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Well, I live in a boom town however I only know one other person that plays 40k, while he is a fun player to be around I would love to have more variety in players, unfortunately the FLGS has a very "Open when we feel like it, closed when we don't" approach to business. We do try and play there when they are open, but this can be rather hard with the stores hours. So I have some information about the area, as well as questions on how to get the hobby to start. All data is 2 years old(from census) but neither jobs nor prices have decreased very much
1: Average income:70,483, with rent/ Mortgage going between 9600-21600 a year, meaning that there should be a fairly decent amount of people with plenty of disposable income.
2: As a boom town there are relatively few things for both adults and children to do the town has:Bars, an Arcade (themed more towards little kids than anyone 12+), a skatepark, a single comic book store, the FLGS, and a recreation center. So one would think that there could be a decent amount of interest generated for this
3: A good portion of the population are single males. A demographic that probably suits and form of wargaming
4: The FLGS is locally owned.

Now for the parts where I would need help.
4: How should I go about and reach out to the community to find interest in the hobby. As a note the FLGS does not carry GW products, but I would imagine it would not take too much to get them to do so. Also the FLGS is rather limited on space. An option that I am considering is that the local Comic book store seems to have a decent amount of real estate that is empty.
5: Biggest issue that turns people off from warhammer: How do I justify to someone else the cost associated with warhammer is worth it.
6: Any advice to see if I could convince the FLGS to have more reliable hours? (Something that may help with this is both me and that friend are unemployed)

I'm assuming your FLGS is locally owned.
If you can, try to talk with the store manager and offer to volunteer at the store.
This way they might be able to keep the store open on more hours without worrying about staff payment.
While this does mean you would not receive any money you would still be getting good work experience and able to spend time in the store. Hopefully the manager could hire you on as a regular staff member.

As for getting more people into the hobby.
Invite people you know who might be interested to come visit you at the store during your shift and tell your friend to do the same. Even planning gaming events and such to draw potential interest.

I hope some of this helps and good luck to you and your friend

In terms of cost, there are a lot of ebay stores that sell warhammer stuff at a lower price than GW, even after shipping costs. Used minis are also buyable at a reasonable price. As I put it: it's not what you buy, it's who you buy from. Mention that to your friends.
I also found it was helpful to show people the warhammer rulebook. It's the closest thing GW has to an actual ad.

Hmm alright, heck I would be willing to sacrifice my Blood angels I bought off swap shop for selling. Saddly I did not think of volunteering, so I'll have to talk to him about that.

If you have a couple armies, why not build your own table and invite people to play? What better way to get people interested then let them play games with no $$$ involved until they like it?

I know I got dragged into this so-very-expensive game because of the fluff, but I wasn't exactly a Sci-Fi savant back then. I still like the fluff, but I can see why it could be seen as too generic. However, I like 60mm's advice. It seems the best way to recruit people into the game.

My argument is why do you feel the need to entice someone into 40k?

40k is THE MOST EXPENSIVE TT game in the universe...

I would talk my friends into Infinity or FoW first... get them "hooked" on table top games then shoot for the intro of 40k.

If you tell someone you play a game and you would like them to play against you and it will cost them $800, most friends will tell you to pound salt. Tell them its $80 and they might take the plunge.

Milisim wrote:My argument is why do you feel the need to entice someone into 40k?

40k is THE MOST EXPENSIVE TT game in the universe...

I would talk my friends into Infinity or FoW first... get them "hooked" on table top games then shoot for the intro of 40k.

If you tell someone you play a game and you would like them to play against you and it will cost them $800, most friends will tell you to pound salt. Tell them its $80 and they might take the plunge.

Saddly 40k is the only TT game I have played and the only one I know that anyone plays around here.

Milisim wrote:My argument is why do you feel the need to entice someone into 40k?

40k is THE MOST EXPENSIVE TT game in the universe...

I would talk my friends into Infinity or FoW first... get them "hooked" on table top games then shoot for the intro of 40k.

If you tell someone you play a game and you would like them to play against you and it will cost them $800, most friends will tell you to pound salt. Tell them its $80 and they might take the plunge.

$800?!? I got into 40K with nothing but a tac squad I bought, and a AoBR Captain my Orky friend gave me. I borrowed his SM codex and paints then we played using my points limits. Once I was hooked I started buying things on my own. At the time, all that got me "in" was about 30 bucks, I think, It might have been 25. But still, OP: just have the codexs handy and play some very small scale games(using your models) to demo people and let them flip through the random codexs to see if they like it.

Edit: Only been doing this for about four years....already talking like an old timer.....Back in muh day.....

Building a table to invite people to play on in hopes of drawing them in, like I'm currently doing, is also GREAT motivation to make a bunch of sweet scenery. Imagine you build a sick looking battlescape, you have some armies, smoke a spliff . . . who would turn it down? That's my hope anyhow haha!

60mm wrote:Building a table to invite people to play on in hopes of drawing them in, like I'm currently doing, is also GREAT motivation to make a bunch of sweet scenery. Imagine you build a sick looking battlescape, you have some armies, smoke a spliff . . . who would turn it down? That's my hope anyhow haha!

Amen brother!

Huh, never even thought about the table

Show them some really nice models, show them stuff from 40k that really makes you go "Holy Crap! thats cool" when you see it. The best way to get them into the game is you gotta do some recon on your targets. First thing you need to do is understand who is the best target to take to the game.

IMO the best potential targets are people who like modeling, wargames, and RPG games, like D&D or SWtoR, Peole who play D&D will hop on the band wagon because it has the table top appeal.

