Warhammer 40k. Help a beginner.

[theSovietConnection]

Unless you have a Games Workshop store near you, i would suggest getting into something like D&D. Warhammer is too expensive if you don't have the guarantee of a game

I was tempted with D&D earlier, until it claimed two of my friends. Don't want to end up as antisocial as they did. (not saying everyone that plays D&D is antisocial)

If you're into 40K and want to keep the price down, I recommend Orks. I was Chaos Space Marines until the update came out out and rendered my Iron Warriors effectively useless. I went to Orks because they are a fun race to play, and if you're open to converting models and other toys, can be very cheap.

 

[Zeke the Freak]

What I like to do is open up my Bitz Box and build a bunch of Crazy, weird ass abomonations *tweaking parts when needed*, paint it so it look like it's been stitched together and pretend they're an army of hardcore zombies. Its not relevent, just throwing that in there.

I also made a replica of the main character off of Army of darkness with a IG luteinent, A chainsword, and a double barrel bold pistol and re-enacted Army of darkness.

I think its evident at this point that i have too much time on my hands.

 

[Lunar Shadow]

The new IG codex is coming out soon, so, as an IG player myself, I'd reccomend you take them into consideration. We can provide you:

Massed infantry, the cheapest in the game (4pts per model), armed with the same heavy and special weapons as marines, at the basic ballistic skill of every other army (BS3, you hit half the time)

Fragile but terrifically powerful elite infantry: Our stormtroopers, when the new dex comes out, will have AP3 hellguns. Put simply, their basic weapons will ignore the armour of every creature in the galaxy save things with invulnerable, cover or 2 up saves.

We have Valkyries. Not sure what those are? Think the helicopter scene from Apocalypse Now- flying death machines that can lay down a barrage of missile fire from any angle.

Tanks- More tanks than anyone can shake a stick at. A lot of new kit is going to be coming our way, tanks, artillery, flamethrower tanks...

Mortars- no one else has them.


I should warn you though- the Guard is a demanding, punishing army to play. Currently, we have been seriously nerfed by the 'Kill Points' stupidity (as if VPs weren't a much better idea) and the new ork dex. We rely on a strange combination of strategy, tactics and brute force to win our batltes.

Not to mention the IG ( I dunno if they fixed this in the new codex) where they can get this option ofr there transport that can let it count as an opentopped in terms of shooting, but don't when being attacked. This combined with a mortar team attached to a senior officer = Portable mortar pit from hell. They tore my shit up till I blew up that damn Chimera with a well placed railgun shot.

 

[Dread_Reaper]

Don't play Necrons, they are awfuly boring to paint and assemble.

Agreed. I have a 1,500 point Necron army, and fuck were they tedious to build.

Of course, the game itself is tedious to the point of insanity, so I don't really know what that says about the Necrons in the grand scheme of things...

-Dread_Reaper

 

[Warrior Irme]

Most people have said that everything that needs to be said but really it depends on what you want to paint/play as do you want a shooty army that can beat most other armies in ranged but they have a severe meele disadvantage i,e Tau, or do you want a balanced army that can hold thier ground against specialist armys i,e Space Marines or do you want a up in your face meele army that are a bit weak and rely on swarm tactics i,e Tyranids,Orks.

The Tau actually look sweet to me. I think I will most likely be getting the starter set and after a month or so I may expand.

 

[Rolling Thunder]

The new IG codex is coming out soon, so, as an IG player myself, I'd reccomend you take them into consideration. We can provide you:

Massed infantry, the cheapest in the game (4pts per model), armed with the same heavy and special weapons as marines, at the basic ballistic skill of every other army (BS3, you hit half the time)

Fragile but terrifically powerful elite infantry: Our stormtroopers, when the new dex comes out, will have AP3 hellguns. Put simply, their basic weapons will ignore the armour of every creature in the galaxy save things with invulnerable, cover or 2 up saves.

We have Valkyries. Not sure what those are? Think the helicopter scene from Apocalypse Now- flying death machines that can lay down a barrage of missile fire from any angle.

Tanks- More tanks than anyone can shake a stick at. A lot of new kit is going to be coming our way, tanks, artillery, flamethrower tanks...

