Are you a rookie on the wargaming front? Not to worry! Jstove has you covered with his ideas on how to spend less and get more back for you gaming collection!
Jstove here with an article for new players. First, let’s talk about “How GW works.”
Let’s assume you’re new to the game because you walk into a Games Workshop store and say, “Gee this looks fun, I sure would like to buy little plastic men, paint them, and make them kill each other!”
How GW Works:
So, you know you want in. Next step, which army do you like best and what do you want to play?
If you picked Space Marine or Death Guard, you’re in luck, because the Dark Imperium boxed game is the best deal in town.
“What if I don’t have a friend who wants Space Marines/Death Guard to split with? Do I still get the Dark Imperium box?”
The answer is yes, you do, and then you either trade or eBay the guys you don’t want. The starter box is always the best deal in the hobby.
However, if you aren’t a Death Guard or Space Marine fan, the first thing you are directed to is a Start Collecting! Box, which is the next best deal after the starter, and the only deal for factions that aren’t in the starter.
Spend Less, Get More:
Now, we’re going to go over all these Start Collecting boxes, and I’m going to tell you which ones I would buy, and which ones I would avoid.
ASTRA MILITARUM- THUMBS UP
I like it. It has guys, and you need guys. It has a commissar, and you need him too. It also has a leman russ, and russes are great because they have a diverse array of firepower and as long as you don’t glue all the guns in and keep it swappable, you’ll have a Russ for every occasion. As far as training wheels go, this box is rock solid.
SPACE MARINES- THUMBS UP
I like this box because it comes with my favorite unit for new marine players, the venerable dreadnought. The venny dread is great because he has a twin lascannon that always hits on a 2 and never gets crappy as he takes damage. He’s a very forgiving model to play with for newbies because he gets the benefit of chapter tactics where tanks don’t, and he always shoots that big gun and doesn’t miss.
BLOOD ANGELS- THUMBS UP
The likable thing about the Blood Angel box is the Baal Predator. The weapons are modular, and you can pull all of them off and run it as a rhino. As long as you’re smart with how you assemble your rhino/predator kits, you always have a model to use. It’s exactly like the Leman Russ I talked about in the Guard box, getting a versatile and customizable model in the Start Collecting box is always good.
DEATHWATCH- THUMBS UP
This box is saved by the dreadnought, for the same reason as the Space Marine box, because the venerable is a great model for new players that need a consistent heavy firepower model that always does his job. Don’t be fooled by the box art though, that venerable dread is one of the only models in the game that can fire a lascannon on a 2. He always takes the lascannon, as a new player you need that 2+ guarantee.
SPACE WOLVES- THUMBS DOWN
In 7th edition, this was a decent box because thunderwolf cavalry are great. In 8th edition, I’m not convinced that thunderwolf cavalry is the giant monster it used to be. Thunderwolves used to be a tough nut to crack because you could tank wounds on characters and it was hard to get past those storm shields.
Now there’s no character wound bouncing shenanigans, and mortal wounds bypass the invulnerable save. I wouldn’t put this box on a new player because I doubt they would understand how to use it, it just feels like dead weight that won’t work the way it would have in a different version of the game. I wish they gave the starter box something more forgiving like that venerable dread with his 2+ lascannon, or a customizable predator, or the space wolf flying snowcone gun brick.
AD MECH- THUMBS DOWN
The problem with this box is I’m not convinced that the Dune Crawler is a big enough tank to carry the value of this box. The venerable dreadnoughts, predators, and leman russes were way more obvious, but for these guys, I feel like the box is punching under its weight.
It’s probably still the best way to buy a dune crawler since you’ll use all the models in the box and it has a discount, but as a starter army I don’t think Ad Mech is great for rookies, and I don’t think this box is great by any stretch. Maybe Castellans or Kataphrons would have been a better sell.
