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I'd recommend first buying a few Space Marines too, like everyone else.
Just buy a small box of them and use those miniatures to learn how to assemble and paint correctly, so you don't waste your more precious minis later on, or find out the hobby isn't so great after all only after having spent a fortune on a new army.

After that, you should probably go with AdMech (Skitarii). Dark Eldar are pretty much the exact opposite of the playstyle you described in the OP.

DorianGray wrote:
Don't choose fething Space Marines 9/10 people play them and they are meant for kids.

They are the easiest army to paint, collect, and play = kiddy style. Yes I am opening insulting all SM player.

Well, Dark Eldar are made for 14 year old edgemasters with a closet full of black leather, unwashed spiky hair, and a passing interest in BDSM, so...

OP: I would advise you to pick the army you like the look of. Codex power levels and rules and tactics are going to change over time. One edition your choice might be amazing, the next it might be crap. So pick something you like looking at.

 Crimson Devil wrote:
Play Space marines. As you can see not playing them leads to bitterness, mood swings, and anal leakage.

Not to mention they're even more solid with the new Codex. Grav Centurions with Librarians are more or less their own lite version of a deathstar while the options at truly only as limited as your imagination goes.

DorianGray wrote:
Don't choose fething Space Marines 9/10 people play them and they are meant for kids.

They are the easiest army to paint, collect, and play = kiddy style. Yes I am opening insulting all SM player.

Go with Dark Eldar - it'll take some skills but has some great melee units (Grotesques)

Tau, just because they are great at killing Space Marines.

fething lol. Space Marines are only easy to paint if you leave them with boring vanilla tac sets and nothing else. Once you go from troops to elites or troops to HQ they then turn into one of the most infuriating armies to paint. Easiest to build and paint are Eldar and Necrons, as for many of their units you only need two colors and they have next-to-nothing in the way of bling. Even their Lords of War are pretty plain. Now compare this to painting up Calgar, Sicarius, Chapter Masters, or emperor forbid, Sternguard.

What you want sounds a lot like cult mechanics as described from your extended needs not on the list.

 j31c3n wrote:


Well, Dark Eldar are made for 14 year old edgemasters with a closet full of black leather, unwashed spiky hair, and a passing interest in BDSM, so...

OP: I would advise you to pick the army you like the look of. Codex power levels and rules and tactics are going to change over time. One edition your choice might be amazing, the next it might be crap. So pick something you like looking at.

Or he can pick eldar and be amazing or good in every edition.

Sorry but this is all a bit weird.
Dark Eldar is not a beginner army.
The Skitarii and Mechanicus army looks rather incomplete as solid FA, elite and HS options are missing.
SoB has only metal models and is very expensive.
AM is a way to go. We have some AM players here. They are all struggling to get a competitive list going.

Alright thank you everyone for all your feedback. I've revised my options as follows.

-Eldar

-Tau

-Skitarii

All of them can do gunlines pretty well (eldar are more mobile I know), Skitarii are decent in melee while Tau get destroyed in melee while the Eldar are the best of the three at melee.

I really love the look of all three of these races, but Tau and Eldar are super popular so that's why I was hesitant to start a collection of them. From what I hear, Skitarii comprise a fairly small part of the playerbase so that's why out of these 3, I'm most drawn to them.

What would you guys say are the pros and cons for each races gameplay wise?

From what I gather, Eldar are specialists that are pretty fragile. Skitarii are good at shooting and field effective shooting units that excel in medium range fights but are hard to paint, assemble, and lack options. Tau are great at range and have some decent survivability, but a lot of people hate them for the cheese they pull.

Any suggestions on which of three I should choose is appreciated. (Remember, I want an infantry focused army with few vehicles. Some smaller mechsuits are acceptable, like Tau stealthsuits, since they're just basically power armor.)

Don't choose SM. You're contributing to the malaise where everyone plays SM vs... Spikey SM or red SM instead of Green ones.

Go Xenos. Kill SM, make the 12 year old kids in the GW stores upset that their uber cool super heroes of humanity (which is a Stalinist Fascist totalitarian state) get tabled by filthy aliens.

DorianGray wrote:
Don't choose SM. You're contributing to the malaise where everyone plays SM vs... Spikey SM or red SM instead of Green ones.

