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I'm just starting out and wondering what army is recommended for a starting player. What should I look for when choosing an Army? Advantages/Disadvantages, etc... I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks.

You should start by looking at aesthetics.

Look at the army, and decide what kind of minis you like. You will likely be spending a lot of time painting them, and you're going to have to look at them every time they play. If you think that ork models look silly, then don't play orks, or if you like anime, then perhaps a tau army is for you.

Read some fluff about the armies you like the miniatures of. The rulebook gives a bit, but I'd go to a local game store and just sit down and read the front part of every codex. If you explain to any store worker who might complain that you're researching starting a new 40k army, they'll shut up immediately.

The background to the different armies can be very, very different, from the ultra-elite loyalist demon army of grey knights to the green, scottish hooligans in space of the orks. Some of the dry british humor and general grimdark has a lot of flavor to it. Find something you can really get your imagination behind.

Thirdly, once you've done this, consider play styles. Do you want an army of heroes that beats face and dies epically? Do you want an army of all vehicles trundling across the plain? Do you just want something that gets in there and rips your opponent's stuff in half with their bare hands and chainsaw swords? Many different codices can do many different styles, but if there's something in specific you want, that might help narrow things down for you.

Once you get to this point, you'll probably be down to just a few armies to pick from. Once here, you should look at some examples of lists that people bring, and see if there are some commonly-used units that look exciting to you.

At some point, though, you're just going to have to take the plunge.

Once you do, the first thing to do is get the codex (and the rulebook if you don't have one), and spend a lot of time getting very familiar with the rules. Buy a box or two of your basic infantry along with any other hobby stuff you're currently lacking and start getting a feel for assembling, converting, and painting the miniatures (including getting a color scheme you like). Once you have a basic two troops and HQ, along with an understanding of the rules, you might perhaps want to play a few trainer games at a local store or gaming group. It shouldn't be too hard to find someone to show you the ropes.

From there, it really depends. You'll want to expand your army in different ways, given different tastes and different experiences. Perhaps you'll find some second hand models from friends or the internet, or you'll start getting into bitz ordering and scratchbuilding. You might fully explore the entirety of what your codex has to offer, or start a second army when you feel you're done with the first one. Where you go from there is up to you.

Don't start with an D/Eldar army. They're a pain in the ass to build and they aren't that good on the TT anymore. Personally In would go with Gk or Dw or Loganwing for the low model counts/low price

Thanks for the advice. Its really helpful.

 Augustine_Maven wrote:
Thanks for the advice. Its really helpful.

My suggestions are this,

1) How much are you wanting to spend to get a decent start?
2) What armies in history do you enjoy hearing about (I enjoy hearing about the british during the dark ages, honor-less sons of bitches lol )
3) Ask yourself what style of combat you prefer (fast and aggressive, Close combat, Long range shooting, Multi-purpose, defensive)
4) How important is having a powerful army to you?
5) How important is having interesting models to you?

these are a few things you should share with us, and feel free to add other details based off this i can offer a few suggestions to you

^this... you gotta tell us what you want b4 we shell out da wisdom

 Big Mek Wurrzog wrote:

 Augustine_Maven wrote:
Thanks for the advice. Its really helpful.

My suggestions are this,

1) How much are you wanting to spend to get a decent start?
2) What armies in history do you enjoy hearing about (I enjoy hearing about the british during the dark ages, honor-less sons of bitches lol )
3) Ask yourself what style of combat you prefer (fast and aggressive, Close combat, Long range shooting, Multi-purpose, defensive)
4) How important is having a powerful army to you?
5) How important is having interesting models to you?

these are a few things you should share with us, and feel free to add other details based off this i can offer a few suggestions to you

To answer your questions
1. I have to create my army over time due to my financial situation, so not a whole lot
2. I've studied the Japanese, Romans and Mongols quite a bit.
3. I like to be aggressive and smash enemies in close while simultaneously hammering the enemy from afar with A. Sniper fire B. Artillery
4. I'm not sure the nature of the question, but I prefer to have units that have a good armor rating to be able to take some damage
5. Interesting models are important to me, that's part of the allure of Warhammer 40k to me.

Based off my research and such, I'm leaning toward have a Space Marine army. What do you think based on my answers to your questions?

Ok. To respond to your responses:
1. That makes sense. For most of us, that's how we build our armies. He asked because there are some armies and lists that tend to run very high cash wise.
2. Good choices. The Tau tend to follow Japanese culture (though not very directly) while marines can give you that roman or mongol feel.
3. This is very helpful. It lets you rule out armies such as Tau or guard (which are mostly all shooty) Not saying you can't take them. They just dont tend to do those kinds of tactics well. Marines would be a good option for the tactics you want to use (though they are the most popular and you will see a lot of other marine armies around you). However I will say this: Allies can really help you with this. Running marines (who can be BEASTS in CC) with an allied guard contingent (who can take TONS of tanks and artillery) will allow you to do both. You could do the same for marines and tau, chaos marines and daemons, chaos marines and guard, orks and guard, etc. There are tons of combos that you can use. You just have to pick your main force first.
4. What he meant by powerful is if having a top tier army is important to you. There are always certain armies that will rule the tourney scene and are just more powerful than other codexs. So to ask you in a different way: "Is having a highly competitive army important to you? Or are the fluff and the models?
5. This is good. There are so many different amazing models. Unfortunately, it doesn't help narrow down an army for you.
Hope this helps!

