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.

Hey guys/gals!

New player interested in starting out in 40k, I have been playing WMH for a little while but to be honest I’m getting bored and my local meta has seen better days.

Hopefully some of you can give a little more information about different faction playsyles and what would best suit me than I’ve been able to find on Google/YouTube so far... I love some of the GW sculpts! I have a rough idea of most of the models/units that exist in the game due to always being a fan of the art style and playing a few GW related computer games, that being said rules wise I basically am completely new to the game, I know the answer to this age old question is usually “play what you like the look of” trouble is I like the look of a lot of things and don’t want to regret it if the play style doesn’t suit me.

So what do I like? I enjoy playing either the alpha strike type of factions, hit em hard and fast.. preferably in melee, I also enjoy the complete opposite to that in factions that can shrug off an alpha before destroying the enemy. Coming from WMH some sort of magic/psychic would be cool especially if they are buffs/debuffs..

The main thing I dislike at the moment is the faction transports, they just don’t inspire me at all, I’d rather not run a strictly gun line type of faction either.

Thanks for the help!

Hitting hard and fast with an Alpha Strike in Melee is the defacto tourney-level strategy of the Blood Angels and Chaos (of nearly all stripes). Chaos Daemons are a bit more fantasy genre, while Chaos Space Marines are more "evil space knights". Chaos Daemons don't mind losing their forces, as they have ways to replenish the ranks, or the forces that are left can pack a wallop, but they also have almost no ranged power at all, meaning that if they get into a bad position, they might be stuck there. Chaos Space Marines are a lot tougher, and have access to big guns too, though not often as big or as powerful as the loyalists. Both sides of Chaos can bring really big/mean beasties to the tables, with Greater Daemons for the Daemons, and a couple evil Primarchs for the Chaos Space Marine factions.

Blood Angels, meanwhile, are part of the "Good Guys" team. They're tough and have access to big guns, just like the Chaos Space Marines, but rely more on their frontline soldiers to get the job done, rather than individual heroes mopping things up. They can especially chew through horde armies with the Death Company.


Between everything you're saying though, I think Chaos Space Marines, particularly the Death Guard, are likely to be something you'd be interested in. The Death Guard can't hit quite as fast as some of the others I've mentioned here, but they are very resilient (in fact, they have an ability called DISGUSTINGLY Resilient), are very strong in close combat, and they have psychic powers and other abilities that debuff their opponents.

From what I hear, at least right now, Dark Angels are also a very good Alpha Strike army with buffs from Azrael and the such.

SG

Check out Chaos.

Probably the best faction in the game, in that they've been performing well for the entire edition, and it's not due to one super powerful unit, but a swath of good stuff that works very well together.

They have the best psychic disciplines in the game by a wide margin. Some of the stratagems are also the best in the game.

They have the best melee units in the game, also by a significant margin.

Their mobility is very, very good, considering any <faction> daemon can deep strike, alpha legion can forward deploy, and a lot of their stuff is just fast, made even faster with their best-in-the-game psychic power. Additionally, they have good screening units to protect your backline.

Shooting is solid too. You can get your hands on marine-equivalent shooting (hitting on 3+ base before rerolls and modifiers) but with better overall options (for example, Obliterators are one of the better shooting units available to anyone).

Why aren't they just crushing everyone?
-Dark Reapers are broken, Eldar are stomping everyone with them. We expect them to be toned down this month.
-Imperial Guard is the other "best-in-game" faction, and Relic of Lost Cadia gives them a big fat auto-win button against chaos lists. (It is NOT one use only, everyone)

I'm not an expert, in fact I'm completely clueless, but would Harlequins fit the bill of a hard-hitting melee army? As far as I'm aware, they're not considered to be very strong at the moment, but they look cool, have great lore, and are fun to play. You'd probably be the only person in your local club that plays them, as well, if that's important to you.

Someone will surely be along in a moment to say, "Harlequins? Are you insane?"

Speaking of Chaos, is there anything like the old 7th Edition Tetrad Formation?

