What\'s the cost to get into 40k?

[CreganTur]

I\'ve never played a tabeltop mini game before... except for Pirates, and I hardly ever played that.

GW minis always seemed expensive to me, which is probably the main reason that my collection of painted minis only contains 2 Marine Scouts; they were on sale.

I\'ve pondered getting into this game (wife would kill me, though, for having yet another new hobby ) and I was wondering about how much it would cost to put together a pretty standard army and all the stuff that goes with them.

 

[RuneAnimus]

Just empty out your lifes savings, then you should be good to go.

 

[junior elf]

I\'m not sure about 40k but for fantasy you would probably need £100 to put together a small army (500-750pt depending on how may paints and other things you get). For a standard army (2000pt) you\'ll need something like £250 on top. It also depends on what army you are making (ei: goblins would cost more as you would need more models, whilst bretonnians will cost less, since you need few models). A quick way to stack up points when you have limited models but would still like to play a good game, is to give your units loads of extras.
Anyway, I\'m no expert in 40K or fantasy (I play very little) so the best thing to do is to go to a GW and ask a staff there, they are usually honest and helpful. If you go to the BX one be sure to ask for Dimatar, he\'s the nicest one of the bunch.

 

[Aliengod3]

Originally posted by CreganTur
I\'ve never played a tabeltop mini game before... except for Pirates, and I hardly ever played that.

GW minis always seemed expensive to me, which is probably the main reason that my collection of painted minis only contains 2 Marine Scouts; they were on sale.

I\'ve pondered getting into this game (wife would kill me, though, for having yet another new hobby ) and I was wondering about how much it would cost to put together a pretty standard army and all the stuff that goes with them.

It depends on the army you want to play. Since everything is based on a point system, depending on the stats of the models, an army could range from $200 to $600 or more depending on how big of an army you want.

If you just want to collect 2000 points, which is a standard game size, and money is sparse I would say go with space marines, chaos or normal marines. They are high in point value and will not require as many models as Orks (for example). Your best bet would be to buy the starter box so that you can have a rulebook, some paints, and a nice selection of space marines. Get like 2 starter sets and then pick up a predator tank and you should have a nice start.

The starter box is a great deal and you can always sell off the ork sprues so that you can buy some extra marines pieces.

With 2 starters, a tank, and army book you should have a good amount of points and you will spent around $190 which is not too bad. With paint and hobby supplies, if you buy from a cheap online store you will probably be around $215. That is as cheap as a game console and more addictive than crack. Plus you cannot overdose!

Also, start off with the army book so you can see what sort of stuff you would like to include in your army. You can then go online and add all of the models you want into a shopping cart online to see how much things will cost.

 

[Undave]

It depends largely on what army you want to play, a horde army will set you back a fair amount but you\'ll have tons of models and a small elite force will be more expensive per mini but cheaper in the long run. Space Marines are probably the best starting point for beginners, you don\'t need too many and they\'re pretty forgiving for new players. If you\'re pretty much sorted for paints etc. that\'s a huge chunk you won\'t need to spend.

The Assault on Black Reach box is going for $75 from GW (but you can get it much cheaper from other sources) and contains the basis of a Marine army (and some Orks to mess about with too ). One unit of Marines, a Commander, a dreadnought and a unit of terminators. That comes to about 600-700 points so grab a box of scouts to go with the two guys you already have and you\'ll be set with a 750 point army which is ideal for learning how to play.

The rules come with AoBR but you will still need a Marine Codex, those go for $30. So all added together that makes:

AoBR - $75
Codex - $30
Scouts - $20

= $125

If you want to expand up to 1500 points which is a normal sized game I\'d recommend the SM battleforce for $90 and a Command Squad for $35. The battleforce would add another Tac Squad in a rhino, another 5 scouts to give you 2 units of 6 in total and an assault squad. I\'d leave this last bit until you find out if you actually like playing the game or not.

I hoped that answered your question and that you have fun trying out 40K.

Edit: looks like several people beat me to it but it looks like we all have pretty much the same advice. I don\'t know where you guys have been playing but round here the standard sizes for games have always been 1500 points for 40k and 1500-2000 for WFB.

 

[redgreen12]

HI THARE

ok 4ok is lot more exspensiv then fantacy becaws fantacy some of the mins you can get frume other copanys hek you seen one sketionn you seenthem all just put them on sqare stands a good karft store or home inpovment store can help on lots of 2omm stands the thing on 4ok is thares EBAY to if you whont go all hoge pick one army and spend $ 4oo on it rufe ges plus the books whitch one are you looking at ??? one gide that sonds nuts see whitch one you like and if a friend has this go with a dawn ofwar list that game has the most poler uints in the game you get an idaer on whot to exset well tell me whitch army you think that you whont send a mesige to me hek go fantacy all but the kaos you can subatut non GW mins fore the back ranks go to the minacher page or TMP it has a list of difent copanes on itss sight well thanks WKJR

 

[CreganTur]

Thanks for the legible responses.

