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I have begun collecting a small force for my 11yo stepson,,,,and have started him off on painting them,,,well ok he sorta paints and I finish and touch them up for him,,,lol

anyways,what would folks suggest for a good starter points range,,,I am thinking around 1000,,it would give him a good size but not over whelming

say something like this?

Small command squad

a couple tac squads

or

perhaps 3 small ones with razorbacks

a couple speeders

a dreadnought

maybe a predator or two,,,


Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

A few vehicles would probably appeal to a kid. A Dread especially might work well since it's relatively small and simple to paint.

Anyway, best of luck. Hope he enjoys the hobby.

Thats why I was thinking about a couple speeders too.

those and the dreadnought are pretty straight forward to put together,not a lot of pinning,sanding or filling or fiddling with xacto knives needed,though I suppose him cutting himself is sorta a right of passage into 40k too,,,,dang figgity bits.

Speeders are kind of a pain to put together really...
Are you really determined for it to be SM or have you considered Orks?

My 7 yo is into Space Wolves and he likes drop pods plus the named special characters. My 11 year old has finally decided that monstrous creatures are the way to go (Nids, after toying with eldar, tau, BA, CSM). The 12 year old has DA and is a fan of speed and plasma blast templates.

Oh, and they all like terminators with TH/SS.

So, I'd suggest a slightly higher points level, but fewer models. It seems that pie plates, smashing things etc have all the appeal!

This thread made me think of this comic:

http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20061101

Another thought, for my boys the key thing was the fluff. They are much keener when they are interested in the fluff.

And that comic is precisely right!

Here's my "starter youth" list (with reasoning):

HQ:
Captain, power weapon, artificer armor, mb: 135
===This is the "Personalized" leader in the army. Let your step son make this character his own, or choose a cool SM character you think he may like, and let this be the avatar.

Troops:
10x Tac squads with flamer/ML, rhino: 205
===at 1000 points, 1 tac squad will probably be okay (and give you room to show off different things.) Have him make up a story for it, if you want. The rhino gets him used to dedicated transports, and looks cool, too. Maybe have him add little armor bits or draw on a symbol he likes?

5x Scouts with snipers: 90
===Scouts with snipers look cool, and can really provide some awesome opportunities to key out line of sight near the enemy, and really feel like they're coming down on you.

Elites:
Dreadnought w/ MM, HF, drop pod: 150
=== Dreadnoughts look cool, drop pods look cool, and they're very attention grabbing/cool models. Dropping a Dread on an enemy is a really cool feeling, and it makes you feel like a real astartes tactician when you do.

5x Tac termies with AC, 2 1 chain fist: 235
===Tac termies look cool and have some very neat models. The AC looks particularly cool,and deepstriking termies both teaches strategy (where to send them). They also seem like very powerful elites, and match the feel of an elite unit in play style and looks.

Heavy Support:
1 TFC: 100
===A very neat model, the TFC is quite potent, works in multiple lists, has a techmarine (awesome model) and fires 4 small blast templates (which is always really cool and exciting to roll for) and is quite devastating against lots of units.

1 Dakka pred (1 Autocannon and HB sponsoons): 85
The classic anti-infantry predator (and low AV transport killer). Cheap, good at what it does, and it looks like a classic awesome tank. If you magnetize/change the sponsoons so they can be either LC or HB, you have a unit that grows VERY well with the army and is always cool.

Total: 1000 points on the dot

The army above has a little of everything, much of which is very flavorful, and should be fairly competitive on the battlefield. The units also offer a bunch of various rules (in pretty simple forms) and thus are great for teaching.

I would just see what models/units he likes first then go from there. When I got into it everything I owned where just tge units I liked fluff/model wise.

Just a general suggestion I think might prove useful. When introducing anybody into the hobby, especially a younger person or someone who doesn't come from a gaming background, really concentrate on the story of how the battle is playing out. Remember to explain, step by step, what the dice are doing, and how that relates to what's going on with the table:

"These space marines are trying to shoot that massive mob of orks with their bolters (just think of a fully automatic rocket launcher). They're close to the orks so they can fire lots of shots without worrying about missing. Space marines are all really good shots, so they hit more often than normal people *rolls to hit*, but it looks like they were rushing it because there were so many orks charging at them. They didn't do very well, but the squad sergeant rolled a 6 to hit, so he got lucky with his bolt pistol and hit the chief ork (etc...)".

Focusing on the story of how the battle plays out is a big part of the hobby that I personally tend to neglect in favor of purely "gamey" tactical thought and probability. Plus going into detail like this will help people learn the rules since they have an understanding of how they relate to what's "really happening". And for small 750-1000 point battles it shouldn't drag things out too horribly much.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Pouncey wrote:
This thread made me think of this comic:

http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20061101

Take my exalt, take it!

