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Hey folks!
So I use to play 40k about 10 years ago, maybe more now. I used to play tyranids and chaos marines, and about two years ago I rediscovered some of my old models, and ended up getting back a lot more from friends with whom I had left other models. After stripping away some poor paint-jobs, I started to repaint and convert them, and I've enjoyed the hell out of that aspect of it. It's been forever since I've actually played, though, my last experience being with 3.5 and 4th edition books. I'm starting to get the itch to play again, now that my guys are looking all shiny and new. It will be a massive investment to re-enter play, and so I'm looking for advice on how to do that in the most efficient or cost effective way.

Jumping back in with two armies is a bit out of the question, so here is the situation I'm dealing with

I have about 800 pts (4th edition book) of tyranids with a few massive creatures, specialized units and the requisite swarm. They're not fully painted yet but they're on their way.

I also have around 3000 pts (4th edition) of Chaos Space Marines, converted and set-up as a Word Bearer chapter. However I've heard that Word Bearers are no longer a discreet legion in the Chaos books. I have a pretty heavy daemonic presence in this army, and where Daemons have become their own army it sounds like it would be a pain in the neck to run two books to make an army work that no longer gets a benefit from being specifically Word Bearer.

I also have a few Eldar tanks (Fire Prism and Falcon) that my friend said I could have, and the eldar models have seemed pretty neat so at some point I'll probably give those a fresh coat as well.

So my question is: How feasible would it be to run Word Bearers? Would I need to spend hundreds on books to actually play them, and if I did, would I be fielding a doomed force? With the sheer number and type of units I'm sure I could use them as something else, but I'm not really interested in disbanding or greatly altering the flavor of an army I've grown attached to, even if they might be semi-retired. Even giving them Chaos Marks of anything except Undivided would feel like heresy. Death to the False Emperor!

How about tyranids, are they fairly easy to make competitive? How about expanding it? It seems fairly costly to load up with more models, especially the newer, bigger monstrous creatures. It's a very scything talon-y army, and now that massive tanks and flying stuff seems more common place, I worry I've painted (or modeled) myself into a bit of a corner.

Also, as I said I'm interested in at least painting and modeling some eldar, how do they rate as an army? I've heard that they can be pretty cheesy if you field the wrong (or right, depending on your play style) stuff. How about in terms of relative cash investment? I know some armies are much more expensive to collect than others, but it seems like the game has changed so much that maybe starting mostly from scratch might be the best entry back in.

Any guidance here before I take the plunge and crack open my wallet would be great

Ref Tryanids: Hate to say it, but Tyranids are basically useless as a competitive force without a bunch of the big monsters...especially Flying Hive Tyrants. Depending on what mosnters you have and how many, it may require significant investment. If you tell me what youalready have, I might be able to give you a better idea on options, as I'm a Tyranid player and familiar with their units.

Ref Word Bearers: You could run your Word Bearers out of the CSM Codex with the Crimson Slaughter Supplement, and ally with the Chaoes Daemon Codex. The Daemon Codex is good. The CSM codex is pretty subpar, but the Crimson SLaughter supplement improves it just a little bit. But you'd need 3 books for this. Some would even say you'd still need more Forgeworld rules if you really want to be competitive with the CSM codex.

If you have alot of Khorne stuff, you could run them using the Khorne Daemonkin codex. I'm not too familiar with this book, but its a codex that includes some CSM units and some Khornate Daemon units, with formations and so forth. Only 1 book required for this.

You could also look into running a Horus Heresy-era Word Bearer's army. To do this, instead of getting your rules from 40k codices, you'd get them from the FW Horus Heresy series of books. They have red abridged versions with core army rules and legion rules that are more affordable than the big huge ultra-awesome and expensive black books. 2 books required for this option. (I'm doing this)

Eldar are among the top power armies ATM, along with Space Marines and Necrons. I don;'t know how much Eldar cost to get into, tbh, as I never considered playing them.


