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.

Could someone suggest a fairly cheap and effective army under $238.

please refrain from posting gimmicky low model count armys like grey knight paladins and termie wing variants

Imperial Guard. You could get a halfway-decent Infantry army out of it. Or alternatively you could do a Small Mechanised army.

if you don't run termies its harder i'd look at necrons. but that said my deathwing 1500 point army can be done for 350.

if you are looking to maxizime money look for megaforces on ebay

Space Wolves are a fun army. Quite high points cost. Chaos Daemons are also a good choice.

use of assault on black reach marines can be had pretty cheaply and can be used as anything from vanilla marines to blood angels and space wolves. Just need a few bits from places and you're in business to run some fairly competitive builds at 1500

Necrons are the cheapest outside of Terminator armies I think. Other than that, I'd say Chaos Space Marines. They have a lot of ways of hiking up your point cost, and not necessarily in a bad way. Their specialist troops are usually really good (cept Noise Marines) and cost more than most troops, but like I said, they're worth it. Also, a Daemon Prince is a fairly cheap kit to buy for what you get out of it. One of the best HQ's for its point cost.

You might want tot check into a thunderwolf/ razorback list, or maybe a nob list.

AngryMarine wrote:You might want tot check into a thunderwolf/ razorback list, or maybe a nob list.

Explain how the thunderwolf/razorback list is cheap?

Farmer wrote:

AngryMarine wrote:You might want tot check into a thunderwolf/ razorback list, or maybe a nob list.

Explain how the thunderwolf/razorback list is cheap?

You can sock tons of points into TWC and Razorbacks without too much money......

bmoleski wrote:

Farmer wrote:

AngryMarine wrote:You might want tot check into a thunderwolf/ razorback list, or maybe a nob list.

Explain how the thunderwolf/razorback list is cheap?

You can sock tons of points into TWC and Razorbacks without too much money......

The main problem is everyone seems to have hopped onto the space wolves bandwagon. they are the army people seem to play the most.

I was thinking of picking a blood angels army over wolves any idea on making a competitive blood angels army out of $238? i really like the idea of mephiston and the predators.

A lot of armies can be cheap if you scour ebay

The main problem is everyone seems to have hopped onto the space wolves bandwagon. they are the army people seem to play the most.

I was thinking of picking a blood angels army over wolves any idea on making a competitive blood angels army out of $238? i really like the idea of mephiston and the predators.

If you have a point spread you have in mind (i.e. what do your area people like to play at) maybe I can come up with a shopping list for you that involves mepheston and predators. Just as an aside question but do you perfer metal boxes for your men or moving fast with jump packs? I don't need details just your preferences cause it can be built differently.

Orks.

Buy Assault on Black Reach Boys off eBay.
Get some cheap 2nd hand tanks and Ork them up as Trukks, Battlewagons or Looted Wagons.

bmoleski wrote:

Farmer wrote:

Explain how the thunderwolf/razorback list is cheap?

You can sock tons of points into TWC and Razorbacks without too much money......

This. 2 mounted lords with gear and sagas end up being close to 600 points depending on your build. 4 cav models are 320 points (you don't take cav without storm shields, unless 1 is just meat), 355 with a thunderhammer and a meltabomb for wound allocation. You're now at around 1000 points, for just over $100, give or take.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
There is also the space marine and dark eldar sets out now, for just over $200. The lack a little in the way of effectiveness though.

Farmer wrote:

bmoleski wrote:

Farmer wrote:

AngryMarine wrote:You might want tot check into a thunderwolf/ razorback list, or maybe a nob list.

Explain how the thunderwolf/razorback list is cheap?

You can sock tons of points into TWC and Razorbacks without too much money......

The main problem is everyone seems to have hopped onto the space wolves bandwagon. they are the army people seem to play the most.

I was thinking of picking a blood angels army over wolves any idea on making a competitive blood angels army out of $238? i really like the idea of mephiston and the predators.

You don't want to play Wolves because too many people play it, but you DO want to play BA? There are just as many of those out there. BA are kind of a fad.

The Crusader wrote:Imperial Guard. You could get a halfway-decent Infantry army out of it. Or alternatively you could do a Small Mechanised army.

The only answer that could be more wrong than this is Sisters of Battle. I love the Guard but they're impossible to do for cheap. The cheapest army you could do that isn't a Terminator-heavy gimmick would be Marines or Orks, started via Black Reach. You can get multiple sets worth of Black Reach stuff on eBay, often getting one half or the other for $30-$40. As for Orks:

Ugavine wrote:Orks.
Buy Assault on Black Reach Boys off eBay.
Get some cheap 2nd hand tanks and Ork them up as Trukks, Battlewagons or Looted Wagons.

This is very good advice.

AngryMarine wrote:
There is also the space marine and dark eldar sets out now, for just over $200. The lack a little in the way of effectiveness though.

This was a splash release and isn't around anymore.

Marines are generally the cheapest army you can find if you're going secondhand also. If you scour eBay there are always hordes of Marines that with a little time and SImple Green/Dettol/LA's Totally Awesome loving, can be cleaned up good as new. You also don't need that many of them to play a viable army list, and most of their unit choices are pretty good. Chaos Marines and Necrons are also fairly good armies to start for cheap, and Tau shouldn't be too bad right now since the codex is so out of date. Your best bets are eBay and a discount online retailer, like http://www.maelstromgames.co.uk/

The cheapest armies when you buy them new are Deathwing and Grey Knights. However you are much better of buying stuff on eBay.

