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only $350 ish more till my 2k army is complete....then i can play my first game!!! YAY!!!!

Congrats!

Now not to sound wierd, but...

you DO know that you can play at lower than 2000 pts, right?

Yeah i know hah, i just decided to go with 2k to start, most games at my FLGS are around 1500+.

always loved mini war games and for me the bigger the better, small scale games to me are a little bland, and you can never have to much DAKKA

Playing the first game at 2000 points is a pretty bad idea. It will take a lot of time to properly play, let alone finish the game. Starting out escalation-style aka start out at 750, then going step-by-step usually works out a lot better!

A 2000pt game is a 2-3 hour jaunt for experienced players at best. Playing that for your first game, full of questions and cross checking books, it going to kill your whole day.

Start smaller, learn the rules, then jump in to big games.

 -Loki- wrote:
A 2000pt game is a 2-3 hour jaunt for experienced players at best. Playing that for your first game, full of questions and cross checking books, it going to kill your whole day.

Start smaller, learn the rules, then jump in to big games.

This all sounds so harsh on a new 40k player but I totally agree. I took a long break between 3rd and 5th, jumped back in with 750pts and the game took >4 hours -_- although chatting with friends didn't help but made it a hell of a lot more fun.

I will add to the: start small to learn, but hey, it's your time and your money. If you want a big long game of epic proportions, then I hope you have fun!

 Sigvatr wrote:
Playing the first game at 2000 points is a pretty bad idea. It will take a lot of time to properly play, let alone finish the game. Starting out escalation-style aka start out at 750, then going step-by-step usually works out a lot better!

This sums it up, small games are beside from being easier to get done more suitable for beginners since they seldom require a large amount of troops & vehicles.

First game? Ever?

2000 points is a baaaad idea. Doesn't really matter what your FLGS does, at 2000 points you don't even know the rules yet and that game will take 3 hours to play even with people who know them. And chances are it won't be done properly, ignoring a lot of special special rules for the purposes of learning, and it will end up longer.

Also, 2000 points and all that money spent on something you never even played before....that sounds like a recipe for failure. I know you said you love mini-wargames but you may play that game and find out you just don't like 40k's rules or something.

If you like big games, that's ok. We all do hahaha. But for your first game, talk to someone and see if they can run you through at max a 1000 point game. 750 would be even better. That way it won't take as long since you don't fully know the rules, and it will be easier to manage

What the others say, start smaller 500-1000 ^^ better to learn the game that way.

I disagree. I think that 2000 points is a better learning value. With 500 or even really 1000 you cant fully experience the game. 2000 will take a long time as a new player, but it will teach you better

I started 40K with 6th, and I think that lower points for the first game or 2 is probably good for a beginner. I played my first two games at 500 and 1000 points, respectively, and that was good for getting the basics of the rules. But, getting a handle on the basics was the point of those first games.

I think that Squig is correct, at those low point levels, it's harder to see the full scope of the game and what units can do. Since then, I've played at 1500. I've played another 4-5 games at that level, and it's feeling pretty good.

But, your mileage may vary. If 1500-2000 is where you want to dive in, go for it.

 TheAngrySquig wrote:
I disagree. I think that 2000 points is a better learning value. With 500 or even really 1000 you cant fully experience the game. 2000 will take a long time as a new player, but it will teach you better

While I agree, I think small games are still good for the first game or two. Just to learn basics, like moving and shooting with smaller unit numbers and less to handle. After that, take it where you want hahaha

The basics are so simple that you really can do 2k to learn tho. Its just more to learn with

So what like a kill team game?

I mean i already know my armys rules in side and out, the only thing i dont know really, are my opponents rules and i would expect him to know them haha. but i mean hell right now i have 3 tac squds, a scout. 2 rhino,a dread, a NIB pred, assault terms, a crappy painted captain, a crappy painted tac term squad. im sure i could toss together a low level list hahah.


This is a quick 1k list i tossed together, i know i am most likely breaking form rules here but ummm yeah, any way.

HQ
Chaplain in term armor: 130

Troops
Tac squad: ML, Flamer, Combi melta, in a rhino w/ SB: 225
Tac squad: ML, Flamer, Combi melta, in a rhino w/ SB: 225

elites
Assault terms, TH/SS:200

Heavy:
Pred TL Laz cannon HB 130
Pred auto cannon HB 85


chaplain with terms to deep strike.

Iirc, you can't take a Pred in kill team because its AV is too high and I'm not sure about 2+ saves allowed in there.

no no that list was not for kill team. that was just a generic 1k army list, kill team is limited to 200 points and you can only take one unit iirc

That 1000 point list seems ok actually.

But I will join the wagen and tell you to have a few games in lower costs before jumping to 2000 points.

At the beginning, even a 1000 point game can take a few hours, just as you are not quite sure what you are doing.

