Please note, they want advice on starting the game and “don’t do it” isn’t the sort of thing they want to hear :-)

I agree with Talthar. Examine all the 40k armies carefully and seriously consider which one you’d like to play before purhasing anything. Warhammer (both 40k and Fantasy) armies require a fair amount of money and time to put together so you probably want to focus on a single army you’re really interested in to start with and aim to get it to 1500pts which is a fairly standard level of play for most people. 1500pts is enough to give you a good mix of units in your army, and still play an exciting game in 3-4 hours.

Imho good starting forces are the classic Spare Marines who are a nice mix of toughness and abilities. Another starting force that people seem to like is the Necrons for pretty much the same reasons. The Necrons are arguably tougher than Space Marines (similar stats lines, but different weapons and special rules) but they’re more expensive points wise so you’ll end up with a smaller force - which isn’t a bad thing from a painting perspective. Necrons are also the easiest army to paint quickly (base black, drybrush silver, paint their eyeballs).

I’d recommend avoiding the ‘horde’ armies (Imperial Guard and Orks) to start with unless they -really- appeal to you because there’s a heck of a lot of painting in those forces even for experienced players. I’d also suggest avoiding Dark Eldar as there seems to be fairly constant rumors that they’re going to be removed from 40k and they certainly seem to be getting the least support of all the 40k armies.

Eldar, Tau, Chaos, Tyranids - sure pick them if you fancy them but beware they can be a little trickier to play than others. I won’t mention any of the modern variant armies (Daemonhunters, Sisters of Battle, etc.) as I don’t have a lot of experience with them (I bowed out of 40k early 4th Edition days).

Another thing to watch for is the breakdown of your chosen army’s units into plastic and metal figures. Metal figures are considerably more expensive than plastic per individual figure. Again Space Marines and Necrons are fine choices here - particularly the Marines since they’re almost entirely plastic these days.

Have fun!

Biggest thing to look for in 40k is to decide what army appeals most to you. If you enjoy the army’s feel and appearance you’ll do alot better staying on target to get an army painted and playing. 5th edition looks to change alot of armies, so at most grab just those figures you would enjoy painting and leaving on a shelf if nothing else. If you want to be competitive in tournies then you will also want to see what other players tend to use, as some armies are alot less playable if other armies are not showing.

Basically wait till the 5th edition rules drop, the boxed set looks like it will be fantastic with tons of minis.

The 5th Edition starter box is rumoured to not have a complete version of the rules but only an abridged version.

Horde armies are definitely a chore in 40K as they have a lot of figs but you can always check out options for doing things like Cult of Speed armies or Guard Armoured formations.

40K currently has a Combat Patrol scenario that lets you play the game at 500pts but as mentioned it is a much different type of game than a full 1500 or 2000pt game.

Marines are a great choice for a starting army but if you haven’t picked up a boxed army I would also suggest waiting until the new 5th edition starter comes out as it will have some cheap minis as well as possibly some terrain elements or bits that you can’t find elsewhere much like the Battle of MacCragge starter did,

For the most part, everyone has great suggestions. When I got back in I bought 2 troops and an HQ. That’s 21 guys in my case for Chaos. It gives you enough to get rolling then you can add a squad or vehicle as you see your army needing it. It allows you to slowly build up your force. 6-700 points later and here I am.

First and foremost what army looks good to you or what army and their story really appeals to you, this should be the deciding factor. once you find this then play that army. However if any army will do and you want the most bang for your buck my suggestion is NECRONS. This army is easy to paint and a good hard fighting army and will be tough enough to forgive your inexperience on the tabletop.

Here is the break down
For $105 you get 1,000 points
Buy the battle force! That alone is more than 800 points.
(put only 3 scarabs per base not 4)
Next buy the Necron lord he is worth around 150 to 200 points
This combined give you;
1 HQ
2 TROOPS
2 FAST ATTACK
One fully legal army, all-plastic models (save one) so they are easy to build and won’t snap apart when dropped. (I drop my models A LOT, so this is a big factor for me)

THAT’S IT!!!! 2 items - 1 battle force box and 1 Necron lord blister! $105 bucks and usually you can find a local hobby store that will discount it, mine discounts it at 20% off. So that’s $84 bucks (plus tax) for a 1,000 point army.

To jump it to 1,500 points (a normal 40k sized game) just buy a warrior box ($35) and a Monolith ($55). This gives you four 10-man Necron warrior squads, 10 scarab swarms (good for killing small units or tanks if you give them disruption fields) plus a massive tank for some fun and destruction. All that for another $90 bucks, again if you shop around you have a 1,500 point army for under 2 hundred, not many other 40k armies can boast that ability.

