Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi everyone!
I'm new to the dakkadakka forum.

Thanks to this site I, and, some of my friends have gotten into 40k, and, will now start playing when 6th edition has come out.

However I don't really know what race to choose, this is why i'm here, and, hope you guys can help me out. (Please motivate why you think I should choose a specific race.)
What I want from my race are:

.Have the best psyker (I like the idea of having a psycic "god" in my army) However, its is not a most... but its a wish ^^
.Be able to play against my friends who will play: "Orks", "Imperial Guard", "Tau" & finally "Tyranids" (Competivly... I don't want an overpowerd or underpowerd race, if that exsist )
.A somewhat "newer" codex (Don't want to find myself buying a codex, and, suddenly have to buy it again in 2 months because it has a new release)

Thats about it ...

Races I know I absoulutly don't want to play (since I dont like the visuals of them) is:
.Eldar
.Tau
.Space wolfs
.Sisters of battle

Also, I will ask another question: Who is the singlest most powerfull psyker in-game? (should be a psyker that makes up for his cost in a game, from my limited understanding, Mephiston is the best? )

P.S: Please motivate why you think I should choose a specific race. (Also keep is stupid, since I don't understand the game rules etc, yet.)

Some branch of the space marines sounds right for you on the psyker front...though you migt want to go necrons just to stay away from astartes...but since you don't already have a sm player, I might recommend space marines, specifically blood angels for the psyker thing as well as having a more competitive edge than vanilla marines, but your friends may not like you too much for simply choosing from amongst the top 3 condices.

The single most powerful psyker in the game at the moment is Tigurius from codex space marines. Second is probably Ahriman from chaos space marines. In the case of CSM, you can also take thousand sons as troops, who get sorcerers as their squad leaders.

Otherwise, if you want psykers, think grey knights, as literally every model in their army (well, other than henchmen) have the psyker special ability.

I almost said Eldar when I saw psyker, but realised you don't like them.

I think GK would suit you best.

Ah ok. So Grey knights seems intresting aswell as blood angels and Chaos Space Marines.
But isn't rumors saying csm will be next released? (and how soon?)

I saw on my poll that tyranids are ranked high, do they have psykers?
Also I have heard that Grey Knights are overpowered and not used in tournaments, is this true?

Grey Knights are used in tournaments because they're overpowered, but in the 6th Edition it's unknown whether they'll continue to be.

Chaos Space Marines are rumoured to have a new Codex coming in September to go along with the new starter box, which is supposed to be Dark Angels vs. CSM.

Ailaros wrote:The single most powerful psyker in the game at the moment is Tigurius from codex space marines.

Ummm, how?

Well, personally I think Necrons would be a great starter

They're a very recent book, and the 6th edition rules treat them *very* well indeed, and you can do them fairly on the cheap. Against anything relying on vehicles, Necrons are absolute murder, and oddly enough despite being I2 across the board have fairly decent CC backed up be very fearsome 24" range shooting capabilities and tough vehicles of their own.

That said, they don't really have Psykers, but you could ally them in.

Space Marines sounds best. They are a great all round army and some have really strong Psykers. May even be work waiting for the Starter set which is said to contain Dark Angel's Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines. These will also most likly have updated Codexes around the same time. (rumour is September but wouldn't be suprised if released in late August)

thepiratedon wrote:Hi everyone!
I'm new to the dakkadakka forum.

Thanks to this site I, and, some of my friends have gotten into 40k, and, will now start playing when 6th edition has come out.

However I don't really know what race to choose, this is why i'm here, and, hope you guys can help me out. (Please motivate why you think I should choose a specific race.)
What I want from my race are:

.Have the best psyker (I like the idea of having a psycic "god" in my army) However, its is not a most... but its a wish ^^
.Be able to play against my friends who will play: "Orks", "Imperial Guard", "Tau" & finally "Tyranids" (Competivly... I don't want an overpowerd or underpowerd race, if that exsist )
.A somewhat "newer" codex (Don't want to find myself buying a codex, and, suddenly have to buy it again in 2 months because it has a new release)

Thats about it ...

