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I say to myself:

"I am not going to start another army."

And then I start another army. Works every time.

It starts with wanting to paint some particular model(s).

Then I look at how expensive a 1000pt army would be, and what discounted bundles are available - or what I have in my pile of shame (for example, I normally play Tau sept but have been painting Farsight Enclaves lately, lots of leftover excess Tau to draw on). 1000pts is IMO a good spot because you get a useful army up fairly quickly and have some variety, and you generally don't burn out before you reach that point. Obviously the army has to be a legal detachment if I want to play it. Sometimes the bundles are full of gak units I don't want to paint. That's when the hard thinking hits and I either back off or bite the painful expense.

Then I move on to either choosing some paint schemes (for original schemes) and doing a trial model to minimize the effort involved. Usually this involves figuring out which paint goes over what the easiest or what's going to be hard to reach so I might need to do sub-assemblies or paint separately from the bases.

Then its on to building and painting. You can either build and paint units one at a time or do build all of it and move on to painting. If you're trying to build the army on a deadline, I'd suggest building everything, then priming it all (and maybe basecoat if you're using sprays) before painting them up unit by unit. That way if you hit the deadline at least the army all has basecoats, even if they're not done.

Once your 1000pts is done, you can decide to either move on to another project or start the next 500 or 1000 points, or just add unit by unit.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
I say to myself:

"I am not going to start another army."

And then I start another army. Works every time.

Too true.

 usernamesareannoying wrote:

seems GW does them selves a disservice charging for army rules.
i wonder if they should be free leading to selling lots of figures and maybe multiple armies?

Free rules got me into Blood Angels during 4th. They put out the codex in two issues and then released a pdf on their website. Being able to read the codex from start to finish at leisure gave me a real appreciation for the army and its signature units at that time: death company, furiosos, and veteran assault marines. They sold me on the army. I never would have picked them up otherwise.

Step 1 - open ebay/3rd party discount retailers
step 2 - Spend money getting the cheapest prices on the stuff you want the most
Step 3 - End up with a huge mountain of plastic you will probably never touch

 Arschbombe wrote:

 usernamesareannoying wrote:

seems GW does them selves a disservice charging for army rules.
i wonder if they should be free leading to selling lots of figures and maybe multiple armies?

Free rules got me into Blood Angels during 4th. They put out the codex in two issues and then released a pdf on their website. Being able to read the codex from start to finish at leisure gave me a real appreciation for the army and its signature units at that time: death company, furiosos, and veteran assault marines. They sold me on the army. I never would have picked them up otherwise.

The cost of rules keeps me from buying a LOT of things. I’ve got a number of little scraps of units from my RT days I’d love to spin up into little playable forces by adding a few new things, or grabbing a knight/allies/other to supplement my armies. But I’m not dropping hardcover codex prices to make it happen. Not just once, but with every edition unless I want them to be unplayable.

While I might grumble at GW mini prices, I think they are generally worth it and models don’t go bad. Their rules have a short shelf life and a lot of churn. I begrudge every penny I spend on them.

I slaughter a goat by the river and let it's blood drain down onto a pineapple. Then I take that pineapple, toss it into the air, and hope bird catches it. If a bird catches it I will play Eldar, unless it's a starling and then I throw rocks at that bird.
If a bird doesn't catch it?

If a bear steals it, then I play Space Marines.
or
If a park ranger asks me what I'm doing, then I will play Ad Mech.
or
If it hits another camper, I will play Chaos.
or
If it lands in a badger hole, I will play Necrons.
or
If it lands in the river, and floats, I will play Orks.
or
If it lands in a river, and sinks, I will play Nids.
or
If it hits me, I will play Imperial Guard.
or
If it flies up and achieves escape velocity, I will play SoB.
or
If it burst into flames and turns into ash, I will play Knights.
or
If it burst into flames and turns into glitter, I will play Chaos Knights.
or
If it hits a child, I play Dark Eldar.

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
how do i avoid picking something that sucks rules wise?

If competitiveness is your concern, then you should bandwagon onto whatever seems to be winning today, follow the leader by playing Space Marines.

If you do that, you will never have a "bad" army, but you might get your teeth kicked in pretty badly by a handful of players who specialize in destroying Space Marines, because it's the smart anti-meta play.

Otherwise, pick small armies that consists of what you really like, and just stick with that, knowing that your army might not always be competitive.

