Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I agree with Imperial Guard Vs. Orks, relatively equal, no really odd rules to learn.

Space marines are easy to use and look cool! Not to mention being GW biggest selling range. So i reckon it will continue to be Space Marines. As an irtoductory game i think Black Reach was by far the best way to go. 2 really cool yet very different armies following similar structures (A warlord each, a standard troop choice each, specialist squad each and awesome big warmachine unit each) Both armies have simple rules but play very differently. Necrons, GK, and others are a bit too complicated for begginers IMO. Eldar and Tau are "good guys" so it might seem odd that the marines are trying to destroy another "peaceful" race (to people new to the hobby at least)

To sum up, you need 2 opposing forces, one who are obviously good guys (Space marines, Tau, IG) Vs an obviously evil force (Nids, Chaos, Orks)

But If i had to put money on it, i'd say next set will be vanilla marines, vs tyranids.

 stargasm wrote:
Space marines are easy to use and look cool! Not to mention being GW biggest selling range. So i reckon it will continue to be Space Marines. As an irtoductory game i think Black Reach was by far the best way to go. 2 really cool yet very different armies following similar structures (A warlord each, a standard troop choice each, specialist squad each and awesome big warmachine unit each) Both armies have simple rules but play very differently. Necrons, GK, and others are a bit too complicated for begginers IMO. Eldar and Tau are "good guys" so it might seem odd that the marines are trying to destroy another "peaceful" race (to people new to the hobby at least)

To sum up, you need 2 opposing forces, one who are obviously good guys (Space marines, Tau, IG) Vs an obviously evil force (Nids, Chaos, Orks)

But If i had to put money on it, i'd say next set will be vanilla marines, vs tyranids.

Well that was 4th edition; so you might wanna reinvest that money somewhere else; like Necrons, Eldar, or DE. Probably Necrons, honestly. Less complex than either of the Eldar forces.

Agh, posted a response to TheCaptain on page 1 and didn't realize I forgot to quote and edit properly. I need to delete this somehow because I don't have anything to say.

Well, lets start by summing up the armies to see who might and who might not get into a starter:

Demons-unlikely, too messy and hard to control.
Chaos-obviously possible, but just been done.
Marines-obviously possible, but done twice.
Wolves-the only "pure marine" codex not shown yet, highly possible.
Blood Angels-Been done, but seem a bit too bloody for a "good guy"
Dark Angels-Being done ATM.
Black Templar-Not sure about them, the whole champion thing and that might work out, but not sure.
Grey Knights-Way too complex for a starter, its even worse then this starter.
Sisters of Battle-Acts of faith makes things a bit too much in my opinion, and too flamer-happy, not a learning army.
Imperial Guard-Interesting, but lacks heroism look of the marines, might be.
Eldar-Way too specialized
Dark Eldar-same as eldar, you need to know what you are doing to use them.
Orks-simple and effective, as done before.
Tyrnids-was done, and they look just right.
Necron-could be, they have many rather simple units, and they have alot of room to open up to, and show command value. (rez orb?)
Tau-could be, some tau builds can keep it simply yet efficient.

So, we are left with this:
Good guys: Wolves/templars/imperial guard/tau?
Bad guys: Orks/tyrnids/necron/tau?

Now, for the tau being on both lists-they are technically "good guys" but they are also non-human, so while they technically fit both, you can bet that humans will be the good guys, as not everyone is comfortable playing as non-humans, and they must be appeased, so no tau there, but then again they cant really be the bad guy either because they dont give out that "evil aliens" look that easy.

Now, if you take into consideration that what was never done has the largest chances to show up, you will have either wolves, or IG fighting against the necrons (who give a really cool "evil vibe", we all seen terminator movies)
My bet is IG, making it some sort of "human desperate stand against vile machines, the local PDF officers attempt to organize the local population to a counter-attack to repel the few, yet horribly powerful, invaders as they go on their unholy purge."

Both will also be relatively old codex at the time, and as such will be good to update and give people and excuse to get it.

dpal666 wrote:
this is the 1st time it's actually been specific marines in the starter. When people mention specific marines in a starter set, all there is to go on is the cover art, not the minis.

It's the first time they've had sculpted on chapter markings, but 4th edition was the Battle for Macragge, which is quite oviously Ultramarines, and 5th edition was the Battle for Black Reach, which again was Ultramarines. Those aren't just cover art, they were sets depicting specific actions performed by the Ultramarines. 2nd edition and 3rd edition weren't 'story' based sets, so you're right that those 2 were generic Marines outside of cover art and example pictures.

