"Starting 40K advice?" Topic

My teenage son and some of his friends want to jump into the 40K blackhole. I assume they will use the current rules. One kid already has a few space marines. My son seems pretty open to any faction. I think the Orks look neat but, if I understand the points based system, he (me) is going to have to spend a lot more money on figures than someone buying space marines.

What is your advice for a youngster starting out in 40K?

Stay focused and have fun! If you want a faction that might not require fielding hordes of the things, you might want to consider the Tau – neat models, reasonably high points cost so not too many of them and less (IMHO) morally problematic than Chaos

At the risk of sounding flippant: don't!

Trying to be more constructive, it depends what are the motivations.

If the lore is important then buy 2nd-hand novels & army books. They won't have the current rules, but will be just as good for "look and feel".

If the models are important then there are alternatives – though they're not necessarily easy for a novice to find. Otherwise, look out for 2nd-hand stuff or suck it up and pay GW's new prices. I would recommend NOT using a $100 USD model as the first think that a beginner builds & paints! Practice with something *much* cheaper first.

If playing the game is important then use Xenos Rampant, One-Page Rules or some other system. Not only are these much simpler, but they're also a great deal cheaper and just as much (or more) fun to play.

I am pretty sure the boys are set on 40k. You pretty much need to be when playing with others. I might try some simple rules with my son, but that won't fly with local gaming groups. When I was a teen, I played what was being played.

The local FLGS has a number of used GW figures for sale, so I will check that out when I have time. A lot of the time they are already assembled as well, so assembled figures for a pretty good discount if they have what you are looking for.

As a person who, ashamedly, has 9 armies collected since Rogue Trader (all 7,000 pts. plus), I agree with Colgar's flippant remark.:)

Rule #1: Collect what gets you excited. You are going to have to paint these guys, and if you have an army you're not in love with…it won't happen.

Rule #2: Power level changes frequently. Usually quarterly with the balance dataslates. See rule #1.

Rule #3: See if you have a FLGS or GW store in your area and see if they'll run them through some Combat Patrol games or they have a Crusade league. Combat Patrol is an easy way to see if you like the general way a faction plays. Crusade League is a good way to gradually build up an army, and has a more casual/narrative play feel. Army play style varies widely. If the option exists, and they have friends who already play, borrow armies to get a feel for play style.

For cost reasons, I'd stay away from Astra Militarum (Guard) Tau and Orks. Unless you can find an army for cheap off of Ebay.
Stay away from Agents of the Imperium, they are probably going the way of the Dodo. Grey Knights should get a refresh here soon, I'd avoid any of their models currently. I would avoid Chaos Daemons as GW is not sure what they want to do with them. The rest are fair game really.

Hope that info is of some use.

Stay away from Orks and Tyranids as they require a lot of models.

You can start small with Kill Team – one box purchase for each faction, fun game, will get you started on models and painting. Most kill teams are between 5 and 15 models.

Scour Ebay – you can get decent deals at times, especially buying parts of big boxes other gamers don't want. I got a lot of basic Tyranids that way. Sadly, I love horde armies.

Not to contradict Extra Crispy, but Tyranids can be pretty cheap. Crusher Stampede uses just the big monsters and usually has 15 models or less. Plus, Tyranids were in the Leviathan starter for 10th and you can probably find the models pretty cheap on Ebay, they are organic, and if you look at Insects and reptiles for inspiration, they can be an easy and fun army to paint. I am a bit biased though, 'Nids are one of my favorite armies.

Starting with kill team is a good suggestion. More kill team games going on at FLGS than full 40k around here

Many of the "younger" gamers here started with 40k and later discovered historical, so hope is not all lost.

As a parent, you need to realize that often these are fads that teenagers persue as a group, but generally later abandon, usually when they discover girls

I have a theory that millions of 40k figures get thrown out every year, after kids graduate college, move out from home and clear out their rooms. Based on that theory, Ebay prices are too high

John

Joe, I sent you a PM

I have plenty of 40K stuff and can give him an army.

Kim

There are lots of cool, free STL files. Spend $600 USD on a resin printer, washing and curing equipment, resin, IPA, PPE, then spend hours and hours learning the ropes, then you can have all the free minis you want!

More seriously, I have not played 40K, but people I trust say it's a good game to get started on. You're going to spend money, but the return on investment is good.

They REALLY need to look at One Page Rules Grim Dark Future. Gives the 40k feel in spades but minus the cost and waaaaay better and faster playing rules. There were actually players from the Cincycon 40K tourney that played in the several GDF games at the show and are switching over. The armies easily transition. The complete rules are 5 or 10 bucks on Wargame Vault. Heck they can even start with the Kill Team style set 1st. GDF will save them time, frustration and money. I talk to Ex 40k players who say how excited they are about GDF. We have one of the largest GDF groups playing locally monthly.

Thanks.

John

+1 to Kim!

I can certainly ask, but I imagine they will have to find out the hard.

Kim is a stand-up guy.

My son is very excited. He already plays some historicals and post-apoc, so this might actually be a way to see if his friends want to try some Old West or zombie gaming.

When my son got into 40k a few years back I found toons of painted 40k on Ebay for very good prices. I was surprised how cheap they were.

Yes, start small. Kill Team and expand from there.

On the subject of rules (it is highly unlikely that I will play pure 40K, whatever the necrons at the back of my closet say)

Due to a highly improbable set of circumstances, I obtained a codex (free, my favorite price point). This proved to be incredibly entertaining, but probably not in the way the authors expected. It is full of silly, superfluous detail. That is of course, exactly what teenage boys enjoy (I was 13 once). So the rules give each faction powers, which are hopefully balanced across the forces. This is part of the fun, so that you can argue for hours which faction, and which models are best. You're not going to get this from a generic set of rules, even if they play better

My 2 credits (or whatever passes for money in the 40K universe

John

Good on Kim! I also think the Grimdark rules are the way to go – have not used the 40K rules since they came out

One Page Rules are the way to go.

But for 40K, there is an edition change about to happen so there will be a lot of models about to be pushed to make way for new models. You will also see a number of them lose usefulness in the new edition so be careful about specialty units. The current armies that win the most are mostly Elite and Heavy units. That may or may not be as true in the new edition, but generally the most expensive units are more effective but that is not always the case.

I have had units go from basically mandatory to useless and back between editions, and used to buy the bad units when cheap between editions. Now I play OPR and print my own. Someone once told me 40K is what you can expect to pay for your army if you stick with official models. :)

The boys are set on giving the rules a try, and they probably should. I told my son that there are alternatives sets if they find the rules to be too complicated or cumbersome.

Kim is going to hook me up with some figures, so that's a huge help. The primary army will be space marines.