Oldhammer 40K: The Three Best Warhammer 40k Starter Sets
I know we all have heard a new edition of 40K is coming so let’s look at the top three Starter Box sets I remember fondly.
Goatboy here and I have been playing this game for a long time. I remember getting my first Chaos Space Marine boxed set when I decided to dump Magic and jump headfirst into this miniature game. It was during my 3rd year of college and I was working at a local Comic book shop. Those miniatures called to me and I had to have Abaddon and his metal friends. It’s been a long time since I painted that set of models and the starter sets are some of the coolest options sold by GW.
#3 Bronze Medal: 5th Edition – Assault on Black Reach – Orks vs Space Marines (2008)
I remember this one pretty fondly as this was the big push for me into the competitive scene. Goatboy had been around for a little bit already with a ton of conversions into the Space Goats theme as well as a big push for my own Ork army. I remembered getting this boxed set and using so many of the figures in it for conversions. The Dreadnoughts quickly became the Grey Knight Double Autocannon Dreads with magnets. I built cool flying Ork Nob bikerz out of the Deff Koptas. The Ork Warboss was used in so many conversions back in the day as well. I wasn’t a big Marine player beyond throwing Beastman heads on things but it still was a great boxed set that built out so many players armies.
#2 Silver Medal: 8th Edition – Dark Imperium – Marines vs Death Guard (2017)
Now this was an amazing boxed set. I dare say I almost put this at 1 as all parts of this box is still pretty useful today. The core of the Death Guard show up in almost all lists, the models still look good, and it really pushed the design aspects they wanted with the new edition pretty hard. The Primarus Marines showed up here and it really is a good sign to see how far the game has come from the first few editions. I felt this release was still really good for any new player as well as it just gave you a ton of models to mess with. As I look at it today I still would buy it if it got a fun “rework” and release. All the models are still good and it would make for an excellent starter for any new Death Guard and Marine player.
#1 Gold Medal: 7th Edition – Dark Vengeance – Dark Angels vs Chaos Space Marines (2014)
These models are not really useful much anymore but I remember this set so fondly. This was the set that had a bunch of locals pool their money and pick what units they want from the boxed set. I think I bought 10 boxes of this and proceeded to split it all up between everyone. I am still finding random sprues in my garage from this set. This brought about the new “chaos” designs and pushed a lot of the things we see now in the new and upgraded CSM models. There were so many cool things in this set and it really pushed the snap fit designs as well as just a really cool pile of models. Do you remember when you could get a special box that had a new Chaplain model it in for the Dark Angels? It was also one of the first sets that push a specific Marine chapter instead of just being Blue Marines who could be Ultramarines. I loved this set and while it isn’t really that useful anymore it is still such a cool box.
Honorable Mention
Honorable mention to Warhammer 40k 3rd Edition (1998) boxed set. This was the one that brought me into the game with so many memories of building that crappy Land Speeder and getting stabbed by Dark Eldar models in the box. This also pushed the whole idea of multiple part kits and just had so much neat stuff like terrain and other fun things. It just looks so old now but it was really revolutionary at the time when it came out. You can still find those plastic jungle trees, and corner ruins in random bits bins and terrain boxes at old FLGS.
What is your favorite 40K Starter Set?
