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.

New to both the forum and gaming.

I heard about this site while talking to a guy who plays warhammer in my local comic book shop. I told him that I've been thinking about starting a 40k army after playing a few games with my friends. I told him that I couldn't decide which army I wanted and he told me to ask here. I've only played with my friend's small dark angels army against his chaos and my other friends necron army. I'd like an army that is good in long range but can still hold their hold ground in melee combat.
I'd rather play as he good guys but I'm fine with playing evil. I've already decided that I don't want to get the following armies:
Tyranids
Necrons
Chaos
Dark angels

Sorry if this isn't enough information on what I'd like. I'll try to post more if I find out any more factors to take into consideration.
Thank you!

Hi,

Welcome to Dakka

Hello! Welcome to Dakka Dakka!

Hello and welcome!

In my opinion the best way to choose the right army if you don't have particular preferences is to go with one that you like more.
Have a good look at all armies on GW site and chose what is the best for you. Then look at the finished models and armies here on the gallery and on CMON.

However, there are a lot other things to consider:
- power of the army as some are more powerful than others
- swarm armies like ork or armies with small amount of miniatures
- close combat or shooty army
- stories behind the armies (fluff)
and so on

And common advice that it is better to start army with a newly released codex.

Gatherer wrote:
Hello and welcome!

In my opinion the best way to choose the right army if you don't have particular preferences is to go with one that you like more.
Have a good look at all armies on GW site and chose what is the best for you. Then look at the finished models and armies here on the gallery and on CMON.

However, there are a lot other things to consider:
- power of the army as some are more powerful than others
- swarm armies like ork or armies with small amount of miniatures
- close combat or shooty army
- stories behind the armies (fluff)
and so on

And common advice that it is better to start army with a newly released codex.

This man (or woman) is right. Although I'd say that as all armies have cool fluff, I'd pick the one I liked the look of best. You're going to be spending a lot of time and money on this, so pick the army that's visually most appealing. At the end of the day, although some armies are much more powerful than others, you can usually get a decent enough list (though by no means a highly competitive one) even with sub par units. Does the idea of hordes of bodies appeal? Walls of tanks? Small, elite strike teams? These are the kinds of questions that will narrow down your search before you finally decide.

Also, welcome! You made the right choice: One of us! One of us! One of us!

Firstly, welcome to Dakka!

Second, if you're thinking about Space Marines, here's a pic of some of the paint schemes for you to cast your eye over.



One thing: Not to discourage you or anything, but if you're going to play Blood Angels, be prepared to paint A LOT of blood drops. They're everywhere!

Ok a quick and dirty run down
1-5 scale 1 being terrible and 5 being awesome
good guys, ( were not as good in hand to hand as bad guys...)
Astra militarum Close combat: 2 one or two combinations of units can do some damage in hand to hand shooting: 5 we have tanks for days with powerful artillery, our rifles are weak but there are hundreds of them

space marines: close combat: 4 shooting: 4 space marines are the basic of basic, with certain armies leaning towards either side of the close combat and shooting spectrum

grey knights: close combat: 5 shooting: 4 specialize in killing big monsters with powerful physic weapons and abilities and can hold there own when it comes to shooting because they are space marines

BAD GUYS
tau: fighting for the greater good: close combat :1 they suck... shooting 5 hard to match if your fighting in ranged warfare

orks: close combat 5 they will overwhelm you with hundreds of attacks at good strength and have numerous big guys with strong weapons shooting: 2 they have alot of it but it'll never be to great, some combinations work

eldar: shooting 4 have alot of specialized guns, cose combat : 3 have some units that kick butt in close combat

Dark eldar: shooting: 3 light transports can get a ton of hots off, some specialized anti tank Close combat: 5 they will overwhlem you with speed and maneuverability

choas: shooting 3 Even though they are spcae marines ive never seen anyone run a shooty army so it must not be as effective Close combat: 5 tough infantry and strong characters that destroy enemies

Daemons: close combat 5 strong infantry and monsters that kill everything! shooting 3 have some untis that are very good but not many ... also depends on the type of daemon
\ i hope this helped a little! pick what you think looks cool and has an awesome back round ... what you like unless your purely playing for competition.
FMJ

You want a 40k army that's all round?

Pick blood angels or orks.
Bad thing you didn't want necrons, there good at shooting, close combat and their regular soldiers are less points than space marines


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And they've better guns

Hello! Welcome to Dakka.

personally i think you should take guard with alot of leman russ tanks, veterans and chimeras

Welcome! I reccomend any army that you like the look off. generic space marines being versatile both on the bored and in paint scheme. grey knights if you want CC and few models, and Imperial guard if you want a horde of regular guys.

