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 Bolognesus wrote:
http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1330042_Necromunda_Rulebook.pdf
for starters

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/landing.jsp?catId=cat440142a
then go the the "resources" page for each individual game.

Hmmm, whatever was going on with Dakka seems to have eaten my reply. Anyway.

This is where it gets weird: the PDF link you posted works fine, but the "resources" pages for all the specialist games show up as blank/dead links for me. This is the problem I've been having for a long time now.

I'm starting to wonder if it has anything to do with my being in New Zealand, and the "embargo"? Although, accessing the UK and US sites still gives me empty links...

Hmm, I see what you mean.
Googling "battle fleet gothic resources" however, still brings up this: http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=cat480005a&categoryId=6700003a§ion=&aId=21500018a

again, have fun and if this is anything like the writing on the wall it seems, perhaps have 30 minutes of fun downloading it all now.

I deal with gamers on a budget all the time at my store.

Start small, buy a battleforce, let the store owner know your starting, alot of times they will have store armies onhand to supplement your forces, as long as your gradually getting to your own forces (buying off them, of course). Other players often help if a friendly face is attempting to get into the game. At no point should you be begging or attempting to have people feel sorry for you.

There is no cheap way to get into this hobby, but I think if you are interested in playing, the store will be interested in helping you! This is of course a strategy only usable if you have a FLGS.

There's a guy in my club starting brettonians.

He's going 2nd hand all the way.

It helps that another guy has decided to get rid of ALL of his 40k and fantasy stuff from years of hoarding it. He now plays other games and needs the room for them.

 Bolognesus wrote:
Hmm, I see what you mean.
Googling "battle fleet gothic resources" however, still brings up this: http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=cat480005a&categoryId=6700003a§ion=&aId=21500018a

again, have fun and if this is anything like the writing on the wall it seems, perhaps have 30 minutes of fun downloading it all now.

Considering this news, you may be right:

 zedmeister wrote:
Sad times. Looks like the Specialist Games range is going to the great lead graveyard in the sky. A small but growing selection of Specialist Games minis are no longer available. Confirmed by several posts from Tactical Command, Warseer, Specialist Arms, Epic Addiction Blog and anyone that phones up GW Mail Order to ask. The general line is "They are gone permanently. Other stuff will disappear as stocks run out"

A quick look on GW UK show that some models are no longer available, such as:

Blood Bowl Atherlorn Avengers team
Soopa stompa
Reaver titan
Artillery company
Repulsive Grand Cruiser
Blood Bowl Chaos Booster

Also, some Warmaster, Mordheim and Inquisitor miniatures are unavailable. Could either mean they're switching them to Finecast (ugh) or they're wrapping up the range completely now.

If you want any SG models, probably best to grab them now...

Just in case, I just pulled down every PDF from the Spec Games site. *dataslurp*

For getting models on the cheap, I can't help but recommend the store at Blue Table Painting. There are always some gems in their trade-in program, and it's much safer than spending the money on Ebay. If you aren't afraid of putting in some work, most models clean up with a little elbow grease and some Simple Green.

 Briancj wrote:
Just in case, I just pulled down every PDF from the Spec Games site. *dataslurp*

Not really necessary. Plenty of people would have done the same, and considering that GW offered them for free, it's not verboten to link them on forums and such. They'll be rehosted somewhere easy, never fear.

To reduce costs, I got better at scratchbuilding and sculpting.

 -Loki- wrote:

 Briancj wrote:
Just in case, I just pulled down every PDF from the Spec Games site. *dataslurp*

Not really necessary. Plenty of people would have done the same, and considering that GW offered them for free, it's not verboten to link them on forums and such. They'll be rehosted somewhere easy, never fear.

I'm sure this is true, but it took no real amount of time to do it, and should the need arise, *I* can rehost them.

 Bolognesus wrote:
Hmm, I see what you mean.
Googling "battle fleet gothic resources" however, still brings up this: http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=cat480005a&categoryId=6700003a§ion=&aId=21500018a

again, have fun and if this is anything like the writing on the wall it seems, perhaps have 30 minutes of fun downloading it all now.

Good call, downloading it now. Having a nice trip down memory lane so far

As Ive said before, I dont think the hobby is that expensive as long as you

a) Stick with one army
b) Buy second hand
c) Look after your gak.

I have only spend about £400 I reckon over the last 4 or 5 years. Its a drop in the Ocean.

With that I've got a good 4-5k worth of SM, the rulebooks, and half of DV for some allies if needed.

I think if you aren't too fussy and just wait for a decent sized used army on ebay, you can drop $200 over a few years, at the end of the day, the models and books don't decompose, so its a comparatively cheap hobby compared to almost everything as long as you resist the admittedly somewhat strong lure of constantly buying sparkly gak that catches your eye.

Never buy new from GW though, I have bought everything new from web discounters, and the vast majority second hand, as long as you are disciplined it really isn't a dear hobby at all.

There's a lot out there for potential when it comes to squad level 40k games, I really like In The Emperor's Name, and there's always kill team.

