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Hey everyone!

About 20 years ago I bowed out of 40k, before outright selling everything I had about 8 years ago (2k apiece of UM, IW, IG, Orks, WE).

Since then I've toyed with the idea of picking it back up and am getting the urge really strongly now. I popped into a store with my daughter a few months ago as they were running a free model competition. Decided to get some cheap kids acrylics out just to see how it felt and wow, really enjoyed painting up that Primaris marine!

I'm looking to put together a 1k force and see how it goes - I love the look of the Drukhari but can see they are pretty good at the moment and the last thing I want is to be TFG and rock up with an overpowered faction. I want to go down the personalised route as the narrative for me was always the driving force. I'm open to ideas but probably NOT Chaos, Necrons or Tyranids.

I'm not too bothered about being competitive but ideally something enjoyable to paint and affordable would be perfect. Any ideas?

FYI - riffs on ideas are a 'Shadow Legion' for an Imperial force or a pirate type force for Orks or Drukhari...I'd love to experiment with greys or purples as well if that helps stimulate anyone's creative juices...

Thanks in advance!

I recommend starting with a 25 PL force. If you're new to the edition, PL = Power Level; it is an alternative to building an army with points. The reason I like PL is that equipment costs are baked into the basic PL cost of the unit, so you can build an army list in minutes. 25 PL is roughly 500 points.

Instead of a single force organization chart, units are now organized into detachments. At 25 PL, you can only take a single detachment and it must be a patrol detachment. GW has started making "Combat Patrol" boxes, which are supposed to be really, really close to 25 PL. Starting with one of these boxes will ensure that you are not TFG, and it should be everything you need to get an army on the table and play.

I've made all of these suggestions because you said you are interested in narrative.

If you are interested in playing competitively in events, ignore everything I have said- it is a very bad way to start a competitive army. The trend in competitive is a) there are only missions for 1000 and 2000 point games, with the latter being the gold standard b) competitive games pretty much MUST use points, so you spend as much time agonizing about the cost/ benefits/ efficiency for each unit in your army as you do actually playing the game and c) GW very regularly updates things in the competitive mode of game play- everything from points to unit rules to core game mechanics, and keeping up can be challenging.

It's also worth mentioning that even if you don't intend to play in events, but your primary play mode is pick-up games in stores, the 2k Competitive Mode is the default for most pick-up games, so you'll likely be forced by your environment to min/ max and math hammer every single piece of equipment in your list, and you'll have to keep up with all the errata/ updates.

Fortunately, there are other ways to play the game, but because 2K Matched is the standard for pickup games, it's harder to find people if you want to play other types of game.

My favourite mode is called Crusade. It is designed to be narrative, so it has many, many more missions tha competitive or Matched play, including missions for 25PL and 150PL games (500 and 3000 points). Some of these are asymmetrical, or they involve more special rules, and some are even designed for 3 players. This isn't possible in Matched play with its competitive focus, where the need for balance means many missions feel very similar. Crusade also includes a progression system, so units earn experience and "Level-Up," gaining skills or specialized gear as they grow over time. Each dex also adds additional faction-specific content; it obviously doesn't cover every possible story-line that a faction may wish to pursue, so there are people who find it limiting, but it will provide a handful of short and long term goals that allow you to explore the themes and events that are most commonly associated with your faction.

The Crusade progression system also incorporates standardized rules for escalation; these allow you to control the pace at which your army grows. If you funnel the resources you earn by playing into increasing your army size, you can grow it really fast. But if you use those resources to advance your army's short and long term goals, your army may grow slowly, but it might acquire additional gear, skills or territory which confers tactical or strategic advantages.

There is a lot of disillusionment with the game right now, particularly on Dakka, but a lot of that discontent is with issues that are specific to Matched play. While not all Crusade or Open players are 100% happy with the state of the game, but we do tend to have far fewer complaints.

I personally love the Crusade mode of 9th edition- I try to avoid matched play as much as I can. And I also think that for the casual garage-hammer player, the game has never been quite so easy to ease into. The Open play mode gives you a streamlined version of the game that's a great way to learn. Once you've got it figured out, you can move into Crusade or Matched based on your preferences.

