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Hi everyone, I just wanted to ask a couple of questions before I dive straight into the hobby.

I really want to start an army but have no real idea what to do.
I'm looking to slowly expand the army as I go.

I'm looking for an army that:

1) Doesn't need a lot of transport vehicles to be effective on tabletop (painting and assembling tanks like Razorbacks etc. aren't my thing)

2) Has a relatively low model count (so no horde-armies please)

Any suggestions would be great!

The most important advice, and something I'm sure will be parroted by a number of other users, is to pick an army that you like the look of and that you'll enjoy painting. Armies that are good will change over time, so you need something other than competitiveness to keep you engaged.

I'm not terribly familiar with the army composition, but I think something like Tau or perhaps Necrons might be up your alley, given the criteria you've given (other users please correct me). Whatever army you choose, it seems that the Start Collecting boxes are usually the right way to go.

Transport vehicles aren't a huge thing this edition, you're entirely okay up and ignoring them. If you want to minimize/avoid vehicles entirely that'll be harder.

Craftworld Eldar, Mechanicus, Tyranids, Custodes, and Tau are my instinctive responses if you're trying to go for intermediate to low model count where your big/scary/heavy models are things like large robots rather than boxy vehicles. Of those Tau, Mechanicus, and Tyranids have easier/more versatile plastic ranges (Custodes are quite new and have a very small range, Eldar have a lot of old metal/resin models).

I don't suggest Tyranids, it's almost always above average in model count except if you play mass Flyrants which is not fun to play or play against. Eldar is quite footdar if you want to play.
competativly without wave serpents, those models will add up and they are challenging to paint.

Honestly I suggest a Primaris marine army, can't even use Rhinos and Razorbacks so you won't be tempted, low model count, cheap to start and good GW support both in models and rules.

I'd propose Necrons or Tau, too.
Both have a recent line of plastics and are up for a new codex. If you care for stronger rules wait for the books.
Being an Eldar player i'd discourage those, you'll want serpents for all their goodness imo, also failcast aspects are an utter pain.

Eldars are probably good. Can be played low model count, tend to be fairly stable in terms of competives so less danger of what happened with tau/necrons and go from competive to weak just like that.

Primaris, Necrons, and Tau are indeed very good options.
An all-suit Tau army can have relatively few models (unless you stack up drones). Only the commander has good rules currently, but the codex is going to shake things up really soon (although we don't know how).

Grey knights could also work as a low model count, no vehicle army (unless you count the nemesis dreadknight as a vehicle). Not very competitive, especially if you don't take their flyer, but it definitely fills the bill.

Custodes might be a fun idea to do. you can have a 2000 point armor with only 20 models pretty easily (although the 20 model 2000 point lists I've seen include at least 1 land raider)

Straight off the bat for armies with low model counts, Grey Knights and Custodes are the elite low model count numbers but would have walkers for the knights and possibly a land raider and some jet bikes for vehicles.

Tau and Necrons are getting new codex's in March with possibly some new models so they both look like they could be in good shape after that.

As a Necron player (My second army) the tomb is about to be awoken and the galaxy shall tremble before our wrath!

What I look for in an army is coolness of the models, for example Chaos Marines are cool like marines only more so! I'm planning on starting a nid army for my third later in the year as I am almost set on a paint scheme for them. This time developing them further with more interesting baseing.

Iyanden Eldar maybe? Large + easy to paint models, low model count, all on foot, reasonably powerful. Not top tier by any means but you can have some fun with them and have lots of options for expansions etc. The new start collecting box is perfect as well!

Space Wolves can be played without vehicles as an elite army.

Lots of HQs, grey hunters, scouts, long fangs, wolf guard, wolf guard bikers, terminators, TWC, wulfen are all decent units at least, and the army doesn't even have a codex yet.

If you don't consider dreads as vehicles and like the models they're also quite solid.

Blood angels do pretty well right now without any vehicles. If you make your army jump pack heavy you'd also have a lot of mobility.

mid to low model count could be custodes, grey knights, and marines, especially primaris marines, although a lot of armies CAN pull a low model count if they want, for instance nids going nidzilla style with all big guys, or tau just having the expensive suits.

End of the day I'd go through back story fluff and see which armies "jump out at you," and simultaneously look at their models and take note of which ones make you say "man I'd hit that with a brush."

Myself I did tyranids dark eldar and rando marines in 3rd, but always liked the look and theme of BA when I saw them. When they got fleshed out a bit more in later editions, I decided to go all-in on them.

Bonus on BA, most of them wear their transports on their back!

 Porphyrius wrote:
The most important advice, and something I'm sure will be parroted by a number of other users, is to pick an army that you like the look of and that you'll enjoy painting. Armies that are good will change over time, so you need something other than competitiveness to keep you engaged.

This is definitely the number 1 piece of advice you need when picking an army; you should definitely be going off your gut on what army appeals most to you in terms of aesthetic appeal, and perhaps even lore if that's your thing. Rules change, armies change, but a collection is something you can keep forever.


That being said, I second the idea of Custodes; sounds like the army that ticks all your boxes