Picking an Army: A Recap

When choosing a Warhammer 40k army, there are a number of factors to take into consideration. You need to consider things such as the difficulty, paint schemes, and the number of different models/units the army has. Below is a list of my favorite armies, from highest to lowest.

1. Tyranids
2. Necrons
3. Space Wolves
4. Dark Angels
5. Orks
6. Space Marines
7. Chaos Space Marines
8. Grey Knights
9. Chaos Daemons
10. Tau Empire
11. Dark Eldar
12. Imperial Guard
13. Eldar
14. Blood Angels
15. Sisters of Battle

Everyone has different preferences however. If you have access to the Codex (either old or current) for a particular race you are interested in, be sure to check them out to make sure there is a color scheme you like and are skilled enough to do. Old codexes are an invaluable resource for reference material. You can usually scoop them up cheap as soon as the new one comes out.

Next is my list of best races for new painters. This is based mostly on how easily the models can be painted to look good with relatively low skill (I am mostly thinking of basic infantry, as heroes other HQ choices are generally hard to paint regardless of the army). Again, these choices are just my opinion. If you disagree, leave a comment and say why you disagree. As long as you're respectful, I value your opinion!

1. Necrons
2. Space Marines
3. Dark Angels
4. Tau Empire
5. Chaos Space Marines
6. Blood Angels
7. Tyranids
8. Dark Eldar
9. Eldar
10. Grey Knights
11. Sisters of Battle
12. Imperial Guard
13. Space Wolves
14. Orks
15. Chaos Daemons

Still, only take this list as a recommendation. If you are someone new to the hobby and see your favorite army at the bottom of this list, I say you should still go for it. Always pick the army that you are most interested in, because if you don't, it's more likely that you will just give up on painting them altogether. When I started painting, I bought Dark Eldar. Even though they were pretty easy to paint, I gave up on them because I just wasn't interested. I then became super interested in Chaos Space Marines, which then became my new army.

Overview: Pick the army you can see yourself painting. Also, read up on the races. Getting to know the races a little better can allow you to make a more informed decision on a first army. You can always look at the Games Workshop website to see the units from every race. The link to their website is here : Games Workshop