Can I make a question? I know it isn't a very simple one, but since they don't play WH40K on the store where they sell stuff, I haven't been able to ask anyone or read it somewhere.

How do the stats work? I know their names, and I can suppose things, but how do they work?

Iirc Assault on Black Reach comes with a small rulebook with statsheets in the back. Once you've chosen an army you can buy a codex from a store, or *cough* procure one in a digital format.

Basically you need a rulebook and codex(es) to understand it all.

Rulebook and codex...
Assault on Black Reach...

This thing is a pretty expeeeensive hobbie for a newbie.

I'll try to buy Assault on Black Reach with a friend, so each one has an army and we can share the rulebook.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. This ♥♥♥♥ is pretty damn expensive if you don't have any of the materials involved. A good set of paints and brushes will set you back some 50ish bucks and the ASOBR set will set you back another 60, so yeah, it's a pretty large investment.

The best thing you can do (and it's pretty much what everyone else does) is to buy it with a friend and split the forces, so the expense gets cut down to half point. Either that or sell what you don't want/need on ebay.

Or you can just grab a small squad of what you like best (and do choose and play what you like, or else you'll get bored pretty quickly), and some basic paints and a two or three decent brushes.



Depending on what color scheme you go with there's a few basic colors that you will almost always need, as follows (I'll use GW names, because it's simpler to keep track and find them on stores):

Chaos black, skull white, golden yellow, blood red, snot green, bleached bone, ultramarine blue, boltgun metal, shinning gold, bestial brown, dwarf flesh, elve flesh, devlan mud and badab black.

Besides paints you'll also need what are called washes (the devlan mud and badab black). Washes, or liquid talent, are basically composed of pigments and oil, so they can be quite useful when unifying several lairs of paint.


Like everything in life there's several brands form where to choose from, and that's also the case with paints. The main ones, at least from my point of view, are GW and vallejo. GW if, of course, the best known and the most used, while vallejo is a bit of an underdog. Yet again, like most things in life, one isn't better than the other. They both have their ups and downs.

Vallejo paints tend to be cheaper, but are different from GW, in the sense that you need to know how paint works when diluted. Their metallics also tend to be quite worthless, so stay away from them. GW is one of the few brands that make washes, and the consensus is that they're pretty good for the money.


In terms of brushes the GW branch is fine for most things. Although I've grown fond of army painter ones, mainly because they have a wider variety. You'll need three or four of them, namely a fine detail, detail, drybrush and an extremely fine one to paint the eyes and such.



This brings me to glues. Well, this is where you can kind of cut corners. The hardcore guys will tell you that you must always use plastic glue because it's amazing and it even gives you a couple blowjobs in the morning. The truth is that I've been using cheap superglue from the dollar store since day one and I haven't outgrown it since.


Then there's hobby knifes. Yet again, get some cheap ones form the dollar store and you're set.


Codexes. Welp, just search for them on google, you'll surely find them. They're way too expensive for what they are.

And I think that's about it. I'm sorry if it's a bit messy, and if you have any questions don't hesitate and shoot.

Very informative post, sir.

But my biggest doubt keeps being which army to pick. I guess I'll see some friends play, check how the game flows and then I'll pick one.

Unfortunately that's the bit where no one can really help you. Although we could nudge in the right direction. Which race have you been looking at?

Imperial Guard, Tau, and Space Marines. Maybe even Orkz.

Imperial Guard, not sure why but I they have something I like.

Tau, mainly because of their huge range attacks, even though I don't like the fact they aren't good on close combat.

Space Marines, because well, you know, for the common guy WH40K = Space Marines. Also, they look very efficient and versatile.

And I liked the Orkz because of hoards of soldiers and rolling 45 dice while attacking.


Playing Dawn of War: Dark Crusade is a good reference for how the armies work on the table top game?

imperial guard are one of my favorite armies, mainly because they're standard humans and they know that all of their lives are forfeit. They're extremely versatile, but a full blown army will cost some serious money. Fielding five or six tanks or a few gunships is pretty dandy, but keep in mind that each tank is about 30+ bucks.

I may go into a small scale air cav list, purely because it's pretty damned cool.



Tau are getting an update in the coming months, so I wouldn't advise investing on anything just yet. Unless you're interested on used models, and if so they're going pretty cheap on ebay. They differ from pretty much everything else in the sense that they're a shooty army, and unfortunately pretty much everything in 40k is based upon close combat. If you do go into tau make sure you're fine with loosing more than a few matches (hey, I've been playing for a year and still have only one win under my belt).

Truth is that they're the underdog right now and that can be quite appealing.



Space marines are GW's lovechild and you can really tell with the sheer amount of stuff that's available. Do keep in mind that there's different chapters and some of them have their own special rules. And you can always do a custom chapter with standard, or specific rules.

They are, as you mentioned, extremely versatile and hard to mess up. They can be shooty, close combat, storm troopers..you name it. On the other hand they're pretty common, so you might end up have plenty marine on marine matches.



Orks are pretty cool in the sense that you can pull pretty much anything with them. Conversions, silly lists and all round shenanigans. However while rolling 45 dice might look appealing, and I'm not saying it's a bad thing, the novelty wears of quite quickly and it becomes a nuisance to roll 50+ dice per unit when there's three or four of them on the table. Furthermore, there's really only one or two types of lists that pay off with orks, either you take a full on green tide (300 or so models) in order to be able to stay competitive on large amounts of points or you play purely for fun, which is always advised anyway.



Unfortunately I never really got into the pc games, so I don't really have an opinion on them :/

I'll just get some Imperial Guard models, something small like 500 points (?) to begin playing small skirmishes and learning how to play and stuff.

Then, I'll take an arrow to the knee. I'll see how my gaming style is and see if I should change army or not.

Thanks for the tips FoiL, they were very useful.

On another note. If you want to learn how to play miniwargaming has a pretty decent series, although there's nothing like learning from experienced players. But be weary from anything they say and do check things up, because most people tend to adapt the rules to their needs, simplify or ever make them overcomplicated.

http://www.miniwargaming.com/content/in ... hammer-40k


Be sure to roam as much as you are willing around the Internet and do check out /tg/ on 4chan, no, I'm not bullshiting you on this note, there really is some useful stuff being thrown around in there most of the time.

I've seen many of those videos, plus found a rulebook on the net.

Now I'm using some lego robots and soldiers as models to get a hang of the game. It's pretty good, and it will be much better with actual models

Obligatory.


Anyway, the main point you need to keep in mind is that warhammer, no matter how cool/time consuming/weird it is, is just a game. Keep that in mind if you encounter (and you most probably will) face some dipshit diehard that takes the thing way too seriously. Those can really be fun-killers.

Oh god.
Legos are awesome. That Predator Tank blew my mind, as also did that entire army.


And I enjoy playing WH40K for fun, not for winning. I like making RPs while fighting.

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/New_Stuff/T ... RMOUR.html

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/New_Stuff/A ... TAURS.html



Jesus Christ, the awesome in these new models.

Forge World is the best.
I should get around to actually ordering something from there.