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Hi,

Long time reader/ first time poster here.

I've been a painter for some time, but increasingly interested in having a go at gaming. I'm therefore looking for advice on how I could start. Ideally I'd like to be in a position where I have two small forces to be able to play with friends or my partner.

The challenge is, I tend to paint special characters or things I like - rather than the ingredients for a decent force i.e troops

I therefore have three questions;
1. What’s the best way to start, which would enable me to have a fun, interesting game? I.e. whats the minimum point size recommended, and should I consider Kill team or similar?
2. Linked to this, what scenery / board / gaming mat is recommended, again minimum but enough to have a fun and immersive game note - preference would be on grass scenery to match my bases
3. Finally of the models below, what might be a sensible way or arranging and building two forces without having to paint lots more troops? Open to any suggestions here, I'm looking for new things to paint, but would like to avoid tens of tac squads or cadians...

Welcome any thoughts and opinions!

Thanks in advance!


Models;

Ultramarines:
Sicarous
4x Veterans
Sternguard Squad (5)
Tactical Squad (10)
Dreadnought

Space Wolves
Leman Russ
Logan Grimnar
Canis Wolfborn
Techmarine
Chaplin
Dreadnought
Longs Fangs (5)

Imperial Guard
Yarrick
2x Command Squad (12 Models)
Heavy Weapon Squad (1x Heavy Bolter, 2x Lascannon)
Leman Russ Vanquisher

Inquisition
1 Inquisitor (WIP)
3 Servitors (Unpainted)
Priest
Scribe
5 Acolytes (Unpainted)

Welcome to Dakka, and the gaming side of 40k.

Your collection is not very conducive for actual play, unfortunately. While you can do 200 point kill teams, most games are going to start at 500 points, and that’s small. Mostly you see 1,500 - 2,000 point games. Obviously, starting out small is fine. The basic form for building an army is a HQ and two troops. I think the only army in your collection that can pull that off is the Ultras, and that requires fielding your tacs as 2 five man squads. The inquisition has some odd rules for army building, but even then you don’t have a lot of points there.

You might want to check if there are local games stores in the area with tables to use. Those would be a lot nicer then what you are likely to get at home without a bit of effort. I think most of us started out with stacks of books for hills, and scraps of paper with “woods” written on them. The old rule of thumb was every 2' square of the table should have 1-3 bits of terrain on them. You want some cover, some LOS blockers, etc, just to keep things interesting. I know you can get nice 4’x6’ mats for about $100, give or take depending on which brand. Terrain is variable, lots of cool options out there these days.

I’d first pick one army to work on. Two at the most. Getting them up to a playable level is going to take some work. Figure out what drew you to the army, and what style of play you’d like. Generally there are a number of ways to go with each force. For anything but highly competitive lists, you can generally take a few units you like, and build around them. Even if they are only so-so on the table, you can take other units to shore up their weaknesses. Think about where you would like to be at larger point values. And then start building towards that.

Good advice! I think you can smoosh things together because they are all Imperails, you just need to add in some rank and file...maybe one or two chapters decide to aid a mad Inquisiter on a mission?

Kill team is a good way to get started, and then you can start trying larger games...Escalation could be a good way to go...? Good luck! And Welcome!

pinecone77 wrote:
Kill team is a good way to get started

This right here, especially if your model collection isn't up to building a full army. I've been out of the game since 5th and have played a lot of Kill Team over the last week or so in preparation for a return; the game works a bit differently to squad-based battles but it's a great way to learn the nuances of the rules and get a feel for how the game flows, plus it helps get your eye in when it comes to distances. There are some unit types you'll never encounter in KT, stuff like Super Heavies and Monstrous Creatures, so you'll need to learn about those things on the fly, but KT is still a really good place to start.

100% if you try to start at even 1000 point games Warhammer will eat you alive. It's like 800 pages of rulebooking just to get 2 armies off the ground. play kill team and only use 1-2 squads at a time(play even smaller games if you have to) until you understand the basics. You can expand out from their either by watching batreps or by playing progressively larger games.

Hi,

Thanks for the advice - really useful, looks like I need to pick up the Kill Team rules!

Agree that I need to work on the armies though. I always get drawn to the interesting models, hence the lack of rank and file. Looking into it more since the first post, I think it's the number of IG troops that's putting me off, but the models that lost appeal. So focusing on a squad for kill team may make it a bit more accessible!

Thanks again, will get painting!