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Hello everyone!

I have a bit of experience with the hobby, but it's all on the Fantasy side. I painted about 1000 points worth of Orc/Goblin models, but could never find anyone to play the actual game with (was 15 years old, couldn't drive, and everyone local was a 40k player). I had forgotten about the hobby for 6 years, and filled my time with the joyous game of Starcraft.

Just recently, I've found myself bored to death with most computer and Xbox games, and decided to delve back into the Warhammer world. I got the newest rulebook for Fantasy and 40k, the past 6 months worth of White Dwarf's, and have spent about the past 3 weeks just fantasizing of what army to pick up. I was going to return to Fantasy, but with the same issue as 6 years ago, there just aren't many Fantasy players near me (Ontario, Canada). So I've decided to go 40k, but can't seem to pick an army! Any input with what information I give would be much appreciated

The lore doesn't affect my choice, as I find all lore interesting and unique.
I don't mind playing for the "good" or "bad" guys, partly because of what I previously said, but also because everyone has to have something to fight for!\
I don't need an army that is winning tournaments left, right, and center, but I'd like to not be bottom of the barrel if possible!
I would rather stay away from big-epic-metal-future-machines/tanks/airplanes/choppas if at all possible (just looks boring, I hate to say it! Prefer the savage look)
I'd love to play a swarm focused race (Just prefer the idea of a glorious field covered in a sea of troops, as opposed to a select few elite bosses)

Now... I know the immediate idea with those last 2 points is to just go Tyranids. But the problem is that I don't know what other armies are "swarm focused". So if they seem awesome enough, I could overlook the whole thing regarding "metal everywhere"
As it stands though, unless I'm missing something, it seems that Tyranids it my main option, but I would love to hear input!

Any input about an army to pick and how to go about buying all my units would be super appreciated!

Thanks all

Orks are the other horde army. Pretty much everything else will either need lots of Mech (Dark Elder and Guard are Hordish but require full mechanisation to work), or are fully armoured (MEq, Neurons and Tau).

My advise is look at the models you like most. You'll spend more time painting models than you ever will gaming with the so pick the models you like best.

I really do enjoy the look of Tyranids! No mech

My advice is similar to FlingitNow, except you really oughta look at the lore too.

Orks, Tyranids, and Imperial Guard are the main ones that come to mind for hordes. But seriously, hordes aren't the same here as they are in fantasy - theres no neat and tidy movement trays, so bringing 180+ guys to a game and moving them around the place is a huge pain in the ass.

Chaos Daemons are another option, they're not particularly hordey, as far as I know (which isn't very far... at all), and they do have a couple of mechs, but they still look pretty organic.

I'm not suggesting they're better for you than Tyranids, but they are another alternative that you might like having a look at.

Although, another thing you need to consider is that Tyranids can be kind of hard for new 40k players, or so I've heard.

Actually in the new book Daemons are s horde army now. That unit is s good shout. Can't believe I forgot about them.

Sisters of Battle and Black Templars.

Or for the cost of a sisters of battle army you could go out and buy a gun to shoot yourself in the foot with.

On a more serious note - look for tervigon Tyranid lists. They have the possibility of birthing an absurd amount of termigants or being somewhat silly (birthing only a couple and then shutting down for the rest of the game). Another option, though not officially supported, is the Genestealer Cult of Genestealers and imp guard (think Call of Cthulu). Finally, contrary to what was mentioned above, Dark Eldar could possibly be an option if you go for an all coven list of Haemonculi with web way portals. This does either require a whole lot of conversions or stupidly expencive failcast models though. Tactically very interesting, but easy to fail miserably.

Edit: with Tyranids be ready to lose against tau. Between the ready access to Ignores Cover weapons and Supporting Fire your life will be misery.

So, as said before, there are mainly 3 possibilities for horde army: IG, Orks and 'Nids.

IG is pretty mech-heavy but I've seen excellently working infantry Guards lists with only up to 2 tanks for support.

