Not saying I'd do it right away, but I'm pondering the possibility of playing some 40K wargame. So what would you start with? The WH 40K Rulebook or the Assault on Black Reach boxed set, and/or something else entirely?

How does one start in the 40K hobby?

Can you actually get some skirmish game going without having to build huge thousand dollars armies in the process?

Quote from: Benoist;412562Not saying I'd do it right away, but I'm pondering the possibility of playing some 40K wargame. So what would you start with? The WH 40K Rulebook or the Assault on Black Reach boxed set, and/or something else entirely?

How does one start in the 40K hobby?

Can you actually get some skirmish game going without having to build huge thousand dollars armies in the process?

Without a doubt go Assault on Black Reach.  The figures aren't as poseable as the normal ones, but they are easy to put together.  There's no better cost-effective way to get started.  

When it comes to expanding your army, go for Battleforce boxed sets.  If you think you will use the models provided, Battleforces are the second most economical way to get going.  

As for the rest Ebay is your friend, be patient. Ridiculous deals fall through the cracks all the time.

AoBR will get you in the 500pt range, which is where all new players start.

Also AoBR includes a mini version of the main book, rules only.

Quote from: Benoist;412562Not saying I'd do it right away, but I'm pondering the possibility of playing some 40K wargame. So what would you start with? The WH 40K Rulebook or the Assault on Black Reach boxed set, and/or something else entirely?

How does one start in the 40K hobby?

Can you actually get some skirmish game going without having to build huge thousand dollars armies in the process?

Assault on Black Reach is really good value for its cost, especially if you want to play either space marines or orks. I'd recommend picking it up with some paints, primer, glue and brushes and running through it with a friend to see if it's for you.

Once you do that, it's time to pick an army. You can usually browse through the codices at stores, and GW retail staff is pretty well trained in introducing new people to the hobby. If you have an idea of what kinds of tactics you like, you can ask around either here or on a 40K forum and get a pretty clear idea of which army is for you.

For example, I like lots of special and heavy weapons, and most of my army sitting back pummeling the enemy while elite squads go wreaking havoc in their rear, so I play an Imperial Guard army (the 17th Terrans aka "the Fearless 17th") with lots of storm troopers, veterans, and heavy weapons squads led by a commissar.

Once you've got an army, buy the codex and plan out a 1000 pt. army. Most games are 1000 pts., 1500 pts., or 2000 pts. per side. Just so you're aware, the rule for store / tournament play is that each mini has to have at least three colours on it, not counting the base.

Then it's just buying and painting and tinkering with the army list. It's always more cost effective to buy the battleforce box than individual minis or squads. There's a huge secondary market online for painted minis so many hard-core players and collectors buy the battleforce, paint everything, and only keep the units they actually want, selling the rest to fund the habit.

Black Reach seconded.  It contains all the rules you need to play in digest size.  The rule book contains more fluff, painting guides, etc.

Do you like to build / paint minis?  

I have no mad minis skillz so I buy mine off eBay and occassional commission custom work.  It shocking how often you can get really great deals of eBay - especially if you don't care about getting figs from the current edition.    I play Tyranid and the old "beakie" Space Marines (homebrew chapter).

The Kill Team rules are cool and very popular.  As a Mordheim fan, prefer small squad skirmish games.  

But before getting into 40k, do check out AT-43 - especially if you haven't jumped into the minis / wargame world before.

Lots of useful advice. Thanks guys.

Quote from: Pseudoephedrine;412577If you have an idea of what kinds of tactics you like, you can ask around either here or on a 40K forum and get a pretty clear idea of which army is for you.

OK. What if I want say... to soften up targets with artillery/heavy weapons and then finish the job with moderately tough melee units?

Quote from: Spinachcat;412599Do you like to build / paint minis?

Yeah. That's not a problem.

Quote from: Spinachcat;412599I have no mad minis skillz so I buy mine off eBay and occassional commission custom work.  It shocking how often you can get really great deals of eBay - especially if you don't care about getting figs from the current edition.   (...)

But before getting into 40k, do check out AT-43 - especially if you haven't jumped into the minis / wargame world before.

I've looked at AT-43 before and it does look neat.

As for eBay, I haven't even had a look yet. Seems to be popular among players on the net.
I'm certainly going to check that out.

Quote from: Benoist;412562Not saying I'd do it right away, but I'm pondering the possibility of playing some 40K wargame. So what would you start with? The WH 40K Rulebook or the Assault on Black Reach boxed set, and/or something else entirely?

How does one start in the 40K hobby?

Can you actually get some skirmish game going without having to build huge thousand dollars armies in the process?

My advice would be not listen to the people that work in GW shops.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;412624My advice would be not listen to the people that work in GW shops.

Someone's working in GW shops here? :huhsign:

Quote from: Benoist;412626Someone's working in GW shops here? :huhsign:

I'm not talking about this thread. I'm talking about the staff whose only concern is how much they can gouge from you rather than what's in your best interests. Unfortunately that's how GW staff their shops.

My personal advice would be to avoid like the plague unless you like spending lots of money and enjoy gluing and painting.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;412630I'm not talking about this thread. I'm talking about the staff whose only concern is how much they can gouge from you rather than what's in your best interests. Unfortunately that's how GW staff their shops.

