Starting an Army

I'm wanting to get into 40k. I have parts of a Blood Angel army, but I don't care for them. I'm wanting to find an army that not everyone and their dog plays (or that can be customized enough to be different), but at the same time I want something that can be competitive. Any ideas/advice?

Orks. Lotta fun. People will say we have a lot of local ork players, but I've played 40k for 3 years and didn't play against Orks until Sooie this year. You can have long games, but it's a lot of fun to roll that many dice.

People (the Internet) will tell you they aren't competitive, but don't listen to them!

If you want an army that can be personalized out the wazoo, that would be the Imperial Guard. Just come up with a theme you like (steampunk, Scottish Highlanders, desert raiders, WWI trench fighters, guys in mideval armor, sci-fi swat troopers, etc) and not only is it more than likely that there is a way to convert IG models to go with that theme, but it's probably already part of the official 40k fluff as well.
I don't know how many IG players we have around here though. I hear they are getting pretty common at tournaments, apparently because their new codex pwns. Jester might have a more informed opinion on that.

I've been leaning toward Orks for a while now. I just wasn't sure about how competitive they were. I know they are one of the most popular fantasy armies, but I haven't seen a lot of them in 40k.

Oh man, Orks are fun. I have been playing them pretty regurlary here lately and you always feel like you have a chance. They have several different competitive builds, and their models are some of the most fun in the whole game - LOVE me some Killa Kans.

You can also start an Ork army on the cheap by picking up a set or two of the Assault on Black reach set. Most of the range is in plastic (the stuff you would want at least) and it is really easy to convert and paint - the messier it is, the more Orky it looks.

I thought I had 2000 points of Orcs bought for $40 earlier only to hav it snatched away with 5 seconds left. I'll see if I can't find someone that wants to split a couple Black Reach boxes with me.

If not, let me know, i've been tempted to sell my ork army for the last little bit. If you want to meet up some time and get in a game or two in w/ it then just lemme know.

Hang on just a minute..... was this all a ploy to sell me an army? That's sneaky...

Kragg wrote:

Hang on just a minute..... was this all a ploy to sell me an army? That's sneaky...

Two birds, one stone

In all seriousness I might be interested in your army. Depending on what you have and what you want for it. The only person I really 'know' that plays 40k is going to play Eldar, so finding someone to take those space marines might be tricky for me.

If you ever want to get together and look at it, lemme know, it's a beast though. I could probably field it as 3k+ points if I was creative with my list building.

Come up with an idea of what you might want for it and I will see when the next time I can get up that way is. I was wanting to get up to War Pig for the big game Saturday, but I don't think that will happen now.

I would have to agree with Orks as something rarely seen. I can only think of 2 people that I know of that play them and I have never played against either (yet...) They are a good range with lots of character and tons of kits, not only from GW, but from Forge World as well (If you have the cash to spare )

I had a small army, but got rid of it recently. The main drawbacks I ran into were that I did not like painting green, and the amount of models you need to field an army can be hefty (depending on how you build the army).

THe only other armies I can think of That I don't see in this area are Necrons, IG, Tau, daemons, and Dark Eldar of course. There are one or two people playing them but not much. I think this is mainly due to codex creep as (barring IG) they all have out dated codexes.

The best advice I can give you is go to the GW web page, look at the models available for each army and go with the one you think is the most cool. Then you can figure out how to make it competitive.

Hope that helps.

-T.

You've got a good start for what army to pursue, with the guidelines you've laid out.

'Something not overly popular'. That drops the following from consideration if you are considering nationally:
Imperial Guard
Space Wolves
Blood Angels

Locally, there isn't a lot of armies you see spammed over and over again, other than marine variants of all types.

'Something Competitive'. That drops the following from consideration:
Tau
Necrons
Eldar
Grey Knights
Sisters of Battle

To me, that leaves a few armies you should consider:
Tyranids
Orks
Chaos
Dark Eldar (once they come out in November)

Of the 4, I would go with Nids. They are not 'easy' to win with, but I think they are a better army overall with more build options than Orks. They also have more centerpiece models and don't force you to paint lots of green!

Orks are a horde army and your probably looking at painting about 90+ boys to start. That is a lot of green to paint, unless you paint them blue. Note - there are many shades of green.

Then you need to think about how are going to run them: I like the foot slogging horde but you just cannot move that many boys around within the time frame of a tournament. So you need a mech army or some type with bikes, battlewagons or trucks.

Ork have strong CC and can send a high volume of firepower* (Lootas) across the board. They also have one of the most deadly vehicle upgrades in the game (Deff Rolla). Just learn the rules on ramming and kept them tabbed out.

Bugs are a good army too but I just don't like bugs in general. Orks actually do really well against the bugs.

...and remember there are really only Nobs and Ork Boys in an ork army. Only the equipment changes from unit type to unit type.

Christopher

* Disclaimer - high volume of firepower does not equate to actually scoring a lot of hits!

To Jester's point, nids have a lot of complexity and are not the most forgiving army to field. They are fun to play and have some great models, but I would have to go with orks for your first army. You say you will be squaring up against Eldar a lot, which means nids highly psychic nature get hampered by runes of warding something fierce. Not fun. Orks on the other hand don't rely on psychic as much so you can enjoy all their strengths:

- Face-bashing close combat specialists: pretty much any ork
- Long range volume of fire: lootas
- Highly mobile: wagons and truks
- Forgiving appearance: you don't have to be a world class painter to make orks look good

And don't think you have to start with 3x 30 ork boyz on foot. You can always start by building up a Mech Ork force and building out from there.

Big_D took a mostly mek ork force to Sooie and did very well with it.

And just to further pressure you to pick Orks I remember reading a pretty good Ork strategy guide in one of the issues of White Dwarf they still have a few of down at Castle House. I think it was the one with Lizardmen on the cover.

And @Big Al : They might not rely Psychic in game, but don't forget about that whole "all Orks are latent Psykers" fluff thing. Supposedly the only reason their haphazard technology even works is because the Orks THINK it should work. Convince an Ork that a stick is a flamethrower and it WILL burst into flame... wow, I am such a geek...

My point on the 90+ was that everything is an Ork boy or Nob. Choppa, Shootas, Drivers, Gunners, DeffKopter Pilots, Lootas, Burna Boys, Stormboys, etc... They all be Boys!

Orcs it is then. Lucky for me I hate painting no matter what color it is. So painting all green will be the same to me.

I bid on someones orks from here on Ebay.

What kind of points value should I be shooting for to play some pick up games and eventually get into some tourney play?

You will see quite a few tournaments at around the 1850 point. There are a few here and there that are 1500, but the two most popular are 1850 and 2000 - usually your bigger two day events run at 2000.

For just playing around and learning the rules you can play at 500 points, but you will quickly want to move past that.

To get a good feel for the game you want to shoot for about 1500 starting out. Less than that and certain builds can have a really hard time against other builds. It really evens out at around 1850-2000 - you have enough choices where you won't just be utterly hosed if you come up against certain lists.

I'm already up to around 1000pts I think. I've picked up a Trukk, 31 Boyz, 6 DethKoptas, 13 Nobs and a Warboss. I've got a beat up Landraider and a couple of Rhinos to convert into Looted Wagons, and I'm still looking to pick up 3-4 Killa Kans, some Bikers, Tankbusters and of course MOAR BOYZ.

Landraiders work pretty well as Battlewagons. Easy to make a Deff Rolla or a Reinforced Ram on the front.