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Hey guys, like the header says, I'm brand new at this. I dont even have all the rulebooks and everything yet. I've been learning up on the lore for a while now (it's actually what drew me to the game in the first place, such a rediculously large universe to play around in really got me interested) and I picked the imperial Guard both out of the fact that I like the look of their guys, and the fact that their tactics seemed like what I would play best with. I'm thinking about using only catachan models, and making a ragtag looking army, maybe mixing a few regular cadian kits with some catachan ones so I can get a unit that looks worn down/crazy/running low on supplies.

I bought the Imperial Guard codex a couple of months ago, and I just bought a catachan command squad today and a pack of "citadel" glue to put it together. I figured starting with a single pack might be a bit easier than having a big box with dozens of little guys to put together and being overwhelmed... and thats it. No rulebooks, no paints, none of that little ground stuff guys use to decorate the bases, nothing. I'll probably buy a battleforce as soon as I finish these guys, but other than that I'm not really sure what I'll do.

I have no clue what I'm doing and could use all the help I could get. I can put models together pretty well, so that shouldnt be a big problem, but I suck at painting, and I'm really nervous about screwing them up. I may just put a ton of figures together first, then after I've used them a while, I'll paint them when I know what I want them look like (it deffinitely wont be green, I want to find a color to make my guys stand out a bit, maybe all black or desert camo, I havent decided yet) I'd like to make a homebrew regiment with its own backstory, but I'll probably just stick to learning the game for now.

The only main questions I have at the moment are

1. Is it ok to build your models first and paint them later? Like say I wanted to go ahead and put together a small army, and worry about painting it a couple of months later once I figured how to paint properly. Is that smart, or is it easier to paint them before you put them together?
2. Is there a good place to go to that teaches you the ins and outs of the game (aka a "Warhammer 40k for Dummies" kind of thing)
3. Where's the best place for a noobie to hang out around here to learn the game?
and finally
4. I almost bought Commisar Yarrick and Creed with his pal Kell today, but I didnt want to have only 7 figures after spending around $60 on my first group of guys. They had them in both metal and plastic figurines at the store I went to. Other than the metal ones being cheaper, is there a big difference in quality between the two types for the hero guys? Should a beginner even worry about these guys, or wait till they have a larger army?

Any other tips you guys have would be appreciated as well. In case you havent noticed, I'm trying to learn as much as I can about this before I sink a lot of money in, and any little bit of wisdom you guys share with me would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully I'll pick this up quick and be able to keep up with you guys in no time!

MrMoustaffa wrote:Hey guys, like the header says, I'm brand new at this. I dont even have all the rulebooks and everything yet. I've been learning up on the lore for a while now (it's actually what drew me to the game in the first place, such a rediculously large universe to play around in really got me interested) and I picked the imperial Guard both out of the fact that I like the look of their guys, and the fact that their tactics seemed like what I would play best with. I'm thinking about using only catachan models, and making a ragtag looking army, maybe mixing a few regular cadian kits with some catachan ones so I can get a unit that looks worn down/crazy/running low on supplies.

I bought the Imperial Guard codex a couple of months ago, and I just bought a catachan command squad today and a pack of "citadel" glue to put it together. I figured starting with a single pack might be a bit easier than having a big box with dozens of little guys to put together and being overwhelmed... and thats it. No rulebooks, no paints, none of that little ground stuff guys use to decorate the bases, nothing. I have no clue what I'm doing and could use all the help I could get. I can put models together pretty well, so that shouldnt be a big problem, but I suck at painting, and I'm really nervous about screwing them up. I may just put a ton of figures together first, then after I've used them a while, I'll paint them when I know what I want them look like (it deffinitely wont be green, I want to find a color to make my guys stand out a bit, maybe all black or desert camo, I havent decided yet) I'd like to make a homebrew regiment with its own backstory, but I'll probably just stick to learning the game for now.

The only main questions I have at the moment are

1. Is it ok to build your models first and paint them later? Like say I wanted to go ahead and put together a small army, and worry about painting it in a couple of months once I figured how to paint properly. Or is it easier to paint them before you put them together?
2. Is there a good place to go that teaches you the ins and outs of the game (aka a "Warhammer 40k for Dummies" kind of thing)
3. Where's the best place for a noobie to hang out around here to learn the game?
and finally
4. I almost bought Commisar Yarrick and Creed with his pal Kell today, but I didnt want to have only 7 figures after spending around $60 on my first group of guys. They had them in both metal and plastic figurines at the store I went to. Other than the metal ones being cheaper, is there a big difference in quality between the two types for the hero guys? Should a beginner even worry about these guys, or wait till I have a larger army?

