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Obviously, the size of the army is going to be a large factor, but I'm just curious - what are some of the cheapest armies that you can build, while still being functional. It doesn't have to be competitive, but it should be able to win.

I'm a 40k player for the most part, so I'm just amazed at some of these 400+ points Lords or 250+ points Rare choices. Is it possible to actually build a 1500 point army for ~$100 or $150? When 25% of your army is a $30 model, I don't know what else is possible.

I hear ogre kingdoms are really cheap. I can really only speak for Bretonnians however, i bought a 2500pt+ army, new on sprue and only spent $400. Which blew my mind, since when i started IG i spent that much and only got 1500pts, and most of that was tanks.

Well first off, does everything have to be new? Ebay Have some great deals especially if you're happy to strip stuff down.

Vermillion wrote:Well first off, does everything have to be new? Ebay Have some great deals especially if you're happy to strip stuff down.

Agreed, I got 600 points worth of stuff in my stripvat for about 100 bucks.

Here is a post from a guy over at Warseer who calculated the average cost of an army at 2,000 points from people's posted army lists. While armies can look radically different when 1,000 or 2,000 points its valuable info to consider:

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?331180-The-Average-Cost-of-Armies

For what you are specifically asking though I doubt you could do a 1,500 point army for $150. A battalion ($90-115) generally is in the neighborhood of 750 points. At 1,500 points you only have 375 to spend on Rare so you would need to buy more models anyway to fill out the points. You could beef up the Lords & Heroes on points but the army might be so small it would get crushed by armies with more troops.

Doing this via Ebay though could change things drastically.

Ogres are probably a good choice. Discounted battalions and etc can easily build up armies.

If you're allowed non GW models though, there are a few options to use. For example Mantic has cheap (but funky looking) ranges, Perry Brothers make excellent late medieval soldiers which are perfect for Empire, Fireforge has knights that would fit in with Bretonnia

Acardia wrote:

Vermillion wrote:Well first off, does everything have to be new? Ebay Have some great deals especially if you're happy to strip stuff down.

Agreed, I got 600 points worth of stuff in my stripvat for about 100 bucks.

And with some traders on ebay they have the best offer option, if they have had the regiment for a while you might get a bargain. also if you go the ebay route remember that different armies have different populairties at certain times. woC seems very popular with the possibility of getting bargains still, and just now Dwarves, O&G and lizardmen arent badly priced at a glance. End of the day you'll have to look around a bit and also decide if any of the armies are for you.
If you go to discount retailers that helps a huge amount, especially with batallions, but GW seems to be making those less useful (EG: Orc and Goblins one) and upping the price. If by a fluke you can afford a huge (£150+) order a time, or save to do it, then it's even better as you get more off overall due to postage costs. Waiting for free shipping offers is possible also (Wayland has had one each month so far and hope they do throughout, it'll get them more business from me!).
End of the day though if you don't go for an army which appeals to you, you probably wont enjoy the game a lot.

Oh and due to Island of Blood, skaven should be pretty cheap to do too, throw in some old edition models going cheap from starter sets of the past as slaves, covert the spare IoB characters as overseers and you're set too, just the "big things" needed.

I would say that an all warriors Chaos list or perhaps Ogres would be the cheapest retail army as they have some of the lowest model count per point ratios in the game.

The biggest factor is your unit selection. If you stick with the troops in IoB, skaven can be quite cheap as $35-40 will get you a full set of them. It's when you start adding in things like elite infantry that are $44 for 10 models that things start to get pricey.

Orger Kingdoms are your friend here, you dont really need more than the battalion and a extra box of Bulls/iron guts and a Gouger

Trondheim wrote:Orger Kingdoms are your friend here, you dont really need more than the battalion and a extra box of Bulls/iron guts and a Gouger

This is completely true.

You could also do Night Goblins as long as you don't mind doing some minor converting. Basically, get three to four of the goblin sets (which you should be able to get for about 30 bucks each depending on who you get them from) then simply buy a box of Night Goblins to convert into Lords, Heroes and Fanatics and you're set.

Perhaps you are unaware that Skull pass is discontinued and the goblins from it are increasingly harder to find. Which is a shame as I'd be down to buy at least 4 or 5 goblin sets if anyone had them.

I've been lucky and got some from ebay and people on dakka for first my son, and now myself, they're still out there, just need a little patience finding some. Even got some 6th ed starter orcs to go alongside them

Ratbarf wrote:You could also do Night Goblins as long as you don't mind doing some minor converting. Basically, get three to four of the goblin sets (which you should be able to get for about 30 bucks each depending on who you get them from) then simply buy a box of Night Goblins to convert into Lords, Heroes and Fanatics and you're set.

Ah ya beat me to it. NGs,I think being a player of them, can be very cheap to build and don't let anyone tell you they aren't competetive. Just ask my friend who plays WoC after mine slaughtered his army.

But also true, a WoC army can be cheap to build also.

Currently on Ebay there is not a single full Skull Pass goblin set. They may come up every now and then, but not like they used to.

Always the ask around people may have got sets and not got round to using them yet and be willing to let them go for a good price

Aerethan wrote:Currently on Ebay there is not a single full Skull Pass goblin set. They may come up every now and then, but not like they used to.

I regularly see them available on bartertown, and occasionally here in the swap shop.

Just ask around.

I was on ebay last week and saw 4+ sets of them if memory serves. Also at my local gaming store there are a bunch of dwarf players who have been trying to get rid of them for years.

A friend of mine who was starting up a night gobbos army actually got about a hundred of the little buggers for free. That was 6 months or so ago? I think.