Go Xenos. Kill SM, make the 12 year old kids in the GW stores upset that their uber cool super heroes of humanity (which is a Stalinist Fascist totalitarian state) get tabled by filthy aliens.

See above post, I won't be buying Space Marines. (Even though I do like this one chapter called the Celestial Lions.) I'll play either Tau, Eldar, or Skitarii if those 3 armies can do infantry heavy/footslogging lists well.

 Crimson Devil wrote:
Play Space marines. As you can see not playing them leads to bitterness, mood swings, and anal leakage.

So I have this running thing in my play group that the game is really only fair and competitive when both players play space marines.
People complain quite a bit about the tactics or this unit or that unit, but in GWs defense the game is basically just an evolved version of a 70s RPG. Ballancing all the armies in their world for tournament style play is not only out of their bailiwick it is counter to their mission as a company (not that it is ever clear).

My point here for the OP I think is, talking to us is always cool when it comes to a little thing you want to try or a paint scheme, a rules issue and other whatnotery. When you want to decide on your army, you should take the time to ask your local play group. I am not saying do what they say verbatim, but if you find out what armies everyone wants to get a game against and work from there you will never be without an opponent. If you want to be the special snowflake, be the local special snowflake. If you were here in SoCal i'd say ORKs, cause it is all Nids, Eldar, Tau and AM down here, well and SMs of course.

Ugh damit, I think I just made my own mind up...

 Redleg wrote:

 Crimson Devil wrote:
Play Space marines. As you can see not playing them leads to bitterness, mood swings, and anal leakage.

So I have this running thing in my play group that the game is really only fair and competitive when both players play space marines.
People complain quite a bit about the tactics or this unit or that unit, but in GWs defense the game is basically just an evolved version of a 70s RPG. Ballancing all the armies in their world for tournament style play is not only out of their bailiwick it is counter to their mission as a company (not that it is ever clear).

My point here for the OP I think is, talking to us is always cool when it comes to a little thing you want to try or a paint scheme, a rules issue and other whatnotery. When you want to decide on your army, you should take the time to ask your local play group. I am not saying do what they say verbatim, but if you find out what armies everyone wants to get a game against and work from there you will never be without an opponent. If you want to be the special snowflake, be the local special snowflake. If you were here in SoCal i'd say ORKs, cause it is all Nids, Eldar, Tau and AM down here, well and SMs of course.

Ugh damit, I think I just made my own mind up...

Alrighty. The closest shop is like, 4 miles from my house, and then everything after that is 20+ miles away. The closest actual Games Workshop store is 90 miles away lol. All of the stuff near me is local/independent retailers.

I'll have to check out the stores and see if anyone plays Warhammer there. Otherwise I think I'll just have to give up on this endeavor.

I just want an army that can footslog and do well, has some nice looking models and are durable without having to use vehicles.

So far the armies that appeal to me are the Tau, the Eldar, and the Skitarii. I suppose I could also consider Necrons, but everyone plays them ...

Horus Heresy Space Marine"Legions", Adeptus Mechanicus, Solar Auxilaia, etc. armies are fun collection avenues, as well...honestly I dont care so much about the ever-evolving landscape of 40K when a much simpler and superior battlescape is available, using the same core rules as 40k.

But I guess you have to have HH opponents, or at least 40k opponents who do'nt mind playing against 30k armies (I never have, fwiw)


If I was starting from scratch I would be all over the Solar Auxilia, or maybe HH Word Bearers. And IME in most surroundings these armies are not played, and sometimes not even heard of., so they are pretty special snowlfaky.


Just to throw another wrench in the works...

 Singleton wrote:

I want to be a special snowflake, so I don't want to play armies that are very popular like Necrons, Space Marines or any of their flavors, Imperial Guard, Tyranids, or Orks.

If you're feeling indecisive about what army you want, I would throw this notion out the window, and just go for whatever you like the look and feel of the most. For the simple reason that (a) that feeling of specialness might wear off once you've got a dozen games in (b) you don't want to be stuck with an army that you have mixed feelings about. I have a friend who started the hobby a year and a half ago, and he's changed army 3 times since then, because he had second thoughts.