Races I know I absoulutly don't want to play (since I dont like the visuals of them) is:
.Eldar
.Tau
.Space wolfs
.Sisters of battle

Also, I will ask another question: Who is the singlest most powerfull psyker in-game? (should be a psyker that makes up for his cost in a game, from my limited understanding, Mephiston is the best? )

P.S: Please motivate why you think I should choose a specific race. (Also keep is stupid, since I don't understand the game rules etc, yet.)

Seriously?

if you get one of the basic armies in the boxed set, or your so inclined, get yourself either Dark Angels, or Chaos.

Start from step one, and learn the game with rulebook in hand, and your mates.

Your looking too deep. first you have to learn the game, then you can go on and expand into some of those others. Alot of the armies your musing are a little higher speed then you might be used to, and your going to miss out trying to play catchup with a bunch of cats who are going to sharpshoot you at every turn with the standard issue "Well... they didn't do THAT in such and such edition. Next thing you know, everyone else but you is playing YOUR army.

Use your stripped down, couple of squads, and play a few rounds of basic stuff, and then add in more as the game gets more comfortable for you.

Done this with all of the editions, and its easier for you to learn the rules while not getting overwhelmed.

I'm not going to motivate, anything. You pick an army, you get everything that comes with it, good and bad.

Play like you got a pair!


oh, wait. wrong game.


But, yes- Pick one of the starter games to learn with, then add on to it if you so choose.

Didn't see Squats in there, so I guess that rumors false as well.

I'm going to get some of that chaos stuff if it looks good. Funny how its only supposedly days away, yet we don't even get to see the stuff.

I have a few boxes of chaos to play around with to scrounge up some minions and troops, so I'm not at all worried about getting shafted in price, or not having any of the "Cool guy gear."

Dont listen to others. Pick an army you feel attuned with. One that you will like.

Indeed I should choose myself.
I just want insight in what the different races are, and what they do.

So perhaps I should give a new question

Can you guys give me a short summary about each race?
.Who are they? (Basic lore)
.What do they do? (Are they close combat, range, hard to kill etc.)
.Additional info

for example(take necrons as example since I have read about them a little today)

Necrons
Who are they: Former race called necrontyr, tricked by gods called c'tan to be transferred into metalbodys to become more or less immortal.
What do they do: Necrons are very hard to kill and favor shooting where they have very high tech weaponry.
Additional info: Necrons are one of the oldest races, and have one of the most high-tech / lethal weaponry in the 40k universe.

That is really what I want to help aiding me in my decision

Easiest to paint for a novice = Space Marines (I started with Imperial Guard... They WERE SO TINY).

My favorite Space Marine Sect. = Blood Ravens (because of their special rules and troops)

Cheapest way to get a starter army = 2 Starter sets, You and your Ork buddy split 2 Assault on Black Reach and you are getting a steal of a deal. The 2 terminator squads are $100 by themselves and they are OP imo. It is a great idea. Just Grab a Librarian and a Sanguinary Guard and you've got a nice army going there. Check it out.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440162a&prodId=prod1570027

Not to mention your Ork friend is gonna have a whole horde o' boys. Like a ridiculous amount of boys.

This is the Best way to get a nice army going. My brother did this and his Blood Ravens are awesome.

Note - If you go with any kind of Space Marine They are mostly the same except for a few bits here and there and some details that you can paint in. This leaves you free to assemble and play without picking right off if you want Dark Angels, Blood Angels, Ultra Marines, ect. Once you have read up on each then you can start to paint and add on to the Vanilla SM army and transform it into one of the other armies with extra bits and a nice paint jobs

If you want some background on the armies, I would suggest going to GW's site and read the plurbs they have. Or read some the the codices at a FLGS. Also, I really suggest looking at the models; if you hate the models and love the army, you might have a problem down the line (or close...). Space Marines are a good starter army: they are versatile and somewhat forgiving to tactical errors. You also don't need a gak-load of models. Always a plus for the budding enthusiast. Anything strike you as cool?

Chaos Daemons.

alright, all army background, i can do this:

start with my favorite:

Dark eldar - can build three ways, shooty, assulty, and undead/twisted horde. basically their army is SUPER fast and really glass. they move quick but their shooting and assulting is both really strong. the problem with them is no psykers and they die to a strong breeze.

