Warhammer 40k. Help a beginner.

[Vortigar]

I find it difficult to advise people on this. Personally I'd say to only get into this if there's already a community playing these games around. But then, I figured the game out with a friend as well and later discovered there was indeed a group of players close by.

My main advice would be to not buy too much at first. Slowly build stuff up and play more than buy at the start. Make sure to play games with small formations to get used to it and try not to fall under the 'oh, this unit is cool too!' spell that GW casts with great precision and prodigious skill.

Aside:
I'd go against Elhueno and say you'd specifically NOT play space marines. Everybody plays with those boring buggers. If you play 40K for a longer period of time you get incredibly bored with all the 3+ save 4 toughness guys arrayed against you (space marines (90% of all players play them, and they do it boringly), chaos space marines (a little more exciting), necron (uber-boring to play against)). But if you just want to play it with a few friends this point is moot. ^_^

 

[Warrior Irme]

Buy a few books and play a few games at a local store (or with friends if they play) before you commit.

No store nearby for me to try things out at. I am hoping I can convince one of my friends to start with me, though without a store nearby that would sell I will most likely need to commit and order online, at least enough to get a game or two going.

Genuinely, if you don't have a network to play it with, don't bother. Unless you particularly like the models and painting, in which case do that.

It's a great hobby but only (in my opinion) if you have people to play it with. Otherwise it's just expensive toy collecting!

I know a couple of people that have the game and said they would get back into it when I started. I have a feeling that it will boil down to a small group playing but that's fine with me.

 

[Kais86]

Buy the Battle for Black Reach box set, it's 60$ comes with Orks, Space Marines and everything you will need except the army books, or as GW likes to call them "Codex" all of the models in this are basically snap together but you might want to get some super glue. You can also sell the models off if you don't want to play Orks or Space Marines (although both are good starting armies, as Orks don't need tactics to be successful, and Space Marines are forgiving.).

When you decide on what army you want to run, you should start with their Codex and work your way from there.

 

[CakeDragon]

I started collecting Tyranids a few years ago, but had to stop cos
a) I couldn't afford it and
b) there wasn't anyone for me to play with.
It was a biiig mistake to spend a lot of money on an army what is now underneath my bed, semi-completed.

If you go into a Games Workshop and ask them to show you a game, you'll be able to decide whether or not you want to play. That's what I did, it's just a shame I had to stop collecting. It's best to get a good feel of the game and decide whether or not you like it.

I did buy a Carnifex though - bext £25 I ever spent.

 

[grinklehi]

I have always thought that the best way for a young Tactician to learn is to make mistakes. For that reason, I have always suggested when asked about a starter army to pick Orks or Tyranids, as there is a smaller army percentage lost when you screw up. The "nids and da Green Tide, while maybe a little more expensive due to the need for more miniatures then, say, Necrons or Space Marines, have larger armies with which to screw up with and learn from, and besides, Orks are just downright fun to play.

So, to recap, pick larger armies where the margin for error is less then the others, and the two main spammy armies are the Tyranids and the Orks.

 

[Aedwynn]

Pick the army you like the look of best, at first. You can develop a play style later. The first thing you'll want is the races codex and the rulebook. Don't buy anything else until you've given it a good read-through.

After that, just buy a couple of boxes of basic infantry and a commander model. Paint 'em up and try and play a game with 'em. Then add from there. Resist the temptation to splurge and buy a load of models of an army you don't know about.

Or convince a friend to go halfsies on the starter set. The 40k starter set is really good value, and if you buy with a mate you get the rulebook and a decent small army each.

Sounds good to me. Any particular website I should be looking at for the starter set cheap?

A website that should help ya! ;-)

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?categoryId=cat210004&aId=9300005

and

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1570027&rootCatGameStyle=

 

[Warrior Irme]

Pick the army you like the look of best, at first. You can develop a play style later. The first thing you'll want is the races codex and the rulebook. Don't buy anything else until you've given it a good read-through.

After that, just buy a couple of boxes of basic infantry and a commander model. Paint 'em up and try and play a game with 'em. Then add from there. Resist the temptation to splurge and buy a load of models of an army you don't know about.

Or convince a friend to go halfsies on the starter set. The 40k starter set is really good value, and if you buy with a mate you get the rulebook and a decent small army each.

Sounds good to me. Any particular website I should be looking at for the starter set cheap?

Couple websites that should help ya! ;-)

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?categoryId=cat210004&aId=9300005

and

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1570027&rootCatGameStyle=

Thank you sir.

 

[zen5887]

Hmmmm

I think if you have people to play with then go for it. Otherwise, unless you really like modeling and painting you might want to avoid it.

I've got 1500pts of space marines that are sitting around. Me and Purps have games every now and then but thats all.

However I highly recommend you check out D&D. It only 'antisocial' if you let it, same with 40K and even Videogames.

