40k Done Cheap

[Joose]

So, apparently one of my sisters friends is a massive nerd and is doing his best to indoctrinate all the kiddies in the area in the way of Extreme Beardage. He has already got my niece into D&D, and has just introduced them to tabletop gaming via a model painting/small scale 40k game with his kids. This is all fine and good and my sister is entirely on board with it so everything is groovy. Until my niece returned home demanding All The Things and my sister looked up the prices. She is now having a stiff drink and a lie down.

Basically, my sis is fine on spending money on a creative hobby, but is a little worried she is going to drop a bunch of monies into it only to suffer the fickle winds of pre-teen whimsy and for the whole thing to be forgotten about in a week. Any tips on starting off on a budget?

[Pnut]

I would suggest getting one of the starter or campaign boxes, iirc deathstorm cost me about £100(edit. it was £75) but came with 2 skirmish sized armies. Best I can come up with whilst on the bog at work.

[Pnut]

I've been thinking today in work and does it have to be 40K? If so then I think you may struggle to do it cheap. The only thing I can think of is trying your luck on Ebay but I have no idea how cheap or reliable that is. From what I have read 40k is more about the bigger battles than skirmishes,so you are looking at around the 2000+ point mark. To put that into a little context, my 1500 point army is going to cost me £218, so I would say another £40-60 on top to get it up to 2000 point.
If it doesn't have to be 40K then there are plenty of other games out there that will work out not only cheaper but are usually a lot quicker to play. I've been thinking about getting something like Infinity,Dropznoe Commander , war machine or malifuax because they are more skirmish based games that will take 2 hours or so to set up and play compared to the 4-5 hours a game of 40k would take. I was planing on doing a little more digging into those games anyway but now you have given me a reason too
I will report back with what I find.

[Dog Pants]

Got to admit, I'm struggling to think of a way of making 40k cheap. It's all relative or course, depends on how much money they have. You could probably get something playable for 500pts, which I reckon is about £100 in models. Course then you need paints and stuff, which is probably another £20 at least. Maybe a good way of gauging interest is to get a floor copy of the rules, point your niece at the 40k wiki, download BattleScribe, and challenge her to design an army. If she can't be arsed or loses interest it problaby isn't for her, if she doesn't understand it then she's probably not old enough yet, and if she does take to it then she's already had chance to get into some of the lore and she'll know what she wants to buy.

[Pnut]

I still can't get my head around why they stopped making Space Crusade and Hero Quest. Those 2 were the gateway that got me into the whole Gamesworkshop scene.

[Dog Pants]

Agreed. And the fact I need to recommend floorware just to have a look would suggest the entry bar is too high. But hey, I'm sure GW's business model is working out fine for them.

[FatherJack]

Agreed. And the fact I need to recommend floorware just to have a look would suggest the entry bar is too high. But hey, I'm sure GW's business model is working out fine for them.

I guess the people that buy them do so at whatever price. I remember playing Space Crusade/Hulk computer games as a kid, but quickly dismissing any further interest on seeing the prices of figures.

Actually I think Games Workshop pretty much put me off any figures, ever.

[Joose]

Its occurred to me that all my old stuff is still in my parents attic, and im 99% sure that includes a bunch of unpainted doods, so Im just going to give her that to get her started. That sorts models, but if the paints are still there they are likely bollocksed by now, and I was never great at keeping brushes in good knick. Are there any painting/modelling starter kits anyone would recommend as a good start?

[buzzmong]

I don't think you can do 40k on the cheap. Interestingly I was reading an article on GW t'other day where the site was commenting on an interview with one of the founders, and it was straight up said that GW have sidelined the game aspect internally and are heavily focusing on the model collection aspect now, and have been for the last few years.

[Dog Pants]

I'm not surprised by that, I've said a few times that people spend far more time buying and painting stuff than actually playing. It's not like they couldn't profit from game sales though - look at how successful Fantasy Flight are. I wonder how expensive the X-wing minis would be if they were made by Citadel.

[Pnut]

I have heard similar rumours over the past few months and was a bit sceptical at first, but seeing how they have just killed off the Old world (WFB), I can now see this happening. hopefully if they do, fantasy flight will be able to get the rights to the IP so there will still be a game to play.

[Dog Pants]

Wait, they've stopped doing WHFB? Holy shit.

[Pnut]

It's still going from what I can gather, it's just they don't really have a world to do it on any more as it was destroyed by chaos.

[Dog Pants]

Space lizards vs interdimensional rats I reckon. With demons.

[Anery]

Wait, they've stopped doing WHFB? Holy shit.

Not quite. The line will contineue, this End Times thing they are going through is basically a consolidation of some of the armies, tidying up and generally reducing the line somewhat. This is partly because WHFB hasn't been making that much money and partly because they want to start selling plastic Horus Heresy stuff. They won't get rid of it completely, they need it to still be there when the audience swings back around to magic and demons after an over saturation of ray guns and aliens.