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Hey Guys,

I used to be pretty naieve and think that all armies were priced so they came out costing you the same in the end... I think I was wrong, 1500 points of IG has cost me FAR more than my SM.

So I was wondering, what armies are cheapest? I'm talking about if you bought boxes of their units exclusively, no AoBR shortcuts or the like...

I was wondering about Necrons but then I figured they have a lot of metal stuff, so I guess it's Space Marines?

The cheapest one is the one you can find used from someone who bought the stuff but never took it out of the box and found it hiding in his closet and sold it. But more seriously. It depends on how experienced you are. A deathwing army is fairly cheap over all given the decreased amount of models that are needed in the first place.

My Eldar army cost me a lot, my Imperial guard cost a ton as did my dark angels. It depends on what type of army you are creating and what style of that particular army you are playing. If you have transports for every unit your army will be expensive no matter what one you build.

Chaos. And Necrons. If you like the black reach models, Space Marines and Orks.

Probably something that has most of it's model range available in plastic since it is slightly cheaper than metal. Also something that doesn't require much converting or custom bits (eg. shoulder pads, insignia and so forth). I would imagine a standard codex marine amry would be the cheapest (and even cheaper if you can get some of it off ebay or black reach box set)

Definately one of the marine armies. If you look at a normal tactical squad, you can see that for £20 you can get a reasonably expensive troop choice. Most of the other equally priced troops cost way less points. If you buy a box of guard or eldar you get no where near that.

Add on the fact that many of their tanks are 1 per unit so they are slightly more expensive but many more points. If we compare this to Tau for £40 we can get 2 broadsides which cost less points than a £35 Sm tank

You can make a legal Tyranid army pretty cheap these days.

3 boxes of Warriors and you are good! One is a Tyranid Prime, and 2 squads of 4 Warriors! $105.

I would say a Ravenwing Army. The Ravenwing boxed set has the best value I have ever seen.

Whatever army you want to buy off ebay or dakka swap. to make a 2000-2500 point army (so I can take it to 'ard boys) I give myself about $300-500 (including paints, glue, brushes, basing material, ect.).

All plastic will generally be better for cost. Lower model count armies also work (such as space wolves or deathwing).

However my advice is to figure out what you really want before you start buying the models.

I still have 3 dreadnoughts, a land raider, 30 scouts, and about 15 terminators unbuilt sitting in storage bins because I had no idea what I wanted to do with my salamanders when I started them.

However, when I did my dark eldar I picked up about 1/2 my models on ebay, did as massive order from Maelstrom Games (something like 9 raiders at 60% retail in the US including shiping), and took my 'ard Boys earnings from last year and store credited the rest.

Space Marines are probably the cheapest to get to standard army size, as they have lots of plastic and fewer, more elite units.

CSM are probably a close second, provided you don't care too much about powerlisting.

I suppose a Khornate (Khornite?) Chaos Daemon army might be cheap, assuming you use a lot of bloodletters.

My Space Wolves army has cost me roughly $200 buying off ebay and b-town/dakka.

What I've got so far:

Land raider crusader
4 wolf packs
4 rhinos
1 long fangs squad
19 terminators (7 are AOBR)
1 terminator lord with t-hammer/shield

Now, some I traded for, but I'd have to say any marine army will do well, as there are tons of models out there to barter for.

Depends how much converting you're willing to do. If you're an expert sculptor, you could have an army for free (not including costs for supplies). However, there is the consideration that time=money.

Deathwing is the cheapest army because of AoBR. Then probably Necrons.

Adeptus Titanicus. You try to build a 6000 point army for $300! Failing that, a 750 pointer for $25.

sniperjolly wrote:Adeptus Titanicus. You try to build a 6000 point army for $300! Failing that, a 750 pointer for $25.

20/1 points/$$ ratio! Imagine a 2000 point army for $100. From retail.

Cheapest and smallest army is space wolves: logan grimnar and 3 wolf guard.

Kind of a moot-ish point with E-Bay. As long as you don't pick something too exotic you should be able to field dang near anything at a respectable level for under $300. There's a few armies I wouldn't want to touch though - I can't imagine Sisters of Battle is cheap to build, used or not.

If SoB were plastic I'd be on them just as quickly as I'd be on them if they were real...

Henners91 wrote: I'm talking about if you bought boxes of their units exclusively, no AoBR shortcuts or the like...

My question would be why you would limit yourself to not using cheaper miniatures and sources for your miniatures? AoBR models are quite good and I'd be quite happy with an Ork horde made up of the boyz from Black Reach.

IMO, Necrons win hands down, but it also depends on what points level you are looking at.

