Greetings internet, if there’s one thing I love, it’s cheap 40k armies! Those things that don’t exist… But there’s always shortcuts around hobby costs.
Between eBay, Chinese and Russian resin, and parking lot deals behind the game store, it isn’t hard to build an army… Assuming you don’t mind being shady. But if you want to build your army on the level, support your game store, or just don’t give a damn about learning to speak Chinese or take a dive through eBay, this one’s for you.
There’s also -WAIT FOR THE SELLOUT- Dicehead Games, the affiliate online game store for Spikey Bits, that has 25% off all day. You can also give your beer money to Rob’s cats every month, who will steal Rob’s 40k stuff and mail it to you on Patreon.
(Editors Note: Sorta a Real Thing)
Play marines.
I know, it’s awful, right? Everyone has a marine army at some point in their hobby career, it’s an inevitability. If you don’t have a marine army yet, don’t worry, it will be your turn soon enough. Why marines though? To put it simply, marines are the most cost-effective variety army in the game, and they are also the most consistently performing in terms of support from GW and rules. Marines will never be at a loss for updated material and new models. Xenos tend to come and go- Their performance is heavily reliant on their model availability and age of their codex. Ask any Eldar player about the last 15 years of their army, and you’ll find out what I mean. The space elves might be top tier today, but it took them a decade of waiting to get there.
The other key factor of marine army building is that marines can get in and out of any list in a pinch. Depending on chapter tactics or which codex you’re running out of, the marine is the most versatile model in the game. He can be an Ultra, a Fist, a Raven Guard, a Chaos Marine, a Blood Angel, a Space Wolf, a Chaos Marine, (woops, meant to say dark angel) or even a 30k marine for Horus Heresy games. A marine can change his stripes, the same model plays in half the library of army books in the game.
The golden rule
The most important rule of building cost-effective and bang-for-your-buck armies is that you must hoard rhinos. Not only must you hoard rhinos, you must be a whore for rhinos. Any chance you have to get your hands on a metal box, you take, and you never let them go. If you know anyone who is willing to let go of a rhino for any reason, you jump on that deal, and then call them a fool behind their back. Marine lists of all kinds always need transports. If the marine is the most versatile model in the game, then the rhino is the most versatile vehicle. It runs in every army, loyalist or traitor, and is the basis for every marine weapon platform- It can be a predator, a razorback, a whirlwind, or a vindicator. The best way to acquire a rhino on the cheap right now is to get them in package deals, like the blood angel gauntlet tactical squad.
Formations or CAD?
The biggest thing going on in 40k right now is formation spam. Formations ignore normal list building restrictions, and can spam wildly lopsided lists of models that you may or may not own. Currently, it’s pretty dangerous to sit on formations- We have no idea what the future holds for them. While it’s pretty safe to say that the formation model of list building is here to stay, which formations are winners, and which formations will stay winners in the future, survive the meta, or survive an edition shift and a rules shake-up, is tough to predict. For those 40k fans who are students of history, formation building really started in the Necron Decurion, and from there exploded. Formations hit their stride in 7th edition- They have only really existed for one edition of Warhammer 40k, so we don’t know where they are going in the new edition that many rumormongers are expecting on the horizon. Therefore, for the hobbyist trying to build an army that he can use for years, buying your army around the core of formation spam is a risky bet.
But if formations are a short term path to power on the tabletop, what does that say about normal CAD list building? Does it even compare? No, I don’t think it does. Formations are so seductive and unrestrained in modern list building that I personally don’t believe there’s anything an HQ and 2 troops can do against a hoser like the Rehati War Sect. But let’s save that for another day.
The cost-effective army building path is to travel the middle road and embrace the detachment style formations that can still function as normal CADs in a pinch. When I’m talking about marines, I’m talking about the space marine demi-company and the chaos space marine warband.
The demi-company and the warband are ideal in that they hit a rounded-out variety of units in the codex that you might need under any scenario. These core models will always be useful in the DC/warband, but many of them can be expanded into other formations when you’re feeling risky enough to build out your collection into unfamiliar territory and step on board the lopsided list building bandwagon.
