Most fun small scale army

[grailkeeper]

I mostly am into 40k for the novels and background rather than the game itself. A friend and I were talking about starting up again at roughly the 500 point range.

 

What armies are the most fun to play at that value? Bonus points for simplicity and low model count. 

 

I was thinking Deathguard or Guard based on how they look but I know very little about how the game is currently played.

[tychobi]

Fun to play?  Orks.  Not to mention they thrive in low point environments.  Simplicity is solid, model count? Depends.    Deathguard are ok at low points, they usually don't need to hike too far, imperial guard are boring no matter what you do.  Orks and sisters are my vote.  

[gaurdian31]

I'll throw in World Eaters, pretty simple and can be pretty low model count.

[Arikel]

Check out the boarding patrols. They are roughly 500 points each. Custodes one is 9 dudes.

[gideon stargreave]

At this size, why not just play kill team? If not, I'd say go for minis you like and have fun converting whatever you want and using whichever rules take your fancy,
You could do pre fall eldar, Krork, thunder warriors, tyrants legion, lost ad teh damned or whatever! Have fun

 

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

4 hours ago, tychobi said:

Fun to play?  Orks.  Not to mention they thrive in low point environments.  Simplicity is solid, model count? Depends.    Deathguard are ok at low points, they usually don't need to hike too far, imperial guard are boring no matter what you do.  Orks and sisters are my vote.  

You might be playing guard  wrong if you don’t think they’re fun.

[Noserenda]

With an edition shift 3 months away give or take the way they play could well go out the window imminently so personally id just focus on models you like the look/fluff of which is obviously super subjective! 

You cant go too far wrong with a boarding patrol box though, those have largely been very good so far! 

[tychobi]

29 minutes ago, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

You might be playing guard  wrong if you don’t think they’re fun.

WW2 fanboy space fascists are not my jam. I have fun killing em. Winning with em is just kinda yup my tanks hit. Overall kinda boring for me. 

[Urauloth]

1 hour ago, gideon stargreave said:

At this size, why not just play kill team?

 

Seconding this suggestion. If you want simplicity and low model count, it's hard to go wrong with KT. Also, it isn't about to hit a new edition, which WH40k very much is.

[Trokair]

What about Imperial Knights Armigers or Chaos Knights Wardogs? 

 

Small model count of 3 Armigers/Wardogs.

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

2 hours ago, tychobi said:

WW2 fanboy space fascists are not my jam. I have fun killing em. Winning with em is just kinda yup my tanks hit. Overall kinda boring for me. 

Play fewer tanks and more infantry then?

[Xenith]

18 hours ago, grailkeeper said:

What armies are the most fun to play at that value? Bonus points for simplicity and low model count. 

 

 

The most fun army to play is one that you're mentally invested in! Don't worry about rules, as they'll change every 6 months anyway, pick the army with the background you like the most, and whose models you want to paint. 

 

If I was doign a small 500pt thing right now, I'd pick GSC. They look awesome. 

[lhg033]

+1 for Orks though low model count is subjective/dependant on how you do them. 

Apologies - I have no idea on your painting experience so am assuming 'newish'

Orks have the advantage for painting that you can use contrast paints for (nearly, depending on your preference for metallics) all of the infantry very easily to great effect:

Black spray undercoat then Wraithbone spray leaving shadows, paint with contrasts - works great for organic models

 

Harder armour/marines etc - contrast can work but take more effort to keep neat on flat surfaces vs the 'traditional'/standard paint range

Deathguard may be more forgiving for contrast paints having a more organic look. 

 

 

Another option - Dark Angels?

You can make armies either for different wings, combine them etc for themed armies so it can grow/change as you like without resorting to allies.

 

[grailkeeper]

I was thinking Kill Team but my friend was pushing more for a small army. I might show him this and suggest kill team again.

[Craig]

1 minute ago, grailkeeper said:

I was thinking Kill Team but my friend was pushing more for a small army. I might show him this and suggest kill team again.

What army does your friend like? Maybe you can pick up a box set with 2 armies and split the contents.

[Sky Potato]

 

3 hours ago, lhg033 said:

Another option - Dark Angels?

You can make armies either for different wings, combine them etc for themed armies so it can grow/change as you like without resorting to allies.

 

 

In the same way that there are many facets to the Dark Angels, the Blood Angels also offer the same.

