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So was a 40k player many years ago and had to quit the hobby for about a decade (life). Going to have the time to get back into the hobby again here soon, but I've seen and heard a lot of neat stuff about this game around the interwebs and was wondering what the startup costs generally are? Also, to go beyond simple startup cost - can you give me a ballpark on a solid 3-list tournament style set up? I know it cheaper than 40k by a longshot but just curious as to what sort of investment i'd be looking at both initially and long term. Thanks a ton!

Cambonimachine wrote:
So was a 40k player many years ago and had to quit the hobby for about a decade (life). Going to have the time to get back into the hobby again here soon, but I've seen and heard a lot of neat stuff about this game around the interwebs and was wondering what the startup costs generally are? Also, to go beyond simple startup cost - can you give me a ballpark on a solid 3-list tournament style set up? I know it cheaper than 40k by a longshot but just curious as to what sort of investment i'd be looking at both initially and long term. Thanks a ton!

At first, it is not going to be too much, but with anything, it is going to be as expensive as any other game on the market (but it is still a bit cheaper than 40K, since you can get a lot out of units with the right casters and pieces). It also depends, what faction are you looking to start with? If it is Circle, Legion, Menoth, or Khador, I say try and find a friend to split it as that is a great deal (although some of the piece later on will be replaced by better things, it is a good jumping point).

First off, welcome to dakka.

Initially your are going to want the rule book and a battle box (or just get the two player starter, which comes with a mini rule book).

So either way initial outlay is around $70 online or $100 in the store.

After that? It depends on how you want to go forward. Do you want to go up to 25pts, than 50pts? Do you want to have 3 lists or the majority of the faction to add some variety.

An average 50pt list will cost about 300ish (Trollbloods cost more cuz of how big they are and most are still not plastic).

My advice would be to start with a battle box and a rule book. Build up to 25pts and go from there. your looking under $150ish and will give you plenty of time to decide if you even like the game.

a solid 35 point army is pretty easy to do for $150-200 MSRP.

For multi list formats it depends. Sometimes you just change the war-noun and a few key solos. Other lists are completely different models.

Also just depends on what faction you choose and what units and such do you like. For example a colossal can run $100+ and get expensive quickly.

Also depends on if you are playing 35 or 50 point lists.

I also find that there are no real "net" lists that you can just pick up and win tourneys with. You have to learn to play and learn what works for you. Which means you will ultimately end up with more than just your tourney list models. Battleboxes are great for learning, but only small parts of them tend to end up in more competitive lists

So a serious 3 list tourney army can vary widely in price. But if done wisely and in an economical matter maybe as low as $300. And of course pretty much as high as you want to go.

Lord knows I have like 250pts of Khador, and probably 150pts of Mercs, but than I have a problem....

Cambonimachine wrote:
So was a 40k player many years ago and had to quit the hobby for about a decade (life). Going to have the time to get back into the hobby again here soon, but I've seen and heard a lot of neat stuff about this game around the interwebs and was wondering what the startup costs generally are? Also, to go beyond simple startup cost - can you give me a ballpark on a solid 3-list tournament style set up? I know it cheaper than 40k by a longshot but just curious as to what sort of investment i'd be looking at both initially and long term. Thanks a ton!

I'm gonna' echo a lot of the other posters here, and say that the cost will vary a fair amount depending on faction and your style of play. On the lower-end, with a hordes faction and army lists that re-use a lot of the same models, you'll probably top out at 300 or so for three 50 point lists. In a more expensive faction, and lists that differ greatly from eachother, that can easily push past 600.

That being said, I would strongly recommend against getting everything at once. Concentrate on getting a smaller force first (35ish points) to learn the game and the faction. After that, you can get a feel for the kinds of things you might want later. Most factions allow for some flexibility in list-construction, and this approach will help prevent you from picking things up that you may find yourself uninterested in. It's not perfect, of course, but what is?

 BoardroomHero wrote:

Cambonimachine wrote:
So was a 40k player many years ago and had to quit the hobby for about a decade (life). Going to have the time to get back into the hobby again here soon, but I've seen and heard a lot of neat stuff about this game around the interwebs and was wondering what the startup costs generally are? Also, to go beyond simple startup cost - can you give me a ballpark on a solid 3-list tournament style set up? I know it cheaper than 40k by a longshot but just curious as to what sort of investment i'd be looking at both initially and long term. Thanks a ton!

I'm gonna' echo a lot of the other posters here, and say that the cost will vary a fair amount depending on faction and your style of play. On the lower-end, with a hordes faction and army lists that re-use a lot of the same models, you'll probably top out at 300 or so for three 50 point lists. In a more expensive faction, and lists that differ greatly from eachother, that can easily push past 600.

