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As the title says, I've decided to take the leap and start 40k. I'm thinking of buying the First Strike box first, to get a real feel for the game. Otherwise, I've narrowed (so to speak) the factions down to six I'm considering to play as a first real army.

Here they are:
- Necrons
-Tau
-Death Guard
-Thousand Sons
-Adeptus Custodes
-Adeptus Mechanicus

These were selected based on their aesthetic, fluff, and the limited knowledge I gleaned from the 1d4chan tactics pages. Originally I wanted to play Necrons but after much research I've found an overall negative opinion about these guys in 8th edition. To aid in the final selection of one or two of these armies, I would greatly appreciate a summary of each faction's playstyle (the more details the better!), their playability sratus in 8th edition, as well as some personal anecdotes. Thank you all in advance for assisting a clueless new player!

On a side note, this is my first post on dakkadakka! Yay?

pick up some cheap second hand models for the ones you are interested in, have a bash at painting and find ones you enjoy doing and like the look of - make yourself a list of two/three factions

now watch a few games and find ones you like the play style of

Wow that was a quick response. In your personal opinion, what do you think is the most viable army?

Mechanicus is cool. You stomp people with giant derp-robots (or rather blast them off the table), kill people with radiation guns and finally murderize them with frickin' Mecha-T-Rex-knight-cavalry (which happen to be one of the top 3 close combat units of all Imperium factions too, and they can infiltrate and have a -1 to hit against enemy shooting too, as well as a gazillion free high strength extra attacks with a Strat). You also get to scream "CRAB BATTLE" at the beginning and "attack their weakspot for massive damage" (when the other guy helplessly watches you stack one repair roll after another) midgame in every game when you bring Onager Dunecrawlers (which you will). Which have D3 S10 AP-4 shots. Or alternatively 4 autocannon, 5x S6 AP-2,and one AA missile shots in a single turn. And they can move without any Heavy weapon penalty. And you can boost them with +2 to hit with a single command point. You can also jump on the Imperial Knight bandwagon with Mechanicum Knights but bandwagoning is boring.

Ah yes, and army wide -1 to hits (if you play Stygies VIII) AND cover for all units in the first turn, and most other turns if you know what you are doing.

I think I covered all the strong units they got excluding Cawl, they are all rad (LITERALLY when it comes to Skitarii Vanguard).

TL;DR: Ranged army that has excellent high (or even extreme) shooting output or quality, frickin mecha crabs with uber-lasers or an absolutely loony amount of anti-air firepower (also very point-efficient), arguably the best cavalry (and also one of the best CC units) in the game, a bazillion repair rolls for everything and can also bring high numbers of awesome looking and very point effective 7 points per model infantry that doesn't really require any character buff support. Also best snipers in the game. Pretty slow because of a lack of transports, but almost everything except Dakka-Bots can move 6" and shoot without penalties. Also a gakton of truly unique units that have no equivalent in other armies.

They are a good army, even if half of Dakka will tell you they suck because they don't feature enough on the latest flavour of the month, WAAC uber-competitive tournament tables. They do benefit from some Imperial Guard ally support (and it's pretty fluffy too as Admech can take Enginseers as HQ that can repair IG vehicles as well), just don't be that guy who brings 2 bare-bones company commanders and 30 naked infantry, don't be one of those guys and do something creative with them. Ah yes, and they can also ally effectively with Custodes which you are also interested in.

And seriously, just google how they look. You need those guys. The Skitarii rangers and Dragoons particularly. And people will always be interested in playing you as Admech is a rather under-represented and highly unique army.

Best and cheapest start for them right now is two or three Start Collecting Skitarii boxes and particularly ebay is getting flooded by very cheap Skitarii ranger/vanguard kits thanks to Killteam, which means you can cheaply pick up a box of ten to check if you like building/painting Admech. Forgebane is also a good pick if you are still willing to try 'Crons, they really aren't as bad as people on dakka make them out to be (remember that discourse on Dakka dominated to a large degree by uber-competitive tournament play (way too much, IMO, it's a subset of the game that makes up only a minority of games played), where anything that isn't the latest super-strong flavor of the month shtick quickkly gets trashed.

The_Silent_Throne wrote:
Wow that was a quick response. In your personal opinion, what do you think is the most viable army?

Believe me, going that route is not the best thing to do. Especially if your currently super-strong army gets hit with the nerf-bat hard with a new Codex or rules update (something the current rules team has been proven to be quite willing to do in this edition) and suddenly ends up in the middle or bottom of the pack (former 5th Edition Grey Knight player saying hi).If you can't enjoy playing them despite that then you'll burn out on 40k or end up selling 'em on ebay.

In this edition, Imperial Guard and Eldar are pretty good (I happen to have those two) and the Orks (my third faction) are getting a new codex soon (maybe?).

None of those guys are on your list though.

I love the look of the Death Guard, but their recent models have been up-sized, so be careful if you pick up older models on ebay, as they might look tiny next to the new guys.

I hear Tau is good, maybe?

Don't forget some of the negative necron is from before they got their updated codex as they were one of the latter armies to get updated.

Also consider that there is the Forgebane boxed set which contains both Necron and Adeptus Mechanicus models so might be a neat way to get some good models for one army and a taste of the other.

Also don't forget that online there is a heavier bias toward the competitive end of the game and as such sometimes armies which are ok but not outstanding can get a bad reputation or be underrepresented (this can also happen if they have a poor spell and then get updated, but no one in the tournament scene uses them at present or very few people do).