My personal advice would be to avoid like the plague unless you like spending lots of money and enjoy gluing and painting.

Oh OK. That's what I thought at first.

Yeah, I definitely would not buy into the GW hype in any case. I have an RPG hobby already, and I'm thinking of 40K as a game to play on the side, get minis to play the wargamer and RPGs at the same time (maybe with some Dwarven Forge Sci-Fi sets way wayyy down the road), that sort of thing. That's why I was asking if skirmishes with relatively few units would be entertaining, as opposed to thousand-dollars armies I wouldn't be willing to invest in.

How hard is it to invent completely new/original units in 40K?

Come up with say, a Cookie Monster fig, make up stats for it, and give it a value in Army Points?

Most games I play tend to run in the 1000-1500 point range, and you'll get about 500 pts of two different armies in Black Reach.  Smaller games are definitely fulfilling, but watch what units your opponents bring in smaller games.  It would be unsporting to bring a Vindicator or Tervigon in a game of less than around 1000 pts.  Hell it's almost unsporting then.

You'll be starting with Space Marines and Orks, then - if you get Black Reach.  They are something every 40k player needs, as they exemplify two different common tactics ('shooty' and 'close combat' respectively).  There are a ton of awesome new kits for both armies that should make getting to 1000pts for both armies quite easy and cheap.  

What vets will be asking is what chapter / tribe you are running with each army.  Get the Codex for Orks, and then find a Space Marine Codex you like.  There are a ton:  Codex Space Marines (a.k.a. vanilla / homebrew marines) if you want to go with the Codex Astartes.  The Non-Codex chapters are all cool, but have special rules that go along with each of them, i.e. the Black Templars hate witches and have no psykers, the Space Wolves have different basic units, the Blood Angels go crazy and flip out into Death Company, the Dark Angels are really old etc.

After you've built up 1000 pts of each army, and you've played a lot of games with your own forces (and against other 40k folk in your community assuming you're not building your 40k in secrecy and silence in the vacuum of space)  then you'll know if you're a GW hobbyist.  After that, it's a short step to Warhammer Fantasy.  

But then you have to consider - if you plan on playing the RPG's, isn't it best to have miniatures?  Many 40k minis can be used not only for 40k, but also Necromunda (the skirmish game) and any of the RPG's.  The same can be said of Warhammer Fantasy, Mordheim and any of the editions of WFRP.

Anyways, glad to hear you're going to at least try it.  

Try not to balk at the huge prices - tends to keep the riff-raff out.  But then, I've seen you have some Dwarven Forge stuff - and every GW hobbyist I know balks at those prices!

As for making units up, well that's a different thing.  In your home games, you can do whatever the hell you want.  I regularly use Reaper minis in my games of Mordheim and Necromunda, even used minis from other lines to stand in where I didn't like the GW range (like Vampires).  Making up a unit is pretty much not happening, but if you just call it something that already exists and give it those stats, there's not much of an issue (beyond the "proxy" issue - competitive opponents may or may not like this move).  Like your cookie monster counts as a Warboss or Nob with a Power Fist and Slugga, but what it really is is a model of the Cookie Monster smashing things and throwing mono-molecular chocolate chips.  I wouldn't have a problem with that, but my Chaos Space Marines might!

Quote from: Benoist;412620Yeah. That's not a problem.


I've looked at AT-43 before and it does look neat.

Just so you know:

http://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/2010/10/28/40457

It looks as though the company that makes at-43 is folding.  They're in talks to save their games, but who knows how that will pan out.

I got my GW Vostroyan Soldiers in today!  Let me tell you what I have planned for them, so you can see some of the stuff that it's totally encouraged by the texts themselves.  The idea is to get creative with your models within the universe.

So I got two blisters of Vostroyan Troopers from GW today.  There are 6 models and 6 different poses, all armed with lasguns.  However, they aren't for an Imperial Guard army, as I have a ton of Cadians and Catachans around for that.  I loved the models and wanted to use them, so voila!

House Semetov!

These miniatures will represent various members of the Semetov House Guard, for my new Dark Heresy campaign that will start this weekend.  I got the figs in, and I'll be painting a few up today.  The rpg campaign is all about betrayal and other stuff at the top levels of the merchant house and how the pc's are called in to investigate allegations of heresy among the ruling house - House Semetov.

But wait, there's more!

My turn at the helm of my club's rpg gaming will only run about 10-12 weeks (I get the Fall campaign), so what am I going to do with 80 bones worth of minis that have no army to belong to?

Necromunda!  While ordering the miniatures, I actually ordered what I would need to run the Vostroyan squad as an "Unknown House" in Necromunda.  I've got a few extra swords with scabbards to glue on these minis (because I wanted them to have swords, dammit) and they will be a 1500 credit gang - half again what you need at the beginning of a Necromunda campaign!

So, I have my minis for House Semetov the RPG and House Semetov the Necromunda gang.  If I really want to, I can devise a way to use them in normal games of 40k in special scenarios or just to supplement my Imperial Guard as Veteran or Grenadier units.