pretty much dropped all references to, and support for, Dogs of War in the 7th Ed. rules and all other late publications - DAMN THEM!!