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Hello all,

I have just joined the forums and I'm thinking of getting into Warhammer 40K for the first time.

Which armies would be best for a beginner, be it how easy/fun they are to use or how easy to paint? At the moment I am thinking Tyranids?

If you're looking at nids, you'll definitely want to pick up the Deathstorm box set as it comes with them at a great price.

In terms of easy to paint, I'd say marines (blood angels also come in that box) are the easiest to paint as they're mostly just one color (plus some tiny bits here and there of others). Nids can be easy to paint, but are harder to make look good. Marines can look good "clean", with minimal highlighting, while it's harder to get the organic look of the nids.

If you're looking for fun to play, that's entirely up to you. Do you like to make a line and gun stuff down? Do you like to run in and stab stuff? Do you like a ton of weak units or a handful of powerful units? And I'd look at what kind of background story you want for your army. I play Dark Angels because I like their secretive nature, I like really elite warriors, and I hate xenos scum.

Also, how much time & money do you want to spend? Tyranids are a "horde" army, meaning they're effective when played with a crap ton of models. That means you'll have to buy more models than other armies and spend more time painting and assembling (a plus or minus depending on how you look at it). Some armies, like most space marine armies, have more "elite" models so you'll be buying and fielding fewer per game.

Time wouldn't be a problem, money however might be. There is just something that really draws me to the Tyranids, even though it would take more time and money to build a decent army.

Then if you like nids take the dive. It will be a blast


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Then if you like nids take the dive. It will be a blast


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Then if you like nids take the dive. It will be a blast


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Then if you like nids take the dive. It will be a blast

orodes wrote:
Time wouldn't be a problem, money however might be. There is just something that really draws me to the Tyranids, even though it would take more time and money to build a decent army.

If you're liking Tyranids, I say go for it. Although they aren't the most "normal" army to learn the game with, they are plenty of fun to play, and with the availability of formations and new models not in the codex, they've become quite competitive.

There are also color schemes you can do with Nids that are relatively easy to paint. For example, I'm doing the Hivefleet Kraken scheme from the codex, and its really a pretty easy and relatively quick color scheme to do, even for a novice like me:

Those look really nice.

I think I will just start out with a Termagant/Hormagaunt Brood just to get me started and also I might go with the Hive Fleet Behemoth paint scheme, the darker red colour appeals to me.

Cool...I like that scheme as well. I imagine its a pretty similar to paint. There's probably plenty of good youtube material showing how to achieve the Behemoth paint scheme. You could look some of those vids over, and see if its somehting you'd have fun painting, not too hard, etc.

The Tyranid Swarm box would get you the most hormagants and termagants (plus 10 Gargoyles and a Carnifex) and is a good value relative to what you'd pay for all contents separately. Unless your playing Unbound, you'd also need an HQ to start. It's true what they say, a Flying Hive Tyrant with 2x TL Devourers is probably the besy HQ available. It might be worth a look at the Wrath of the Hive Mind box...20 Termagants, 3 Warriors, a Tervigon, and a Hive Tyrant...its a good value. Anyways, all this just to make you aware that these two discount boxes exist and are worth a look if you get serious about Nids.

Tough to say. If you really want Nids, go for it, although they can be a bit hard to play. I would say SM, as they're very flxible and pretty easy to learn.

Again though, if Nids are what draws you in, absolutely go Nids. Just research what you buy, as some units are not very good.

While they are a bit dated now, might I recommend the following episodes of The Independent Characters Podcast:

http://theindependentcharacters.com/blog/?p=1457
http://theindependentcharacters.com/blog/?p=1460

In lieu of updating these episodes, we now are doing a format called "Show of Force" where we look at each army individually and answer the question "Why should you collect this army?"

Though we have not covered all armies (yet), you can find those episodes here:

http://theindependentcharacters.com/blog/?s=Show+of+Force&x=0&y=0