How to build an army consitently

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InstantKarma
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How to build an army consitently

Post by InstantKarma »

I apologize for the title, as it is a little vague.

My question boils down to this; how do you find the 'discipline' (for lack of a better word) when it comes to building any army?

The reason I ask is that I already have several armybooks for armies that, while they have appeal, I know I will not play. I've been okay at 40k, but it's taken me 10 years to build a competitive Tau army. Is is this norm and I just need to change my expectations? What tricks to people find help when they start the process of a new army? how do you stay on track?

Also wasn't sure which forum was the best to put this in, so I figured this one was safe :P
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Daeron
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Re: How to build an army consitently

Post by Daeron »

I try to play many smaller games, making the few units I painted/build/gathered more rewarding :P
I try to play with units I will field in my larger armies, most of the time... though for DE's I'd say I'm willing to go off the track as it's my main army.

For other armies, I haven't managed to start collecting them properly. I'm considering to start a mono theistic Daemon army... then add a second god etc.
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Omnichron
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Re: How to build an army consitently

Post by Omnichron »

It depends a bit on what you want to achieve in the end... Do you want to have a competitive army for tournaments (to win), or an army that can give you a lot of fun battles with friends?

For the first part, I suggest looking at tournament lists around here, seeing what the tricks and ticks of the list is... what works and what doesn't work. Thus far, my experience is that the best DE lists consist of units that can be boring to play for both you and your opponent. It's a great way to move around your enemy, pick him apart while he can't really run into you, and finishing him with a swift little strike. Avoidance, sniping, shooting and a final cut to claim the victory. It is tougher to play out against other mobile lists of course, but it works very well.

The latter part, I suggest going with a bit more fun units... Getting into close combat, having some fun tactical manouvers where you can both win and lose... risky play with lots of reward or losses in each engagements. That's when you can get those moments where one unit can do tremendous amounts of damage and wade through "thousands" of zombies (like my WE unit once did in a very fun VC battle!). The latter is more about getting a few things based on what you want and having fun rather than what will give you most victories.

When I started out, it was more about what miniatures I liked, trying a few things and the khainite theme was really what I was going for. I was slow at building my army, getting a few things here and there. It mostly gave me some alroundish thing that didn't work that well (although it was mostly because I played with the 6th edition book against 7th edition when we played the most). When 8th edition came out and I got back to the game a year later, it was more about winning and tournament play. I added units that I thought would work, kept adjusting it and 2 years with lots of competition, it has come to those "win tournament" choices... made of mostly shooting, sniping and key units for dealing with fast close combat units. The things I started with was easier to play, the latter is harder to play, but much better when mastered.
Personal quote: "It's better to do little damage and lose nothing than to do lots of damage and lose everything."
Final tournament score for 7th DE book in 8th edition - W/D/L: 25/5/10
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Re: How to build an army consitently

Post by Kargan daemonclaw »

I think it's great to have army books for other races. you need to understand how those armies work in order to beat them.

It's easy to get distraced by the new shiney release from GW and the cool pictures in WD and want to go any buy some. That's the purpose of the magazine afterall. You might want to buy a few models that spark your interest even if its not part of your army. you can always practice new painting techniques on them

I think it will take you a year of focussed work to build a 2400 point army so you better be able to like an army for that long. You need to find something that is rewarding say background stories to read or battle reports to listen to etc to support your imagination while developing your army.

pleay games with your army and join an escallation league or start one to keep people motivated to finish their projects.
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Re: How to build an army consitently

Post by Omnichron »

Reading it over, I see I might have misread the OP a bit :D

The way I build an army more consistently, is by trying out things with a bit of proxies and just playing around with some ideas... fleshing it out part by part over time. I've burned myself by getting EVERYTHING at once before (Tyranid army), where I glued up most of it but never found a decent paintjob and it became a pain in the cornholio for me.

So... a bit of what I said in my post above, I got a bit of things here and there, made something alround and made sure that I would pain the small parts I got. I especially loved getting 10 cold one knights and only working on those for a time... They look really great together with the theme of colours, and it became much easier to add things to the army when I felt really happy about the paintjob and the theme.

Now, with the new edition, I just once more add parts of what I want, focusing on finishing one part at a time... Dark riders is what I am working on now, and I'll be making them 10 at a time at different occasions (up to 30 of them). I suggest joining some of those painting threads around on different forums, and even start one here... where you set up a goal for the month and try your best at following them. If you don't finish, it's okay... but it's a nice encouragement to have a goal together with others each month, and have a picture of the results together with others... Hell, I might joins such a thing as I need a bit of encouragement as well these days :)

So... figure out what you really want to play, and start off with a few basic units at a time.
Personal quote: "It's better to do little damage and lose nothing than to do lots of damage and lose everything."
Final tournament score for 7th DE book in 8th edition - W/D/L: 25/5/10
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Re: How to build an army consitently

Post by InstantKarma »

Omnichron wrote:Reading it over, I see I might have misread the OP a bit :D

The way I build an army more consistently, is by trying out things with a bit of proxies and just playing around with some ideas... fleshing it out part by part over time. I've burned myself by getting EVERYTHING at once before (Tyranid army), where I glued up most of it but never found a decent paintjob and it became a pain in the cornholio for me.

So... a bit of what I said in my post above, I got a bit of things here and there, made something alround and made sure that I would pain the small parts I got. I especially loved getting 10 cold one knights and only working on those for a time... They look really great together with the theme of colours, and it became much easier to add things to the army when I felt really happy about the paintjob and the theme.

Now, with the new edition, I just once more add parts of what I want, focusing on finishing one part at a time... Dark riders is what I am working on now, and I'll be making them 10 at a time at different occasions (up to 30 of them). I suggest joining some of those painting threads around on different forums, and even start one here... where you set up a goal for the month and try your best at following them. If you don't finish, it's okay... but it's a nice encouragement to have a goal together with others each month, and have a picture of the results together with others... Hell, I might joins such a thing as I need a bit of encouragement as well these days :)

So... figure out what you really want to play, and start off with a few basic units at a time.


I made this mistake somewhat with my Tau. 2 of the old Box sets gave me a great core, but I still haven't finished painting them (cannot imagine Nids or Orks!).

I've been trying to do 30 min of painting a day, but I ran out of my base coat, which I guess was at least a good sign that I am trying.
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Re: How to build an army consitently

Post by Elodin »

If I'm understanding you right, you're having trouble with sticking with an army, not building (as in assembling plastic pieces together/painting) an army, right?

If that's the case, then I have the same problem you do. Truth be told, the only way I managed to snap myself out of it was to find something that I actually loved not because of the rules per-say, but because of the fluff/look. If you become more personally invested into your army then it might be easier to stick with it.

Now if you mean painting/assembling your army, then that's just a matter of knuckling down and doing it, it's like going to they gym.

One thing I've found that helps is to partner with a friend/website/store and make it into a competition of sorts. It doesn't have to be something that you do to try and win necessarily, but rather setting a deadline for yourselves. For example, on Bolter and Chainsword there was a contest to see if you could get a number of vehicles painted before a certain date. There was no real prize and the quality didn't matter, but being part of a group effort to work on a project was encouraging.
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