This week’s episode of Reply Briefs is an interesting holiday-related query that’s along the same lines as a question a lot of players have been asking us recently – what 40k army should I buy for 6th edition? We sort of answered the question in this article on netlisting but that was admittedly nonspecific advice. Now, I still stand by the answer. I still believe proxying new units and new armies until you find what works best for you is the best way to pick an army that you can be successful with in 6th edition. But this time we’re going to break it down a little more pragmatically. Some credit for this article goes to Szafraniec, as some of it is based on discussions we’ve had recently on similar issues.
The Question: What 40k army should I buy with my Christmas money to stay competitive in 6th Edition?
The Answer: Grey Knights, Necrons, Imperial Guard, or some combination thereof.
So here’s the question. Email in from anonymous.
“Hi Rules Laywers[sic], I’m not the guy who wrote that email you answered about which list to netlist but I have pretty much the same question. I don’t want to just copy and paste a list but Im planning on building a new army for 6th edition and I just got some money for christmas that Id like to use to get it started. If you could make a suggestion on which army to start Id really appreciate it. Im a pretty good player and right now Im leaning toward demons because everybody at my store where I play is going nuts about them and it seems like its easy to build a pretty good demon list. I almost feel like im going to have to get demons if I want to stay competitive because I know a couple other guys at my store are starting demons armies and it looks like theyre going to be a total cheesefest. Any help would be appreciated.” -anon
So our nonanswer wasn’t enough of an answer, you say? Very well! Once again, a disclaimer – I still maintain that the best idea is to use the models you’ve got, or your friends’ models, or beer cans, or VASSAL, and proxy a bunch of different armies to find out what fits your playstyle the best. But if you want to start an army sight-unseen, here’s where I’d start:
Cold War Syndrome
You should never buy an army just because you want to “keep up” with the players in your store in terms of competitiveness. That’s the great thing about 6th edition Warhammer 40k – most armies can put together a competitive list. You should play an army because it’s something you want to play, period. But that doesn’t mean you can’t take your local meta into account when choosing an army. It sounds like you’re a competitive player but you don’t sound too excited about daemons. If you’re not gun-ho about daemons, don’t play daemons. That’s important enough to warrant a section of its own…
You Don’t Have to Play Daemons to be Competitive in 6th Edition
It sounds like the only reason you’re leaning toward Daemons is because they’re a very competitive army right now, and you want to stay on an even footing with other players in your store that are switching to daemons. I think that’s a mistake for a couple of reasons.
First, as I mentioned above, you shouldn’t play an army you’re not excited about. Building and painting an army is a labor of love and if you’re not excited about the army you’re building, then it just becomes, well… labor.
Second, your friends are probably making a mistake by switching to Daemons, and it’s likely a knee-jerk reaction to all of the blogosphere buzz about them. When a big, popular 40k site like BOLS starts touting an army as “unbeatable” you can expect bandwagoners to jump on it like sugar-addled children on a moonbounce. But as recent tournament results have shown, Daemons are in fact quite beatable if your army is prepared for them and you deploy and prioritize correctly.
Spend Money on an Army That Can Go the Distance
The future of daemons is anything but certain. This is basically the same argument Szafraniec made to me when I was contemplating starting a big and involved dark mechanicus daemon army conversion project. He argued that the current 27 Screamer/27 flamer army is a strong archetype currently, but a terrible long-term investment. GW likes to buff and nerf in cycles so they can sell models that people weren’t using before. Its not like saying Horde Orks will always be decent or GH are the best bang-for-buck unit. Sure, those units are bound to change a little, hordes of ork bodies will always be the backbones of the ork army as will Marines in MEQ armies. Screamers and Flamers? Not in that category. They’re fantastic in the meta right now. But they’re unlikely to stay that way for a long period of time. Accordingly, those models are not a great long term investment. Not only that, but they could potentially be a terrible short term investment, too. Daemons have an old codex. Rumors have it that Daemons are due for a new codex in early 2013, or at least another WD update. And it’s unlikely that screamers and flamers will still enjoy their autoinclude status once that happens. Not to mention you still face the very real possibility of comp scores at tournaments. If a tourney’s comp system screws daemons because the blogosphere believes them to be “broken”, and all your eggs are in the daemon basket, you’re out of luck.
Grey Knights: A good place to start.
