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How do you build an army?
Yes, I used search here on the forums and scoured the book.
But I still don't understand this most essential rule as I cannot find definitive rules on how to start.

Based on page viii in the rule book I understand that you should have your army's codex, and that there are points that you arbitrarily set.
But beyond that I have no idea how you structure your army because the whole "Building an Army" section of the book says nothing about the particulars.

How this comes about is, I just picked up the AoBR and some various other Orks to fill out my roster and am trying to build a 500 pt army.
I cannot find anything in the rule book to suggest where to start beyond deciding on a point value.

I heave heard from a friend that you need one HQ and two troops, but I can't find that rule. Also, what about elites, fast attack and heavy support?
What if I wanted a 500 pt army with killa kans? Is that a troop option? I ready that a Big Mek can take a Deff Dred as a troop, but nothing about kans
anywhere.

What about larger point armies? Is it still 1 HQ and 2 troops? How is that even possible?

With all the other incredibly detailed information, I am surprised there is not a whole section on building army rules. Or am I missing something?

Sorry to be such a noob, but it's really unclear to me.

**Update**
I found the force organization chart but I'm still unclear on how this is decided. Is it arbitrary like army point totals?

As a quick answer to a complicated question I would suggest, assuming you have a copy of the BRB, that you begin on Page 86. This will start to explain the basics of army organised by the FoC.

Simply put: In standard mission games the *minimum* you need to take is 1 HQ choice and 2 Troops. After that you can use whatever you wish within the points limit and within the limits specified by the optional components of the FoC (see page 87 top right corner).

This should give you a start. Most of it comes down to personal tastes and what is defined as "good". After these basics and assuming you've chosen an army (i.e space marine, guard, nid etc...) then you can add more units as you wish or check out the army list section of the forum for some ideas.

Hope this helps.

The force organization chart details how the army is made up. 1 HQ choice, and 2 Troop choices are the minimum requirements regardless of the amount of points taken. In theory if you had 2500 points you could buy nothing but 1 HQ and 2 Troop choices, same as with 500.

From there you'll notice the other grayed out selections, these are options, not requirements. You could have between 0 and the maximum amount of choices in the force org chart.

In order to build a simple army I first start out and pick a HQ choice and two troop choices that fit nicely with the strengths of each other. If you have 1 assult troop, 1 long range troop, and 1 HQ troop really is neither you're not playing to their strengths, generally its best to go with all assult, or all shooty (sometimes called gun line).

Ok so then buy the troops and HQ up to say 500 pts, each squad will have a base cost listed and number of models, say 100 points and 8 models for example. But then it says the squad can have up to 20 models. Alright well if you want to make it 500 points and the HQ is 150, you have 350 to spend on the troops, so 175 per squad, or about 14 troops per unit *if you don't buy any wargear*. Wargear costs extra, like bigger guns, grenades, whatever. If you want some added firepower simply deduct a troop or two and buy a bigger gun for one of the models.

From there, build the list to 1000, and add in a heavy support, or a fast attack unit, these can be kan's, tanks, foot sloggers or whatever, they just designate what they generally do - Heavy support either takes out tanks or large squads of units, and fast attack are more skermisher types.

Build up from there. Note that the cost of a squad/vehicle is listed on the last page of the book (in general), with a page number that will give more details. Some of the details are fluff, but some of the info are weapons that can be taken, extra armor, etc.

Maybe that helps?
Worms

Thanks guys. That helps tons.
This game has a lot of rules!
Also, the "Organizing a Battle" section starting on page 86 of the rule book should really be much MUCH sooner
in the book.
WTH is up with that?

All it is is a restriction on what you can take. It was really well explained in the 40k 3e rulebook. No matter how little or how large the points limit is, you MUST take 1 HQ and 2 troops (or whatever the chart is for the mission). You can also take 4 more troops choices, 3 elite choices, 3 fast attack, and 3 heavy support. I believe that is the standard FO chart, anyway.

It sounds to me like you dont possess the Ork Codex. Point Values, Force Organisation Chart Positions, and any other related options are explained within the relevent army codex.

