Help Choosing an Army

[Blank Dave]

I'd like to quickly introduce myself, as I've been lurking here for a while

 

I'm Dave, from Canada. Haven't played in ages, and kinda jumped from Rt to 3rd to 7 and 8. I've been hankering to get back into 40k, or Kill Team, but I'm having a bugger of a time deciding who to play.

 

I've got about a full company worth of RT and 3rd era marines in various stages of disassembly (and when I dig them out to look at them, I feel a lot of meh); about 100 Harlies, and a handful of orks.

 

As a player, I consider myself to be casual, beer and pizza type player, who was prone to a reactive, apprehensive/defensive heavy handed play style. Painting, I never got too good, though I enjoyed hacking things apart and rebuilding it. Sculpting/building, I could build crude, chunky stuff.

 

I'd like my army to focus on troops being the backbone of it, and not just some CP generator, and largely mono faction. I'm not opposed to a souping, but with a theme/purpose.

 

The armies I'm torn between:

Wolves: Lots of character and ability to personalize even the basic guys.  Each dude is a hero. But maybe too aggressive a play style for me

 

Orks: As above. I kinda enjoyed the older orks and skaven, when their stuff worked it worked, and when it didn't hilarity ensued.

 

Iron Hands: I love the theme of them. I love cyborgs and power armour. They get all the new toys, and even though they have been nerfed, I still like their traits and what not. I'm put off by how they were absolute dicks in Wraith of Iron...I know Grimdark, but Marines are supposed to be heroes. I did like them in the HH novel where they were racing Fulgrim to the eldar world.

 

Iron Warriors: Much of the above, though their traits are different. The ignore cover I like. And the Human Shield strat. <3 (They're bad guys, they can be dicks) Don't know how well they'd fit my play style, as chaos is generally more aggressive, is it not?

 

Emperor's Children: Always wanted to do a whack of noise marines. Just don't like the idea of building all those sonic weapons...

 

1000 Sons: Funky wizards, what can I say? Goats and stupid helmets though...

 

Ad Mech: Funky cyborgs, and their play style looks to be a good fit. I just don't know how bored I'd get building the troops, being kinda fiddly to convert and paint.

 

Harlies: Nostalgia, I was huge on them in RT days. Their play style and mine would probably be a poor mix. And painting.... But death by clown.

 

Imp Fists: Their bolter discipline and ability to ignore cover, I like. Some of their strats and relics are appealing, but they seem kinda meh.

 

Raven Guard: Kind of an outlier, but sneaky/snipey silliness is appealing. But play style doesn't strike me as quite a good fit.

 

Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance, Blank Dave

Edited March 29, 2020 by Blank Dave

[Scribe]

Honestly you have a lot of marines options in there, I would think you should probably lean that way if you are already open to that many flavours of marine.

 

(PS: Wrath of Iron is the single greatest stand alone novel representation of 40K, and is the reason I would play Iron Hands, the singular reason. :p)

 

By the various descriptions you are going for, you want a gun line, and you probably want to be a 'good guy'. Fists, or maybe Salamanders (??) since they are the trope setter for 'we are marines but like, we like humans!' version of marines.

[Axineton]

Harlequins just cos they’re my new fave thing right now! You only need 7-8 for kill team and who cares how they’re painted? I’m by no means a Picasso artist myself so don’t worry mate. 

[Blank Dave]

Honestly you have a lot of marines options in there, I would think you should probably lean that way if you are already open to that many flavours of marine.

Well, as some of the other armies go they don't interest me, appeal to me, or I know they're not a good fit.  Eldar of either variety appear to me to be scalpels, where a sledge hammer works better for me.  Necrons, Sisters, Custodes, and Demons don't really interest me.  I could see doing Guard if something caught my eye.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

I think you’ll love Space Wolves.

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

Firstly, welcome to the board proper, Blank Dave! Always good to have another lurker step into a more active role.

 

Secondly, to your question, my advice is to go with a flavor you'd enjoy. No one says you have to do a GW army (and while I may be plugging the Liber here a bit overmuch) it is in my opinion one of the better ways to play. You say you like Iron Hands, but didn't like their attitude in Wrath of Iron? Nothing is stopping you from making a successor chapter of Iron Hands that holds much the same beliefs as their parent chapter, but isn't nearly so cold, rude, and standoffish as the Iron Tenth. I myself have a 10th legion successor chapter, which manifests their gene line in sheer stubbornness and refusal to die, without so many bionics--the point is that a successor chapter makes the best and worst of a geneline possible, with new and different elements to make it your own.

 

If you like AdMech, you can combine that with a chapter and get a pair of unique organizations that draw from the playstyles of both armies and interconnect to tell a story on and off the battlefield. Going with the example of the chapter above, perhaps you have a forgeworld with close relations with this chapter due to their lineage from the Iron Hands, a chapter with whom the AdMech works closely. How is this forge world different from other forgeworlds? You can come up with an easier scheme to paint if you like, and the models are not *that* finicky to build (from my experience, at any rate, though I suspect if I'd built more than 10 of them that opinion might change  ).

 

In the end, however, one of the best things you can likely do is experiment. One of the great things about Kill Team is that it doesn't need that many models, ergo you don't have to paint that many models, so if you get bored or realize you don't like certain parts of a playstyle, there's not been much lost in time or models. (and if you have to, a squad of RG and a squad of IH don't look that much different if you don't put a lot of detail on them, so you can probably fudge that a little bit if ya want.) With a full company of marines you have lots of options--I'm sure you'll pick the best one for you. :tu:

[mughi3]

With all those old 3rd ed marines.....i'd say find a group playing Horus Heresy and just repurpose the units with a quick paint job and some weapon swaps. 

 

but then again i think HH is a better game than 8th ed 40K  ;) 

[WarriorFish]

I think Iron Hands or AdMech sounds like a good fit for you, as armies that can be defensive and reaction better but don't forget the models are the main part of an army ;) As Lenoch says the path of the DIYer lets you detach lore from rules, not to mention stretch your own creativity :)

[lhg033]

Just to check/ask - you have seen the new space wolves vs orks box set that is coming out?
New Ragnar and New Ghaz plus some extra units for each plus rules for units in the box/core rules sheet to get you playing a bit.

Based on what you say about liking to hack/convert Orks seem like a solid choice


for Orks - contrast paints are great, give a nice and easy table top finish without spending an age painting

this was playing round for about an hour, not being too careful.
base coat then a single coat of the contrast colour - done. The only bit i went back on was adding checkboard/red rims by basecoating again then going white or red over the top.

[ranulf the revenant]

I think I would make up my own custom chapter. They could have the kind of fluff you want plus, you could legally experiment with your playstyle, see what works and what doesn't

[Vermintide]

AdMech sound like they'd be a great fit for you. You can play them as a mostly defensive gunline, but they have several very nice units that are either fast, or capable of deepstrike, that give you an arm to reach out into the mid-field with.

As for painting and modelling, they're really not as hard as they look. They're a rewarding army for people who are good with a brush, but they're also really easy if you want to just paint the metallic parts silver, paint the robes red, then throw a wash over. The models are so good you can get away with it, because a dark wash it'll just show up all the intricacies of the model.

Seems counter-intuitive but I think the fact they look complex really carries a beginner painter- The first models I painted when I got back into the hobby were Skitarii and a Techpriest Dominus. I'm promising I'll let myself expand them as a reward for powering through the Blood Angels I have sitting unpainted :D