What's a good 40k starter army?

[Dantethegolden]

I've played Blood Angels for a while, and it's gotten my younger brothers interested in 40k. I've played a few games with 'em, and they seem to like it. My question is: where do I start them if they want to get an army? Space Marines are really the only army of which I have a thorough understanding of the mechanics. Plus, Marines are pretty common and widely varied, so I was thinking of buying them a Space Marine battleforce or maybe AOBR.

Any suggestions on other good starter armies? or any good ways to make a decision on an army?

[entendre_entendre]

I'd say stick with what you know. If you know how marines work, then it will be easier to teach your brothers how to play. Start off with some Marine vs. Marine games and work your way from there (maybe BA vs Vanilla, etc.). As for purchases, get AoBR. Two reasons:
1. More marines on the cheap is never a bad thing
2. The Orks inside provide an alternate playstyle to marines which your brothers may find they enjoy more. Just balance the points between the Orks & marines to keep it even, as there are more marine points than Ork points.

[eagleboy7259]

Assault on Black Reach is the perfect place to start. Space Marines are a great starter army, their rules are always kept the most up to date, they are probably the most balanced out of any book, and even the stinker units in the book can still be played competitively. The Space Marine Battleforce is always an equally nice place to start, if you don't know what you'd be doing with those Orks. They boast decent stats and a cheap price so they are all around a great beginners choice.

[Melissia]

Also, if you're going to get the AoBR set, then you should go get the rulebook, SM codex, and Ork codex, and toss away the AoBR book. It's a piece of trash that makes Orks to be much weaker than they should be, lacking several special rules that they should have.

[BuFFo]

Any Marine army.

[Dantethegolden]

yea, i was thinking of getting AOBR so they could have that handy little rulebook (instead of having to buy the big, expensive one) and then getting the marine codex. who knows if they'll like the orks or not. Marines also have the appeal of being slightly less expensive to grow, points wise, compared to Orks. gotta buy and paint a lot of orks to go up in points.

[Connjurus]

Necron, to make them hate the game and turn into BoLS forum lurkers that shoot down everyone else's army for not being challenging.


But in all seriousness, AoBR. Orks and Space Marines, and the Marines come with two of the most visually awesome things in the codex - Terminators and a Dreadnought.

[wittdooley]

Necron, to make them hate the game and turn into BoLS forum lurkers that shoot down everyone else's army for not being challenging.



Actually, I'd argue that, if they like them, Necrons are a damn fine place to start. They are a MEQ army with fairly simple rules, simple models to paint, and will certainly be much cooler this time next year when they get a codex update.

They may not win a ton, but they can be very fun, and are very easy to learn.

[Melissia]

yea, i was thinking of getting AOBR so they could have that handy little rulebook

That "handy little rulebook" is incomplete and craptacular.

[Lerra]

Everyone thinks Marines are the easiest army to learn, but I actually thought they were much harder to play than my first learning army, Chaos Daemons.

With Daemons, you only need to know half of the rulebook to play. You skip the deployment phase (something that trips up a lot of new players). You can basically ignore AP, armor, instant death, and a lot of the more complicated rules. Daemons can actually be fairly forgiving if don't understand how your opponent's army works. I remember that in one of my first games, I moved into rapid fire range two units of Chosen Chaos Space Marines with plasma because I had no idea what Chosen were or what plasma guns were. Thankfully I was playing daemons, so instead of getting vaporized, I just lost a few models.

Also, because Daemons are so luck based, a new player actually has a decent shot of winning against a veteran player (lucky Chaos Daemons can topple a more-skilled general).

I'd also recommend that your brother picks an army that he's interested in, too. He'll have more fun playing an army that he thinks is cool than an army that he doesn't feel any attachment to. Food for thought.

[razcalking]

Go with a straight-up horde close combat army. They're fun and the strategy is relatively simple.

Orks and Tyranids would fit the bill.

[fuzzbuket]

I'd also recommend that your brother picks an army that he's interested in, too. He'll have more fun playing an army that he thinks is cool than an army that he doesn't feel any attachment to. Food for thought.

true. and try to get them to buy in moderatiion.


i had a mate who bought an army,built it but looked at it "too much to even spray" (< no joke) also he was part of the local GW club and do they get you to paint, no do they make you buy, yes

arfter a game or two with me and my mate he hardly knew about the rules or fun (even with playing at GW for about a year) e.g.

3000 pt non apoc game

he deep strikes a
4 masters of the chapter
siciarus
cantor
lysander.


take it easy and run it like this (i do it)

as a reward for painting you may have another model

rather than a buy-0-buy burnout fest :(

[Chris Copeland]

My suggestion is one I got from White Dwarf a long while ago: choose an army that is visually interesting to you. Have your brother look over the various factions and choose between:

Space Vikings
Power Armored Space Vampires
Space Elves (good or evil versions)
Space Orks
Space Dwarfs (oh wait... scratch that one)
Space Goth Girls
Geiger's Aliens
Space Terminators
Lots and Lots of Space Army Men
Space Demons
Space Commies

It is always easier to paint and play with something that is visually appealing. Go over any other considerations that might exist (i.e. it takes a lot of models to play with bugs, the Goth Girl's codex is amazingly outdated, there isn't a lot of variance when you play Terminators, the Evil Space Elves will probably never get a new codex, etc.) but I'd say that it is hard to go wrong when you choose an army that is visually appealing...


Cheers... Copeland

[Squirrel_Fish]

Get them to look at a few different armies and pick a few depending on what looks cool to them. For some reason, vanilla space elves clicked for me.

