Most Cost Effective Army to Collect - opinions

[RuneBrush]

I'm sure it's been debated before, but due to price and range changes its a question that should be re-asked fairly regularly

My brother and I tend to try and collect our armies in line with each other, so I built up my beastmen whilst he built up his tomb kings, I did space wolves he did daemons. It tends to take a couple of years for us to build up an army and we've both got to the end of the purchases for our current armies so will start on the next (painting tends to happen as we feel like it). So he's announced he's going for dark eldar (it was the first army he bought miniatures for) and I'm currently wondering what I fancy doing. Money is a huge consideration as now I have my own house I sadly have relatively little spare cash so am looking for an army that isn't going to cost me a leg, kidney and both arms...

Now scanning over the current armies, Grey Knights jumps out with a small miniature base which suggests a fairly cost-low army.

Your opinions are appreciated!

pete


Disclaimer: Yes collecting an army of GW products is inherantly expensive and I likely will be down a kidney and arm.

 

[funnymouth]

yeah, grey knights can be done with very low model count, though the fewer models you have the less competitive they become. the exception is the "draigo-wing," an all paladin (uber 2 wound termi) army using dreadknights for heavies. a full 2000pt army is only 25 models or so.

 

[nels0nmac]

OK so money is kinda an issue .... despite the fact that you are still buyng a GW army :0) Well that puts Orks and Imperial Guard out of the picture. Any army where the basic figure is cheap in points cost is going to cost more in £ to get to a set army level of say 1500 points. Space marines/chaos marines are quite expensive points wise = cheapish army. Grey Knights are the elite of the space marines so even cheaper in terms of £s. If money is the biggest consideration then a GK army is probably the way to go.

Incidentally I did a quick exercise recently to see what it costs to get the basic 40k army in marines and Imp Guard ( that is standard requirements of 2 troop choices and 1 hq for a total points cost of 500).
Marines came out at around £65 - 2 x tactical squads , 1x command squad , 1 x commander
IG came out at around £130 - 5 x cadian troops ( 1 to make up 2 platoon command squads), 1 x cadian command squad (regimmental command), 1x heavy weapons

I noticed that if you bought 2 cadian battleforces you would have enough basic troops to make up the numbers - less one platoon command squad - but you would end up with more heavy weapons and 2 sentinels. Still expensive though

 

[RuneBrush]

Thanks for the comments so far. It does indeed look like GK are the cheapest (just worked out a 1,500 army is between £130 and £220). I see that you can't get hold of Necrons, so the release of those is imminent I guess. Reading the rumour-mill the point cost will be brought down, so I can't see them being cheaper than GK currently - however who knows

p.

 

[Master of fact]

Wait for Mantic games to release sci fi stuff. I just bought a starter set for the fantasy stuff, over a hunded models, paint, clippers, rules, carry case and carry bag for £65.

Im sure with the sci fi when it is released you could do an imperial guard army.

 

[Kretcher]

Well if you want to do something cost effective, you could change and test some skirmish games that are out there, Necromunda, Malifaux, helldorado or other simular games out there. For example with Malifaux smaller "battles/missions" is only 5 to 7 figures.

 

[RuneBrush]

I'll keep my eye's open for the Mantic sci-fi stuff - could be a good alternative for a guard army, even if it's just for the guardsmen.

Well aware that going to a different system would reduce cost, but as I said originally I'm collecting a 40k army with my brother

p.

 

[Mr.S.Marbo]

Don't forget auction sites - you can pick up second hand stuff sometimes unpainted for fraction of the new price from GW.

 

[blackbolt]

thats what i was going to suggest. some online site like kijiji or ebay and u could find a whole army for almost half of gw costs