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Ok I just recently decided that I am going to play 40k. I have seen it played for years and I finally decided to give in. I am now at an impass, I cannot make up my mind between Tau, Eldar, Space Marines, and Chaos Marines. They all look cool and seem like they will be a blast to paint and play. For some one just starting is there a particular one I should pick for ease of use or is there one that is just plain horrible and should avoid? Please be consise about why a particular army is bad or ill suited for a beginning player. Thanks for any help you all can provide.

Space Marines, of both normal and chaos variaties are the strongest, and most n00b friendly armies. Just shoot at the opponent.

Tau is weak, but it does have really good shooty stuff. Not really recommended for beginners.

Eldar is the least n00b friendly, as it requires alot of specialized troops to be really effective and in the right proportions. If you use the wrong type of troops in the wrong amounts it makes it pretty hard.

Note: These are my opinions. Pick the army that best appeals to you. The rulebook recommends that you pick your first army based on looks, as playing style can always be learned.

Good luck with whatever you choose! Welcome to DakkaDakka!

Thank you for the reply and I will deffinately keep that in mind. The Tau seem very strong at range in any case since there is a large availability of Rail guns and any weapon with strength 10 AP 1 seems damn good to me. Oh I did read all the codexes from those armies listed, so I have some idea but not enough to probly make a difference.

what hallucination said was a rather large generalisation.

all armies are playable casually, its just tournament army lists played by powergamers that really hightlight the various strengths and weaknesses between armies.

space marines are a good place to start. theyre simply to paint and play with and can be quite fun. they have a nice mix of shooting and combat.

chaos are a bit trickier. they can be powerful but its easy to make a weak army list. they also have very good shooting and combat but tend to me more expensive than normal marines.

tau can be quite good. in casual games they can hold their own, but in tournaments they require a lot of thinking to work. with some of the best shooting in the game, tau can be also be highly mobile, but they suck in combat.

eldar are pretty good generally but you have to be aware of all their subtle intricacies to really make them shine. also have good combat and good shooting, eldar arent as tough as SM but are one of the fastest armies in the game and can outmanuver most opponents.


ultimately its not good to choose a starting army based on tournament power levels, unless you only want to play to win. choose an army based on the style of play that attracts you, that armies background and how you would like to paint them.

Thank you for the specifics, thats acually quite helpful. Yes i would acually once i get a solid hold on this game play competitively. I do not think i will win verymany if any of my first several games however i do want to give my self a fighting chance. If i can hurt them very badly and loose I am much happier then getting wiped out and them having few to no casualties. Really sounds like SM are the best bet. IS there a good build I shoul work with first? I do not want to get my self way too point heavy into terminators or tanks. Like i said I want to give my self the best fighting chance, all the armies have an apeal to me they all look like they are fun to paint and they all have great backstory.