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I know this question has been asked many times by many people across time, but I'm genuinely stuck as to which army I should choose.

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. I also don't want to play as Eldar, but I'm not sure if a lot of people play Eldar, so they're a possibility and I'm open to suggestions regarding them. I'm also open to playing Tau, but I am a bit hesitant as they don't really field a lot of line infantry, mostly mech suits.

So far the armies I'm looking at right now are:

- Militarum Tempestus

- Sisters of Battle

-Dark Eldar

- Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii

-Possibly Eldar

-Possibly Tau

I want to a play an army that is at least decently tanky/durable with good shooting capability and decent melee ability. Gunline armies basically that can melee if need. I also want my chosen army to focus mainly on infantry models without too many vehicles or walkers/mechs to speak of.

From what I've researched, Skitarii are decently durable and have great shooting and situational close combat ability with the doctrines.

Militarum Tempestus and Dark Eldar both live by the same code of strike hard and fast, but die fast as well, but I just love both of the armies' aesthetics, and I hear they;re both very rarely played due to being 'hard mode.'

Sisters of battle have above average durability and are great in short range firefights with decent melee as well. My only concern is that since this is my first endeavor into the world of wargaming, I'm a little hesitant to take on metal models, as I'm not fully aware if there are any tools/paints/brushes I need specifically for metal minis. If anyone is knowledgeable on the differences in constructing and painting plastic minis as opposed to metal ones, I'd love to hear what you have to say.

All in all, I just want to play an underused army that I can grow with. I'm not adverse to losing a lot of games for a while, while I learn the game. Any general tips for a newbie just getting into the game are also greatly appreciated.

with your first sentance explaining what you want, you basically described space marines, since you wanna be different from them, have you looked into chaos? there is a ton of variety since you can just mix and match from daemons, IG, and CSM.

Sisters of Battle would be the most special of the snowflakes, and IMO they are the coolest from the list you provided. I mean Battle Nuns, come on dude. I hear they are quite an expensive army to collect, and they seem to be he least supported with new models and rules and so forth.

I am not an advanced painter, but I don't find there's much difference between painting a primed metal model or a primed plastic model.

In the end, go with the army you think looks coolest.

 Brennonjw wrote:
with your first sentance explaining what you want, you basically described space marines, since you wanna be different from them, have you looked into chaos? there is a ton of variety since you can just mix and match from daemons, IG, and CSM.

I know SM would be a good fit, but honestly I find the models not well proportioned and I want to be different from the bulk of people. I'm not into Chaos at all, just don't like the fluff or their aesthetic, and that includes all Chaos armies (Daemons, CSM, Renegades and Heretics, Khorne Daemonkin, etc.)


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 jasper76 wrote:
Sisters of Battle would be the most special of the snowflakes, and IMO they are the coolest from the list you provided. I mean Battle Nuns, come on dude. I hear they are quite an expensive army to collect, and they seem to be he least supported with new models and rules and so forth.

I am not an advanced painter, but I don't find there's much difference between painting a primed metal model or a primed plastic model.

In the end, go with the army you think looks coolest.

So one vote for SoB. They are pretty unique admittedly, and I do like the whole emphasis on heavy flamers. However, are there any special tools I need specifically for metal models, and are they difficult to assemble and paint? I also hear I need to use the non plastic glue, the superglue that GW sells instead for their models.

Careful you don't start with an army that isn't a full army. The way GW has split some books might make a new player think he's buying a book detailing a full army but come to realize the entries within it doesn't fill a FOC chart and might not even come with an HQ choice despite an FOC making an HQ a requirement. You bolded some choices that are like that.
If you like space marine stuff but don't want to be space marine or their chaos counterpart then I believe Orks are the only option to suit your needs. Like space marines they come as ground troops, jump jet troops, biker troops, Heavy weapon squads (Lootas are better then Marine variants if you ask me), MANz (ork version of termies), assault vehicle spam etc... A lot of similarities in the toyz being used but being a different race it's a different profile. In this case Orks are less armoured and not as good with shooty weapons but are just as strong and tough as marines, have more atks then marines and are MUCH cheaper and thus more spammable. Spammable marines that can happily afford losses rather then fret and stress over every important death when fielding a smaller more elite force.

@Singleton: for metal models I use cheap superglue. The Plastic glue won't work. The main drawback about metal models is their weight on the gaming table. If you play with hilly terrain, and the model is placed at an angle, it can sometimes fall over pretty easily due to the weight of some models. Also, plastic is a bit easier to chop up and work with for conversions and kit bashing.

I don't have a whole lot of metal models, so I dont have any special tools, or really know if different types of tools are useful. But they're not any harder to paint than plastic models in my experience, with the same brushes I use for plastic.

