So, I figured that everyone who may be interested- or have a friend that is interested- might benefit from some advice.  I'll add to this as I go, maybe some editing as well.  Feel free to ask questions, too- I'll gladly do a Q&A with this as well.  So for anyone who's interested in playing Warhammer 40k, I felt need to do this.

Update 5 September 2016:

So, if you want to know where to start there's a couple of things I should mention:

- The Horus Heresy-era armies are expensive as fuck.  Because you're rolling out twice as many Space Marines, and during this era Space Marines used a LOT of goodies that can't be replicated in the modern 41st M.  Seriously, though- fucking Volkite guns are insanely cool 'meat meltas'.  But this game is more of a 'high point, high dollar' game with the rules not being entirely accessible.  If you've got a 'First Founding' Space Marine or Adeptus Mechanicus army already, this is something to strive for.  However, good luck finding someone who plays it.

-Warhammer 40k standalone board games (Lost Patrol, Deathwatch: Overkill, Assassinorum: Execution Force, Betrayal at Calth, etc.) are fun for a few games, and they give some pretty good (sometimes unique) models to paint.  However, they're only good for a few playthroughs.  There's not much of an RPG element to them, but they're still kind of cool for something different to do.  Some folks have found a way to manipulate the rules for these games to include other factions and have mix-matched them together (Like Deathwatch and Lost Patrol).  Until we get a proper Space Hulk game, this is what we got.  

- Models are not priced according to their effectiveness/point value for the most part.  I know, they used to say they were.  But they're not.  So if you get an Imperial Guard army you're probably going to go broke before you reach a competitive level.  Double that if you're not interested in playing 'normal looking Guard' and want something like Death Korps.  Models like Catachans and stuff are still available, but you have to buy them in smaller boxes (making them more expensive, because bigger packs tend to be a better bargain). No matter what- the more models you have, the more expensive it will be.  That makes Space Marines of any sort one of the easiest armies to start playing (and why so much is tailored to them).

Because there are a lot of 40k 'fans' out there that have never even assembled a model or cracked a rulebook. It is important to know the difference between a 'player' and a 'fan'. So here are a few 'rules' to consider before you even get started or while you're new to the hobby.

Rule #1: Do not ever listen to anyone who does not play the tabletop game. 99% of anything they -think- they know about how the game works is complete fluff-based or video game bullshit, and not actual mechanics.  There's nothing wrong with enjoying things other than the tabletop game- but the lore, games, fiction, etc. does not accurately reflect the tabletop (for example, Space Marines are not invincible killing machines).

Rule #2: If someone 'helps' you- ask them which army they play, and why. If they can't clearly show you that they are experienced in the tabletop game, ignore them. There are even people who have armies, mostly painted, that never have played a single game.  Feel free to ask me- I'll never pretend to be an expert, but I've got experience.  Don't assume that everyone who has a Codex has experience with the game.

Rule #3: Start SMALL. I don't care if you've literally farted six million dollars out of your ass. Don't go into a store to do anything more than buy a small force, if you do it that way at all (you can sometimes find them cheaper on eBay). Get a very basic starter force to see what you like. They have 'start collecting' boxed sets that are a good bargain, too. Nothing sucks worse than throwing money at shit you do not need.  If you go to a store with money to spend, the people at that store will find a way to have you spend that money.

Rule #4: Do not let anyone choose your army for you. Do not let anyone tell you what you 'need' to play. It is your money, it is your hobby, it is what YOU want to do. Pick the one you like (even if 'looks cool' was what appeals to you) and start small. If you dislike the way it performs, you may be able to sell a small force and then try another one you like better. A good way to start is to go ask to 'try' an army at a Games Workshop store if they still do this.  If not, find someone who's willing to let you try their armies out.

Rule #5: If anyone ever tells you something about an army, CHECK. Research before you put any money on something based on some putz's 'theory' or 'rumor'. Even Bell of Lost Souls and other sites have featured outright bogus rumors. There are plenty of cases where people start rumors like points values going up, units being removed (one confirmed true, the Necron Pariah), new Codexes making X worthless, etc.- in one case I experienced a store owner was telling people that a certain army was going to be 'discontinued' so the new player would spend more money on something else. Just do your research and if you're worried about something 'coming', then just wait and see.

