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Hey all,

I have played fantasy and now AoS in the past but while I am waiting for the armies to all update on that side of things I was looking at branching out into 40K.

My problem right now is that I realy like the look and feel of 3 different armies. Deathwatch, Skitarii/AdMech, and Blood angels. I need help deciding so any input or pushing more experienced players can give me is very welcome!

I was also looking into making a kill team army out of what I choose but since none of the armies are represented in the base box it seems to make little sense in buying the boxed game.

Thanks in Advance!

40k is a very expensive hobby to be doing whilst you're waiting for an AoS update.

But if you're set on branching into 40k then we need something from you first in order to help you pick the right army, tell us a bit about yourself: what armies do you play in AoS, do you prefer the shooty or stabby tactics, do you want to win all your games or do you not mind not being competitive, etc.?

Once you've told us a bit about you we can tell you which army is most like you.

Firstly, welcome to dakka!

After echoing the above,

Sktarii admech are the most powerful out of those three, and the shootiest. They are very shooting, and have a few good assault units. Like the Deathwatch, these guys are very flexible, and are also very good at shooting. The skitarii are actually pretty fast, but the Admech are slow. These guys are good all-rounders, and if you like to win, they are your go to.

Blood angels are a fast, assault-ey army that hits hard, but isn't too good at long range shooting. They are a good difference between Deathwatch and Skitarii, all three armies dominate the midfield, but Blood Angels put a lot of damage out via assault and close combat. If you like close combat, go to these guys.

Deathwatch are a glass hammer, they hit like a ton of bricks and specialize in killing whatever units you need them to kill. They are adaptable, but they are elite, and they die after a while. They are probably the most difficult to play out of the three, but are brutal when mastered. My personal favorite

The Blood angels and Admech/Skitarii are flexible and you can build an army based off of a lot of different options with them, but the Deathwatch almost have to be played as a glass cannon elite army. Keep that in mind as normally I would say that in a casual setting, you can build tons of armies with different specialties, but Deathwatch are stuck in one spot.

 mrhappyface wrote:
40k is a very expensive hobby to be doing whilst you're waiting for an AoS update.

But if you're set on branching into 40k then we need something from you first in order to help you pick the right army, tell us a bit about yourself: what armies do you play in AoS, do you prefer the shooty or stabby tactics, do you want to win all your games or do you not mind not being competitive, etc.?

Once you've told us a bit about you we can tell you which army is most like you.

So I play mostly what used to be dark elves which is a fast and shooty army and I am comfortable with that. I was hoping to branch into something a little different either aesthetically or play style wise and these are the armies that caught my eye. This is something that will be a diversion for now but as I grow my army more I will probably split my time between both AoS and 40K. Usually I like to be competitive so I want an army that can hold its own. I think I want to switch to a more assault based army but completely giving up my shooting and tactical mobility are something I am wary of.

I hope this helps initially I wont spend tons of money but with Christmas on the way and some good bundles that I see it looks like I can get a fairly simple entry.

Anything else I can tell you?

You really could make your own chapter color scheme and run them as any marine army you want just using the rules from deathwatch or blood Angels. Heck you could just go with blood Angels and use deathwatch rules of you play in more casual and easy going places. That way you can do play a variety of armies for a better $ value.

How important is the fluff to you, have you dug into it much? They all have cool stories but Admech/Skitarii stands further apart from the other two..more alien in feel, Another possibility is to use units you like from each to some extent you could build an assault powerhouse with BA and ally in some Admech for backfield support. Aesthetically, I'm guessing you like the red and black? It looks amazing on the battlefireld and BA will give you both those schemes with the death companies. You can't really go wrong here, they're all great armies...some just take a bit more finess.

Wow. You picked three very hard armies to recommend to a new player. If you're even somewhat handy with a brush, I say go admech and snag their starter box. The other two marine chapters can be kinda unwieldy. The BA are good in assault, which is not something you can easily get into at current, and deathwatch has a low model count and will get blasted pretty hard if you slip up. Their models are also expensive. For just a bit more than a 10 man deathwatch kill team you can get the starter box for Skitarii. I gotta lean toward the men of mars, as I love their weird tech and their lower entry price. Just do some research and see if you like their somewhat odd playstyle. They shoot a lot of strange weaponry.

