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i have been playing wargames since 2010, and would like to try warmachine.

I don't want to invest heavily in the game, as my gaming club only plays 40k, warmaster, and epic.

How could I try the game, without investing heavily in it?

Buy one of the 2 player boxed sets.

$100 gets you two 20ish point armies so you and a friend can learn the game. It also comes with a mini rulebook, which is always handy.


If you are fine with just playing 15-25 point games with a little model variety, you shouldn't have to spend more than $150 total.

The game does get to a cost comperable with 40k if you end up playing multiple different lists, especially if you are competitive(which is seriously fun with this game BTW and has almost no difference with a so-called casual game style)

There are two-player starter sets for both warmachine and hordes that are $100 each retail. They provide two armies and a mini-rulebook. If you don't care for the factions in the two-player starters, you can get a standard rulebook and a single-player starter. Do note that the value of the two-player sets is so good that if you want just one faction in a 2player boxes, it is still a better value to get that set since you basically get the second faction for free.

That is still pretty steep.

Mcdonalds pay doesn't support these hobbies well lol

I can drop that much on a small force though.

Maybe one if the guys at the local gaming store would help?

Idk if the game is even fun.

You may be able to borrow models for a starter game or something from a friend at the local store, most people have more than 1 caster, knock together 2 15 pt lists of what he/she has and have a game with the borrowed miniatures, then you can decide if you want to buy the box?

Sounds wonderful motyak.
Time to make some friends lol

If you've got appropriately sized models (30mm, 40mm, and 50mm circular bases) Privateer has the starter rules for Warmachine and Hordes (read: how to use everything but units) and stats for the battle boxes available for free on their site. Good way to try out the rule set before dropping money on models, assuming you've got someone to play against.

Failing that, check to see if there's a Press Ganger in your area. If there is, they'll have fully painted battle boxes to teach you the game with, and are pretty much obligated to do so if you bother them.

I bought my stuff off of ebay, there are some sellers who have pretty nice discounts.

Even so like any tabletop wargame it's going to be expensive in the long haul.

Amazon is also a good place to get stuff from. You get around 30% off normal retail, and you can save on shipping by buying from the same place.

Miniatures Market is around a 25% discount on warmahordes with an additional 1% in points accumulation. From my experiences, they're reliable and fast.

On the two-player start, if you can get a buddy who is interested in starting up the game you can get in real cheap. You can find it online for $70 /w Free shipping. Suddenly you're each chipping in $35.00 to get a basic start at the game.

$35 is a lot better to chip in, I gotta get just 1 friend interested.

You can always buy the box yourself up front, get a buddy to play a couple games with it, and sell him the other army afterwards.

That will be easier to do than trying to get someone to commit to a game without playing it.

Believe me, you won't regret getting into Warmachine.

I'm just afraid its not going to be what I want it to be.
That is honestly my only apprehension

Then do what Laughing Man said and hit up a press ganger for a free trial game, ask the store owner because they may do something similar, or play with a friend's models to start. There are 3 free options for learning to play and seeing if you like the game. Probably more if you put your mind to it.

Only one press ganger around here.

Lucky me, he frequents the local hobby store

Score!

I bought the 2 player battle box for $70, then Sold the Khador half on eBay for $45

Technically means if I tried and managed to sell the Menoth Half and the Rulebook, I could have probably made around $110, or ~$40 profit for trying the game



If you are a bit of a *cough* you could get a friend to try the game with you, Show him the MSRP of a 2 player starter for $99

Tell him to give you $50, then buy it on some online retailer for ~$70
Then YOUR personal start up cost is much, much lower

Could push it even further and offer him $10~20 for the rulebook book to be his exclusively, a normally ~$30 value

*cough*

 Talamare wrote:
I bought the 2 player battle box for $70, then Sold the Khador half on eBay for $45

Technically means if I tried and managed to sell the Menoth Half and the Rulebook, I could have probably made around $110, or ~$40 profit for trying the game



If you are a bit of a *cough* you could get a friend to try the game with you, Show him the MSRP of a 2 player starter for $99

Tell him to give you $50, then buy it on some online retailer for ~$70
Then YOUR personal start up cost is much, much lower

Could push it even further and offer him $10~20 for the rulebook book to be his exclusively, a normally ~$30 value

*cough*

So basically what you're suggesting is to knowingly scam a friend?