It does. Thanks everyone.

 Augustine_Maven wrote:

 Big Mek Wurrzog wrote:

 Augustine_Maven wrote:
Thanks for the advice. Its really helpful.

My suggestions are this,

1) How much are you wanting to spend to get a decent start?
2) What armies in history do you enjoy hearing about (I enjoy hearing about the british during the dark ages, honor-less sons of bitches lol )
3) Ask yourself what style of combat you prefer (fast and aggressive, Close combat, Long range shooting, Multi-purpose, defensive)
4) How important is having a powerful army to you?
5) How important is having interesting models to you?

these are a few things you should share with us, and feel free to add other details based off this i can offer a few suggestions to you

To answer your questions
1. I have to create my army over time due to my financial situation, so not a whole lot
2. I've studied the Japanese, Romans and Mongols quite a bit.
3. I like to be aggressive and smash enemies in close while simultaneously hammering the enemy from afar with A. Sniper fire B. Artillery
4. I'm not sure the nature of the question, but I prefer to have units that have a good armor rating to be able to take some damage
5. Interesting models are important to me, that's part of the allure of Warhammer 40k to me.

Based off my research and such, I'm leaning toward have a Space Marine army. What do you think based on my answers to your questions?

Other than Artillery I think you're pretty well into the Multi-versatile armies such as space marines, Tau and necron Basic Space marines cover pretty much every aspect of your army being good in all categories but not perfect. Tau will support stronger gunlines and more defensive play though i have seen many play aggressively and lastly would be necron while nex to no artillery they possess the snipers and aggressiv egameplay if you so wish and are a good happy medium

Over all, these are the 3 choices i would suggest, Space marines are more or less a "can't go wrong army", while tau are more defensive and Necron are able to go offensive but only with the right builds they focus on endurance. I suggest you look over the models and decide for yourself because sadly none of these armies are very special so #5 is somewhat forefit unless you convert.

Do blood angel space marines. They can be both shooty and are mainly cc focused

Ive been going over a starting army thats cost effective and kinda get me started. What do you think:
20 Space Marines (tactical/combat)
5 Assualt Marines
5 Scout Marines
1 Rhino
1 Dreadnought.

All of this gets me the Rulebook, Codex and some paints with a basic guide as well for between $325-$350.
I've also been thinking of replacing the Dreadnought with a Predator.
Let me know what you think

Seems great but you'll need a HQ choice too. Either a captain or libby. Both are good choices IMHO, but many will say a captain sucks

It was always general opinion that you start playing with Space Marines. They are average at everything and easy to play so they are perfect for newcomers.
Later you can choose your army after you figure it out what kind of army/tactics you utilize the best ( horde, shooty, armor, fast-attack... ).

 Augustine_Maven wrote:
Ive been going over a starting army thats cost effective and kinda get me started. What do you think:
20 Space Marines (tactical/combat)
5 Assualt Marines
5 Scout Marines
1 Rhino
1 Dreadnought.

All of this gets me the Rulebook, Codex and some paints with a basic guide as well for between $325-$350.
I've also been thinking of replacing the Dreadnought with a Predator.
Let me know what you think

depending on if you are going vanilla marines (many chapters) Space wolves, dark angels or Blood angels I wouldn't advise assualt marines as they have proven a little soft for their use now and days instead i would put that money towards a drop pod for your dreadnought to get into the thick of battle come round 1. I see very useful builds that take Multi-meltas + heavy flamers on them which make them an amazing harrassment walker right off the bat especially if you go first turn which denies enemy skimmers their jink save

the scout marines aren't a bad choice but i rarely see them used because of the infiltration rules being tweaked. *shrug* not a bad choice but you might want to consider devastator marines before them

The tactical marines are NEVER a bad choice obviously

Rhino, So many builds so little time! A neat trick you will learn is if you buy the rhino boxes instead of predators or razorbacks you can simply make them modular through magnets and buy the bits online

my suggestion on a powerful build in this edition would probably fall into this

HQ of your choice
20 tact marines
1 box of terminators
1 box of Devastator marines
1 rhino (buy extra bits online and review magentization videos)
1 drop pod
1 Dreadnought

that will give you a very well rounded army IMO

the posts abotu researching are all good advice.

What can help give you a kick-start is a simepl question;

Good guys or bad guys?

When i started playing, all my friends had what i considered to be "good guy" armies (Marines, Guard, Eldar and Tau).

I wanted to be a bad guy so that left me withthe choices of pretty much Orks, Chaos, Dark Eldar & Necrons. (I dont think the 40k daemons codex was out at the time).

That;s the poitn where i started doing research, havign already narrowed the field down.

Once i settled on Chaos (LOADS of creative freedom in terms of modelling and execution with this army). I started to think abotu what KIND fo army i wanted. I read abouthe original traitor legions online - gettgin as much fluff as i could.

i prefer the thought of sitting back and blasting the enemy into dust rather than charging headlong into combat or being sneaky...so i ended up going Iron Warriors.

Its all pwersonal preference - what do YOU want your army to do? work that out and then find an army that closely matches.