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I'm trying to get my little brother into 40k and I have got him interested enough to warrant getting him started on an army but I'm not sure witch will fit him best. I asked him what he wanted and he told me I want a lot of shooty but only as many guys as i need to be effective. So I'm looking for an army that would be good for a beginner and more ranged based then melee (Wanted to get him to play my old chaos army but khorne berzerkers don't shoot much)

Some ideas I had where Tau since i have a few models from the kill team box and a few leftover from a friend of mine but I'm not sure how effective they are without those big suits witch I don't have

second best would be a marine army since I have a lot of marinesI could paint up to fit any chapter.

Most of these games will be against me with my dark angels though so not sure how fun playing two mariene armys against each other constantly would be.

Last note is I'm on a bit of a budgit since I have to pay for everything for his army and my own for forseable future (hes only in 5th grade)

Any help with what army i should get him and maybe a good starting point for the list would be appreciated

Tau Empire can play with very few ACTUAL models and blast the bajeezus out of you. they are very likely your best choice. Start with the StormSurge, add three Riptides and go from there.

The total cost of that Tau army is less than you might think (while still not being anywhere near cheap):
3 Riptides: $255
2 Stormsurge: $300

To this you can add the Tau Empire models you currently own. He will instantly be effective and competitive without much need to be complex in his tactica when he first starts.

Good additions besides this would be 16 Markerdrones which can be easily converted from a drone and just about anything cool looking you want to slap underneath it. No need to get new ones unless you're short a few. Existing models in your collection should be plenty to add the Combined Arms Detachment you'll need for scoring objectives.

He'll enjoy building the bigger stuff more than fiddling with littler stuff as well and they are great centerpieces.

He'll love that me not so much but meh its the price i pay to get him into the game

Starwarsninja12 wrote:
He'll love that me not so much but meh its the price i pay to get him into the game

Yeah and it will give you a WORTHY challenge. Who enjoys whacking baby seals? No one worth mentioning. So give him a fighting chance until he learns the actual game.

wont be anytime soon as itll take me about a year to get his army and mine to 1500 points... but yeah super shooty tau vs ravenwing will be more fun with the big guys (plus i want to see them myself and tau was one of my favorite armys back in 5th edition )


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ok i looked up some of the aprox point totals on army builder and saw how expensive point wise the stormsurge and riptides are.

My brother and I wont be going over 1k any time soon and like i said above max would be at 1500 (unless he starts buying his own guys) so wouldn't the stormsurge at 300+ points be a bit much? seems like a lot of points in one model. the riptide is a lot more reasonable for a 1k game but i haven't played tau since 5th edition and don't yet have the new codex so not 100% sure

Well there's the big question what point values do you want to play. 200 KT-1000 should be doable with the tau. essentially it sounds like you have a Fire warrior squad with turret and maybe 2 drones (from the KT box set so there's a good 100+ points depending on upgrades. What other units did your friend give you.

https://www.amazon.com/Start-Collecting-Tau-Empire-Warhammer/dp/B01A6RL08C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485391293&sr=8-1&keywords=tau

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Warhammer-40k-Tau-Empire-Start-Collecting-NIB-/361872458099?hash=item5441478173:g:4EgAAOSwT~9WiDjz

70-$75.00 gets you the start collecting box with another 10 firewarriors and 3 Crisis Suits and Drones (plus an ethereal) not counting the ethereal that's a solid 400point worth of usable stuff. If it's just you and him to start let him use one of the Crisis as a commander. Or proxy the Ethereal as Aun'va -Your house your rules so who cares if he proxies.

https://www.amazon.com/Tau-Empire-Optimised-Pathfinder-Team/dp/B01MT63P9L/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1485391293&sr=8-11&keywords=tau

another $55 gets you another 200+ points of usable stuff Then you can go up from there by adding Broadsides/Stealth Suits/ Riptides/Ghostkreels/Piranha's ETC If you don't care so much about doing the assembly yourself you can always find good deals on Ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-x-Warhammer-40K-TAU-w-XV25-Stealthsuits-Assembled-/232217186404?hash=item3611391064:g:zgYAAOSw-0xYiOUM

I have a devil fish a hammer heade 3 crisis suits2 broadsides and a fair number of drones and firewarriors from friend.

So with what i have your saying i buy him the new dex and he should be good for a while? (Really don't want to buy a riptide or stormsurge for him unless its for b day or Christmas lol but I also want him to have an army that wont be tabled by my dark angels every game or he wont play anymore.)


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He also wants to try and get into the modeling and painting but ill let him try with the kill team tau and he should be good don't think he has patience to assemble and paint the whole army but I'll let him do what he wants with it there his army.

Starwarsninja12 wrote:
I have a devil fish a hammer heade 3 crisis suits2 broadsides and a fair number of drones and firewarriors from friend.

So with what i have your saying i buy him the new dex and he should be good for a while? (Really don't want to buy a riptide or stormsurge for him unless its for b day or Christmas lol but I also want him to have an army that wont be tabled by my dark angels every game or he wont play anymore.)


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He also wants to try and get into the modeling and painting but ill let him try with the kill team tau and he should be good don't think he has patience to assemble and paint the whole army but I'll let him do what he wants with it there his army.

So Lets See -proxied crisis for Commander 150=175 ish

2 Squads of 10 fire warriors with SMS's for Both and a Devil fish-270 ish

2 Crisis Suits with Upgrades- 115 ish

2 broadsides-130 ish

5 Marker drones- 70pts

Base Hammer Head =125

Thats 885-900 points right there.

Crap go buy him a Ghostkeel for $60 or so dollars and 3 stealth suits and there's 220 points bare boned putting you at 1150-1200 with upgrades and it's not a bad little army.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/381926560551?lpid=82&chn=ps&ul_noapp=true

And check the Trade forum for cheap models (I saw some in some posts) or here I saw 3 pre primed and assembled Stelth suits on on ebay for $12.00 today which is about 70% off retail, and he has a OSC now

So for a cheap 72 Dollars he gets an awesome Big model with some wow factor. and 3 small ones that are useable at many different point levels.

If you don't want him to get wrecked.. alter your list. make a list tailored to him learning. Take some of the power out of it.