CHAOS SPACE MARINES- THUMBS TO THE FLOOR
As a chaos player myself, I think this box is the biggest lie since the heresy. I love the hellbrute because dreadnoughts are always cool and chaos has the Fire Frenzy stratagem, and the helbrute kit is actually the most versatile dreadnought kit made to date. It has all the parts to build for all melee or all shooty. The problem here is vanilla chaos space marines are practically unusable, and the terminator lord isn’t a demon prince.
If this box was a helbrute, khorne berzerkers, and a demon prince, I’d love it. If this box had cultists, it’d be the best box ever. Unfortunately, it’s full of models that are as bitter and poisonous as the attitude of chaos worshipers- You start off thinking it’s good, but then you get whiny and mad because you realize as you get better at the game that you’d never use anything in this box. It’s a bait-and-switch. Just go Death Guard and buy Dark Imperium.
CHAOS DEMONS- WHAT?
- Slaanesh- Honestly, just don’t. New players shouldn’t be expected to build and paint a Slaanesh lawnmower chariot, that model is just an accident waiting to happen. I wouldn’t ask my worst enemy to build that model. I know that everyone should always pick the army they think looks the coolest, but there should be an exception to that rule for lawnmower chariots. It’s fragile, it’s pointy, and it needs its own shelf of battlefoam inside an army bag just to leave the house. It’s not a model for new players in any aspect of the hobby.
- Khorne- They are red and they punch you. It works.
- Tzeentch- I’m not even sure this box exists anymore.
- Nurgle- This is actually pretty great. Drones are fun, and nurglings and plaguebearers are obligatory, use them in every list. This might be one of the best Start Collecting boxes because you’ll always use all the things, all the time.
CRAFTWORLD ELDAR- THUMBS UP
This is pretty much the ultimate training wheels box. It gives an eldar player some of the most resilient and high firepower units in the army. Just don’t make the mistake of believing that the rest of the army is gonna have the toughness and saving throws of wraith units.
I actually think this Eldar box is actually better for vets than it is for first timers though, because veteran eldar players are used to everything being pewter or resin, and plastic farseers and wraiths still feel like a completely new novelty, even though they’ve existed for years now.
DRUKHARI- THUMBS SIDEWAYS, DARK ELDAR- THUMBS UP
This faction just isn’t for new players. Drukhari Eldar has a great new codex but it’s incredibly meta because it exploits how army organization and detachments work, and the army works best by cherry picking the different factions in different detachments.
The start collecting box is pretty great for wych cults, but that’s only relevant for building the wych cult section of the army. The older Dark Eldar box is better for generalists just getting started, because it has the bread and butter of Dark Eldar, splinter rifles in a raider. I just think newbies, in general, have a hard time grasping how detachment rodeo works, and they shouldn’t be in Dark Eldar because of it, the list building is too meta.
ORKS- THUMBS DOWN AND I HATE LIFE
This box is just a tragedy and if you try to push it on a rookie, you’re the problem with the hobby. There’s nothing in this box that actually helps a new player start playing. Ten orks is a sneeze. Nobs are cool, but what are they gonna do without a trukk?
Why isn’t there a trukk in this box? And a painboy instead of a warboss? Who decided that was a good idea? Yea painboys are great, but in baby’s first box of orks? That’s not how you waagh! The deff dread is at least cool, but it really should have been a trukk. This box will actually just get murdered by every other start collecting box on the shelf. It’s just full enough.
NECRONS- THUMBS UP
We can work with this. Granted, everything looks pretty great next to the born-to-lose atrocity that is the Ork box. Necrons get a lot of likable stuff. You got your boss robot with a rez orb, your normal robot dudes, your shootier better robot dudes, and a robot death laser tank that can be built as a command barge or a bug zapper. It’s probably better than the old one that had the Triarch Stalker. I can’t say for sure because I’m not a cron player, but anytime they put a kit in a start collecting box that’s a multi-option build kit, that’s a win.
TAU- MY FEELINGS ABOUT TAU PLAYERS AREN’T APPROPRIATE FOR THIS SITE
I’m not a tau player, but I almost thought this box was decent until I actually looked at the codex. Here’s the problem, this box has fire warriors in it.