One piece of general advice is to find the rules first, get a sense of the units you want to use being informed about their rules before you spend any money. It's easy to go to a hobby shop, pick up a cool looking box, and come home to find out the unit is pretty crappy, or overcosted, or whatever. Especially with Tyranids. If modeling cool models is your priority than this is not much of an issue, but if you want to build strong armies, know the rules.

Download a rulebook, a codex and than try playing with what you have. The game has changed tremendously since than.

Ref Tryanids: Hate to say it, but Tyranids are basically useless as a competitive force without a bunch of the big monsters...especially Flying Hive Tyrants. Depending on what mosnters you have and how many, it may require significant investment. If you tell me what youalready have, I might be able to give you a better idea on options, as I'm a Tyranid player and familiar with their units.

HQ:
Hive Tyrant Scything Talons, no wings
Tyrant Guard x3 (Old models, I have another of the newer version that I painted up and like the look of better but I think the max unit size used to be 3)
Elites:
Warriors x5 (Various weapons, one with scything talons and rending claws)
Lictors x2
Troops:
Termagaunts x21 Fleshborers
Hormogaunts x20 Toxin Sacs
Genestealers x20 (I have a Broodlord as well, which I've heard can accompany the unit like a sergeant now?
Ripper Bases x5
Fast Attack:
Raveners x2 with devourers
Heavy Support:
Carnifex x2 Venom Cannon, Scything Talons (I also have Old One-Eye
Biovore

Ref Word Bearers: You could run your Word Bearers out of the CSM Codex with the Crimson Slaughter Supplement, and ally with the Chaoes Daemon Codex. The Daemon Codex is good. The CSM codex is pretty subpar, but the Crimson SLaughter supplement improves it just a little bit. But you'd need 3 books for this. Some would even say you'd still need more Forgeworld rules if you really want to be competitive with the CSM codex.

If you have alot of Khorne stuff, you could run them using the Khorne Daemonkin codex. I'm not too familiar with this book, but its a codex that includes some CSM units and some Khornate Daemon units, with formations and so forth. Only 1 book required for this.

That's kind of what I was afraid of. I have daemons of every type, not khorne specific but I do have some bloodletters. I played at a time when it took an elites choice to take marked units so I don't have berserkers or anything like that. I have around 30 CSMs but they're all Chaos Marines. It almost sounds like I'd be better off running a khornate army rather than word bearers. Would it make sense to run Horus Heresy rules with 40k models? I've seen them and like the idea of them, but mine look like they come pretty distinctly from the 41st millenium. I'll definitely look before I leap when it comes to purchasing, I'm just trying to get a rough idea of where to direct my search at this point.

Download a rulebook, a codex and than try playing with what you have. The game has changed tremendously since than.

It's looking more and more like that's the case, but I was hoping to see if I had anything usable already. It might make sense to start building again from scratch, which is why I mentioned eldar. I'm not looking to be an unstoppable force. I probably have the worst win-loss record in the history of 40k, but I still enjoy playing as long as I'm not wasting both mine and my opponents time fielding a joke army that can't deal with the fancy new tanks and the like. I expect to lose plenty, especially at first, but I don't want to be the guy that requires everyone to tie one arm behind their back and field goofy forces so they can make a game of it.

For Tyranids , probably priority add-ons to your existing army would be one or two Flyrants, and some more monster for Heavy Support like maybe a couple Mawlocs. And some Venomthropes for cover buffs.

As for CSM models on 30k, that just depends on your preferences IMO.

Another option is just to run a pure CSM army and ally wig your Daemons, or vice versa. I mentioned the Crimson Slaughter addon because the rules are kind of cool, and vet much in line with a daemonic Word Bearers type army.

You could also play Daemons and ally with CSM. They're all battle brothers with each other iirc. There's also a method of making an army now called Unbound which lets you put units on the table wih no restrictions at all.

Where are you planning to play? If you plan on jumping into the tournament scene, you're gonna spend a lot no matter what. If it's just FLGS play, or playing casually with friends, your Word Bearers army will be fine, and you can also use it as a 30k army. In either case there has been a good chunk of new models to come out for both armies that you can add as you please.

