Warhammer 40k
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Anyone play? It's my son's 11th birthday this weekend, and he wants to start.
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@Carnival-Boy said in Warhammer 40k:
Anyone play? It's my son's 11th birthday this weekend, and he wants to start.
Video game or war gaming?
I have a Grey Knight army, but I don't play very much. The price is too expensive for the value. I am working on the X-Wing Miniatures game right now but the War Machines/Hordes games are catching my eye, they are much less expensive and the rule sprawl hasn't quite hit them yet.
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War gaming
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It is eye-wateringly expensive. I was kinda hoping he'd choose a cheaper hobby.....
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@Carnival-Boy said in Warhammer 40k:
War gaming
It's a fun game if you like to roll a lot of dice. The variety between the armies is great enough that every different play style can be catered to.
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@Carnival-Boy I used to, and yeah, lots of money and hours building characters etc...and the paint jobs...
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I never got into war gaming because it is too expensive and also because i cannot paint worth a shit.
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As a side note Saturday is Geek and Sundry's Tabletop Day. If you head over to your Friendly Local Game Store they may be doing war gaming demos throughout the day.
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@coliver yeah we have a few "Games Workshop" shops close by, they are always willing to talk and share experience etc
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@NattNatt said in Warhammer 40k:
@coliver yeah we have a few "Games Workshop" shops close by, they are always willing to talk and share experience etc
That's a good resource to have.
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I'm currently a player, so i'll throw in my $.02.
The startup cost is insane. Around 300-500 (depending on the army you want to play), just to have a small army, rules, paints, hobby materials, dice, templates, etc. Then there's the time sink, which could be just clipping models and putting them together, leaving them as grey plastic, or taking the hours, days, months, and sometimes (if you're like me) years to paint. After that, there are the rules which, once you get the hang of them are like second nature, but can take some getting used to (there are TONS of 'learn to play' vids out there, I suggest miniwargaming.com)
The reward you get out of all this is an army that is yours. As an example, no one uses my paint job that I know of, no one used the same background for their army as I did for mine, no one has exactly the same army list as I do...etc. There is so much customization potential, you just need to put the time, money, and effort into it.
Another thing to consider is, are there enough players in your area? What kind of community are they; power gamers, relaxed, creative? I have about 2 people I get to play on a regular basis who are great people, but it's getting stale with the small number of players, which is why I'm branching into X-Wing and starting to look at Warmachine.
Has he played 40k? If not, see if there are gamers around willing to let him use an army and try it. Do the same with Warmachine, Infinity, Mercs, Dust, etc. There are a lot of wargames out there, and most are cheaper than 40k. (FLGS will sometimes run demos on these games too if there's interest)
If he really likes the lore, look and feel of 40k, then so be it. Start small, and gradually work up the army (which no one does, believe me). Try Kill Teams, which is a small skirmish version of 40k. (free non-GW rules: http://heralds-of-ruin.blogspot.com/p/kill-team-rules.html)
Those are some ideas to think about. I could honestly write you a book if you'd like with opinions and the like. Good luck!
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We have a Games Workshop in our town and they run free clubs on Sundays for kids to turn up and get help with painting and playing. They also organise competitions. The shop is just one guy, and he's pretty cool. It's all free. I say "free", but the proviso is that you buy everything from the shop, which is fair enough, but precludes buy stuff cheaper online.
My lad has tried to get his mates interested, but without success. So initially, he's going to want to playing with me. I like the opportunity to bond with him, but I have no interest in the game (although I like the painting). He's moving to a new school in September and I'm hoping they have a club there.
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@Carnival-Boy Yeah, regards a club at the school, can he not start one himself..? We did at school, organised the time, place etc and we got quite a few people interested after they saw how it actually "worked" etc
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He's pretty shy, so not likely to organise something himself. If he could get a mate or two interested it would be possible.
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@Carnival-Boy said in Warhammer 40k:
We have a Games Workshop in our town and they run free clubs on Sundays for kids to turn up and get help with painting and playing. They also organise competitions. The shop is just one guy, and he's pretty cool. It's all free. I say "free", but the proviso is that you buy everything from the shop, which is fair enough, but precludes buy stuff cheaper online.
My lad has tried to get his mates interested, but without success. So initially, he's going to want to playing with me. I like the opportunity to bond with him, but I have no interest in the game (although I like the painting). He's moving to a new school in September and I'm hoping they have a club there.
