What is the best 40K army for beginners?

[sfshilo]

The space marine thing is BS.

Tau are BY FAR the easiest army to wield. Shoot at things until they are dead.

Space Marines are such a odd sack of stuff. You can't just take a bunch of random stuff and win with SM. Tau? Battlesuits, railguns/missiles, and S5 30" spam. (WIN)

You are all living in 5th ed...

[Mr Mystery]

Or you know, have our own opinions based entirely upon our own experiences.

[LordRex]

Its hard to say - I think there's a lot to be said for picking an army based on the models you like and would enjoy building and painting.

I think there are clearly a ton of reasons to pick Space marines, but I voted Chaos Marines. I think if a person is drawn to the more dark side they can get a lot of the same benefits from Chaos. They can be played a variety of ways, but the Codex is not as overwhelming as Space Marines. The models have a bit more variety as well which is fun.

[Katharon]

Except that, you know, Space Marines have been in the game since it's inception. They've grown alongside the game and been one of its core pillars.

[Lexington]

Dark Angels, at the moment. It's a cheap start via the Dark Vengeance box, while the DA's are a solidly simple army to learn - arguably even easier than Vanilla Marines, as your choices end up being more streamlined.

[odinsgrandson]

Honestly, I'm pretty against there being an "army for beginners" at all. I feel that it is the main contributor to the unbalancing of faction representation.

I mean, it is pretty much cannon that Space Marines are the army for beginners- they've got solid statlines that are pretty forgiving of mistakes, the painting isn't too complicated, etc. Honestly, I find that the majority of factions work just fine for beginners (I know people who started out playing Eldar, Tau, Imperial Guard, Tyranids, Orks and Chaos Space Marines and they got along just fine).

However, the problem I have always seen is that once you begin with a faction, a lot of players just stick with it. I've known a lot of players who go from Space Marine force to Space Marine force (I've been playing Dark Angels for a while now- I think I'll start up a Blood Angels force next). Which is why every tournament force is tailored to fight Space Marines.

And with an army being such a large investment in 40k, it takes a good long while before anyone starts a new force at all- and some people just expand their marine force forever (or drift away).

I'd rather people picked a faction that they're particularly interested in without regards to what works best for beginners. Even if it is one of the factions that's "tougher" to play.

[Spamthulhu]

Except that, you know, Space Marines have been in the game since it's inception. They've grown alongside the game and been one of its core pillars.

Just because they have been in the game forever doesn't make them a good starter army.

Durability used to make them a good army but who thinks most space marine units are that durable these days?

For me Necrons are the winners. They have solid units with forgiving rules. Durable troops section. They have answers for everything in their book and can become very specialized as the players collection increases. Easy to paint a basic army.

[Wolfshade]

The space marine thing is quite interesting.

I do believe that they are a great starter army, indeed GW inclusion of them in every starter box bears testament to this, indeed perhaps imperial guard would present a better "human" good army.

But while Space Marines are quite simple to pick up they are hard to master. They are very much jack of all trades, but there is nothing that they can do which any other army can't do better. On top of this they are expensive (pts wise) so in small games the loss of a squad could mean that you have lost 1/3rd of your amy.

Consequently it can be a challenge to get a Space Marine army to be working efficiently and effectively.

[Brehamut]

I would personally suggest orks, while not as forgiving on the pocket or table top for new players lets say space marines, the are however as far as i'm concerned easy to learn to play and far better at allowing a new player to access all areas of the hobby. Lets face it orks are probably the easiest race to paint (with the exception on the quantity), convert for and build scenery for and still have it fit in. Plus as far as i have ever seen anyone whos been in the hobby for a long time will never seam to get rid of there orks, not sure if this is quit true but its an observation I have made.

[tierdar]

Necrons. Easy to assemble (mostly), paint, and play. They are powerful enough to avoid the months of early losses, and have a unique flavor. It's hard to make a bad build.