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OK, so the other day I started a thread about starting a Chaos Army, as I'm relatively new to 40K, I don't want to dive straight in, I've been spending the last 2-3 weeks looking through all of the Armies etc etc.... and, I genuinely like all of them,I'm somewhat spoilt for choice.

I'm really just looking for some advice, I can't settle on an army to start with, I've sort of narrowed it down to a few; Chaos Space Marines, Space Marines/BA/BT/DA/SW and Daemon Hunters. Now just because I'm a new player I know a lot of people will say "Go Orks" purely through ease of playing etc etc, but, painting lots of Boyz will get a bit repetitive, and that kind of puts me off a little, I was pretty much set on CSM, but, they just seem a bit 'all over the place' and sometimes I get a headache just trying to settle on what build to make, the thing that attracts me about SM is, 1. the amount of plastics they have, 2. the accessibility of Fluff/Artwork/ideas, and 3. they just seem more 'free' to do what you want with to me.


Just out of interest what armies do you guys play (primarily)...and what do you like most about your army?

I know it depends on how you want to play, etc etc, I suppose as I haven't played yet I can't really comment but through thought I'd probably prefer a balanced army, a little bit shooty, decent at assaulting/CC ?.

what way would you advice me to go?.

(sorry for turning a question into an essay, but I'm just a little lost at times, once I get some second opinions on armies n' stuff like that, I'll find it easier to settle on one).

Space marines (in whatever variant) are usually reckoned the easiest army to start with as they are fairly forgiving of mistakes, their basic troops are quite hard, you don't need hundreds to make an army, etc. Don't do daemonhunters, their codex and presumably most of their models are being replaced in a few months.

tempted to start a BA army, been told they're pretty easy to just jump in and play with, plus most of their minis are plastic...and they look awesome.

The nice thing about marines is you don't have to pick. Paint them as your own chapter & you now have 7 different armies for the price of one:

SM
CSM
GK
DA
BA
SW
BT

Shas'O Dorian wrote:The nice thing about marines is you don't have to pick. Paint them as your own chapter & you now have 7 different armies for the price of one:

SM
CSM
GK
DA
BA
SW
BT

If you do this, you are an absolute tool (opinion) and you will piss people off (fact). I would absolutely hate playing a guy who turned up with the same models but different rules every game.

I wouldn't dream of doing that...I'm a bit of a perfectionist....I'd have a complete BA army...or a complete DA army...one or the other or 2 separate armies.

The only thing about a BA army is that under a black under coat which is the best in my opinion red can be hard to paint

true, but, why not just undercoat white and use a dark wash?....


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I just realised....I already have a tactical squad. unpainted....easily done as BA....all I need to get are some assault marines, the Codex and maybe the rule book.

I have a razorback (twin linked las) and a predator - auto cannon and 2 side mounted las cannons as well. also have a dreadnought. so, my army is half way done (in terms of models, I may use some I may not...but I have something to work with).

-btw, now you know what I have...any suggestions on what I should add wouldn't go unappreciated.

thanks

You could but for a first army a black under coat would be much easier. Also if you do go for BA you may want at least two sqauds of tactical marines.

yeh, I already have 1, (might be 2, I haven't counted them properly yet).

probably gonna get some assault marines next.

Just layer the paints then. Use mechrite red, go over that with a layer of red gore, and finally blood red. Perfect then. My opinion for you is to use a DA or SW army. DA are great elite troops since most people run deathwing armies out of it. Thats a 2/5++ on all models, but you will be outnumbered quickly. So tactics become important. A SW army is cool in the sense that the close-range tactics are deadly (they function best 24" and closer) added with their assaults. I would pick the army based off of tactics that you can find to come closer to second nature....feel free to ask Shas'o Dorian about SW tactics as he is the one who helped me

I agree about SW. Also they are amazing fun to paint

IronJunglist wrote:true, but, why not just undercoat white and use a dark wash?....


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I just realised....I already have a tactical squad. unpainted....easily done as BA....all I need to get are some assault marines, the Codex and maybe the rule book.

I have a razorback (twin linked las) and a predator - auto cannon and 2 side mounted las cannons as well. also have a dreadnought. so, my army is half way done (in terms of models, I may use some I may not...but I have something to work with).

-btw, now you know what I have...any suggestions on what I should add wouldn't go unappreciated.

thanks

I would suggest the Codex:Space Marines. They will always be updated every edition so you will always be playing a current codex.

BA requires a little more finess IMO, with the proper application of Priest, Librarians, and Speed to be victorious. BA is more of a specialist MEQ army.

The vanilla codex on the other hand has tons of builds and hundreds of possible chapters. For example, you have a Tactical squad, although Tactical squads are universally never taken with mainstream BA armies in favor of ASM squads.

Again, its a very wide-ranged and forgiving codex. I started playing Salamanders, then switched to Raven Guard, then Imperial fists, all in the same codex. All builds have very different playstyles. You also have access to some incredibally powerful units (Vulkan, Lysander, TH/SS Terminators, Pedro Sternguard, Null Zone Librarian, Shrike), as well as some unique and fun ones (Thunderfire, scout bikers, land speeder storms).

risewiththefallen wrote:The only thing about a BA army is that under a black under coat which is the best in my opinion red can be hard to paint

Why not just buy red primer?

yeh, I understand about the regular SM etc etc....but, I've already looked into chapters n' all that(done that last time around when I got my other minis), BA are my fav chapter. I may go into other chapters later on.

If you're looking to get some marines AND the rulebook I would suggest getting the assault on blackreach set. It should be about $50 or, what is it, 25 pounds or something?

It should come with a dreadnought, tactical squad, and a captain in terms of space marines. The dreadnought model is special because it had to be made for that kind of packaging(smaller power plant IIRC) so there's an added bonus to buying it.

Blood Angels have some really nice assault oriented units like their special dreadnought and some nice shooty units like the Baal Predator. Its a nice set of units for balance. The DA are more specialist oriented whenever I play against them, usually Death Company terminators and librarians.

As far as I know the Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Black Templars, and Dark Angels all have their own codexes. The plain vanilla SM codex gives you several chapters and some special rules depending on what hero you take with them(Vulkan Heston example). Then they give you the Legion of the Damned which have a 3+ invulnerable save instead of a 3+ armor save.

So I would try out the plain vanilla first before deciding on getting a dedicated codex.

I've already toyed with vanilla marines in the past, as for the rule book I'll probably get that in the future...like, a week or 2, when I have some more money. I don't want AoBR mainly because I have half an army already (listed above) I think tomorrow I'll probably just get some assault marines or death company with the BA codex.

The Assault on Black Reach box sells for £56.50, so $50 is very good.

I got it got £35, but that was snapped up very fast, and they don't have it listed any more.