 

It's quite easy to do 500 points of regular BA, 500 points of Death Company and 500 points of Sanguinary Guard if you want to build a force over time.

[Brother Tyler]

The cool thing about Kill Team is that you can use it as a launch point into a Combat Patrol (of course, then you're looking at rules for both games). This assumes, of course, that you choose a kill team faction that can be represented in the Warhammer 40,000 game (there are a few that aren't quite there yet). Overall, however, there is a much lower starting cost for Kill Team as opposed to Warhammer 40,000. A Command Roster (full set of models for Kill team) is capped at 20 models, though actual kill teams may be much smaller (e.g., Adeptus Custodes, Grey Knights), so you can start really small and build up to 20 models (or more if you want to either provide some variety in weapons/wargear or expand into Warhammer 40,000/Combat Patrol).

 

If you and your friend want to start with Warhammer 40,000 and combat patrols, however, go with whatever faction appeals to you. Literally any faction can be fun to play, but it all depends upon the player. There are certainly some that have lower model counts than others, but the fun of the game is going to be more important for your overall enjoyment. I can tell you the factions I would choose based on your criteria (e.g., Adeptus Custodes, most varieties of Adeptus Astartes/Heretic Astartes, and Imperial/Chaos Knights), but if their particular play styles don't appeal to you, those would be bad recommendations.

 

A great way to test the waters is to use standees that can proxy for anything, allowing you to try out different factions before committing the money and time to buying/painting actual models.

 

 

[Doghouse]

Of your two options I'd go with the less model intensive Death guard and just keep it simple to start with. Guard are cool but are going to need more models, a small DG force would be much easier to expand upon. and you have a boarding patrol box for them

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

I will also throw my hat in for orks.

when I have some extra money I’d really like to get about 500-750pts of orks myself.

 

but depending on how you mean fun, guard can build a few different styles of army at 500 pts, you can have fun with conversions/kitbashes (a bit harder for other armies imho) or getting cool 3rd party minis.

[grailkeeper]

8 hours ago, Craig said:

What army does your friend like? Maybe you can pick up a box set with 2 armies and split the contents.

I think he fancies eldar. I sorta fancy doing something set in the heresy myself but I could probably just do marines in heresy colours.

 

OF the various squad level games- which is the simplest? I havent played 40k in ages (Loads and loads of Blood bowl though.)

[Trokair]

The Corsair Kill team might be a good starting point then, it has a bit of Craftworld flavour, a bit of Dark Eldar and a bit of Harlequin flavour and so on.

 

As for taking Kill Team into a HH flavour, there was a discussion in the Kill Team subforum end of last year about how best to use the current Kill team rules to make HH flavoured squads, might be worth a look.

[gideon stargreave]

7 hours ago, grailkeeper said:

I think he fancies eldar. I sorta fancy doing something set in the heresy myself but I could probably just do marines in heresy colours.

 

OF the various squad level games- which is the simplest? I havent played 40k in ages (Loads and loads of Blood bowl though.)

Simplest is probably one page rules' Grimdark Future Firefight

For GW games, I've no idea. Simple and GW have never been particularly compatible terms

[Craig]

7 hours ago, grailkeeper said:

I think he fancies eldar. I sorta fancy doing something set in the heresy myself but I could probably just do marines in heresy colours.

You could always do iron warriors and you'd have units for both systems (40k and HH) should you want to play both. CSM are much more interesting than regular Astartes anyway.

[Warden-Paints]

17 hours ago, grailkeeper said:

I was thinking Kill Team but my friend was pushing more for a small army. I might show him this and suggest kill team again.

 

I usually play Killteam, or 40k at 500-1000 points. They both scratch a different itch. 

 

I'm actually building two 500 point armies (Orks and Guard) with one eye on 10th edition coming in the summer. The Orks list has 30+ infantry and the Guard list has 40+ so if you're just getting back into the game I think I'd recommend an elite army with lower model count, Death Guard and Eldar sound perfect. 

[Remain_Indoors]

It's a bit of a higher initial investment because of the scenery needed, but i strongly suggest Boarding Actions if you are planning 500 point games. It fixes 90% of the issues with 40k currently, and it just works better than regular 40k at that size. I've literally not played a single game of regular 40k since the Arks of Omen Abaddon book released, it's just so much better.