If you're ok at crafting, and have the time, why not make something truly unique: Take the army you like the most, and convert the living hell out of it! With a theme in mind. Good takes on this are Aztec-themed space marine chapters, or Native American style Kroot.
Also there's nothing stoppig you "counting models as." I've seen space beastman (counts as space marines), Skaven Imperial Guard. The only consderations to make are keeping unit builds coherent with the army they are "supposed to be".

 thegreatchimp wrote:

 Singleton wrote:

I want to be a special snowflake, so I don't want to play armies that are very popular like Necrons, Space Marines or any of their flavors, Imperial Guard, Tyranids, or Orks.

If you're feeling indecisive about what army you want, I would throw this notion out the window, and just go for whatever you like the look and feel of the most. For the simple reason that (a) that feeling might wear off (b) you don't want to be stuck with an army that you have mixed feelings about. I have a friend who started the hobby a year and a half ago, and he's changed army 3 times since then, because he had second thoughts.

If you're ok at crafting, and have the time, why not make something truly unique: Take the army you like the most, and convert the living hell out of it! T. With a theme in mind. Good takes on this are Aztec-themed space marine chapters, or Native American style Kroot.
Also there's nothing stoppig you "counting models as." I've seen space beastman (counts as space marines), Skaven Imperial Guard. The only consderations to make are keeping unit builds coherent with the army they are "supposed to be".

Well to be honest, if I were to throw all criteria out the window and just choose an army based solely on how cool they look, I'd pick Tau. I love their high tech futuristic look, and they look a lot easier to paint then some other models due to the panels on everything being fairly smooth/flat. I also love shooty armies, and Tau seem like they'd be able to do just that really well. Necrons would be a close second, with Skitarii in third.

Of course, Tau and Necrons are both extremely popular and I'd be very likely to run into mirror matches often so that's kind of off putting. Skitarii are off putting because people say they're not a good stand alone army and are hard to assemble and paint.

 Singleton wrote:

Well to be honest, if I were to throw all criteria out the window and just choose an army based solely on how cool they look, I'd pick Tau. I love their high tech futuristic look, and they look a lot easier to paint then some other models due to the panels on everything being fairly smooth/flat. I also love shooty armies, and Tau seem like they'd be able to do just that really well. Necrons would be a close second, with Skitarii in third.

Of course, Tau and Necrons are both extremely popular and I'd be very likely to run into mirror matches often so that's kind of off putting. Skitarii are off putting because people say they're not a good stand alone army and are hard to assemble and paint.

I love some of the Tau units. The Kroot range are well designed and the broadside with rail gun is a super looking model. The hammerheads and devilfish are some of the best designs I've seen come out of GW. I actually considered running them as counts as razorback and predator in my wolves, but decided agaisnt it because the aesthetics are too different to marines.

Yes Skitarii are failrly stand out and look well, but persoanly I think as with most mini-armies, there's too few units in the range to make it interesting to collect and entire army of them...

For me it was a toss up between eldar or heavily-converted wolves. I went with the wolves in the end.

 thegreatchimp wrote:

 Singleton wrote:

Well to be honest, if I were to throw all criteria out the window and just choose an army based solely on how cool they look, I'd pick Tau. I love their high tech futuristic look, and they look a lot easier to paint then some other models due to the panels on everything being fairly smooth/flat. I also love shooty armies, and Tau seem like they'd be able to do just that really well. Necrons would be a close second, with Skitarii in third.

Of course, Tau and Necrons are both extremely popular and I'd be very likely to run into mirror matches often so that's kind of off putting. Skitarii are off putting because people say they're not a good stand alone army and are hard to assemble and paint.

I love some of the Tau units. The Kroot range are well designed and the broadside with rail gun is a super looking model. The hammerheads and devilfish are some of the best designs I've seen come out of GW. I actually considered running them as counts as razorback and predator in my wolves, but decided agaisnt it because the aesthetics are too different to marines.

Yes Skitarii are failrly stand out and look well, but persoanly I think as with most mini-armies, there's too few units in the range to make it interesting to collect and entire army of them...

For me it was a toss up between eldar or heavily-converted wolves. I went with the wolves in the end.

Alright well, I'm still thinking about it, but for now I think I'm leaning towards Tau. I like their stealth suits a lot. Basically Tau version of power armor. Are they viable to run as your mainstay unit?

How to paint the red on admech stuff
Abbadon Black
Mephiston Red
Nuln oil
Job done!

