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Hey everyone!

I'm getting into 40K with a friend of mine and we have a few questions...

We'd like to play against each other here at home but we'd also be interested in playing others at our local game store. What is the best point value for us to look at starting from? Is there a 'sweet spot' in the game?

He's interested in playing Grey Knights and I think I'm leaning towards Orks. I understand they're a 'horde' race and I think that's cool but I also like the sound of the more shooty Tau. Can the Orks support a more shooty play style or are they all about charging in like the Tyranid? Would I be playing against my strengths?

Thanks all!

Best bet is to ask at the store what points values are commonly played. While it will vary from time to time, there'll generally be a commonly accepted range. For the most part, the game works best around 1500-2000 points, and so most players go for that sort of range. But some stores cater more for smaller games, aiming around the 700-750 mark, as that can be played quicker, and on smaller tables.

Start out around 750-1000, it's faster/easier/cheaper and you get a good picture of the game at that points level. Depending on your community you'll usually see 1,500-2,000pt games.

Awesome, 750-1000 is what we were thinking.

I'm tempted between Orks, Tyranid, and Tau... I think the Ork models have tons of personality and I love all the guns. Tyranid I think are really neat but I'm not sure I want to be a melee heavy hoard. I was told the Tau are all long range shooty and that sounds pretty good to me too................. Are all three of these armies performing right now?

I believe in order of competitiveness right now it goes:

Tau (usually riptides and broadsides)
Nids (Flying MC)
...
...
...
...
...
...
Orks

My shooty 'nids haven't lost a game yet (500 points)
That said, competitiveness shouldn't be the deciding factor in why you choose a faction, as each edition is going to stir it up considerably.

Really? That is disappointing! What is holding the Orks back right now?

Holding back is a strong term, Orks to me seem lovely, balanced, their mob rule really sucks but the list is fun, quirky, all those other words to describe something without using the word competitive.

Tau (and I say this as a tau player) have ridiculously cost effective units (HYMP Broadsides, Riptides) and Markerlights which help negate high cover battlefields.

Nids do MC, specifically flying MC in a big way.

Orks just dont have anything that cost effective.

 Squidmanlolz wrote:
My shooty 'nids haven't lost a game yet (500 points)
That said, competitiveness shouldn't be the deciding factor in why you choose a faction, as each edition is going to stir it up considerably.

This definitely makes sense to me especially since I'm looking forward to painting the models as well as playing. That said if I'm going to be playing randoms at the store I'd like to make sure I'm reasonably competitive. Especially considering the cost of entry. There's stuff I like about all of the armies but these three especially.


I didn't consider that shooty Nids could be a thing - I assumed they were all melee! How does shooty Nid work in general?

Thanks all!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
"High Yield Missile Pods" sound like a thing I need to look into..... WTB

Termagants (possibly in pods)
Tyrants with twin devourers
Carnifex's with twin devourers
Hive Guard with Impalers
Biovores

And so on. Nids do shooting remarkably welll.

 Melcavuk wrote:
Termagants (possibly in pods)
Tyrants with twin devourers
Carnifex's with twin devourers
Hive Guard with Impalers
Biovores

And so on. Nids do shooting remarkably welll.

This.

I've gone 3-0 with this list so far:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/633196.page

Well shooty nids are pretty tempting now too..... Thanks guys!

Nids are a fun race with cools models.

Orks are wonky and crazy guys that do crazy things. (If you want message me as i have quite a bit of ork im thinking of selling).

I main Tau, i like the japenese style and mecha aspect. They have great balanced and...prepare the flames and pitchforks... they are not over-powered. Yes the iontide is a bit under priced but it in of itself is not op. As a tau player be prepared to hear things like "you only won because your Tau" " tau cheat and break rules" blah blah blah. I tell people to stop making dumb plays and they wont have to whine as much.

Most important thing is for you to like the fluff and decide which model looks best to you. When i listened to others telling me what army i should get based on strengths/popularity i was disappointed. Did not like the fluff of the necrons and the price rage of building orcs got too high. It was not until i listened to my heart (anime lover here) and went with Tau that i was happy. Not saying tau will make you happy, different strokes for different folks.

This game overall is best between 1500 and 1850 points. Outside that range the balance gets wonky, its horrible below 1000 pts as some armies have such a huge advantage while others are paying troop taxes out the wazoo.

Thanks to some friends just getting into 40k the basic rundown of points has been:
500 - not an army. Boring, simple and unimpressive.
750 - starting to learn what works and actually learning the game. But games are always decided before Turn 4 and finishing is just a formality.
1000 - learning what the army can do but it's still so focused that you don't get the full experience. Some armies destroy and others flounder.
1250 - you finally get what the army can be and have the points to play around with. Want to try something new? You're not gimping yourself by swapping a couple things out.
Anything 1500 and up is where the game is meant to be played, with 2000+ being where the big things come in regularly.

Again, just want to throw in how not assaulty Tyranids are now. Between my five regularly used Monstrous Creatures, all of them have dual guns and nothing needs to get too close. Throwing in a CC bug is for fun, not because it needs to be.

Orks are pretty good in 7th Edition imo. Their codex is really well balanced internally, with only a couple of units being flat out bad (looking at you Nobs....). Almost every unit can be fielded effectively in an army that supports each other, meaning you'll be reasonably right to just pick up whatever models you think look the best and build your army around that.

Also if you want to collect Orks, see if you can find the models from the old Assault on Black Reach starter set on ebay or whatever. It came with 20 push-fit Slugga Boyz, and if you can find cheap 2nd hand unpainted models it is a great way to expand the core of an Ork army.

I'm having a blast with orks. We're very strong at maelstorm due to a ton of stuff and board controle even at lower pt games like 750-1k.

The thing i don't like about nids is that if you want to have a decent list, you're inevitably falling into a flyrant spam list. It's very 1-dimensional. While orks provide a lot of variety that's gona work well enough.

I've also noticed that an ork horde army is quite TAC. There are basically no games where you win easilly. But at the same time, there are no games where you loose without chances. Lots of top-tier stuff is countered with numbers. Which orks have plenty.

Recently purchased a 14000 point ork army after playing a very snooty space marine chapter (crimson fists) and I love it.. as stated above everything is fun to run. If you want competetive it's nids or tau but if you always wanna have fun win or lose, orks are the army to be.