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If a game store had armies for rent to play with would you use it?

How much would you pay and what would be fair?

Nope I spend enough money at my FLGS, more then I really want to think about really. The least they can do is lone me something if I ask.

If the armies were assembled and had at least three max size units of every choice the army can take, then yes. Otherwise, no - I like building my own lists.

Yes, I know it'd be impractically expensive to do that sort of thing... but that's why it's not common.

Yes, if they were well painted, and there were enough models to build a good list.

Note, I wouldn't use them myself, but if I was trying to get a freind into the hobby or something, it could be useful.

I guess so as it would help me get an idea of what it's like before buying enough to discover that I actually hate it.

It would probably be better on a per game basis with a discount for local tournaments.
Maybe something like:

$3 for one game
$5 for two games
$10 for four games
With a stamp card, every 10th game free.

Also maybe have the first game with an army for free as a way to try to promote it to new people. Just generic ideas.

Best way to figure it out is to work out what it will cost to keep the army running at full strength and replace stuff as they get too worn out for games or stolen etc.

Some of the rarer stuff like Witch Hunters, Sisters of Battle, Grey Knights, Daemon Hunters, Dark Eldar (Probably not for long) might get a fair bit of use as they wouldn't get a chance to try them out so much normally due to their price.

I guess what you should do if you're thinking of doing this is to ask the people in the store or whatever then get a survey going to figure out the demand for some armies. No use getting one running if no one wants to use it ever

If they were really well painted and cheap ($3-$5) per game I might do it once or twice. Don't think you would get much money out of it compared to the damage you would have to repair over time though.

You need to remember that you would have to fix broken models, replace "missing" models, and do touch up work on the models when they get used. People would not pay a lot of money for this and you would have to spend time and money on getting the armies ready for use in the first place. If you are doing it for fun fine but if you are doing it to make money it isn't going to happen. Even a normal army without a lot of options is going to cost you $300 dollars to assemble then you have to paint it (nicely or why bother renting it in the first place).

So say you have invested around $600 in real money and time then if you rent it out for $3.00 a game you would have to rent it 200 times to just break even. If you rent it for $6.00 a game you have to rent it out 100 times. That means if you can rent it out twice a week it will take you a year or two to break even. And most likely you wouldn't be able to rent it out that often.

Good points I brought it up because a lot have people said that their stores have loaner armies. Which I think is great but would be a expensive venture for anyone. So to offset the costs, I wondered how many people might actuall pay to use.

The price to make this feasible would be $15 to 20 dollars a day to rent. A deposit likely being charged at $30 to $45 to cover "lost" or damaged models.

Also the army wouldn't leave the store.

So to actually do something like this is highly unlikely IMHO.

I might pay to rent one if the rare situation called for it and the price was cheap.


edit:
Actually, the more I think about this the better of an idea it becomes. From a consumer standpoint this would allow customers as well as potential new customers to test the water for a new army and/or game system. It's pretty close to a win/win situation as a store can get with loner armies. They pay to use them and it leads to more sales or they pay to use them and you at least get $20, which is better than nothing if they're apprehensive of making the jump in the game and/or army.

No.

Nor would I play with something that someone else painted.

Pael wrote:Good points I brought it up because a lot have people said that their stores have loaner armies. Which I think is great but would be a expensive venture for anyone. So to offset the costs, I wondered how many people might actuall pay to use.

The price to make this feasible would be $15 to 20 dollars a day to rent. A deposit likely being charged at $30 to $45 to cover "lost" or damaged models.

I think $15 to $20 a day might be the stores goal. Charging in a different structure, like per game, might be more likely to be successful. I think the deposit might be going too far, given the right conditions most people would atleast consider renting an army but a full blown deposit might be harder and would certainly cut down on the number of people who'd consider it.

I'd suggest something a little less cash extreme, and just make it a policy that in "checking out" an army a person leaves a credit card as ID thats number is kept on file, but that it'll be only be charged if damage is incurred.

If the selection is big enough it will allow players to try out units and army lists before they make a purchase. Or allow the guy who walked in, that wants to play, but doesn't have his army, to play.

The store just has to weigh the fact that if it works too well, people will stop building their own armies. That if they grow too dependent and you change the system in any way they very well might decide to stop playing rather than go back to buying models.

If the army is very well painted and big (so I can make a list of my own).
Otherwise my GW store has armies they lend for free, but they're not big and usually have 1 possibilty at 1500pts (altough they have a BIG ork army).

I've seen people rent armies for use in tourneys.

GG

I could see renting an army to try out new builds, but for the most part I game to build and play with my own armies, not somebody elses.

SDasher wrote:If the armies were assembled and had at least three max size units of every choice the army can take, then yes. Otherwise, no - I like building my own lists.

Yes, I know it'd be impractically expensive to do that sort of thing... but that's why it's not common.

I understand what youre trying to say but it comes off a bit absurd. By that logic you yourself couldnt even play with your OWN armies because you wouldnt have enough "options".. I have 22k points of blood angels and I dont have 3 full units for EVERY single unit in the book

Personally Ive used other peoples armies, after all its a game and its good to get different perspectives on how armies play. As for paying to play with them? Doubtful

I probably would, if the rental price was cheap and the army rather niche / uncommon, say SOB etc.

My main motivation for this would be I like to try out new stuff but dislike proxying =p

Would I rent an army? No.

Would I paint an army to rent? Only if I was being paid to paint it for another owner. I'd want no stake in it afterwards. Why? Most Warhammer players are bad and have no respect for their models, much less someone elses.

I wouldn't. The point of this game is to show off your minis, whether you painted them or had them painted for you, and have them kill each other. The only time I use other peoples' armies is if somebody is hosting a game at their house or a convention, or they want to teach me a game. I'm not paying them money in that case just to push some toys around.

