Cheapest Non-SM Army?

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**Gornall**

I currently have a SM army and am also working on a GK army on the side. However, I am debating on starting a Xenos (or non-Power Armor at least) army in the near future, and was curious as to which army would be cheapest (and competitive). Any suggestions?

**Deathly Angel**

IMO, you shouldn't really collect an army for the price, but for it's looks, fluff and how much you like it, or for it's gameplay if you're big on gaming.

**Crom**

cheapest money wise? Just do what I do and troll ebay, set a price limit, bid and walk away. My buddy just bought a 3,000 point High Elf Army for $180, that is a steal. I built a big chunk of my Ork army off of ebay and I was buying Ork bikers for about 30% off retail value. I now have 21 bikes in my army. Craigslist is good too, but ebay is where it is at. You just gotta be patient and keep track of what is going on for sale. I also got $750 worth of Lizardmen for $300 used online from a local gaming group.

**Gornall**

Deathly Angel wrote:IMO, you shouldn't really collect an army for the price, but for it's looks, fluff and how much you like it, or for it's gameplay if you're big on gaming.

This is more of a side project and/or a gateway introduce friends to 40k.

**ShatteredBlade**

Either sit tight and wait for the Tau or Cron Codex, or go Dark Eldar.

**Majesticgoat**

Used Tau and Eldar seem to crop up on Ebay a lot and also on Kijiji for those of us Canadians. Not sure if Craiglist also has this sort of function. I got my used Adepta Sororitas army that way for dirt cheap. You basically just need to camp them for good deals and then dive on them when they appear.

**danpieri**

Ask around at your local gaming store, thats what I did. I got 2 complete IG squads, fully assembled, extra pile of bits from a guy for $10 !
Dan

**mcyeatman**

Gornall wrote:I currently have a SM army and am also working on a GK army on the side. However, I am debating on starting a Xenos (or non-Power Armor at least) army in the near future, and was curious as to which army would be cheapest (and competitive). Any suggestions?

New or used?

If used is OK, Eldar and Tau seem to be the cheapest (and most abundant) on eBay.

**SkaerKrow**

Are you looking at cheapest army through the secondary market, or cheapest purchased new from a game retailer? When it comes to the secondary market, you never know when a really great deal is going to pop up on eBay or the like. For example, today I snagged $600 worth of WHFB Beastmen for less than $200. Just be diligent in checking auctions regularly for cheap army lots, and you should have a force assembled in a couple of months at the most, usually for a fraction of a price of new models (accepting of course that some of these models will be a bit scratch and dent).

As for who is currently cheapest from a Buy-It-New perspective, I would think that would be Dark Eldar. Most of their troops are pretty expensive (points-wise) for non-MEQ units, and their kits are still pretty affordable. Tau and Necrons aren't particularly competitive right now, so while the Necron Battleforce gives you a healthy chunk of points in models, it isn't the most competitive force out there (and is pretty close to a MEQ army, besides). Nids are freakishly expensive unless you run Nidzilla (which, again, not competitive), so they're out too.

**Nvs**

Dark Eldar are not cheap at all.

You're looking for an army that is effective with high point costs. Even Necrons are rumored to not fit this mold soon. SM are really going to be your cheapest option.

How many points are you looking at? Because for a 1000pt dark eldar force you're looking at $300+ easily.

Codex
2 battleforces
2 ravagers
2 venoms

That's roughly 1000pts and at least $350 even with 20% off.

**SkaerKrow**

That isn't cheap? I mean that as an honest question. I feel as if we should go through now over all of the competitive Xenos options out there and see how much it would cost to get 1,000 points on the table.

**Hawk**

Majesticgoat wrote:Used Tau and Eldar seem to crop up on Ebay a lot.

They do BUT, they always seem to go for a lot of money though (not the individual units).

**Ascalam**

'They do BUT, they always seem to go for a lot of money though (not the individual units). '

Not compared to buying that army new.

To OP:

It depends on how much money you have available.

Orks are cheap thanks to the magic of AOBR, at least for those units, but you'll need a lot of them to make up 1000 pts, as they are cheap in game too. Competitive = average

You can pick up Necron armies relatvely dirt cheap as people get frustrated or ragequit over rumors

Competitive = low

Part of the problem is that it's not so much that the ARMY is competitive. They all are, used right.

The problem is that the Competitive units tend to be spendy, and some armies have more of them than others. Competitive often means spamming 3 in the FOC of the 'good unit' for each

Not always, but often..

I would pick an army that you think is cool, hang Mr competitive off the local yardarm and have some fun finding out what it can do. Even the 'don't buy that army, it's a sack of crap' armies (right now considered to be Necrons and Tau) can be a lot of fun to play, especially in a non-tournament setting where competitiveness is less vital, and can sometimes thrown you a surprise of two

**Nvs**

Aren't Eldar cheaper?