Eldar - Very specialized. their units and army list is meant to focus on one thing and do it better than anyone else. they arnt quite as fragile as dark eldar, but pretty fragile. They usually build pretty shooty and have the best psykers in the game, with abilities that make their shooting even better. They can also build as an assult army but its not quite as good. If you pretend your the general of a bunch of special forces soldiers, thats pretty much how eldar are. not great in a stand up drag out fight, but very good at specialized roles.

Chaos Deamons - Wierd army, they are about having really strong heroes and monstrous characters and tend to be close combat oriented. they have some shooting but its close range and meant to be used right before assulting. They are all invounerable saves so they can be fairly tough, but they come on in a special way where part of their army deploys each turn. not an easy to use army.

Marines - jack of all trades army. they boast the best stat line of standard troops and they are quite capable of being good shooters and good assulters. the problem is that they arnt the best at everything. where the dark eldar and eldar tend to be hyper focused towards either shooting or close combat the marine can do both, but not quite as well. They are really tough though so you wont be as punished for making mistakes. they are the beginners army and the most popular army. personally, i hate them.

Imperial guard - basically take the nazi army in WW2 and put them into the future. and take out the zealotry. they are about a big army consisting of lots of soldiers and good tanks to back them up. they are generally poor in close combat but their shooting is arguably the best in the game. expect to paint alot of dudes and lose alot of dudes in every game. good army, fairly beginner friendly.

Tau - the shooting gods essentially. pretty much useless in close combat. they are all about keeping stand off range and using their mobility to stay away from you, while continuing to pour fire into you. They used to be a great army, but arnt quite as good anymore. cool models though. Not really beginner friendly because it takes some practice to maximize firepower while minimizing getting assulted.

Necrons - I dont have much experience with the current incarnation of necrons so i cant say much here, but it seems to be basic consensus that they are curently one of the best armies in the game.they tend to be really tough and all about close range (24" or less) shooting. they have some close combat units, and their HQs are really strong ut generally they want to duke it out in shooting over cc and then use their wraiths to clean up anything that reaches their lines.

Grey Knights - man, i remember when they were the worst army in the game. Thats changed though as the boast super strong close to mid range shooting and excellent close combat. they field small armies that tend to look really good so its a fun army to collect, and fairly cheap (for warhammer) they are really strong though and you might not make many friends playing them.

Orks - best army in the game, bar none. not the strongest, but perfectly viable. what they lack in strenght though they make up in fun. if your looking at the game from the right perspective, this is the army for you. They are great in close combat and solid in shooting though both are usually through volume of attacks than through skill (opposite the eldar for example) They field some cool units and tend to just be a blast to play. when i said best army in the game what i mean is that they embody fun in 40k, something that is sadly lacking in most armies.

Tyranids - i dont know them enough to say much, but they tend to be about big scary monsters. if you played starcraft and liked zerg, its pretty much the same zone. they are a good army, but not great and have a few glaring weaknesses. with the 6th edition changes though, they may be pretty good.

Sisters of battle - im just gonna skip over these guys because you shouldnt collect them. they are for the hard core 40k guys who are willing to scrounge around for the rules and put down the money for metal models. In short though, they are all about fire (literally) and tend to get in close to the enemy and douse them in flamethrowers and meltas.

Marine offshoots - ill put all chapters with their own codex here. basically its just another marine army that is better than the standard marine codex. space wolves have great shooting and great close combat, blood angels are all about close combat and very, very good at it. black templar are also close combat oriented but not very strong these days. Chaos space marines are basically evil marines that got nifty upgrades from the warp. they can put out greater deamons that are pretty strong and they can get a few cool units (obliterators, defilers) that are just evil twisted versions of marine type stuff. they tend to be more close combat oriented than good guy marines, but still not as specialized as grey knights or the eldar folks.

alright, all army background, i can do this:

start with my favorite:

Thanks meneroth2
That is exactly what I needed, short but informative summary of all races.

Thanks!

meneroth2 gives a nice overview.

However, if you plan on painting your minis, I can't stress enough the value of choosing an army that you like the visual look of. 40k takes alot of minis and it makes no sense to choose a force that you're not going to like painting.

