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Your own custom chapter of Marines is the safest purchase, by far. This way, you're not bound by a specific set of rules, you can paint them in any scheme you see fit, you can swap codexes/chapter tactics, and you can collect models from any part of the vast marine range. You can use Ultramarine rules, use the models for BA Honour Guard for your Vanguard, and paint them black, if you want. Your army will be YOURS, first and foremost, and no one will (or should) bat an eye when they see a custom chapter using any (single) set of marine rules.

Marines of some type or another have always had a solid set of rules. I've played them since 2nd edition, and I've done well enough with them for 20 years.

There is some fear about nu-marines or whatever. I wouldn't bother listening to it. Even if they do release some sort of new marine line, you can either A: swap in some models from the new line if you like. Or B: You have access on ebay to about three decades worth of back-catalog models. Anybody who is gonna begrudge you for using older models is a person not worth playing with, IMO. This is your collection, do as you will.


Edit:
There's another bit that's kind of important for longevity. Bread and butter units tend to last longer that specific list builds. Units that operate more on the margins with fancy gear or rules, also tend to get affected the most by edition changes. Most notably stuff like the all-Terminator-Deathwing-Army, which was a fancy build for DA, often undergoes some sort of alterations to lose viability. I'd be wary of stuff like all-bike armies, or all Sternguard armies, all Tyranid MC armies... stuff like that sometimes only works well for an edition or two, and then something happens to shift the balance away from its effectiveness. I've found it's usually better to have a healthy variety of units, that way when an update happens, you're more likely to have something that will let you keep a foothold on the balance at your local club. Then you only have to swap out one or two units, instead of start your army over from scratch.

For example, I've been using lots of Tactical marines since 3rd Ed. The way that I use them changes from edition to edition, but they still form the bulk of all my armies. I don't have to repaint a bunch of stuff. They went from on foot, to Drop Pods, and now they're mostly in Rhinos. Their special weapons have gone form Lascannon/Flamer, to Multimelta/Grav, to Grav-Cannon/Grav or Grav-Cannon/Melta. Each change is small, I don't have to repaint entire squads to keep the army fresh and useful.


Other armies can do this too, but Marines tend to have lots of options, and are always pretty solid from a rules standpoint.

 Insectum7 wrote:
Your own custom chapter of Marines is the safest purchase, by far.

I think this is really good advice. You get to be as creative with your painting as you want and can shop around until you find the codex that works best for your play style.

 Insectum7 wrote:
There's another bit that's kind of important for longevity. Bread and butter units tend to last longer that specific list builds. Units that operate more on the margins with fancy gear or rules, also tend to get affected the most by edition changes.

I also completely agree here. Sure you might not be the best, but chances are you are going to be the worst either. However, you are setup to be the least annoyed with edition changes.

When playing Bolt Action, I always suggested going with a fairly historically accurate setup. That way you aren't surprised if (and when previously) a new edition comes around which should be attempting to stick fairly close to WWII tactics even if they are cinematic in nature. Plus, going that route allows for the ability to better play other games. I can't say I felt bad for players that spammed the more cheesy stuff from 1st edition that don't really work now.

I take the same idea with 40K. Regular Chaos Space Marines might not be the best choice now, but they are the foundation of CSM armies so I can't see them going anywhere but up. Plus, I don't much care for cultists as I want to play evil space marines not evil guardsmen.

Crispy78 wrote:

 Blackie wrote:
Orks, you'll never get tired to convert models and scratch built stuff.

What about when you're painting your 100th boy and you've still got another 50 boys to go?

You can build 200 orks different get never tired of them, painting necrons, tyranids, AM, tau is more frustrating as you'll have the idea of painting always the same model. Also painting models that you don't like is quite hard.

 Blackie wrote:

Crispy78 wrote:

 Blackie wrote:
Orks, you'll never get tired to convert models and scratch built stuff.

What about when you're painting your 100th boy and you've still got another 50 boys to go?

