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It’s been a hot minute since I posted on dakka forums, years. But after many years being out of the hobby, I thought I’d jump back on, because I need guidance.

I started with warhammer fantasy years ago, and eventually collected a bit of 40k. I never played, just painted models. Then, I was married and forgot about warhammer for 15 years. I am now in my 40’s and have folllowed 40k lore, video games etc for years. I’d love to get back into the game, but tbh, I have zero idea of what to collect and the idea of choosing an army to collect is…a lot.

If I was in my teens, I would have just went with whatever I felt looked cool/lore. Issue now is that because I’ve followed 40k for so long, I pretty much love all models and factions in their own way. But aside from watching some let’s play 40k videos, I have no idea what sort of play style I’d like, how in depth and complicated the rules are, etc.

I guess the real problem is that because I’m older, time is finite. The idea of collecting a force I think I’ll like the play style or custom rules of and then find out I hate it is an issue, since my time is so limited. But I also realize I could spend years deciding on the “perfect” army and still end up disappointed.

So, any great beginner armies you’d all suggest? As I said, i like them all in their own way, so im very open minded to a faction I can learn the game with without feeling overwhelmed.

I don’t mind horde armies at all. I like an army that can do a bit of everything, as I don’t like sitting turns out watching my opponent scoring objectives, killls, points whatever while I just wait because I have no shooting, psykers or whatever.

I tend to gravitate towards xenos factions the most, but I still like factions like black Templars and grey knights! My only reservation with playing space marines is that there’s so many of them….its nice to have some diversity!

Any suggestions would be great. Thank you all for your time!

Rule Number 1: Pick the army that appeals to you most.

Of course if they all appeal to you equally Rule Number 1 isn't particularly helpful.

I'm not sure there is a go to beginner army. They all have Stratagems, Enhancements, special rules, etc...to remember. I would suggest a low model count army but you say you don't mind hordes, so I'm a bit stumped really.

Have you looked at Adeptus Custodes? They weren't a thing when you last played. Might scratch the Space Marine itch but not the same kind of army.

You say you gravitate towards xenos armies. I'd suggest Tyranids, though more because I love them rather than because I think they're the right army for you.

El Torro wrote:
Rule Number 1: Pick the army that appeals to you most.

Of course if they all appeal to you equally Rule Number 1 isn't particularly helpful.

I'm not sure there is a go to beginner army. They all have Stratagems, Enhancements, special rules, etc...to remember. I would suggest a low model count army but you say you don't mind hordes, so I'm a bit stumped really.

Have you looked at Adeptus Custodes? They weren't a thing when you last played. Might scratch the Space Marine itch but not the same kind of army.

You say you gravitate towards xenos armies. I'd suggest Tyranids, though more because I love them rather than because I think they're the right army for you.

Thanks for the response! (Also, kinda crazy that you joined dakka exactly 1 day after I did,
Same month/year)


Yeah, I’m not opposed to horde armies at all. That said, I think for starting off, less models would be better in some ways…so I understand why you suggested custodes! That’s why I also felt grey knights weren’t too bad, just since they have lower model count.

I do like the tyranids a lot as well, if I’m being honest. I’m a big horror fan, especially cosmic horror/lovecraftian inspired stuff, so they really are right up my alley. I also like the eldritch/ancient horror element, so a force like necrons are also cool to me.

I know, I’m sort of all over the place. I think it illustrates my issue really. When you like it all, you can’t go wrong with whatever you pick, but also as a noob it’s hard to know what I’ll like. Wouldn’t be an issue if a person didn’t have to drop 800+ dollars to build a force!

Since you said you like all the armies in some way my advice will cost you a fair bit of time.

1st, list all of the forces you like.

2nd, now go through GWs site &, for each force on your list, write down all the units you like the look of.
Whichever force has the largest # of likes? Start with that one.

And by start? I mean read the RULES (both game & army) here online before you spend a dime.
If the forces rules don't suite you? Move on to the next entry on the list.
Once you find a combo of models + rules you like? Buy that one.

Ex:
Me - I like the AdMech models. But I haven't liked their rules in 8th/9th/10th. (Some have been worse than others) So no point in me buying AdMech.... :(

And yes, Marines are always a decent default intro point.

First off, welcome back.

What I would do if I were in your shoes is start with Kill Team. That allows you to invest in a single box of minis for a faction you think you'll like, and get playing.

Once you feel like you've played and learned a bit, you can either buy a Combat Patrol box or another Kill Team that can join up with team you've already got to form a small army- if you go with this option, you'll also need a Leader model.

This approach will leave you with multiple Kill Teams you can play, and allow you to combine them to play 40k, and you don't have to invest a bucket of painting time before you can get playing.

In 40k, Combat Patrol is one of the small format games- each CP box is designed to be a full army and the rules are very specific to the CP game mode with no variation, which is supposed to help balance such small games.