I would advise you to choose 3 armies that you like the look of and then compare them based on meneroth2's summary and other folks reports on how they play. You should be able to find an army that appeals to you visually and matches your playstyle.

meneroth2 gives a nice overview.

However, if you plan on painting your minis, I can't stress enough the value of choosing an army that you like the visual look of. 40k takes alot of minis and it makes no sense to choose a force that you're not going to like painting.

I would advise you to choose 3 armies that you like the look of and then compare them based on meneroth2's summary and other folks reports on how they play. You should be able to find an army that appeals to you visually and matches your playstyle

I agree with you Eilif!
The main part in the hobby for me would be(in order)

1. Like the visuals
2. Enjoy the story
3. Have fun playing with them

and as you said try to bring the races you intrested in down to 3. ( Which I have succesfully made now )
The races I found to be most interesting (for me) is:

Necrons
Grey Knights
Tyranids

What I love with them is:
Necrons
I like the idea of seeming less unkillable robots, with super high-tech weaponry, and they also look really cool and menacing (I would be scared to play agains them, they look really powerfull)

Grey Knights
Defenders of mankind, top of the art soldiers and psykers that will stop at nothing eliminate the empires threats, like their armor with the textile and seals on them

Tyranids
I love the look of tyranids, and the thing that they are from another galaxy brings some specialy mystery to them (do they come here, because they are fleeing, or because they have already eliminated that galaxy? How many are there, etc.) Also they idea of a hivemind, working togheter for 1 singel purpose.

Can you that play these 3 races please tell me a little more about them?
I think I have the basic lore for them down, so what I want to know is, how are they at the tabletop? (how are their playstyles, etc)
and any other (you deam relevant) information.

Hi again everyone!
Thanks for all the help!

I have been idle now for a while, because I went down to a local gamestore and watched through some of the codexes.

I have now choosen my race: Space Wolfs (Just love everything about them)
Also that I am from a nordic country and part of my family lineage bond with the vikings is awesome.

So now I hope you can help me answer some question about Space Wolfs:
1. How are their future looking? (are their any rumors of 6th codex comming etc? (since their current codex is from 2009))

2. How are they looking now with 6th edition rulebook?

Any other relevant information you think I should know about the Space wolfs?

thepiratedon wrote:Hi again everyone!
Thanks for all the help!

I have been idle now for a while, because I went down to a local gamestore and watched through some of the codexes.

I have now choosen my race: Space Wolfs (Just love everything about them)
Also that I am from a nordic country and part of my family lineage bond with the vikings is awesome.

So now I hope you can help me answer some question about Space Wolfs:
1. How are their future looking? (are their any rumors of 6th codex comming etc? (since their current codex is from 2009))

2. How are they looking now with 6th edition rulebook?

Any other relevant information you think I should know about the Space wolfs?

Relevant other information: many people hate SW, beware if prone to over enthusiasm about liking them.

I don't think they have a codex update coming anytime soon, as others are in much bigger need of updates (eldar, CSM, Tau).

They're generally affected in the same way as SM hen it comes to 6th ed effects. I'm not a SW player though I have played alot against them. I also hear they've got the best psychic prowess due to frost weapons and SW psychich abilities not being nerfed and keeping 5th ed rules, making them possible OP in the 6th ed setting

Relevant other information: many people hate SW, beware if prone to over enthusiasm about liking them.

Why does people hate them?

1. Names: Lord Wolf Wolfson of the Wolfland riding his Wolf mount whilst wolfing down wolf meat and fighting for the great wolf of wolfiness. The word is used too much.

2. Many SW players use MSU long fang and rayor spam. it gets annoying. fast.

3. Fluff: some people absolutely hate the SWs in the fluff. That's more personal I guess, but I also kind of think GW could have reduced the drunk, rowdy bad ass yet kind hearted warrior thing and actually gone a bit more into viking culture and legends.

4. Some OP rules. As I've said, I do believe their 5th ed psychic weapons have been kept as such, making them really powerful in 6th ed. Not 100% sure about this.

There's been entire threads on SW hate. Go to 40k background, and I think there's a thread right there. Otherwise just search this general discussion forum. The words Space Wolves will suffice.