If you lost it all....take 2

[Horncastle]

Hello,

First I want to thank everyone who replied to my first attempt at this topic for all their kind words.

I'm not sure what happened to the first thread about this I posted but here it goes again. My story; exactly one week ago my house burnt down (a fire started in the unit next to us and destroyed the whole building). Everyone got out okay but we lost everything. For me that means I've lost 20 years worth of collecting Games Workshop product; mostly 40K and it's specialist games and books. I had a pretty normal, if large, collection that ranged from the old, like an all metal dreadnought and a complete copy of necromunda, to the new, I had just bought a Knight Titan.

My question is if you lost your entire collection would you restart? If yes where would you begin?

I've already received some great advice the first time I posted this; and I think I will draw a line and start over as some suggested and try not to worry about the rare stuff that was lost.

So I guess with that I have another question for those of us who would stick with 40k. Where would you start and how would you go about it? I was never very focused in my collecting before often buying kits just cause I thought they were cool. I think I might take this as an opportunity to bring some focus to my collection.

TL;DR - I lost 20 years worth of minis and books in a house fire a week ago and would like some advise on how to go about restarting.

[Horncastle]

Quick update. Say what you will about GW but when my FLGS's rep heard about what happened he made sure new copies of White Dwarf weekly and a Knight Titan got shipped to the store to replace the ones I lost.

[ElectricPaladin]

When I restarted my few remaining Blood Ravens as Exorcists, I started with the Dark Vengeance box. It's cost effective, gave me a lot of stuff I didn't want, but could trade away, and included some beautiful and unique kits (although I had to shave a lot of Dark Angels symbols off a lot of models). The thing was, I was pretty sure that I wanted to be playing Space Marines.

I think you should start off by picking a faction. Once you've decided on which army you want to represent, it will be a lot easier to help you decide on the best way to acquire the best models at the best price.

[Darren Richardson]

so sorry to hear that you lost everything in a fire, that really must hurt having collected for 20 plus years.

AS for restarting, take a look in your local store, look at figures from each set, if they have display copies for the army books, flick through them, take your time and then decide which army's models appeal to you most of all, and which fluff/rules appeals to you.

Once you have a general idea of which army you want to collect, start to decide on what style of play you wish to use, agressive/defensive etc, then you can start to decide what units you will need.

Always remember about paint schemes, will the scheme you will be painting end up boring you to tears? if so that army isn't for you.

Rules wise, if you are going to collect Space Marines or Chaos, then Dark Vengance is a MUST buy, the models are great and really characterful for Monopose models, and with a bit of work you can convert the Dark Angels, plenty of filing and some green stuff will do the job :)

If you don't want either of those armies, then get the rulebook on it's own, you can then pick up dice and templates seperately.

Sorry if this seems long winded, but in 20 years wargaming has changed quite a bit, with so many armies and releases now, just buying on impulse can really leave one flundering these days.

And finally good on the Rep for helping out like that, I like reps like that, gives us hope again :)

[Nurgledan]

This sort of thing happened to me once. I had my entire collection in the back seat of my truck after a huge weekend of games. decided I would unpack in the morning. Truck got stolen that night and all of the stuff inside ended up in the everglades...

I took that opportunity to start all over "right". As in I would build the army I always wanted and would pour my soul into the modeling and painting. I wouldn't keep trying to make my old army of 5 years, that I learned to paint on, and learned what useless units were, and found out that hot glue cant be used to make the plastic stick, work and seem cohesive. I took all the things i had learned to that point and got to work makeing a master piece.

Look at this as an opportunity. I know it feels horrible right now but if you throw yourself back in you will someday, trust me.

[lobster-overlord]

gw has been a good company through trade accounts. we had a customer lose his army due to theft when his car was stolen. we did a pool from other players to help him rebuild, and because we were orderijg so much for him, our rep thre in more stuff for him based on his rebuild list we wernt able to get, and so we ended up, paying less than cost for his army for him. we had about 10 in store contributor, the store, and gw contribute to the new army.

[whargoul666]

Hey, sorry that you lost all your stuff :(

I've got 20+ years of 40k too, and would hate to lose it, BUT... Remember most of your older and OOP stuff is really just a sentimental loss. Yes that's bad, but a lot of that stuff would live on the shelf. The newer stuff just looks sooo much better. I know it sucks to lose the personal defense of a metal dred, but to be honest mine are buried in the back of the closet somewhere, the newer ones are just so much better.

Now on to how to rebuild. I recommend building a list and working on it. Base it around something you like and start there. While you are working on that core you will have plenty of time to think and tinker, and by the time you are done with the core you should have a good idea of where you want to go with the rest of the list. For me I recently decided to start a new army from scratch (not using any of those old models, because I like the look of the newer ones). I chose to start working on 3 squads of Tacs (I'm a pretty slow painter, so that's a lot for me). I knew I wanted them mounted in Rhinos (another much more improved model) and so that was the first "chunk". From there I decided to try and stay modular, 3 squads in rhinos plus war machines to a value of 1250 (I picked Iron Hands, so those 3 squads are my only feet on the ground). Then another 250 points worth to 1500, then 1750, then 1850, then 2k. In the end I came up with a little mini dred-wall force (only 4 dreds) that I am really happy with. Also I went with the old moniker of "if one is good, two is great". I really have good grasp of where I am going with this and it makes it a little easier to focus on.

Good luck!

[Lost Vyper]

Damn, that´s some bad luck...

I myself, would go the route someone suggested earlier, start all over "right". I´ve collected stuff only about 3-4 years (CSM, Eldar, Dark Eldar), but if i lost everything now, i would sit back and would pick just one, and just do it. I would make a list for about 2k points and think about the most effective/fun units and go from there (of course FOC in mind, duh! :) ). My main army is Eldar, but i might switch it to Dark Eldar just for fun...

I hope you get your "groove" back on and get a new awesome looking, a** kicking army you´ve always wanted!

[Psychosplodge]

Nice of the rep to help you get started again.
I think if I started again there'd be more planning involved, like collect an entire company from scratch rather than end up with a couple of comapnies worth because of buying just randomly buying.
Or now its the chance to start just going FW only...

[Horncastle]

Thank you all for the kind words and advise. I think I will go the route most people seem to be suggesting and build my collection to a list instead of what looks cool (but I'll be honest I will probably do some "looks cool" buying anyway). I've been a Space Marine fan from the day I first saw a dreadnought so I will probably stick with them in some form. Psychosploge most of my buying these days for my marines was FW so I really like that idea.

[Psychosplodge]

They are making some beautiful models these days