Another small format is Boarding Actions, but you're going to need interior maze like terrain for that, and the missions are designed to use the specific Boarding Action terrain... Though if you're poor or cheap, you can approximate these with foam core or corrugated cardboard.

Once you have more than 50 point, you can use the regular 40k rules.

Check out the downloads on the Warhammer Community website for the core rules and the point list, and there's still quite a few free detachments there too.

You can find a bunch of free Kill Team downloads there too.

Suggest killteams/Combat patrol's cause you can quickly painting them and just play if you want. Don't like? Try other team. Once you find guys you like move to CP or boarding actions, and then to big 40k

Necrons or Custodes. Tough elite armies with newer model refreshes. Custodes are expensive points-wise and Necrons have had a lot of cheaper big sets recently so putting together an army should be cheaper than most alternatives as well.

I'm less wild about suggesting Kill Team these days as its far more its own game than it used to be. Combat Patrol is definitely more what I would recommend if you want to play 40k.

Definitely pick models you want to spend time and money on. GW is a lot better these days about keeping things actively viable and while far from perfect, there's a lot more room to grow as a player and unless your goal is to take down the Las Vegas Open, your best option by far is to focus on making the most out of the toys you want to play.

If you really want to see how an army plays before buying it, you could always try out tabletop simulator, there’s ways to play 40k on it and just try out every army. If you don’t like digital because let’s be real, using a mouse and keyboard is more clunky than moving real minis and dice, you can do the poorhammer solution and print the minis on paper and put them on stands. Use cardboard for terrain if you need it. As long as they’re the right size, you’ll be alright.

Another vote for the Necrons. I've been playing them somewhat at the end of 9th and all of 10th. They're easy to learn, easy to paint, have very clear lines between what you should use as a dps and what for accomplishing secondaries (try figuring this out when looking at GSC fro example). They have clearly defined detachments and utility value units, arks and the king's shooting hit like a ton of bricks and there aren't many things that can withstand the nightbringer or a skorpek destroyer charge. All of this on top of the stupid things like running multiple heroes alone and unkillable warrior conga lines... They've been treated very well in 9th and 10th and I bet they'll be doing pretty well in 11th aswell.

Yeah, it can take a long time to find the right army through experimentation alone. I've been playing since 3rd edition and have collected most of the armies, and while their all fun, I didn't perfectly click with one until I took up Kroot in 8th (back when they were still a meme army) and they have been my main army ever since.

The upside to this is that if you find all of the Xenos armies interesting, I'll toss out some pros and cons for each and maybe that'll spark something for you:

Aeldari:
Pros: Lots of varying units and playstyles between Wraiths, Exarchs, Bikes/Recon, Tanks. They lend themselves to bright and creative colour schemes while can enable you to get super creative with them aesthetically.
Cons: Most of the army are specialist glass cannons, they are great at what they do, but they die very easily, and you don't have many of them. Playing them well requires a higher skill cap than most armies in the game, not exactly new player friendly.

Drukhari: One of the few armies I don't own and rarely play against, but most of the above applies here too.

Genestealer Cults:
Pros: Unique playstyle and cool lore. Very character heavy if that is your thing.
Cons: Low model variation. Low points and high model complexity takes a long time to paint and a lot of money to get enough models. Lack of big units makes dealing with certain armour/monster heavy lists a challenge. Another one with a higher than average skill requirement to do well with.

Leagues of Votann:
Pros: Brand new range, all the models look great. 2nd wave will be out soon to flesh out their roster. Smaller models reduce paint time a little.
Cons: Not much lore for them yet. Doesn't seem like there's a lot of flexibility in the playstyle, the army kinda does the same thing all the time (Votann players please correct me if I'm wrong, I don't get to play against them too much, but this has been my impression of them.)

Necrons:
Pros: Warrior kit is very cheap on the secondary market, easy to get some build infantry on the cheap. Large model range with varying styles and patters of play from shooting to melee, to board control, to monsters and/or vehicles. Army is reasonably durable, hard to get tabled. While there are certain advanced tricks to the army, the basics are easy to grasp. New lore/books have been great reads.
Cons: Painting them can feel very samey after a while, even between different unit types. A couple units are still pretty old, and some of the newer ones are monopose push fit models. Not a lot of possibility / flexibility.

Orks:
Pros: Be strong and hit stuff, pretty simple army to grasp. XD Calling the WAAAGH! and throwing a tide of bodies at someone is both fun and surprisingly strategic in when to do it.
Cons: Shooting can be pretty frustrating to newer players though as most hit of 5's unbuffed. Lots of space for kitbashing. Their aesthetic and goofyness isn't' for everyone.