So ultimately, as Szafraniec argued to me, I think you’re better off going with something that can deal with Daemons AND is a good long term investment. Grey Knights are a good place to start because they fit both bills. First of all, they’re MEQs. I’d go so far as to argue there will never be a time in 40k when you can’t make some sort of competitive army that involves power-armored troops. They may not always be grey knights, but don’t underestimate the versatility of weapon-swaps, paint-stripping, and “counts as”. Grey Knights also have one of the best codexes at the moment – they were the army to beat in 5th and they’ve enjoyed some strong finishes in 6th edition tourneys so far. As a bonus, the GK codex is fairly recent – we haven’t heard so much as a rumor of Grey Knights getting tweaked. The Grey Knight strike squad with psybolt ammo and 2 psycannons is one of the strongest (and, appropriately, most expensive) troops in 40k right now. They put out a ton of anti-infantry firepower and can deal with just about any threat thanks to those psycannons. 10 MEQs aren’t exactly flimsy, either. And they’ve got all kinds of added utility with the ability to combat squad, deep strike, warp quake to deal with pods and daemons, preferred enemy: daemons, and AP3 force weapons standard. Want fliers? Stormravens have ridiculous utility with their transport capacity, assault vehicle status, and psyker-snuffing missiles. Screening units? Dreadknights with heavy incinerators are a staple, with tons of anti-infantry output and brutal CC. Anti-tank? Psyflemen. Cheap troops? Henchmen. AV11 spam? Henchmen with razorbacks. Small model count? Draigowing. High model count? Striker spam and an allied guard blob. Need more mobility? Ally in some necrons in scythes. And then you’ve got the man who sets the bar for undercosted special characters, the ubiquitous Coteaz.
If you’re looking to start Grey Knights, picking up (or converting!) a coteaz, plenty of strike squads, and a dreadknight or two would be the place to start.
Necrons: Xenos Ascendant
Xenos armies are always risky investments because they tend to shift in power more drastically than mos of the MEQ armies. If you’re feeling Xenos, Necrons are the place to look right now. A balanced version of the Necron airforce list has proven very successful in a number of tournaments. In fact, Necrons have proven themselves to be the most consistently successful Xenos army in 6th thus far. The mobility afforded by their flying dedicated transports is exceptional. While they’re not a 6th edition book, it seems their entire arsenal was designed with 6th edition in mind as it’s full of torrent anti-infantry fire and high-str high-volume shots for dealing with vehicles. And their basic bolter equivalents can bring down landraiders, if you’re into that sort of thing. Their special characters have all sorts of tricks up their tin sleeves to add some spice to your army. My favorite of course is Zahndrekh, who’s one of those special characters that anyone can use well, but a really good general can use to devastating effect. But their ability to deliver scoring units when and where they’re needed from the relative safety of fliers is what really makes Necrons shine. This is another relatively new codex that isn’t likely to get the shaft any time soon.
If you’re looking to start Necrons, I’d recommend a couple barges (which will get you a couple lords), plenty of warriors, and a couple scythes.
Guard: Sluts of the 40k Universe
And then there’s guard. The Imperial Guard is, in my opinion, the most versatile army in the game right now and the best allied contingent to bring. That’s primarily thanks to their ability to overload the force organization chart. Want 2 Griffons but only have one heavy slot left? No problem. Same with vendettas. Or russes. Where that really makes Guard shine, though, is as an allied detachment. While most xenos armies can bring you 2 troops and most MEQs a max of 4 troops choices as allies (2 tac squads, combat squadded), guard can bring you basically as many troops units as you have points to spend. And as the heading suggests, they’re the official sluts of the 40k universe – they’ll partner with just about anyone. Allies have brought guard back into the limelight as they pack one of the most durable scoring units available – the infantry blob with morale control from a commissar, lord commissar, or fearless/atsknf battle brother. That ability to reliably hold the middle of the board has proved to be the lynchpin in a number of tournament-winning armies that have included guard as allies. While guard have an older codex at the moment, they’re not on the chopping block just yet. No matter what army you currently play, it’s likely it could benefit from an allied guard force. And all of the ally shenanigans aside, guardsmen are a good investment – it’s unlikely that we’ll ever see a guard codex where guardsmen aren’t the backbone of the army.
If you’re starting guard, you’ll need guardsmen. Lots of guardsmen. A couple chimeras (which you can also convert into griffons), heavy weapon teams, and vendettas wouldn’t hurt either.
Closing Arguments
So there you have it, the Rules Lawyers’ picks for how to spend your hard-earned Christmas gift money (hey, being good ain’t easy!) this holiday season if you’re looking to start a new army like anonymous here. And before the flames start barbecuing our inboxes, no we’re not bashing daemons, and we’re by no means suggesting that everyone who plays daemons is a bandwagoner. Far from it, there are tons of dedicated daemons players who stuck with the army through the tough times and they deserve the amazing army they’ve got now (and they’re probably really good with it since they’re used to playing around all of the daemons’ weaknesses). We’re simply suggesting that if you’re looking for a good army to invest your money in, the current screamer/flamer spam daemon build probably isn’t the way to go as a long-term investment.
Disclaimer: The image accompanying this post is not our photograph nor our miniature and is used without permission under a claim of fair use. No challenge to the creator’s IP rights is intended.
