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Hello again guys. First off let me start by thanking the lot of you who follow my threads as often as possible. I didn't think they could get popular, especially with my discussions on the rich 40k background and the "what if" scenarios.

So I wanted to ask you guys how you would advocate the hobby and the game to other people who haven't heard of it or know about it but don't play. My experiences with this en devour hasn't been very favorable. Most people who I demo the game with end up really liking it, but as soon as they hear me tell them the price for the models and such they turn away. I only know three people in my entire town who play this game, one of which I still play with on occasion and the other has sold his Tau to care for his family. The last guy has gone MIA and nobody has seen him in months. We assume he moved away.

Normally I would be satisfied with playing with just one person once a month or so, but they only own two armies, one of which is only 400 points, and that gets pretty boring.

I have started to spread out fliers calling out to those who play this hobby and I don't know of, but none have called the number provided or email.

Usually kids around 10 are the most interested, but with them being so young to have jobs and have the money to play, they can only stand by and watch.

Does anyone here have experience with this sort of thing? Any campaigning tips or suggestions for me? I'd appreciate it alot. Thanks again, and cheers.

Have you tried to find a local gaming club around your area? Or use Dakkas find a game sub forum, I know you are trying to get people into the hobby, but I'd imagine cold selling 40k outside of a direct friendship group would be pretty hard, but I applaud you for trying.

If the mountain won't come to you, go to the mountain. The moral of this story.

Eldercaveman wrote:
Have you tried to find a local gaming club around your area? Or use Dakkas find a game sub forum, I know you are trying to get people into the hobby, but I'd imagine cold selling 40k outside of a direct friendship group would be pretty hard, but I applaud you for trying.

If the mountain won't come to you, go to the mountain. The moral of this story.

Thank you, and yes, I have tried. The closest place to me is 2 hour drive from where I live. There used to be a gaming club in my town, but as you can read in one of my threads from earlier this week, it got shut down. Most of my friends don't get into it because of the time and money. Its mostly time for them. They like other things, and they all lack the patience to sit down, build and paint, and eventually play.

I only have one friend who would be willing to play, but he can't afford it.

TBH I wouldn't. 40k is fun if you're already invested in it and have the models, but if you're just starting out you should probably pick a better and cheaper game. But if I really had to I'd start by showing off the background fiction and pretty models and only try to get them into the game once they already think it's a fun universe to play in.

It seems like the problem with the people in you area is that they balk at the amount of money needed to play... surprise, surprise.

At the very least, however, it does not seem as though you lack for opponents.

The remedy, then, is simple - play another game.

Now, hang on. Don't roll your eyes just yet. But think about it. If you've got interest, but no takers, then you've got to find another hook! And that hook is skirmish scale games. There's certainly a glut of those on the market at the moment. You could even try Kill Teams if you're focused on 40k. But then you've got Infinity, Malifaux, Blackwater Gulch, Mantic's Necromunda-esque game, Dreadball, etc., etc.

The advantage is that you've got to spend less money for a full sized game, and then expanding your collection is much easier to do in bitesized chuncks.

Not to sound cynical (why is that when you start something off like that, you always do what you're saying you're not doing?) but I think "advocating" actually has the opposite effect that it is intended to do. At least, with myself, I find that when someone is a little too excited about something, it's off-putting. It makes me think that if I'm not as excited about it as that guy, I might not enjoy it that much.

It also kind of creates the mentality that there are "Warhammer people," if that makes any sense at all. Generally, I mention it off-handledly to people, and go into detail only when asked.

Something else that helps is that I try the "first hit is always free" method, and give stuff out to people who are interested. I've gotten two people started from spare AoBR tac squads, second hand models, and a spare Rhino or two I've had laying around. Between ebay deals and tournament winnings, it's cheap enough to me, reduces my always massive painting backlog, and if that's what it takes to get people involved, it's worth it.

Is there a college or junior college near where you live. You might try putting up some fliers on campus if so.

JWhex wrote:
Is there a college or junior college near where you live. You might try putting up some fliers on campus if so.

Yes, but I can only put one flier per bulletin there, and there's only three of those. Even as a student they give you a hard time for this.

This might just be crazy but you could do what i did as a kid and buy the codexes but use plastic army men and stuff as proxies while they build an army of real models. Its not quite as cool, but it sufices when you have people that want to play and no money for models.

When I was lacking opponents, I bought my friend's necrons and my brother's CSM. A battle force for my brother, and a second hand army for my friend. Got their foot in the door, and now they buy their own stuff. Well my brother still gets most of his army from me, but he has two kids, and it's basically what I give him for Christmas/birthday/misc gifts. Playing DA myself, just gave me an excuse to buy 3 DV sets.

I'd sell 40K on the lore and cheap good video games, then for tabletop I'd suggest cheap non-gw alternatives such as Eisenkern stormtroopers for IG, Valkir for SMs, or many other ranges. Due to them screwing over Aussies so bad I'd also suggest other non-official models with the result of GW getting as little money as possible. But the game and setting itself is great and good to recommend where you're not getting price gouged.