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Hey everyone. So here is the story. We have been searching for a new game since Mtg has been the bane of our wallet existence for a few years we quickly have cut ties. Me and a few guys decided 40k might be work playing (we did look at guildball but soccer and no customization seemed to get dull fast). We know we know it's expensive however we decided that unlike Mtg l, 40k is a more up front cost then your folded minus a few additions in a slow grow. Anyways.....I'm torn on what thebhell to play. I been reading and. Have more real idea what to look at being in new to this everything is kinda Greek for me. So hopefully if I just mention what I like in other games it'll help me make sense of what I want to play. I usually like somewhat tanky characters that can do moderate damage. I like that blend of in your fast beat them up and distance attacks. Not big on reliant on vehicles and prefer a hail of gunfire and swarm tactics. I've been looking at me tons and dark angels but idk if that's the right way to go. I highly enjoy painting and would like something that's a joy to paint as well.


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Damn auto correct sorry for the misspellings as I am typing on my phone during lunch break at work. NECRONS and DARK ANGELS are what I'm looking at but I'm up for any suggestions

Actually start with a starter box. For example, the BA box comes with a terminator captain, Baal pred, and a tactical squad. The units get their own little formation as well. Totally legal.

Starter boxes aren't crazy expensive. The upside of 40K vs mtg is that I'm playing with Rhinos and space marines from the 1990s and they are perfectly legit models. The treadmill of obsolescence is a bullgak and distrubing trend in gaming.

EvilHomer wrote:
Hey everyone. So here is the story. We have been searching for a new game since Mtg has been the bane of our wallet existence for a few years we quickly have cut ties. Me and a few guys decided 40k might be work playing (we did look at guildball but soccer and no customization seemed to get dull fast). We know we know it's expensive however we decided that unlike Mtg l, 40k is a more up front cost then your folded minus a few additions in a slow grow. Anyways.....I'm torn on what thebhell to play. I been reading and. Have more real idea what to look at being in new to this everything is kinda Greek for me. So hopefully if I just mention what I like in other games it'll help me make sense of what I want to play. I usually like somewhat tanky characters that can do moderate damage. I like that blend of in your fast beat them up and distance attacks. Not big on reliant on vehicles and prefer a hail of gunfire and swarm tactics. I've been looking at me tons and dark angels but idk if that's the right way to go. I highly enjoy painting and would like something that's a joy to paint as well.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Damn auto correct sorry for the misspellings as I am typing on my phone during lunch break at work. NECRONS and DARK ANGELS are what I'm looking at but I'm up for any suggestions

First of all, avoid the following start collecting: Eldar, Tau, orks and CSM, Dark Eldar.

The first two because there's a negative stigma (well deserved depending on what they bring) that they are utterly broken and OP, and Eldar require a bit of more thinking so they aren't prime material for beginners.
The other three are THE worst codexii in the current setting. While they are cool looking (I own a gorgeous slaaneshi host) they will lag severly as you grow and notice many battles are uphill. It's a challenge but not something you should impose yourself right away.

The rest are fair game but I recommend blood angels and skitarii because the early nets you a tank that is very good and the latter is a robust set of miniautures that will perform very well (and offers you a big saving).

From a fluff and visual POV, anything standout as a must have or a deal breaker? Do you know what your friends are thinking about?

Both the armies you list sound like they should fit your preferred playstyle. Although you say you don’t want to be reliant on vehicles, transports are very nice (almost required) for most armies. Unless you want to go bikes (which are really good overall)

Many would say "go with what looks cool to you".
I will list them in about relative gaming "power" for the points and a blurb of the esthetics:

Eldar: The king of the hill for gaming power, they are powerful psychic powers augmenting technology that is grown, with units that are specialized and cheap skimmer bikes with heavy weapons that are rage inducing. They are a very "pretty" army, I can easily see anyone being drawn to these guys.

Tau: Do you like anything around the realm of stomping overgunned robots? These are your Gundam friends. These guys are shooty as heck and between markerlights and Riptides, they are nasty on the battlefield. The choices for unit load-out is huge so I would suggest looking at using magnets to swap options.

Necrons: This is the robotic undead of the 40k universe. Metallic skeleton in look, zombielike for getting up again with a love for casket shapes and Egyptian imagery. If you are in touch with your inner goth, they may work for you. They are a good all around army that have an answer to most things.

Imperial Knights: On their own as a big stomping robot only army, they could raise eyebrows due to them being a bit difficult but they sure look good. These tend to be allied to other armies however but certainly are impressive.

Grey Knights: They are an elite expensive force that is good in the psychic phase, good at shooting, good at melee... if you think Paladins that pretty much sums it up: holy warriors.