The most important rule of cost-effective 40k is not in how much you buy, but how much you are able to use what you buy. $500 worth of flyers that you only use in one list does not equal the cost effectiveness of $500 of ground pounders that are useful in any list.
Here’s the winners!
TACTICAL MARINE– You’re always going to need him in the core of your collection, especially if GW swings the game back to troops. For the DC/warband, he’s a staple model. Also, Chaos Marine formations tend to be spammier on specialists, but a lot of loyalist formations outside the demi-company still require you to invest in a tactical tax.
BIKE– Bikes in general are good, and especially good if you’re White Scars. If you’re not interested in going further down that road, the most important rule of bikes is that they work out of the box- 3 is all you need. Unwrap them, glue them up, throw them on the table. The bike is the staple fast attack model for the DC/warband.
ASSAULT MARINE/RAPTOR/WARPTALONS– This is an alternative to the bikes. If you are thinking of investing into the formations that spam jump marines, then you’ll pass over bikes for these guys, because not only will these guys fulfill the requirement for a DC/warband, but they will also be the starter for their own spam-based formation.
DEVASTATORS/HAVOCS– Ignore flashy, newer, goofier and more specialized models. A normal guy with a big gun is all you need. Devs are consistent. Their rules don’t change and their principle remains the same- Get a lot of guns, put them somewhere safe, shoot people and take cover saves. Furthermore, the heavy weapon marine is innately cost effective- When he’s not in a dev squad, you can switch him up into a tactical squad. You never regret having an abundance of marines with weapon options. For chaos, the havoc is the workhorse firepower of the warband, and you will always try to grab 3 squads, especially if you’re playing a traitor legion that has very effective traits like Death Guard, which grant relentless, FNP, and stealth. For loyalists, the devastator is the start of a beautiful relationship with assault marines. Combining assault marines and devastators leads to the devastating skyhammer formation, and if you are invested in those units, you’ll be able to switch between a DC list and a skyhammer in a pinch.
LIBRARIAN/SORCS– The librarian isn’t in the DC, but the sorcerer can be in the warband, and both models can show up in other powerful spam formations if you go down that road. Eventually, at some point you will want a psychic phase, either to defend yourself from an opponent’s, or to abuse it yourself. How abusable psykers will be in the near future is anyone’s guess, but Magnus is here to stay.
TERMINATORS– For chaos only. Terminators are the staple elite choice for the warband, and can be expanded into formations. I would not recommend terminators for loyalists because loyalists typically have other options in formation and list building, but chaos uses the time honored tactic of Termicide to fill in fire support roles lacking elsewhere in the codex. Terminators also come cheaper for Chaos, with a lower minimum unit size that allows them to squeeze more blood from a stone.
The 30k Connection
Building your army out around the DC/warband/CAD structure listed above will also give you a solid marine core for 30k legions, so you are effectively building an army for two games. The important thing to note regarding 30k though is that the format is much more resistant to meta shift. The pace of models being released is slower, and Rites of War are similar to formations, but tend to be less spammy and don’t deviate from the core list building strategy as severely as formations do, making them safer investments.
THE BUY LIST
Here’s the list of good investments, and why. Remember, the most important rule of cheaphammer is not how much you buy, it’s how effectively you buy, and which models can perform multiple duties in multiple lists.
BETRAYAL AT CALTH (Top Pick Everyone, first priority)– 30 tactical marines with every weapon option you could want, 2 HQ models, a terminator squad, and a Contemptor in plastic. This is currently the best value for marine starters in the game, 30k or 40k. It’s arguably more useful for chaos, who will find more use for the terminators, but a great strategy for Calth buying is to go halves with a friend or trade with them. This is without a doubt the best way to bulk up the tactical marine core of DC/warband.
DARK VENGEANCE (Top Pick Chaos only, second priority nothing beats Calth)– Only as a chaos player. Loyalists, keep walking. If you keep all the models in Dark Vengeance, and use the dark angels as traitor marines, (like they weren’t already?) then you’ve got half a chaos warband right there. You’ll want to keep the cultists for CAD building or expanding into lists that rely on cultists, like alpha legion or Typhus zombies.