I might also suggest Kill Team as a way to ease into the game- this will pit one unit vs. one unit in a game that is designed to be played at a faster pace. All KT models are compatible with 40k, so you can get playing with a single squad right away, and then step up to a 25PL Crusade as soon as you have painted enough models to do it.

I find that being able to use models in both 40k and KT effectively doubles the value of the product, and it improves your odds of having the right game to suit every mood. Sometimes you want short, fast-paced alternate activations, and other times you might want a 3000 point battle royale or a narrative campaign.

The last thing a returning player should do is build a list with PL. Don't listen to the above poster.

Don't be afraid to use your Dark Eldar. They've gotten some nerfs.

If you are playing garage hammer with friends, PL is way more fun than points.

If you're playing competitive in stores or at tournaments, I myself advised you not to use PL.

If the above poster actually read my post, he would have seen that I already gave you that advice myself.

He also would have realized that you don't actually have a Dark Eldar army yet, so he didn't really read your post either.

He is also one of the people who thinks that 2k matched is the only thing that matters, since it's the only thing that matters to him.

Like I said, this is common on Dakka, and if you only play in stores, it will be common there too.

My original post was written with the assumption that you might be playing at home with a group of friends, and my advice is certainly more suitable to that style of play.

 ComeFindMe wrote:
Hey everyone!

About 20 years ago I bowed out of 40k, before outright selling everything I had about 8 years ago (2k apiece of UM, IW, IG, Orks, WE).

Since then I've toyed with the idea of picking it back up and am getting the urge really strongly now. I popped into a store with my daughter a few months ago as they were running a free model competition. Decided to get some cheap kids acrylics out just to see how it felt and wow, really enjoyed painting up that Primaris marine!

I'm looking to put together a 1k force and see how it goes - I love the look of the Drukhari but can see they are pretty good at the moment and the last thing I want is to be TFG and rock up with an overpowered faction. I want to go down the personalised route as the narrative for me was always the driving force. I'm open to ideas but probably NOT Chaos, Necrons or Tyranids.

I'm not too bothered about being competitive but ideally something enjoyable to paint and affordable would be perfect. Any ideas?

FYI - riffs on ideas are a 'Shadow Legion' for an Imperial force or a pirate type force for Orks or Drukhari...I'd love to experiment with greys or purples as well if that helps stimulate anyone's creative juices...

Thanks in advance!

40k has gained a great array of new models across all of the factions these past 20 years. Don't worry about Drukhari/Dark Eldar, they aren't broken or anything.

My recommendation is pick what seems cool to you. Pirate or shadowy themed background could be fun, whichever faction you pick.

 ph34r wrote:
My recommendation is pick what seems cool to you.

Agree with this 100%. We can't really tell you which is the best faction for you, a lot of the choice comes down to the models you like the look of the most.

You mention you want to go with an affordable army. Affordability is certainly an important factor (this game is expensive regardless of how you slice the cake. Some things haven't changed in the last couple of decades), though I would say that you should still choose the army that appeals to you most. If they're an expensive army to get to 2,000 points (or whatever points limit you want) it may take a bit longer for you to build your force. It'll be worth it though if you're going with the army that you actually want as opposed to the more budget option.

You seem to have already narrowed your choice down to an Imperial force, Orks or Drukhari. Of course there are many ways to build an Imperium army, about half the factions in the game are Imperium. Of the armies you've narrowed it down to what appeals to you about them? This might help us tailor some advice, rather than just saying "Build the army that appeals to you most".

You also mention that you're not looking to be competitive. This is good. Chasing the meta has never made a lot of sense in 40K. Even less so these days with the very frequent updates that GW release. You might find that this month's king is next month's pauper, or vice versa.

Hi all,

Thanks for the responses, much appreciated. I think it’ll be Drukhari, am just pricing things up and will likely be making a trip to the local store as they sell second hand minis.

I intend to grab what I want to be the basics - via second hand models or combat patrol - and take it from there!

It’ll be good to try a completely new army. I used to favour shooty forces, I like the idea of a fast but fragile force

Get an airbrush