Overall, every army can be a special snowflake, because they're YOUR snowflake. Even if you have the exact same army as your friends/enemies, if you paint them different, give them some names and conversions, and remember the time oh-my-god Geordi the Scout totally killed a whole squad of Terminators with his Frag Grenade of Awesome, then they'll become special.

However, I get the drive to want a different army rules-wise than your opponents. In that case I'd recommend Adeptus Mechanicus/Skitarii as they are very new right now, so not a lot of people play them yet! You'll definitely want them allied together, since each codex on their own is a little light, but you will definitely be unique!

 ProwlerPC wrote:
Careful you don't start with an army that isn't a full army. The way GW has split some books might make a new player think he's buying a book detailing a full army but come to realize the entries within it doesn't fill a FOC chart and might not even come with an HQ choice despite an FOC making an HQ a requirement. You bolded some choices that are like that.
If you like space marine stuff but don't want to be space marine or their chaos counterpart then I believe Orks are the only option to suit your needs. Like space marines they come as ground troops, jump jet troops, biker troops, Heavy weapon squads (Lootas are better then Marine variants if you ask me), MANz (ork version of termies), assault vehicle spam etc... A lot of similarities in the toyz being used but being a different race it's a different profile. In this case Orks are less armoured and not as good with shooty weapons but are just as strong and tough as marines, have more atks then marines and are MUCH cheaper and thus more spammable. Spammable marines that can happily afford losses rather then fret and stress over every important death when fielding a smaller more elite force.

I'm not too keen on Orks honestly. They're fun to watch in action, but I couldn't see myself playing them. Also, yes I know Militarum Tempestus' options are very limited when it comes to fielding stuff, but I hear their orders give them a lot of tactical diversity and flexibility. Plus, I like how their models look, remind me of Starcraft Ghosts.


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 jasper76 wrote:
@Singleton: for metal models I use cheap superglue. The Plastic glue won't work. The main drawback about metal models is their weight on the gaming table. If you play with hilly terrain, and the model is placed at an angle, it can sometimes fall over pretty easily due to the weight of some models. Also, plastic is a bit easier to chop up and work with for conversions and kit bashing.

I don't have a whole lot of metal models, so I dont have any special tools, or really know if different types of tools are useful. But they're not any harder to paint than plastic models in my experience, with the same brushes I use for plastic.

Good to know, and thank you for the help. Do metal models just come in pieces, or do you need to cut them out from the framework packaging like all the other plastic models?

Once you prime, it doesn’t really matter what material you are painting. Cleanup is a little more difficult, but not a whole lot. I use the same tools (hobby knife, needle files) on plastic, metal, and resin. I use Krazy glue from the super market, you don’t need to use the glue GW sells (which is overpriced and has a bad reputation) Plastic is easier to assemble, and much easier to kitbash/modify.

When picking an army, make sure you choose one you like the aesthetics, fluff, and game play of. You are going to invest a lot of time and money into them, so make sure it’s something you like.

Of your selections, with your criteria, I think skitarri might be the closest pick. Although some DE builds might qualify. While I think SoB can do footslogging, they really benefit from meching up, and it sounds like that is something you want to avoid.

ProwlerPC,
There are Detachments and Formations found within those books, all easily achievable by the Units within.

 Singleton wrote:

Good to know, and thank you for the help. Do metal models just come in pieces, or do you need to cut them out from the framework packaging like all the other plastic models?

Ive never "unboxed " any Sisters of Battle, so I don't know how they come. Hopefully a Sisters player will come along and give you an answer.

 Yarium wrote:
Overall, every army can be a special snowflake, because they're YOUR snowflake. Even if you have the exact same army as your friends/enemies, if you paint them different, give them some names and conversions, and remember the time oh-my-god Geordi the Scout totally killed a whole squad of Terminators with his Frag Grenade of Awesome, then they'll become special.

However, I get the drive to want a different army rules-wise than your opponents. In that case I'd recommend Adeptus Mechanicus/Skitarii as they are very new right now, so not a lot of people play them yet! You'll definitely want them allied together, since each codex on their own is a little light, but you will definitely be unique!

I originally at first sight loved them, but then I realized how goddamn hard it's going to be to assemble and paint them, especially with me being such a noob. I'm willing to suffer and agonize through it, but from what I've researched about them, they are around 20 times harder to paint and assemble than a Space Marine. The price of being unique is high I suppose ...

I also just wanted to ask a question about paints. If I were to go with the Skitarii, I'd want to paint them a mostly blue color scheme with some grey. Would this list of paints be suffice?

