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Well after battling my friends for years on this I am going to be getting into warhammer 40k in the very near future. My local game shop has I would say a consistant 20-25

players who have played warhammer for a very long time and most at some competitive level. I am looking for some honest advice on what faction to play. I have read most of

the back story and such for the factions and dont really like any of them more than the rest, well besides chaos and chaos demons. I know I wont play them and my friends have

banned me from playing Grey Knights. My local meta is very meq heavy (I think thats the right word for heavy infantry and tanks) they mostly play 1500 to 2000 pt leagues

and tournies.

We have Lots and Lots of Space wolves, IG, and well marines in general besides blood angels.

So whats the best faction or codex choice to jump into for someone who wants to play only 1 faction, and to travel with his buds to big tournies and to well hopefully be able to

compete on a decent level at some time in the near future.

And thank you for any help you can throw my way.

If your worried about losing then go with one of the space marines they can be tactically forgiving, but if you are in it for kicks and giggles go with your gut. Of course if there are already tons of space marines it could be fun to choose something different so playing doesn't get bland in space marine vs space marine combat.

Wow after re reading my post I do sound like I am quite afraid to lose. Losing isnt a big deal to me for the most part. I just have always had the problem of always getting into the weakest faction of things in games when I start and trying to not let that happen this go round.

Well the current 'weakest' armies are necrons, tyranids, sisters of battle, demons, and tau.

The strongest currently are space wolves, blood angels, imperial guard, dark eldar. Grey knights haven't been around long but I believe they fall just slightly under those 4, you won't notice much of a difference though except at higher levels of competitive play.

Dark angels, black templar, codex space marines, orks, eldar, and chaos space marines are all able to field competitive lists, however their codexes overall don't have as many strong options as the top tier armies.

Necrons and Sisters of Battle are supposed to have a new codex sometime before December so if you really like the look of those armies you may end up ok, then again you may not.

Go with marines. It really won't matter what edition this game is in, the army will always be the most supported, the most favored to win any engagement, and the most forgiving while also being rewarding to expert players.

You also have the advantage of being able to make up your own chapter and play one of (currently) 6 different rulesets with the same exact miniatures.

The only real downside to being a marine player is almost every single game you play will be marine vs marine. And they'll all be random color schemed playing the fotm codex.

You big cynic... he has a point though.

Droma wrote:Well the current 'weakest' armies are necrons, tyranids, sisters of battle, demons, and tau.

The strongest currently are space wolves, blood angels, imperial guard, dark eldar. Grey knights haven't been around long but I believe they fall just slightly under those 4, you won't notice much of a difference though except at higher levels of competitive play.

Dark angels, black templar, codex space marines, orks, eldar, and chaos space marines are all able to field competitive lists, however their codexes overall don't have as many strong options as the top tier armies.

Necrons and Sisters of Battle are supposed to have a new codex sometime before December so if you really like the look of those armies you may end up ok, then again you may not.

I take offense to daemons being considered weak: in the hands of a semi competent general (like me) they are quite good. You just have to know how to play them. I win 90% of my games with them, and really only lose when the dice fluke out. Also, Necrons have some nasty options that can be unexpected-I used them against a guy who list tailored to beat me and he BARELY squeaked out a victory by phase out (I had more KPs and it was my first Necron usage). They are do-able. I can't speak for the others, as I haven't played them. Necrons are old, yes, but not to be mistaken as "weak"-it all depends on how you play them. They're HARDER to use, certainly, not weaker. And Daemons are considered the most broken army in my gamer group because of me. Flamers of Tzeentch have left brave men crying with the sheets pulled up to their eyes. A 105pt squad that can eat a full terminator unit with ease? Yes please.

@timeto

I'm sorry you took offense and you're correct that with someone good playing any of those armies than can win and sometimes win easily. But it's far from any easy thing to do with those armies especially for someone new to 40k like the OP is. Keep that in mind before you get a little overzealous in your reactions.

Eh, the "offense" was kind of a joke-but actually, daemons were my first 40k army and are actually one of the EASIER ones to start with. I'll give reasons too:
-No psychic abilities, but many shooting attacks that act like psychic abilities
-Fearless across the board-you never have to worry about leadership tests (also everything Ld10)
-Always have a save (except against C'tan weapons)
-Your units will never run away
-You can get started with infantry without having to worry about vehicles
-Great range of options for any type of player-shooty (Tzeentch), resilience (Nurgle) or CC specialists (Slaanesh&Khorne)
-Models cannot be instantly killed in a single hit


Daemons really aren't weak or overpowered, just DIFFERENT from everything else. It's an army your opponent can't plan against because it is so different from everything else. I actually HIGHLY recommend it as a starter army-it's very good at being one. And, seeing how the rumor is that Black Templar vs Daemons is the next starter set, I don't want to be egotistical, but I think GW agrees with that statement. I will concede that Necrons are not a good starter army though. Very tough to win with.

Ok deamons may be a good "starter" army but their rules are like you said very different from everybody else and they really aren't good on a competitive level with how random they are in deployment via deepstrike. You either win big or get wrecked its just very inconsistent which is what your looking for in a 'competitive' army.

OP, your formatting is whack. Don't insert page breaks all over the place. Hands off the enter key until you've finished a paragraph; your post is kind of weird to read.

