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Hey lads. I've played Aos for a while and wanted to get into 40k with the new edition coming out. I have too many miniatures at my place so I'm looking for a fun low model count army that is friendly to beginners and Not the Grey knights. Yall are probably the most knowledgable around on this stuff so any suggestions would be appreciated.

Marines - the literal posterboys for 40K. Middle of the road on everything, gets the latest shiny toys before anyone else, found in every damn boxset on the planet. Super plentiful 2nd hand or in discount FLGS. You can run an elite/mech heavy army with low model count.


Tyranids - Do you like monsters? Because they got them. Some of the coolest sculpts in the line, can consolidate your force into large, heavy hitting units. Want 12 Canifexes as an army? Go for it. Welcome to 8th.


Tau - ...On second though, let's not. 'Tis a silly place right now.


Imperial Knights - You want an army with 3 units? Look no further. Be hated by everyone, collect salt.

I'm a firm believer in "reading about every faction, then picking the one that looks the most interesting".

If it happens to have to many models in each box for your taste, move to the next army on your list.

Overall, Space Marines are probably the best "Starter Army" around. Average everything. Enough wargear to cover the basics, models of all types (troops, assault, fast attack, vehicles, transports, etc) to let you play with a bit of everything.

And while they aren't the lowest model count army around, they're certainly down there.

You could also take up Imperial Knights. In a standard 2000 point game, you can have 4 models with wargear options. All their statline are the same (for the GW line, not the FW stuff), so you just need to remember what the guns do.

Space Marines. a wide model range, that can handle just about any play style. fairly easy to paint, and widely avaliable.

OK if I was to go marines are the space wolves any more complex than bog standard boys in blue? Or should I stick to the base marines?

Autohellion wrote:
OK if I was to go marines are the space wolves any more complex than bog standard boys in blue? Or should I stick to the base marines?

The beauty of marines is that you can (for the most part) roll any flavor you want. Either established chapters, or your own flavor. There are some thematic advantages to going to specific chapters -- if you dig robes, then DA are you bag. Into space vikings? Wolves. They each have their own little niche units and rules, but in general all marines play the same. And...you can ally them with any other imperium force now, so mix it up!

Personally I'm a fan of the Dark Angel asthetic, and their flair for fliers and bikes is a big draw for me.

If you want a low model count army, I'd suggest looking towards the shiny new Primaris Marines. They'll be getting tons of attention from what I can tell, and you won't be at a loss of stuff to add to your growing collection.

 ncshooter426 wrote:

Tau - ...On second though, let's not. 'Tis a silly place right now

Whats up with Tau now?

 TheLumberJack wrote:

 ncshooter426 wrote:

Tau - ...On second though, let's not. 'Tis a silly place right now

Whats up with Tau now?

They are in a very weird spot. They went from Riptides galore and board supremacy to getting rolled hard by previously "low tier" armies. Things are still shaking out for then, but it's a *very* different ballgame now than it was - stuff is way more expensive, mechanics have changed, etc. For a new player, they may want to let things sit for a while before jumping into mecha heaven. I still want to grab a handful of hammerheads and some riptides one day, we'll see where that goes.

 ncshooter426 wrote:

 TheLumberJack wrote:

 ncshooter426 wrote:

Tau - ...On second though, let's not. 'Tis a silly place right now

Whats up with Tau now?

They are in a very weird spot. They went from Riptides galore and board supremacy to getting rolled hard by previously "low tier" armies. Things are still shaking out for then, but it's a *very* different ballgame now than it was - stuff is way more expensive, mechanics have changed, etc. For a new player, they may want to let things sit for a while before jumping into mecha heaven. I still want to grab a handful of hammerheads and some riptides one day, we'll see where that goes.

Yeah tau have always had a place in my heart, sucks that they are kinda bad now but I also understand. Hopefully their codex fixes some stuff with sept rules and such. They kinda have a small (and I mean very small) boost in cc than before because of no more initiative

The only real army that has a steep learning curve is the Dark Eldar, who can devastate people if you know how to use them, but get roflstomped if you don't. Everyone else has at least one "safe" build that you can use and is rather forgiving.

That said, a few armies do require a bit more finesse to use:

Tau, Necrons, Daemons, Grey Knights Sisters of Battle, and Eldar all have a variety of their own buffs that requires a good knowledge of the game's mechanics and phases to take full advantage of. They generally rely heavily on their special effects to do most of the heavy lifting, hence if you don't understand them through and through you'll be running at a wall of frustration as you can't figure out why your units are seemingly paying for skills that have almost no practical application (this is especially true of Tau Markerlights and Eldar Farseer buffs). Unlike the Dark Eldar though, you won't be completely curbstomped if you don't know how to use them, but it will be hard if you don't at least have a general idea of the abilities.