• Chaos Black Spray: $17
• Corax White Spray: $17
• Citadel Base Kantor Blue: $4.25
• Citadel Base Leadbelcher: $4.25
• Citadel Base Caledor Sky: $4.25
• Citadel Base Mechanicus Standard Grey: $4.25
• Citadel Shade Drakenhof Nightshade: $4.25
• Citadel Shade Nuln Oil: $4.25
• Citadel Layer Alaitoc Blue: $4.25
• Citadel Layer Hoeth Blue: $4.25
• Citadel Layer Dawnstone: $4.25
• Citadel Layer Administratum Grey: $4.25
• Citadel Dry Etherium Blue: $4.25
• Citadel Dry Longbeard Grey: $4.25
• Citadel Glaze Guilliman Blue: $4.25
• (Optional, Dark Elves Paint Bundle(Purples, $21.50) (If I wanted to add in splashes of purple)

From what I gather, first you prime models in black or white sprays, then paint them with base colors. Then add layers and shades (dunno which comes first) and then dry paints and finally the glaze. I'm just wondering if I'd need more paints to get a well rounded (colorwise) model that's not too mono color heavy.

Don't buy GW Spray Primer! It is way overpriced, and it's not even as good as the cheap primers at the hardware stores like Krylon and Rustoleum.

 Nevelon wrote:
Once you prime, it doesn’t really matter what material you are painting. Cleanup is a little more difficult, but not a whole lot. I use the same tools (hobby knife, needle files) on plastic, metal, and resin. I use Krazy glue from the super market, you don’t need to use the glue GW sells (which is overpriced and has a bad reputation) Plastic is easier to assemble, and much easier to kitbash/modify.

When picking an army, make sure you choose one you like the aesthetics, fluff, and game play of. You are going to invest a lot of time and money into them, so make sure it’s something you like.

Of your selections, with your criteria, I think skitarri might be the closest pick. Although some DE builds might qualify. While I think SoB can do footslogging, they really benefit from meching up, and it sounds like that is something you want to avoid.

I love the aesthetics of the Dark Eldar, Nuns with Guns, and Skitarii, but all for different reasons. Since Eldar are considered the 'artist' faction for highly talented painters to express their fanciness, I'd assume Dark Eldar are pretty similar in scope so I'd most likely suck at painting them.

The SoB aesthetic is awesome honestly, but they're very pricey and they don't do as well in an infantry focused setup.

Skitarii are great aesthetically, but again, they're so detailed that they look intimidating to paint well. Plus, I can only imagine Skitarii are a nightmare to assemble.

Before I say anything else:
Sisters? No, they are super expensive for what you get and what you get is an ancient line of models that are very static and look alike. And I play sisters myself. The army is great and all but seriously, don't start with sisters at this point, they don't even get a physical book. Their also the most likely atm to get a complete revamp of both the models and codex, so you may or may not like what you get.....eventually...maybe.....hopefully.......
Militarum tempestus...eeeeeeeeeeh.....eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh....That's barely a codex at all. At the very least then you would have to combine that with inquisition, but either way that's not a good starting choice imho.

So yea, I was gonna suggest Chaos too as it kinda fits the bill nicely, but you've since said you don't like them.
I don't know much about Skitarii, so nothing much to say here.
Tau can do infantry heavy lists, but they're not going to be the most competitive lists I guess. Contrary to what some people here will want you to believe, that is not a problem though. They also have gotten a lot more support from forge world over the time even if only in the form of suits.
But they have the defensive capacity of a wet paper towel. Their only defense is offense. If the enemy ever makes it into melee your boned.

So Dark eldar would be my proposal, they have very good shooting and can pack a punch in melee with the right units. They also have some durable units. If you don't mind mixing it up a bit. They're not very forgiving, as they are pretty much the glass cannons of 40k along with eldar. But I think you should be fine. Very nice models too and pretty unique as well in the aesthetics.

 jasper76 wrote:
Don't buy GW Spray Primer! It is way overpriced, and it's not even as good as the cheap primers at the hardware stores like Krylon and Rustoleum.

Okie doke. I don't know of any hardware stores near my area, but I'll check it out.

Black primer: Good for new painters ("hides" mistakes), mutes colors.

White primer: Makes colors brighter.

As for unpacking sisters, that's all you do...you unpack them.
The models are completely static up and including the head and weapons. all you do is clean mould lines and clue them to the base. Which is a lot more work than the if you had to do the same in plastic. Not to mention that some of their kits are horrible to assemble. Inclduing their prime tank the Excorcist.