 

[The Gardener]

Make sure you can find somewhere that hosts games on a regular basis, preferably with multiple levels of skill and army size. Unless you can play regularly, you will lose interest unless you're a painting whiz.

 

[Grubnar]

As someone who has been collecting and playing Warhammer 40.000 for more than a decade I would advice you not to start buying stuff before you have some idea of what you want to collect. Try to partake in a few "learning" games at a local GW store if you can and get to know as much as you can about all the factions and races before buying a whole lot of junk you may not want or need.

If you can not, here is a very short description of the major factions:

Space Marines: Skilled fighters in thick armor and armed with (very) big guns they are good at both range and in melee. Are few in numbers. Come in many flavors; Vanilla (Ultramarines), Very Heavy Infantry and bikes (Dark Angles) , Melee death (Black Templars and Blood Angles)and Vikings in space (Space Wolves, they are awesome!)

Chaos Space Marines: The evil twin brother of the goody space marines. Also come in many flavors although divercity was toned down a bit last edition.

Sisters of Battle: AKA nuns with guns. The all female army is well armed and armored. Not as skilled as the space marines they do have the numbers to make up for it. Burny death!

Imperial Guard: A mix of Stormtroopers and Red Shirts, they cant hit anything and die in doves. They take horrendous casultys but have the biggest number of infantry and heavy weapons and tanks and artillery and everything!!! Not easy to use but very rewarding and very fun to collect and play with.

Orkz: Mr. Tolkien invented Orcs about 80 years ago. He has alot to answer for that man! Orkz are the mirror image of the Imperial Guard, lots of infantry, vehicles, warmacines, big guns and so on. While the Guard favors shooting, heavy tanks and order, the Orkz are all about melee, fast vehicles and chaos. Also not easy to use but very, very fun to collect and play with.

Tyranids. Six limbed aliens that remind you of the monsters from Aliens and Starship Troopers. Very good at melee, not so good at shooting. Have no vehicles whatsoever but have the biggest mosters in a game full of big scary monsters.

Necrons: Tough as nails undead robotic skeletons that fire green deathrays! Have undestroyable huge flying metalic pyramids that fire green explosive deathrays! Have god-like alien overlords tha eat souls or whole suns! Crazy sci-fi at its best. Are however very limited in their army selection so most Necron armys look the same.

Eldar: Elfs in space. If you like elfs this is the army for you. Otherwise avoid like the plage. Eldar are weak and frail, but have the best armed and most skilled specialist in the game. Their units are usually only good at one thing, but are very, very good at it!

TAU: The only "good guys" in the game. blue/gray skinned humanoid aliens that have good weapons and allied alien races (Kroot, Vespvids and even humans). They have a very Mecha-Anime-ish style and although their basic infantry is well armed and armored they rely on their Battlesuits and flying tanks to win battles.

 

[X72391]

Look into the backgrounds of each army and decide based on which you like the most. That is how I chose Chaos Marines. Learning how each army plays also helps a lot.

 

[7moreDead_v1legacy]

I don't play as often as I would liked too but as said else where (I think), I'd go to a store if possible and have a few games talk to the lads down there...

It is an expensive past time...and prices just constantly go up it seems...But yeah having a good game is a great laugh. I'm a guard player myself and nothing is better than crushing power armoured sissy soldiers (aka space marines) under the might of tanks and las guns!

 

[irishstormtrooper]

Get Imperial Guard. Have you seen the Baneblade? It's f*cking awesome!

 

[7moreDead_v1legacy]

Get Imperial Guard. Have you seen the Baneblade? It's f*cking awesome!

Quoted for truth

 

[GloatingSwine]

Get Imperial Guard. Have you seen the Baneblade? It's f*cking awesome!

It's also awesomely expensive at 40k scale...

 

[Sea Age]

Orks allow for a lot of creative liberty, I've always felt. I've painted a lot of ork models, and no matter what I couldn't get two that looked at least somewhat alike. Then again, I was always more in it for the painting. The only games I've ended up playing was Killteam with my Space Marine army -.-

 

[GloatingSwine]

I don't know how this works outside Poland, but here going to tournaments, playing battles, getting drunk and screwing around with your friends (WFB players are the fun-loving ones here, though) is a lot of fun or just playing a casual battle outside the shop, on a lazy summer Sunday is very pleasant too, so you can't "play DoW and read books instead".

This is true. The gaming club I go (though I don't play any GW games) to is in the back room of a pub. Games + Beer = Good.

Even Warhammer World, GW's global HQ (which I can see from where I'm sitting, incidentally) has a pub onsite as well as all the gaming tables.

 

[Warrior Irme]

I didn't expect this to move to a second page but note that I will continue reading the comments and suggestions as long as they are coming in. I don't want people to be discouraged thinking that their comments are in vain.