And when i say modeling I don't just mean making model cars and stuff, if they like to make model buildings hit them there, show them some hirst arts stuff.

As for the price, do not say that its "Pretty expensive" sell why they cost so much, say that the best way to get you money out of it is to take time and put effort into the models, one $50 box of assault terms can take a month to paint if you take your time,

On the note of how to get you FLGS into 40k, try and get the owner into it, take some of your models and play a kill team match or a game of space hulk with him. if people see you playing the game they will be like WO whats this, this is cool!

Post fliers at your FLGS. Talk to the owner of the FLGS about his "odd" store hours. Bring two 500 point armies and do teaching games. Get people to see your models. Paint them, too.

Once you find a few people that you get along well with and would trust in your home, make a gaming table for your home and play there.

Backspacehacker wrote:Show them some really nice models, show them stuff from 40k that really makes you go "Holy Crap! thats cool" when you see it. The best way to get them into the game is you gotta do some recon on your targets. First thing you need to do is understand who is the best target to take to the game.

IMO the best potential targets are people who like modeling, wargames, and RPG games, like D&D or SWtoR, Peole who play D&D will hop on the band wagon because it has the table top appeal.

And when i say modeling I don't just mean making model cars and stuff, if they like to make model buildings hit them there, show them some hirst arts stuff.

As for the price, do not say that its "Pretty expensive" sell why they cost so much, say that the best way to get you money out of it is to take time and put effort into the models, one $50 box of assault terms can take a month to paint if you take your time,

On the note of how to get you FLGS into 40k, try and get the owner into it, take some of your models and play a kill team match or a game of space hulk with him. if people see you playing the game they will be like WO whats this, this is cool!

I think I will do that thankfully there is a quite a group for DnD and pathfinder. Unfortunately I don't know if anyone there does models. However the owner may very well be inclined to try at least a 500 point game. Now to try and encourage my friend to paint his horde of gray orks.

Couple things.

1. Don't try to convince the store to stock 40k stuff. Anyone who spends a modicum of time on the net can find out they can get everything cheaper there. Of course the store could special order things, or show someone the way to do it, but try to convince the store to not stock anything GW. At least not yet.

2. Get a display case and some snazzy bits of eye candy. People generally like power armor, so space marines are a good choice. Nids also look pretty cool aesthetically to quite a few people. Get a troop or elite choice from each army for them to look at, give them an idea of what kind of forces they can field. Also model as many chainswords as you can, any true manly man will respect a chainsaw thingy, regardless of how meaningless it is in the game.

3. Get two sampler armies set up for quick tutorial games. Take a note from GW and get the AOBR set.

4. Do some painting classes, buy some snap ons and offer free space marines (like GW does) and some painting lessons. Get enough paints to do ultramarines and a couple decent brushes.

Just give players stuff to look at, and stuff to do for free. That will naturally draw attention.

Buy AoBR and "public" codex and offer people lessons on how to play and let people use your Codex

Next try to start events, like Starter box 300-400 point games, make it a tourney with a upto a unit box or whatever as a prize

Remember the initial cost to get a true army (1500-1850) going is massive and will instantly scare people off

but buying a starter and hosting small tournaments probably wont, you could probably even get people to pay you $5 per person to cover some of your costs

Advertise and Network, make facebook/twitter/forums accounts

It will be a lot of work, but if you have leadership potential, and if you have confidence in yourself. You can do this

Necroshea wrote:Couple things.

1. Don't try to convince the store to stock 40k stuff. Anyone who spends a modicum of time on the net can find out they can get everything cheaper there. Of course the store could special order things, or show someone the way to do it, but try to convince the store to not stock anything GW. At least not yet.

2. Get a display case and some snazzy bits of eye candy. People generally like power armor, so space marines are a good choice. Nids also look pretty cool aesthetically to quite a few people. Get a troop or elite choice from each army for them to look at, give them an idea of what kind of forces they can field. Also model as many chainswords as you can, any true manly man will respect a chainsaw thingy, regardless of how meaningless it is in the game.

3. Get two sampler armies set up for quick tutorial games. Take a note from GW and get the AOBR set.

4. Do some painting classes, buy some snap ons and offer free space marines (like GW does) and some painting lessons. Get enough paints to do ultramarines and a couple decent brushes.

Just give players stuff to look at, and stuff to do for free. That will naturally draw attention.

1: Well currently they do not have anything stocked
2: Well they have an empty glass display case that I may be able to convince the owner to let me use. And fortunately I have plenty of jetpackless assault marines, I would think heavy weapons could attract people, what says macho like a massive plasma cannon
3a: With the new set just around the corner I would think it would be a better plan to wait for it, but an AoBR may actually entice people to play.
3b: What would you advise for the units to pick up for each army (Unfortunately I have not seen much in the way of armies aside from Nids, Orks, and marines)
4: Err, problem is I am absolutely gak at painting, but I see the wisdom behind this so I'll just have to practice up on my brushwork

You could pick up an AoBR now and when the new starter set comes out (depending on your personal budget) purchase that one as well.
Then you'll have an assortment of armies for beginners to choose from and some extra dice, templates, etcetera for other potential players.

Hunting down a copy of battle for Macragge wouldn't be a bad idea either. With all 3 sets and a unit or two extra for Tyranids and Orks, once the new set is out, you'll have 6 starter armies (albeit 3 of them Space Marines, but Painting them as different chapters would help with variety) to get some demo events going.

Also battle for Macragge came with an introductory campaign which imo was a great thing to include in the startre box and would be an excellent way to let people try their hand at the hobby (though it would have to be modified to reflect 6th ed).