I recommen Wayland games for cheap new stuff.


You can get cheap Guard armies if you use thrid party soldiers (Bolt Action or Warzone for example.)

Farmer wrote:Could someone suggest a fairly cheap and effective army under $238.

please refrain from posting gimmicky low model count armys like grey knight paladins and termie wing variants

depends on how much of a deal hunter you are on ebay. i could do alot with 240.

if you're talking about just waltzing into a store and buying gak then good luck.

Ha, cheap? In this hobby?

You could go Grey Knights *shudder*.

Get Draigo and paladins and your good to go. But I wouldnt recomend it everyone plays GK becasue they are powerful. But any infantry heavy lists that arent Blood Angels can be cheap. if you want cheap do not get razorspam you are investing £20 not sure how many dollars for between 55 and 100pts. Not exactly cheap considerign you need around 4 then there are preds and dreadnoughts depending on what you want.

i would say go with tyranids most of there things are cheap and cheap in points wise

Darkavenger2411 wrote:I would say go with Tyranids most of their things are cheap to buy and cheap points wise.

Cheap to buy and cheap points wise never go togeather well. Tyranids are not cheap. I have a friend that recently bought a Tyranid army and it has run him well over £200 and hes not finished. So lets say £250 for his army. ( I don't now exactly what it costs so I will go in the middle of 200 and 300). That is with 10% of GW prices and that in american dollars comes to $396 so lets say $400. The op only has $238 to spend. So no 'nids aren't a good idea.

Also a little grammar helps with posts it neatens them up. I've changed your original reply in the quote to tidy it up.

Tyranids are terrible if you're going for a cost effective army. Ideally you want maximum sized squads, and I think you have to buy 3 sets for each squad to maximize it......I could be wrong. Either way, it's not cheap. Although a genestealer army (which is pretty effective) is a lot easier on the wallet.

^ Agreed but even a Genestealer list although it wont burn as big a whole in your pocket it still isn't very cheap. As just 'stealers arent much you then need tervigons or hive tyrants or whatever you like as well.

well....you could buy multiple "my little pony" models and sculpt power armour for them like I did and run them as a bike army, so far its cost about £40 for the ponies and £20 for the GS :3

silly ideas aside, dark eldar are pretty cheep, a good starting force would be 2 ravagers, 2 raiders and 2 venoms with 2 box's of warriors to act as warriors and trueborn and top it all off with a haemonculous made from bits (TBH the battle force isn't a bad deal)

if you want blood angels then you might want to go with a small DOA/death company hybrid army as the battle force will give 10 assault marines and 10 DC/tactical marines in a rhino with crafty use of bits, two box's of those and an HQ would be a good start

chaos can be cheep if you take the cult troops. if tzeentch is your thing then a box or three of 1Ksons with rhinos to match, a defiler and daemon prince would make a good starting force, same really goes for khorne and nurgle though slaanesh requires purchase of a stupid number of sonic weapons -_- hope that all helps

redkeyboard wrote:
Get Draigo and paladins and your good to go.

He says in the first post he doesn't want gimmick Terminator armies like Draigo.

Darkavenger2411 wrote:i would say go with tyranids most of there things are cheap and cheap in points wise

Considering the linchpin of a Tyranid army spawns 3D6 more bugs per turn and you often need two or more of them, this is a bad idea. Also, there's no affordable way to start a Nid army whatsoever.

DPBellathrom wrote:
A big post of things

Please don't use apostrophes for plurals. THEY DON'T WORK THAT WAY. Also, the word you're looking for is "Cheap". "Cheep" is the sound birds make. A CSM army build around Khorne Berserkers is pretty affordable though; 12 of them cost less than 10 standard CSM, although they're an older kit.

Draigowing (grey knights termy army (each model is 50+ points) can be cheap and effective.

There are some pretty effect Necron Death Star lists too.

Emerett wrote:Draigowing (grey knights termy army (each model is 50+ points) can be cheap and effective.

Farmer wrote:
please refrain from posting gimmicky low model count armys like grey knight paladins and termie wing variants

People should read the OP before posting.

So, the quick and dirty rule to cheap armies is to field armies that have as few units as possible. Guard, for example, is a terrible army to field on the cheap, as in order to get a basic amount of troops choices you've got to field at least 6 different units (2 PISs, and 4 PCSs, or 3 vets in 3 chimeras). Cheaper armies come from buying fewer boxes of stuff, not by buying cheaper boxes.

Probably your best bet at the moment (outside of perhaps grey knights), is a CSM army. CSM units are expensive, pointswise, which means that you don't have to field all that many of them. I mean, you could easily field a competitive raider list with just 3 raiders, 3 squads of khorne berzerkers, and something for your HQ. The chaos army I'm putting together right now (foot khorne) will only cost me a little north of $200 for 1500 points once I get it done.

The only real exception to this at the moment is orks, because of AoBR. The only question, then, is if what you want is a slugga green tide, because while this may be effective, if it's not "you", then don't bother, because there's not a lot else you can make out of this kit.

I put my vote for CSM with $200ish you could get 1xbattleforce 1xDP and 3xrhinos which will easily expand to a 1500+ pt list with a little conversion work.