[Steel Skeleton]

I was just curious as to what the gaming community thought about the divisions of the Space Marines. I would like to know what the consensus is about the best army for a newb to SM, either Blood Angels, Space Wolves, Dark Angels, Black Templar, or of course, Ultramarines. I was leaning towards Blood Angels because they are awesome and not particularly restricting in any one area. Thnx

Steel Skeleton

[Spiritbw]

I would ahve to say ultramarines or 'vanilla' chapters. Mainly because the choices are very balanced, the rules are not that complex and there is a fair amount of choice when it comes to making llists. When I say the rules are nto that complex I mean there is nothing beyond the basics of ATSKNF and a stat line. Blood Angels require a anothe set of models in case of the rage and this is a random determined size, there are more rules for each turn etc. The other chapters I'd recomend more once they have an understanding of the basics and such.

[AuinMyrrath]

Agreed - Ultramarines (or simply nonspecific, 'Codex' Marines) are the best beginner choice... no additional rules, simple what you see is what you get.

[Vash113]

Its close between Ultras or Blood Angels but Id say Blood Angels. They can easily be tricked out and do well with a few options. The problem with Ultras and Regular Marines is that they do have so many balanced options. A Noob however will not know how to balance and can easily get lost in all the options and end up making bad choices, using units incorrectly and in bad mixtures and end up with something very unbalanced and ineffective. Ive seen it happen so many times Ive entirely lost count. The sub codex chapters tend to be better as their options are somewhat limited and they have one or two obviously cool special units that are good and noobs can use right away and with a little instruction can use well. Its also good because when a noob has chosen a legendary chapter with its own codex they already tend to have a play style assosiated with that chapter and its easier for a vet to instruct them and they dont get lost so easily.

Of all of the Legendary chapters especially those with their own codexs Id have to say Blood Angels are the easiest to pick up with and go. Space Wolves following with a close second and Id have to say Dark Angels are the hardest as the only one thats not assault oriented they need some more care.

[Black-Fire]

I agree, blood angels are a good beginner's choice. Depends what kind of army you want. An assulty army, you shuld take Black Templar's first(but they mayt be a bit tricky to field), and then Space wolves followed by blood angels. Typically, Blood angels are good for their death company. For space wolves, by aware that you need to take more Hqs then other armies. Dark angels are not a good beginner's choice. Come on guys, Ultramarines are soo boring. They are like Smurfs. Big blue hulky models. Gets boring after a while. I would say go blood angels or space wolves. If you take space wolves you can further expand to 13th company when you are more experienced.

[Tech-Commander Archive]

I chose custom chapter. The reason being that you can make your army as complex (many traits) or simple (codex) as you'd like. It also lets you chose which direction you want to go with your army, because there is such flexibility. The best part of a DIY army though is that if you decide you want to go shooty instead of CC, or CC instead of shooty, you can simply change the traits your army has, and buy a handful of new models as opposed to having to remake the whole thing. Basically DIY is the most forgiving of design mistakes, allowing the beginner to play around until they find what they like.

[Steel Skeleton]

I was thinking along the same lines. When I started I played blood angels and loved it. The tactics are simple but retain some of the opportunities for tactics from the ultramarines. I agree with Vash b/c I know when I started the ultramatrines were really confusing. Once I realized that you needed one element or play style to begin with and then fill in the gaps from there life got much easier. The blood angels served me well and my friend couldn't quite decide on how to field the ultramarines. You have to know your armies weaknesses and strengths before you can "balance" it and newbs just don't have that knowledge yet. I think Necrons are a better first army for a true noob. Easy to play, pick up, and master but hard to win with w/o experience.

Steel Skeleton

[Hash Brown]

I think a vanilla chapter is the best option. It allows the player to discover his playing style for himself. It is hard to know what one will want out of an army until one has seen how it feels to charge willy nilly about the board or to stand back and decimate an opponent from afar. It is much easier to discover that a certain unit may not always work then to find out that you despise the fighting style of a specialised chapter like the BA. The glory of the vanilla marine chapter is that if you start out small and work slowly towards a fun and tournament worthy army, you will be able to craft it towards your playing style. The only way to become a good player is through experience.

[Howloutloud]

if you are literally just starting out, ie, haven't even had your first game yet, then a very vanilla marine list would be your best bet. so I voted for ultramarines, they are the most vanilla list I could think of.

its when you get a grasp on the rules that you should start thinking of a different army like the blood angels. I don't know about the rest of you on tau online, but when I first started playing (waaaay back in second) I would forget small things all the time. until you have a really good grasp of the rules go with the army that has the least amount of special rules.

[captainwhizz]

Ultramarines- no special rules to learn, lots of tips on painting, etc