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Hello, I've been a Warhammer Fantasy player since 2007 and I thought I'd maybe give 40K a try, but from what I've read about it in these forums it seems really unbalanced and army-of-the-monthish, if you get what I mean. I've read that it's going a really bad way and that you can't really choose whatever army you want if you want to win, but for me winning isn't most important. I mainly just want to have fun but winning is good too lol.

So, should I invest in 40K now or should I wait and maybe see what they bring in the next Edition? I'm not going to play it if it's just a game with 2 or 3 power armies which kill everything. Space Marines and Grey Knights seem to be that kind of armies.

So give me your input please

Thanks for your time.

I dont find this to be the case, people who dont play very well or play a better player who happens to be playing a specific army all the time tend to have a biased opinion and say (That army is well overpowered). The truth is there are ways of playing all armys and ways to exploit there weaknesses knowing the weakness is the key to winning.
Space marines especially gk can be overrun very easily.
hope this helps good luck with your choice

Doctorcheese wrote:Hello, I've been a Warhammer Fantasy player since 2007 and I thought I'd maybe give 40K a try, but from what I've read about it in these forums it seems really unbalanced and army-of-the-monthish, if you get what I mean. I've read that it's going a really bad way and that you can't really choose whatever army you want if you want to win, but for me winning isn't most important. I mainly just want to have fun but winning is good too lol.

So, should I invest in 40K now or should I wait and maybe see what they bring in the next Edition? I'm not going to play it if it's just a game with 2 or 3 power armies which kill everything. Space Marines and Grey Knights seem to be that kind of armies.

So give me your input please

Thanks for your time.

Space Marines and Grey Knights are actually fairly balanced codices, don't worry about them. Basically any army is viable, but some can be viable in more ways than others. The two armies screwed the most at the moment (Tau and Necrons) will get new codices soon.

I think in many cases the issue with new codices is that it changes things. Your old army and old list don't always perform well against new codices, special rules, and units. After a few months, people learn the correct counters and get over it. People have to adapt, not everyone wants to.

There are some underpowered armies for sure though, Tau and Necrons mostly. They should get updated soon (crosses fingers).

Ah thanks guys! Might start 40K after all ^^

Doctorcheese wrote:Hello, I've been a Warhammer Fantasy player since 2007 and I thought I'd maybe give 40K a try, but from what I've read about it in these forums it seems really unbalanced and army-of-the-monthish, if you get what I mean. I've read that it's going a really bad way and that you can't really choose whatever army you want if you want to win...

Hmm, I haven't played Fantasy, but at least pre-8th Edition prevalent opinion seemed to be that 40k armies were much better balanced than Fantasy armies. (40k tournaments don't use comp, for example, and even the oldest, weakest armies score wins in tournaments).

Or is it just old wives tales which circle around both games playerbases? Can't tell.

Any army is a viable choice.
As long as it isn't Necrons.

WHFB used to be the thinking man's choice of GW game, but that seemed to die a bit with 8th edition.

40K could become more balanced with the 6th edition, or it could become worse. It got worse from 4 to 5, after all.

I wouldn't take either game too seriously, though. They are designed principally to sell the maximum number of model kits, not to provide players with a great experience.

I'm not saying they can't be fun, just that if you want balanced rules, GW is not the best place to look.

Killkrazy I disagree 40k got worse from 4 to 5 but your opinion is your opinion.

For casual games just about anything can win. Against tournament lists there is currently 3 tiers. Tier 1 includes GK/BA/SW/IG/DE/Orks. That already is a lot of choice for good solid armies. Tier 2 is able to compete with all of those armies but only with much narrower builds. Tier 2 armies include DA/Nids/BT/SM and deamons on the low end of tier 2. Tier 3 are necrons and tau both of which are supposed to be redone sometime in the next 6-8 months.

Sisters of battle just had a new codex released and no one knows their current power levels.

As for this tier system I'm using Ard Boyz prelim results as my guide as it probably has the largest total number of players compared to other tournaments out there. Go to the tournament section of the board if you'd like to see more detailed breakdowns.