After much deliberation and debating I have narrowed things don to just Necrons or Tau.

Tau have some amazing looking hi tech models that I love to death, and the necrons are hardy as hell with great shooting and counter charge/assault units like lychguard. I just can't decide which to get though! I'm leaning towards the Tau though, as their battleset is quite the deal and I love the Fire Warriors' fluff and models!

Necrons are space zombie egyptian terminators. What's NOT to love?

 Singleton wrote:
After much deliberation and debating I have narrowed things don to just Necrons or Tau.

Tau have some amazing looking hi tech models that I love to death, and the necrons are hardy as hell with great shooting and counter charge/assault units like lychguard. I just can't decide which to get though! I'm leaning towards the Tau though, as their battleset is quite the deal and I love the Fire Warriors' fluff and models!

Necrons are space zombie egyptian terminators. What's NOT to love?

The fact that you'll be playing alone, for one.

 Wyzilla wrote:

 Singleton wrote:
After much deliberation and debating I have narrowed things don to just Necrons or Tau.

Tau have some amazing looking hi tech models that I love to death, and the necrons are hardy as hell with great shooting and counter charge/assault units like lychguard. I just can't decide which to get though! I'm leaning towards the Tau though, as their battleset is quite the deal and I love the Fire Warriors' fluff and models!

Necrons are space zombie egyptian terminators. What's NOT to love?

The fact that you'll be playing alone, for one.

Why? Do people hate Tau and Necrons that much that they'd just refuse to play vs them?

That sucks ...

As a fairly new player myself, I'd say Orks would be the easiest for a new modeler and player to get into. While Orks may not be super powerful as an army, they are probably THE most forgiving when it comes to modeling/painting. I'm not the best modeler, so even if I make a mistake or something looks a little off...it doesn't matter! It just makes it ORKY! Same with painting.

Orks can get away with a little slack, and have helped improve my skills, where i feel confident to move on to something more elite, like Chaos Marines. Where lower model count means my skill (or lack there of) will show a bit more.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Singleton wrote:

 Wyzilla wrote:

 Singleton wrote:
After much deliberation and debating I have narrowed things don to just Necrons or Tau.

Tau have some amazing looking hi tech models that I love to death, and the necrons are hardy as hell with great shooting and counter charge/assault units like lychguard. I just can't decide which to get though! I'm leaning towards the Tau though, as their battleset is quite the deal and I love the Fire Warriors' fluff and models!

Necrons are space zombie egyptian terminators. What's NOT to love?

The fact that you'll be playing alone, for one.

Why? Do people hate Tau and Necrons that much that they'd just refuse to play vs them?

That sucks ...

Mostly because those two armies, like Eldar, are some of the most powerful in the game. Tau have taken a bit of a back seat since the new Cron and Eldar dex dropped. Many armies have a hard time dealing with Tau shooting, Eldar mobility AND shooting, and Cron durability.

I'd agree orks are the most forgiving, but I'm not a fan of their models, their fluff, or their crunch so I'm going to stay away from them. Like I said, I'll most likely be playing Necrons or Tau.

Heavily leaning towards Tau though. I really like their battlesuits and the combat armor of their infantry.

 Singleton wrote:
I'd agree orks are the most forgiving, but I'm not a fan of their models, their fluff, or their crunch so I'm going to stay away from them. Like I said, I'll most likely be playing Necrons or Tau.

Heavily leaning towards Tau though. I really like their battlesuits and the combat armor of their infantry.

I'll agree the Tau line of models are pretty nice and fairly sleek. Pretty elite in the fact they often have small model counts, and are all around a solid army. I don't think you'll find too many issues playing them. Their stigma isn't justified. They, like Eldar (and sadly, now Crons) are a sad synonym for 'that guy' types of players. But the two Tau guys in my group are actually really solid dudes, and don't play cheese (Then again, no one in my group does. So, I'm very blessed in that regard).

Melevolence wrote:

 Singleton wrote:
I'd agree orks are the most forgiving, but I'm not a fan of their models, their fluff, or their crunch so I'm going to stay away from them. Like I said, I'll most likely be playing Necrons or Tau.

Heavily leaning towards Tau though. I really like their battlesuits and the combat armor of their infantry.