Necrons also have some great models from Forgeworld (as, honestly, do most of the others).

One thought is that if you are new to the hobby then you might find Necrons easier to paint than some others; a good starting point before going for a faction like Ad-Mech which are graced with more fine detailed bodies (which is not to say that there are not great details on the Necrons, but that their asthetic and design is simpler)

The_Silent_Throne wrote:
Wow that was a quick response. In your personal opinion, what do you think is the most viable army?

I lose a lot of games so not the best person to ask that..

I like Orks (who lose more than most), have Imperial Guard from 5th edition and a fair few others

trick is to find one you enjoy the style of, forget "viable" if you hate the play style you'll not enjoy it.

find stuff you like the look of first, then you can be happy to paint without wanting to kill yourself

Hot damn that's a lotta useful info. Thank y'all for the help!

 Ragnar Blackmane wrote:
You can also jump on the Imperial Knight bandwagon with Mechanicum Knights but bandwagoning is boring.

Yeah, I first discovered the w40k universe after playing the Freeblade mobile game, so Imperial Knights are basically the first faction I ever saw. The thing about them is that apparently they die easily to focused fire, and I don't really like the idea of a fifth of my army getting blown off the table. As for Admech, I'm feeling a pure Mechanicus army with Mars as the Forge World.

Well if you don't want to play Space Marines or Death Guard, and I see DG isn't first on your list, then maybe skip all the starter kits!

You can get a Necron start collecting box and a codex for around $150 and that's a pretty good start. If you go down to your game store they should be able to teach you the basics. You can get a copy of the rules online, the core rules are only a few pages and the only thing missing from the rules included in the starter kits is the detachment system, which you don't technically need.

 pancakeonions wrote:
In this edition, Imperial Guard and Eldar are pretty good

Early on I was heavily considering Eldar, but after looking over their playstyle it seems that they require an experienced player to handle, one of my biggest peeves about what I know so far on the Eldar is that their units require precise placement. As for Imperial Guard, they are probably the army I've heard the most good about in 8th, but I really dislike their aesthetic and lore. Thank you for the input though!

Look at the armies you would be interested in and watch how they are played.

Then from there i would highly suggest getting the codex to see what models are what.

The start collecting set is great to start off as it gives you the essential stuff to start collecting an army at a pretty cheap price.

After that i would just suggest finding models that either fit your playstyle or models that you think look cool.

Dont rush into this game, as rushing will burn you out and leave you frustrated and regretful that you didn't think your army through.


other than that, i would reccomend you find people who play this game for fun, and not any tournament players at first. Otherwise you will get this Win at all cost (also known as WAAC) mentality that will not help you in the long run.


Remember, play to have fun. Not to win. And you'll love this game for years to come.

P.S, just because you dont like an army now, doesn't mean you won't like it in a few years time. People change and sometimes you start to find other armies you play against more interesting. If you can i would ask them if you can try out their army, dont be afraid to ask people if you can try them out. You just might like it and start collecting that army (Speaking from a SM player who turned to a Khorne daemons player)

Pick the army whose lore and look you like, by time you get a decent sized army assmbled and painted up for all you know the meta (and even the edition) will have changed. yesterday's super army could be tomorrow's dog.

While it's true that Necrons are one of the weakest armies in the game right now, I would harshly recommend against avoiding them because of that fact if you really find them appealing. By the time you have 2000 points painted and you're playing at a caliber that the meta matters, the meta will have changed. For all we know when Chapter Approved comes around in December they're going to do a harsh drop on all of the MEQ point values and suddenly Immortals are grossly undercosted and one of the best troops in the game. Is this likely? No, but ask the guys who were running razorwing flocks when 8th launched how quick balance changes can roll in and change what's good and what's not.

If you really love the look of Necrons, I say go for it. As a Necron player you've got essentially three starter sets to choose from: the old Start Collecting, the new Start Collecting, and Forgebane. Of the three I think Forgebane gives you the most immediately playable units. It'd also give you some AdMech to toy around with since you've expressed interest in that army as well.

Pick something you think you'll enjoy painting. I liked the look of Death Guard, bought Dark Imperium and then realised I don't really like painting them.

Mechanicus are a fun army all around for painting and playing. Necrons are super easy to paint if you want to go with a predominantly silver theme. I've painted up some of my necrons but never played them yet so can't comment on that.

Maybe try to get people into kill team if they aren't already. You only need a max of 20 dudes, so you'll get to see what it's like to paint each faction without too much investment. And it's not a waste if you decide you don't want to build a whole army of them, since you can always still play them in kill team.

If you build an army based on what's good now, you'll have to buy a new army with every edition.

Which is fine, if that's what you're into.

 Excommunicatus wrote:
If you build an army based on what's good now, you'll have to buy a new army with every edition.

Which is fine, if that's what you're into.

On the other hand investing a lot of time and money into something that is currently not strong will mean you potentially have a few years to wait before you start winning on the strength of the list (and even then it's down to luck if your faction gets buffed next edition).

How competitive is the environment you will be playing in / are you?

You poor soul, I'd escape while you still can.

But seriously, just pick the army you want. In casual most armies are pretty much the same... Just ignore what the nerds think and relax... if anyone says anything to you then just remember. You're not as much of a nerd as them. Then bring your girlfriend and kiss her in front of them... muahahaaa... it makes them super uncomfortable.

Haha. Have your significant other show up and fawn all over you while you play. Soak it up like it's totally normal behavior. That wouldn't be awkward at all!