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Hello friends! Due to lack of entertainment options nowadays I went back to board gaming, tried a bunch but settled on 40k.

I'm curious to know what were some of the things you wish you could take back or hadn't spent so much time/money on when you started on the hobby?

I'm interested to hear about any "rabbit holes" to look out for a beginner.

Most of my regrets are things I didn't do.

The biggest one being not buying an airbrush until I was 20+ years into the hobby.

Probably my biggest mistake was being a faction butterfly, just buying random units to paint them. I started in Rogue Trader days but didn't have a tournament grade army until 5th edition because I could never settle down on a faction.

My second biggest mistake was choosing a difficult paint scheme for my first attempt at building a proper army (Tau, 3rd edition, red and white), which slowed my progress to such a crawl that I eventually gave up the idea. And I was an experienced painter at this point, but grindingly slow progress can kill anyone's motivation. This isn't to say you can't paint a 'best painted' award at a tournament, just have that as a side project while you actually play the game with your easier-to-paint army.

I should have built my own gaming board earlier. It takes materials the cost of a couple GW kits and a weekend's worth of work to sand and varnish a 4x8 sheet of 3/4" thick plywood and attach some IKEA legs to it. Even less to build a 4x4 table for smaller games. Being able to host games gets you more games. Obviously you need the space for the table, but if you build it so the legs can be removed than almost any space can become game space temporarily. And if you have space, the table can be used for other things when you're not gaming.

I should have gotten display cases earlier. Being able to see your minis (and show them off) without pulling out cases is motivational and most people you'll meet don't have a creative hobby and are generally impressed with even beginner paint jobs.

So I guess I'm saying don't hesitate to spend money on stuff that might seem peripheral to the hobby like hobby furniture, and don't be too ambitious on paint schemes if you want a big army.

My biggest regret was not prepping my first several armies properly before painting; IE not cleaning the mold lines, flashing, drilling of gun barrels etc. It took a lot of effort later on to strip and repaint some of those armies, still on going btw for my WHFB armies.

Having the right tools and paint will save you a lot of time/effort.

I spend a lot of time chasing net lists and trying to win every game.

I did win most of the time but I realised too late that my back then gaming buddies didn't have this drive and wanted to just play exciting, somewhat-even games.

It got to a point where most people around me lost interest in the game and the remaining ones moved away due to studies or job.

a_typical_hero wrote:
I spend a lot of time chasing net lists and trying to win every game.

I did win most of the time but I realised too late that my back then gaming buddies didn't have this drive and wanted to just play exciting, somewhat-even games.

It got to a point where most people around me lost interest in the game and the remaining ones moved away due to studies or job.

so are you saying you wish you hadn't started playing? lol


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 Big Mac wrote:
My biggest regret was not prepping my first several armies properly before painting; IE not cleaning the mold lines, flashing, drilling of gun barrels etc. It took a lot of effort later on to strip and repaint some of those armies, still on going btw for my WHFB armies.

Having the right tools and paint will save you a lot of time/effort.

yeah I bought all of the tools and all of my models are clean lines, are glued and are ready to painted.

It takes longer to get through the army but each figure is then ready to go


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 John Prins wrote:
Most of my regrets are things I didn't do.

The biggest one being not buying an airbrush until I was 20+ years into the hobby.

Probably my biggest mistake was being a faction butterfly, just buying random units to paint them. I started in Rogue Trader days but didn't have a tournament grade army until 5th edition because I could never settle down on a faction.

My second biggest mistake was choosing a difficult paint scheme for my first attempt at building a proper army (Tau, 3rd edition, red and white), which slowed my progress to such a crawl that I eventually gave up the idea. And I was an experienced painter at this point, but grindingly slow progress can kill anyone's motivation. This isn't to say you can't paint a 'best painted' award at a tournament, just have that as a side project while you actually play the game with your easier-to-paint army.

I should have built my own gaming board earlier. It takes materials the cost of a couple GW kits and a weekend's worth of work to sand and varnish a 4x8 sheet of 3/4" thick plywood and attach some IKEA legs to it. Even less to build a 4x4 table for smaller games. Being able to host games gets you more games. Obviously you need the space for the table, but if you build it so the legs can be removed than almost any space can become game space temporarily. And if you have space, the table can be used for other things when you're not gaming.

I should have gotten display cases earlier. Being able to see your minis (and show them off) without pulling out cases is motivational and most people you'll meet don't have a creative hobby and are generally impressed with even beginner paint jobs.

So I guess I'm saying don't hesitate to spend money on stuff that might seem peripheral to the hobby like hobby furniture, and don't be too ambitious on paint schemes if you want a big army.