Cheap tac sqauds + HQ off ebay from dark vengeance or black reach

 Hashbeth wrote:
Here's my "starter youth" list (with reasoning):

HQ:
Captain, power weapon, artificer armor, mb: 135
===This is the "Personalized" leader in the army. Let your step son make this character his own, or choose a cool SM character you think he may like, and let this be the avatar.

Troops:
10x Tac squads with flamer/ML, rhino: 205
===at 1000 points, 1 tac squad will probably be okay (and give you room to show off different things.) Have him make up a story for it, if you want. The rhino gets him used to dedicated transports, and looks cool, too. Maybe have him add little armor bits or draw on a symbol he likes?

5x Scouts with snipers: 90
===Scouts with snipers look cool, and can really provide some awesome opportunities to key out line of sight near the enemy, and really feel like they're coming down on you.

Elites:
Dreadnought w/ MM, HF, drop pod: 150
=== Dreadnoughts look cool, drop pods look cool, and they're very attention grabbing/cool models. Dropping a Dread on an enemy is a really cool feeling, and it makes you feel like a real astartes tactician when you do.

5x Tac termies with AC, 2 1 chain fist: 235
===Tac termies look cool and have some very neat models. The AC looks particularly cool,and deepstriking termies both teaches strategy (where to send them). They also seem like very powerful elites, and match the feel of an elite unit in play style and looks.

Heavy Support:
1 TFC: 100
===A very neat model, the TFC is quite potent, works in multiple lists, has a techmarine (awesome model) and fires 4 small blast templates (which is always really cool and exciting to roll for) and is quite devastating against lots of units.

1 Dakka pred (1 Autocannon and HB sponsoons): 85
The classic anti-infantry predator (and low AV transport killer). Cheap, good at what it does, and it looks like a classic awesome tank. If you magnetize/change the sponsoons so they can be either LC or HB, you have a unit that grows VERY well with the army and is always cool.

Total: 1000 points on the dot

The army above has a little of everything, much of which is very flavorful, and should be fairly competitive on the battlefield. The units also offer a bunch of various rules (in pretty simple forms) and thus are great for teaching.

This.

Great starter list, lots of fun basicunits, plenty of room to grow

That comic made me laugh,as the first thing I was asked to convert for the lil man was a couple marines with chainsaws at the ends of their bolters like the heavy gears game.

Hashbeth wrote up a great list. I started playing when I was 12, and after looking at everything I went for SW because they're Space Vikings. Absolutely loved that. Like others have said, get them involved in the fluff; I remember I loved my special characters and worked extra hard on them.
My first army had a Wolf Priest, GH and BC squads, a venerable dread, and some long fangs, as well as some speeders and bikes. It was a good balance of shooty units, CC units, and fast movers and I learned about the different phases of battle because of it. Oh, and kids love dreadnoughts. (at least I did in 3rd ed when they were almost unstoppable in CC against normal infantry)
For younger kids, get them into the models and units that they want to play. Even if they lose because they spent all their points on bikes or something (just an example), they'll learn and love their reliable units. Since you're not going to have him playing in a competitive environment (hopefully!), let him make mistakes. Best way to learn and good luck to him!

My kids are the ones that got me into this hobby. I had played a lot of RPGs when I was in High School but had never done miniature wargames. A few years ago my oldest son (14 at the time) convinced his two brothers (8 and 10 at the time) that 40K would be cool. My wife and I picked up Black Reach for them and I picked up some Eldar a few months later because it looked like fun and it would be a good way to spend quality time with my boys.

The funny thing is, almost three years later no one plays a loyalist army. My youngest (now 11) is the only one playing a power armor army (CSM). At first I didn't like the Marines from Black Reach going to waste, but no one wanted to use them. We talked my second youngest (now 13) into using them, but he lost interest and stopped playing for a while. He read the fluff but didn't play. Eventually he settled on Orcs and has been avidly playing since.

I guess my point is to maybe take the kid to a store and let him see what's available, he might be attracted to something wildly different from Space Marines. Maybe he'll be into big MCs stomping around the table, or he'll like the Daemon models.

Hashbeth, well done!

This!
Hit the nail on the head I would say.
Not a single thing I could see changing.
I would suggest rare earth magnet the dread's arms and make use of the missile launcher and twin linked lascannon.
Make sure you attach the hvy flamer on the arm.

My kids loved it when models had swappable parts, do the same with the bolter and launcher on the drop pod and tank as suggested.

The thunder cannon would be a challenge but it is in resin now right?
I made a stand for it to sit on since I could not trust the metal version to hold together well.

That actually is a rather good list,,,,just one thought though,,,,might it be abit shy on troops?