New Player 101

New Player 101:

What Army should I play?

            The reasons people pick up the game of 40k are numerous but inevitably a person who is going to play must buy their first GW miniature or box set.  But many first time players are not sure which faction to play.  Certainly Space Marines are the most numerous and touted as the best place for beginners to start collecting.  This is not necessarily true.  A person must be invested in the idea of their army of choice in order to want to play.
While the Assault on Black Reach (AoBR) set may be the best place for the 11-16 year old crowd to start out, the same can’t be said for the adult player. 

            Adults will, generally, grasp the rules and nuances of the game better than adolescents and so shouldn’t be pigeonholed into choosing between Space Marines and Orks.  Many times people will tell prospective players that they should play Space Marines because they are the easiest to learn.  With the advent of the 5^th edition codex this simply isn’t true.  Unless you plan on never expanding past the Tactical Squad, Captain, Dreadnought, and simple Terminators from AoBR then you are going to run into some very complex units and army builds quickly.  The Orks from AoBR on the other hand present a very general army list which is fairly straight forward with some quirks here and there but the sheer number of models needed for the army will be daunting to new players.  So the problem presents itself, with adults how do you try to guide new players to an army that will both keep them involved and be “easy” to learn to play?

            Firstly start off by ruling out armies who are too out of date or not well supported enough by GW to be a viable option.  Until new rules/models/general support come out for the Dark Eldar, Witch Hunters, and Daemon Hunters they should be taken out of the equation.  Now look at the other aging codices, Necrons, Tau, Black Templars, Dark Angels, Eldar.  These armies should also be generally discouraged for newer players.  The rules are simply too outdated or the army books too over priced points wise to make good options.  However should someone show genuine interest in these armies then I would encourage their interest.  Often times a person’s interest in how an army looks or acts is just as important as whether or not the army is newer and able to win games consistently.

            The 5^th edition codices, with perhaps the exception of Chaos Daemons, are all decent choices for a new player but there are certainly better options than others.  Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines, Orks, Tyranids, Space Wolves, Imperial Guard, and Blood Angels are the latest and greatest codices in 40k.  Obviously some of these are older than others most notably Orks and CSMs. 

Space Marines are a decent choice for a beginner if the player can avoid being sucked into one of the named character builds long enough to get a handle on how the basic units work and which units complement each other well, then Vanilla Marines aren’t a horrible choice.

Space Wolves and Blood Angels being fairly different from Vanilla Marines present an interesting choice for new players.  Of the two, Space Wolves would be a simpler choice; their Force Org is more straight forward and their special rules apply in a less random way than the BA and will be simpler for new players to learn the nuances of the list.  Overall; unless a new player is dead set on playing BA I would probably suggest something less reliant on random die rolls and somewhat confusing army builds.

Orks are a good choice rules wise for new players.  The oddities presented by named characters are minimal and since the Ork codex was a kind of primer for the latter codices in 5^th it is simpler and will help a new player understand how the other codices work.  As mentioned earlier though the sheer number of models needed for an Ork army may be discouraging to new players, unless they have previous modeling and painting experience.

Imperial Guard presents another interesting quandary to the new player.  Often times a new player who wants to play IG will be drawn in by the idea of tanks, tanks, and more tanks.  All in all, the only real problem with IG for new players is, again, the need for a lot of models.  When it comes to rules and complex builds the new player will certainly run into problems with Psyker Battle squads, squadron rules, and Inquisitorial allies but the IG are definitely a viable option for new players.

Tyranids are a fair choice for a new player who wants to play an alien race and wishes to stray away from the Imperium.  The codex is new and fun but does present many choices and complexities in building units let alone lists.  This plethora of options per unit will present a steep learning curve for new players but unless they want to play Orks, Tyranids are the only other viable 5^th edition codex for xenos races.  One nice thing about Tyranids in the store I play at is there are a lot of good players who play Tyranids and can help walk a new player through building a good Tyranid army.

Chaos Space Marines are, in my opinion, the best option for new players.  The list is rather simple especially since the troops choices are diverse, good, and easy to understand.  The named characters in the CSM codex won’t present players with the sort of problems the SM characters will, the elite choices are easy to use, and the Heavy Support choices are good as well.  The best thing about CSMs for a beginning player besides the myriad of good and easy to use troop choices is their differences and similarities to SM.  Most stores/leagues/clubs are populated mostly by Space Marine players, so choosing an army that is different will add diversity to the group and help to make the new player feel like they are being original, but the close relationship CSMs and SMs share in weaponry, wargear, units etc. will help the new player learn how the simple things work.  Don’t forget, at some point in your gaming career someone had to explain to you how bolters, meltaguns, plasma cannons, twinlinked weaponry, AP, WS, BS, Furious Charge, Feel no Pain (you get the idea) worked.  Playing CSMs against SMs will help new players learn the ropes faster while still being independent.

Army choice for a new player really boils down to a few factors.  Do you like the way the army looks?  How easy do you want it be to learn the rules?  Does your group have someone who can walk you through the army?  If your primary concern is the first question then buy/start whatever you want as long as you understand the problems with playing an out of date codex.  If you want it to be easy to learn how to play then I would suggest Orks, Vanilla Marines (sans named characters), IG, and Chaos Space Marines.  If you have experienced players in nearly every army available then the complex codices such as Tyranids and Blood Angels shouldn’t present you with too much of an issue.  If you are the person guiding a new player through army choice try to avoid influencing them to play an army that you always wanted to play but never picked up because of cost, or difficulty with rules.  Remember you want this player to stick around and increase your groups’ player base, so make it easy on them by helping them pick a genuinely good army to start out with.
-Overwatch