Then, have them play a game with each army and see which one they like the best.

[tjkopena]

Important: Melissia's talking crazy talk. The little *rulebook* that comes with the AoBR set is exactly the same as the big rulebook available separately, minus all the fluff and hobby stuff. The ruleset in there is exactly the same. What is kind of inadequate is the little AoBR *booklet* that outlines the forces included in the box. Not only do the Orks have less points in the box, but it also doesn't outline some important rules, like the Waaagh. That may be what Melissia is referring to. The little rulebook though is a great deal.

If your brother has any interest in Orks or Marines, then definitely rock it because you can start them with AoBR. They'll get a good number of models for cheap, plus the rules, dice, markers, etc.

Absent that sort of economic consideration, I'd say Chaos Marines have the easiest learning curve toward being competitive. The basics are simple, and... they smash your face in. In contrast, Space Marines and Necron also have pretty simple basics, but you need to be a little more careful with them. Marines can't just go running into most things like Chaos Marines can. My two cents.

[HsojVvad]

Any Marine army.

Not any marine army. I am new to the rules wise to 40K and find DA pretty hard to master and learn for 5th edtion. :p

[Melissia]

Important: Melissia's talking crazy talk.

No, I'm not. Look at the special rules Orks have in that little book, and look at the special rules Orks have in fourth edition Codex: Orks.

[Dantethegolden]

mellisia, you said the rulebook was inadequate. I've never owned the big rulebook, i've always had a black reach mini-rulebook and never had any issues. in fact, i'd much rather have it since it's far more compact and easier to find things since there's not 100 extra pages of glossy photo nonsense.

although, the new fantasy rulebook with the metal clasp and heavy paper is pretty schnazzy....

[Melissia]

I say it is inadequate because it is. You cannot properly play an Ork army with just that book, as it is missing certain special rules.

[Squirrel_Fish]

I say it is inadequate because it is. You cannot properly play an Ork army with just that book, as it is missing certain special rules.

I think he's referring to the rulebook itself, not the little game guide that says "Assault on Black Reach" that teaches you how much the Space Marines will stomp Orks who have a 100+ point deficit.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat200190&prodId=prod1570027
Right side, the front book. The back is the piece of garbage that you can go ahead and use as a placemat for painting/gluing over.

[Melissia]

That is what I was referring to the entire time. And those orks which have a 100+ point deficit also lack mob rule IIRC.

[Squirrel_Fish]

My apologies then. It sounded like you were calling the actual rulebook worthless. The scenario booklet is by no means a replacement for a codex, nor is it intended to be.

[Nabterayl]

So ... just to be clear,

The AOBR rulebook is absolutely accurate and complete. You do not need to buy the big rulebook if you have that (although you might want to because it has a lot of cool art and background information).

The AOBR quick-start guide is not intentionally incomplete, intended as an introductory guide for two players who know nothing about the rules. As you already play and your brothers have also played several games with you, you can probably dispense with it altogether.

And yes, the AOBR box is not balanced points-wise. As modeled, it contains 605 points of space marines (assuming you treat the captain as armed with a relic blade) compared to 500 points of orks, so the collection is certainly skewed towards the space marines (though it can be evened out by removing the dreadnought from the marines altogether). However, if you just treat it as a way to get a bargain on some really great miniatures, it is a very good deal. It is even a very good deal if you only want the space marines, or only want the orks.

[Dantethegolden]

yea, i pretty much knew that. the guy who owns the game store i used to frequent would buy AOBR sets and break em up cos a lot of us just wanted individual peices, so i bought that rulebook cos $10 for the same set of rules that's contained in the expensive version sounded awesome to me. pretty much everyone at our store used those little rulebooks. so convenient.

i hadn't really given much thought to that "playing guide" or whatever comes in there. i just assumed it was a watered down introduction to the rules or something. GW WOULD neuter the orks a little bit, wouldn't they? Space Marines are supposed to win at everything...

[scadugenga]

The Marines seems to be the most forgiving for new players, but Nids would be a good army for someone to start with too. Fairly straight forward to start with, with added complexity later on.

[Nabterayl]

Fairly straight forward to start with, with added complexity later on.
I feel the same way about orks, though I agree with the tyranid recommendation as well.

[HsojVvad]

My apologies then. It sounded like you were calling the actual rulebook worthless. The scenario booklet is by no means a replacement for a codex, nor is it intended to be.

There is a scenrio booklet in AoBR? I don't recall seeing one, and when I asked I was told there is no scenario book in AoBR like there was for BoM.

[murrburger]

I wouldn't worry about what army is hard to begin with/etc. You'll easily adjust to what you play if you stick to 4th/5th edition codices.

Saying that, assault on Black Reach is an excellent idea. It has great $ value, and good looking models. Plus, the mini-rulebook is extremely handy.

[Nabterayl]

There is a scenrio booklet in AoBR? I don't recall seeing one, and when I asked I was told there is no scenario book in AoBR like there was for BoM.
It's not a scenario booklet so much as a quick-start guide. It gives you simplified statlines and rules for all the models in the box, and a simple mission setup to get you started. The whole thing, though, is really geared towards players who are totally new to the game, to ease them into just the core gameplay concepts.

[Melissia]

And it makes Orks extremely weak.

[Aldramelech]

Ebay is a good place to start.

[HsojVvad]

And it makes Orks extremely weak.

Just like in 3rd edtion box set. I was wundering at the time, who the hell wants to play Dark Elder since they are so weak agaisnt Space Marines.