Any other tips you guys have would be appreciated as well. In case you havent noticed, I'm trying to learn as much as I can about this before I sink a lot of money in, and any little bit of wisdom you guys share with me would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully I'll pick this up quick and be able to keep up with you guys in no time!

congratulations
welcome to dakkadakka

Good for you son, Imperial Guard made me the man I am today!

As for your questions.

First up, sure, put them together and paint them when you are ready. Some people love the painting and modelling, some the gaming, and its important to find out which you are. Dont be afraid to mess up when you start though, you can always strip paint off and start again, but I would definitly paint a few demo models first to get a good scheme going though.

Secondly, warhammer for dummies, you're in the right place for that...everyone here thinks they're an expert, so just keep asking questions! Also, get the Rulebook and read it as many times as you can stand, its simple and easy to understand and has lots of good advice. Also, GW webite has some good tutorials, as does youtube, in fact, they have thousands of tutorials on painting and it helps to see someone actually doing the techniques.

Thirdly, best place to hang out to learn is in a GW store, they will always try to sell you something, but they have everything you need to learn to paint and game etc. They're designed for new players really..

Fourthly, forget about those models for now. They're cool, but you need to learn the game before they're much good to you. I've got about three thousand points of IG and i still don't have either of them yet!

Oh, and ebay is your friend when it comes to ordering cheaper models, learn to love ebay...

Welcome mate.....enjoy :-)

Jihadnik wrote:
Thirdly, best place to hang out to learn is in a GW store, they will always try to sell you something, but they have everything you need to learn to paint and game etc. They're designed for new players really..

Well, any hobby shop worth buying from can (should!) provide these services. GW doesn't have stores in half of US states, so a GW store may not be an option (and even if it was, I'd still recommend a good indie over a GW).

1. Is it ok to build your models first and paint them later? Like say I wanted to go ahead and put together a small army, and worry about painting it a couple of months later once I figured how to paint properly. Is that smart, or is it easier to paint them before you put them together?

It's completely fine to build them then paint them later. Sometimes assembly can be annoying and involve filing and cutting and stuff so it's usually better to assemble then paint as it means you won't mess up your paint job when you're building the model. So assemble, then prime them with an undercoat (usually black and you get best results using a spray undercoat) then paint them. You undercoat first as the reaction agent used in the casting of the model does not stick to paints that well so you can get your paints chipping off.

2. Is there a good place to go to that teaches you the ins and outs of the game (aka a "Warhammer 40k for Dummies" kind of thing)

A local Games Workshop shop will almost always be happy to teach new players and the other players there will usually be more than happy to give you some help. Just pop in and ask about a tutorial and the shop manager will probably set you up with a time to come in when he'll have a table reserved to teach you. If you need help with painting and stuff then they also do free painting lessons with all the brushes/paints provided. My local GW also has little boxes of primed models ready for painting which you can try out painting on before you try it on your own, not sure whether that's in all of them though. If you don't have a close GW then your nearest gaming store will likely have these kind of things if it does gaming and painting in-store.

3. Where's the best place for a noobie to hang out around here to learn the game?

I would again say a local Games Workshop but any store which does games in-store will usually hold tutorial games and the staff and other gamers will probably be more than happy to teach you.

4. I almost bought Commisar Yarrick and Creed with his pal Kell today, but I didnt want to have only 7 figures after spending around $60 on my first group of guys. They had them in both metal and plastic figurines at the store I went to. Other than the metal ones being cheaper, is there a big difference in quality between the two types for the hero guys? Should a beginner even worry about these guys, or wait till they have a larger army?

The plastic ones are actually resin which is more difficult to work with for newbies, as it get's more problems in the casting (air bubbles and stuff) than the metal ones (which are harder to file/cut but more reliable from a quality control viewpoint). If you're new and don't feel like messing about with modelling putty to fix imperfections then the metal ones will probably be better. As for whether you should worry about getting them, I'm not sure (Imperial Guard are not my forte). In small games Special Characters are often not used (they cost too many points) and you'd probably be better off getting more normal soldiers and a plain commander. If you like the models then feel free to get them though.

