A relatively new 40k player's initial thoughts.

[planet psyrum]

Thanks for welcoming me to your hobby.

Just to clarify something. My warmachine/hordes statement was more in reference to how many miniatures games can i be interested at once. I have like 2000 points of unpainted 40k and fantasy figures. If I add another system, the hill to climb to paint everything at an increasingly higher standard might be a tad overwhelming. Not intended to be a shot at warmachine/hordes.

I want to go to a national tournament. Where can i find a list of tournaments and locations?

Scadugenga: on your point about space marines. How could I not want to start a space marin chapter? The back story is amazing, the idea of a few men in massive armor fighting outnumbered across the universe is sweet. Plus all the chapters having their own primarch and Backstory. Its great. With that in mind. After watching 20+ battle reports of SM vs SM, i just want something fresh, like dark eldar vs. Eldar, or DE vs DE. I see that bold have new bat reps with necrons in it, but I started from #1 and now I want to see it through that i watch them in order.

#11. Bartertown and eBay are amazing. Yet I feel bad not bringing business to my local gaming store. It's not that my stores prices are crazy, its that if i add in the 9% sales tax to the order, 2nd hand marketplace savings is that much more. I do want to support my game center still, so I have decided to buy all paint, primer, glue, flock, tools, and any other modeling need from them

[Chris*ta]

8. There seems to be this game called warmachine/hordes. I'll just ignore it.

Best thing for them, say I.

(flamebait in 3, 2, 1 ... now.)

[scadugenga]

Best thing for them, say I.

(flamebait in 3, 2, 1 ... now.)

Poor trolling. No biscuit for you!


@Planetpsyrum:

Nothing wrong with wanting to play Space Marines. Just seemed a bit odd when you weren't happy with the number of SM batreps is all. There are many people who never play SM. I went 20 years before deciding to try out the SM army. And then went right back to my Eldar.

And goodonya for supporting your LGS. Sometimes it's worth more than saving a few bucks.

As for a list of national tournaments--checking out BOLS is a good start. And I think the major tournaments are also covered in the monthly email from GW as well.

[ComradePenguin]

Welcome to the game, you're sure to have a good time. Here's a few suggestions from a long time gamer who is around the same age (I'm guessing).

1. You will eventually get burnt out and want to take a break. If you find yourself getting tired of the same army, resist the impulse to sell it and just set it aside. You'll be happy you did when the new hotness is released for that army.

2. Don't go overboard. You'll find yourself getting burnt out much quicker and probably piss off your girlfriend. After a few pissed ex's, I've seem to stuck the right balance. I paint/model units on weeknights when I'm watching tv, and play saturday afternoons. That leaves most weekend nights to take the girlfriend to dinner or a bar.

3. Don't be surprised if you get your butt handed to you while playing space marines. Most players gear their "all comers" lists to face SMs, so they are very experienced at taking them apart.

4. Resist the urge to take the supper powerful net lists. No one wants to play a casual game against a mech guard spam list or purifier spam. These are fine in tourneys but you'll find your number of willing opponents shrink if you play extremely cut throat all of the time.

[planet psyrum]

Thanks comradepenguin. I will take your advice into consideration. On your #4 point, i haven't looked at netlists yet. I want to feel my way through my army through trial and error. I haven't actually played 40k yet, i juat played fantasy twice. But it was funny, I brought my wood elves to play this guy, and other gamers who saw my army list, were telling me all the mistakes I was making. Too few dryads, put them in bigger units, you hlade guard unit is too big and so on. They were also shocked when i told them i had no Wargear on my hero level character. I ended up tableling my opponent. It was sweet revenge because the week before his daemon army tables me

12. Insta cure + is a way better glue than citadel plastic glue. Infact I tried reaper paints out, and I like the paint equally but the dropers are way better. So I'm beginning to think GW products might not be the best.

[DarkLink]

than go to a bar or watch the first season of glee again.

There's your explanation right there. "I'm a guy*, ergo I would rather hang out with ugly smelly fat dudes than watch glee".


*unless you're not, in which case you'll need another explanation.

[Chris*ta]

Best thing for them, say I.

(flamebait in 3, 2, 1 ... now.)

Poor trolling. No biscuit for you!

Not trolling, exactly ... ok, exactly trolling, but I owned up to it at least.

My point is, the OP will have his hands full with only one game if he's starting out.

Personally though, I don't like Warmahordes, partly for the game mechanics, partly cause the setting is more limited, (and I feel that limits e.g. options for paint schemes for you to paint your army) and because the miniatures just look really mediocre to me. Just my opinion, though.

Core point is that the OP is best limiting himself to just one game, at least when he's starting out.

[ElectricPaladin]

In my opinion, you can't play too many games. Remember that every game you play is probably at least a half dozen more people in your area you can have fun with, an extra night or two a week you can go to the game store to have fun, and a new modeling and painting experience for honing your skills. I play Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Warmachine, Hordes, and this newfangled hard sci-fi game called Infinity. Every game has a distinctive look, feel, and playstyle. They're all fun. I don't need to put down games I don't play, and I don't need to quit one game just to start another - I can play them all.

I guess it does make budgeting a little more complicated.

But, really, 40k is not the only game in town. It's not even the best game in town, and it's certainly not a game for all seasons. You want to play an epic battle between heroes? Warmahordes makes fielding totally badass single models a lot more rewarding. You want to play intense urban combat between small "special forces" style units? You'd probably enjoy Infinity. That doesn't make 40k bad, but pretending that it can be all things to all people at all times is just self-delusion. It's a good game, not the best game, or the only game.

I've found that this happens a lot with the flagship product of a given hobby. D&D gets a lot of attention, and some of its players seem to act like it's the only roleplaying game in the world. That's just not true, and it isn't true for 40k, either.

I'm not saying that Warmahordes - or any other game - is right for you. Maybe 40k is really the only game that will ever cut your personal mustard. But dismissing other games because they're not 40k - especially when you're so new to this hobby - is really just cutting yourself off from a lot of potential fun. Start where you want to start, but don't pretend the rest of the wargaming world doesn't exist and isn't fun.

[planet psyrum]

13. The point of no return, unless you have magnets. Yep it happened, last night my annihilation barge project came to a screeching halt last night when I had to decide between the gauss cannon or tesla cannon. Couldn't do it, couldn't make a decision. Do I go with the higher strength or the lower ap. Well if I'm playing SM, I want the gauss, but wait what if they are in cover, in that case I would want tesla. Ok, what about vehicles. Tesla can penetrate transports, but dammit they get modifers on damage rolls. Ok, ill look on line. Dammit people are mixed all over the place. Wait, magnets. To ebay I go. Ok what size, how many? Has it really been two hours? Ok, gauss wins because it looks cooler. So, the point of no return sucks. I will be prepared when I am starting a SM chapter down the road.

[Defenestratus]

10. Im having a tough time getting the girlfriend to understand that I would rather flock some bases and play with "little dudes" as she calls them, than go to a bar or watch the first season of glee again.

I didn't tell my wife that I enjoyed this hobby until we were married.

Dated 7 years then we come back from the honeymoon and I start getting the old models out of storage to find the wife peering over my shoulder asking ... "oh are those your little nephew's toys?"

Haha - she got a real kick out of knowing how much money I'd wasted on this stuff over the years :P