Marines: In general they got some upgrades in formations lately. The main fun with them seems to be coming in on drop-pods and or bikes and gravity-gun the heck out of things while keeping librarians around to get some invisibility or something to that effect. Used as shock-troops they are pretty good. Slogging across the table, not so good. They are the poster boys for 40k and are the standard for what to kill. I will not get into the various flavors other than the GK's are a bit of an exception.

Imperial Guard / Astra Militarium: Good old Joe-troopers, the humans that take-on the war of attrition. You want something that looks like a "classic" army force these are it. They are a bit of a mixed bag in points efficiency to power but they certainly have a bit of everything and then some.

Orks: They are the A-Team / biker gangs of the universe. Brutal, thuggish and tech that works and no-one knows why. They make warfare somewhat fun and care-free. But it must all be Green or (go-fasta!) red. I would say like the Russians for WW2: everything counts in large amounts. Brutal in melee but hordes of inaccurate shooting that is scary.

Dark Eldar: The Eldar without psionic power and lots of poison weapons... S&M Eldar that know how to have a good time at someone else's expense. A true gaming "glass cannon". Some issues dealing with vehicle armor but the dark lances help.

The rest are all really cool armies worth looking into but difficult to pull off as primary armies, more to be used as supplements to the above.

Welcome to 40k!

It's a very different beast that MtG, that's for sure! Right now we're approaching what could be a massive game change early or mid next year, so be careful about going too gung-ho right now. However, I'd say your assessment is generally correct. As you collect models, they are almost never fully invalidated like so many commons and uncommons are in Magic. Some may become bad choices, but you never know when an old and bad unit might because new and good again. (insert Dark Eldar Wyches jokes never being good right here)

There's a whole TON of ways to play 40k, and I'd suggest getting a couple of trial games under your belt from your local community if you can before purchasing to see which is right for you. You can go very competitive, but it'll feel like an entirely different game than someone who plays "fluffy" (that is, a person who makes purposefully worse choices because they like the look and/or story of the game). Neither is wrong, but failing to chat about what kind of game you want to play with your opponent is like taking a Pauper deck against a Legacy deck with no Banned or Restricted list.


If Dark Angels and Necrons looked appealing to you, then give them a shot. Trust me, the army you THINK you'll like based on mechanics is rarely the one you'll ACTUALLY like! But if you want just a couple of vehicles, and then rely on swarm tactics and hails of gunfire, consider the new Genestealer Cults! Lots of little swarmy guys that pop in and out of the board makes it feel like they're everywhere, even though none of them are really that good.

Good luck!

One recommendation I would make is to not buy based solely on the "strength" of the army. That will change. Just ask anyone who bought CSM during 3rd edition because they were the best army. This isn't to say the army strength shouldn't be a consideration. Losing all the time will definitely scare you away from a game. I'm just saying you should buy the models that you like to play with and that you like to paint (assuming you paint them yourself).

All good things,

EnTyme

Swarm tactics, tanky characters, mix of CC/melee, and infantry over vehicles is sounding like Necrons to me. Grab their Start Collecting box, a Codex, and the rulebook, get a sense for the game, and see if you can work out more about your playstyle/what units you like.

Necrons are durable, reliable, easy to learn and play, and easy to paint well (though by no means difficult to be creative with); they're a good army to start with.

(Normally I recommend people go for starter boxes (in your case Dark Vengeance, since you like Dark Angels) because you get the rulebook and a few models cheaply, but if you've sold off an MTG collection recently it's probably less of a concern than going straight for what you like in the first place)

It's odd that nobody suggested this but you like swarms of shooting, some tanky guys, and no vehicles.

Play Tyranids.

They are difficult to play effectively and there is a little bit of a learning curve but as long as you and your friends are playing nice and casual they can be very competitive and a lot of fun. It's when people go into full cheesy competitive mode that tyranids stop being fun and start just being lists of the dirtiest cheapest tricks to stay competitive.

You just need to learn the nuance of their list building which relies on a lot of building redundancies and distractions into your list. Don't have 1 big tanky threat. Have 2, while having 2 medium sized groups of swarmy guys also threatening the enemy. You need to overwhelm their ability to deal with threats which often lets most of the threats actually get through.

I should have been slapped for not putting Tyranids in my list.
They cant ally with anyone because, well, we all look like food to them.
I really cannot see why people just paint them like in "Alien".
For some simply cool looking "monsters" they are hard to beat.

Lord Kragan wrote:
Eldar require a bit of more thinking so they aren't prime material for beginners.

i'd actually argue that eldar are a great beginner army cause they're pretty easy to play when you run scatbikes and shooty vehicles - (all of which is in the box). Fast, shooty, relatively tough, no issues.