Below them are Orks, Imperial Guard and Tyranids. The first two can all decently function without taking advantage of their racial traits, but doing so means they're not as effective (knowing when to call the Waaagh or which orders to use is very important, but not necessary). Nids is sort of the inverse in that if you do not know how important synapse is, you'll regret it in short order very fast, but it won't be a deathblow to you if your list can resist it. Basically all three can blunder through the game even at sub-optimal conditions and can still be expected to win, but leaves some room for learning the more "cool" tricks.

The only one that's basically immune to this is the Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines and Imperial Knights, but only because they have almost no special racial rules to speak of. Even the ones that do they tend to not need it, it's just a nice bonus on top of everything. Barring exploiting a very specific rules combo, these armies generally don't require much knowledge to use, but also there isn't much more you can do with them either.

 ncshooter426 wrote:

 TheLumberJack wrote:

 ncshooter426 wrote:

Tau - ...On second though, let's not. 'Tis a silly place right now

Whats up with Tau now?

They are in a very weird spot. They went from Riptides galore and board supremacy to getting rolled hard by previously "low tier" armies. Things are still shaking out for then, but it's a *very* different ballgame now than it was - stuff is way more expensive, mechanics have changed, etc. For a new player, they may want to let things sit for a while before jumping into mecha heaven. I still want to grab a handful of hammerheads and some riptides one day, we'll see where that goes.

Honestly, I've had some good luck with Tau this edition. Crisis Suits, Broadsides and Riptides are all way too pricey for what they do, but Stealth Suits, Commanders and Drones are the bee's knees. It takes a bit more finesse since you can't rely on unkillable monstrous creatures, but Tau still looks to be in a good place for the most part.

The easiest starter army by far is necrons. They have little to no wargear on their stock troops. A stat line that's easy to remember because it translates to being almost the same for the majority of all infantry. They are durable as all hell so they are very forgiving of tactical errors and beginners mistakes. And finally super easy to build and paint but also can be very complicated to paint if you choose and wish to expand your skill set in that way.


No other army is even close to being as good a starter necrons.

Deathwatch.

I'm not going to say they're friendly to beginners, they're stupidly costly on the tabletop which gives them a low and unforgiving model count but they carry at least one member of all bar one loyalist marine chapters so they can get model variety from a single kit that very few other chapters can match - on the downside if you don't already have a paint station set up they'll be expensive to paint, if you do just buy black and silver in bulk and go to town - in 8th they're properly flexible, they're not exactly easy to use but when you figure out how to build mixed units and deploy them to target units that they have an advantage over, plus figure out how to get the most out of their Special Ammo they can lay some impressive beatdowns.

 Dakka Wolf wrote:
Deathwatch.

I'm not going to say they're friendly to beginners, they're stupidly costly on the tabletop which gives them a low and unforgiving model count but they carry at least one member of all bar one loyalist marine chapters so they can get model variety from a single kit that very few other chapters can match - on the downside if you don't already have a paint station set up they'll be expensive to paint, if you do just buy black and silver in bulk and go to town - in 8th they're properly flexible, they're not exactly easy to use but when you figure out how to build mixed units and deploy them to target units that they have an advantage over, plus figure out how to get the most out of their Special Ammo they can lay some impressive beatdowns.

I just got some recently, looking forward to trying them out, they do see pretty damn expensive but I really like their flexability.

Buy the new starter trade the primo marines for vehicles and dreads.

You said you are coming over from Age of Signature. If you have any of the Daemon factions a.lot of their models carry over from one to the other.

 ncshooter426 wrote:

 TheLumberJack wrote:

 ncshooter426 wrote:

Tau - ...On second though, let's not. 'Tis a silly place right now

Whats up with Tau now?

They are in a very weird spot. They went from Riptides galore and board supremacy to getting rolled hard by previously "low tier" armies. Things are still shaking out for then, but it's a *very* different ballgame now than it was - stuff is way more expensive, mechanics have changed, etc. For a new player, they may want to let things sit for a while before jumping into mecha heaven. I still want to grab a handful of hammerheads and some riptides one day, we'll see where that goes.

Actually they might be mid tier. The first ITC results are in and they placed 11th out of all the 40k faction there are which is slightly above average. However one tournament result is not a meta, but it is a good indication there might be some legs there. You need to look at constructing their army a lot differently now with monster mash definitely on the dead side. Your going to want a decent amount of troops now and most likely a lot of drones of various types to back up the few big things you do bring. Stand out units are drones, strikers, breachers w/ devilfish and ethereal, vespids, commanders, and stormsurges are still all good.