Grand Alliance of Faction Specific?

[Byro]

Just as the title says, what do people think is generally stronger ~ faction-specific armies, backed up with the special artifacts, traits, and such, from the newer tomes, or taking a general army of the cream of the crop from across the breadth of one of the four Grand Alliances?

I've (so far) gravitated towards Grand Alliances over faction specific forces with both Destruction and Order, but now with the new Chaos Battletome coming out, I can't decide whether I want to go faction-specific for my next 3k points, or to stick to my theme of pulling the best from each race. 

 

[mmimzie]

Death armies do this all the time. In fact unless your playing Flesh Eater Court (FEC) you almost have no choice. Your more than open to do this and it's part of the game. I just think it's good when doing this and painting your forces you do a paint scheme that unifies them.

Maybe they are descendants of desperate refugees. Who looked to the closest living non-evil creatures they could find at the time and allied up. Maybe right before the world started going up in spoke they were in the middle of a protracted battle and the situation forced them to allie. Now thousands of years later thier descendants live in perfect harmony in some small corner of the realm of life or what ever realm you could imagine. Maybe some of them have interbred, shared knowledge/weaponry, and crafted traditions that are amalgamations of thier brothers in arms. 

[The Jabber Tzeentch]

I think for the most part taking the faction stuff is better with a few exceptions

[Karchev23]

Suppose it depends on what sub-faction your playing. So far theres only 3 battletomes with sub faction specific abilities and special fluffy battalions, tbh though the sylvaneth are by far the most powerful of those ( and this is coming from a Beastclaw Raiders Player! ). Some of the syngergies? Extra abilities battalions such as the gnarlroot are brutal. 

If your playing competitively its up to you. In the end the beauty of AOS isn't that your list is brutal, its how you use it. At a tournament i took a sole beastclaw raiders army, 2 out of four games i was tabled, because even though i had 4 stonehorns i simply didnt use them right.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Yeah, it really depends on the faction in question. An awful lot of them aren't capable of holding up on their own, but some are really solid and fleshed-out.

If you're looking at Death, it's pretty much Flesh Eater Courts or Death as a whole unless you're playing very small, themed games.