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While it pains me to say this, SM. It's a very powerful, very forgiving, and very flexible book. Allowing a new player to try out many different play styles without having one mistake getting him thrashed.

ceorron wrote:Necrons Simply because they are the easiest to paint. You don't need too many to have an army that works. Only a few easy-ish to understand special rules (with exception of the monilith).

+1

I also say Necrons:

Necrons are a good choice to see if you're really going to like 40k enough to get to your next, real army. Not only are they easy to paint, they will quickly accustom the budding gamer to the boredom and monotony of modelling & painting. And on the tabletop, suffering defeat after crushing defeat with their one viable list will kill the new player's sense of being a tactical and strategic genius. He will emerge from these labors more endurant, humble, and wise. Also, he shall know no fear. And that'll be fitting since one flavor of SM or another will be his next army.

Seriously? Who voted for Witch hunters? I know 6 of you are out there

You know what? Tau. I find Tau easier to play than space marines, oddly enough(I play mainly against orks, and three quarters of them are dead before they can get halfway across the map). JUst slam the crap out of the enemy with long range firepower. For the greater good, of course. And battlesuits are just so versatile they can fill almost any role in combat, even assaulting. Their special rules aren't all that hard, either.

SM

Cannerus_The_Unbearable wrote:Chaos Marines. Fewer options than Space Marines so less to know, one of every unit type available to learn the basics, and a broad range of models to choose from as well as varied fluff to experiment with.

I absolutely agree that Chaos Marines are the best. I love C:SM and play them regularly but the variety actually makes them harder to play then many other armies in my opinion.

Orks or Spase Muhreens.

Space Marines are very forgiving of mistakes.

There is a lot of variety in how to build your army, as well.

*sigh*

Space Marines.

I want to say Chaos,but they don't have all the fun options as C:SM as they have models for any strategy and can easily be changed to fight different enemies.

I would like to say Eldar because you have to learn everything. It's a brutal learning curve. But that would either make for some good practice before moving on to a more forgiving army, or just discourage new players who didn't have the guts to stick it out, so, I guess I vote SM. It's friendly for the youngins.

It depends too much on people's personal preferences, how hands-on they are, how much spare time they have, how much disposable income they have, their local meta-game... There are too many variables.

SM, CSM, Cron
the MEQ trio

if you are mad enough vanilla no shenanigans Elite Nids(Warrior instead of gaunts) would also work fine

Chaos because it is easyish, introduces some special rules and it isnt played by everyone!!

Necrons get back up 3+ armor save simple to use. All units can destroy armor.

I actually said SW would be best....just seem like an easy to understand beat stick to me. Aim them at the enemy and get into combat a soon as you can.

Orks are easy : CHAAAAAAAARGE

Space marines... everything is easy with SM...

But when the newbie will become a little bit more experienced, he will choose another army, I hope...

Space marines have some of the cheesiest base troops. I should know, I play Dark Angels. The Tactical Marine troop is a monster and forgiving in combat, shooting or close combat. It takes a very savvy player to take them down, usually takes more than twice the numbers.

'Nids are a good starter horde army. Fluff-wise, you don't have to care about rate of attrition. They are cheap as hell and swarm like a mofo.

Lol 19 people said dark eldar?

Dark Eldar ARE the best. Once a player learns how to play DE, playing any and all other armies will come far more easily. It empowers the player with a tactical versatility that no other army will provide, and then they have free reign to pick up any other army, and almost immediately they play it very effectively. The most amazing SM and Tau players I know, started as DE so they could become accustomed to the need for flawlessness. ALL the sloppiest players I know, without exception, began as SMs... And are stuck forever playing them because they get even MORE decimated playing anything else.

SMs are probably the WORST army to start with. People who begin with SMs are too often doomed to never get the hang of other armies, because they require tactical forethought to play. I've noticed that people who begin with SMs are seldom able to break away from them. They become accustomed to the handicap bonus, and they find it difficult to function as a tactician, as required by other armies.

Space marine, simple rules, variable play styles, lots of models.

JB wrote:

I voted for Space Marines. Most of the reasons why have already been covered by others. The only points I would add are the availability of AOBR models, the ease of working with plastic, and the small size of the force makes it easier to play during games. Making decisions for 40+ marines is easier than pushing 120+ Orks.

What interests me more are the votes for Witchhunters. They have expensive models with a lot of metal that are tough to get right now. They also have very specialized rules (including faith points) that are not easy for new players to grasp. As a parting shot, they aren't very easy to paint either.

with this thought in mind I voted for the daemonhunter (I.E. Grey Knights) due to the fact that they field notoriously small armies ranging from pillboxed purifiers spamming psycannons to truly terrifying psyfleman shooting across the board. Where there would be 40 marines to command, 20 knights would sufficiently take their place point-cost wise.

Whatever army looks good and or interests a player. For me, I would not buy or play if I did not like the models.

This is the only reason I chose Eldar, before ever having played the game.

Space Marines! They are easy to learn and it's easy to start a SM army with AOBR.

Space Marines. Fairly easy to get a hold of the rules, easy to paint, very adaptable tactically and small force means cheap to buy.

I'd probably say Necrons.

They're incredibly easy to paint, the We'll Be Back rule will certainly make a beginner feel like he has a lot of power at his fingertips, The Monolith is the most powerful vehicle in the game (hands down), and they're basically Space Marines in their statlines (except for their initiative and the ridiculous WSKNF that Space Marines have, but their guns are almost on par with the Tau, so that makes up for it). You don't have to worry too much about building your list; as long as you have a Monolith, anything else goes. It's almost impossible to make an ineffective Necron army.

Admittedly, a newbie might get frustrated if they get caught in melee with Necrons one too many times (which is what The Monolith is for), but WBB makes things much less painful than they would normally be. If, say, Tau got caught in close combat, they would be just as fethed (if not moreso), without the saving grace of WBB.

Space Marines are much more well-rounded than Necrons, but this doesn't necessarily make them easier to use.

Space Marines, if you don't like the rules of Codex Astartes, you can use a more Raven Guard like approach or another chapter that bends the silly rules.

As strange as it seems, Necrons.

They're easy to paint and simple to play, as their's no complicated assault to worry about, as your genna get mown down anyway.

And when your just beginning, people should go easy on you. and by the time you start loosing, you'll have looked at SW and say, 'Ohh, space vikings!'


P.S. Apologies to all Necron players.