I'll agree the Tau line of models are pretty nice and fairly sleek. Pretty elite in the fact they often have small model counts, and are all around a solid army. I don't think you'll find too many issues playing them. Their stigma isn't justified. They, like Eldar (and sadly, now Crons) are a sad synonym for 'that guy' types of players. But the two Tau guys in my group are actually really solid dudes, and don't play cheese (Then again, no one in my group does. So, I'm very blessed in that regard).

I'm not planning on cheeseing my way to victory. I actually wanted to try something different from what most Tau players do. Instead of focusing on the bigger battlesuits, I was planning on running a bunch of Fire Warriors and Stealth Suits as the core of my army, as opposed to the popular broadside and crisis teams in combination with a Riptide. I'll also have to bring a sizeable force of pathfinders since they're what makes Tau good at shooting.

All in all though, I think I'll be able to deal with the stigma attached to Tau players, as their models are just gorgeous and I think they're playstyle suits me well. Tau it is!

I'm planning on buying a box of Pathfinders first to get my painting and assembly down pat, and then order the Battleforce for Tau as it seems like a great deal, saving me 37.50 dollars compared to if I were to just buy everything seperately. I'm not sure how many points that comes out to in all, but adding in an HQ choice and another squad of Fire Warriors and Pathfinders should be a pretty sizeable force while not being unreasonably expensive.

Use elder with tau allies
TAUDAR

DorianGray wrote:
Don't choose fething Space Marines 9/10 people play them and they are meant for kids.

They are the easiest army to paint, collect, and play = kiddy style. Yes I am opening insulting all SM player.

Go with Dark Eldar - it'll take some skills but has some great melee units (Grotesques)

Tau, just because they are great at killing Space Marines.

Show me on the doll where the bad Astartes touched you.

 Verviedi wrote:

DorianGray wrote:
Don't choose fething Space Marines 9/10 people play them and they are meant for kids.

They are the easiest army to paint, collect, and play = kiddy style. Yes I am opening insulting all SM player.

Go with Dark Eldar - it'll take some skills but has some great melee units (Grotesques)

Tau, just because they are great at killing Space Marines.

Show me on the doll where the bad Astartes touched you.

*points at chainsword in stomach *

 Singleton wrote:

Melevolence wrote:

 Singleton wrote:
I'd agree orks are the most forgiving, but I'm not a fan of their models, their fluff, or their crunch so I'm going to stay away from them. Like I said, I'll most likely be playing Necrons or Tau.

Heavily leaning towards Tau though. I really like their battlesuits and the combat armor of their infantry.

I'll agree the Tau line of models are pretty nice and fairly sleek. Pretty elite in the fact they often have small model counts, and are all around a solid army. I don't think you'll find too many issues playing them. Their stigma isn't justified. They, like Eldar (and sadly, now Crons) are a sad synonym for 'that guy' types of players. But the two Tau guys in my group are actually really solid dudes, and don't play cheese (Then again, no one in my group does. So, I'm very blessed in that regard).

I'm not planning on cheeseing my way to victory. I actually wanted to try something different from what most Tau players do. Instead of focusing on the bigger battlesuits, I was planning on running a bunch of Fire Warriors and Stealth Suits as the core of my army, as opposed to the popular broadside and crisis teams in combination with a Riptide. I'll also have to bring a sizeable force of pathfinders since they're what makes Tau good at shooting.

All in all though, I think I'll be able to deal with the stigma attached to Tau players, as their models are just gorgeous and I think they're playstyle suits me well. Tau it is!

I'm planning on buying a box of Pathfinders first to get my painting and assembly down pat, and then order the Battleforce for Tau as it seems like a great deal, saving me 37.50 dollars compared to if I were to just buy everything seperately. I'm not sure how many points that comes out to in all, but adding in an HQ choice and another squad of Fire Warriors and Pathfinders should be a pretty sizeable force while not being unreasonably expensive.

It's nice that you want to "try something else", but the thing with Tau is they either bring Riptides and Broadsides and then your army is strong or you bring other things and (quite possibly) lose. That's just the way Tau are right now, their only viable choices are Riptides and broadsides (and pathfinders to support them), everything else is "meh" at best and Stealth suits are just flat out bad.

They are easy to assemble and paint however.
I think they're a rather boring army to play against, but that's my personal opinion.