Yeah my plan is to have a big army. My only hesitance is that maybe I can stick with just the marines and get to know the army better instead of picking up a second army, having to deal with a second codex, meta, etc

Like I could see owning myself easily owning a 4,000 ultramarine army eventually and then just running 2 hand solo games testing different lists, etc

Hi,

Welcome to Dakka

gundam wrote:

a_typical_hero wrote:
I spend a lot of time chasing net lists and trying to win every game.

I did win most of the time but I realised too late that my back then gaming buddies didn't have this drive and wanted to just play exciting, somewhat-even games.

It got to a point where most people around me lost interest in the game and the remaining ones moved away due to studies or job.

so are you saying you wish you hadn't started playing? lol

Na, but I wish I would have gotten my current mindset sooner or would have understood my friends mindset better so I could have adapted my lists to what's fun for them and me instead of just me.

I played 40K for about 2-3 years. IIRC, Sisters of Battle, Drop Pod Blood Angels, Biker Nobz Orks, and Grey Knight Terminators. May have been one other I'm forgetting. I'm opposed to getting into if you intend to play competitively because balance and power creep have been a constant issue. GW is a company and they need to sell models, I get it, but you'll end up going down a black hole if you're trying to stay competitive and unless you play Space Marines, you will army hop to stay competitive.

Aside from that, the models are typically great, and I do want to set up some fantasy dioramas down the road, but the actual game ended up being a time and money sink for me. The hobbyist aspect of collecting, painting, and/or playing lore-heavy/RP battles is fine, but competitive is not.

I regretted not buying the army I wanted because a friend already had that one. Finally got my Orks about 4 years after I first started, and my enjoyment skyrocketed!

Also agree on not drilling barrels and on cleaning mould lines.

Regretted not propping my Necron warriors guns up, so I have an entire army of the old warriors pointing at the floor because their guns sagged before the glue dried.

Majorly regret not painting at least one unit for every 2 I bought. I now am faced with a colossal army of black and grey, with smatterings of colour!

Taking 40k too seriously. It's a frustrating place to be, GW just doesn;t balance their games well enough/want to make money off people who want to wim enough to pay for it.

Just have fun.

Also wish I tried other games sooner, even though it ultimately led to me giving up on Warhammer to play other games.
I got into a bunch of games and that was great!
I scaled back because I realised that I had more games than time, now I only have the 3.5 (one is a skirmish game related to my main game), I'm glad that I tried things out to settle on the games that offer what I want from my games though

 Knightley wrote:
Hi,

Welcome to Dakka

thanks! happy to be here


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 DarkBlack wrote:
Taking 40k too seriously. It's a frustrating place to be, GW just doesn;t balance their games well enough/want to make money off people who want to wim enough to pay for it.

Just have fun.

Also wish I tried other games sooner, even though it ultimately led to me giving up on Warhammer to play other games.
I got into a bunch of games and that was great!
I scaled back because I realised that I had more games than time, now I only have the 3.5 (one is a skirmish game related to my main game), I'm glad that I tried things out to settle on the games that offer what I want from my games though

yeah even though I am talking about tournaments, realistically I really don't want to get too caught up in a rabbit hole. I tried other board games and I kept a few but I wanted a game that was constantly evolving and changing instead of finding new games every few months


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 trexmeyer wrote:
I played 40K for about 2-3 years. IIRC, Sisters of Battle, Drop Pod Blood Angels, Biker Nobz Orks, and Grey Knight Terminators. May have been one other I'm forgetting. I'm opposed to getting into if you intend to play competitively because balance and power creep have been a constant issue. GW is a company and they need to sell models, I get it, but you'll end up going down a black hole if you're trying to stay competitive and unless you play Space Marines, you will army hop to stay competitive.

Aside from that, the models are typically great, and I do want to set up some fantasy dioramas down the road, but the actual game ended up being a time and money sink for me. The hobbyist aspect of collecting, painting, and/or playing lore-heavy/RP battles is fine, but competitive is not.

yeah that was my feeling too. I got the marines since I love blue, mechs, and anything roman related. It helps that they are GW lol

I got the necrons because they are my second favorite army in terms of looks and lore. Hopefully the revamp makes them viable if not no worries. For me they look bad ass


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 some bloke wrote:
I regretted not buying the army I wanted because a friend already had that one. Finally got my Orks about 4 years after I first started, and my enjoyment skyrocketed!

Also agree on not drilling barrels and on cleaning mould lines.

Regretted not propping my Necron warriors guns up, so I have an entire army of the old warriors pointing at the floor because their guns sagged before the glue dried.

