Starting Warhammer- Dispelling the Myths

[Wildeybeast]

There's been a lot of talk lately about why more people don't play Warhammer and barriers to entry and so on an do forth. As a long time player, I think there are quite a few misconceptions that put people off and frankly, they're bunkum. So, this is the first in a (probably short) series aimed to dispel some of the myths that put people off and hopefully encourage a few more people to start playing this most excellent of games. Lets start of with a biggie that quite a few people have mentioned of late:

Warhammer needs too many models

If this is true, it means Warhammer is more daunting from a collecting and modelling perspective (especially for first time wargamers) and should be more expensive. Well, I suppose that all depends on what you are comparing it to. So, lets have a look at 40k, as the colossus of the wargaming world. How does a 500 point starting army from that system compare with one from Warhammer?

40K
Let's go with Space Marines, the ubiquitous army and fairly model light. We need a HQ and two troop choices. Shadow Captain Shrike (because Raven Guard are the best) and two ten man tactical squads makes it legal and a Rhino rounds us out to 500 points.
No. of models: 22
Cost: £83.50

Warhammer
So, how does a Warhammer army compare? Lets go with Empire, a staple of the game, up-to-date with the current rules and with some cheap troops point wise. So we need a hero and three other units, least 125 points worth of which have to be core.
A captain with shield and full plate armour fills our hero slot. Then we'll go for 20 halberdiers with shields. We can field them as a block of 20, or two of ten, depending on how many other units we fit in. Either way, at 140 points we've filled our core allowance. Now at this point, we can go a number of different ways, as we've still got nearly 300 points to play with. If you want lots of models in your army, keep going with those infantry choices, you can fit plenty of them in still and get several big or plenty of small units. But we don't need to do that. If I wanted to skew this exercise, I could be sneaky and just chuck a couple of cannons in or one of those fancy wizard chariots. Perfectly legal, keeps my model count low and cost down. However, I'm going for balance. 8 Inner Circle Knights gives me a pretty killy unit and a decent number of models. Three command groups or some magic items rounds me out to 500 points.
No. of models: 29
Cost: £61


Wow. So, my starting Warhammer army comes out over 25% cheaper than my starting 40K one and only has 7 models more. I could have got that figure lower. Are those 7 models really more daunting to assemble and paint than that Rhino we got for 40K? I'd argue not. Furthermore, when I was doing this, I realised I actually had much more flexibility in my army choice with my Empire than my Raven Guard. Yes, I could have fielded those tac squads in units of 5 and taken something else, but I'm still going to have to buy more models. My only other option for my two troops choices were scouts or a bike squad if I took a bike captain, whereas with my Empire, I had 8 different unit types to choose from to make up that core allowance.

The only other question to answer is 'does Warhammer work with just 500 points'? Well, yes. Or at least, as well as 40K does with 500 points. We've got three units in both games and legal armies. Small ones, yes. Both games are really designed to work with larger armies and are better with larger armies, but there is no reason why you can't play them with smaller ones. Most people who are starting out aren't going to be able to afford to buy much more than 500 points worth of stuff a month, so it's a good place to start. The following month you have 1000 points of stuff and so on. In just 5 months you have 2500 points, which seems to be standard game size for Warhammer, but 1000 point games are great fun if you've only got a couple of hours. When your armies start getting really big then yes, you do have more models in Warhammer as you tend to go for vehicles in 40K, but that isn't a barrier to entry as virtually no one has enough money to buy a fully formed army in one go. And that horde of 30 swordsmen may take a bit longer to assemble and paint that that landraider, but they both cost the same to buy.

So, Warhammer doesn't need more models and is actually cheaper* than 40K.



*Depending on what you buy.

[Kaptain Badrukk]

Totally agree, I've got large armies of both and unless you horde-spam (which can still be cost effective £ to points) in fantasy you can easily get a decent army on the same budget as 40k.

[MMM]

You´re making a good point, but compare it to the entry costs of Malifaux (30 pounds), Warmachine/Hordes (35 pounds), Infinity (30 pounds), Kings of War (30 pounds) or Warpath (30 pounds).

So to start at the same or higher level in a game, often with rules, a non-GW game costs half the GW price.

And for a plus, some game miniatures (Kings of War/Warpath) are usuable for Warhammer or 40k as well.