As for the Force Organisation Chart, there is a maximum of 2 HQ choices, 6 for Troop Choices, and 3 of the rest. Some Books allow you to take more than one squad/character per choice (in which case it will be detailed in the book somewhere, such as the Space Wolves and Daemon's 2 characters per choice option), or a certain squad or character does not count towards this choice but otherwise functions as one (for example, Lesser Daemons are a Troop Choice, but do not count towards your minimum Troop Choice of 2, nor towards the maximum of 6. This means you need another 2 Troop Choices before you can start taking Lesser Daemons, but you can take an almost unlimited number of them, assuming point costs permits. On the Table Top, bcause they count as a Troop Choice, they are allowed to claim objectives and would otherwise function exactly like a normal troop choice).

The Point Cost Limit and Force Organisation Charts are both Limits placed on your army, and your army structure must be made to satisfy both limitation and requirements (so your army must always have 1 HQ and 2 Troop Choices unless specified by the mission, and you may not go over how many FoC choices you have). Some Units also have an "0-1" or "1+" beside them. the "0-1" means that you can ever only have one of that unit, regardless of how many points or choices you have leftover, and is a further restriction upon those limitations (this number sometimes changes to 0-2, 0-3, etc. This simply changes the maximum amount you can take). 1+ means that you MUST have one of those units in your army unless another special rule overrides it.

MechaEmperor7000 wrote:It sounds to me like you dont possess the Ork Codex. Point Values, Force Organisation Chart Positions, and any other related options are explained within the relevent army codex.

I have the hard backed rule book, AoBR rule book with the getting started stuff and the Ork codex.
Turns out my problem was an expectation that something as fundamental as "Organization of a Battle" would be at the front of the book.
I finally found it after some general directions from the forum guys here.
Everything I needed to know was in that section.
I'm surprised that there is no first timer friendly "Quick Match" section at the beginning of the book outlining a sample battle.

matphat wrote:

MechaEmperor7000 wrote:It sounds to me like you dont possess the Ork Codex. Point Values, Force Organisation Chart Positions, and any other related options are explained within the relevent army codex.

I have the hard backed rule book, AoBR rule book with the getting started stuff and the Ork codex.
Turns out my problem was an expectation that something as fundamental as "Organization of a Battle" would be at the front of the book.
I finally found it after some general directions from the forum guys here.
Everything I needed to know was in that section.
I'm surprised that there is no first timer friendly "Quick Match" section at the beginning of the book outlining a sample battle.

There was in the 3e book...
What is the world coming to?

Seriously.
Coming from a table top RPG and video game back ground, I haven't seen a game in years that doesn't have a tutorial or quick play section
as a core component of the game.
Seems like a pretty large oversight.

Here's how you build an army when you start out: Get the codex for what army you want to create, then just buy models that you like. Buying a battleforce would be a great start, and just buy whatever units you like. The rules come later. If you're just going to be a casual gamer, you don't need a pre-made army list. Just go with the flow, and slowly build your army. Eventually you'll start to fine-tune your army and make it more competitive. Until then, don't worry about it.

As I wrote this, I got the sneaking suspicion that I don't understand what you're question is . If it's about army composition, everyone else answered it for you .

Hahaha! Thanks anyway Fontane.
The effort is appreciated.

I started off by buying the Codex, and making lists out of models I liked.

Then I got interested in playing in tournys, so I started reading online (about the time I joined on Dakka) for strategy. My purchasing and use of models became much more focused. I started buying models more to make a list then because I liked that model specifically. This lead me to purchase models which are now of my favourites in my SM: Terminator Librarian and the LRC.

Starting my Dark Eldar has also been much more focused. Although, admittedly I'm focusing on wychs because I like the models and fluff, I have purchased exactly what I needed to make 1000 and now my 1500 point lists.

It all depends on what you want to do. If you are just throwing down some models with a buddy in your game room, then just get models that you like to look at. If you are building an army to take to tournaments, then plan the list out first.

If you have AoBR, it should come with a "quick play" rulebook (if I recall) that lists how to play some skirmish games using just the orks and marines that come in the box.

From there, I would echo fontane. Look in the codex and just pick a couple units that look cool (either from an appearance or rules perspective) and buy them. Once you have those guys assembled, play some games with a friend. By the time you have them all painted, you should start to get an idea of what additional guys might complement your army.

Also, don't be afraid of getting some models that don't immediately seem useful if they look really cool and you would enjoy painting them.

You could also start a thread in the painting and modeling section to get feedback as you grow your army.

Good luck and welcome to the hobby!