[Roncliffton]

My friend is thinking about getting into warhammer 40000, I was wondering what a good starter army would be for him, I showed him the GamesWorkshop website and he said he liked Chaos Daemons, I was just wondering if I could get some feedback on the subject. Thanks.

 

[gen.ahab]

It all depends on what your friend wants to do and how he wants to play the game.

 

[shaantitus]

The starter set has marines in it for a reason, they are a good beginner army, However chaos marines are also fairly straightforward. I would stay away from eldar, de and necrons because the first is tricky(as is the second,possibly moreso) and the others are in dire need of an update. The same goes for Witchunters and Demonhunters. It is major update time for them. Nids are different, (animal horde but competitive aparently) and tau are shooty but also in need of an update. Guard are capable but be prepared to buy lots of models. Demons i am unsure of, but they have some lovely models.
Maybe this helps, i hope so.

 

[5tonsledge]

alright so in all honesty i would go with an army that has plastice set units troop/elite/heavy//fast attack your friend i am asuming is not a rich SOB so he should go with plastic set because they are easy to mod they come in larger squad and they come with bits. so point him in that general direction. most of the armys recently updated have a lot of plastic set so chaos daemons he should go khorne they come in big sets and the troops are reasonably priced as far as dollar bills. i personaly love chaos space marines because they have a nice ballance between daemons and humans. but the man above was right they are very straight forward. but yea go plastic sets of anything dont go eldar there elites are all metal and they are pricy. necs are nice and plastic but very out dated. sisters are all metal i am painting a sisters of battle army for cash and the models are all metal except for tanks. dark eldar are out dated and the models are very out dated as well because they are shitty quality. daemon hunters are the same situation as witch hunters they are all metal and expensive plus GW nurfed them with the recent FAQ posted saying they cant take those special little ig stuff. but yea every other army is plastic for the most part so tell your friend good luck with his choice and to stick with the game its hard at first but its so fun and winnig and stomping another player is what its all about. just kidding so all that read this post excuse my french its just the way i talk sometimes to express true emotions of oppinions.

 

[Wusword77]

Orcs, Choas, and SM are Strawberry, Chocolate, and Vanilla of the 40k universe. They are all fairly stright forward to play and have good looking models. Deamons are a bit much for a beginner to pick up both in rules and model building aspects.

I'm assuming that you are new to the game as well, so I'd recommend you guys split a AoBR box so you can try out the rules and see how it plays in an actual game. I would also recommend that you and your buddy head down to your FLGS and see some rounds played with a few different armies. That way your friend can really get an idea on what he would want to play.

 

[Cadian440th]

I would say that if he likes the daemons let him use paper circles to proxy a game with them and then play 3 games with them.
then switch him over to chaos marines and do the same things and see which he likes better as an army. if you have a flgs they will let you play and use the store codex most likely.
just start out at like 1000 points maybe 1500.
good way to fins out what you like and its free to try it out

 

[mynameisgrax]

Orcs, Choas, and SM are Strawberry, Chocolate, and Vanilla of the 40k universe. They are all fairly stright forward to play and have good looking models. Deamons are a bit much for a beginner to pick up both in rules and model building aspects.

I agree with this, but want to add that Eldar are also a good beginning army, and 'Space Marines' would include the Space Wolves and Blood Angels as well (but not any of the other sub-chapters.

These armies, in my opinion, are the best balanced, and will give you a good overall experience with the game. Many of the other armies are good, but lack something found in most other armies (close combat ability, vehicles, fast units, etc), and thus will be a bit more difficult to learn the game with.

Chaos Daemons are NOT a good army for beginners. I'm a Chaos Daemons player, and I like the army, but they're extremely difficult to play and learn with, and are also a very expensive army to play, making the choice a potentially regrettable one. Daemons are a good army to play after you've fully learned the game.

If he likes the Daemons, then I'd recommend he try Chaos Marines, and include some lesser daemons and greater daemons into the mix.

 

[admiraldick]

orks and SM.

they come in the box

in all seriousness, like others have said, it depends entirely on the person. some people need a basic army to get their heads around the game. others are competant enough to pick up the game easily and play with a harder army. and yet other people are really only interested in the look and feel of the army, so it matters very little how difficult it is to play and win with an army, they just want to be right.

 

[lsarofeen]

i started by thinking i wanted to rush way up and then what... well, with no experience, i died. ive learned to be more reserved, though i still push way up, where my buddy hangs way back. id go chaos marines if he likes the freaky ugly evil no good dirrty flange stealing nature of those sorts of things! and that they are very versatile, reasonably priced, and fun to play. id say regular marines otherwise, but if he likes daemons and that sort of thing...

appy gaming!

 

[The Sullen One]

Daemons are a hard army to use, but once you get used to them decent enough. A mate of mine uses a Khorne Daemons force, and he's pretty good with them, now that he's gotten used to them.

However I wouldn't be thinking in terms of beginner armies, because your friend will simply end up collecting an army he doesn't want or like.

Anyway here's a quick run-through of the forces, based on what I know:

Space Marines - Balanced armies overall with good choices of melee and ranged units.

Chaos Marines - A bit more assault orientated than Space Marines, but again a nice mix of melee and ranged.

Orks - Poor shooting makes for a point and run combat force with lots of melee units. Have the strongest general HQ in the game in form of Warboss with Powerklaw.

Imperial Guard - Shooty horde army, platoons and lots of tanks avaliable to players.

Tyranids - Horde army with balance between lots of small critters and big heavy hitting units.

Eldar - Need units to be used in concert, otherwise your dead, but nice models and colourful variety make for spectacular looking armies.

Dark Eldar - Fast but fragile, need to play lots of games to get feel of army, as well as pick your moment to strike. Old models and codex tend to put a lot of people off, but scope for conversion can deal with this.

Tau - Point and fire style of play means you want to avoid combat at all costs, nice looking infantry and tanks for the player who wants something a bit more futuristic and sci-fi.

Necrons - Arnie's army. Robot army with little variety, but some of the most effective units in the game. Necron Lord is a good HQ, whilst Monoliths can potentially stop play and hand you victory before you've even started playing (Okay it happened once that I know of, but these pyramids are still lethal in the game.)

Daemonhunters/Witch hunters - focus on combat, but interesting choices of support unit. Note extensive use of metal amongst models in these ranges.

Daemons - Potentially very deadly, but unique deployment and rules can take some getting use to, though not so much if it's your first army.

 

[Roncliffton]

Thanks everyone.