Skitarii are quite the unique army. Not always easy to play, but certainly unique. One of your criteria was durability, well if you play skitarii you'll have none, take that from me.
Compared to other armies, they don't have a lot of different models, but those models can do multiple jobs easily. The off-side is that everything apart from their basic troops tends to cost a lot of points (when combined with their fragile nature, makes them harder to play well).

Assembling them is neither hard nor easy in my experience, altough I already had an entire Chaos army before Skitarii even existed. They have thinner parts than most armies, which makes them look fragile, but it's better than it looks.

Necrons are just a good army. If you take the special "decurion" way of making your army, they're ridiculously strong. If you build them like a regular army, they're still strong, but not nearly as OP as people make them out to be.

Tau work just fine without broadsides and riptides.
All of the armies are viable when playing in a friendly environment.

There is no need for wraithknights, imperial knights or heldrakes and their ilk to win and have fun.
I play chaos and I have never used a heldrake and don't plan to either and I'm not missing it even in the slightest. I've even won with pretty much just thousand sons, or using the Black Legion supplement which gets a really bad rep too. Both would be considered considerably worse than Tau without riptides.

So take all that talk with a pinch of salt. What works and what not largely depends on the type of people you will be playing against.

DaPino wrote:

 Singleton wrote:

Melevolence wrote:

 Singleton wrote:
I'd agree orks are the most forgiving, but I'm not a fan of their models, their fluff, or their crunch so I'm going to stay away from them. Like I said, I'll most likely be playing Necrons or Tau.

Heavily leaning towards Tau though. I really like their battlesuits and the combat armor of their infantry.

I'll agree the Tau line of models are pretty nice and fairly sleek. Pretty elite in the fact they often have small model counts, and are all around a solid army. I don't think you'll find too many issues playing them. Their stigma isn't justified. They, like Eldar (and sadly, now Crons) are a sad synonym for 'that guy' types of players. But the two Tau guys in my group are actually really solid dudes, and don't play cheese (Then again, no one in my group does. So, I'm very blessed in that regard).

I'm not planning on cheeseing my way to victory. I actually wanted to try something different from what most Tau players do. Instead of focusing on the bigger battlesuits, I was planning on running a bunch of Fire Warriors and Stealth Suits as the core of my army, as opposed to the popular broadside and crisis teams in combination with a Riptide. I'll also have to bring a sizeable force of pathfinders since they're what makes Tau good at shooting.

All in all though, I think I'll be able to deal with the stigma attached to Tau players, as their models are just gorgeous and I think they're playstyle suits me well. Tau it is!

I'm planning on buying a box of Pathfinders first to get my painting and assembly down pat, and then order the Battleforce for Tau as it seems like a great deal, saving me 37.50 dollars compared to if I were to just buy everything seperately. I'm not sure how many points that comes out to in all, but adding in an HQ choice and another squad of Fire Warriors and Pathfinders should be a pretty sizeable force while not being unreasonably expensive.

It's nice that you want to "try something else", but the thing with Tau is they either bring Riptides and Broadsides and then your army is strong or you bring other things and (quite possibly) lose. That's just the way Tau are right now, their only viable choices are Riptides and broadsides (and pathfinders to support them), everything else is "meh" at best and Stealth suits are just flat out bad.

They are easy to assemble and paint however.
I think they're a rather boring army to play against, but that's my personal opinion.

Skitarii are quite the unique army. Not always easy to play, but certainly unique. One of your criteria was durability, well if you play skitarii you'll have none, take that from me.
Compared to other armies, they don't have a lot of different models, but those models can do multiple jobs easily. The off-side is that everything apart from their basic troops tends to cost a lot of points (when combined with their fragile nature, makes them harder to play well).

Assembling them is neither hard nor easy in my experience, altough I already had an entire Chaos army before Skitarii even existed. They have thinner parts than most armies, which makes them look fragile, but it's better than it looks.

Necrons are just a good army. If you take the special "decurion" way of making your army, they're ridiculously strong. If you build them like a regular army, they're still strong, but not nearly as OP as people make them out to be.

I don't mind losing so long as I have a good time and have fun assembling and painting models I enjoy. Plus, by playing something different and not bringing the cheese, I can try and avoide the stigma attached to Tau and be good guy greg or whatever.