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My friend is a long time novel reader and knows way more about the 40k history than I will ever care to learn. He recently took up interest in playing the table top with me and all our other friends. I was wondering what is a good starter army to help with the learning curve, as the rest of us have been playing for awhile. Oh and I know Space Marines would be the obvious choice but he hates the Emperor.

Space Marines are always a good newbie army.

I think orks would be good, dead simple to paint, dead easy to use.
All he has to remember is more boys, and go forward

Orks are good if he likes horde armies.

For a newbie, simple to use army, I'd definitely suggest Space Marines.

But, since he hates the Emperor, perhaps CSM is the best choice. They're fairly easy to play (just don't get sucked into paying for over-costed troops), and he can run around screaming DEATH TO THE FALSE EMPEROR!

To be honest he should pick an army he thinks is cool, minus Necrons, and go with it. I started out as a Tryanid player back in 2nd edition when all they had was a bestiary and no army book. Over the years I have since then built Space Wolves, Eldar, Imperial Guard and Orks. In fantasy I have Lizardmen and Ogre Kingdoms. I always picked what army I liked for how it looked and how it played, though Space Marines are the most versatile, they can go mech, CC, ranged, heavy, drop pod spam, etc. I say minus Necrons because I think their army is the least complete army out there.

If he hates the Emperor, then he should try Chaos Space Marines. Easy to use, mostly plastic, and their codex, while lacking in options, isn't the worst out there as far as power goes.

I'm gonna go with space marines

I like all these folks who post without reading the OP, and just read the thread title before replying. The dude doesn't want loyalist Marines.

Chaos Marines are an okay choice. They hate the Emperor, so he automatically has something in common with his army. Only thing is that they suffer from being written at what appears to have been a cocaine party, as it's a strange codex; some choices are great, and>the rest, whilst others are just completely pants.

If he doesn't mind using the few competetively valid builds Chaos have, then they're a good army, otherwise he should wait for the new book. As a starter army, they can be okay, being almost identical to loyalist SM in terms of basic choice, but if he wants to move up to tournaments etc. then another army would server him better.

Brother SRM wrote:I like all these folks who post without reading the OP, and just read the thread title before replying. The dude doesn't want loyalist Marines.

Who takes the time to read anymore? Can't we just give our opinion without reading? In fact, I'm not even reading what I'm typing. Bwahahaha.

Anyway, on topic, mocking people who can't read through the VERY first post is over, CSM is great: they hate the Emperor as much as your friend does. Except tell him to stay away from alpha legion, as those guys are up in the air on their feelings of the Emperor. Plus, Chaos has awesome models: Noise Marines, better Terminators, Daemon Princes, Defiler, FW Dreadnaughts...go wild. Beat that Golden Throne'd pansy until he bleeds Ultramarines Blue. If he wants to stay away from ALL marines, not just ones loyal to the emperor, I have to echo the Ork supporters. Also, I found Daemons to be a great starter army for me, but most people think they are advanced. The reason I say they are good: no moral tests/running away, always get a save, never have to worry about instant death, melee army that just rushes in. But, most people think it's a more advanced army. So CSM, followed by Orks, followed by Deamons is my suggestion.

I started with daemons and it's what I play today and we talked about it I took him to the hobby shop and he picked a big WAAAGH

Orks hate humans, all humans, if that is really what you want Orks love to bash dem humiez.

nice, i like the orks, even if realistically i will probably never play as them... WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH

dajobe wrote:nice, i like the orks, even if realistically i will probably never play as them... WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH

I have an Ork Army, it is all fast attack. The funny thing is most of my Orks come from the 2nd edition boxed set, the 5th edition boxed set and my Gorka Morka stuff. I actually never really had an Ork army per se, but always had a ton of Ork stuff from the boxed sets I would buy.

5x units of 12 boyz on trukks

2x big meks with KFF

30 bikes

10 defcopters

15 lootas/burnas

1 battle wagon

It is very fun to play but also I am pretty much running the same tactics. Get really freaking close and assault. That is why I like the burna boyz. Flame throwers automatically hit (all Orks have a BS of 2, even characters) and you toss them in the wagon with the HQ and you declare Waaagh and march them up and assault. Then the units of bikes run around and unload shooting dice.

I also have Space Wolves, Tyranids, Imperial guard and Eldar. I built all my armies during 2nd edition though, then took 15 years off of war gaming and just got back into it about 6 to 8 months ago

Orkz love 'em 'umies since they get to give 'em a good beatin'

k, maybe never was too long, I mean so far Im at IG,SM,Tau, Necron. Orks are probably next on my list, but will probably be a while, especially if the new necron dex is sweet.

Tau are due for a new codex too says the rumors on the Interwebs. The Tau are probably the cheapest army (money wise) to buy right now. There are ridiculous deals on ebay all the time. I check ebay like 3 times a week for deals. That is how I got a bunch of cheap stuff.

Hmm... Imperial Guard could be good. And if that doesn't work because they fight for the emporer, he could do a heretic/renegade IG army.

Orks are also pretty straight forward, fun and can be very hard to beat sometimes.

Chaos can also be a beginners army as they similar to space marines but have demon princes and defilers to choose from.

Orks. Simple concept of battle. Fun as hell to paint. Just finished my first Ork in the Goff clan (going for rainbow orks). And so easy to build vehicles and walkers for (just get a bunch of pieces no body wants and slap some pieces together with a few big guns and your set.

If the dude's going Orks, that's great. Definitely a good beginner army that can become a good skill army with time and practice. Infinitely expandable too.

I'd say chaos or orks

Necrons.













Just kidding: Definitely orks.

Is this to own or just to borrow and play with?

My introduction into 40k was our club got invited over to the old guys (Napoleonics) club, they all played Space marines and they lent us the orks.
We got to defend a small castle type fort with some low walls outside the main fort that gave good cover to da boyz.
The old guys and their Marines came at us and we mangled them up pretty nicely.
So I said "I could get into this new game, since there is some justice for trash troops." They had fancy powered armor and we had flak armor but cover and somewhat of a parity in weapons.

Then the old guys got testy pulled out a squad of Mentors had them teleport into the fortress and things went down hill from there.

Chaos Space Marines and Orks are capable of simple army builds plus they hate the Emperor, so those are good choices.

Why does he hate the Emperor?

carbonpillow wrote:Why does he hate the Emperor?

He can't take the awesome.

ORKS! for the win.

It's good that he doesn't want Imperial Marines, I normally would recommend againstthem simply because they break so many of the core rules.

Imperial Guard are a bit more expensive but a good first army. Either that or Orks which are very enjoyable to play with/against and to paint/build.

Both IG and orks have lots of customization, can't go wrong with either!

Plus if he's anti-Imperial, he can convert the IG to be more chaosy. Even just painting chaos symbols on armor is good.

if he is against the emperor i say