Tyranids: Awesome looking, and besides their swarmish (that propably isn't a word?) side, there are nice MC's

Orks: my favourite option here. The price is similar to other horde armies, but basic units are T4. And it's just hilarious to watch 60 ork boyz to run across the map when with same points enemy got maybe 2 Tac Squads.

 soomemafia wrote:
So, as said before, there are mainly 3 possibilities for horde army: IG, Orks and 'Nids.

IG is pretty mech-heavy but I've seen excellently working infantry Guards lists with only up to 2 tanks for support.

Tyranids: Awesome looking, and besides their swarmish (that propably isn't a word?) side, there are nice MC's

Orks: my favourite option here. The price is similar to other horde armies, but basic units are T4. And it's just hilarious to watch 60 ork boyz to run across the map when with same points enemy got maybe 2 Tac Squads.

Actually a squad of 30 boyz is only ten points more then a tac squad without upgrades

Yes, so with my rocket-science math, I'd say that 60 boyz is about 2 tac squads?

ok so, while everyone is just throwing out names, ill give you all armies and what they do in a short sentence or 2

lets start with the hord type armies first

orks: these fellows are all about hords all of their stuff is cheap, but most of them die very easy, they usually play 1 of 4 ways, get in to close combat and spam them with units till their faces get ripped off by 30 orks in 1 squad, shooty where you will miss 80% of the shots but blot out the sun with your bullets, air craft oriented ( with the help of forge world ) where almost everything can be in the air, or mech and tank oriented ( with the help of forge world ) to spam so many tanks and walkers that they wont be able to take it all on

tyranids : these aliens are pretty bad, don't get me wrong they can be a force to be wreken with if they are doing their stuff well, but they are painfully easy to kill, once you know what to kill, unless that thing you have to kill becomes impossible to kill, they have 'gaunt spam, monstrous creature spam, flying creature spam, or mix that just have big monsters that spawn little monsters

ig or imperial guard : forge world loves these guys, and they are probably the highest tier army in the game, their infantry are horrible but spamable where in a tournament game you can have 200+ infantry running around but they die pathetically easy, their close combat is pretty bad, and they are litteraly given flashlights as weapons but youll have so many that it doesn't matter, they also have some of the best tanks and fliers in the game, and probably have more units then any other army in the game ( thanks to forge world )

( starting to leave the hord zone but every army can go hord if you build it right, all depends on your play style )

necrons : necrons are space robot egyption zombies with green lightning guns that arise from the dead when you kill them, do i need to say more. well yea i should, necrons can spam infantry to no tomarow and their basic gun can kill their strongest tank ( if your lucky enough ) their vehicals are a mixed back as they don't have alot of them, and their flyers are really good too, but keep in mind this is a close range shooty army that will die very easy if they get into close combat, so be careful

eldar : dont pick this army, if you like it wait till their book comes out in a month or 2, but as of now they are pretty bad ( still in 4th while everyone else is in 5th or 6th ( exept for orks but they still do really well ) they are specialized units that do 1 thing and do it well sometimes, the forge world army list for eldar is pretty good but as of now normal eldar are kinda bad

dark eldar: have alot of units, move at the speed of sound, hit like a tank running over an anthill, but have papermache + cardboard for armor, this can be hord but then again it can also not be hord depending on how you bulid it but in this army you will have alot of " boats " for transports as they move really really fast as they soar across the board, thats how they usualy play too, few air units, alot of " boats " filled with infantry and shoot everything or get into combat with everything till nothing is left so that they dont get shot to pieces

space marines: these guys are the best of the best infantry on the board ( well the most basic guys any way ) and they can take a beating ( unless your unlucky ) as well as give a beating ( unless your unlucky ), space marines ( and their equivalents ) are the most played army, seeing as they can be played almost anyway you want and are the easyest army to use seeing as they are all round with nothing bad

chaos space marines: these guys just like space marines can be anything, and the best part is, all chaos armys are so custimisable that no one can counter your list unless they either get lucky or they know what you are using, this army can go horde, elites, tank spam , air spam, mix and match and anything you can think of they can do it, also in short they are space marines but demonized