If you don't mind Dark Angels, (or a DA successor) and have a buddy who wants to play Chaos, there's an easy way to get yourself into a pretty solid SM or Chaos army for about $100. Simply buy two copies of the Dark Vengeance starter and swap with your mate. You now have someone to model, paint and play with, you both have mini rulebooks saving you buying the Big Black Rule Book of +27 spinal distortion, and you walk away with a fairly solid force for either group that you can easily add on to as you like. Just add codexes and you're ready to roll. A few HQ options, Six bikes (with a little conversion work to make one sergeant a normal biker), 10 terminators, 20 tactical marines with plasma spam galore and on the Chaos option you have plenty of fresh cultists clog tank treads up soviet style, 10 chosen, a pair of helbrutes, and an HQ.

From there it's just a matter of deciding how you want to play/paint your army and expanding them from there.

Saldiven wrote:

 Aerethan wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
While different units rise and fall in power, very rarely are things made totally obsolete.

Unless you invested in Squats or Dogs of War.

Lost and the Damned.

If you invested in squats, you haven't gamed in over 18 years. If you invested in Dogs of war, you haven't gamed in about 10 - 12 years. If you invested in LatD, then you haven't played a game in over unless you converted them to IG allied with either chaos or demons.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 mattyrm wrote:
As Ive said before, I dont think the hobby is that expensive as long as you

a) Stick with one army
b) Buy second hand
c) Look after your gak.

I have only spend about £400 I reckon over the last 4 or 5 years. Its a drop in the Ocean.

With that I've got a good 4-5k worth of SM, the rulebooks, and half of DV for some allies if needed.

I think if you aren't too fussy and just wait for a decent sized used army on ebay, you can drop $200 over a few years, at the end of the day, the models and books don't decompose, so its a comparatively cheap hobby compared to almost everything as long as you resist the admittedly somewhat strong lure of constantly buying sparkly gak that catches your eye.

Never buy new from GW though, I have bought everything new from web discounters, and the vast majority second hand, as long as you are disciplined it really isn't a dear hobby at all.

Even if you buy from GW, it's still not as expensive as other hobbies. My dad loves to build classic cars, specifically corvettes. He sells them when he is done to buy the next car and parts and take a vacation. It's his retirement hobby. He spends more on putting breaks on the car than I do on a whole army. I play on a rec league city softball team. Getting into the game is just a tad more than the cost of an army. I had to buy a uniform ($50), glove($125), bat ($90), cleats ($100), quarterly season registration fee includes practice field time ($50), and beer after the game which is weekly ($20). This doesn't include any tournaments but those would be about ($20 - 30) per weekend. On top of that, the bat was used and I got a bag with it to carry it all. The other gear you want to buy new like a glove, cleats (no athletes foot or other foot fungi for me!), and uniform. Just remember, it's a hobby. If you aren't enjoying it find a new one.

I like playing games of Kill Team out of the Battle Missions book. For a person who rarely has enough time to play a full-blown 40k game, the small, skirmish style of Kill Team is really nice. I like it because, not only does it allow for much quicker games, but it lets you experience more of the narrative of the game than the normal 40k game. Additionally, you don't need a ton of models to play it, so people who want to play 40k but simply don't have enough to afford a full-blown army can get into it with the Kill Team style of play for a relatively low price. It's also good for figuring out what army you like to play; since you can get a very small squad of models from each of the armies you're interested in and figure out which one you want to upgrade to a full 40k army from there.

I'd like to point out how just few weeks after a thread "GW gaming on budget" sprang up, with people promoting Specialist Games as cheaper alternatives to GW core games...Specialist Games are axed.

Coincidence? You decide!

Damn it.. that must be it!

But to be fair, yes I think the reason the specialist games got squeezed away in one corner of the website, and left on life support for years before finally being supposedly axed now, was because they were 'GW gaming on a budget.'

Yes i know there are so many other options - internet discounters, ebay, certain armies etc. But I can't help but wonder at how many random drop-ins by parents intrigued about getting something constructive for their kids are turned away at step one by the buy-in price.

Would be interesting to see how many people on Dakka got into wargaming through a specialist game, a boxed game (Space Hulk, Blood Bowl, the MB games for instance) compared to those whose intro into the hobby was with a 1500pt army for 40k.

I don't understand why GW does not offer a skirmish game which could use 40k or WHFB minis, maybe just a rulebook and some few special minis/terrain pieces separately designed for the game. It would not be a "strain" to their production lines since most of the minis would be common (unlike Necromunda/Mordheim which have their separate lines). I mean, there's Kill Team, sure, but it kinda sucks.

It'd be great for those who get sometimes tired to more megalomanic battles of the core games, or those who like the universe but don't have (yet...) money or time to invest on large starting force. Keep people involved in your product environment and universe, they'll get hooked up on your main cash cows eventually. And you could use WD to publish missions and materials to those games. Since you already have the damn magazine, might just as well get some mileage out of it.

Seems like a pretty obvious thing to have, no?

Cheap Infantry;

Play Orks. Buy standard Boys or Nobs, you can get them dirt cheap in second hand AoBR sales. Buy Bitz boxes from people. Build any infantry you like!

