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Basically I'm just wondering if you think it is worth the price to play. I did by a IG battle force and I did enjoy building and painting them I also played 3 games with friends and also enjoyed that. I just wonder what does everyone think about the price of the models.

Considering one can purchase most GW product at a 20% discount from multiple "other" online retailers, as well as find great bargains on Ebay, it doesn't have to cost one an arm and a leg to play the game in a casual manner. Most hobbies have a price tag, and even though GWs does appear to be high, once you complete an army, you aren't REQUIRED to purchase any other models to play the game.

I golf during the summer ($60-80 a month) and play in a pool league during the winter ($100 a month after you factor in the beer and bar food). I could easily sustain my GW habit on less than either of those 2 hobbies a month...it's comparable either way.

Discount or no I believe the game is worth investing into.

Hmm alrightly thanks for you input!

There are ways even beyond discounters to stretch your dollar in this. Guard is one of the easier armies to do that. I've found many ways to do so even without having to go second hand.

Before I looked in to it and started playing I would say no. But I think this game is super fun, and the models are really nice. I say I get my money's worth. But value is subjective, so my wife would probably vote no on this list.

NEW Guard March 2014!

I voted yes, but unfortunately you are buying into the most expensive army to actually play with(but the rewards when you get a good list or 2 are substantial).

I wouldnt say its the most expensive list. Others cost a fair bit more.

Yes, but the cost sucks...if you can accept it though, then welcome to the fold son, mech IG made me the man I am today...poor, broke and covered in engine grease...I don't know how you get engine grease from a model but there you go...

Don't buy a guard codex right now. A new one will be out in a month and a half.

Otherwise, go for it!

Don't forget that you don't need a gigantic army to play a game. You could always buy 1 Elite, 2 Troops, and 1 Fast Attack for two factions so you can play games of Kill-Team.
(Which is something I'm now thinking about. Still get a nice CSM starter, but also say buy some Nids and make a Genestealer Kill-Team army to play against with friends.

Ha well thanks for everyone input! Can't wait to save up for the new codex and see what is coming up for imperial guard

Nope. Not worth it at all. If you already have the models and love the modeling and painting side of the hobby, sure, it's probably worth obtaining (legally or illegally) a copy of the rules and playing a game occasionally. But if you aren't already invested in the hobby it's really not worth it. Spend your $500-1000 on a few other miniatures games (which are much better as actual games) and have some money left over.

I do enjoy the building and painting part a lot. I have also tried to look for a cheaper game but sadly i have a hard time finding any that have the same model customization as 40k. If anyone has any recommendations I'm all ears.

 Peregrine wrote:
Nope. Not worth it at all. If you already have the models and love the modeling and painting side of the hobby, sure, it's probably worth obtaining (legally or illegally) a copy of the rules and playing a game occasionally. But if you aren't already invested in the hobby it's really not worth it. Spend your $500-1000 on a few other miniatures games (which are much better as actual games) and have some money left over.

Except that other miniature games aren't W40K, and it isn't horrifically expensive. Sure, it's stupidly pricy, but it's no more than other hobbies such as golfing, or hell, even several magazine subscriptions. Besides, you don't have to even buy some absurd amount of miniatures. $120 batteforce at its starting price or cheaper on other sites, grab your paints and brushes, and you're good to go. All you really want to avoid is picking up the codices/rulebooks unless you can get them for dirt cheap. The miniatures aren't horrific unless you're trying to build up some massive apocalypse army in a single month.

 Wyzilla wrote:
Except that other miniature games aren't W40K

You're right. Those other games aren't 40k, they have rules that aren't an exercise in masochism. As a game 40ks is just terrible, there's no reason to ever even think of playing it unless you've already made the investment in the models or it's the only game your friends want to play.

$120 batteforce at its starting price or cheaper on other sites, grab your paints and brushes, and you're good to go.

So, $250+ worth of stuff and you're "good to go", just as long as you don't want to play a real game anytime soon and have opponents who are willing to play battleforce-scale teaching games for the foreseeable future. A single battleforce isn't even close to a real army, and by the time you've got a 1000-2000 point army that you can play in real games you've spent $500-1000 or more.

All you really want to avoid is picking up the codices/rulebooks unless you can get them for dirt cheap.

So, the way to play 40k is to not play 40k? Great idea.

What do you play @peregrine?

I vote yes but really I feel that I could spend my money better elsewhere, yet I still play so meh, it's on me.