chaos daemons : chaos daemons are more infantry relyant and are spamable, but like chaos they cannot be easily countered unless they bring alot of anti infantry because thats mostly what this entire book is, this army is all rounded, nothing game breaking, but nothing so bad you will loose every game, its ok, but not the book you would want to start if your new

sisters of battle: the single most hardest army to do because it is so hard to find the models and the book for this army, they are bad as well because that they almost never get updated and hardly anyone plays them, but that is also a good thing, no one knows what to expect of sisters of battle because not many people know what does what, to the actual army it self it is space marines mix with infantry spamablity of imperial guard , with a unique rule that you " god " emperor helps you spiritual, unless you want to put the effort into finding these then go ahead play them, they are fun but wont win alot of games

tau: these guys spam units, bunker down in cover, and shoot till the entire enamy bored edge is gone, these guys are the quintessential shooty army, they also have " suits " ( or mechs ) that are custimasable to your desire as you like, that's about it the only way to play them is either long range shooting or close range shooting, just keep in mind that you WILL DIE in close combat, so don't let them get close

now we come to the part where i explane space marine and their equivalents, because space marines have about 4 other books for the space marine army, so if your going space marine, give these books a look

blood angels: are the " fast " and close combat oriented space marine army, they got nerfed pretty bad in 6th edition witch made them pretty bad now, you will still win games, but have a hard time doing it

dark angels: where blood is cc the dark angels are the shooty army, that focuses on super buff infantry called terminators, or space marines on bikes, these guys are ok

space wolves : the army is meant to be close combat oriented but is actually better in shooting, they also got nerfed but because of some broken things they have they are still really good ( when you fight a space wolf player youll know what i mean )

last one

grey knights: these guys used to be over powered, but because of 6th edition they became "ok" greyknights are the close combat and close range shooting army that will kill anything it gets close to, but the problem is that they have to get there


and that is all of them, hopefully that helps if you need questions just ask and sorry for me getting lazy tords the end

Id say talk to people around your local area and find out the meta, i dont know about you but i hate mirror matches. Ask if they will let you test run a few dif armies.

Other than that, everyone else is right, fav units and fluff are key to finding your army. this game requires to much work not to love the army your playing with and if you pick one solely on the fact that it is a top tier army youll quickly regret it after you get sick of just playing and not living the army.

my opinion of best army is ig / tau

my opinion of worst army eldar / sister of batle

when i say best in worse i mean tournament wise, in casual games its anyone game

I'd agree with the above, and kudos to jbsnv for the great synopsis of the armies

I'd say go with SM just to get started while you figure it out.

You can usually find a used unpainted/badly painted SM army in any FLGS for cheap and can sell them off easily if you move on to a different army.

They are easy to learn, and are very forgiving when learning the basics of the game.

And welcome to 40k

I'd suggest either Tyranids, Orks or Demons for competetive horde play.
IG can do it very well too, but I get the feeling that you'd find their models a little too boring looking on the table to really consider them (I know I do...)

IG is so versatile but I love my Nids. I haven't tried the 5 Tervigon list but am going to.

Nids have Psy powers too which I love.

 Instinctual wrote:
I'd agree with the above, and kudos to jbsnv for the great synopsis of the armies

I'd say go with SM just to get started while you figure it out.

You can usually find a used unpainted/badly painted SM army in any FLGS for cheap and can sell them off easily if you move on to a different army.

They are easy to learn, and are very forgiving when learning the basics of the game.

And welcome to 40k

thanks it helps to own every book in the game ( including most of the forge world ones )


and the easiest way to get started is to find a friend, get him/her interested and buy the 2 player starter box, it will help you learn the game, especially if you bring it to the gaming store so that people can watch and point out errors... if they aren't douche bags of course, every gaming club is different and the people are different to, but then again we are all friends on dakka dakka so if you have questions ask us, especially me