As to painting them: go to Michaels and buy silver ‘Rub and Buff’ and use a makeup applicator (a small one used for eye shadow) and after priming the model black you just ‘paint’ the model and you are usually done in under 5 minutes per figure. And they look spectacular!! A fully painted army will take around a week, assembling, CLEANING THE MOLD LINES (a must) and then painting, given a couple of hours a day you’ll be done in a week. Best starter army in the game.

I would seriously advice you to try at least 5 games before buying anything if it’s the game you want and not just the pretty miniatures.

My experience is that it quickly becomes rather boring as the rules aren’t entirely great.

Definitely wait for 5th ed. Read as many codices as you can, especially if you can borrow them instead of buying. Battle boxes are a great way to start, as you save $15-20 on average. Other than that, figure out why you’re getting into the hobby. If you like modeling and painting you can buy whatever looks cool. If you want to build an effective force on a limited budget, then read the codex before you buy any models, plan out your force and buy accordingly.

Playing monolithic forces of 4 squads of tactical Marines, or 4 squads of Necron warriors,

I think that comment was specifically about Necrons where you don’t really have the wide variety you have for Tau, Chaos, Marines etc

Fifth, if after getting into playing 40K you discover with horror that despite having a reasonable bunch of gaming buddies, it is no fun, rest assured, there is nothing wrong with you. Pull the chute and game on with something else. ;-)

The game is a lot more fun if you find the right people to game with. 40K is rather notorious for being power-gamer friendly and so you can have games ruined by people that tweak lists simply to crush their opponent. I found the Tau very bad for this.

Get some friends who just want to play and enjoy themselves and you should be fine

hey

There was a discussion on Bartertown recently discussing the savings of the various battalion boxes. It starts out with Fantasy, then gets into 40K.

http://www.bartertown.com/trading/viewtopic.php?t=65102

B

I think one of the reasons that people are so found of RT and 2nd Edition is that there was no balance in the game nor any real effort to do so. It was a bunch of fun rules for a game that could be so wildly out of whack that it required a referee :-)

I agree with John that playing focused scenarios is a great way to make 40K more playable. This, IMO, holds for almost every game though and I am a big fan of scenario driven gaming.

I’m not really bitching. If I was bitching I’d offer theories on why GW did the 60% troop thing. ;-)

I’m really just saying that if you have a broad selection of units in your force it’s more fun.

In the last game of 40K I ever played, IIRC I was using a Space Marine army that had 2 Scout squads (one with teleport homer), 1 Command squad in rhino, 1 Terminator squad, 2 Dreads with assault cannon, 1 Vindicator, 1 Predator with autocannon and heavy bolters, 1 Whirlwind, one Attack bike with multimelta, one Bike squad and 1 Landspeeder Tornado. In other words, I used all 3 of my Fast Attack, Elite and Heavy support choices, and only 1 of my 2 Command and 2 of my 6 Troop choices. And I had far more fun in that game than in any 4 tac squad game I had played, and I played that kind of 60% Troops game a few times.

Kampfgruppe Cottrell: Right on man, Rogue Trader rocks!

Try before you buy! Current incarnations of 40k can get bland very quickly. I would suggest a smaller game with more variety in unit choices as well.

Oh and Zac, where`s the fun in a perfectly balanced game. You might as well put a mirror across half the table and play that way LOL!

Part of the fun is facing a tactical disadvantage and either forcing a draw or even pulling of a spectacular win, or even in a glorious last stand.

For a newbie not so much fun though.

But the golden rule is play LOTS before you buy and not just in the store, get a few real games in if you can. The bad thing about playing in store is some of the troglodytes that you will end up playing against.

Avoid munchkin power gamers at all costs!

SW

where`s the fun in a perfectly balanced game.

No such thing as “perfectly” balanced but if you are going to have a point system it would be nice if it was a bit more balanced :-)

Part of the fun is facing a tactical disadvantage and either forcing a draw or even pulling of a spectacular win, or even in a glorious last stand.

That is more a scenario based type of game though. For quick and dirty throw downs a point system helps.

Mind you I think GW should take a page from Darkson Designs and use their “no points” system of army design

Part of the fun of 40K is tweaking your list and giving your heroes cool weapons and seeing how it works. Not sure that this wouldn’t be possible with a point system like AE-WWII or even the reduced point values in SoTR.

The thread I linked to previously now has average point costs per battalion box for 40k.

http://www.bartertown.com/trading/viewtopic.php?t=65102

One question that just struck me: what is the age range and gaming experience of this anonymous reader? That could alter peoples’ recommendations.

I’ve just checked and the infantry Box sets they will release for apocalypse are 1500 point armies in a box… so that might be convenient to check too.

Andres

dont do it.

Perhaps you didn’t read the first comment?