With the advancement of GW's digital sculpting capabilities, I want to see a move away from fixed boxes. Instead, you buy a customisable set consisting of the core hardware (templates, rules, dice, campaign leaflet) and two boxes of models, with one box available for every army. Each box contains the rules for those units to be used within the starter campaign, but also is a core army suitable to be used in full sized 40k. That way, someone who decides they want to play 40k with Orks, can buy the starter box with their friend who wants to play Eldar and get two starter armies tailored to their needs.

Digital sculpting wouldn't help one jot with that idea - that's a lot of plastic molds to tool, which is where it gets expensive. A starter set for each army is simply not feasible in plastic.

 -Loki- wrote:
Digital sculpting wouldn't help one jot with that idea - that's a lot of plastic molds to tool, which is where it gets expensive. A starter set for each army is simply not feasible in plastic.

GW lives and dies on getting new people into the hobby. A complete starter box would fit on 2 large sprues (Dark vengeance has 4 for two armies). With them willing to use up 5 sprues of tooling just for a niche Ork Stompa, or 4 on a Fortress of Redemption, do you seriously not think they'd spend ~28 sprues work of tooling on the starter set? Not to mention we're discussing 7th edition here, at least 4 years off. GW's move to an almost wholly plastic product line is born of decreasing tooling costs. In 4 years time, the cost of die tooling will be much less than it is now.

Even if it is cost prohibitive, do several starters for the more popular races. One Space Marine, one Chaos, one Ork, one Eldar, one Nids.

 GCMandrake wrote:

 -Loki- wrote:
Digital sculpting wouldn't help one jot with that idea - that's a lot of plastic molds to tool, which is where it gets expensive. A starter set for each army is simply not feasible in plastic.

GW lives and dies on getting new people into the hobby. A complete starter box would fit on 2 large sprues (Dark vengeance has 4 for two armies). With them willing to use up 5 sprues of tooling just for a niche Ork Stompa, or 4 on a Fortress of Redemption, do you seriously not think they'd spend ~28 sprues work of tooling on the starter set? Not to mention we're discussing 7th edition here, at least 4 years off. GW's move to an almost wholly plastic product line is born of decreasing tooling costs. In 4 years time, the cost of die tooling will be much less than it is now.

Even if it is cost prohibitive, do several starters for the more popular races. One Space Marine, one Chaos, one Ork, one Eldar, one Nids.

Like... A battleforce?

What I would like, Imperial Guard vs. Tyranids or Orks. If it is Tyranids, plastic Valhallans (special Cmdr. Chenkov model, he fought against some nid hive fleet and crushed the vanguard of the fleet), if it is Orks plastic Steel Legion (special Yarrick model). Steel Legion should have Steel Legion models (duh), and some special Steel Legion storm trooper models, Valhallans should get like 40 guardsmen and a command squad.

 -Loki- wrote:

dpal666 wrote:
this is the 1st time it's actually been specific marines in the starter. When people mention specific marines in a starter set, all there is to go on is the cover art, not the minis.

It's the first time they've had sculpted on chapter markings, but 4th edition was the Battle for Macragge, which is quite oviously Ultramarines, and 5th edition was the Battle for Black Reach, which again was Ultramarines. Those aren't just cover art, they were sets depicting specific actions performed by the Ultramarines. 2nd edition and 3rd edition weren't 'story' based sets, so you're right that those 2 were generic Marines outside of cover art and example pictures.

My meaning was the models, until now ALL marines in the boxes were generic marines, letting anyone use them as any flavor. I know the fluff behind BoM and AoBR, still doesn't make the boxes chapter specific.

Imperial Guard vs IG, for all the Starship Troopers fans...

 WaaaaghLord wrote:
Imperial Guard vs IG, for all the Starship Troopers fans...

That sounds like it's more for World War 2 fans to me

 WaaaaghLord wrote:
Imperial Guard vs IG, for all the Starship Troopers fans...

Do you mean IG vs. Tyranids?

I can actually see an IG vs Eldar or some combination not as expected as the others. If you look at the WHFB set it makes me think they could try something similar with Eldar. Squad of guardians, squad of dire avengers and a squad of striking scorpions with a couple jet bikes and a farseer/autarch against a platoon with two squads, command and heavy weapons teams led by a commander or character with veterans and sentinals/chimera/something similar....