The price of our addiction to wargaming (advice wanted)

[shadosun]

Ok so I was looking at how much it would cost to make a gk army and I wanted a second opinion on collecting cause dear god the price was scary. I totaled up 20 termies, 20 reg marines , 3 dreadnoughts, a dreadknight, a stormraven, and 2 rhinos. My total (in US dollars) comes to over 600 almost 700. :eek: granted I am using the GW website as a price basis.

Is this normal for an army? Or have I my sights set on a very expensive army? I've only dabbled in armies until now, never completing them, but I don't think my swarm nids even cost that much. Help is appreciated, I'm curious what all of you have spent to create your armies, if you're willing to share that is lol. Who knows, maybe this will scare some of you when you have to think about how much you've spent on your dudesmen. All currencies are welcome, I will just use google to convert them lol

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

Advice: Look at the warstore, wayland games or somesuch, some place with a discount. Considering that the typical discount is ~20%, you'd cut the price down to the mid 500s.

[Wildeybeast]

I've recnetly got a small space marine force (2500 points) and I collected it over about 6 months. I've just totalled it all up and it comes in at around £300 which comes in at around $490. How many points does your GK force come in at?

[shadosun]

I've recnetly got a small space marine force (2500 points) and I collected it over about 6 months. I've just totalled it all up and it comes in at around £300 which comes in at around $490. How many points does your GK force come in at?

No idea, I just had come up with those numbers as an all encompassing idea to let me run different lists at different times, sadly maybe thats not possible for awhile. Who knows maybe I'll need less, or one less giant vehicle, that would seem to help lol

[Whoop!]

The hobby is not cheap, but compared to golfing or keeping a custom car? Fishing can be done on the cheap. Raising kids is DEFINITELY more expensive, but that is more of an obligation than a hobby.

All in all, $ to entertainment value is pretty good. Keeping pictures of miniatures in your wallet is creepy though.

I bought a 100 man unassembled space wolves army for about $200, but getting vehicles is out of my price range for now.

I play larger games in my basement where foam blocks can proxy vehicles.

Necrons are pretty cheap, though people tell me they are uncompetitive. I still win more often than losing with them. But I haven't yet started to play tournaments, and a new codex is on the way so the price will go up.

[Denzark]

This weekend my latest ebay purchase arrived.

1 x Mk 1 (Rogue Trader) Predator.
1 x Mk 1 (Rogue Trader) Rhino.
2 x new Rhinos.
1 x Forgeworld Landspeeder tempest.

This cost £29 not including postage. The landspeeder alone costs more new.

So, if you box clever you can do it on the cheap. Is it worth it? the countless hours of modelling and gaming answer that. Don't be put off by the new cost.

[DarkLink]

You can buy a gun and a little bit of ammo for that price. Maybe. Probably just a cheap handgun or bolt action, maybe a nice .22.

[BrokenWing]

My .45 XD cost about $800.

Average army price hovers around 2-300 for a 2,000 point army. Talk to some avid boaters or waterskiiers and ask about the price of their hobby if you want to feel better =).

(hint: start with a $65,000 boat)

[Atrocity]

I definitely recommend buying piecemeal so you can have some financial breathing room. Also if you're in the US I'd absolutely recommend miniaturemarket.com as they give 25% off (as opposed to the warstore) and if spending $75 or more, shipping is free (as opposed to the $5 shipping no matter what from the warstore). 5% might not sound like a lot but at $600 thats an extra $30 or a box of regular Grey Knights.

[SotonShades]

I did add up the cost of my armies once up on a yesteryear. However, given that I've been slowly amassing my forces over 13 years, it became a scary number so I forced it from my memory. Massive Apocolypse armies do that...

[Gotthammer]

Just my Marines alone would be reaching towards $5k in current (Australian) prices. With my other armies, games, terrain, and supplies I'd have absolutely no idea but it would be quite a bit more. Also I didn't pay that much at the time - I bought a large number of the combat squad + razorback sets when Apoc came out, gifts, and that sort of thing.

That said it's been bought up over 20 years so on a yearly cost it can seem quite cheap, expecially when I think that I just spent almost $2.5k on a new computer. The main thing for me is time now - I need more of that to put the stuff together and paint it... but if I had the time I wouldn't be making the money to buy the stuff I need the time for!

[Denzark]

You can buy a gun and a little bit of ammo for that price. Maybe. Probably just a cheap handgun or bolt action, maybe a nice .22.

What are you saying, hold up a games store?!

[Gotthammer]

It's great logic - I remeber using it in my first ever AD&D game: during character creation I had enough money to buy either a sword or a horse...

Bought the sword, stole the horse.

[BrokenWing]

lol, i'm way too tired, I didn't even catch that. That makes my previous post a bit creepy.

[Morgan Darkstar]

Just set aside some cash each month for wargaming my limit is £120

I started collecting around the release of the black reach box set i now have Space Marines, Tau, Nids, Space Wolves and IG armys at around 3000 points i also have a smaller force of dark eldar and will be looking to start a Necron army soon

for fantasy i have a 2000 point Bretonian Army and a 8000 point Woc army

now thats scary to think how much i have spent in a relatively short time

i think i may have a Problem!:rolleyes:

[Atrocity]

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2011/05/price-of-wargaming-spring-2011.html

This article also covers things pretty well.

[shadosun]

I have to say I've enjoyed all the answers, it was funny to see a couple people cringe some at how much they spent, but in the end I think we all agree we enjoy what we have spent. I do have to say though, robbing someplace, I'm not absolutely sure, but that may end my military career, or any career really lol.