Get a hold of one squad.
Bulk it out and try it a couple different ways, then add a character, then build on it- one way or the other.

1 command, 3 troop, 1 vehicle, or three.

I'll tell you one thing though. DO NOT pick an army that you have to paint the same for 300+ models.

Just stack them, add in by blocks of 1-500, and finish the meal.

START- MIDDLE- END.


If not, you'll get the investment in there, then regret the experience. You probably won't even finish the first unit.

1. I walk into the local game store.
2. I tell myself I'm just going to get some paint.
3. My eyes roll over white and darkness envelopes me.
4. I black out for an undetermined amount of time.
5. I wake up confused in a pile of NIB kits and receipts.
6. I accept that I can't return these new models and just start building.

Can't speak for 40k of AoS as I don't play those for games, but for the games I do play (Malifaux and WM/H) my selection process tend to be:

• Do I want to switch faction/armies and do i think I have the time/money etc
• Do I like the look of the models and do I think I will enjoy painting them
• Playstyle and rules
• Crack on

For me, unless I like the models, I wont even touch the faction.

I also do not play 40K or AoS, but here is my process.

1. Look at my rules writing projects and determine which is ready to go into post-production. Then, I determine what I will need to help finish and promote that game system.

2. Look at the armies for periods I have, and decide if they need a new opponent. Often the answer is NO.

3. I look at rule systems I want to start playing, and decide if it is worth collecting two sides to play the game. Often the answer is NO.

4. The local gang asks me if I want to join/play something with them. I review what they are asking and determine the cost and reusability of a force for it. The I decide, but often the answer is NO.

#1 is the most reliable way to get me to start buying and painting something.

I prioritise aesthetics tbh, because if I'm going to paint an entire army, it better be something I want to actually paint, otherwise I'm just not going to do it.

Then I add a couple of quick searches on ebay ("stormcast auction" "stormcast BIN" for example) and go hunting for a good base army to get me started. I change my mind far too easily to commit to buying new models for a new army, as half the time I end up selling them before even really starting


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Argive wrote:
Step 1 - open ebay/3rd party discount retailers
step 2 - Spend money getting the cheapest prices on the stuff you want the most
Step 3 - End up with a huge mountain of plastic you will probably never touch

This sounds a lot like how I ended up with a gigantic Nighthaunt army and pretty large Orruk all completely unpainted under my bed...

Come on though, only £100 for the entire Nighthaunt side of the Mortal Realms collection, new on sprue? What sane person doesn't impulsively buy that, spend a week making it all, then stash it away never to be seen again because it's all far too fragile to ever sell?

 ProtoClone wrote:
I slaughter a goat by the river and let it's blood drain down onto a pineapple. Then I take that pineapple, toss it into the air, and hope bird catches it. If a bird catches it I will play Eldar, unless it's a starling and then I throw rocks at that bird.
If a bird doesn't catch it?

If a bear steals it, then I play Space Marines.
or
If a park ranger asks me what I'm doing, then I will play Ad Mech.
or
If it hits another camper, I will play Chaos.
or
If it lands in a badger hole, I will play Necrons.
or
If it lands in the river, and floats, I will play Orks.
or
If it lands in a river, and sinks, I will play Nids.
or
If it hits me, I will play Imperial Guard.
or
If it flies up and achieves escape velocity, I will play SoB.
or
If it burst into flames and turns into ash, I will play Knights.
or
If it burst into flames and turns into glitter, I will play Chaos Knights.
or
If it hits a child, I play Dark Eldar.

This is the worst method of choosing, except for all the others.

I am all for it, except I skip slaughtering the goat.

I just toss a pineapple and add this option:

If it ends up on my Pizza, I get a non-GW game system.

Basically what Orlando and daBoss and Stroller wrote, …

I see usually one model or a box or set that I like, because they are cool to my eye. I might carry these around for twenty years (looking at you, chaos marines, and sisters of battle) before finding an excuse to get more of the faction (thinking of you, Eldritch Omens) and then I go from there, usually a box or a model kit at a time over time, until, wowza I have a few thousand points with a Stomper and morkanaut and looted Medusa and … (thinking of you, ork army that started with grots I had been carrying around the world for twenty years) …
So short answer, I start an army with one model or a set of models that I really like, then find reasons to accumulate from there over the long term…

usually rule of cool, how does it look. Then (even though it is no longer a rule) I still choose 1hq and 2 troops and go from there.