2 Waveserpents
1 Dire Avengers
1 Falcon
Fire Dragon Squad
Wraithlord

**Warboss Imbad Ironskull**

Personally with the way GW is going no army will be cheap. That being said I would choose Tau as you get a good number of units in their battleforce and everything in it is usefull for the army.

**Crom**

Warboss Imbad Ironskull wrote:Personally with the way GW is going no army will be cheap. That being said I would choose Tau as you get a good number of units in their battleforce and everything in it is usefull for the army.

Tau are rumored to have a new army book coming out end of year or something too, which means new boxed sets, new models and a price adjustment.

**Night's Blood**

Dark eldar are an extremely well priced army. for around 400ish you can get a soild 1850 competative list going with plenty of cash to go around for flavor.

**ChiliPowderKeg**

Tau, they're one of the few who haven't had huge price-hikes

**The Dwarf Wolf**

Well, what about a nob army? 5 Squads of 6 Nobz (converte from AoBR) with 2 warbosses, some deff koptas and 5 scratch build trucks...

Not incredible competitive, and kind annoying for the opponent... And cheap if you buy the guys around e-bay

**Ratbarf**

Edited for thread confusion.

**Kilkrazy**

ChiliPowderKeg wrote:Tau, they're one of the few who haven't had huge price-hikes

I'm not so sure about that.

All the Tau stuff I've looked at is 25 to 50% more expensive than it was a few years ago.

Hammerhead is now £31, used to be £20.
Broadside is £18, used to be £12.
Crisis Suit is £15, used to be £10.
Fire Warriors and Kroot are £20, used to be £15.
Devilfish is £20, used to be £18, quite a bargain when you look at the price rises on everything else!

There's not much else you actually want for a Tau army, except perhaps Piranhas or maybe Stealth Suits.

**King Pariah**

Like what a few others said, go to ebay for Tau or Eldar.

The price hike is one of those things that make me wish I lived in Europe to buy off of Dark Sphere instead.

**Kilkrazy**

The cheapest army to build would be a themed IG army using historical, not GW models.

Historical figures are 1/2 to 1/3rd the price of equivalent GW models.

Vehicle kits aren't very cheap unless you go for one of the cheaper manufacturers like Zvezda or Italeri. There are bargains if you look around. I've found six boxes in 1/35th scale of the Tamiya M13/40 Carro Armato WW2 Italian tank for only £14.99 each. Block buy that, and with a bit of conversion you have all the Lemon Russes you need.

**Crom**

3D printers are getting cheaper and cheaper, you may be able to print your own as long as you don't copy the models others make and manufacture. You can get 3D printers for $800 to $1600 for a decent one these days. While initial cost would be expensive, the ability to print as many as you wanted cheaply would maybe outweigh it.

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/08/print-your-own-wargaming-minis.html

In 5 years from now 3D printers will be even cheaper

**Gornall**

Thanks for the inputs! I am planning on buying fairly new or gently used so I may look at Tau or Necrons. DE don't do it for me. I am actually hoping Mantic comes up with some cool Sci Fi sculpts.

Also, nobody mentioned Chaos Demons... How expensive are they?

**Wakshaani**

Kilkrazy wrote:
ChiliPowderKeg wrote:Tau, they're one of the few who haven't had huge price-hikes

I'm not so sure about that.

All the Tau stuff I've looked at is 25 to 50% more expensive than it was a few years ago.

There's not much else you actually want for a Tau army, except perhaps Piranhas or maybe Stealth Suits.

You leave me agog and aghast, good sir, as you've overlooked the most prized Tau unit of all!

Vapid Stingwings!

Why, I never fail to elicit a response from my foe when I twirl out a few gossamer motes made flesh while saying, "Prepare to be stung... by my STINGWINGS! Sting sting!"

Sting.
Wings.

WIth a name like that, how can you possibly resist?

**DevianID**

Chaos Daemons is the cheapest by far.

Fateweaver, Tzeench GD and 3 TZ daemonprinces. Even with minor upgrades your breaking 1k points, much more if you get a bit spendy on the upgrades.

Add 5 man horror units and or boxes of bloodletters to cover your troops and your done.

If you dont mind converting you can get even cheaper with daemons, while still being 100% gw.

**CoI**

Add to the discounts you can get online rather that GW direct, and you can get most armies rather 'cheap'. That's usually new too. Wayland is actually able to ship to you now as well, but I've heard that there's some US based sites that might be preferable to you.
But I've had amazing luck with used. Full SW army, that until recently had cost less than $300. Battleforce is added in there, so it's more like 150 or so. I was able to go up to 2500pts with that, and it included rhinos, RB and the droppod, as well as a Vindicator I picked up for $15 off Ebay. With patience you can get the most amazing deals off ebay, and of course here. Just picked up a brilliant deal here.