Cheap Vehicles

Play Orks. Buy childrens toys from a dollar shop, tanks and such. Cover them in spikes. Congrats you've just built a fleet of tanks

Cheap Walkers

Play Orks. Buy popsicle sticks. Dig two 10c coins out of your couch. Build Kans and Dreads from scratch. Congrats, Walkers for 20c!

boyd wrote:
Even if you buy from GW, it's still not as expensive as other hobbies. My dad loves to build classic cars, specifically corvettes. He sells them when he is done to buy the next car and parts and take a vacation. It's his retirement hobby. He spends more on putting breaks on the car than I do on a whole army. I play on a rec league city softball team. Getting into the game is just a tad more than the cost of an army. I had to buy a uniform ($50), glove($125), bat ($90), cleats ($100), quarterly season registration fee includes practice field time ($50), and beer after the game which is weekly ($20). This doesn't include any tournaments but those would be about ($20 - 30) per weekend. On top of that, the bat was used and I got a bag with it to carry it all. The other gear you want to buy new like a glove, cleats (no athletes foot or other foot fungi for me!), and uniform. Just remember, it's a hobby. If you aren't enjoying it find a new one.

There's really little use comparing across hobbies IMO. Car hobbies can range from extremely expensive to almost nothing depending on what and how you buy. I also have classic cars as a hobby. My main car that I have is my daily driver which is 34 years old, gets good gas mileage, cost me $1000, I've spent about $1000 maintaining it, and since I bought it, it's appreciated to about $2500.

So really, my car hobby has cost me bugger all, and if you consider the fact that I use that car as my daily driver where most people would waste money on cars that are significantly more expensive to buy, maintain, insure and have greater depreciation... you could say my classic car hobby has MADE me money (or at the very least saved me from wasting money on other cars).

Of course, I'm currently in the market for a 1970-72 Corvette, which is going to cost me around $25k, gets terrible gas mileage and is significantly more expensive to insure and maintain. I also plan on racing it, so the tyres and maintenance costs go through the roof. That said, it's offset by the fact I've saved a lot of money on my main car, so it wouldn't surprise me if, even after buying the vette, I would have spent the same or less as most people do on their motoring. Then there's the guys who spend hundreds of thousands on race cars and tyres.

... however... I'd never even consider comparing it to my gaming hobby, two completely different kettles of fish. For me, cars are an active hobby, they get me out and doing things, they get me to the race track and get the blood pumping and adrenalin flowing. The smell of grease, fuel and tyres... love it. I would not compare it to my gaming hobby at all.

Another good method is to review the spues of kits.
The IG heavy weapons team of one can be converted into three by using spare guard and bases you can get separately, I make a mortar, shoulder mount missile, and swappable tripod stand for Las/auto/HvyBlt.

Magnets help make a model configurable so you do not need a dreadnaught for every loadout, or speeder, pred, etc...

For those on Ebay try doing searches and spell it wrong what you are looking for every way you can think of... you will have less competition with your bids and the actual owner may not know what it is worth if they cannot spell it correctly.

Good thread since most hard core gamers like things on the cheap.

I do not get the point of this post.

You like Games Workshop as a company and want to play their games? this sint how to play 40k on a budget? or fantasy, it what options does games workshop have for budget minded?

why stick to games workshop? why cant the answer be any good mini game that is cheaper, what is it you think games workshop offers the others dont?

ESPECIALLY now that games workshop is ditching all the specialist games, games workshop is now Fantasy, 40k and i am assuming the lord of the rings games.....

Theorius wrote:
I do not get the point of this post.

You like Games Workshop as a company and want to play their games? this sint how to play 40k on a budget? or fantasy, it what options does games workshop have for budget minded?

why stick to games workshop? why cant the answer be any good mini game that is cheaper, what is it you think games workshop offers the others dont?

Because some people just like Vodka and it's no consolation for them if you tell that Bourbon is cheaper.

Why wasn't "any good mini game that is cheaper" not an answer?

Because some people legitimately like playing GW games.

One of the best place to get your GW swag on a budget is the starter boxes for both systems. If you ake the time to sell off the extra rulebooks and the models from the other army in the box you are paying almost nothing for the models that you keep. The Island of Blood sets are great way to get get build up your rank and file infantry for the skaven and high elves.

Ebay is also your friend. Be on the lookout for large lots of models that can be broken down into stuff you want to keep and stuff to resell. Sometime you will even find a rare mini that the seller did not regognize that can fetch almost as much as the entire lot. Metal modles from after 1989 are always a good bet. The older lead minis can also be stripped but greater care has be taken because the lead can easily be deformed in the cleaning process and some solvents can react with the lead to form toxic compounds.

For new models it is easy enough to find online discounters for up to 25% off. Unfortunately if you want any of the new Finecast models or FW you ar usualy stuck paying full price as GW has made most FC models direct only.

In terms of recasters for FW or Fincast models, it addition to being illegal and harmful to the hobby it can also be harmful to your health. I have been burned before on FW models on ebay that were recasts that reek of an oily gas like smell. This is because recasters tend use cheaper more toxic resins than GW. It is not worth risking your health to save a few bucks on what at the day is a toy.