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After having a massive break from tabletop gaming I've decided to get back into the hobby on my own terms and maybe play a few games here and there until I find a decent group of friends who would like to join in.

So my main problem is finding an army to collect and paint! I first started In I think 2007 with a battle for skull pass split with my brother and just spread across the games workshop scene from there.

The main points my return to the hobby needs to fulfil are quite basic -
-It has to be something a bit different (not just Cadians, I would want a smaller legion for example)
-Be able to win a few battles here and there but not be a "competitive list"
-fun to paint!
-Move it into the realms of apocalypse with a lot of formations from imperial armour and such

Cost isn't that much of a problem as I hope to be in it for the long term and gradually grow my army.

So thoughts and suggestions appreciated!

Just for reference, in the past I've played Dark Angels, Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines and Tyranids, not that any of that is a problem

Are you a shooty person or an assault person? Hordes or elite army or a combination of all of them? I guess you want a small army since you said smaller legion.

I say Tyranids, because 1) New codex coming out in January if rumours are true. They can be played Hordes or Elites, shooty or assault.

If you want small army, maybe Grey Knights. Large army, Orks or NIds.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Forgot to say how about Necrons?

I want to go to 2000 points and then just apocalypse formations from there onwards!

I would actually like the idea of being able to have a balanced force which is making me want to choose imperial guard due to infantry platoons and having lots and lots of tanks as well!

I do like necrons but I'm not sure how I could make the army my own and have a really good time painting them.

Main things I've been looking at are Imperial Guard, Tzeentch force or Tyranids.

Shooty tends to yield more (or at least easier) victories, if that is your thing. Sometimes tooth and claw is effective too, though.

I'd recommend maybe a non-Horde army, you get a lot of room for personality and paint jobs when you don't have to paint a hundred dudes.

If you enjoy conversions and things of that nature, i'd recommend Nurgle (both Demons and CSM) as they have a relatively low model-count but have plenty of potential for really great personality - just see some of the examples on this very site!

Or, optionally, choose what appeals in a fluffy way, and go with that! That's what I did!

Edit: Didn't see you wanted to get into Apoc. In that case, my suggestion was probably wa-haaay off the mark.

Well best place to start with those is what you like the look of, things that stick out from the different factions to you. A general idea of how you like to play as well.

I've been reading over the Imperial Guard codex as well as a few others and I'm really liking them with the options of having so many different units that each serve different purposes but then still being able to preform different tasks.

If I do decide to go for imperial guard, I would need to pick a legion to go for which really helps the fact I can convert them and make them unique, any thoughts on this idea?

You can always make your own regiment instead of going with a set one so converting your own would always look quite nice compared to even more Cadians.

Mad Mek wrote:
I've been reading over the Imperial Guard codex as well as a few others and I'm really liking them with the options of having so many different units that each serve different purposes but then still being able to preform different tasks.

If I do decide to go for imperial guard, I would need to pick a legion to go for which really helps the fact I can convert them and make them unique, any thoughts on this idea?

Go to Victoria Miniatures. Make a unit out of bits or get one of the premade sets. Look now!

@n0t_u that is a very true point and draws me even more towards them really!

@Swastakowey I do like the look of them however I would like the majority of the army to be from GW, as bad as it is I want to be able to use the army in their centres with no quarrel.

Mad Mek wrote:
@n0t_u that is a very true point and draws me even more towards them really!

@Swastakowey I do like the look of them however I would like the majority of the army to be from GW, as bad as it is I want to be able to use the army in their centres with no quarrel.

At the cost of variation and uniqueness? Oh well Just another reason to highly dislike GW really. Up to you at the end of the day. I used them to make my army, i have been to a GW store 4 times in my life but i want to take my pro painted victoria army to a GW store and see what happens.

If you must use the horribly bland cadians and catachans a simple head swap can make it look different from its counterparts.

 Swastakowey wrote:

If you must use the horribly bland cadians and catachans a simple head swap can make it look different from its counterparts.

There are plenty of really great 3rd party heads as well, so each regiment can have a different look or something similar.

 Sparkadia wrote:

 Swastakowey wrote:

If you must use the horribly bland cadians and catachans a simple head swap can make it look different from its counterparts.

There are plenty of really great 3rd party heads as well, so each regiment can have a different look or something similar.

Thats what i mean. If i HAD TO play at a GW store all the time id resort to doing that if its not against their rules.

I've managed to have the odd warmachine model here and there in some of my armies and even have CH's Doomseer in my Eldar without much issue. Though I did restrict it to characters not full units and I may just have the cooler GWs which I don't really get around to visiting often anyways.

I have often wondered, if i where to have a pile of boxes i intended to buy then decided to play a game first, would they then let me use my non GW army? Any one tried this?

Probably not, still has to be a majority within a GW store as it's advertising for them.

Yeah I think I could get away with using the odd head or gun here and there! Now to scour the codex and pick out my favourite models! Will hopefully be recording this through a P&M Blog so you can all keep suggesting any conversion ideas to me

I believe that head and weapon swaps are considered just fine in the majority of cases - there are so many models of Lasgun that conceivably whatever they are using could very well be one!

Is it like the old vehicle rules? didn't you just need to have 'at least' 30% of it being GW bits or something to make it legal?
It was far before my time, so that's just something I've heard (which is probably wrong)

If you want guard, and want to make them "your own".

I would go with GW models (for the reasons you state) but use accessories (heads, etc.) from other vendors.

Pig iron has a lot of really cool guard compatible heads for example. I would love to see a guard army that uses more high tech looking gear and vehicles, but thats just me.

If you change your mind and go back to necrons - just come up with your own paint scheme - there are enough necron dynasties fluff wise to do your own.