For as long as I can remember (and that's a long time) Citadel miniatures have been the best you could get in the UK, first for fantasy, and then for Sci-fi games. Back in the late '70s, before there were Citadel, the choice was between Minifigs (true 25mm scale), Asgard (about 30mm), and smaller companies like Minot. This led to jokes like the classic "How come you're bigger than me?", answer "Because I'm an Asgard dwarf and you're only a Minifigs troll !" Presumably that should now be re-written as "because I'm a WH40K3 gretchin and you're a WH40K1 space marine", since Citadel mini's seem to be getting bigger all the time.
Metal has always been dear. So Citadel started making plastic marines (then IG, Squats & Orks) at about 1/3 the price. Over the years the raw lead has become dearer, but mysteriously GW prices for plastic have managed to catch up with metal. Not a good situation for someone wanting to start out in this hobby. What's the answer?
1) Forgot any thoughts of "official" or "Wysiwyg".
There are two kinds of "rule" that GW use to take your money. One is the rule that "every army ,ust have ...". Even in Rogue Trader every vehicle needed an Adeptus Mechanicus to look after it - after all, why else would anyone buy mechanic figures? I like to think that the Adeptus are better drivers as well, which is why you can't actually see them in my force. The other rule is "what you see is what you get" - so if you want to field an Ork with a shuriken cannon, you have to have a figure just like that, e.g. buy an Ork and an Eldat figure, and get busy converting.
The only way to play in an official GW game is to buy the latest rules and figures about a week before the game. It's like playing in a Magic:The Gathering Type 2 tournament (latest card releases only). For Magic the argument is quite a good one: not everyone has been playing since the year dot, and some of these cards just aren't available any more; so the Type 1 tournament (any cards you can find) is always won by someone with a good collection of old stuff. GW work the opposite way round; instead of old stuff being over-powerful compared to the latest thing, they add new, even-more-mighty options to anything that has just been released (so you'll want to buy it), and then phase it out with the next edition of the rulebook.
Get off the treadmill. The point of a game is to have fun. If you want a sense of membership in some kind of a club, join the boy scouts or a local football team. Or a games club. When your best friend is someone who has something to sell you, it's time to start worrying.
2) Consider other manufacturers.
Remember that as far as the game is concerned, the figures are just
counters. You might as well cut out a 1" square of card, and write
"Ork" on it in big letters. In some ways that would be even better
than miniatures, because you could write the WS, BS etc on the back to
save you looking them up!
Of course the figures are better to look at, lovely to paint and own, and get the imagination going. But that's all they are. When GW sell you a boxed set with a cardboard cutout dreadnought in it, you should perhaps ask them whether you can use it in an official tournament...
I've bought some good figures from Harlequin at less than GW prices, and there are other good ones for other games, like Warzone and Chronopia, which are also cheaper.
I had a great bargain this weekend, buying a box of "Havok" Skirmish figures
for just under 6 pounds on a special offer. For that you get some cardboard ruins,
4 figures that are ideal for IG (3 lasguns, one with a pair of pistols), 4 that are
passable for marines (some sort of power armer, bolt pistol & plasma pistol), and
TWO (count them) dreadnoughts with interchangeable weapons. There's a definite
las-cannon, power fist, and two things with big round barrels that could be
heavy bolters or maybe plasma guns...
3) Choose a non-specific army
In some ways the best army to build is a Slann one, and the worst is Eldar. Why? Because the Slann (apart from the actual frogs themselves) are just lizardmen, and everyone makes them. The Eldar on the other hand have funny-shaped helmets that you can only get from GW.
Here's my recipe for an ultra-cheap Slann army. Buy some plastic dinosaurs - you can get them anywhere - and use the rules for Stegadons from Codex Lizardmen, or Codex Slann on the net. For the Slann themselves, and their various sizes of lizardmen troops, buy anything reptilian in any scale. If it's small, call it a Skink, if it's big, call it a Kroxigor, in the middle it must be a Saurus. Buy lizardmen with halberds, cut the heads of their halberds, and call them lasguns.
In Rogue Trader there are rules for Crotalids (teleporting crocodiles), and they actually admit that the reason for making them this shape is that you can buy plastic crocodiles cheaply anywhere.
4) Buy stuff on special offer
5) Wait
Paint figures before buying more
Practice with cards first
6) Build card pieces
You can email me at [email protected]
. I can't promise to reply, since that's my office address.
Please note that these are my own views, and in no way represent the position
of IBM. Like you thought IBM might have an opinion on a subject like
this!
How many must die
before only the pure are left?
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