Rule #6: Research your books- See what edition the Codex is on and when an update is coming. If it has not been updated, hold off for a bit. If it has been updated, read into what has changed. Also, starting out you do not need the 'extra' books other than your Codex and the Rulebook, you do not need any books in hardcover format if softcover is available, and you damned sure don't need a 'how to paint' guide (especially when GW has videos for this exact shit, for FREE).  Most of the time, you can see what books you need for certain units- but later you can build your collection so you know other peoples' armies.

Rule #7: Play your army the way you want to, with the units you want (within the rules and agreeable guidelines). When you play someone, it has to be an agreeable match- some players may say, "Hey, I have nothing to counter flyers- you're gonna crush me with that"- well, you might wanna try to even it up. But be advised- if a player is trying to dictate your moves you should ignore them. If a player is trying to get you to ditch units for no legitimate reason and play without them, take your army and find someone else to play with. If a player is citing rules that always work to your disadvantage, ask to see where that rule is. YOU CAN ALWAYS WALK AWAY FROM A GAME. Remember- if you're not playing, neither is he.

Shit that stupid people say, and you should never listen to:

"Dark Angels are the best." - something you will never hear a tabletop player say. It's not that they suck, it's just that they really aren't 'awesome' in any way that makes them more or less a valid choice than any other Space Marines chapter. Oh, and they are very vulnerable from the air, tend to explode themselves with their plasma whoring, and lack some of the more effective units like Centurions.

"Ultramarines suck." -Actually, no. They don't. They're one of the most versatile and forgiving armies you can use. They have several formations and some pretty beast HQ's, and very few limitations outside of squad structures. Most people who say they 'suck' just get tired of seeing them, or they just hate Matt Ward.

"You need to get one of the competitive armies." No, you don't. You need to get an army that appeals to you. You can make most armies fairly effective and competitive. If you are not willing to spend money on making your army versatile, it will certainly be 'weak' in multiple ways. This means buying one boxed army set will not work, and many people are too lazy and cheap to do anything more so they start complaining that this army 'sucks'.

"The Imperial Guard is weak." If you use an all-infantry guard, yes. It will be weak. The Imperial Guard's strength is not in its infantry, for the most part- the troops are there to slow down your enemy. Your tanks, Shock Troopers, artillery, and aircraft are there to fuck shit up- and they do it quite well. Anyone who has ever played the Imperial Guard like this will tell you it's no joke at all- no one spends that much money on a 'weak' army.

"With Tau, you can just stand back and shoot and slaughter everything because their ranged game is win." They are nasty at a range, but very few armies foot-slog infantry across the battlefield to be shot up and a game of 40k is not 'kill all the enemy'. A lot of it is objective-based and holding ground. No matter what army you play, you WILL get into close combat. And if you're Tau, you'll lose and your guys will retreat. And if you keep with the 'stand back and shoot' game your entire army will be pushed off the battlefield and you will lose like the stupid weeb loser you are.

"Forge World isn't official." Yes, it is. Games Workshop OWNS Forge World. People who say this mostly are misinformed, trying to keep you from fielding something they can't counter, or they don't have the books from Forge World that cover that model and can't prepare for it in advance. If someone says this, inform them of the contrary and ask to see evidence supporting their claim. If they keep up the fight, move away. Private tournaments may exclude Forge World models if they desire (most credible ones don't).

Also if you and a friend are just getting started, the boxed sets are a great way to get two small armies on the very cheap (relatively speaking).

Buy armies at conventions, sometimes you can get ridiculously well painted armies for much less than the cost of the boxed minis.

My advice: Just don't do it. Or, if you absolutely must, wait until the inevitable crash, so they stop producing new editions every other year. Seriously, they haven't managed to produce a full line of codecii (codexes?), for a single edition since.. I dunno... third maybe? That was five teen years ago, give or take. They are on edition seven or eight now, I hear, and thats not counting apocalypse.  Hell, fifth edition managed to put out TWO core space marine codexes before they touched the Orks (I should point out I am not an Ork player, so this isn't a personal beef. In fact, i'm a damn Space Marine fan... so I'm the asshole stuck with having to rebuy my damn codex just in time for a new edition, with a god damn new fucking codex, before I even get around to making a new army list with the LAST god damn codex.... )

Also there is the small problem of moving to cheaper plastic models (that look fantastic, by the way), that nevertheless managed to cost twice what the more expensive metal models do.  

