Chess is a tabletop game ... right?
Regardless, I like it rather a lot even though I very rarely play it.
If I were to play I'd probably pick Space Marines (Space wolves or Blood Ravens, maybe ultramarines), chaos (Alpha Legion or Word Bearers) or Orks
When I was into it over a decade ago Space Marines were a good race to play as as a beginner as their infantry are relatively tough and they are very tactically versatile. I believe this is still the case.
A standard tactical squad of infantry can be kitted out to fight other infantry, fight reasonably well at close quarters, or be given so heavy weapons to engage armour and heavy infantry at range, all while not actually being that easy to kill. Can't go wrong with them really and a tactical squad of marines is pretty much capable of being a pain in the enemy's arse no matter what they're being used for or who they are fighting.
Other armies are harder to start with as their various units are often a bit more specialised or have more pronounced weaknesses and strengths for example imperial guard have great armour and their infantry squads are fielded in large numbers, however they have to field large numbers as individual infantrymen are comparatively lightly armed and fragile.
I went and looked at the Games Workshop website about a year ago to look at pieces for my army. This is a ridiculously and unnecessarily large army, but....
http://http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat1230006a&prodId=prod2160196a&_requestid=561985
I don't even know how many months it would take me to assemble all of those. and then how many years it would take to paint them all. :rollin:
Can't see the link as it asks me to choose my country, however, GW's prices, at least in the UK, are extremely high. They were high in the late 90s/ very early 2000s but holy shit.
Honestly, buy on ebay, at least on UK ebay there are tonnes of unopened or opened but never assembled box sets for a fraction of the cost.
Wouldn't mind having a game with some people really but oh well.