SG

Harlequins? Are you insane?



Harlequins are very unique, but unfortunately don't have a large product line, so are a bit one-note at the moment. They are also VERY fragile, but they absolutely hit hard and nuts!

I did actually buy into a small blood angels force a little while ago but I never continued with my interest so definitely still an option, I also like the Ultra Marines, deathguard, Eldar and necrons.

My taste in them tends to be quite specific though and I’m not sure if it’s a viable way to play, what I mean by this is;

Blood angels
Love everything they have with jump packs and wings, from battle reports I have watched though it seems people would rather play without them and stick everything in transport?

Ultra Marines
Mainly just the new Primaris Marines but I don’t know wether they can be ran as a faction alone.

Deathguard
Love to looks of these guys apart from the pox walkers and I’m guessing they are quite a staple to the army, also I noticed again from watching reports that they are stupidly slow? More transport required?

Necrons
Probably the faction that hits the middle ground with me the most, while I dislike the monolith and the warriors are a bit plain there’s interesting stuff there, resurrecting robots sounds like fun.

Eldar
Again the bikes and wave thingys dont inspire me but the wraithguard and wraithlords are AWESOME!!! can this army be strictly composed of those more heavy models?

 Yarium wrote:
Harlequins? Are you insane?



Harlequins are very unique, but unfortunately don't have a large product line, so are a bit one-note at the moment. They are also VERY fragile, but they absolutely hit hard and nuts!

Good point about the model line, that is a bit of a problem. 2000pts is going to involve a lot of duplicates.

I wasn't making the suggestion as something that's going to pound everyone's faces, just something that would be fun to paint and field, and is a bit unusual. Also, as I mentioned, I'm completely clueless.

I don’t really understand the chaos, I see there are the deathguard, thousand sons and khrone?? Do these work as separate factions or all in the say army?

 Yarium wrote:
Hitting hard and fast with an Alpha Strike in Melee is the defacto tourney-level strategy of the Blood Angels and Chaos (of nearly all stripes). Chaos Daemons are a bit more fantasy genre, while Chaos Space Marines are more "evil space knights". Chaos Daemons don't mind losing their forces, as they have ways to replenish the ranks, or the forces that are left can pack a wallop, but they also have almost no ranged power at all, meaning that if they get into a bad position, they might be stuck there. Chaos Space Marines are a lot tougher, and have access to big guns too, though not often as big or as powerful as the loyalists. Both sides of Chaos can bring really big/mean beasties to the tables, with Greater Daemons for the Daemons, and a couple evil Primarchs for the Chaos Space Marine factions.

Blood Angels, meanwhile, are part of the "Good Guys" team. They're tough and have access to big guns, just like the Chaos Space Marines, but rely more on their frontline soldiers to get the job done, rather than individual heroes mopping things up. They can especially chew through horde armies with the Death Company.


Between everything you're saying though, I think Chaos Space Marines, particularly the Death Guard, are likely to be something you'd be interested in. The Death Guard can't hit quite as fast as some of the others I've mentioned here, but they are very resilient (in fact, they have an ability called DISGUSTINGLY Resilient), are very strong in close combat, and they have psychic powers and other abilities that debuff their opponents.

Spoiler:

Yes, DG are strong in CC... IF you reach it (and your dudes are equipped for it). Which is another matter altogether given their general slowness. I'm really having trouble getting the fast and slow DG units to work together as a coherent whole.

For the background try reading this:
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Chaos

You might also want to check out Tyranids, No transports to speak of, except the drop pod equivalent, but even then it looks like an organic ball.

They are very fast and and amazing in close combat. Genestealers are one of those units that have a strong alpha strike and some of their flying monsters can charge first turn as well.

In addition they have a good amount of psychic ability and can be played as a shooty army as well.