That was when I quit. When a single squad of a reasonably core unit (Terminator) would cost me a hundred bucks, I realized I had a problem and I joined 40k Anonymous. Their twelve step program (that is, tazing me right in the fuckign wallet twelve fucking times every time I glance at the 40k section of my local game store), has done me wonders.

Now days, when I get the urge to do model games (and that is increasingly rare, as I have had to lug giant boxes full of unfinished minis through three or four moves now...), I stick to Warmachine.

Good stuff Crüesader!

I've been playing 40k on/off/rinse/repeat since Rogue Trader, so I'll add some bits.

a) It's totally cool to be a 40k fan who never touches the minis.
40k is a diverse IP, and like the Crüe Dude said, the minis game mechanics =/= the presentation of the setting in the fluff of the novels, or even in the mechanics of some of the video games. As much as I love, love, love the 40k verse and devour the novels & comics like a fiend, I must admit there are better minis games out there. Even games with better sculpts.

BTW, the disconnect between the Fluff and Crunch can be pretty bizarre. Space Marines on the tabletop have no relation to the Space Marines as presented in the fluff. The average SM is barely equal to 2 orks. Your lone SM ain't taking on 10 Tyranid.

b) Ignore the forum bullshit.
There are three main styles of play in 40k - casual, competitive and tournament. Casual is where everyone's there for the fun first and foremost (they have Cheetos stains on their dice), but competitive can be fun if you have good players who are ethical and mature (yes, they do exist). Tournament play is fun for competitive people who enjoy crunching codexes and building armies based on math. You know who you are, go forth and find your brethren.

c) You can buy painted minis off eBay cheaply if you buy whole armies.
I can't paint worth a damn, so I buy painted minis. The funny thing is my painted armies cost about the same as if I bought them new, unassembled and unpainted. How? I buy whole armies and then sell back units I don't need. Often people sell armies very cheaply if its only half painted. That's gold because you can flip the unpainted stuff at a great price.

d) Crüesader is very right about "try before you buy" regarding how armies play.
I gotta give GW props about how different armies actually play differently. Of course, we can argue forever about which army plays "better" in which edition, but unless you are hardcore competitive, you should pick an army based on your play style. I love monsters, so I play Tyranids. I also love dwarves, but how dwarves play is antithetical to how I enjoy wargaming.

Oh, and Crüesader's advice about "starting with a small force" is especially good for 40k because there are Kill Team games. AKA, fast games where you don't bring an army, but instead bring a small force. Way back when, we called it "Lunchhammer" - aka, games you could play in 45mins.

I really loved Lunchhammer.

e) The Imperial Guard is weak. So what? Let's rock!
I played IG old school, back when lasguns were flashlights. There is something rocking about winning with IG than you don't get with the hot shit fancy pants armies. It's all about those hysterical moments when the dice gods smile upon you and your flashlights shoot the shit through units that cost ten times as much to field.

Quote from: Spinachcat;912641Good stuff Crüesader!

I've been playing 40k on/off/rinse/repeat since Rogue Trader, so I'll add some bits.

a) It's totally cool to be a 40k fan who never touches the minis.
40k is a diverse IP, and like the Crüe Dude said, the minis game mechanics =/= the presentation of the setting in the fluff of the novels, or even in the mechanics of some of the video games. As much as I love, love, love the 40k verse and devour the novels & comics like a fiend, I must admit there are better minis games out there. Even games with better sculpts.

BTW, the disconnect between the Fluff and Crunch can be pretty bizarre. Space Marines on the tabletop have no relation to the Space Marines as presented in the fluff. The average SM is barely equal to 2 orks. Your lone SM ain't taking on 10 Tyranid.  

It's perfectly cool to buy a handful of minis just for the RPG, too.  Part of the reason I'm buying a second batch of the new Death Watch minis when they sell them standalone.  I have several minis from armies I don't use.  It's kind of cool to give every PC a 'miniature' for his character that looks the way he wants.