Ah, it could be the overall cost that is dissuading his class mates. It may be a good idea to start with a less expensive war game. X-Wing is 50$ I think for the starter kit which is both Rebels and Imperials as well as 3 or 4 missions. By that I mean it is everything you need to play. Expansions, more ships, run 12-100$ depending on the size but the majority are in the 15-30$ range.
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I've played many of the games mentioned here - have a half painted Tyranid army, etc.
Time - the biggest cost to any of these games is time. Its so much worse than the money it's scary when you consider as @Mr-Cthulhu mentioned $300-500 starting point for most of them. The average game takes 2 hours, this does not include setup and tear down. Don't get me wrong, if you like it it can be worth it - but it's pretty darn hard to have any other hobbies if you really are involved in this one.
As for the $300-500, that's just a starter. If you really get into these games, being at $2000 in a year is not unreasonable at all. And you know how they say that marijuana is a gateway drug - well, if you get even moderately into one of these games, I have rarely seen a person keep it to only one - so this is definitely a gateway to many others, and even more time and more money.
The nice thing about X-Wing and a few of the others is that the models are ready to go. take them out of the box and you're ready to play. This is amazing time saver. But, if you do like you paint, you always have the option to repaint your models anyway you like.
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FYI, Amazon was blowing out the last box set for Xwing minis a few days ago.. they might still have some.
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@Dashrender said in Warhammer 40k:
I've played many of the games mentioned here - have a half painted Tyranid army, etc.
Time - the biggest cost to any of these games is time. Its so much worse than the money it's scary when you consider as @Mr-Cthulhu mentioned $300-500 starting point for most of them. The average game takes 2 hours, this does not include setup and tear down. Don't get me wrong, if you like it it can be worth it - but it's pretty darn hard to have any other hobbies if you really are involved in this one.
As for the $300-500, that's just a starter. If you really get into these games, being at $2000 in a year is not unreasonable at all. And you know how they say that marijuana is a gateway drug - well, if you get even moderately into one of these games, I have rarely seen a person keep it to only one - so this is definitely a gateway to many others, and even more time and more money.
The nice thing about X-Wing and a few of the others is that the models are ready to go. take them out of the box and you're ready to play. This is amazing time saver. But, if you do like you paint, you always have the option to repaint your models anyway you like.
Then the mods. My brother's friend installed an LED strip in the Millennium Falcon's exhaust. So that it lights up when you put it on its base.
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@coliver said in Warhammer 40k:
@Dashrender said in Warhammer 40k:
I've played many of the games mentioned here - have a half painted Tyranid army, etc.
Time - the biggest cost to any of these games is time. Its so much worse than the money it's scary when you consider as @Mr-Cthulhu mentioned $300-500 starting point for most of them. The average game takes 2 hours, this does not include setup and tear down. Don't get me wrong, if you like it it can be worth it - but it's pretty darn hard to have any other hobbies if you really are involved in this one.
As for the $300-500, that's just a starter. If you really get into these games, being at $2000 in a year is not unreasonable at all. And you know how they say that marijuana is a gateway drug - well, if you get even moderately into one of these games, I have rarely seen a person keep it to only one - so this is definitely a gateway to many others, and even more time and more money.
The nice thing about X-Wing and a few of the others is that the models are ready to go. take them out of the box and you're ready to play. This is amazing time saver. But, if you do like you paint, you always have the option to repaint your models anyway you like.
Then the mods. My brother's friend installed an LED strip in the Millennium Falcon's exhaust. So that it lights up when you put it on its base.
yeah I was at the World's Championship games last year - someone had an awesome half cloaked paint job on their Phantom. The mods can be pretty darn cool.
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@Carnival-Boy I've been trying to get other friends into 40k for a while, but it's hard to sell, to the point where I've given up completely. I still play, but the incentive to continue is dwindling, what with other games that fit my wallet and schedule better.
One thing that I love(d) from Warhammer (fantasy and 40k) was terrain. I loved making terrain, building tables, coming up with layouts for games, it was great. Nice thing about that part of the game was it was relatively cheap, still time consuming, but cheap.
@Dashrender is right too, about 2000 a year is a solid number. Then the time to build and paint, etc. The 2 hour gaming session doesn't bother me as much, as it is 2-4 hours I am hanging out with friends, but since we're all getting older and gaining responsibilities (kids, wives, etc), the 30min-1.5hr sessions of X-Wing and Warmachine are becoming more appealing.
Like I said before, have him try a bunch of different games, and different armies. He might find out that 40k is too complicated and too time consuming, or he might absolutely love it and your wallet will weep unholy tears once his birthday and holidays come up, you never know.