Oh, and the cult mechanicus book lets you take some very exotic close range units. They're a good opportunity for modeling and painting, but they're not the most sound units on the battlefield. Think of it as an expansion book if you're REALLY into the admech.

 Rakar wrote:
How important is the fluff to you, have you dug into it much? They all have cool stories but Admech/Skitarii stands further apart from the other two..more alien in feel, Another possibility is to use units you like from each to some extent you could build an assault powerhouse with BA and ally in some Admech for backfield support. Aesthetically, I'm guessing you like the red and black? It looks amazing on the battlefireld and BA will give you both those schemes with the death companies. You can't really go wrong here, they're all great armies...some just take a bit more finess.

I haven't had a chance to look into the fluff yet but more alien in feel sounds good to me. I don't fully understand the allying system in 40K as far as detachments go. Fluff/ gameplay wisew would it be somewhat normal for either of the space marine based armies to be allied into a full AdMech army?

I haven't had a chance to look into the fluff yet but more alien in feel sounds good to me. I don't fully understand the allying system in 40K as far as detachments go. Fluff/ gameplay wisew would it be somewhat normal for either of the space marine based armies to be allied into a full AdMech army?

They all have pretty great fluff. BA are kinda vampiric space marines, DW are highly elite alien hunting space marines from various chapters, and then admech gets into a sort of archaic techno-worship. They have a different religion than the rest of the Imperium. On their own, they can be tough armies to run, but they aren't broken like some poor armies. You'll just have to get a feel. Fluff-wise they are all Imperium so they make sense as allies and count as battle-brothers on the ally matrix. You could stay battle-forged by the rulebook with a minimum of 1HQ/2Troops from your main army and 1HQ/1Troops from the allied. You would then have a bunch of flexibilty to add more of any troop type to either or new detachments of either if you run out of slots. Technically, I believe you could use all 3 armies at once, but I'd have to double check that. I believe the only restriction is that each unit must be a part of a detachment. You'll have to see what command and detachment benefits you want and how that may restrict your options. You could also use an unbound army, which is basically whatever the hell you want. You choose a warlord and only his faction benefits from his bonuses, though you may use any factions models...this tends to be a lot less fluff-compliant though.

 Rakar wrote:

I haven't had a chance to look into the fluff yet but more alien in feel sounds good to me. I don't fully understand the allying system in 40K as far as detachments go. Fluff/ gameplay wisew would it be somewhat normal for either of the space marine based armies to be allied into a full AdMech army?

They all have pretty great fluff. BA are kinda vampiric space marines, DW are highly elite alien hunting space marines from various chapters, and then admech gets into a sort of archaic techno-worship. They have a different religion than the rest of the Imperium. On their own, they can be tough armies to run, but they aren't broken like some poor armies. You'll just have to get a feel. Fluff-wise they are all Imperium so they make sense as allies and count as battle-brothers on the ally matrix. You could stay battle-forged by the rulebook with a minimum of 1HQ/2Troops from your main army and 1HQ/1Troops from the allied. You would then have a bunch of flexibilty to add more of any troop type to either or new detachments of either if you run out of slots. Technically, I believe you could use all 3 armies at once, but I'd have to double check that. I believe the only restriction is that each unit must be a part of a detachment. You'll have to see what command and detachment benefits you want and how that may restrict your options. You could also use an unbound army, which is basically whatever the hell you want. You choose a warlord and only his faction benefits from his bonuses, though you may use any factions models...this tends to be a lot less fluff-compliant though.

This was really helpful thank you! I think my plan is to buy Kill team for the rules and turn the Marines into blood angels. From there I will probably build an AdMech army and have fun with it from there.

No problem, I'm very glad I was helpful. I think you have a good plan. Feel free to PM me if you any more questions and I'll do my best to help.

Check out the "Get Started" bundles. All factions have them, and they are a great starting point (on a $ perspective). They will be releasing new bundles for Xmas for DW and AdMech, both of which will be at a huge discount vs buying individually. The units included are all good/great, so will actually have use in a (semi) competitive army. BA dont have this yet unfortunately (and are by far the weakest of the group)