Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So for the past four years, I've been battling it out with a Mech Tau army and have been fairly succesful with it. Built up a DE combat patrol too, but until the new codex comes out, they've pretty much been shelved for the meantime. Since 5th ed is almost upon us, I thought it would be a good time to start up a new army. Narrowing it down, I think I'm set on either Marines or Tyranids. Definitely want something a bit less 'shooty'.

Marines, I find the fluff very appealing. Noble, deadly super human warriors fighting for the good of the Imperium. Their playing style would certainly be different for me, not being quite as fragile as Tau, especially when they close in with the enemy. I would probably build an army around dreadnoughts, have at least three or so running around causing havoc. Marines also have the new codex coming out, which would be a huge plus in starting up. Major drawbacks are that Marines are the most common army out there, and I would probably be tempted into just making my Marines another 'shooty'-esque army.

Tyranids would be a huge stretch for me. I would be running a swarm type army with a bunch of gaunts and genestealers as I'm not really into the whole Nidzilla list. Tyranids would be something completely different, and it would force me to play an assault army pretty much. Drawbacks include starting a Nid army from scratch is probably going to be more expensive than Marines, but if I wanted a cheap hobby, probably wouldn't be into 40k in the first place .

Thanks for any help!

I like Tyranids, and find them to be easy to paint. This matters a good deal to me as it is the part I like least. Plus the "less shooty" thing lends itself well enough to the Tyranid plan.

shrug

With Marines I'd say force yourself not to do a shooty army. The way to do that is to choose a chapter that gets up close or at least plays different: Raven Guard, White Scars, Salamanders...ect.

Marines are fine, and the new book is sure to have some awesome stuff in it. But personally I would go with nids if anything just because marines are too common. Swarm lists are also a lot of fun to play, even though the movement phase lasts 12 hours.

I play my nids as a mixed bag, a couple good swarms, a couple good big things, and some more uncommon things like Biovores.

But either way, I would wait until at least you get your hands on the new rulebook so you can see how either army will be effected by the new rules. I think one yucky problem for nids will be the fact that you can't wipe a unit then assault another.. so after you wipe a unit you'll be stuck out in the open and shot to tiny bitz

+/- for both armies.

Marines:
+ New codex very soon
+ Great new models
+ Great new rules on the way
- Everyone has a SM list hanging around somewhere

Nids:
+ Can do hoard/ non-shooty like you want
+ Can adapt to zilla if you choose to later
- No known codex work
-/+ Many Nid armies out there, but many less than Marines

If you are that kind of guy that loves aliens or predator movies discovery channel, nasty bugs, and mother nature then go nids

Seriously Nids got to be the most fun race in GW, you can go swarmy, zilly, wingy, genesteally and convos potential its just huge.
ALso and since there are lots of plastics the batlle forces are pretty good deals money wise.

As for marines... mehhh boring but terminators are cool.

I keep meaning to do a 'nid army, but I don't have the commitment to do a proper 'horde' army as I want to, which explain's why I'm currently working on a rather diverse Daemon army at the mo

I suppose a good thing about Marines is how you can play a number of different styles of play with the different codices available, with largely the same models

If you want to have a really fun army that's also really difficult to play, try grey knights. I run a GM with 4 termies held to deep strike and 30 PAGKs in 3 land raiders. It's alot of fun to play, as each unit is capable of taking on anything, but at the same time, I have to be quite careful with movement and deployment.

Also, nids are great fun, east to paint, and the MCs are just plain cool... and if you ever get to apocalypse size, and endless swarm with flank march is possibly the scariest collection of basic troop units ever.

To a greater extent, it seems like nid models paint themselves, or better put, nid models lend themselves well to batch painting. Which is good, because you're going to paint a lot of them.

Nids are the anti-tau. Despite my own imperial leanings, I'd say go with the gribbley horde.