Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Title says everything.
I want to play Eldar, Imperial Guard, Space Wolves or Tyranids, but i cant decide!

Choose the army that appeals to you the most. Read some fluff to get an idea and look at the models to see what you like. If you decide on an army that's super competitive but you hate the models and/or the fluff you will regret it later.

Actually I would say the models are probably the most important aspect. Nothing kills your interest more quickly than knowing you have to paint 50 models that you can't stand to look at and have no interest in whatsoever just because they win games.

Lukus83 wrote:Choose the army that appeals to you the most. Read some fluff to get an idea and look at the models to see what you like. If you decide on an army that's super competitive but you hate the models and/or the fluff you will regret it later.

Actually I would say the models are probably the most important aspect. Nothing kills your interest more quickly than knowing you have to paint 50 models that you can't stand to look at and have no interest in whatsoever just because they win games.

+1 look through all the background, if you have a FLGS or GW go there and flip through the store copies of the codexs and see what appeals the most to you, work on tactics and how to win later, any army in this game can be competetive, some more than others but that's neither here nor there. Do what you like, how you like it, thats what this hobby is about

yea but... all 4 armies appeal to me equally.

then do 'em all, one after another lol. i love Space Marines, Chaos and Orks, I've built the first two and with the new year i'll be bringin' in the greenskins! The hobby is like tattoos, one is never enough (in my case anyways)

Space Wolves are probably your safest bet. If you get tired of their rules or if they become worthless in the next edition of the game, then you can always play them like regular SM (or any other chapter).

Noobmarine wrote:Title says everything.
I want to play Eldar, Imperial Guard, Space Wolves or Tyranids, but i cant decide!

Wolves are the most newb friendly, though you will not be origional if you ever join a group.

Personally, out of the four you have provided, I would go Nids, though I am slightly biased in that I LOVE a good fight against Nids.

Personally I find Eldar the most difficult to paint well, as you need a really clean painting style (IMO) to do them well.

Space Wolves are just boring as there are currently a lot of people playing them. They can look great though, and their fluff is pretty cool.

'Nids can be easy enough to paint with washes and/or dipping and can look fantastic. There are a couple of builds that I like the sound of and some of their models are great. Sometimes struggle on the table though from what I understand. Also not particularly interesting from a fluff point of view IMO.

Imperial Guard are great - a powerful army with many different builds. Lots of conversion possibilities as well. Pretty easy to paint nicely as well.

All Space Marines are the first choice for most beginners as they are hard as nails, and relatively easy to paint up and get gaming with. IMO depending on the colour scheme you go for, I found Eldar pretty similar to SM on the painting side, but they take a little more time to get used to playing with.

As far as nids and IG go, even a small 1000 pt army is going to be big.
I’m a guard player myself and the first time I got my army on the table a couple of my mates were blown away by the size of it, one was even convinced I’d made a mistake adding it up.
With both of these armies if you want to build a solid force you’re going to be spending a lot of time painting the same model 60+ times, but if you’re quick painter and happy to do that then cool, they are both great armies.

To sum up I’d prob say go with SM to start with, but whatever you decide to go with get some advice on you army list.

All the best

Lukus83 wrote:Choose the army that appeals to you the most. Read some fluff to get an idea and look at the models to see what you like. If you decide on an army that's super competitive but you hate the models and/or the fluff you will regret it later.

Actually I would say the models are probably the most important aspect. Nothing kills your interest more quickly than knowing you have to paint 50 models that you can't stand to look at and have no interest in whatsoever just because they win games.

Sound advice. I would go with this.

pick an army you like painting and you like playing with. it doesnt matter about winning. Its a game and you will have much more fun if you enjoy the arny you have. I buy some things just for the background sometimes.

Also if your friends play choose an army they dont have as it makes the games you play much more fun.

I'd opt for SW, they are a strong army, have a codex that is up to date, and are foregiving as each SM army.
Eldar needs some skill. I'd consider it as a 2nd army.

Well Eldar are tough to run & in all honesty aren't that great, yess they will win but it's an uphill battle and you need to mech up. (For those of you who will spout about Da Boyz GT, even if you won EVERY game it wouldn't even put you in top 5 because of their comp system.)

