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I'm new to 40k ttg and have been doing lots of research over the last week to select an army.

I only have one criteria:
-I won't play a "bad" army

My play style will be:
-A continuous advance using direct fire weapons (not arty) to suppress and eliminate the enemy. Most kills should be made from range and assaulting should be only used to finish off the enemy.
-The majority of fighting will be done in small units. Preferably no larger than 5 model teams. Each team should be capable of operating independently. I would like each to field a high rate of fire/suppression weapon and a special weapon.
-Vehicles will only be a supplement to the infantry and should not be the backbone of my army or necessary for victory in most situations.
-It would also be nice to have access to effective non conventional units such as stealthers or snipers.

What army is a good fit?

I've done my best to try and understand which army would fit best using my limited knowledge of the game but before I cement a decision I would like to hear the opinions of some experienced players

I think You'd like Eldar or Space Marines.
Tau are ranged, but Robot suits (vehicles) are very common.
Eldar and SM have variety, and seem ratyher infantry based.

Bad armys don't exist. Only armys that don't fit your play style exist.

Imperial Guard uses a lot of vehicles for their support in the typical army. They aren't required, but then they don't fit your criteria of survivng on their own.

Space Marines are great for beginners. The can survive on their own for a decent length of time and don't require vehicles to be effective.

I discareded Demon Hunters myself because they don't have enough heavy weapons without using allies, which I'd like to avoid.

Eldar can sometimes survive on their own. They don't have a lot of units that can fit the putting out a lot of firepower with special weapons as well.

I don't know much about the rest of the armys from personal experience. Read through the historys. If you can get a full sized rule book. The big one. It has all of the rules and describes the universe and gives an over view of each race. Many people look at the races and find a history for one race and go with that.

Play Blood Angels everyone else is going to

Next

Well, it seems to me that you're asking for something that doesn't really exist. Moving and shooting long range is a rare thing, only relentless units or assault guns have it, and most assault guns are short range.

So, going on what you suggest I can only think of making a Deathwing or Wolf Termie army. Both of which can move 6" and shoot 24", work in small squads and can take special weapons.

But without vehicles you ain't going to be going anywhere. Footslogging armies don't work in small numbers, only hordes, and hordes are exaclty what you say you don't want. So a deathwing army is going to want Land Raiders and dreadnoughts, otherwise your 20 man elite force is going to be made mincemeat of by small arms fire in the first turn.


Sorry, this is 5th Edition. Vehicles are crucial to victory, to almost everyone.

By "bad" do you mean evil? In 40k, everyone is evil somehow!

My only suggestion would be Grey Knights, as stormboltes are one of the few weapons you can fire effectively on the move, while the units themselves are small. You dont really get vehicles, apartr from LR, so they cant be your backbone

However, not using vehicles means that you are at the mercy of running to actually get anywhere at speed - if you are 36" away from an objective you *have* to sacrifice firepower to actually get there.

bigirishgeneral wrote:What army is a good fit?

Noise Marines with sonic weapons.

You could try Deathwing. Terminators typically come in 5 man teams and can take long range weapons they can fire while moving; the cyclone missile launcher and assault cannon. Depending on what they're facing, they can be expected to face off against one or two 10 man squads on their own. They can choose to enter the battle by teleporting in, dropping down anywhere on the map.

They aren't highly competitive, but they're certainly not bad either.

*FYI* I'm posting on multiple forums so I'm pretty much throwing the same things up on every site hoping the points will shed more light for everyone. So, if you see something addressing a question not asked, someone else asked it on another site.

Thanks for the feedback so far. I'll clarify some things.

-By "bad" i meant evil. I understand all sides are pushing their own agenda, but, for example, chaos armies are all about pain and destruction, Nids just engulf and devour everything, and I'm assuming necrons are evil as well. Forgive me if I've missed the mark here. Hope I did a better job expressing myself this time.

-By, "continuous advance", I don't mean fire on the move. I would like to have small groups of troops. All will be in close enough proximity to support each other by fire but still be able to move away on their own. For flanking/moving to cover/casualty avoidance.

-Clarifying vehicles being, "a supplement to the infantry." I certainly understand the need for vehicles. The intent behind my statement was, Should I lose my vehicles early, I don't want to automatically lose, excluding obvious situations where I'm totally overwhelmed.

-Basic play style will be: Infantry units maneuver into cover but remain close enough to support one another by fire. Forming a line but still flexible enough for units to move around without sacrificing the line (this is why small squad size was important. If I have 2 squads of 10, I can't maneuver well, but 4 squads of 5 gives me smaller parts to manipulate without having to redistribute my entire force.) Vehicles would be used to counter largest threat and stop flanking units or transport. What I don't want is cannon fodder infantry with a multitude of vehicles doing all the work.

-I'm attracted to IG and SM but:

-I'm afraid IG will be useless without a command squad nearby and too soft under assault

-I'm afraid SM will be too dependent on closing to assault and may lack the volume of fire I would like to have.

I realize all this is in theory. I'm not unwilling to adjust my play style to fit an army's strengths, but I would like to find the one closest to how I'd like to play and tweak from there.

I appreciate the help thus far. Let's get some more guidance so I can continue to narrow things down for you guys.

Consider Crimson Fist Space Marines with maxed out number of Sternguard and several Tactical Squads at full strength and then split into combat squads.

Your problem about IG is true, but believe me IG often have enough volume of fire to slow down assault units on foot. Mechanised units which seem to define the metagame currently will be harder to stop.

SM closing to assault is not a bad thing. SMs do lack the volume of fire you're envisioning because they're an elitist taskforce type army. They're good enough in assault to hold their own against units they've been shooting the crap out of for the last 2-3 turns.

As for vehicles, take Land Raiders. They don't die... well they do but it takes considerable effort. It gets more fun (for you) and more annoying (for your opponent) if you have a unit of Assault Terminators with Thunderhammers and Stormshields inside it.

In general go with IG if you like rolling lots of dice. They are a hoard army but they're probably the best choice for massive firepower. Their tanks are some of the best and don't worry about an assault, if your squad is wiped out the turn the enemy charges, you get a whole turn to pump las into them at point blank range before they can assault again.

Sounds like you want marines that fire as many shots as guard basically... Eyclonus has it right if its sheer weight of shots you want go guard and if you want small squad size and maneuverability go marines

Marines don't require assaulting. Specific armys within the space marine group assault as a primary tactic. But even then you don't have to assault. You can shoot a lot with marines of any type. It's all about how you build your army.