[Necron_Lord]

You make good points, but it also depends on the army you want to play. If you're running a horde army in Fantasy, the model count can get quite high when one gets to 1500+ for points. Grots are the only unit that is as cheap as some of the core units in Fantasy, but between game systems there probably isn't much price difference. For my Skaven, HPA is cheaper than most MCs in 40K and the Screaming Bell isn't too ridiculous. Depending on your army, there may be a unit which costs a lot of money(Blood Knights for VC or the Stormraven for BA and GK), but viewed as a whole the systems are similar.

[m3g4tr0n]

Thanks for clearing that up. I've been interested in WFB, but wasn't sure how it compared to 40K as far as initial investment.

[DarkLink]

The most recent list I'm considering for the Las Vegas Open (1750) consists of:

Draigo
Coteaz
10 Paladins
5 Acolytes (e.g. guardsmen)
Spiritseer
5 Dire Avengers
Wave Serpent
5 Dire Avengers
Wave Serpent
3 Hornets

I acquired this over the last few years for roughly $400, give or take a little. MSRP is probably 550-600, though I'd have to check that.

[dirtycrabcakes]

I disagree. I would almost never play a game of warhammer thats less than 2k points. A 500 point game of warhammer is generally very boring, the scenarios don't work as intended, and (IMO) does not allow the type of play and strategy intended. Honestly, you won't see me playing a game of warhammer less than around 1600 points, unless I'm playing someone who doesn't have that many points or just wants a quicker game. My preferred point level is 2000-3000 points

40k, I can have much more fun playing at all point-levels. In some ways I feel that fantasy becomes better/more fun as you increase point values, while in 40k, it starts to get unwieldy beyond 2000 points (especially under 6th edition). You can have a lot of fun in 40 with a single unit and an HQ. Fantasy, not so much (IMO). In 40k, I used to like 3k point games, but I feel that takes way too much time under 6th edition.

The number of models is certainly an issue, as points per model are generally lower in fantasy, meaning (in general) in fantasy you are fielding more models per game when compared to 40k. That can seem daunting from a painting/modeling perspective.

[Erik Setzer]

I just picked up a 500 point force for Warhammer to use in a 500 points per player Triumph and Treachery match. It cost me (after 7% sales tax) $150, and was 34 models, one of which is a large model (Khemrian Warsphinx). It easily could have cost more depending on what I went with.

But when you get to the size of army people normally play - more like 2000 points - it starts turning south for Warhammer. A 2000 point Marine list I ran recently had two Tactical Squads, two Devastator Squads, a Terminator Squad, two Terminator characters, a Predator, a Dreadnought, and two Scout Squads, which at current retail would be ~$445 (with some leftover models, and considering that the characters were built from plastic Terminators with bits added on, so I tacked on a second Terminator Squad box to cover them, making the whole set cheaper overall). The army had 55 models (not all squads were 10 guys).

The smallest Warhammer army I have, and not a particularly viable one at the moment, is Daemons of Chaos, which at 2000 points can have a Daemon Prince, 20 Bloodletters, 20 Horrors, Khorne Herald, Tzeentch Herald on Chariot, 5 Flesh Hounds, Skullcannon, and Soulgrinder. Given that the Khorne Herald is just the guy from the Blood Throne kit stuck on a base, he doesn't cost extra, so that's $354. Advantage to 40K in that matchup, sure, but how many 2000 point Warhammer armies are actually just 49 models? (And certainly VIABLE armies.)

No, a more viable list is a 2000 point Empire army done for a tournament a while back: Wizard, Captain, Engineer, 30 Swordsmen, 20 Halberdiers (two detachments), 25 Spearmen, 16 Handgunners, 20 Archers, 8 Pistoliers, 10 Knights, Cannon, Mortar, and Helblaster. That'll run at $578 and with 145 models. Luckily, there's no monsters or monstrous cav in that army.

Sure, Orks and Tyranids will be expensive 40K armies, as will Imperial Guard (because of tanks). But Warhammer armies are typically pretty large, even when nasty big models are involved.

[Gold Snake]

A 500 point game of warhammer is generally very boring, the scenarios don't work as intended, and (IMO) does not allow the type of play and strategy intended.

I disagree. My favourite WHFB experiences have been the smaller games, where victory depends on the tactical positioning of very few units and a few choice heroes. The larger you go, then the more boring I tend to find it, as BS magic takes over and the game stretches for hours and hours. The core mechanics were developed from a skirmish game anyway, not a blocks-of-infantry-game, and playing the game gets more and more cumbersome as the points level increases because of this. Gimme a couple of 500-1000 points battles over one 2000-3000 battles any day.

[Chaeron]

Or buy second hand - it's a lot cheaper! But appreciate that you have to be set up in the hobby on the whole first before that generally happens..