Okay, anything else? Oh yes, welcome to Dakka

Oh, and one more thing. My little command squad came with a "medic". I've been flipping through the codex and I cant figure out what he does. Is he just some fluffy guy, or does he have some awesome ability I dont know about. Right now I'm pretty tempted to make him a crazy looking body guard and just be done with it, but I figured I would ask you guys first. I'm about to start trying to put the little guys together here in a sec, I'm just looking through the codex and figuring out what'll be the most effective for how I'd like to play.

Also, thanks for all the help guys, I wasnt expecting to get so many responses so quickly! I think this site will be a huge help to me

The medic confers a special "Feel No Pain" rule, lets you save your men more. If you have the rule book or can find one, it's in there

LazzurusMan wrote:The medic confers a special "Feel No Pain" rule, lets you save your men more. If you have the rule book or can find one, it's in there

Oh so he'd be kind of important then... Yeah I think I might take the medic guy

I'd Imagine these little guys will need all the saves they can get with me playing em. Only thing that bugs me is that if I give him the medpack, only 3 guys in that squad will even have weapons, and that might be bad too... Oh well, I'll be buying another command squad soon so its not a big deal I guess. TO THE MODELING TABLE

Welcome to the hobby MrMoustaffa!
And yes medic is kinda important

Ok so last question and then I'll shut up, but the carapace armor and camo cloak upgrades, are they 20pts per model, or 20pts to equip the whole squad with them? I'm kind of confused as to how exactly they're counted. Without those two upgrades my 5 man command squad is already hovering at around 145pts, so maybe I should not worry about it (I've got a melta gun, a plasma gun, Reg. Standard, Medic, and the commander with a powerfist/plasma pistol combo. Yeah I kinda got a little gun crazy... ) I'd like to at least put carapace on them, but if thats going to add another 100 points then theres no way I'll be adding that.

Well, looks like you're set for now. Happy modelling/painting/gaming, and welcome to Dakka!

MrMoustaffa wrote:Ok so last question and then I'll shut up, but the carapace armor and camo cloak upgrades, are they 20pts per model, or 20pts to equip the whole squad with them? I'm kind of confused as to how exactly they're counted. Without those two upgrades my 5 man command squad is already hovering at around 145pts, so maybe I should not worry about it (I've got a melta gun, a plasma gun, Reg. Standard, Medic, and the commander with a powerfist/plasma pistol combo. Yeah I kinda got a little gun crazy... ) I'd like to at least put carapace on them, but if thats going to add another 100 points then theres no way I'll be adding that.

Welcome to the Imperial Guard. There is no such thing as being "a little gun crazy" in the our ranks.

As for carapace, it's 20 for the whole squad. A rule of thumb it will either say "per model" or "entire squad" in the point entry.

Welcome to dakka my guardsman friend.

Welcome to the hobby! The Imperial Guard hold a huge appeal for a lot of people, especially history buffs I find. I'd recommend that you grab a normal squad of guys before you try painting your command squad. People will be looking at the command squad more (and trying to kill it more), whereas your rank-and-file will be numerous enough that a few guys with mismatching colours won't matter. Although, if you're wanting an army that looks like the shattered remnants of several regiments, you could do worse than to give them all sorts of crazy mismatched uniforms.

For learning how to play, try having a look in the 40k Battle Reports part of the forum, and reading some accounts of Imperial Guard games. This is a good example. They can teach you, if nothing else, what other people who play your army think works - and often give you great ideas for paint schemes when you look at their guys. You can go on Youtube and find loads of video battle reports, but I personally prefer text to video for this sort of thing. The voices grate too much, especially from miniwargaming.net.

Welcome to dakka!

And Jihadnik is correct. Ebay, ebay, ebay. Especially as a guard player, plenty of 2nd hand tanks and cheap new kits going

Welcome to Dakka! You'll learn to love your guardsmen, whether by using an armoured company or by sending wave after wave of infantry (which is what I do) 40k is a great experience. The best way to learn how to play is just by playing the game. You will most likely die horribly, which is what happened to my first game ( i killed about 4 marines, one of which died because of his own plasma gun), but you will eventually get the hang of it and start winning. Best of luck to you!

Welcome to Dakka!

Hi, Welcome to Dakka!

Hi,

Welcome to Dakka

Hello and welcome!

Welcome to dakka.