Also note that nothing in 40k is really that slow. The main question is whether you're in effective range turn 1 or turn 2, and Death Guard are a solid Turn 2 army. You don't need transports at all with them, as you'll be using Poxwalkers/Plague Marines to hold down back lines and make a barrier for some big guns, while your Primarch, teleporting Terminators, and lightning fast Foetid Bloat Drones are great for getting up and into your opponent's lines quickly.

I'd reccomend trying blood angels simply because the IoM is so large if it turns out the army isn't for you you can proably find something else that suits your play style and fold those blood angels in in a soup list so your money isn't wasted.

Another good chocie for a hard hitting assault army are Custodes. run a mix of bikes and allarus termies and you can wreck someone's day fast

If you don't like transport start collecting an ork horde. Boyz, stormboyz, kommandos, painboyz, weirdboyz, warboss, big meks with KFF and KMKs are the units you're looking for.

Lots of customization available, a possible melee alpha strike with teleporting boyz and kommandos, a possible pskyers spam thank to how cheap weirdboyz are.

And they're not even that common since not many new players start collecting them. They also don't have a codex so they'll probably be in a good spot by the time you assembled and painted a nice amount of orks.

really 8th edition is a good edition for transport haters.

Hard-hitting and with some psyker support? You could do worse than Harlequins. Most of thier stuff is buff/debuff. A wraith-heavy Eldar army is also viable, but it will likely be sloooow.

Chaos would give you the most variety in expanding your army or trying new units. They all can be mixed and matched relatively easily.

JackoG40 wrote:
I did actually buy into a small blood angels force a little while ago but I never continued with my interest so definitely still an option, I also like the Ultra Marines, deathguard, Eldar and necrons.

My taste in them tends to be quite specific though and I’m not sure if it’s a viable way to play, what I mean by this is;

Blood angels
Love everything they have with jump packs and wings, from battle reports I have watched though it seems people would rather play without them and stick everything in transport?

Jacko, the reason you see BA's in transports is because the faction is highly dependent on Stratagems to get their "good stuff" to work properly (or rather, reliably). To use stratagems, you need command points. To get command points, you need the detachments which (usually) require, high Troop choice investments. This means, for blood angels, getting upwards of 6 troop choices (scouts, tactical marines, or intercessors), who, by their equipment options, don't get access to jump packs in order to fill out the requirements for 2 battalions (or a brigade).

But, since those troop choices aren't necessarily slouches in combat, you want to get them someplace they can be effective, hence the transports.

You don't HAVE to play them that way though. 3 units of Scouts with combat blades, deployed forward, and 3 units of tacticals sitting on back lines with Lascannons is perfectly viable, and won't require any transports.

The great devourer is calling to you. Will you answer

You have some good criteria, but this will/should really come down to a straight fluff n'looks decision. Read up on the different factions, browse through the models catalogue, and pick your poison, or narrow it down to two or three. Then come back and the knowledgeable peeps on the board can give you a detailed for and against on the final options in terms of how they play.

Plus also, if you love the game you'll eventually end up with a second army anyway, so don't worry that your initial decision has to be right, and for all time.

Sounds like you'd enjoy playing Eldar. Craftworlds already have their codex, Dark Eldar have theirs coming probably in April, and Ynnari have like three models but they've got Index rules so they're good to go. Harlequins have a codex coming at some point, but we don't know the timing yet.

Eldar of all kinds are fast and deadly. They rely heavily on psychic powers, especially the buff/debuff variety. And they're often very deceptively tough, with units like Wave Serpents, Guardians, and flyers being much harder to kill than you'd expect at first.

If you like melee Eldar, you might particularly like the Harlequins and the Dark Eldar. They're both very quick and close ranged factions, and like I said, that Dark Eldar book is coming very soon (some people who've seen it seem impressed).

And the nicest thing about Eldar: they can all be included in a single list. Eldar detachments can ally with each other, and Ynnari detachments can pull units from all sorts of Eldar factions under good old Ynnari leadership.

Hey OP! What are your top 3 picks? Narrow it down a bit, and it would be much easier to make a suggestion.

With any important question in life the answer is in one way or another "Orks". If Orks is not the answer then the question must not of been a very good one.