Mortars- no one else has them.


I should warn you though- the Guard is a demanding, punishing army to play. Currently, we have been seriously nerfed by the 'Kill Points' stupidity (as if VPs weren't a much better idea) and the new ork dex. We rely on a strange combination of strategy, tactics and brute force to win our batltes.

Not to mention the IG ( I dunno if they fixed this in the new codex) where they can get this option ofr there transport that can let it count as an opentopped in terms of shooting, but don't when being attacked. This combined with a mortar team attached to a senior officer = Portable mortar pit from hell. They tore my shit up till I blew up that damn Chimera with a well placed railgun shot.

Ah, a tau player. Wasn't a railgun on a chimera something of an excercise in overkill? Oh, and the guy you were playing with was cheating- transported HW teams cannot fire if the vehicle moves, and you can only fire one weapon from the chimera. The rest have to fire the side-mounted lasguns.

Personally, I love killing crisis suits with meltaguns. Now that you guys can no longer do the pop-shoot maneuvere with no losses(sorry, but that was broken), you have to be a lot more careful. Still, I've lost a good number of tanks to deepstriking crisis suits.

Oh, and the Russ side armour is going up to 13, the Hellhound is going to be a fast vehicle, there are two more hellhound varients and, all in all, it's gonna be good times for the guard.

 

[Zeke the Freak]

I like the IG, they're just too similar for me to paint. 'cept the tanks, man oh man does the sight of a leman russ give me hope.

 

[Tvayumat]

You can get great deals on ebay. As for starter army it's all up to preference. Although Space Marines would be the easiest to get the hang of, you'd end up being "just another space marine player" that ammount to about 70% of the hobbyists.

You could always buy the codex/rulebook and use tokens to represent the models.

I resent that! From SM I branched into four other armies. And a good painter/modeller can turn "Just another space marine" into a unique and interesting model. The game can go many different ways, what are really sad are the players who branch into a more interesting army and then bland it out (Example: Dark Eldar with BLACK armor, whooo!).

 

[Lunar Shadow]

The new IG codex is coming out soon, so, as an IG player myself, I'd reccomend you take them into consideration. We can provide you:

Massed infantry, the cheapest in the game (4pts per model), armed with the same heavy and special weapons as marines, at the basic ballistic skill of every other army (BS3, you hit half the time)

Fragile but terrifically powerful elite infantry: Our stormtroopers, when the new dex comes out, will have AP3 hellguns. Put simply, their basic weapons will ignore the armour of every creature in the galaxy save things with invulnerable, cover or 2 up saves.

We have Valkyries. Not sure what those are? Think the helicopter scene from Apocalypse Now- flying death machines that can lay down a barrage of missile fire from any angle.

Tanks- More tanks than anyone can shake a stick at. A lot of new kit is going to be coming our way, tanks, artillery, flamethrower tanks...

Mortars- no one else has them.


I should warn you though- the Guard is a demanding, punishing army to play. Currently, we have been seriously nerfed by the 'Kill Points' stupidity (as if VPs weren't a much better idea) and the new ork dex. We rely on a strange combination of strategy, tactics and brute force to win our batltes.

Not to mention the IG ( I dunno if they fixed this in the new codex) where they can get this option ofr there transport that can let it count as an opentopped in terms of shooting, but don't when being attacked. This combined with a mortar team attached to a senior officer = Portable mortar pit from hell. They tore my shit up till I blew up that damn Chimera with a well placed railgun shot.

Ah, a tau player. Wasn't a railgun on a chimera something of an excercise in overkill? Oh, and the guy you were playing with was cheating- transported HW teams cannot fire if the vehicle moves, and you can only fire one weapon from the chimera. The rest have to fire the side-mounted lasguns.

Personally, I love killing crisis suits with meltaguns. Now that you guys can no longer do the pop-shoot maneuvere with no losses(sorry, but that was broken), you have to be a lot more careful. Still, I've lost a good number of tanks to deepstriking crisis suits.

Oh, and the Russ side armour is going up to 13, the Hellhound is going to be a fast vehicle, there are two more hellhound varients and, all in all, it's gonna be good times for the guard.