On the flip side, one could justify it by comparing it to the cost of console gaming. If you compare the cost of buying a new PS4, TV, controllers etc. plus a new game every two months or so, it's roughly the same. And I enjoy wargaming much more than video games, the modeling aspect alone gives me more hours of entertainment. So in the end maybe the price can be justified, but that doesn't stop me from feeling slightly foolish for spending hundreds of dollars on little space men toys.

Absolutely. It's quite expensive, but the models (almost) never get made obsolete, so you can play with them forever. I've got models from the first edition of the game that I still play with. That's good investment for the money. As far as fun-to-cash ratios go, only my core D&D books would have a better score.

 ZultanQ wrote:
I vote yes but really I feel that I could spend my money better elsewhere, yet I still play so meh, it's on me.

On the flip side, one could justify it by comparing it to the cost of console gaming. If you compare the cost of buying a new PS4, TV, controllers etc. plus a new game every two months or so, it's roughly the same. And I enjoy wargaming much more than video games, the modeling aspect alone gives me more hours of entertainment. So in the end maybe the price can be justified, but that doesn't stop me from feeling slightly foolish for spending hundreds of dollars on little space men toys.

I do like to game, but I've really stopped buying up a ton of games over the years, or rather triple-AAA's, which are sixty a pop. With my laptop, I can sate my craving for games and gaming during Steam sales. It's hilarious how console gaming is actually more expensive than the PC, which frees up funds for a lot of stuff.

To The Max wrote:
What do you play @peregrine?

Yes, that is a very good question actually, considering how much you seem to hate 40k etc!

Skip 40k and play a better game, like Warmachine. It isn't perfect but it has rules that don't suck and you don't have to buy 15 of the same overpriced box to make an army.

The rules and balance of 40k are just so bad that it's not worth it.

Funny, I keep hearing about how great Warmachine is over the internet, but all my friends who've actually played it told me that the game came down to basically a single d6 roll at the end of the game. None of the games I've seen played looked particularly enjoyable.

Don't get me wrong, there are some great games out there. I'll play Battletech or Fuzzy Heroes at the drop of a hat. Just not sold on Warmachine.

I can't think what d6 roll they'd be referring to unless they had a habit of playing warcasters with Tough (roughly, think FNP on your HQ and if your HQ dies you lose the game) and then doing dubious all-in assassination attempts.

It's definitely got its problems but coming down to a d6 roll at the end of the game isn't really one of them. Whether the problems are a dealbreaker for you or not, it does beautifully address several huge flaws in 40k: its rules are very clear (to the extent that 40k players often take a while to adjust to the idea that there's no hidden caveat in them), its faction balance is good and you don't generally have to buy lots of the same unit to make a good army.

Its rules also tend to capture the units pretty well. When you have a Dreadnought-sized robot picking up another Dreadnought-sized robot and hurling it through the air, that's cinematic in a way that no amount of "forging a narrative" can reproduce, and that was something I found quite beautiful about the game.

Yes, it is.

What do your friends play? That´s pretty much the question it boils down too.
Most of the time I´d prefer to play Warmachine/Hordes but as much as the Internet hates on 40k it still is the most played table top game around the globe and, given the right opponent, lots of fun.

 tommse wrote:
What do your friends play? That´s pretty much the question it boils down too.
Most of the time I´d prefer to play Warmachine/Hordes but as much as the Internet hates on 40k it still is the most played table top game around the globe and, given the right opponent, lots of fun.

Got to agree with this - everyone here plays 40K, so if everyone around you plays 40K it is not worth going for anything else.

To me though it would be worth it even with people playing other games.

Other thing, I used to play MTG competitively and 40K is really cheap compared to that

I feel that it is worth the price if you're smart about buying.

If you want to start playing games next week, you are going to shell out a lot of money all at once on an army that you either bought from someone else or dropped a bunch of money on GW and purchased some kits.

If you want to wait and take your time and buy specific models for what kind of lists you want to run, I would say that you can save more even if it is buying from GW. I personally prefer trading on dakka in the Swap Shop. I've gotten some really good deals and it is easy to walk away from people if you think their prices are unfair. Just wait, it is likely that someone will post selling something you want.

My thoughts.

If money is an issue Warhammer is not for you. To give an example, last week my drunk brother broke two squads of IG, a squad of Fire warriors, a squad of Chaos space marines, a hellhound, and a chaos lord (all painted and assembled). Over my 13 years of hobbying it pales in comparison to the amount I have. It made for some interesting and expensive terrain (pretty much a forest of impaled guardsmen).