That being said, I would strongly recommend against getting everything at once. Concentrate on getting a smaller force first (35ish points) to learn the game and the faction. After that, you can get a feel for the kinds of things you might want later. Most factions allow for some flexibility in list-construction, and this approach will help prevent you from picking things up that you may find yourself uninterested in. It's not perfect, of course, but what is?

The actual min[i] for 50 pts is likely closer to 150, maybe 200

It depends on the specific list for sure.

PP doesn't price their models like GW, so its purely based on the complexity of the model itself. A 1-3 piece metal model is going to be much cheaper than a larger model with several dozen pieces.

And the new plastics seem to be even cheaper than metals. So again, if you end up using plastics that will save you money, too.

Ok wow so this is way cheaper than i expected. That is awesome. I was of course intending to just buy the starter to get familiar with the rules and the such. Getting ready to get stationed in Bahrain so not entirely sure i will find any players out that way. My intention was to buy models purely out of the modeling/painting aspect but was asking about the lists so that i have an idea of what i would be looking at once i get back stateside. Probably should have mentioned that i have over $10k worth of 40k stuff so being able to think of 1 or 2 thousand dollars as a final overall investment some time down the road is comforting. Thanks guys!

Cambonimachine wrote:So was a 40k player many years ago and had to quit the hobby for about a decade (life). Going to have the time to get back into the hobby again here soon, but I've seen and heard a lot of neat stuff about this game around the interwebs and was wondering what the startup costs generally are? Also, to go beyond simple startup cost - can you give me a ballpark on a solid 3-list tournament style set up? I know it cheaper than 40k by a longshot but just curious as to what sort of investment i'd be looking at both initially and long term. Thanks a ton!

Cambonimachine wrote:Ok wow so this is way cheaper than i expected. That is awesome. I was of course intending to just buy the starter to get familiar with the rules and the such. Getting ready to get stationed in Bahrain so not entirely sure i will find any players out that way. My intention was to buy models purely out of the modeling/painting aspect but was asking about the lists so that i have an idea of what i would be looking at once i get back stateside. Probably should have mentioned that i have over $10k worth of 40k stuff so being able to think of 1 or 2 thousand dollars as a final overall investment some time down the road is comforting. Thanks guys!

.i heartily recommend starting small. 3-list tournaments? I dont mean to sound cheeky here mate, but youre punching way above your weight if you want to start right there.

For everyone, its always best to start small. battle box games, or 1/2 of the two-player starter. build up slowly from there.

Regarding the 3-list format ballpark - well, it really depends on what casters you want to take as well as what units. Take Khador - some units are uniquitous, (like Spriggans, Iron Fangs or widowmakers) and will find a use in virtually every list. Others such as the Behemoth, Nyss hunter mercenaries, or the infamous 'winter guard deathstar' suffer from character restrictions (a character can only appear once across all of your lists), so as awesome as they are, the investment will only be for one list.out of your three. One of my 3 50pt khador lists (for fun) will sometimes be the Butcher2 "mad dogs of war" tier list, which is butcher, wardog, a jack, a solo, and 8 squads of doom reavers. this is the one and only way i can play this list and it cost a fair bit to put it together - of all the doomies, only 2 squads at best could ever make it into another list (squad caps, essentially) so thats 6 excess squads of doom reavers that can only be used in one way (albeit one recklessly, and brilliantly amusing way). So costs are variable.

the simple truth is this game has very low start up costs (i got a top-3 placement tournament 25pt Circle list for about £80 at my FLGS) and generally speaking - starter pack + rulebook + second caster (for variation) + infantry squad of some sort wont put you out too much in terms of costs, but will let you start playing straight away. Beyond that, this is one of those games that will cost you as much as you're willing to put into it. I've probably spend close to £2,000 since mk2 hit over all the books, magazines and 2 factions worth of stuff.

Finally, welcome to the iron kingdoms. dont forget your complimentary goggles and Juggernaut plushie

Oh you misunderstood- i was fully intending to start slow, i know better than to jump in the deep end without knowing how to swim first, was just curious for budgeting purposes, its good to have an idea of what the end costs could potentially look like before getting started yes?

One quick additional question before i make a stupid purchase- should i buy both the prime and primal rulebooks or are they one and the same? will those contain basic unit options in order for me to get an idea of how the factions play?

Cambonimachine wrote:
Oh you misunderstood- i was fully intending to start slow, i know better than to jump in the deep end without knowing how to swim first, was just curious for budgeting purposes, its good to have an idea of what the end costs could potentially look like before getting started yes?