You can build 200 orks different get never tired of them, painting necrons, tyranids, AM, tau is more frustrating as you'll have the idea of painting always the same model. Also painting models that you don't like is quite hard.

Absolutely. Tired of choppa arms? Give an ork the stikkbomb arm and glue a choppa on the belt. or use the closed fist arm and mount an extra shoota on his back. Grab a bag of bits off of flea bay and bling the krap out of them. Plus the boyz kit is designed so well they can have all kinds of poses. I've got a couple of boyz flipping off helldrakes and others bent low like they're taking the time out to poke ants.

200 is far too few orks to run out of options.

Just play what you think looks cool. The secret to hobby happiness is buying what you love to paint/play. I've owned just about every faction in 40k but now all I have is 5000+ points of Tau because I love their range the most and I love how they play. Find whatever faction that is for you, and you will find ways to adapt to whatever changes come in 8th, 9th and beyond.

Fwiw, I am very optimistic about 8th ed not ruining 40k, while importing some modest changes from AoS. GW has been on fire since they changed leadership and I trust this new management team to nail this.

 Blackie wrote:

Crispy78 wrote:

 Blackie wrote:
Orks, you'll never get tired to convert models and scratch built stuff.

What about when you're painting your 100th boy and you've still got another 50 boys to go?

You can build 200 orks different get never tired of them, painting necrons, tyranids, AM, tau is more frustrating as you'll have the idea of painting always the same model. Also painting models that you don't like is quite hard.

I'm going to disagree. I got through about 30 Orks before I got tired of them, mainly because they're excessively detailed for a horde army and painting those details gets boring after a while. By contrast I've painted in the realm of about 100 Tyranid gribblies. Because they're pretty simple to paint I can just pump through them.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 The Shrike wrote:
Fwiw, I am very optimistic about 8th ed not ruining 40k

Me too, though for different reasons... I think 40k was already ruined with recent editions

Have played for a long time... far too long. Some of the figures that I have are from 1987/88 when I first started to play. Its not about the figures you buy...

I would pick any army... but also be prepared to grow and expand your forces based off how you play. When I first started playing I wanted to collect Space Wolves as they were so cool looking to me... I wanted to have lots of terminators! But... I worked out the way I play is for more shooty and defensive after about a year. Each player does have a style they enjoy more than others usually. Why not work out what your style is first... then decide...

Gunlines? Guard....
Assualt? Nids.. BA... etc

All round? Marines...

Then you can make a choice that you can stick with over several years or editions... They are unlikely to change the thematical approach to an army... Ie; I cant see the Imperial Guard becoming close combat masters anytime soon or have the figures models or anything else released that are part of their theme.... Not to say you cant do a close combat themed guard army... some are out there... wave after wave of troops... but for the main, tanks... guns... more guns.

Craftworld Eldar are always very good. Only once lapsing to solid when their book was an edition behind.

Space Marines are always good with the caveat that you need a diverse collection as what makes them good changes fairly regularly.

Chaos has not fared well overall but the Daemonic side of things have been stronger more often and longer.

Guard Orks and Nids are seldom powerhouses. Though they have had their moments.

Tau are quite good now but their polarizing proclivities open themselves up to core rules drastically changing their ability.

Necrons do what they do well but seldom rise to be the dominant faction.

 AnomanderRake wrote:

tneva82 wrote:
Of course this little of everything aka wd style is good way to ensure that while army efficiency isn't going to suffer a lot it will be always miles behind others

That's the gamble. Are you going to optimize your list and risk having to throw it all out and start over when the new edition lands, or are you going to get a broader spread, play a less optimal list now, and be confident you'll still be able to use most of it when 8th lands?

Not really gamble. If you go for WD style you ALWAYS suck.

Maybe suck vs always suck. That's no real gamble.

No one's sure. But if you'd really want to start with something. Shadow War Armageddon is a safe bet to start. It has the models, but is a game on it's own to.