Games Workshop… How much?

Wandered in for the first time when we saw one of my son’s friends who we know is well addicted to Warhammer playing a game.
My first thought was how do these guys keep going, it was a pleasant enough atmosphere, with kids playing various games and a few sitting around painting figures, now I’m assuming there just hanging out and not paying for the privilege.

We were accosted by a kid wearing a staff shirt who offered my lad a 10 minute demo, Out came the box of dice, a tape measure and what I now know are range rulers. 10 minutes later my lad had won the battle, surprise surprise and taking advantage of my boys excitement at having been handed the victory we were led over to the shelf where we were shown the starter kit, I must admit I wasn’t really that enthusiastic but my boy had a bit of birthday money left so who was I to deny him if he wanted to spend his own cash.

We were shown a box with a bunch of plastic snap together figures, dice, range rulers and a rule book, This box cost over £60, the kid with the shirt obviously saw my shock and quickly pointed out that the rule book alone was worth £30, so I asked does that include paint, “oh no we have a paint starter kit for that” and he showed me a small box of paint and brushes that had a £30 + price tag….. We left fast.

yep i was asking shroud recently as my oldest expressed an interest and he told me it's a very expensive hobby. shroud really loves art and 40k.
mustav spent a small fortune over the years although he's really enjoyed it and he's got an impressive collection and has also travelled to shops and tournaments about the country.

god yes, its expensive. I wonder how much shroud is worth in minitures...probably a few quid.

A Miniture Shroud... Now where have I seen one of those before?

Yeah it's super expensive, let him play DoW instead. When I played each squad you bought for your army costed around £20 - £30, and a tiny Dreadnought could cost that on it's own, and each small pot of paint cost £1.25 or more. I bought the start kit put all the models together and then never played against anyone with it. Cost me about £40, that was some time ago now though.

The models are beautiful and the 40k universe is brilliant, it's a decent hobby to have and in my school it was a game played by the cooler kids, so didn't have the whole nerd thing of Dungeons and Dragons. It's an addiction though, I every now and again long to buy models, just to look at and I get tempted by the idea of going to the shops and playing the game. Thankfully hookers aren't cheap so I can never afford to buy them and get into the hobby again.

Haha yea I've spent a small fortune on the stuff. Brilliant hobby but it's got damn pricey these days. That starter box you saw is good if you split if with a friend since it has Space Marines & Orks plus the starting stuff, buying the models separate costs waaay more. In fact when it came out it was only £50. That £30 rule book btw is a chunky hardback with background on the universe, some painting advice (as I recall) and the rules & missions. The rule book in the £60 box is a diet version that has just the rules & basic missions (though that's all anyone plays). A decent sized army can cost £100 or more (that's for about 1000 points with 1500 being a standard game size).

In recent years with all the price hikes and general lack of money I learned to not just loyally buy from the shop. If any of you poor Ragol Arms guys have kids that really really want into it though I can offer some money saving advice:

• For a starting army the Battle Force boxes usually save you a chunk of money, they're about £50-£60 and have a good starting army (usually round 500-700 points worth).
  
• E-Bay is you're friend
  
• As is website that sell GW stuff at discounts such as: http://www.waylandgames.co.uk/games-workshop/cat_2.html
  
• and http://www.maelstromgames.co.uk/
  
• or even: http://www.wargamestore.com/
  

One final point I'd like to make is if it's the Warhammer Fantasy (with the elfs and dragons etc) the current rule set only came out a year ago so its all fresh & exciting. If it's the Warhammer 40,000 (with the Space Marines etc) it's actually due for a new version rumour has it the end of the year/start of next. The reason I mention it is you can always use the models from version to version but that £30 rule book has one foot in the grave.

Incidently much like consoles any rule set only lasts about 5-6 years before they make changes and launch a new one.

The price is a serious issue. Just as a game, I have serious questions to the actual value present. As a hobby, it's actually comparitive to pretty much any other hobby over time. As long as you don't actually buy anything directly from GW that is. Support your flgs!! or failing that, discounted webstores are the way.

As an aside note, Privateer Press do their own wargames, Warmachine and Hordes. Not quite as grimdark as 40k and fantasy, but they ae gaining traction. Same price for miniatures, but you need far less of them. No one around here has shown interest though, hrumph.