As for that article, I had glanced at it earlier though I hadn't paid attention to it, guess I should have, that woudl be a good idea to compromise on creating the army. Dammit now that I have been shown its possible I have to choose between making my nid force f huge or start a new force now when I have the chance. I don't know I may try something new...besides I come back from deployment soon and my wife won't complain about me spending a ton of cash considering I've been gone for half a year lol

EDIT: I'm not saying I'm heartless, I'm just saying I have a chance to step outside of the normal allowance given for models by the wife and I may just have to take it lol

[Lockark]

I'd suggest to bugget your army so it can be picked up piece meal, this is what I do. Only one or two plastic kitz and month that I can afford in my budget/disposable income.

[Hive Mind]

1. Become a student.
2. Take Denzark's taxes
3. Spend in GW
4. ????
5. Profit

[chromedog]

My GK army sits at around 4000 pts.
It cost me around $900 to put together.
The secret. Second hand goods and good internet deals. Also not needing to have the latest and 'greatest' for every model.

Paying full AUS retail, it would have cost over $2000 (ACTUAL COST). The sucky GW price policy for ROW didn't help their retail arm here.

46 GKPA at 5 models for $55 AUD, this equates to 9 boxes. $495 AUD ($170)
16 GKT (including 5 plastic terminator conversions, and 1 SM Termie librarian). 3 boxes at $74 = $222 AUD ($120)
Land Raider $110 AUD ($50)
Storm Raven $110 AUD ($20 scratchbuilt with cadged spares).
Rhinos (4) = $220 ($40 second hand old RT pattern ones).
1 Coteaz $28 ($18 - 3rd ed SM captain converted with bits).
60 henchmen various types
40 Storm troopers $276 ( $150)
10 servitors - 5 with heavy weapons). $85 (About $60).
Crusaders (6) $102 ($50 - converted METAL SM scouts with bits).
DCA (2) $25 ($15)
Jokaero (2) $42 ($5 -two free 28mm sasquatch models , some guitar string and beads)
Dreadnoughts (2) $148 ($80)
Assassins (6) 2 of each Callidus, Vindicare and Eversor $150 ($70)
Nemesis Dread Knight $90AUD ($43) (*New model, from UK via Maelstrom).

Totals - GW RRP $2103AUD ($891AUD)

It's possible for US and UK players to put together a 2000pt army for less than $700USD.

[lobster-overlord]

1. Become a student.
2. Take Denzark's taxes
3. Spend in GW
4. ????
5. Profit

1. Have 3 kids
2. work a job that keeps you under the USA poverty limit
3. Get HUGE tax breaks
4. Spend on GW stuff
5. Play apoc battles...

Seriously though, being a LGS store manager has the perk of buy close to cost, but how then do I justify the 12 years previous that has allowed me to amass a 40K point army?

I have traded, bashed, salvaged, bought on clearance, etc most of my army, so my expenditure is about 50% of what it shoudl have been for this amount.

[Deadlift]

Its an expensive hobby but there are more expensive ones out there :eek:

My "other' hobby has me eating 6-7 times a day plus supplements so in comparison wargaming is quite cheep lol

However when spending say £25 plus on a box of marines for example I often think about how many hours of enjoyment I will get from building, painting and playing with them. Factor that in and its still good value in my book.

[proeliator_legio]

all this got me curios so i went back and check my ebay cause it goes back 2 years for purchases and between ebay, online retailers, local GW store, Forgeworld and supplies I've bought. I've spent roughly $3250 in about the two years I've been playing 40k.

[Wildeybeast]

When my friends and I got into 40k a few years back, we did it in quite a structured way. We all bought the codex and a battleforce set to start with, then we spent £50 a month adding to our army. This had a number of benefits:
a) kept the cost managable
b) everyone built their armies at the same pace, so we didn't end up in an expensive 'plastic arms race' and we were all operating on a similar points value
c) going down to the store together to pick out a our models once a month was fun, and you got to spend the rest of the month carefully planning your purchses which gave us something to lookforward to
d) it meant we could actually get a lot of our models assembled and painted before our next purchase, rtaher than having large unpainted armies.

My point is, you don't need to splurge all the money at once, just budget for what you can afford. Restraining your purchases doesn't necessarily need to be furstrating, it can be fun!

[Hive Mind]

Yeah, I shudder to think what I've spent in total. I just buy one or two boxes a month usually, it's expensive still but, per box, no more so than getting a takeaway or taking the missus to see yet another tedious remake or some plotless nonsense featuring Vin Diesel or Megan Fox at the local cinema.

[Wildeybeast]

Yeah, I shudder to think what I've spent in total. I just buy one or two boxes a month usually, it's expensive still but, per box, no more so than getting a takeaway or taking the missus to see yet another tedious remake or some plotless nonsense featuring Vin Diesel or Megan Fox at the local cinema.

Not to mention being a lot more fun and better for your health/sanity than either of those things!

[Deadlift]

Yeah, I shudder to think what I've spent in total. I just buy one or two boxes a month usually, it's expensive still but, per box, no more so than getting a takeaway or taking the missus to see yet another tedious remake or some plotless nonsense featuring Vin Diesel or Megan Fox at the local cinema.


I don't know, Megan Fox is good eye candy, BUT OH MY GOOD LOOK AT THAT THUMB :eek:

http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/ab3/joenortonjones/thumbkj41.png

[Thornblood]

An army so new would be a bit of a show stopper for me...

Having played for so long, and accumulated so many little plastic and metal people, the first thing i do is raid my bits boxes and army cases to see how much of an army i can muster without needing to spend too much. And then deciding whther to continue with the project after that first purchase plus old bulking out is at least half painted.

So yeah, i tend not to start armies entirely from scratch. When the wolves last came out I managed to turn a single box of ten power armoured fellas into 25- 30 models because i had enough power armoured bodies knocking about and the sprues come with so many spares.

Similarly I've got a unit of longbeards of which four are painted because i just never grew to love painting them... beutiful models but yeah...