First time buyer advice

Hello again, interwebz!

Two friends of mine are getting into 40k. I bought one an IG battleforce because my cousin bought me a bunch of stuff after I said it looked fun. So I just paid it forward.

The other guy wasn't sure if he liked it. After "D" watched me play with my Necrons against an Ork player. It was not an easy win for him, let me assure you--his strategy mostly relied on seizing initiative, which he did.

So my question is, what is the single best piece of advice you would give someone who's said "This looks awesome. I definitely know this is something I would get into?

My cousin just bought me stuff since I had narrowed it down to three armies. The best advice I've heard was "Just choose one that feels right to you." Or "Just choose one that looks and feels right to you."

If it helps, D said he wanted to be able to control the battlefield and set up firing lanes. So he likes strategy and finesse. He may have said more, but I don't remember or couldn't hear it.

I would tell someone to pick the models they like the look of. Then I would give them the gist on that armies special rules and or niche, to see if they would be into that play style. Picking an army you love to paint and use is more important than anything else. It builds the most fun type of player in my opinion.

I have a buddy that I helped get into the game (Doug is a *****) who almost never wins because he likes the Necrons. I explained to him long ago that they were the oldest codex with the weakest rules. He still loves playing them though. Doug doesn't mind losing because he is into the army. He enjoys playing them. I even sold him my army at a very reduced rate. Oh yeah, he also drove off from his house with my superbly painted monolith on top of his truck.....20 hours of paint....2 seconds to destroy...living metal or not LOL.

If your friend wants to control the battle with shooting, I would tell him to check out IG, SM, Eldar, or Tau, but be sure he likes the models. See what gets him going OOOOHhh and AAAaaahhh.

Also, fill him in on a bit of the fluff. A single type of model might appeal to him after hearing or reading about it. Me, I LOVE Commissars. I include at least one in every single game I play with my IG. My cousin LOVES the broodlord. My bud bodeen LOVES terminators and Marneus Calgar. Eric LOVES his Harlequins. You see, sometimes this game is about enjoying what you are doing. The idea of the models you are using.

Sorry, it's late and I'm rambling lol.

fade makes a really good point. I know far too many gamers who try to buy an army because it's really competitive and never look happy while playing it, but get over excited talking about an old army they used to have... Remind your friend that he will probably be spending as much time building and painting the models as he will actualy playing (well, possibly not, but he will be investing a significant amount of his life in creating them).

If you have a few friends in a group, possibly a few of them could lend him their armies to have a go with (nothing with too many complicated rules, maybe only 500 points) to give him an idea of how the armies play and how the game plays. Other than that just chat to other gamers and work out why they play what armies. It might just give him a few ideas as to why he would want to play that army. For example, I play SM because I like the ideology (and who doesn't start off with marines when they are 10?), I play Guard because I love tanks and I play Orks because they have insane models and even crazier rules.

Just tell them to get the army that they want and to hell with everyone else. If they want to get into the tournament scene, they will. But they don't have to. If they're like me, they'll spend an average of twenty five hours a week doing 40K related stuff, none of which will be gaming.

Remember, BoLS has a massive priapism for tournament play, but tournaments are one aspect of the hobby (and in my aspect, one that is given far too much focus by the community).

Just let 'em buy what they want, and be nice to them when you play - let them win their first five games or so (or at the very least, don't treat them like they're "new meat"; no-one likes people who use "noobz" as a scratching post for their own ego. They just hurt the hobby.)

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Originally Posted by MaltonNecromancer

Just tell them to get the army that they want and to hell with everyone else. If they want to get into the tournament scene, they will. But they don't have to. If they're like me, they'll spend an average of twenty five hours a week doing 40K related stuff, none of which will be gaming.

Remember, BoLS has a massive priapism for tournament play, but tournaments are one aspect of the hobby (and in my aspect, one that is given far too much focus by the community).

Just let 'em buy what they want, and be nice to them when you play - let them win their first five games or so (or at the very least, don't treat them like they're "new meat"; no-one likes people who use "noobz" as a scratching post for their own ego. They just hurt the hobby.)

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I agree 100% with this. He should choose an army based on what he likes the look of and how he feels about their fluff ( if he were that way inclined). An army will only grow and be played with if he actually likes his models. Every codex can be tweaked to be competitive to some point and its even more fun beating some IG player with a Nid army :eek: as a case in point. I believe a competitive player can do well with any codex.

While I agree with what everyone is saying about "picking an army that interests you", I would add that this can backfire when you are interested in an army that is considered "advanced". I have had several armies that I loved and put many many hours of time in to building, converting, and painting, to then lose every single battle with until I decided to sell them. In my case, SoB before the Hereticus Codex, DE Wych Cult, Eldar Aspect army.

Some armies just do not lend themselves to "learning" with for a new player. For instance, IG or and Codex SM would be easier to learn with than say, the new DE or Grey Knights with all their special rules and such. I would try playing a couple sample games either with someone else's army or using an army as a proxy using the codex of an army you are considering. Speaking from experience, no matter how much you like the fluff, look, and idea of your army losing every game really puts a damper on the fun of actually playing it.

The way to overcome this is to be clear with them at the start: tell them that the army they like is "high difficulty". There's nothing wrong with that as long as you're prepared for it.

Also, the state of the game is much better now; there are now very few armies that can't field a variety of fun, competitive builds. Yes, everyone who's read this is immediately thinking "Necron, Tau, Eldar..." but come on! Think of the armies that are ferocious:

IG Melta Vets.
DoA BA.
SW generally.
Vanilla Marines.
Orks with Nob Bikers.
Deathstar Tyranids.
Any number of DE and GK combos.

These are just the ones off the top of my head; I'm sure there's more. Even in the case of the older armies, we all know that is's only a matter of years until they get new codicies for everyone online to whine like a little pack of children about, so really there's very little reason to buy the army you want to.

Just be honest with them if they want to pick something less-than-amazing ruleswise, and they'll usually be okay... You know, unless they're a desperate gloryhound, in which case farm them for their delicious tears. You can use them to polish precious metals, you know.

Wow! Great advice everyone. I choose Necrons because they seemed bloody cool. Yeah, it was a high learning curve, but I'm still able to beat Blood Angels players and lost to a vanilla marine army last night only because of two dies rolls--it was razor edge the entire time. And I ran a fluffy list, free of destroyers.

My friend has told me that after taking a look over the big rule book and the armies he's interested, he's looking at Eldar and maybe Dark Eldar. Again, he likes varied models, using finesse, being able to control the battlefield and set up firing lanes.

What advice can be given to discriminate between these two sources? He's leaning towards regular Eldar. I know a guy that plays both and will try and arrange a small game between us.

And thanks for all your help!

I chose tyranid myself because I love their look and the like, they are just such a cool army, and I fell in love with them in general, so much fun. But yeah, have you rfriend with both eldar and dark eldar play a bunch of games, switching who has what army, and see which one catches your friends eye the most. I know out of the two I would so go for regular eldar because they are just so cool, and their tanks are gorgeous, but thats just me, hehe.