The terminators from Black Reach are lacking in heavy weapons and in chain fists. Otherwise I'd agree that they are good. The tactical marines I'm using are from Black Reach, and two previous starter sets. Starter units are great for building blocks, they don't have everything, but they have enough. People usually don't like them as they are of slightly less quality than a seperate boxed set. They field just in the same way though.

It's true that you're missing the heavy weapons for the terminators, but if you also buy a terminator box or buy individual bitz off of eBay, you'll be able to arm them as you like.

The Macragge marines were good, but I think the Black Reach ones are great.

My thinking in including things like Black Reach and eBay sellers in the discussion is that if someone is already interested in the cheapest army, why wouldn't they also be interested in the cheapest way to acquire that army.

The real answer is that NONE of the GW armies are cheap and they are getting more expensive through lowering the point costs.

That being said, you can put together a decent mechanized orks list if you scour eBay and focus on AoBR boyz and nobz as your troops/elites. You get a warboss and deffkoptas in the AoBR set as well. Get a few trukks, battlewagons as complements, maybe splurge on 3 boxes of burnas from a decent discount retailer (20% or more off), get a nobz box and/or bits for the kit you'll need for the nobz, buy/convert a Big Mek KFF and you're probably around $300-400 for 2500 points and it's a competitive list.

Not:

Necrons, metal
Daemonhunters, metal
Witchhunters, metal
Blood Angels, metal (may soon be changed)
IG, need too much stuff (ie you need lots of tanks, on FW for specialized, 25-30 quid for Leman Russ)
Chaos Daemons, metal

So:

SM, pretty much all plastic
Eldar, v. good value
Dark Eldar, some metal but still pretty good value
CSM, same as SM

Don't know about Orks or Tyranids

I'm going to second a Space Wolf Grimnar army. A few Terminators and you're set.

phantommaster wrote:
SM, pretty much all plastic
Eldar, v. good value
Dark Eldar, some metal but still pretty good value
CSM, same as SM

Don't know about Orks or Tyranids

It definitely wouldn't be Orks or Tyranids. While you can do lists that are (comparatively to other Ork/Tyranid lists) cheap, they're definitely not as cheap to field as an elite army. Eldar are actually rather expensive, due in no small part to the high numbers of metal sculpts they're still using. Deldar are cheaper primarily because they have older models and the prices haven't risen as much as others, but they're still more expensive than Marines (both of the pointy and nonpointy variety).

The cheapest army is the one you get for free. Use what you have and play in tournaments; as you improve and display tactical competence you'll bring home store credit and prizes...and those turn into armies.

I've built 3,000 points of Dark Eldar out of tournament entry fees, and some 7,000+ points of orks doing the same.

Dashofpepper wrote:The cheapest army is the one you get for free. Use what you have and play in tournaments; as you improve and display tactical competence you'll bring home store credit and prizes...and those turn into armies.

I've built 3,000 points of Dark Eldar out of tournament entry fees, and some 7,000+ points of orks doing the same.

Just had to throw that out there didn't ya...

Eldar have the annoying thing with aspect warriors. Max squad size is 10. 6 metal minis per box. 1 leader and 5 trooopers. So buy blisters and basic pack or 2 basic packs just for one squad. Not that they don't look nice, but they are expensive that way.

Dashofpepper wrote:The cheapest army is the one you get for free. Use what you have and play in tournaments; as you improve and display tactical competence you'll bring home store credit and prizes...and those turn into armies.

I've built 3,000 points of Dark Eldar out of tournament entry fees, and some 7,000+ points of orks doing the same.

Rub it in why don't you

Using eBay, the Swap Shop, and flea markets, I was able to build a 2000 point Ork army for around $300. Considering the sheer number of boyz in it, that's pretty impressive. I built a 4000 point army of Crimson Fists for about the same price, and it's made up almost completely of Rogue Trader and 2nd edition models. Once again, buying secondhand and trading excess crap is the way to go.

Dashofpepper wrote:The cheapest army is the one you get for free. Use what you have and play in tournaments; as you improve and display tactical competence you'll bring home store credit and prizes...and those turn into armies.

I've built 3,000 points of Dark Eldar out of tournament entry fees, and some 7,000+ points of orks doing the same.

The problem with this is that locally, it's almost always not store credit but actual product that's given away as prizes. For example, the first place prize for some tournament might be an army box that has been sitting on the shelves for years. Nothing quite like winning a skaven army box for winning a 40k tournament.

Now winning painting prizes has worked well. I don't know why, but they always seem to have a choice for those. And usually there's no entrance fee-- just show up and win.