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Go 40k, it is still a fun game despite what naysayers say. at your local FLGS you will more likely play 40k then others, mine doesnt even do infinity of Mercs.

I'd be curious to know more about you and your situation before making a recommendation.

You are clearly new to miniatures and miniatures Wargaming, with little experience of either playing the games or building/painting models. So what has persuaded you that this is the hobby for you?

How much time and disposable income do you have? How much are you prepared to invest in learning, collecting for and playing a game?

What is your local scene like and what is your ability to engage with it? Do you have a car and driver's licence? Do you have other evening commitments? You speak of family, but are you living at home or married with kids?

These and other factors are going to influence what recommendations and suggestions I would make.

R.

Personally I started 40K because friends were playing it. I've bought other games that friends haven't, those games sit unplayed. So really you need to see what your friends are playing.

Is money an issue? I'd just stopped buying Collectable Miniatures before starting 40K, so for myself 40K was a cheaper game than what I was playing.
I don't know much about Mercs but it does look like a skirmish game requiring just a few models. 40K, as a few people occasionally point out, costs more to start playing due to needing bigger armies.

Do you like the models? This is a biggie.
I love the 40K models, of the armies I collect at least.
The Mercs models look okay, but it's fgoing to be your preference. You don't want to start a game with models you don't like.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Let's stick to the topic.

To summarise the pros and cons so far:

40K
Most widely played, expensive

The former offsets the latter to an extent though, depending on who you play you can pick up things very cheap on ebay. I am fortunate in that I collect IG, where it's easy to get cadians, russes and chimeras on ebay - I haven't bought anything from GW for about 6 months. But if I wanted to collect Nurgle Demons I don't think ebay would really be possible.

Nobody has mentioned the actual systems and game mechanics.

40k is extremely simple, yet has some very blurry rules. Id wager that if you bought the 40k Starter set about 5 games in you'd have experienced everything there is to experience with the game, and your limited model range. EG: I move my guys, they shoot your guys. You move your guys, then shoot my guys. Then we fight in close combat. Game over.

Warmachine/hordes, Infinity, other smaller scale games offer much more dynamic and brain stressing play.



So if you are looking for a small scale model set with lots of possibilities without having to buy more stuff, 40k is the last place to look.



It also hasnt been brought up, but the boardgame "Battletech" is going to give you the most bang for your buck.

screw them both and get some of the new batman arkham city models

I have never played Mercs but let me give you my opinion on GW.

While I do not like many of the moves GW makes as a company I do have to say that their miniatures are fantastic. They have some of the best miniatures around (if not the best) in terms of design and such (this is a general statement).

I have played 40k since I was a Freshman in high school and have always loved the game itself... until recently.

Negator80 pretty much hit the nail on head with his statement about after a few games of Warhammer 40k you have pretty much seen it all. There are no tricky unit combos or anything like that. Yes units can support each other but generally speaking every unit is an independent unit and the game plays like that all the time. You lose a unit your game is probably not over because there are not other units relying on that said unit to be able to do certain things. The rules in the game can create a lot of arguments as well because they are unfortunately very fuzzy, it seems that GW is a mini company first and a gaming company second.

It is also becoming more and more expensive, yes you can get things online but it just something to think about when looking at starting cost. If the only games you will be able to find are GW games then I suppose your choice is already made for you. That being said if you can find some other gamers to play I say look into some of the other games.

I recently sold all of my GW products and picked up Warmachine/Hordes. The game play is absolutely phenomenal and really makes you learn the game and the tactics before you play. You could have played 100 games of Warmahordes and randomly out of no where you will experience a unit combination you have never seen and to be quite honest it is refreshing. The rules are very clear cut and while I do believe GW makes better looking minis the minis are not bad at all.

Again as I said I have never even seen a game of Mercs. but that is my personal opinion on 40k and the game system. Hope this information has helped some!

Nobody has mentioned the actual systems and game mechanics.

Because if that mattered to most people, no one would play 40k.

R.

GW stuff on eBay is cheap compared to retail prices.

MERCS models are individually as expensive as GW's, but you only need a small number of them to make an "army".

40K rules are far more complex than MERCs, not so much from inherent complexity (the basis is rather simplistic) as from sheer extent of overlapping concepts and basic rules, special rules, universal special rules, and so on.

However, 40K includes a monsters, vehicles and aircraft. MERCS is a straight infantry skirmish game.

I honestly think it is a good place to start, even if you later move on to a different system.

I love Infinity (it's the only game I play due to constraints of time and money) and I would say that while the rules make a lot of sense after a few games and the wiki and forums are invaluable, if you don't have someone who already knows the game to give you an intro the rulebook can be pretty hard going to start with. This isn't because the rules are complex as such, as the basic mechanics are very straighforward, but the company's Spanish and the translation to English can sometimes cause a bit of confusion and the hardcover rulebook is pretty poorly laid out. Finding an answer to some situations that crop up can be a bit of a mission as you flick through section after section, though keeping the PDF rules and the wiki app on a phone or tablet will make life much easier.

In spite of that, the models are gorgeous, not too difficult to put together (I found Ariadna to be easiest, but tend to leave the antennae off my PanO nowadays ), and once you've got to grips with the rules they're extremely dynamic and cinematic, and you're constantly engaged throughout the game with no periods of boredom while you wait til it's time to scoop up your dead models. On the down-side, some tactics and units can seem horribly broken if you don't know how to deal with them (mostly paratroops, camo troops, link teams and giant robots), and the first time you play any of them the instinct will probably be to flip the table, but even the most expensive unit can get killed by the cheapest grunt.

It doesn't have tanks, flyers and massed armies like 40K so won't scratch that itch, and the fluff is far from as developed as 40K . It's not the be-all and end-all, and may not be what you're looking for, but it does reward a bit of perseverence. If you want to start the game with someone else new to it, watch the Beasts of War how-to videos before you play, and start with small forces with no dirty tricks!