Tyranids a lot of people say are underpowered but I've seen them do very well. I would not say it's a beginners army but by no means is it bad. They are a fair & balanced codex, they ony appear underpowered because they're contending with IG, SW & BA.

IG you need to mech them up. Mass infantry just won't work however they are arguably the most powerful codex around. Nothing says "HELLO!" like 20+ Hunter Killer Missiles on turn 1 followed by D3 str 10 pie plates of doom.

Wolves are again a very powerful book. Don't be drawn by the allure of their HQs the best strategy for wolves is MSU in Rhinos / Razorbacks. A very tactically flexible army that can be customized for ranged, mid-range, or CC that is very forgiving with a 3+ armor save. I would definitely say this is the best army to start with. I know there's all the marine-hate & believe me I hate MeQs as much as the next guy but when I can use the same models for essentially 7 Different armies (SM, SW, BA, GK(DH), DA, BT, CSM) by painting them my own chapter color (Yes I get wierd looks running CSM as DH but I just invoke Malal, chaos god of anti-chaos ) I can't argue with that kind of cost-efficiency.

Well, i think im going for the Tyranids
1: Dont want to play Space wolves, because my brother already plays with his Ultrmarines, and they are probably a lot of IG, SW, BA players out their, so it would be kinda boring TBH
2: Dont want to play IG for the same reason
3: Eldar will be my second army
4: im going to go OM NOM NOM NOM for now...

Well, I played and am still playing 'Nids, they were my first army, and I still love them to death. Every little gribblie I finish painting and modeling makes the army all the more worth it.

PLUS, painting a target on my carnifex's back as a "You dare shoot me!?" warning just makes my day.

Oh yes, and your going to want to pick up a few Hive Guard models, they are some of our best units, and they are fun to paint. Metal models give me an issue though, so I usually solder the arms, legs, and heads on. And our race has 6 limbs on some creatures too!

Tyranids are now largely reliant on high toughness, multiwound monsters that do not have Eternal Warrior. Unfortunately every other army seems to have a myriad of ways of dealing with them (from the DE's Poisoned weapons to Force Weapons and Jaws of the World Wolf). However there are a number of cheap, effective alternatives. Gargoyles, Termagants and Hormagaunts are some of the best point-per-troop models in the game (at least in my opinion). Termagants can be buffed with a Tervigon equipped with Adrenal Glands and Toxin Sacs. In addition, Termagants are dirt cheap, being the same cost as Imperial Guardsmen, and you can spawn more of them during battle. Hormagaunts armed with Toxin Sacs will absolutely DEVOUR any non-vehicle model. Each one boasts rerolls of 1's, Initiative 5, 3 attacks on the charge, and wounds anything on a 4+ for a meager 8 points. They also have fleet and gets 3D6 and pick the highest instead of the single D6 everything else gets. Gargoyles are the mid-ground between the two, possessing ranged weapons and effective Close Combat prowess, for even less than Hormagaunts (they can also fly!). Bare naked Genestealers, while no longer the cheap deathstar units they were before, are still formidable. I once used a blob of 20 Genestealers with a Broodlord to wreck havoc on the enemy's rear lines with Outflank.

Glad you picked nids. They are the army I play (like you couldn't tell from my avatar). Here's a link to a great tactica by Hulksmash to get you started:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/319613.page

Noobmarine wrote:Title says everything.
I want to play Eldar, Imperial Guard, Space Wolves or Tyranids, but i cant decide!

SW's would be the easymode route. They are cheap to buy, are very easy to play (basically being better than normal space marines for fewer points and with more options), and relatively easy to paint.

Eldar are a less forgiving army, much of the points costs are off due to edition changes, but look really cool. Can be good but are somewhat finicky.

Tyranids are a fun army, but awkward, not the most competitive I've found. Can be difficult to paint but generally easy to build. Definitely fun.

Imperial Guard are probably the strongest army out there right now, with probably the largest variety of viable playstyles and different model lines out there (cadian, krieg, catachan, vostroyan, steel legion, elysian, tallarn, praetorian, etc), but also the most expensive to buy (since you need so much stuff) and take the longest to get built and painted by far. This is the route I'd go (did go) but is very expensive.

Lukus83 wrote:Glad you picked nids. They are the army I play (like you couldn't tell from my avatar). Here's a link to a great tactica by Hulksmash to get you started:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/319613.page

Thank you, this is very informative.