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What is the bestest cheapest army to start with?

Space marines are a good start - good all rounders. But pick the models you like, and accept that being best might take a while....

Any flavor of marines.

Even Chaos is okay despite not being competitive. As long as it's MEQ.

Marines most of the stats 4"S

Space Marines.

* Everyone plays them. This means that there are abundant cheap armies on the secondary market.

* Everyone plays them. That means there are a wealth of army strategies, tactical guides, and useful advice out there to help you get acclimated to strategy, tactics, and listbuilding.

* Everyone plays them. That means that the main Space Marine codex will never be super behind in the power curve.

* There are a number of 'cousin' armies (Dark Angels, Blood Angels, Space Wolves, Grey Knights, and Chaos Marines) that your Space Marine army will be able to be converted into if you decide to get into a secondary force.

I'm going to go against the grain here.

Necrons. Good solid power level with a few decent ways to play them. Easy to build and paint, with lots of room for getting advanced if you are so inclined. Fun fluff.

If you don't consider particulars bargains you may find, I'd say grey knights are surely the cheapest army available. But there are a lot of second hand armies around so check up on them first.

Furthemore I'd like to suggest something: this is not only a game, it's also a hobby, so if you chose an army only because it's cheap you may get tired of it pretty soon and if that happens starting with a cheap army would not be cheap anymore. For example I hate space marines, I don't like their vehicles and many details of how they look. I do love space wolves though, so I started them even if regular marines would have been cheaper, and I'm 100% happy with my space army.

So chose whatever you like, don't pick up an army only beacuse it's cheap, you also have to like it.

Space Marines is a good army to start. I'd take Ultramarines and not one of the specialized armies like BA, DA, or SW, which are more difficult to play for a beginner. The reason for starting with SM is that the army is rather forgiving. If you make a mistake, the army may still get out of this. This is different in specialized armies like Eldar or DE. They are glass cannons. Nids and Orks are horde armies and require a different approach. Other armies like GK are small elite forces. You require some experience to field them successfully.

 Lance845 wrote:
I'm going to go against the grain here.

Necrons. Good solid power level with a few decent ways to play them. Easy to build and paint, with lots of room for getting advanced if you are so inclined. Fun fluff.

They're quite cheap too, I agree completely.

Necrons.

Easy to play: very few upgrades to choose between, very few specialised units, their basic infantry is able to kill almost anything.
Easy to paint: Silver base coat -> dry brush highlight -> paint green bits -> reap compliments.
Powerful without being Eldar level annoying to play against.

I think Necrons are too specialized for a beginner while SM are straightforward to play. Two Tactical squads in transports joined by an HQ is the best way to learn the game.

redted wrote:
What is the bestest cheapest army to start with?

There is no such thing as a beginner army, all armies are huge investments and relative simple to learn.
Do not trust anyone in a store who advices you to start an army you aren't really fond of for the sake of simplicity, for any money spend on your "ideal beginner army" will be wasted money you could have spend on the army you really liked.

I think Necrons are quite easy to learn with their lack of wargear options and very jack of all trades gauss weapons. Space Marines are generally most points heavy and reliant on special weapon usage which makes positioning very important. Also Space Marines have a ton of noob traps in some of their more ineffective wargear like the boat load of plasma pistols and power swords GW seems to want to dump onto you.

Necrons on the other hand are VERY straight forward with every model being the same for the majority of their units (no squad leaders, no special weapons guys, etc) and fairly well defined roles for their units. Also Necrons are basically the most durable army in the game so they can take on a lot of enemy shooting and keep on slogging along. My 8 year old son has some Necrons that he plays with and despite his lack of tactical/strategic understanding he has fun despite making a tons of mistakes because they are super durable and easy to use. He can get by with using a lot of Warriors and can shot at whatever and its gonna be at least semi effective.

The best way to enter this hobby without spending a fortune is to look for second hand armies. This hobby isn't for everyone the game mechanics aren't that good, the balance between the armies is nearly non existent, the models are expensive and painting your army requires more spare time than most of us have so there are a lot of players who give up on it after a while and are willing to sell their army to your for half price.

Expect to have a really nice starter army for 100 - 200 $
I know this is still a lot, so it might be best to do some research of your own, and take your time for it. Watch battle reports, walk into a store where they play games, and read up on the fluff on http://www.lexicanum.com/ and the tactics on 1d4 chan https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Category:Warhammer_40000_Tactics

Whatever you do please do not buy an army because some forum user told you so.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Vankraken wrote:
My 8 year old son has some Necrons that he plays with and despite his lack of tactical/strategic understanding he has fun despite making a tons of mistakes because they are super durable and easy to use. He can get by with using a lot of Warriors and can shot at whatever and its gonna be at least semi effective.

This is the exception to what I told you. If you are looking for an army to play if you are ~8 there are good and bad beginner armies. Necrons might be just one of the best beginner armies out there.
But if you are able to pass a basic math or any other science test aimed at 14 year olds you shouldn't have any problem with understanding the tactics of all the other armies really.

 wuestenfux wrote:
I think Necrons are too specialized for a beginner while SM are straightforward to play. Two Tactical squads in transports joined by an HQ is the best way to learn the game.

What are you talking about? Necrons: Get Gauss, shoot at everything.

 wuestenfux wrote:
. Two Tactical squads in transports joined by an HQ is the best way to learn the game.

This might be the worst way to learn the game. Your army will be boring to play with for most players and is likely to auto lose vs most armies.
A good starter army has to be an interesting army.

Cheapest? Go buy 4 Daemon princes and raid a bitz box. Make an infernal tetrad and have a 4 model army. Not easy to run, but you'll have a cheap powerful army. Again...if 4 cheap models ($160 retail, no discount. You CAN get much cheaper).

Lets make it a challenge. I am sure Dakka would love it : )

Necrons or marines are both good beginner picks.

I would say that making sure it's an army you like is the most important thing. The old adage is: "get an army you can love, even when it loses".

Necrons.

We hold the title of easiest to paint army, straight forward tactics, basic infantry are glorious, you can fill a list without relying on too many units and models.

Join us, join us, join us...


But in all seriousness, buy an army you love the look of, the fluff behind them and the way they play (ask guys at your local store/club, watch videos on youtube) it's a big investment in money and time to make, so you had better love that army first else you aren't going to enjoy it

Yes, easy to paint/play, quite cheap, but you may find them incredibly boring after 10 games and then you may want to change army selling the necron one so it wouldn't be a cheap option anymore.

The only suggestion for a beginner is to buy the models you like and to learn how to play (not how to win, just the mechanics of the game) and how to paint.

Can anyone recommend a decent 1000 point Orkz army list for me? I'm still in my painting phase of my Assault on Black Reach set of Orkz. I'm pretty new.