Getting Started with WH40K

The purpose of this blog is to document my first year of modeling, painting and gaming with Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000. I'm also hoping it will keep me focused on completing models. I plan to update this blog several times a week with project updates, list ideas, battle reports and anything else related to my interest in the 40K hobby. If you're new to the game of Warhammer 40K, watch this video from Miniwargaming.com (just know that this video was created during the 5th Edition of the game) to get some tips for starting out.

I've been interested in wargames for a long time but have only played a few games of Clix Mechwarrior and Rackham's AT-43. While I enjoyed both, I got started with them when those games were dying. So I wasn't going to do that a third time and decided to get into a wargame that has been around for 25+ years and recently released its 6th edition of rules, Warhammer 40K. I've long admired the excessively grim/dark universe of the 40K setting, but was intimidated by the start-up costs and the amount of modeling and painting the game requires to field the most bad ass army your skill with a brush will allow. The timing of the new edition helped, as well as the release of the Dark Vengeance starter kit, because vengeance just isn't as satisfying unless it's dark. I purchased the limited edition box with the Dark Angel Chaplain, as well as the paint set with the 5 Dark Angel Space Marines, in November 2012. And that was just the beginning.

I painted up the models that came in the paint set and flipped through the rule book as well as surfed the Games Workshop website, gaping in awe at the variety of infantry and vehicle models. The Chaos Space Marine Codex had just come out, and with how great the models for the Chaos armies looked I picked it up and read it cover to cover. I then mapped out what seemed a decent 1500 and 1750 army to field. Then I totaled up how much it would cost and how few models from the DV box I would be fielding and got a little discouraged. I searched eBay daily for an army close to what I had listed out, and got damn lucky one day. A fellow from New Jersey was selling an army with a lot of the models I was looking for. Before my eyes was a single auction with 50 Plague Marines, 7 Chaos Bikers, 5 Possessed Chaos Marines, 4 Rhinos with Forge World doors, 1 Vindicator, 1 Nurgle Demon Prince and 1 very well-painted Typhus. 1 bid and a few days later I had won the auction.


My next step was to start kit-bashing the Chaos Cultists from the DV box, turning them into warp mutated Plague Zombies. And I needed a lot of them. I sawed, trimmed, filed and glued a bunch of plastic in the following days. The next step was to paint the zombies, but I'd not done much miniature painting before. I drove down to Tribe Games and started talking with one of the owners. He didn't play the 40K wargame but was running a 40K RPG, and had painted up many models to use on a battle grid. I told him what I was doing, and he gave me some tips as I was checking out. I thanked him and as I was walking out, he stopped me and handed me a sealed copy of the How to Paint Citadel Miniatures book. The book's cover was on upside down, and he told me he didn't know if there were any other defects with it, but that I could have it, free of charge. I thanked him and raced home, tore off the plastic and skimmed through the book. All the pages were there, as was the DVD, and they were in their proper order & orientation. I threw on the DVD and read along as I started experimenting with the paints I had. I quickly wished I had a larger range of colors, and I knew just where I'd get them. After my next trip to Tribe Games I had enough paints to get started.


The Plague Zombies, like just about everything in my army at this point, are still a work in progress, but when the boxes full of Plague Marines arrived, I started looking into what I'd need to get to convert those figures and have them fielding the kind of weapons I wanted. So I scoured eBay and the Games Workshop store for Meltaguns & Plasma guns, as well as Power Fists. I was fortunate there are some awesome folks on the various message boards I frequent with extra bits they didn't need, and I got a couple of Nurgle standards that way. I kit-bashed 8 Plague Marines and 4 Chaos Bikers with new weapons & gear. As it stands now, I've got 2 Plague Marine Champions both with Power Fists, 1 with a Combi-Melta and the other with a Combi-Plasma. 2 Plague Marines are sporting Meltaguns and 2 have Plasma Guns. My Biker Champion has a Combi-Melta and a Power Sword and 2 of the Bikers have Meltaguns.


My next steps are to continue painting up my army and reading the rules, as of today I'm a few pages into the Vehicles chapter of the main rulebook, so need to finish about 30 pages before my first game this Thursday. My opponent will be fielding a Tyranid army, but I'm hoping I've got enough guns to whittle his army down before they get into close combat. And even then, with all my infantry (except for the Plague Zombies) rocking the Mark of Nurgle, they'll be tough SOBs to knock down. Below is the army I'll be fielding come Thursday.

1748 total Pts.

230 Typhus HQ

142 Plague Zombies Troops +23 cultists

365 Plague Marines with Rhino Troops +5 Plague Marines, Meltagun x2, Power Fist, Icon of Despair, Melta Bombs, Combi-Melta, Gift of Mutation, Vets of the Long War x10

375 Plague Marines with Rhino Troops +5 Plague Marines, Plasma Gun x2, Power Fist, Icon of Despair, Melta Bombs, Combi-Plasma, Gift of Mutation, Vets of the Long War x10

269 Chaos Bikers Fast Attack +4 Bikers, Meltagun x2, Combi-Melta, Power Sword, Melta Bombs, Mark of Nurgle, Icon of Despair, Gift of Mutation, Vets of the Long War x7

237 Obliterators Heavy +2 Obliterators, Mark of Nurgle, Vets of the Long War x3

130 Vindicator Heavy Siege Shield

With this list I have 3 scoring units (Typhus allows Plague Marines to be counted as troops and the Plague Zombies are simply Chaos Cultists with some benefits/hindrances) and Typhus will roll behind the Vindicator, surrounded by 33 Plague Zombies. I'll flank the tank with a Rhino on either side, the Rhino carrying the Plasma Gun squad will be escorted by the 7 Bikers. I plan to have the Obliterators Deep Strike to where they'll be most effective.  To shave the list down to 1500 points I just remove the 2 Rhinos, Vindicator and drop the Plague Zombies down to +11.