I'd be more likely to "rent" the table to play on, in the same manner as pool tables at pubs.

Of course if GW tried this I'm sure thered be a mass exodus.

As far as rental armies go, I figure most stores have a "You break it you bought it" policy, possibly requiring some form of collateral to even use the army, rather than actually paying to rent them.

I would not use it, as I want an army to convert and call my own and renting doesn't give me that.

I think that for this idea to work, the price would have to compare favourably with the price of a single squad.

My GW has a whole bunch of armies for newer players to run. I played my first 5-6 games against my cousin with BOTH of us using armies of our choice. The redshirt just asked us "so what would you like to play?" I said Necrons, he pulls out 500pt necrons (they had over 1000), my cousin asks Tau, he pulls out 500pt Tau. It was really encouraging.

Absolutely not.

My main reason for collecting an army is to personalize it. I don't see any point in using an army that I can't personalize other than to get a basic grasp of how the army plays.

And if a store wanted me to pay extra just to get a basic grasp of how the army played, I'd probably never shop there again. I'd absolutely love a store with basic armies on hand to learn the ropes of a game free of charge, and I could be totally happy with a store that has no armies on hand and I have to learn the game with what I buy. But to try and make money off of my inexperience with the rules majorly rubs me the wrong way.

If I wanted to refight an epic battle - say rynns world for example - I would beg borrow and steal all my friends orks just to make it happen. and I would even rent if I had to, but I'd beg borrow and steal first.

I think its an interesting choice and option that could work.

Everyone's points on why not to rent are valid but the idea to rent an army would stem from not having that army in the first place or possibly not having any army in the game system. Pre-painted games like at-43 would be a good system to rent armies for because it would be easy to maintain and then hopefully generate interest. While in 40k or Fantasy the armies that are popular probably wouldn't rent at all except to new players which would be the idea. Another market would be for those "gamers" that come into every store look around and never play. Could one of the reasons be is that they lack funds to get an army? If they could drop 20 for a day and game would they do it?

So the real question I should be asking Dakka since we are all veterans is:

Would there be more available players in a given store if they rented armies?

I think this is a valid point and idea.

I think everyone is thinking of the perspective of their own but as a store I really think its feasible.

I mean in all seriousness - maybe one day I want to feel what it feels like to play an all terminator army.

Well I dont have the money to buy that and I'd do it for fun, but probably not buy it for real though.

Same goes for anything else.

I think the system for this has potential, and also allows people to have some fun, play games and just rule

I think it would be a good marketing strategy for the store to rent out armies for around $15. However, I think the armies up for rent should be un painted. This is because I might want to try out dark eldar and test out some builds. The store has these models up for rent so I play a few games with them a like them. Then, for an additional price, I could buy that army (for a smaller price than just starting them) so I can paint and customize them to my liking.

I would most likely add to this collection (the max number of points for rent should be around 1K) I buy some more stuff. This is not even including paints and tools, so the store gets enough revenue to get a duplicate dark eldar army up for rent. Thus other players can spend money to rent them out as well

With this, I still pay for an army, but won't fall out of love with them as I already had a chance to play them before. This leaves out the part in some gamers lives when they try out an army and decide it is not for them and end up wasting money.

The stores probably wouldn't mind this as they are getting a lot of income and generated intrest as new gamers might find it easier to test the waters before diving into the wargaming world.

Would there be more available players in a given store if they rented armies?

For some reason I don't think so. I would forsee that the number of new players joining would be the same, but more streamlined for them.

Exactly what I am thinking. Then the store can have cheaper rental fees for units. Like the new drop pods have come out and I want to give them a try so I spend a dollar to rent it for a game.

Or you could rent an extra rhino to try out a build to see if it is feasible before you make the purchase.

Another idea would be a discount on say a new model if you rented something that same day. So you spent 20 to rent the army but then you wated a battleforce the store could then use the rental fee towards the new box.

Pael wrote:Exactly what I am thinking. Then the store can have cheaper rental fees for units. Like the new drop pods have come out and I want to give them a try so I spend a dollar to rent it for a game.

Or you could rent an extra rhino to try out a build to see if it is feasible before you make the purchase.

Another idea would be a discount on say a new model if you rented something that same day. So you spent 20 to rent the army but then you wated a battleforce the store could then use the rental fee towards the new box.

This idea appeals to me, particularly the credit-towards-purchase bit. I'm more likely to proxy a model if I don't have it, but if I could borrow one from someone then I will. On the other hand, if I don't know anyone that has a sizeable Tau force for instance, being able to hop down to the FLGS for a test game would be nice. Or even using the store forces for an apoc game, expanding the size of the game beyond just the models you own.

If I were a retailer implementing a policy of this kind, I'd have two or three "levels" of renting: Kill Team/Unit (including squads of any size or single models like vehicles, IC's or MC's), Combat Patrol/Squad Level (for say 3-5 separate units, probably around 500-1000 point range), or Army (any/all models available for a specific force). Each level would have a pricing scheme, with an up front deposit to cover damages (refundable) and either an hourly or by-game rental fee that I would be happy to reimburse a portion of (50% maybe?) as an in-store credit if a purchase is made the day of the rental.

Not a bad idea...

My FLGS lends you a small army if you just want to try the game out before you spend money.

i think the situation is highly dependant... i mean, an ARMY is much different than say, a single unit.

For instance, if the store had a unit that i dont have for the given army i wish to play, and i have the option to rent it for playtesting, etc.

and small points armies for people who dont have their own/just starting type thing would probably work, but a full scale "army rental" shop just wouldnt seem all that good to me.