Forums → The Tavern → Looking for help

Ah, 40k. In general, you can find almost anything on Ebay if you look hard enough. I don't know about other online retailers, Games Workshop's new trade agreement altered how products are sold online and in which countries. Aside from that, find which units give a lot of bang for your buck. For more comprehensive advice on purchasing, and the hobby as a whole, Warseer is a good place to go.

09philj's advice is pretty good.

You will also need some standard books. The codex of your race and the Warhammer 40k Rulebook. These are absolutely necessary, not only for getting familiar with the rules of the game, but also for helping you pick the best force that suits you.

Try to find them at the best price you can, because they change every some years and are a bit costly.

Also, a suggestion for helping you with money: Don't overdo it. This is something every one of us has to a lesser, or greater degree. DO NOT go buying more than one units each time! Buy a unit (recommend space marine tactical squads when starting), and when you are all done with it, you can continue with something else. Do not horde tons of models. You will end up never painting them. Units always look impressive, so, it will be tough to resist (it always is). I've never met someone who could resist this totally.

If you aren't proficient with the rules yet, spend some time on them; Table top wargamming is an expensive hobby in financial and time terms. Then, truly decide if you want to build your own army.

Perhaps if you're just beginning, don't aim to do a spectacular paint job, or don't even paint them, until you watch a few paint tutorials! Imagine being stuck with an army that is garishly and horribly painted! Though maybe you could just proxy them as a Slaneeshi themed army if that happens...

Oh, and if you're not aware of it, GW likes to horribly change codexes, nerfing and buffing units at a whim.

Going regular Space Marine, or one of the codex developed chapters?

Well @nichodemus , paint tutorials can help but, I always firmly believed that the only way to get better is to do a lot of painting. Just like drawing. My first creations were horrible (as was everyone's). But I learned to paint, and even paint pretty well, through all the years of experience.

If you don't have any painting experience, do not let your first creations drag you out of it. First models are terrible for everyone. Second models are just slightly better.

You may also want to spend some time considering your painting scheme. This is especially the case when deciding on a custom scheme. Space Marines can be painted pretty simply with a mix of no more than 3 - 4 colours but, you may want to decide that fast. Painting your first unit as Ultramarines, then deciding that a mixture of black and red is better, and then adding metallic colors is constantly undermining your progress in building an army. Sure your first models will be bad so you will probably not include them in the rest of your far superior army, but, once you start getting better at painting, you must have settled on a scheme.

This was my case, as a Chaos Space Marine painter. My first choice of a scheme was a simple mix of black and a brownish white called "bleached bone" (Old color name). Afterwards I decided painting parts of the trim gold, and finally, in my current scheme, painting the entirety of the trim gold, as well as painting with many more colors. The result now is that I only have 3 standard Chaos Space Marines I can consider a part of my army.

Other miscellaneous advice:
Cut costs by using whatever you can find around the house as area terrain, buildings, etc.
Save all the spare parts from making a unit, and look for ways to incorporate them into other projects.
Thick Plastic Glue is the only glue you will ever need.
Unless they're fairly bulky and stable, avoid metal or Citadel Finecast miniatures, due to stability and fragility issues, as well as their high cost.
Specialisation in a unit's loadout is better than versatility. Make it kill infantry or vehicles, not both.

Save all the spare parts from making a unit, and look for ways to incorporate them into other projects.

This is what we call bits or "bitz" in the Warhammer 40k community. Even if it wasn't about the units' high cost, keeping these allows for very interesting conversions and swaps between your models.

Unless they're fairly bulky and stable, avoid metal or Citadel Finecast miniatures, due to stability and fragility issues, as well as their high cost.

@09philj, this is only an option because mrdeath has chosen space marines, whose near-entirety of units are plastic. For Chaos Space marines for example, even havocs have metal components (though you are right, they have some stability issues. Especially the part-plastic part-metal models, like the aforementioned havocs.)

Specialisation in a unit's loadout is better than versatility. Make it kill infantry or vehicles, not both.

Good advice. But you'll want to consider this later. For now, start with your army's codex and the rulebook (recommend the pocket version for the lower cost and bulk, but the normal one provides more concept art, beautifully painted miniatures and an additional insight to the universe). After that is settled, start with your armies "Troops" choice. Also, be careful to make units which follow your army's rules, by giving the codex a look before you start. Do not go making units with too many special weapons, for example, as you can only take a couple of them, and you'll have to buy and paint more units just to fit the extra models with the special weapons you've made at the beginning.

im just going to print the codex and rulebooks. thanks for all the help with this, i will buy one unit at a time then paint it and move on. Thank you all for this.

which edition rulebook should i print?

Which edition of rules?
5th is streamlined and efficient, but old and unsupported. 5th also had more set limits on what units of each type could be used.

The 6th edition vastly changed the rules, especially with regard to flying vehicles and psykers. 6th and 7th are fairly similar, with 7th being slightly more complex. Army building is now less restricted, although that brings opportunities to make really spammy/exploitative armies. Both are more involved and take longer than 5th.

ill get 7th

You could get all. You never know when someone decides to go old school when the new codexes mess around with their units.

Unless you play Necrons. Then almost anything is fine.

@nichodemus lol! But going old school for a battle has to be a joint decision...

@Doombreed

That is true, but I know some some wargamers who prefer the older rules, cause that's what they did as kids ages ago. XD

Yeah, but overall, it's always better to go with the newer ones when starting out since the majority will be playing that.

Like wow, vintage!

Yeah I see your point. I started out with 5th generation, so, I still have a better grasp of those rules and units. Of course it may be because I never got the chance to try out the new rules, but, still, I prefer the 5th gen.

where could i buy some models for cheaper than games workshop?