One quick additional question before i make a stupid purchase- should i buy both the prime and primal rulebooks or are they one and the same? will those contain basic unit options in order for me to get an idea of how the factions play?

No don't buy them both, the difference is the fury/focus mechanic and that is covered in the free starter rules that come in the battle boxes and on the PP website.

So which would you suggest? I am hesitant to buy the battle box (yet) because I am deployed for a few more months and simply dont have anywhere to stash the box/minis... but I would like to get the book to at least glaze over them in my spare time

Cambonimachine wrote:
So which would you suggest? I am hesitant to buy the battle box (yet) because I am deployed for a few more months and simply dont have anywhere to stash the box/minis... but I would like to get the book to at least glaze over them in my spare time

Depends on what you are leaning towards (obviously).

Lol ok, well I have zero knowledge of what i would be leaning towards, everything ive read so far seems to have everyone all over the place due to the games mechanics and balances. Any resource I could look at to get an idea of what factions work which way? I have been tooling around the PP website but ship internet is slow as sin and I have yet to find much except backstory (interesting fluff by the by)

If you are getting a Warmachine (big robots) army, get Prime
If you are getting a Hordes (big beasts) army, get Primal

the 2 books are 98% the same tho

What type of fighting style do you prefer excelling at?

Well in 40k I play(ed) marines and tau, so stand and shoot? I am adaptable though, sometimes I like getting in close and duking it out

Cambonimachine wrote:
Well in 40k I play(ed) marines and tau, so stand and shoot? I am adaptable though, sometimes I like getting in close and duking it out

Cygnar is the most stand and shoot army, and they have decent melee and Legion has pretty powerful shooting sprays

As a former Tau player, I ended up falling along well with Skorne and Menoth

Menoth is probably the most similar to Tau, in that they have good shooting and can deny the enemy from shooting at them
Menoth is fairly similar to Marines as well since they can be a bit tougher than a few other armies and have the whole religion aspect

Skorne is tougher than all these armies I listed, and have better melee than them as well. Tho their ranged game aren't nearly as strong but recent book releases have been improving their ranged game

What about Cryx? They seem cool... kinda dark eldar-ish?

There really isn't much in the way of "static gunlines" in Warmachine. If you want good guns though Cygnar is always an option. That or Legion, they do a lot of shooting too.

Cygnar = "generic good guys, warmachine faction, lots of lightning flying around all over, a couple of the most broken casters in the game" (pretty much space marines lol)

Legion = "evil corrupted dragons and elves, hordes faction, really fragile hard hitting warbeasts, special rules to ignore lots of cover and terrain" (kind of dark eldar I guess, to put things in a good reference)

Cryx is the faction that most people scream about being OP, Its not but in the right hands its a thing of beauty.

Cryx is all about hitting you with dirty tricks. you can expect to loose more than half your army getting stuck in, but they are designed to kill the opponents army with those kinda of odds.

Cryx is mostly high damage, disposable squishy melee

Think Eldar with all Howling Banshees or something
or Orkz without the toughness

They are a very powerful faction, however

*grumblegrumblegurmble*Epic Asphyxious excarnate bile thrall purge*grumblegrumblegrumble*

Just imagine being able to teleport a walking bomb halfway across the table right next to your opponent's infantry. It's like that.

Fair enough, ok guys thanks a lot for all your help, definitely gave me some excellent ideas. Just ordered the rulebook and eventually will get a starter of some variety once i find people to play with (hopefully someone on base in Bahrain plays). Thanks a ton once again!

 dementedwombat wrote:
a couple of the most broken casters in the game

Pretty much every faction can bring at least a couple casters to the "most broken caster" argument.

 Mordekiem wrote:

 dementedwombat wrote:
a couple of the most broken casters in the game

Pretty much every faction can bring at least a couple casters to the "most broken caster" argument.

Ok, that's fair, but Cryx and Cygnar are the ones I hear people complaining about the most.

Also just remember I mean "Warmachine broken" here, which means "75% balanced with everything else in the game". It always amazes me just how good the balance in this game is. I mean sure it's not perfect but it is really really good.

I feel "broken" is entirely irrelevant in Warmachine.

As far as getting into the game, I would go to Battle College and look up the factions. How they play, what they like, if they look cool to you, etc. AVOID THE FORUMS AND THEORYMACHINE.

Then, get War Room if you have a tablet or smartypants phone. Buy the deck of the faction you like the most, and play around with stuff. You can choose point values and everything. And you will be out about $6 and won't have 25pts of stuff you hate.

From there it's all about buying/playing what you like.