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New to "the hobby" and was holding off on making purchases (incase you've seen any of my other threads) till I got my friends into Warmachine, which doesn't seem to be happening.

Don't get me wrong, I love 40k, I'm just not exactly in the position to be blowing hundreds of dollars on it at this moment, while I could get to a good level in warmchine with just about $200. But, they're my friends, I'm not going to go a different way than them because I'm poor.

So, which armies are generally cheaper, and why? Any army really, I've been looking more into DE and Chaos Space Marines honestly, but I generally like all the armies well enough to go with them.

Its transport that ramp up the cost of armies so almost any foot army is going to be cheaper to do.

Jubear wrote:Its transport that ramp up the cost of armies so almost any foot army is going to be cheaper to do.

I've gathered this, that generally -any- army that uses abit of melee, will require transports for every ten or so.

Hmmm, well I think if you got some good deals on ebay, you could field a Terminator/pally GK army for fairly cheap, due to their high point cost.

^ what he said. If you want a basic cheap Infantry (Foot/Ground Pounders) based Army i'd go with Orks or Imperial Guard, find someone who will go halvies with you in an AoBR starter set.

Or i suggest two Imp G or Ork Battlefoces you get a fair a sized army in quick time.

40K is always expensive.

Orks are cheap. That's why with started with them

Trying to steer clear of Orks and normal Eldar.

That's what my friends are using.

Sanon wrote:Trying to steer clear of Orks and normal Eldar.

That's what my friends are using.

Then i would go with Imp G's, you can get a bucket load cheap online.

Depends if you stick with original Citadel models or if you're the creative type.

Imperial Guard models can easily find substitutes from just about any historical company, with minimal add-ons from Citadel bits.

Orks are rather cheap on ebay (50 cents per mini) and vehicles are easy to scratch build. Eldar are the exact opposite and can hardly be scratch built.

In general, the higher price cost per mini (in points), the lowest mini count you need, therefore Grey Knights are probably the cheapest option you can find. Any army with expensive Troops (in points) will be cheaper in the end.

Cheapest army? If I had to guess I'd say you could do a foot IG list, a foot Ork list, or a nidz list.

But at the end of the day Warhammer will be very expensive no matter what, lol.

I think you can make a legal GK list with Draigo and two Paladins.

Well, I want legal -and- viable.

Since I was thinking DE, how do they range?

Same question with Chaos.

Sanon wrote:Well, I want legal -and- viable.

Since I was thinking DE, how do they range?

Same question with Chaos.

Basically, the opposite of what you want. AFAIK, all the important Chaos models are still metal, pricier than finecast. With DE, you have to buy transports to make it viable.

Hrm, is there something like Battlecollege, where I can learn about general info on units and put together something now, rather than guessing at prices?

There really isn't a 40k version of Battlecollege. If you want a cheap army new out of the box, I'd recommend a Draigo/Paladin list. It would be comprised of very few powerful, tough infantry, and maaaaybe a Land Raider if you felt like it.

I know you said you'd like to avoid Orks, but you could potentially do a Ghazzy/Nobz list in a similar way, although you would probably want at least a Battlewagon or several there.

Maybe a Descent of Angels Blood Angels army? That would be almost all infantry, and if you used plenty of expensive (pointswise) Sanguinary Guard you could keep the model count down.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head, hope it helps!

For the cheapest army, I'd say a battlewagon heavy ork list or grey knight list. The ork list because orks are dead cheap from AOBR and allow you to save heaps by scratchbuilding or converting your own battlewagons. If you want a cheap army, do not go with the Green Tide. There will usually be over 100 models and is quite expensive. Grey Knights are cheap because of their low model count.

Dark eldar on foot is possible, you could run a good deal of warriors, some cronos pain engines for good support and be mostly fine. You will need some anti tank however. DE really tend to work much better with transports, but foot DE can work.

As for chaos, playing them on foot is quite easy. You can pump out the units pretty easily, convert any marine vehicle/unit for your usage, and chaos as excellent options for anti vehicle as well. I have more success with my foot only CSM than others around here do with transport based CSM khorne bezerker spam.

Well since foot lists and GK have already been mentioned . . .

How about pure DoA BA? No transports and a slightly higher point costs vs a similar MEQ army.

Coolyo294 wrote:I think you can make a legal GK list with Draigo and two Paladins.

I made a quick list in army builder doing that....1450 points

How about DA Deathwing?? Surely that's pretty model light?

I'd have to say Space Marines. You can get them second-hand off of eBay for next to nothing.

I just built a 4500pt army for £125 (that's about $200).

Here is a link to my blog:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/338372.page

Coolyo294 wrote:I think you can make a legal GK list with Draigo and two Paladins.

Should see them winning too.

Nid Hordes are extremely cheap. Buy a Box of Warriors for £20-£25 (I work in UK £, but you will need to convert into $), convert 2 into Primes and the 3rd into \Parasite, and get 2 boxes of Gaunst or Gants, and have 2 HQ and 2 Troops. That is enough for the first games, and is cheap enough points wise to ensure some victories, especially as the opponent won't have enough to spend on Tanks.