Majorly regret not painting at least one unit for every 2 I bought. I now am faced with a colossal army of black and grey, with smatterings of colour!

haha yeah I already put together all of the indomitus box with perfectly smooth mould lines, took a whole day but they are ready to go. I got all of the citadel paints for the necrons and space marines and their base coat sprays. It should speed up the painting process. GW made a good job with their set by step videos for painting the indomitus box.

I got the indomitus box, 2 doomsday arks, 2 triarch stalkers, 3 extra new Skopeth destroyers, 2 primaries war suits and a Repulsor Executioner. I looked at table reports 8th meta and new things from 9th and those were safe bets imo.

I will be set with that until 9th comes and their new models come out as well. I should have both of my armies painted before then.


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 DarkBlack wrote:
Taking 40k too seriously. It's a frustrating place to be, GW just doesn;t balance their games well enough/want to make money off people who want to wim enough to pay for it.

Just have fun.

Also wish I tried other games sooner, even though it ultimately led to me giving up on Warhammer to play other games.
I got into a bunch of games and that was great!
I scaled back because I realised that I had more games than time, now I only have the 3.5 (one is a skirmish game related to my main game), I'm glad that I tried things out to settle on the games that offer what I want from my games though

yeah I got the armies I liked with the vehicles I liked, with the terrain I liked it will be fun putting it all together

 Big Mac wrote:
mold lines

HATE mold lines!

Not exactly a regret, but I wish I bought a good 3D printer, although that may actually be a year or so away. Then, instead of hundreds of dollars on KS, I'd be making castles, towns, and other terrain for boardgame miniatures I already own -- and without mold lines. Maybe I'd be able to focus on miniatures I actually needed for gaming (ie. Gloomhaven proxies) rather than picking up another hundred mini's that were well-sculpted, but I'd never use, for a game I'd never play.

Maybe another regret is, as a beginner, not buying a 60-pack of cheap synthetic brushes and, instead, ruining several Kolinsky's. As an advanced tabletop painter, I don't need a sharp point all that often.

Third regret is commenting on some new paint product. There's ALWAYS some unbelievable painter who thinks you're wrong about that expensive new hobby toy they have to justify buying, and will go ballistic over anything you say they don't agree with. Are you serious when you suggest I remove a model from the painting handle BEFORE it's dried???

Fourth is arguing with backers who funded the HeroQuest 25th Anniversary crowdfunding project.

lol yeah, I learned a while ago about not arguing with people who just go off like that.

I actually got into 3d printing and tbh it is not worth it. Things take WAY too long to print and at the end, I rather just buy the stuff already printed.

Unless you are spending a LOT off money to get really detailed prints or can compromise in quality then you can get a decent printer for $400.

gundam wrote:
lol yeah, I learned a while ago about not arguing with people who just go off like that.

I actually got into 3d printing and tbh it is not worth it. Things take WAY too long to print and at the end, I rather just buy the stuff already printed.

Unless you are spending a LOT off money to get really detailed prints or can compromise in quality then you can get a decent printer for $400.

haha yes this 100%, I thought it would be easier to find files to print turns out its really hard to find models that didn't end up taking hours and hours correcting in zbrush and placing supporting. The only thing that really worked reliably was buying models from artists and downloading them. And often times i couldnt trust the files to reliably print without going back and re supporting them myself. then there's the dozens of hours in the printer. the clean up. the hours lost on failed prints. and the money i lost buying files that looked great on the the 360 Viewer. Atleast when i buy outragously priced GW models i never open up the box to a failed print slamming into the LCD screen

Getting into too many different armies.

Pick one you love and go with it.

My two cents,

CB

 DarkBlack wrote:
Taking 40k too seriously. It's a frustrating place to be, GW just doesn;t balance their games well enough/want to make money off people who want to win enough to pay for it.

Just have fun.

Agreed. There are other game systems out their that are more friendly to the competitive player. Infinity the Game from Corvus Belli is one example where the factions are all mostly on a somewhat even playing field. You can pick any faction/sectorial and still win with good tactics & dice rolls . 40k is for me more of a hobby than a game in the grand scope of the miniature wargaming landscape.
I got into wargaming back in 2012 because of the conversions I saw people creating & posting on sites like Dakka Dakka. I really wanted to make some art like that for myself plus I liked making up characters & stories. Which correlated well with building little plastic/metal/resin people. My love for history also proved to be a great asset when the historical wargaming scene was discovered.