Awesome responses guys thanks for the help!! I think I have managed to whittle it down to 3 factions.

Eldar, deathguard and space wolves.

Orks do have some cool stuff going on but I’d definitely rather run a smaller elite force than a horde.

Eldar are the strongest of the three by some distance. They are probably the strongest single army in the game (vs 'soup' lists where you mix, say, units with the 'chaos' keyword). What's more, they're always at a competitive level, in every edition, from what I've heard. Fast, deadly, hard to hit, and spoiled with psychic options.

Death Guard are GW's new poster boys... pustules... er, 'things'. They've had cool new sculpts thrown at them by the fistfull recently, so you have loads of amazing miniatures to choose from, and the ability to branch out into Nurgle Daemons or other Chaos forces later. Very specific playstyle, one of the most durable armies in the game.

Space Wolves are a great chapter, full of character and uniqueness. They've become more about 'wolves' and less about 'space vikings' recently, which is a shame, but they have some great options and no doubt their codex, when it arrives, will be a great one. They have some pretty great characters and close combat options.

Three good choices imo, you won't get bored with any of them. Do you want to play a weary, eclipsed, yet still utterly powerful alien race? Or the manifestation of the ruin of man? Or a group of lychanthrope outcasts who still cling to their duty? Is your soundtrack a beautiful but sad aria; deranged fairground music; or the skyrim soundtrack?

At the moment I think I am leaning slightly more towards the space wolves, they look super fun to paint aside from all those damn faces!! Argh!!

My next question is, how do army compositions work in this game? are there specific slots that must be filled by troops, heavy support, fast attack etc... mainly so I understand what to start buying into.

Lastly how do people tend to feel about conversions/proxies? In WMH they can be quite strict in a competitive scene. I’m asking because the ork flyer is (one of) my favourite looking models and it’d be sweet to paint/convert it for a faction like the space wolves

If you don't like faces SWs are the worst choice in that regard, as lots eschew helmets in order to get their snarl on!

Composition? You'll want 3 squads of troop choice and 2 HQs so you can field a batallion, for sure. you've got lots of flexibility from there. Youre best bet is going to archive trawl through the relevant tactica threads to get a feel for the best respective units. Download Battlescribe and play around with it, it's a bit unfriendly to look at to begin with, but you'll soon get the hang of it, and it's an amazing tool.


As for conversions, they're generally loved! But ork flyers as spacewolves is pretty far out there in terms of the fluff, I don't know about that one! I'd recommend keeping your powder dry and considering orcs as your second army, down the road, if you love the look of them so much...

Space Wolves are cool but I honestly have no idea how you'd perform a CC alpha strike with them unless you make your list very heavy on outflanking Wulfen, but maybe the codex will fix that. Pretty good possibility that it'll include the release of 40k Leman Russ as well (otherwise I have no idea why it's coming so much later than Dark and Blood Angels and because Chaos has 2 returned Primarchs now the Loyalists have to get a 2nd one as well), so that's cool too.

I think the Space Wolves are quite liberal as far as proxies/ conversions go because of their "feth standard Imperial doctrine" attitude (I'm planning to make my Imperial Knight and future 2 Knight Armigers into SW dreadnoughts for example. Basically they found them abandoned or wrecked somewhere, took them home and repaired and repurposed them), but putting a Wolf in a converted Ork flyer is probably going a tad bit too far.

I think you would really like blood angels.

All their infantry and dreadnoughts have the red thirst that give them +1 to wound in melee. They specialize in jump packs which gives them very good mobility and lets you place most of your guys in deepstrike They have a strategem for 2 command points that lets a jump pack unit charge 3d6 inches out of deep strike which gives you a really high chance of making the charge and another one for 1 cp that lets you take a jump pack unit off the board at the beginning of the movement phase and deepstrike again at the end of it, which is good for moving around characters or taking objectives. They also have some pretty decent psychic powers and can shoot about as well any other space marine chapter.