Actually this reminds me have you guys heard the 40k bolter is a real gun ?

Eh. By its description it could be a sort of grenade launcher.  Feasible for, say, a 25mm grenade with a slow automatic rate of fire. Make 37mm or 40mm for Space Marines.

So in a purely prosaic sense, the Bolter is hardly anything to get excited about, unless its pointed in your general direction.  Slap a fancy name on it, assign it ancient and mystical traditions and presto!  Space Opera Super Cannon of Killy-killy Death!



Wait: What did you mean? Link or it didn't happen.

As a guy who never touched the minis (slips of paper worked well enough)...I find the PC games are good enough.

How many iterations of the rules has 40k gone through now? Ten? More? Everything I know about the game from '95 is pure rubbish now, I'm sure, and I reckon a hard core serious player who stopped in 2012 would probably be just as clueless as me as to how the game plays in 2016.

Who would sink hundreds of bucks into a game based on what some guy says? Of course you should start small. For me, $20 on a PC game is as small as it gets.

I also play Oldhammer (aka, playing with an early rules set), especially Necromunda. I highly recommend Necromunda because the original ruleset is terrific and you never need to spend piles of money to have a rocking team to field. Also, the games are short and brutal.

Quote from: Doom;912744As a guy who never touched the minis (slips of paper worked well enough)...I find the PC games are good enough.

I'm not sure how you used slips of paper to play 40k, when things like 'line of sight' and 'cover' are a factor, though.

Quote from: Doom;912744Who would sink hundreds of bucks into a game based on what some guy says? Of course you should start small. For me, $20 on a PC game is as small as it gets.

True story.  A guy I used to work with wanted to get into the hobby, and I told him "Call me up when you wanna do this"- he didn't.  One payday, he had some extra money... for a moment.  He ended up going to a Games Workshop store and walking out with about $500.00 worth of shit.  

If the PC games are what you want, so be it.  But they are not the same game.  They're the same setting.  The PC games have as much in common with the tabletop game as the D&D Side-Scroller arcade game does with D&D 5e.

Quote from: Spike;912741Eh. By its description it could be a sort of grenade launcher.  Feasible for, say, a 25mm grenade with a slow automatic rate of fire. Make 37mm or 40mm for Space Marines.

So in a purely prosaic sense, the Bolter is hardly anything to get excited about, unless its pointed in your general direction.  Slap a fancy name on it, assign it ancient and mystical traditions and presto!  Space Opera Super Cannon of Killy-killy Death!



Wait: What did you mean? Link or it didn't happen.

Actually its a 12 mm pistol that's about as useful as a sharp rock.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98c2t_uK5Uo
There was also a carbine version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3IiWjdbUZg

Quote from: kosmos1214;912820Actually its a 12 mm pistol that's about as useful as a sharp rock.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98c2t_uK5Uo
There was also a carbine version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3IiWjdbUZg

You've been playing too many RPGs. Many many people have died to sharp rocks.

This is hte first time I've heard the gyrojet referred to as a bolter.

Quote from: Spike;912834You've been playing too many RPGs. Many many people have died to sharp rocks.

This is hte first time I've heard the gyrojet referred to as a bolter.

Oh defiantly if its sharp it is dangerous but its also relative of you gave me a choice between a gyro jet and a m1917 id take the m1917.
As to the gyro-jet being a bolter iv heard it several times though im actually not hugely sharp on 40k lore.

My favorite version of 40k is 3rd.  Every Traitor Marine Legion and Founding Legion has their own rules, and Chaos is glorious in it's adaptability.  I think I statted up a 2000 pt army that was one Chaos Lord Biker and his unit.

These days, I just read the novels. I used to play a lot of games, though. It got way to expensive, and the editions started coming out way too fast. I sold my last minis around 2005 or so.

40k armies I played: Sisters of Battle, Chaos (Nurgle), Orks.
Fantasy armies: Skaven.
Mordheim warband: Beastmen.
Battlefleet Gothic: Orks.

The only game I truly miss is Mordheim, as we had a league going with around 16 players. My beastmen wrecked a lot of teams.