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Okay, after I posted the poll asking for peoples opions between necrons, IG and space marines a friend introduced me to the nids. I am now wondering which would be better as an army to help me learn as before I like both armies models and the IG tanks and I like the nid monster, so which army?

Guard are easier to play, so I would suggest starting with them if you're new to the game.

Guard or Space Marines are both great factions to learn the rules of the game with -- Space Marines have some of the best special rules (ATSKNF, Combat Tactics, Combat Squads etc) while IG has the best long-range ordnance and heavy weapons (but is much more static than Tau, the other long-range shooty army). Necrons suffer from an outdated codex, and while playable in friendly games will not do well in tournament settings...a new book is on the horizon for them however so keep your eyes peeled around november. Nids are great fun, as well, and can hang vs some older codices, like orks, space marines, eldar, etc, but vs every new 5th edition book (grey knights, space wolves, dark eldar, etc) they just fall flat. Winning isn't impossible for 'nids vs those armies but it is an extremely uphill battle to do so. I love my 'nids but it is soul-crushing to lose with them 80% of the time because of bad matchups.

So, to review - IG or SM are great starters, and you can get SM pretty cheaply with the assault on black reach kit. I know some store owners will crack open black reach sets and sell just the half that pertains to the customer, so you can really get a deal then without buying all the orks...however I recommend trying the orks out, you never know you might like a strong assault army..and the orks can still win in a competitive setting, believe it or not.

If you're trying to learn the game go with IG or Marines. If you don't have a steady source of income, go for Marines. Guard are great, but require a lot of time and money since their armies tend to be so big. Also, they're a little unforgiving to a new player, since your infantry will melt quickly to any serious threat. Marines are the best starter army there is since they're so forgiving and well rounded.

Space Marines are a good start. They have good units and are relatively cheap. Also, they're the second easiest army to paint IMHO (first is Necrons, but those are waaaaaay underpowered).

Okay, I would prefer a more shooty army, what are space wolves like? I do not mind if my army is assault orintated as long as it has some firepower, also what about demon? I have had a brief spell with eldar, this army is to help me learn as I love my eldar but cannot use them effectively.


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O, and I have 230 pounds to spend.

For a first army, particularly since you're on a budget, Space Marines of one type or another would seem the best choice. Get them from Maelstrom and look for bargains on eBay rather than going to Games Workshop and £230 would buy you a reasonable Space Marine force. You'd have a much harder job doing this with the Imperial Guard. Tyranids and Necrons, I'd avoid, since the former are still awaiting half their models and lumbered with an out-of-date codex, and the latter are shortly to be reissued.

Which type of space mrines would you recommend? I will not get vanilla marines as they are too over used.

Coming to the game from a fluff and miniatures point of view, I find the distinctions between chapters to be more about aesthetics rather than rules - there aren't really all that many things you can't do with codex Marines which you can with the chapters who've had their own books. Often you won't be able to do them quite as well or cheaply, but that's down to the relative age of their books as much as anything.

So by my (possibly unreasonable, certainly unusual) way of looking at it, it's down to whether you'd prefer space-crusaders (Black Templars), space-neo-classical-vampires (Blood Angels), space-Vikings (Space Wolves) or men in dresses (Dark Angels). Also bear in mind that though Ultramarines are horrible over-represented, codex Marines do offer, with some imagination and research, a pretty wide range of possibilities for background fluff, colourschemes and conversions.

acelenny wrote:Which type of space mrines would you recommend? I will not get vanilla marines as they are too over used.

The other Space Marine codices are just variants of "slightly better at chopping" or "faster and also better at chopping" - if you want a shooty army, stick with Codex: Space Marines. The different characters you can take to lead your army can make yours distinct from the other Marine armies out there.

Try an Imperial Fists army or a Crimson Fists army. Both are buildable with the Codex: Space Marines and are straight shooty. In the former, Lysander's Bolter Drill lets his unit re-roll their bolter to-hit rolls; in the later, Pedro makes your Sternguards count as scoring units! Dakka dakka dakka dakka dakka!!!

Ok, I only have the eldar codex and so do not really know about the different marine chapters are you allowed to make your own colour scheme for your army? How do the IF and CF vary from ultramarines?