Whenever I introduce a friend to 40k, I usually do a 1500 point game with them. They generally take 2-3 hours, with me telling them which units have which rules and what they do. If you already know most of your army's rules and how they interact with the rest of the rules in the game, there shouldn't be much problem in starting with a larger game, especially if you play an opponent who knows the rules fairly thoroughly. Playing marines helps too, as you don't have a huge amount of special rules to learn (compared to lots of other armies). Before a game make sure you quickly brush up on your basic rules, or do what I did, and put little sticky note tabs on key sections so you don't take forever flipping through the rule book.

 TheAngrySquig wrote:
I disagree. I think that 2000 points is a better learning value. With 500 or even really 1000 you cant fully experience the game. 2000 will take a long time as a new player, but it will teach you better

Or the guys at his LGS will just cheat more or make him personally learn the rules by "Trust me, I remember my ENTIRE codex and rule book....I dont need them"



Id say at the very least play a couple smaller games just to get the basics down

If you haven't even played 1 game, how can you be sure that your list works the way you think it does on paper? Once you get a game or two in, you may be irked that your very expensive list isn't appealing to you. I love orks on paper, but then I start to move around 200 models, and I long for my Wolves. Get some games in before you drop the rest of that money, for your own sake.

Wow, building a 2k army without having played a game? Probably not the smartest idea.

At 500 points, you can play in a very reasonable amount of time while learning some of the finer rule points.

At a 1000 points you start figuring out what units are truly craptastic and what are good. (The internet voices only go so far... )

At 1500 points you really know which part of your army needs more shelf time. Generally speaking you'll have at least 2k of models, by this point but you'll only play about 1500 points worth while wanting to back track to a 1000 to start building up again.

Quite frankly I'd wager that most players have far more points in their bag than what ever shows up on the table because they've bought units that looked cool on paper only to find out that their plans failed to achieve anything against their enemies.

Good luck though. When building a list it's always good to Know Yourself and Know Your Enemy. That combi melta might seem like the absolute most awesome gun to have in your army... until you realize you are usually facing DE and the extra points were absolutely wasted.

Forget the naysayers. 2,000 points is fine for a first game, especially if you've read the rules and feel you have a solid grasp of them.

Having said that, there will be a lot of questions to answer, and being your first game the best way to answer them will be to check the books. This will make it time consuming, and at 2,000 points is really going to take an entire day. You'll probably be looking at 4 or five hours, not including set-up time, a lunch-break, and packing up. Where do you plan on playing? Will you be able to take that long? I know games nights at my local store only go from 6 till 9.

But really, 5 hours spent playing wardollies is a day well spent, IMO. Sounds like the most fun you can have with your pants still on. I say go for it!

 TheAngrySquig wrote:
I disagree. I think that 2000 points is a better learning value. With 500 or even really 1000 you cant fully experience the game. 2000 will take a long time as a new player, but it will teach you better

You might think that, but how much of that 4+ hour game is going to sink in?

I'd honestly try a game at like 1100 pts. Its an odd pt lvl but it allows you to cover the basics and start getting "neat" stuff.

See and i dont mind spending like 3 hours playing war games. back in the day me and my friends would spend hours playing massive games of mage knights, If any one else played that, and we had a blast.

Back when I started 40k with four other guys, our first 500 pt game took 8 hours. None of us had ever played a wargame before and trudging through those rules without an experienced player there to guide us made it damn near impossible to finish.

When I learned 40k I borrowed peoples armies to play to get the core rules. Then I proxied as the army I wanted to play with only a codex investment. God... if you don't like your army and droped hundreds of dollars to hate it. Worst case scenario of course, but your looking at roughly a 50% slash in your model value just to try a different army. Mooch, borrow, proxy! Then invest. Also 500pts is too small imo and 2k is a huge undertaking. 1k is a nice sweet spot to get units with different jobs and not just 2 squads and an HQ

im not to worried about not liking my army because i love shooting armies and i like the space marine. On the off chance i hate playing the game and the army is was still well worth the money just to paint the models haha

Also, I think 500-1000 points helps money wise too.

Small games allow you to take just the basics, and that helps with money because you can be sure that all your stuff will be useful. If you play a 2,000 point game, you may find that those expensive models you got are...well....kinda useless to you and you wasted money painting and making them up. OR even worse, you don't even like the army (I had someone who was die-hard convinced he wanted to play Eldar, made an 1,850 list for it and found that he didn't like it),

At least at a low points level you can ensure that
A: All your models will be of some use to you (HQ and 2 Troops)
B: You have flexibility in model cost and army options


Then again, if you REALLY want to go that far that fast.....well....then fine by me.


But really, try and make your first game 1k. It will still give you a pretty big battle for some armies, will give you an opportunity to learn most of the rules, gives you a good taste of your army, and I will go as far to say that you won't get as many people taking advantage of you (low points usually means newer players, which means less people will want to cheat. Still happens, but less often because you are at a points level that isn't considered competitive level). You can still build a 2k army, but play your first game at 1k and work up from there escalation style. No sense in rushing things haha