Thing was he wasn't moving (at least when he shot). And yes, I realize the rail gun was overkill, but I was pissed and wanted to get rid of it. Though I have been using the new ramming rules to full effect, a Devilfish transport immobilizing 4 Chimeras and a Hellhound before taking a rain of heavy bolter up the arse. ANYWAY, back on topic for me.


I really suggest going halfsies ont he starter set withsomeone, if just so you have a definate person to play with as well as a bunch of models for relitivly cheap. You don't even have to stay with the army from it, you could just use it to learn the rules.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

Eldar FTW!

 

[Warrior Irme]

Thank you for all of the good tips everyone. It is helping out quite a bit.

 

[NewGeekPhilosopher]

I still have my Death Guard Plague Marines from when I was a kid, they are sturdy models... Toughness 5 meant I was able to withstand my bro's Dark Eldar before he quit the game forever. I too have considered getting back into the game, but what I was thinking of doing is getting the Assault on Black Reach set in order to have as a sort of "Really Customisable Board Game" to play with my friend who likes board games. He can play against my Plague Marines later, but Space Marines Vs. Orks, in a box which is affordable, sounds like good basic entry level 40k fun for me and my friend. Especially since it's much cheaper to buy the box set of Black Reach than buying the rulebook on its own...

 

[Edwardsjack]

Pick the army you like the look of best, at first. You can develop a play style later. The first thing you'll want is the races codex and the rulebook. Don't buy anything else until you've given it a good read-through.

After that, just buy a couple of boxes of basic infantry and a commander model. Paint 'em up and try and play a game with 'em. Then add from there. Resist the temptation to splurge and buy a load of models of an army you don't know about.

Or convince a friend to go halfsies on the starter set. The 40k starter set is really good value, and if you buy with a mate you get the rulebook and a decent small army each.

Sounds good to me. Any particular website I should be looking at for the starter set cheap?

The best starter set is Assault on Black Reach, which is arguably the best deal they have. Its a army of space marines and orks which is good if you want to share with a friend.

 

[Bad Neighbour]

Most people go with marines first cause they're easy to paint and quite available, so that might be a good idea. Do have a look around at the armies and find one you like though, 40k is rather expensive. Steer clear of stuff like daemonhunters at first cause they're very expensive and very complicated to paint and play.

As for tabletop stuff itself, i'd say make sure you vary your army. Don't do what alot of new people do and feild tiny HQ and troops choices to bring 3 tanks/wraithlords/other heavy support for pewpews. Try to balance vehicles and infantry (or go just infantry & transports, vehicles tend to be taken out very fast unless they're well hidden or well armoured as they all essentially have 1 'wound,' and a devastator squad or equivilant usually is capable of doing far more damage anyway). It's often kinda funny when a kid with imperial guard and 9 tanks gets deepstriked by some assult stuff with meltabombs/guns/ and mashed. Similarly, balance out heavy and light weaponary. Huge lasercannon things will kill off vehicles but are useless if you're getting zerged by tranids, and if you field too many str 6 pewpew guns like I used to with Eldar then you'll get hammered by guys who play Imperial Guard (like I did...)

 

[Rolling Thunder]

Guard are purest win at the moment. Seriously - I've yet to lose against marines in the last fifteen games I've played.

 

[Puppetmaster24]

you would be better off asking this question on a different forum such as warseer.

http://www.warseer.com/

 

[Phototoxin]

to be compeditive chaos or marines and possibly eldar are your options. Otherwise whatever you like the look of

 

[Kiutu]

I bought soem just cause they looked cool. Was fun putting em together (I hate metal ones though)
Cept I cant paint for crap. I bought alot of colors though, cause I like pretty colors.

 

[Crazycat690]

Well a local Games Workshop would be best, if not mayby the online store. Races I suggest Chaos, cuz lets face it, their awesome.

 

[Joshimodo]

Start with Space Marines. They're an all-round good race.

As a beginner, avoid:
Necrons
Tyranids
Eldar
Grey Knights/Inquisition

As a player who wants to be good, avoid:
Imperial Guard (utterly useless)
Certain Chaos legions