@OP-

If you already play WFB, and are looking to get into 40K as a side game to play for fun, and aren't concerned so much with winning every battle, defeating every army ever arrayed against you, or otherwise being a WAAC TFG.... then pretty much any 40K faction/army offers plenty of opportunity for wargaming and painting fun.

The rules are reasonably balanced, people here just bitch about the newest army of the month because they don't know exactly how to deal with it yet. That is the perceived "army of the month" dealie you mentioned. There are some undercosted/overefficient units in the game, and people will spam that at tournaments. If you're playing a friendly game you've got none of that to worry about. For your specific concerns about Grey Knights and Marines:

- Codex: Space Marines is great. Assault Terminators are the only super efficient unit here, and even then they're far from unstoppable. Variant Space Marine codices like Space Wolves and Blood Angels have a few more of these undercosted/overefficient units like Long Fangs and fast vehicles, respectively, but nothing out of control.
- Grey Knights are really good against other Marines. They can do a lot of what regular Marines do but are very good in close combat against them, due to their power weapons. They've got a few units to deal with almost any situation, but their armies are very expensive, points wise. They end up with smaller armies of more expensive models that are no harder to kill than your average Space Marine.

40k is a fun game, and most armies are viable. The only ones at a blatant disadvantage are Tau and Necrons, who both have old rules. Take everything from the Internet hype/hate machine with a grain of salt and try playing with/against it yourself.

Brother SRM wrote:The rules are reasonably balanced, people here just bitch about the newest army of the month because they don't know exactly how to deal with it yet. That is the perceived "army of the month" dealie you mentioned. There are some undercosted/overefficient units in the game, and people will spam that at tournaments. If you're playing a friendly game you've got none of that to worry about. For your specific concerns about Grey Knights and Marines:

- Codex: Space Marines is great. Assault Terminators are the only super efficient unit here, and even then they're far from unstoppable. Variant Space Marine codices like Space Wolves and Blood Angels have a few more of these undercosted/overefficient units like Long Fangs and fast vehicles, respectively, but nothing out of control.
- Grey Knights are really good against other Marines. They can do a lot of what regular Marines do but are very good in close combat against them, due to their power weapons. They've got a few units to deal with almost any situation, but their armies are very expensive, points wise. They end up with smaller armies of more expensive models that are no harder to kill than your average Space Marine.

40k is a fun game, and most armies are viable. The only ones at a blatant disadvantage are Tau and Necrons, who both have old rules. Take everything from the Internet hype/hate machine with a grain of salt and try playing with/against it yourself.

Pretty much this,

But to chip in with my advice: doe some reading up on faction and go with the one you like the most, that way you'll enjoy yourself.

Droma wrote:Killkrazy I disagree 40k got worse from 4 to 5 but your opinion is your opinion.

For casual games just about anything can win. Against tournament lists there is currently 3 tiers. Tier 1 includes GK/BA/SW/IG/DE/Orks. That already is a lot of choice for good solid armies. Tier 2 is able to compete with all of those armies but only with much narrower builds. Tier 2 armies include DA/Nids/BT/SM and deamons on the low end of tier 2. Tier 3 are necrons and tau both of which are supposed to be redone sometime in the next 6-8 months.

Sisters of battle just had a new codex released and no one knows their current power levels.

As for this tier system I'm using Ard Boyz prelim results as my guide as it probably has the largest total number of players compared to other tournaments out there. Go to the tournament section of the board if you'd like to see more detailed breakdowns.

Not quite on the Sisters Codex. Part 1 is out, but part 2, with points values, army list, and wargear section - unless I missed it in this issue - comes out next month. Fortunately, that's just a short, short 15-16 days away.

Edit: Actually, September's White Dwarf will come out in late August, I forget exactly when, so it'll be earlier than my initial statement. Yay!

But yeah, back on topic, I've played games with my Sisters of Battle against Space Marines and won. Friendly games, of course - I don't play competitively. So Space Marines aren't really overpowered, I know that for sure.

Kilkrazy wrote:
40K could become more balanced with the 6th edition, or it could become worse. It got worse from 4 to 5, after all.

Well, that's not very common opinion. Veteran players who complain about the 5th Ed mostly whine about True LOS. If anything, 5ed balance seems to be much better.