Assault on Black Reach does sound like a very good starting point. It\'s also good to hear that Marines are good for beginners. Even if I decide not to get into the game, I might get that set just for the experience of assembling and painting more GW minis (very important experience, if I ever decide to pursue commissions).

I found AoBR available for a great price at a couple of online retailers, which makes me feel a lot better about possibly getting into this. I was always worried, due to the price of GW minis at the only place in town that sells them: Hobbytown USA... can we say overpriced?

Now I just need to find out where people play 40k in my city. All of our good game stores are closed now

 

[Mourner]

basicly it all depends on the size of your starting force and the army your gonna play....

the standard 40K battle has around 1500 pts i think, with tourney\'s ranging from 1000-1750 (2x500 for doubles i think)
most of the games i\'ve played so far were 1000 pts however.


i suggest finding out what the standard size is you\'ll be playing, and what the minimum size is....

next, buy a codex of whatever army your gonna play and write an interesting army list.
then calculate how much that army would cost and presto, you got your answer.

I\'ve got some 4000 pts of orks now, and have spend some 300-350 euro\'s on it. (the largest part comes from a spearhead box and a AoBR box where i traded the SM for orks )

whatever you choose, look into multi unit boxes, like the battalion boxes, $80 (or something) for a lot of models

 

[BPI]

I don\'t know if it still stands but traditionally Chaos armies had the highest point cost troops & therefore required fewer figures to collect (I am however basing this on the photos of the forces in the Warhammer Armies book). I don\'t know whether the advent of decent plastics alters this but as a slow painter Chaos appealed to me regardless.

I also get the impression that the Imperial chaps require not only hordes of troops but stacks of tanks as well, pricey & time consuming to prep?

Just beware starting with Space Marines because they\'re a good army for a novice to begin with if what you\'re interested in modelling/painting is lots of rotting Nurgley colours (I ended up with over 200 lead dwarves before deciding I had no interest in the little blighters!).

I\'m sure the dedicated 40K players here will help you choose an appropriate force to start playing with. Have fun, B.

 

[nels0nmac]

The AoBR box set has gone up in price recently but is still good value if you want to play Orks or Marines, marines being cheaper in the long term than Orks as you require fewer models to make up the points. Alternatively buy the box for the rules and then sell all the minis and buy a different army. I\'m not entirely sure but Tau might be a long term cheaper army as the majority of their units are available as plastics. If i\'m wrong then I\'m sure someone will point it out

 

[Onis Lair]

Or if you’re willing to play sisters of battle I have a roughly 3000 point army I started to paint, then lost interest in as I moved 50 miles from the closest group of 40K players I knew and I’d be willing to sale it cheaper then you could buy it. Just send me a private message if interested.

 

[Mourner]

Originally posted by Onis Lair
Or if you’re willing to play sisters of battle I have a roughly 3000 point army I started to paint, then lost interest in as I moved 50 miles from the closest group of 40K players I knew and I’d be willing to sale it cheaper then you could buy it. Just send me a private message if interested.

of course, that\'s an option too

 

[Aliengod3]

Originally posted by CreganTurNow I just need to find out where people play 40k in my city. All of our good game stores are closed now

There are a couple of things you can do. First pick u pa white dwarf magazine because they list of by state all of the stores in the area you live and they also tell you what sort of activities are offered at the store such as gaming, tournaments, etc.

Also join meetup.com you put in your area code and then you find topics that interest you can it finds groups near you that you can meet up with to socialize with. I joined it and I am apart of 4 different gaming groups and it is alot of fun!

 

[CreganTur]

I just checked Meetup, and the nearest group is 44.7 miles away! And I live in one of the largest cities in NC, too!

If nothing else, my friends are very big gamers, so maybe I could get Black Reach and get them to try out a couple games of Orcs v. Marines. Heh... if it works out they could be my first commission customers

 

[hestan101]

short answer: a lot
jaded answer:too much
longer answer: a very big lot
helpful answer: itl look like a lot at first, and as has said it varies massively on how much and what you want to collect. also, painting a building tools are an issue, as they can cost a bobm, but are reusable

 

[redgreen12]

HI ALLLL!!!!

well the thing abut this post is the poser ok the thing is this to vege of a subjet the one pont that shude be brote up is can you list the say top 3 army you might whont to play this will make ezayer fore us to say whot the ball park it might be to get the army you like to have WKJR