I'm new to the eternal crusade and needed some advice. I have only ever watched the game, read the rules and painted. I have no clue where to start. That is besides playing black templar. I'm looking to play a 1 leader 2 unit game for my start or something like that. My friends are getting into Orcs, demons, and space wolves. Any help will be much appreciated."
First off, thanks for reading and sending the email! I love to hear that new people are getting into the Black Templars. I am certainly biased, but there is just so much character and depth to this chapter that I cannot get enough of. Not to mention, the color scheme is second-to-none. But let's get to it, shall we?
What you're looking for is a quick start to your Crusade, presumably in the lower points totals. Are your friends playing in an escalation league? Or just buying as you can? Whatever you choose to do, I'll throw some suggestions your way. The first ones are going to be about your HQ choices, as that will be where you need to start. Then I'll move my way over to the troops squads, as you'll need two of those as well.
So let's take a look at those HQ's then. Honestly, I would only go with one of two options. The first one is the base Captain, armed how you desire, up to a maximum of 140 points. Most people will want to have these guys given some close combat weaponry to take advantage of their high attacks and weapon skill. But please don't waste their high initiative with AP1 weaponry if you can help it. However, you can still go with a more "shooty" Captain if you so desire with combi-weapons and/or the relic bolter. If you go this HQ route, they will be accompanying an unit that is setup similar to your Captain to ensure that their roles do not get confused. The second viable option is to go with the Emperor's Champion. He's 140 points, but is dedicated to close combat. But for those points, you get a huge beast. He does so much in close combat now that its hard to validate not taking him in a close combat oriented list. Personally, I'd go this route and take the EC.
The second place you'll want to look at is your troops. It really becomes a question of how you want to transport your units. Do you want to be mechanized? Do you want to have a drop pod list? Footslogging? Or do you want to do something like I run and use scouts in Land Speeder Storms? I will admit, the list I run with the scouts is NOT beginner friendly. It is a glass cannon list that has some big counters for inexperienced players. At low points, I'd recommend mechanization via rhinos. It is a little harder to get into close combat with transports, but you'll be protected against incoming fire for the most part. You'll also be much more mobile. To start off, I'd grab a couple Crusader squads with a few special weapons and power weapons. If you have the points, take a Sword Brother with power weapons (swords). Then add in some Neophytes as you can, throw your EC into one of the squads, and you're good to go for a small scale battle. Adversely, you can also arm them to shoot your opponent. This typically means you're mechanized, armed with special/heavy weapons that blast your opponent. At small sizes, this isn't always the most advisable place to start. When points levels grow, Land Speeders Typhoons, Thunderfire Cannons, and Stormtalon Gunships are great places to start to give your Crusade some balanced firepower.
Hope this helps! There are so many places you can go with a fresh Crusade. You just have to pick something and go! :D