Infinity has been more for fun balanced competitive gaming. Skirmishes such as Necromunda & sports like Dreadball, etc...are fun smaller campaign/character/season driven games. I don't know if I'll ever reach a competitive 40k army since I buy low priced bits & lots when I can afford them. Maybe I'll acuminate enough to field a full unique converted 40k/Sigmar force but I'll have to wait and see.
And my biggest mistake/regret of the hobby was giving away bits or losing them. You never know when you'd actually need a piece then release you handed it off in a lot and it is gone. Then the only way to get another one is to place some bucks down and reorder it at a higher price than when you first bought it.
Unless the person you are giving your bits to will use it for something better than gathering dust then keep your bits collection. You never know when one small piece of plastic will come in handy for a conversion or kitbash.

 thatsummercampcrush wrote:

gundam wrote:
And often times i couldnt trust the files to reliably print without going back and re supporting them myself. then there's the dozens of hours in the printer. the clean up. the hours lost on failed prints. and the money i lost buying files that looked great on the the 360 Viewer. Atleast when i buy outragously priced GW models i never open up the box to a failed print slamming into the LCD screen

exactly why I returned my 3d printer. Even though GW scenery is not cheap imo it's probably the most detailed and best looking. When you factor all of the stuff we both mentioned, the GW scenery turns out to be a great deal


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 Captain Brown wrote:
Getting into too many different armies.

Pick one you love and go with it.

My two cents,

CB

Yeah that is exactly where I landed. While I enjoyed the assembling process tbh is not something I want to do again outside of adding few units at a time to my SM army. I also really liked AoS so I got a full Stormcast Eternals army. I can switch back and forth from either game. I really like the dark spells expansion in AoS.

I figure I can take 2 lists to the local stores and play either one.


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 Golem2God wrote:

 DarkBlack wrote:

Unless the person you are giving your bits to will use it for something better than gathering dust then keep your bits collection. You never know when one small piece of plastic will come in handy for a conversion or kitbash.

Yeah I have enough bits to make several kit bashes probably. I am saving them all for future use.

Been out of the hobby for a very long time, but I was very heavily involved for a decade or so.

My biggest regret? Selling all my models. That time was largely before digital cameras where commonplace (and way, way before smartphones) and now I've got no photos or anything of the massive armies I once had.

Even though admittedly now most would be "unusable" being WFB armies (there's no local WFB scene that I'm aware of), I really wish I still had them. Lots of random 40k stuff too, which varied by todays standards from terrible, awful old models to really unique oddball stuff.

But without a doubt, selling it all off remains one of the biggest regrets in my life. It's just such an accomplishment - even a single, small army is a great accomplishment IMHO, the blood, sweat and tears that goes into it. Even if you get a decent price for them, it's not really worth it IMHO.

wintersdark wrote:

But without a doubt, selling it all off remains one of the biggest regrets in my life. It's just such an accomplishment - even a single, small army is a great accomplishment IMHO, the blood, sweat and tears that goes into it. Even if you get a decent price for them, it's not really worth it IMHO.

I feel that. I have spent a good while carefully assembling and smoothing all sprues in my models so I can then start drilling the barrels and priming them. I am now keeping these little f*****s for life lmao

Don't get too hung up on any of it..... competitive play, the "bestest" modeling jobs, Golden Demon levels of painting, robust knowledge of fluff, etc.

Just have fun and relax.

 thatsummercampcrush wrote:

gundam wrote:
lol yeah, I learned a while ago about not arguing with people who just go off like that.

I actually got into 3d printing and tbh it is not worth it. Things take WAY too long to print and at the end, I rather just buy the stuff already printed.

Unless you are spending a LOT off money to get really detailed prints or can compromise in quality then you can get a decent printer for $400.

haha yes this 100%, I thought it would be easier to find files to print turns out its really hard to find models that didn't end up taking hours and hours correcting in zbrush and placing supporting. The only thing that really worked reliably was buying models from artists and downloading them. And often times i couldnt trust the files to reliably print without going back and re supporting them myself. then there's the dozens of hours in the printer. the clean up. the hours lost on failed prints. and the money i lost buying files that looked great on the the 360 Viewer. Atleast when i buy outragously priced GW models i never open up the box to a failed print slamming into the LCD screen

I bought this and the industrial wall set. Being assembled, painted and ready to go for the price seems like a good deal https://www.gamemat.eu/index.php?&cl=details&anid=edce4bcb567bf992eccec68b71d4d



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 Easy E wrote:
Don't get too hung up on any of it..... competitive play, the "bestest" modeling jobs, Golden Demon levels of painting, robust knowledge of fluff, etc.

Just have fun and relax.

yeah this hobby has so many rabbit holes is better just to stay on the surface and learn to enjoy it