I recommend you buy my Chaos Space Marine army from me instead of playing Loyalist!

 fullmetaljacket wrote:
Ok a quick and dirty run down
1-5 scale 1 being terrible and 5 being awesome
good guys, ( were not as good in hand to hand as bad guys...)
Astra militarum Close combat: 2 one or two combinations of units can do some damage in hand to hand shooting: 5 we have tanks for days with powerful artillery, our rifles are weak but there are hundreds of them

space marines: close combat: 4 shooting: 4 space marines are the basic of basic, with certain armies leaning towards either side of the close combat and shooting spectrum

grey knights: close combat: 5 shooting: 4 specialize in killing big monsters with powerful physic weapons and abilities and can hold there own when it comes to shooting because they are space marines

BAD GUYS
tau: fighting for the greater good: close combat :1 they suck... shooting 5 hard to match if your fighting in ranged warfare

orks: close combat 5 they will overwhelm you with hundreds of attacks at good strength and have numerous big guys with strong weapons shooting: 2 they have alot of it but it'll never be to great, some combinations work

eldar: shooting 4 have alot of specialized guns, cose combat : 3 have some units that kick butt in close combat

Dark eldar: shooting: 3 light transports can get a ton of hots off, some specialized anti tank Close combat: 5 they will overwhlem you with speed and maneuverability

choas: shooting 3 Even though they are spcae marines ive never seen anyone run a shooty army so it must not be as effective Close combat: 5 tough infantry and strong characters that destroy enemies

Daemons: close combat 5 strong infantry and monsters that kill everything! shooting 3 have some untis that are very good but not many ... also depends on the type of daemon
\ i hope this helped a little! pick what you think looks cool and has an awesome back round ... what you like unless your purely playing for competition.
FMJ

I'm really interested in dark eldar, but I've heard that they are not a good army for beginners. Is that true? If it is, I may just go with regular eldar or space marines.

Dark Eldar are just difficult army to use. Lightning fast, very mobile, but with endurance of porcelain doll. Altough if you would like to just endure beggining problems you'd end up like a great player - because you would learn to use one of those armies who are not forgiving, and thus you'd just learn to play the game on very high level.

But if you are afraid of jumping into such deep water, Eldar are perfect for you - shooty army which stands their ground in CC, with kinda Space-Elf-Samurai fluff and very cool looking models. And not that expensive thanks to their new codex, which is praising use of Wave Serpents and Dire Avengers along with Wraithguards

I hate wraith guard spam

Hi! Welcome to Dakka, I'm new as well

I play Space Marines (Dark Hunters, if you look on that image angelofvengeance posted, it's next to the Knights of Gryphonne and above Ultramarines to the right) and I think they're absolutely awesome. Hail the God-Emperor.

Space Marines are a great starter army, they have a clear unit organization, you know exactly what units to use, and they're relatively good. However, there's not much PIZZAZZ. Unless you play Black Templars, of course. GW favors Space Marines.

Then there's the divergent (in terms of organization) Space Marine Chapters: Dark Angels, Blood Angels, and Space Wolves.

You've already said no to Dark Angels, so I won't go into detail.

Blood Angels are cool and they've got some nice special rules. They're also NEW. That means it'll be a long time until a new codex (which is good).

Space Wolves are also cool. However, unlike the Blood Angels and Dark Angels, there's only one official colour scheme, that of the titular Space Wolves. Also, space vikings get old REEEEAL fast.

There's heaps of other factions, however, I only know stuff about the Space Marines, Necrons and Tau.

 FavilleGamingAndTCG wrote:
...

Blood Angels are cool and they've got some nice special rules. They're also NEW. That means it'll be a long time until a new codex (which is good).

Space Wolves are also cool. However, unlike the Blood Angels and Dark Angels, there's only one official colour scheme, that of the titular Space Wolves. Also, space vikings get old REEEEAL fast.

There's heaps of other factions, however, I only know stuff about the Space Marines, Necrons and Tau.

Blood Angels are also good option, especially if you are into Close Combat and a bit of Space Vampires lore. They are cool faction with some great units (like DC), cool looking HQ's, and their dex is very fresh. However, BA are rather opposite of what OP would preffer - this army is a solid PUNCH in Close Combat with some good elements of shooting

Space Wolves are cool, but their lore is... silly. A bit too epic, too little of grimdark and those Guys riding Giant Wolves.. If you are into it, RedMedicine712, then this is good way as well - altough Wolves are another amry rather focused on Close Combat with only a side of shooting.

Tau would be fine if not the fact that they are just BAD in any CC xD

just like he said, whe dark eldar are used right there is littke that can match their speed and ferocity. but when that tank shell, lasannon or artillery shell strikes true on one of your vehicles your lucky if two guys make it out alive haha, But i mean, your supposed to be traveling at top speeds with little to no protection on top of their light armored skimmers chance of survival for anyone would be low... haha
but they are great, their skimmers used as gunships put out around 15 shots a turn, the other assualt skimmers carry lighting fast close combat troops that jump off the vehicle straight into comabt and before the enemy even knows what hit them, the dark eldar are finishing off the last man.
so its definitely an army you have learn how to use to be good at.
so go with what you like, youll master the army in the end and start winning game. i like many started out with space marines, but even then, with their super power armour and god like characteristics. i still lost... haha until i learned how to play the game
FMJ

Good at long range but can hold their own in close combat sounds a lot like space marines to me.

They are also the most widely supported army with lots of options. Space marines are also new player friendly, as well as very competitive.

Astra militarum Shut combat: 2 1 or 2 mixtures of models can perform a few injury in hand handy capturing: 5 we've aquariums for days along with effective artillery, the guns are usually fragile however you will find a huge selection of these