Roknar wrote:
Before I say anything else:
Sisters? No, they are super expensive for what you get and what you get is an ancient line of models that are very static and look alike. And I play sisters myself. The army is great and all but seriously, don't start with sisters at this point, they don't even get a physical book. Their also the most likely atm to get a complete revamp of both the models and codex, so you may or may not like what you get.....eventually...maybe.....hopefully.......
Militarum tempestus...eeeeeeeeeeh.....eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh....That's barely a codex at all. At the very least then you would have to combine that with inquisition, but either way that's not a good starting choice imho.

So yea, I was gonna suggest Chaos too as it kinda fits the bill nicely, but you've since said you don't like them.
I don't know much about Skitarii, so nothing much to say here.
Tau can do infantry heavy lists, but they're not going to be the most competitive lists I guess. Contrary to what some people here will want you to believe, that is not a problem though. They also have gotten a lot more support from forge world over the time even if only in the form of suits.
But they have the defensive capacity of a wet paper towel. Their only defense is offense. If the enemy ever makes it into melee your boned.

So Dark eldar would be my proposal, they have very good shooting and can pack a punch in melee with the right units. They also have some durable units. If you don't mind mixing it up a bit. They're not very forgiving, as they are pretty much the glass cannons of 40k along with eldar. But I think you should be fine. Very nice models too and pretty unique as well in the aesthetics.

So Dark Eldar or Skitarii. Got it.


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ziggurattt wrote:
Black primer: Good for new painters ("hides" mistakes), mutes colors.

White primer: Makes colors brighter.

I'll be sure to get some black primer then since this is my first army.

 Singleton wrote:

 jasper76 wrote:
Don't buy GW Spray Primer! It is way overpriced, and it's not even as good as the cheap primers at the hardware stores like Krylon and Rustoleum.

Okie doke. I don't know of any hardware stores near my area, but I'll check it out.

If you have a Wal-Mart, Lowe's, Home Depot, or ACE nearby, chances are they sell spray primer. You might want to just look at the cans and make sure they're ok for plastic.

I've never had any problems with Krylon or Rustoleum for either black or white priming.

 jasper76 wrote:

 Singleton wrote:

 jasper76 wrote:
Don't buy GW Spray Primer! It is way overpriced, and it's not even as good as the cheap primers at the hardware stores like Krylon and Rustoleum.

Okie doke. I don't know of any hardware stores near my area, but I'll check it out.

If you have a Wal-Mart, Lowe's, Home Depot, or ACE nearby, chances are they sell spray primer. You might want to just look at the cans and make sure they're ok for plastic.

I've never had any problems with Krylon or Rustoleum for either black or white priming.

Awesome, I'll pick some black primer up from Wal Mart then.

Dark Eldar could suit you very well, particulary if you play Covens. T5/T7 3W FnP should feel durable enough for you and the Dark Eldar Kabalites have a lot of firepower when min-maxed well.

Mind you dark eldar work best with transports in terms of shooting if that is ok with you. I'm not sure its a good idea to have completely footslogging dark eldar. It's still the infantry shooting out of said transports though.

 Frozocrone wrote:
Dark Eldar could suit you very well, particulary if you play Covens. T5/T7 3W FnP should feel durable enough for you and the Dark Eldar Kabalites have a lot of firepower when min-maxed well.

Sounds great! But uh, whate are covens might I ask? Sorry I'm very new to this. Are they a unit or a formation/grouping of units that when I bring them all, I get a bonus?


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Roknar wrote:
Mind you dark eldar work best with transports in terms of shooting if that is ok with you. I'm not sure its a good idea to have completely footslogging dark eldar. It's still the infantry shooting out of said transports though.

I could probably make a compromise to shoot for dedicated transports for them. Can't have everything go your way after all.

I believe the covens he is reerring to is a supplement for the dark eldar codex...so a sub codex if you want.

It doesn't add new units, but the dark eldar codex has dark eldar (duh) and a whole bunch of ghouls an tortured abominations. The coven supplement builds around those specifically and enhances them. I've never seen it but I am confident it offers a few new formations and maybe some extra relics.

You can easily use that supplement alongside a normal Dark eldar force

go for AdMech, pretty small group overall I'd say.

 Hawkeye888 wrote:
go for AdMech, pretty small group overall I'd say.

Another vote for Ad mech! I like the Skitarii a lot, they just seem very hard to assemble and paint, which is my main concern, since I'm a total newb to this kind of stuff.


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I'm just a bit hesitant when it comes to Dark Eldar though, as it seems like they're all about speed and firepower. They seem pretty squishy. Skitarii aren't that much more durable, but I could see it being meaningful. I shall have to ponder on which force to buy ...

Necrons, I can't press this enough, NECRONS

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.

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