If I were you I would just buy the CSM Codex and get a low point game in to get a feel for the rules. I play in both tournaments and casually, and in both cases usually build lists for fluff/fun. Know that when you come on here, people are going to give you army and army list advice based on what's perceived to be strong or weak.

For Tyranids , probably priority add-ons to your existing army would be one or two Flyrants, and some more monster for Heavy Support like maybe a couple Mawlocs. And some Venomthropes for cover buffs.

Thanks! I'll start looking into some of those. For whatever reason, it seems like Tyranids got a buttload of new units I don't recognize. It hasn't been that way so much with the CSM, from what preliminary research I've done. A lot for theirs seems to be rule tweaks rather than entirely new units, but from what little I've read, it could hamper what is largely a theme-army that I made due to an early edition's rules. Eventually I'll just have to buckle down and start playing and look like a fool at my local game spot. I just didn't want to show up to play with a box full of archaic, obsolete stuff if I could sort through it a bit online first. I feel like it could be like showing up to a LAN party with an ancient PC running Windows 95, saying I want to play.

Where are you planning to play? If you plan on jumping into the tournament scene, you're gonna spend a lot no matter what. If it's just FLGS play, or playing casually with friends, your Word Bearers army will be fine, and you can also use it as a 30k army. In either case there has been a good chunk of new models to come out for both armies that you can add as you please.

If I were you I would just buy the CSM Codex and get a low point game in to get a feel for the rules. I play in both tournaments and casually, and in both cases usually build lists for fluff/fun. Know that when you come on here, people are going to give you army and army list advice based on what's perceived to be strong or weak.

Oh goodness gracious no, I don't plan on attending tournaments any time soon. It'll be my local gaming shop, certainly. This has already been pretty helpful, I have some stuff to look into and a better idea of what it would cost to get armies up and running. I'm not looking to destroy everyone out of the gate (even with the strongest army in the world I couldn't because I need to re-learn the game), I just don't want to be an immediate punching bag that isn't fun to play against because his army is populated entirely by geriatrics.

If you run pure\mostly Daemons, you can actually be quite competitive. As it happens, having a gak ton of flyers, easy access to invisibility (because it's op as gak,) 2+ re-rollable Invulnerable saves, and putting twice as many models on the board as your opponent through summoning are all pretty good ways to be competitive!

it sounds like it would be a pain in the neck to run two books

Using just 2 books

40k has become much more like DnD lots of upgrade books with formations in them that give free special rules that really change the way you can play your army. Sure you can still use one book, but using 2 or more books for a single army isn't that rare anymore.

Using just 2 books

40k has become much more like DnD lots of upgrade books with formations in them that give free special rules that really change the way you can play your army. Sure you can still use one book, but using 2 or more books for a single army isn't that rare anymore.

Aha, more of the information I wouldn't necessarily glean by reading breakdowns online! I've actually been looking at Daemons since Swampmist's' response, just for funsies. The idea that I could keep my precious Word Bearers and have them support rather than lead Daemons is enticing, and I've enjoyed painting my daemons quite a bit. Lots to think about. Definitely will need to spring for a book. The local game shop sounds like it's pretty friendly (read: desperate) for new players. I guess it makes sense that two books aren't that uncommon anymore as a lot of the tactics and strategy stuff I've read seems to deal with mixing and matching of armies that in my day would have been absolutely blasphemous. Word Bearers and Daemons make a great mix, though. I also appreciate the 'Nid advice. I'm really digging the paint scheme I've got going on them, and just the idea of being a Tyranid player is neat.

Looks like even if I don't have to add a single unit, this is going to be a bit expensive to start. The wife isn't going to like this! I'll just have to lay the law down, though.

I'll just have to say, "Look, babe, this is just the way it is. Can I borrow some money?"

You can probably find the Daemon and CSM books cheap on line, to be perfectly honest. They are the two oldest books still in play if I'm not mistaken.