BLOOD ANGEL GAUNTLET– It’s a box of tactical marines and a rhino at a discount, and makes it the most cost effective way to buy both.
SKYHAMMER TACTICAL SQUAD– Like the blood angel squad, but with a drop pod instead. Get this instead of the angels if you plan on investing in alternate lists that run drop pods, or if you’re building out your devastators for skyhammering.
START COLLECTING SPACE MARINES (Calth substitute, third priority) I’m hesitant to put this one on the list, I think it’s good value, but it’s value is beaten by Calth all day. I would call this box the red herring box- If for some reason you already own a mix of models through hand me down or inheritance, and you aren’t committed to Calth, this is the box that rounds them out. First, it’s already it’s own formation in a box. GW is sly like that, so technically, it’s already legal on the table in it’s own right. Second, the demi-company does require a dreadnought, so all the models in this box still contribute to the goal of building out the DC. Finally, the exclusive captain it comes with is pretty cool, but that’s just frosting on the cake.
THE NO FLY LIST
DEVASTATOR SQUADS– Now I know what you’re thinking… How could I talk up devastators so much in list building, but then tell you not to buy their box? Well, devastators are tricky. First of all, the best way to build a devastator squad is all of one weapon. That’s the rule. You pick a single battlefield role, and every turn, you fire all 4 guns at one thing and erase it from the table. Don’t screw around with skittle devastators- No variety pack, you go with one flavor and you roll dice until your opponent goes away. The problem with devastators is that they come with 2 of every weapon, which isn’t a full squad.
This means that ideally, you should be buying dev squads 2 at a time to fill out both squads completely, and to donate the unused heavy weapons to other marines to make… more devastators. But don’t go in unless you’re going all in. If you aren’t willing to make the proper investment then you’ll have to build devastators the old fashioned way- By trading and hoarding missile launchers from your tactical marines, which isn’t bad, because the missile launcher does work. Fortunately, when you do invest heavily in devastators you are always rewarded in value. You will never find yourself not needing marines with big guns… Just know when to pass them by, and know when to buy lots of them.
LOYALIST TERMINATORS– The thunder hammer and storm shield is seductive, but in terms of value I don’t believe that terminators do enough and are versatile enough to make them worth branching into. More importantly, all the terminators you do want are in the Calth box. Loyalists can replace vanilla terminators with Cataphracts, which have all the unlimited weapon choices of a chaos terminator, with a 4+ invulnerable save. Terminators are a workhorse elite slot dump in Chaos, but for loyalists it’s hard to rationalize them outside of extreme formation creep. You’ll get everything you need for terminators in your Calth box.
POSSESSED MARINES– These guys are so bad they get their own little blurb in this article even though I mentioned them nowhere else. Now if you’re planning on playing Word Bearers, then you can make a case for these jerks because in that army they’re a lore-snowflake, but any other chaos brothers, stay clear. The models look goofy, the rules are random, they always need a rhino or a land raider to get anywhere, and their formations require huge investment… Also, in your chaos warband, guess who is competing with them for a slot? That’s right, terminators. The terminators you got in your Calth box. What’s the difference between a terminator and a possessed marine? Well, they both have the same invulnerable save, but the terminator can have any power weapon and gun he wants, has a 2+ save, and can deep strike. They fulfill the same role- Except one only works randomly and the other one always does his job.
STORMTALON– I love the Stormtalon, and I think for it’s points it can do work. More importantly, it looks like something out of a Metal Slug video game. Why do I think it’s a bad buy? First of all, a Stormtalon is only a Stormtalon, it’s not as swappable or as usable as a rhino. Second, flyer meta is a local affair. The best way to deal with a flyer is usually another flyer, because flakk missiles are a joke. The only way to know whether you need a Stormtalon is to know what’s in your opponent’s collection. Third, the Stormtalon has no friends. The only formations he is a member of requires major investment in flyers. The Heldrake has a similar problem, but the Heldrake is a more effective model on the table. It’s hard for stormy to catch a break, he’s too niche and he’ll never get on the table unless you take has a one-off in a CAD detachment.