Ta'u:
Pros: Sleek designs make them pretty easy to paint. You get to play as "the good guys". Kits like the Crisis Suits are crazy posable. GW has been pushing more auxiliaries lately and diversifying the army beyond just "the shooting army." Essentially 2 armies in one as Kroot play wildly different from Ta'u on their own, but can be mixed together as well. Can feel like a jack of all trades army when all the pieces come together.
Cons: Living only in the shooting phase as full Ta'u doesn't really give you the whole game experience. Full Kroot is super expensive to collect due to their very low points cost. Not everyone is into the army's aesthetic.

Tyranids:
Pros: Huge variety of units, and lots of cool ways to paint them. Most kits are pretty posabile / customizable. Lots of different playstyles on the table.
Cons: Can take a bit to get used to painting organic models if you're a perfectionist. Unless you're going monster heavy, you will have quite a lot of models on the table.

Overall, I think I'd break it down like this.

Most New Player Friendly (Low Complexity):
Necrons / Tyranids

Moderate Complexity:
Votann / Orks / Tau

High Complexity:
Aeldari / Drukhair / Genestealer Cults

Wow, thanks all for the replies!

There’s a ton of good advice in here. It’s been great reading it all, and I’ve got a few ideas of how to go forward for myself.

I think kill team is a neat idea, at least for trying out some factions on a very small scale to see how they operate. Granted, I don’t know a soul who plays, and my local GW don’t run kill teams on the days I’m off work, so it could be challenging to even find someone to play with.

However, I have narrowed down my interest to Nids and Crons. Both have always stood out to me in the own ways, so at least I have it narrowed down.

From what you’ve all said, Necrons sound like the easiest faction to start with from a difficulty to learn perspective, and even on the hobby side of collecting/painting.

That said, ever since I was a kid I’ve loved ants, bees, anything that operates under a hive mentality. I also have a passion for horror/lovecraftian cosmic horror, so it sort of doubles down on the things I’m passionate about. Sounds like a bit more finesse with them due to things like Synapse ranges and being a bit more careful with your big bugs, but that’s a good challenge for a new player!

I’ll pick one of them, but leaning towards nids for sure. Thanks all!

Nids seems to perk you up the most. I would definitely lean that way, particularly since there's a lot of easy to pick up starter points for them with them being the starter products this edition.

 LunarSol wrote:
Nids seems to perk you up the most. I would definitely lean that way, particularly since there's a lot of easy to pick up starter points for them with them being the starter products this edition.

Yeah, if you're going Tyranids, LunarSol's right on the money. Picking up the starter set will give you both a small Tyranid army and a small Space Marine army, plus all the rules and some terrain for essentially what you'd pay for the Tyranid Combat Patrol which is essentially all the same models anyway. Then you've got a good army to start practicing with and a spare army for people to play with you if you just want to have a friend over for a board game evening or something.

Tyranids were the antagonist in the starter box for 10th Edition and it was Necrons in 9th. So either way I think you're on to a winner, in terms of a faction that has had a lot of new releases in recent years.

 Gorgarak wrote:
It’s been a hot minute since I posted on dakka forums, years. But after many years being out of the hobby, I thought I’d jump back on, because I need guidance.

I started with warhammer fantasy years ago, and eventually collected a bit of 40k. I never played, just painted models. Then, I was married and forgot about warhammer for 15 years. I am now in my 40’s and have folllowed 40k lore, video games etc for years. I’d love to get back into the game, but tbh, I have zero idea of what to collect and the idea of choosing an army to collect is…a lot.

If I was in my teens, I would have just went with whatever I felt looked cool/lore. Issue now is that because I’ve followed 40k for so long, I pretty much love all models and factions in their own way. But aside from watching some let’s play 40k videos, I have no idea what sort of play style I’d like, how in depth and complicated the rules are, etc.

I guess the real problem is that because I’m older, time is finite. The idea of collecting a force I think I’ll like the play style or custom rules of and then find out I hate it is an issue, since my time is so limited. But I also realize I could spend years deciding on the “perfect” army and still end up disappointed.

So, any great beginner armies you’d all suggest? As I said, i like them all in their own way, so im very open minded to a faction I can learn the game with without feeling overwhelmed.

I don’t mind horde armies at all. I like an army that can do a bit of everything, as I don’t like sitting turns out watching my opponent scoring objectives, killls, points whatever while I just wait because I have no shooting, psykers or whatever.

I tend to gravitate towards xenos factions the most, but I still like factions like black Templars and grey knights! My only reservation with playing space marines is that there’s so many of them….its nice to have some diversity!

Any suggestions would be great. Thank you all for your time!

Pick two. Especially if you can pick two different ones. Its not a perfect guarantee as I found out with my Fantasy armies as part of the switch to Sigmar. But generally if your army isn't goo this edition, you;ve got pretty good chances for the next edition. So pick two you like, and play the one that isn't getting spanked in the current edition.

By the way Fantasy is (coming) back - its called the Old World now.

You may also enjoy Kill Team is you're time limited.