Help for the young Noob

[andrewbeater]

My 15 year old son has a friend who is interested in getting into 40K and the question has come up, what is the easiest army to break into the game with? Keeping in mind we have a typical 15 year old who has never played or watched 40K before. My thoughts are: 1) Space Marines- it burns my mind to think it, but Marines are the A-typical easy army to start with. 2) Eldar- A bit of an older codex, but still worth playing. I think it's not too difficult to wrap your mind around it. 3) Maybe Necrons- Since I play Necrons, I could help him along a bit with them. I think the Necrons are a bit difficult to play at first, but you quickly get a grip on the armies dynamics.
What I would like to hear is how easy Black Templar's and Tau are to play.

[LordChaeron]

I say Marines, only because of the general lack of special rules, which allow the player to get used to the game, it's phases etc. Plus they can do everything and have a decent armor save. But most of Marines are forgiving, your son's friend will make mistakes and in certain armies, big mistakes equals a crushing defeat.

Cutting his teeth on Marines and then graduating to either Necrons or Eldar is a good idea too, once he's got the basic game down and still has interest past his first few games.

My son, now 16, wanted Eldar when he started at 10. I wouldn't let him get them and he opted for Tyranids. He's only just now started building an Eldar army, happy he is now ready for a "finesse" army instead of "horde" army.

[andrewbeater]

Both of my kids started 3 years ago. My youngest was 10, but he is gifted intellectually and he started with Space Marines; White Scars to be exact. My oldest son was 13 when he started and he started with Orks. They simply bought 2 Assault on Black Reach sets and started that way. Three years later, My one son has Space Marines, Eldar and Imperial Guard and the other has Orks, Blood Angels and Tyranids. I think the Orks were a bit nutty for a first timer as they need a good plan to win. Space Marines are a good place to start, but everyone and their brother has Marines it seems.

[LordChaeron]

Yeah I hear you on the Marines. It's funny you mention your other son started with Orks because that's what my youngest, 11 this year, wants for his first army. Although I know where the influence comes from, I have two friends in my group who play Orks. One of them has a Stompa and it was love at first sight for my son! XD

Idk just Marines I feel would be best. Low model count, don't require alot to invest to get off the ground. They have to learn the rules and then after they do, they have to stay interested. My oldest comes and goes interest wise, suddenly he wants to play all the time and others he'd rather do anything but.

[bliss-giver]

Marines are easy to start with, if he starts with one of the special chapters (or chaos), he can still start with a fairly typical marines army then add the specialists as he learns.

Eldar seem hard as a first army, you can throw marines against almost anything, but eldar require more planning and finesse.

[experiment 626]

Codex Space Marines gives both a more forgiving army and a litterly endless scope for trying out the various playstyles that every other army is built off of.

He can go for the 'bread & butter' take-all-comers approch by including a bit of everything such as 2x tacticals + dread + termies + devies + etc... Then he can start playing around with the Chapter Tactics options such as a fleet of foot in yer face assaulty build, a stubborn sternguard line w/re-rolling bolters, twin-linked flamers/meltas, biker bad boys, dread-fest, etc...

From there he can get a feel for what tactics & playstyle suit him best, then perhaps decide on an expanded collection of a more specialised army.

Or else he can learn the basics on 'easy mode' and get GK's! (but who *really* wants to encourage yet another GK army?!?)

[ZhuPei]

I would say marines, on one condition. NO ULTRASMURFS. Give him something to work with!

Also, I was 15 when I started eldar.. The only problem I had was not going mech at the start, and finding an army that works for you..

Zhu.

[DEADMARSH]

Easiest to break in with? Marines. You mentioned it seems like everyone has Marines, there's a reason for that.

That being said, what models does he dig the most? If everything is basically the same level of cool for him, then go Marines. If he doesn't like Marines though, or more specifically, he think some other army looks really, really cool, get him started on that one.

As for your question on BTs and Tau, I can't comment on the BTs. Tau take some work. The obvious points, they're (both, actually) an old codex does apply to a certain extent, but a good Tau army is fairly complicated in how it works, if you ask me. Take it for what it's worth, but I'd not recommend them for somebody just starting out.