by John Goodman

Created on: October 26, 2009   Last Updated: October 28, 2009

Hello sir, welcome to the 41,000th century. A time when humanity has stretched itself to the edge of our universe, then drove back on itself, been viciously attacked by alien( xenos) species, and done some of that vicious attacking right back at them. A time when our great emperor is kept alive only by the brilliance of his golden throne, and his empire splinters every day more and more. Now, for those considering taking up this fun, time filling, albeit expensive, hobby, it can seem a bit overwhelming to pick your first army, and to get them constructed, painted and all the while learning how to fight with them, but don't worry, there will always be a friendly face to help you along.

So the first question seems quite difficult. What army do you want to be? well, lets split that up right quick, do you want to be imperial, xenos, or chaos? Well, from there, the details of what you want to be all depend on your preferential style of tactics. I personally went Imperial. Now, lets break that down, I like big, mean and hard hitting attacks, so while the guard are an overwhelming force, and the inquisitions are vicious in battle, the Space marines were bigger, meaner, and had more big guns than any of the others. Now, if you choose xenos, well you've got the Tau, the Orks, Eldar and dark Eldar, the necron. and the Tyranids. Just ask your local hobbyshop guy for advice, they're usually really nice and can tell you all the pros and cons. Tau, suck at close combat, but can pick you off from afar like it's going out of season, the orks couldn't hit the broadside of a barn if there gun wasn't as big as one, but their armies are huge, and can match anything close up. The eldar while frail, are fast, and hard hitting, with a huge troop choices. The dark eldar, are similar to the reg eldar, except they're more vehicle oriented. While the necrons can take a beating, and if they hit you, you're screwed, they have no vehicles except their monoliths, and some models are all but useless without a balanced force. And last but far from least the Tyranids, overwhelming insects with no fear of death. Now, on to the chaos, now, there are only really two choices, the wide variety chaos space marines, renegades from the empire, or Daemons, now obviously you can combine the two so no real worries there. So, while that seems like a lot of information, we've hardly begun.

Now, of course, how to paint them, is tied into what army they are, for in every army, there are sub factions, and while on the most part this has little to with anything other than how they will look and what equipment they are more likely to sport, it can be very important to how you're going to paint your figures later.

Constructing and painting your models. Sounds easy, well, kinda. This is where your previous decisions will come back to either reward or haunt you. I won't lie, my first army, I got through, maybe a whole squad, then became unmotivated to paint anymore, then almost four months later got the urge to dive back into it. Now, if you're one for detail, there are plenty of challenges for you, from making your army look better than the heavy metal team did on the box, to creating a force the likes of which have never been seen. Or those like me, who do speed painting and then detail it. Well, either way, you can make an army look striking and impressive very easily with as much effort as you want. My suggestion is to watch/read tons of tutorials on websites like youtube and miniwargaming, these resources will save your butt, and give you loads of ideas. now obviously you can also be lazy and just put your models together, primer them and that be it, but that's no fun.

Now how to play, well, that's for another day.

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