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I have been approached recently and asked what army I would suggest to a newbie.

And I find it a hard question to answer.

The new person has the following concerns: Cost (money limited but works for a living may be able to spend 100 per month), learning (the rules and the specifics of their army).

As a group we are planning on helping on the learning curve and to play some instructional games with them. And our group is very friendly and helps with constructive criticism (even from observers). Most of this is after a game or when it cannot affect the game or if given permission by the opponent.

We do have players from whom you can borrow minis to play. And we do allow reasonable proxies for friendly games.

So given that the only decission is what army, regardless of anything else, what army would you suggest?

For a newbie? with intent on going to tournaments? And being competitive?

Please only suggest 1 army and not this army for this and that army for that. Which 1 Army would you suggest as a new army for future competitiveness? And why?

Honestly? I would have to suggest empire to him. You have a variety of regions to theme a force on if they like that kind of thing. You have flexibility in how you can field it. Plus your active in pretty much all aspects of the game from shooting and magic to close combat. Letting you experience all the game has to offer. Plus if you shop around on online discount retailer sites and the likes of ebay you can collect a force at a budget.

Empire are a good jack of all trades army.
They can do gunline, Magic heavy, Calvalry heavy, horde, artillery spam, character spam. You name it they can do a version of it. (except elite infintry.)

But they will be quite costly due to GW only selling ten guys in a box for £15 (and that's your core which is mandatory.)

Ugh, I would not suggest Empire. Imho, you need to know what you're doing a bit more with them... or any army composed of fragile (relatively speaking) troops. They're also not cheap, and so don't meet that criteria, either...

I'd suggest Warriors of Chaos. They can be cheap (the battalion box is a good buy) and have tons of very effective options. They're good at the tournament level, and yet can be very straight-forward and easy to play.

The only drawback, in my mind, is that they are a very common army. But that doesn't seem to be one of his criteria, and if he's just starting, he might not mind that.

lizardmen.

cold blooded helps leadership
they can play in all phases
freakin DINOSAURS!

The dark elf battalion box ain't so shabby you get a ton of core field corsairs as a block & make all the infantry archers & the knights hit like hell just stay away from dark riders unless you rob banks for a living lol

I know this doesnt answer all the issues you raised eg. money, but id seriously suggest them going for whichever army grabs them the most
thats what i did with my armies and thats why i still enjoy the hobby!
i think going for an army that suits you personally is by far the most important thing.
they can adapt their tactics etc when they learn how best to use that army!

maximosa wrote:I know this doesnt answer all the issues you raised eg. money, but id seriously suggest them going for whichever army grabs them the most
thats what i did with my armies and thats why i still enjoy the hobby!
i think going for an army that suits you personally is by far the most important thing.
they can adapt their tactics etc when they learn how best to use that army!

+1

I think it is more important to enjoy the army you play with than if it is cheap and competitive.
They can learn with any army, some will give them more opportunities to participate in different areas of the game than others, but all will give you the much needed experience in playing.
I think what attracts my attention the most is the look of the army.

I agree with others have said - he should just pick the army that he is most interested in. He's going to be buying and painting many mini's anyway so he might as well like the look of them.

You really can't go wrong with an army in a tournament unless he picks WE or Beastmen (both of which struggle).


That being said if i was just asked point blank what army he should choose I would say Lizards. Coldblood deals with leadership (get a bsb and watch your opponents eyes roll). The battalion is a good buy and lizards can be effective in every phase of the game.

Ogre Kingdoms

low number of different units means less confusion/overstimulation of units to choose from.

Fairly simple rules set.

Unique, easy to use magic.

Moderatly powerful army.

Low model count means less initial investment and painting.

Characterful models and fluff.

Character models are powerful and highly customisable.

Easy conversion options with the general lumpy shape ogres tend to have. very Newbie converter friendly.

Manboobs.

Either flavor of Elves is good. If he wants more specialization, WoC/Lizardmen/Dwarfs all work, and all cost (relatively) the same.

Warriors, Lizards and Ogres all produce very decent lists for fairly little cash investment.

Ogres and Warriors are going to be a bit more simply to play, as your units don't depend on each other as much.

What I would avoid is elves for being fairly unforgiving, and empire, beasts, skaven and O&G, for being expensive out of pocket, and typically massive armies.

-Matt

Dwarfs and lizardmen are good starting armies with the battalion for both being good buys and really only needing a character to start playing.

For a total noob I would suggest getting an Island of Blood Set. They are incredible value with the amount of stuff you get when you include the mini rule book, and it gives you a good starting point for either skaven or high elves. Plus you can sell the other army if you didn't want it and use that money to bulk out your chosen troops. I did it with the skaven and I bought a battalion from the money I got by selling the high elves!

studderingdave wrote:lizardmen.

cold blooded helps leadership
they can play in all phases
freakin DINOSAURS!

+1.

Also empire dosen't really play into the low model part the OP suggested. Lizards WoC and dwarves do low model count, but dwarves take more skill.
This means WoC and LM are the best low model count armies for a noob.

I would suggest what many others have...a person should only play what interests them. Any army, no matter how small the model count will be a significant investment in time and money. A person wanting to start should take a bit of time and read the fluff of each army, look at their models and see what grabs them.

boogeyman wrote:

maximosa wrote:I know this doesnt answer all the issues you raised eg. money, but id seriously suggest them going for whichever army grabs them the most
thats what i did with my armies and thats why i still enjoy the hobby!
i think going for an army that suits you personally is by far the most important thing.
they can adapt their tactics etc when they learn how best to use that army!

+1

+2
Show him the catalogue and let him decide which army grabs his imagination the most.
Sometimes you can narrow down his choices with "good or evil", "horde or elite", "disciplined or wild".
If he has chosen, you can tell him something about that army (is highly competitive, waits for an update etc). Maybe even let him play that with proxies or a borrowed army.
If it is an army from the starter set, the better.

And forget about the newbie army that wins tournaments.

Well, what I've done in the past is let people play with a 100% proxied army. Ever play against a series of cardboard tiles with X's on top? Just cut out the right unit footprint, draw a rough grid, and write the unit name on it.

The only problem I ran into with this was that they liked the game, and they essentially could play-test whatever armies and lists as they liked, so they just kept using cardboard for the better part of a year. When I said I was getting tired of it (it's hard to fight cardboard-who's who and all that), they just played amongst themselves; corrugated Daemons versus corrugated Dark Elves.