Try Orks. They're very forgiving of new players because there's so many of them, and they're fairly tough. You can also get them fairly cheap through Assault on Black Reach. In close combat they'll chew up most any Marine, and with shooting they can put out enough shots to kill anything.

Uhh I would say currently avoid Dark Angels(Before I incite the veterans wrath I started with them a few months back and still kind of regret it), that said I would say go with either standard codex marines due to the fact they will probably never go out of date, and as has been said Orks would make a good one due to the fact they can be cheap if you get your stuff off ebay.

i'll have you know tyranids are amazing, they have a fun tactical use and a few variations for the same style and even in the hand's of me (Lord of Snake eyes) they play really well and I have won my fair share of matches. Where as my marine army used to get pounded into the ground by any specialiced force, I have now refined my marines and am working currently on a new scheme see http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/372252.page to take part

my best advise i can giv eon the nmatter is ask to play a few different armies that your friends use or watch other peopel play and see which army looks like the most fun to you

what sort of tactics do you prefer because then it would be easier to give you an idea of what armies can do those and forfil the roles you want

I think orks, because even if you don't win (I never do) they're hella fun.
A notable game for me would be testing out a borrowed SAG Mek, first turn, shooting phase, Big mek, double 1's.
Funny as hell.

Hezekial wrote:what sort of tactics do you prefer because then it would be easier to give you an idea of what armies can do those and forfil the roles you want

Umm I would like a mostly mellee army but hear they do pretty bad since there is so much tank spam in my area. I guess the best heavy armor busters maybe. Bah this is the worst part of new games for me is the first getting started. Lol plus with the cost of warhammer I dont think my wife will be letting me get into a 2nd army if I dont end up liking my first or maybe ever who knows.

Melee armies are far better in my opinion. I have a lot of friends who refused to get into 40k because they were of the opinion "whoever shoots first wins." This is no longer the case (if it ever was) and 5th edition is quite melee heavy. Orks are great for melee, as well as CSM, BT, BA, DE, Tyranids and Daemons. Really, only Tau and IG should sit back and shoot, as most other armies are geared to have quite a few melee options. Bring meltaguns (if you choose an army that has access to them) as well as meltabombs or their equivalents. Anything past that, go with your interest: melee is worth playing. It has been my experience that the players who sit back and only shoot usually get stomped.

timetowaste85 wrote: Really, only Tau and IG should sit back and shoot, as most other armies are geared to have quite a few melee options.

And from those, only Tau are stuck shooting in the back - IG can put out decent assault power with Powerblobs.

Can I be the one to say it?

It's your army, if you like Grey Knights, give them a Singular Expressive Digit and collect them. Just make sure to stay with them after they aren't the newest thing anymore.

Noticed how everyone is giving you different advice? Go for the army you want to play, pretty much every army is competitive if played right. I'd avoid Dark Eldar if you're brand new though. They're a powerful army, but can be hard for newbies. We had a new player join our group playing Dark Eldar just after their new codex came out. She got tabled in her first three games, and absolutely hammered in her next 5.

She's just as good as the rest of us now though, possibly better, because the best player in our group is her boyfriend, so he pays for it if he beats her (That was also her motivation for picking dark eldar, he played eldar.)

ye I would say definately go with combat heavy, if your more into tank cruching then I would make a NidZilla army as they crush tank forces with relative easy as it's always funny to see the look on your enemies face as you tell him that 'No those three carnifexes are one squad.' However if your not into MC but still want to be combat heavy then Orks are a simple route to take. I agree with Dean that DE armies aren't really that good for starting out but if you like there background and playing style then it won't matter if it takes a while to get into. I've never really played any demon players so wouldn't really know there asthetic performance. On the other hand if you do go with demons you are basically getting two armies in one as you can glue them onto round bases and blue-tac those to square bases to play WHF. So really it is your desision to make and just because a certain army is really popular on here doesn't mean it will work well with you. :S so possibly ask your local store if you can trail run through a couple of armies you like then deside which works best for you.

Hope this was helpful,
Hezekial

This has already been stated, but I am going to reiterate:

If you like melee, than play melee. Just because they are mech heavy, doesn't mean you can't smash their faces in. Most troops can take a melta weapon. Take black templar, who are an older codex and considered one of the weaker codices out there. Each one of their troops can take a melta gun and power weapon. On top of that, you can make it so your entire army re-rolls to hit in combat, and on top of THAT you can take a land raider as a dedicated transport for pretty much every unit. That means you can move up, drop out, slag a tank, and charge what popped out.

Now, I know that example sounds awesome, but it's not suggested >_>
It's just there to prove a point. Melee armies can take a ton of melta, and then slag their tanks in order to charge.

On that note... Keep in mind that any list can be competitive in the right persons hands. Pick the army you enjoy, learn it, play it, know every aspect of it. You'll win your matches simply by knowing your own strengths and weaknesses and how to make your army sync with itself.

Im thinking Orkses.

Yeah, rumours have it that black templars could have a new codex next year, and alot of websites do fantastic bits for them aswell

Depending on your group, you may be able to try their army out for a whirl and see if you like it, thats partially my recommendation, I kind of wish I had done that myself