The end, that’s literally all you get.
The ethereal? He’s a guy that doesn’t have a gun and he waves his stick at his buddies to do things. That’s his deal. He’s not exactly a great HQ model for a new player. When you have a start collecting box for a new player, it should be a box that you can just dump out onto the table and go to work with. The HQ guy should be a badass dude. In other words, there should have been a commander instead of an ethereal in that box.
Now here’s the real problem- The crisis team. These guys are nowhere near the bread and butter unit they were when Tau dropped back in the day. A crisis suit with a couple missiles is only about 30 points cheaper than a broadside suit that has a better armor save and better guns. Tau players don’t spam crisis suits anymore, it’s no longer a workhorse unit.
If someone offered you this box in 6th or 7th edition, when crisis suits and markerlights actually worked, you’d take 3 of these boxes, throw out the Ethereals, and just gas everyone to death with plas/missiles and pulse rifles and have a good old time. But where Tau are right now? This box is a trap. Do you want to start playing tau? Buy Broadsides and Gghostkeels, and if Broadsides are out of stock, don’t start playing, just wait for them to be in stock again.
TYRANIDS- BOTH THUMBS WAY UP
This box is so good, if your girlfriend buys it for you, you marry her.
This box is so good, if your girlfriend buys it for herself, she’ll dump you. She found someone new, and that someone new is the Hivemind.
This box is so good, if some other guy buys it for your girlfriend, you should worry about that guy she told you not to worry about.
This box is so good, if you buy it for yourself and you’re single, you’ll lose ten pounds and get a girlfriend by the end of the week.
This is the start collecting box all the other start collecting boxes wish they were. This box is the alpha and the omega of 40k start collecting boxes, because you use everything forever.
- Mawloc- This is actually a top tier nid model that is used at all levels of play, rookie and competitive, and he can be alternately built as a Trygon. This is probably the only model in any start collecting box that goes from baby’s first 40k game all the way to the top table at Adepticon.
- Genestealers- One of the most aggressively evil blender melee units in the game. They destroy everything they touch. It’s in the rules, if you charge something with genestealers, your opponent actually has to let you pick his models up and put them in a cuisinart.
- Broodlord- He makes genestealers better. Also, he’s like a $40 model by himself, so this box is the best way to buy him.
ARMIES THAT DON’T HAVE A START COLLECTING BOX.
Here’s what to buy if your favorite army doesn’t have a start collecting box.
- SISTERS- Nothing. Wait for 2019 when they’re plastic and bandwagon them.
- CUSTODES- Don’t let anyone ever tell you anything about custodes besides jetbikes. The first models custodes players should buy are jetbikes. Not only are they fast and cool, but they actually do all the anti-infantry shooting in the army. As a custodian player, you need these jetbikes to clear out the cheap crap so the rest of your guys don’t get bogged down.
- DARK ANGELS- Buy the old Dark Vengeance starter box on eBay or Amazon, if it’s cheap enough.
- HARLEQUINS- Please don’t pick space clowns as your starting faction, it’s actually just playing Eldar on hard mode.
- GENESTEALER CULTS- You’re really just playing Tyranids on hard mode, but if you want to go down this road, you should spring for the $170 Genestealer Cult boxed army on the website, or just buy a copy of the Deathwatch Overkill boxed game.
- GREY KNIGHTS- Dude seriously, at this point, just play Custodes and go buy jetbikes.
- ORKS- Go straight to eBay.
- IMPERIAL KNIGHTS- You just buy 2 models. That’s your first thousand points. Then you buy 2 more. Congrats, 2,000 point army.
- THOUSAND SONS- Start with a demon prince and some Tzaangors, and if you think the Egyptian space marines are cool, get the scarab occult terminators.
- DEATH GUARD- You’re in the starter box, bro. Get the starter box. Get 2 or 3 starter boxes.
Thanks for making it all the way through this one-of-a-kind explanation of Start Collecting Boxes. If you enjoyed it, there’s obviously more where this came from!
