Hi guys, so finally thinking about getting an army assembled and painted. I was thinking of getting 3k ready to rock n roll straight away, so that tournements are possible ( UK Expo could be on the cards)

I am a noob to E:A, I played a couple of games a couple of years ago whilst based in Harrogate, enjoyed getting my ass handed to me though.

The armies I have are as follows: Orks, Marines, Imperial guard, DKoK and Nids should be arriving soon (also eyeing up Tau)

Thanks in advance for the help.

Manny

I think the orks vs IG are what's most often suggested for a good beinners game. Few special rules and two rather straight forward armies.

Agreed, IG and Orks are the easiest armies to learn the rules.

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"I don't believe in destiny or the guiding hand of fate." N. Peart

Definitely IG and Orks. Then possibly Marines, depending on how much you are into the "air" game.
Then any of the others - all play very differently. If you are thinking of coming along to the UK tourneys (which I can heartily recommend) check out the army lists and events here.

Krieg are most definitely 'out'.....

They have been very successful under the generalship of dptdexys, RichardL and Man of Kent in UK events in the past year

I just lost 2-0 to them with my titans in a ridiculously brutal game.... the main tactic appeared to be 'clog the powerfists with your limp bodies boys'.....

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Just some guy

My hobby/painting threads

Army Forge List Co-ordinator

As the others have said, Imperial Guard is probably easiest to learn with. God, that army is powerful. Has the tools and numbers to deal with almost any situation. Those Leman Russ companies are incredibly strong.

I might disagree that Orks are easy to learn the game with. I could be wrong, but the two newer players in our group who use Orks are having a very hard time getting traction and winning games.

I personally find Space Marines fairly challenging (although rewarding) to use, and probably not best suited for beginners.

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Former Blood Angels Army Champion
Epic Gamers Los Angeles Chapter
Armies Played:
Blood Angels
Black Legion
Codex Marines
Imperial Fists

I found Orks a little bit difficult compared to Imperial Guard. There are a lot of options for creating mixed formations (with very different units in them) - that makes it both harder to write lists, and a little more complicated to play. With most other armies it's clear what you should be doing with the different formations available.

I would suggest starting with Guard to learn the game as you tend to have the numbers and a bit of durability.

Whilst I'd say that Marines are the most forgiving of armies, they are also the hardest to play on the tournament scene. Most of your opponents will either have an army or have played them in the past. They do however have some special rules which make them really tough.

Orks mainly have simple tactics - Double & engage. As you become a more experienced commander you can then start to look at doing the harder things like Sustaining and Marching.

Nids you have to play fearlessly, if you don't then you will be cut apart piecemeal. You will be cut apart anyway it's just a case of doing the same damage to your opponent and keeping enough forces left to win.

So my advice is to go with Guard.

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www.epic-uk.co.uk - home of the UK Epic tournament scene
NetEA NetERC Xenos Lists Chair
NetEA Ork + Feral Ork + Speed Freak Champion

Yep, guard are probably the most straightforward.

Orks should be easy as well in theory but as others have said if you stray too far from doubling and engaging things get more tricky.

A lot actually depends on your understanding of the game and your play style. Engagements are really where it's at - either initiating them or dealing with them. With guard you can lean more towards shooting which is a bit less involved and if you're engaged you often have numbers, commissars or super heavies on your side.

If you're up for getting stuck in and throwing everything forward you may find orks or even nids fine. Armies like Tau or Necrons need a bit more understanding of the mechanics - if you lose key units with these you can find yourself fighting an uphill battle pretty quickly.

I would suggest that learning the strategies and tactics for any given army runs a close second to learning the E:A rules. A number of the above posts have already alluded to this, which is why people are almost unanimous in suggesting starting with IG / Orks then (possibly) marines as these generally have more easily identifiable themes to work with.

In principle E:A is about making the best use of your formations / activations. The more you have, the less effective they usually are. However, having a few 'uber' formations can result in your opponent gaining opportunities to manoeuver his key formations. A very rough recommendation is to work on an average formation cost between 250 and 350 points, giving approximately 8-12 formations in a 3K army.

Given this number of formations, the next principle is to work out how you want to use them. There are several factors to consider:-

• speed,
• combat preference (shooting and target type, or assault),
• durability (armour and formation numbers)
• and special abilities (teleport, transport capacity etc).

These factors are where the races can differ most - Nids having no air component while Marines generally work best when a section is airborne, IG being slow but resilient with good firepower while Tau are faster but are also quite brittle and use Markerlight to boost their firepower etc.

Others can give their views on S&T, or indeed you can research the relevant sections of the forums for hints and tips.

Thank you very much for all the advice guys

Looks like IG will be the first army I do then. I'm guessing it's ok to use the DKoK infantry and Death Riders for my steel legion? I just prefer the details so much more than the plastic infantry.

No problem with which ever models you use.

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www.epic-uk.co.uk - home of the UK Epic tournament scene
NetEA NetERC Xenos Lists Chair
NetEA Ork + Feral Ork + Speed Freak Champion

Regarding Expo 6/10 tickets are now sold

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www.epic-uk.co.uk
NetEA NetERC Human Lists Chair
NetEA Chaos + Black Legion Champion

Yep, IG and Orks ...

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Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

Hey guys,

So I've settled for Steel Legion as my first army, however after digging through my epic stuff I only have 7 Chimeras (bulky looking GW things) I was wondering if anyone knows where any can be found? As I'll need at least another 7.

Cheers for now guys