Chongara wrote:

 Talamare wrote:
I bought the 2 player battle box for $70, then Sold the Khador half on eBay for $45

Technically means if I tried and managed to sell the Menoth Half and the Rulebook, I could have probably made around $110, or ~$40 profit for trying the game



If you are a bit of a *cough* you could get a friend to try the game with you, Show him the MSRP of a 2 player starter for $99

Tell him to give you $50, then buy it on some online retailer for ~$70
Then YOUR personal start up cost is much, much lower

Could push it even further and offer him $10~20 for the rulebook book to be his exclusively, a normally ~$30 value

*cough*

So basically you're suggesting is to knowingly scam a friend?

Friends are just enemies who don't have the guts to stab you in the back.

Well, wargaming is wargaming right? There is often always the term "Heavy" in buying wargaming. But you can't lie about how great the 2-player starter set is, still you need the paint supplies and glue, but since you have been playing wargames, I am aware that you already have the supplies.

2 armies, rulebook, how to get started, of course the stat cards and dice, but no Faction book for either of them, so your going to either have to pay some extra money for the book(s). Overall, its great. Unless you want to go scouting around on Ebay, thats fine, can find a cheaper price for a fully painted army.

You don't need the faction books unless you want fluff. Otherwise the Faction Deck is good enough for getting the model stats.

All the models come with their card so they are ready to play right out of the box.

 Grey Templar wrote:
You don't need the faction books unless you want fluff. Otherwise the Faction Deck is good enough for getting the model stats.

All the models come with their card so they are ready to play right out of the box.

If you want a reference material, the book is a much better source. Several of the models in the book are not in the faction deck.

Tarot wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
You don't need the faction books unless you want fluff. Otherwise the Faction Deck is good enough for getting the model stats.

All the models come with their card so they are ready to play right out of the box.

If you want a reference material, the book is a much better source. Several of the models in the book are not in the faction deck.

You also want the books if you plan on running Tier lists. That becomes a need in events, as you're required to have a copy of the Tier on hand.

 Platuan4th wrote:

Tarot wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
You don't need the faction books unless you want fluff. Otherwise the Faction Deck is good enough for getting the model stats.

All the models come with their card so they are ready to play right out of the box.

If you want a reference material, the book is a much better source. Several of the models in the book are not in the faction deck.

You also want the books if you plan on running Tier lists. That becomes a need in events, as you're required to have a copy of the Tier on hand.

Or you can use War Room. The app will let you buy a faction deck (which include Tier Lists and a list builder) for 8 bucks, or you can buy everything for about 60.

Isn't there PDF(s) online that show the entire copies of stat cards of every army and models in the game and its printable? Like this-

http://www.tyrelfredericks.com/stuff/field_test_stat_cards_mercenaries.pdf


Havent printed it yet, but I don't know if thats even legal for game ruling purposes, is it? Unless you lost/damaged your stat cards or want to preview an army before buying it.

Oooh no, get rid of that, bad juju. They have quickstart rules with statcards on their website, but apart from that you have to buy them

That PDF is from the Field Test of Warmachine Mk2. Privateer did a public beta testing process and thus released card info for all the models available at the time. However they are not final rules, as there were several iterations, and the final published versions showed some differences from even the last playtest version. So while the PDF's may be useful for giving you a general idea of what's what, they often have incorrect wording, stats or points costs, so don't treat them as gospel.

The card decks you see mentioned are probably of limited use to a new player - they basically contained Mk2 stat cards for all the models that had been released in Mk1, and were primarily aimed at existing players, allowing them to use their existing model collections in the new rules.

All Warmahordes models are sold with the relevant stat cards (unless you manage to find somewhere with incredibly old stock). The faction books provide fluff and background, as well as rules for all the models of the relevant faction up to the time they were released. They also include theme forces for each warcaster/warlock, and new theme forces are introduced in No Quarter Magazine.

More generally, Privateer releases an expansion each year for WM and one for Hordes, which introduce new stuff for all the factions simultaneously, and usually introduce new rules for different types of specialist units (such as battle engines and collossals/gargantuans). If you're not using these units you don't need those books, except to follow the story.

My suggestion would be to download the quickastart rules and battle box stat cards from the Privateer website and try to play a couple of games with proxies to see if it's your thing, or alternatively try to get your local pressganger to do you a demo. They should be happy to do so as they earn points towards free stuff from privateer for doing demos and running events.