The Life of a Wargamer: Part 2 Poverty.
What's that? Life of a Wargamer is back!
We're doing a lot of tinkering, thinking and pondering here at Cob! It's unusual for us, and so we're sure it won't be too much of an occurrence, but once again we want to share our thought process with all of our loyal Cobbers!
In our previous Life of a Wargamer post we weighed up the pro's and con's of keeping up with the hobby and moving on with our games, armies and models as GW progresses story lines and editions. We didn't come to much of a conclusion, but we did deduce that we should take advantage of GW generousness on supplying free rules for AoS and gave a test game a go!
Our test game was a great success and we thoroughly enjoyed the game even more than Warhammer Fantasy, helping us reach the conclusion that sometimes change is good! But with these changes in the rules and the influx of new armies, it begins to raise the question of whether you are going to take the plunge and buy some new models to boost and improve your current army or start a new one all together!
This thought brought us straight back to what was really one of our main qualms with the subject of Moving On and that was the costing of it. The rule books are expensive and the models are getting pricier by the year. So we thought we'd broach the subject in this rather crudely named instillation of The Life of a Wargamer: Poverty.
We've mentioned the expense of models. New models are on sale for what we would hesitate to say are extortionate prices. The new armies, such as the Khorne Bloodbound and the Stormcast Eternals have some very expensive models, GW asking gamers to pay through the nose to build these new, very powerful armies. Single plastic models from these armies can cost between £18 and £23 each which for a single model is very steep.
But it's not just new armies that are very costly. Something that is really shocking is the inflation of the prices in old models. The box set of 5 centigors set our Chaos Player back somewhere in the region of £18 - £25 (he can't quite remember how much) roughly twelve years ago (again, he can't remember exactly how long ago) and now the exact same box set is on the market for an astonishing £37.50!! The pricing of models seems to be very erratic, incomprehensible and frankly quite unreasonable.
But again, much to GW's credit, they do bring out some excellent starter and box sets that are really good value. The original introduction to AoS had some great models, and two great armies to get you kick started. Of course the sensible thing to do is go in with in a friend and split the price and the box set. This is a great way to start an army on the cheap, or bolster your existing army as you'll get a great smattering of troops for just under £35 quid. A Chaos and Stormcast player could get a fantastic, well rounded army by combining both the forces from the Age of Sigmar starter set and the Blightwar set for roughly £80 each...just a thought (so long as the Chaos player doesn't mind fielding a frankly God awful slug monster thingy.) But the real joy of AoS is that any army can realistically ally itself with another so long as they fall under the same umbrella faction. So even if you don't want to start a Khorne Bloodbound army, a Beastman player could make great use of those Khorne models from the AoS starter set: or a Skaven player could use those Nurgle demons from Blightwar. Or a High Elf player could bolster their dwindling Elven ranks with those shiny Stormcast. Cheap models are there to be snapped up as they are so easily used and utilised and will add a great variety to your games.
But, do not just narrow your sights onto AoS starter sets, a great tip we would give to our Chaos players out there is to invest in the Shadows over Hammerhal box set. At GW it will set you back £90 but a quick look on Google and we've seen it as cheap as £67.50. But even if you bought from GW you would get an impressive boost to your Chaos army...You'd receive 10 Kairic Acoyltes, 10 Bloodreavers, 5 Blightkings and a Chaos Sorcerer for £90 as well as a fully functioning Quest game. Comparing that to buying those box sets individually it would set you back £107.50 (granted you'd get ten extra Bloodreavers and Acolytes) but considering you get four heroes as well (which buying those separately set you back a staggering £60!) and the entire Quest game is an impressive saving in our opinion!
It's at this point we'd raise the question about GW's pricing. Those four heroes bought individually cost the same as two thirds of the overall SoH Quest box set. The Lord Castellant model costing a whopping £23 all on his own, and it is the exact same model as the one in the box. Those Five BlightKings cost £33.50 to buy on their own, and again their is no difference (that we can see) between the ones you can build from the Hammerhal set. The prices seem very over inflated and unreasonable, we really would recommend you have a good look around before you buy single miniatures or box sets for units from GW...
But we'll stop moaning!
On the subject of saving and looking around elsewhere, we've read also that if you're really thrifty and do your research, you can find box sets for much cheaper from independent retailers online. Or even if you look abroad apparently in some countries, where the new games haven't quite taken off yet, you can get some discount box sets!
And on the subject of old models, there are some great bargains on Ebay. Ebay is a great place to buy some old models on the cheap. You need to do a lot of research however to make sure you're getting the models in a good condition and from reputable sellers, and of course you'll see some awful paint jobs that you'll need to fix! But if you're not too fussy you can get some great bargains.
But you knew this already didn't you Cobbers? You're not stupid! But this is a point we feel is worth re-iterating!
So what new advice do we have to offer? Well, we have a cunning plan! We've been doing some maths...and some snipping and we feel a solution can be found in Kit Bashing.
Next week we're going to be looking at how we can squeeze every drop of value out of those boxed sets for those instances where you just have to cave and buy some new models!
So tune in next week to find out what happened when we took some clippers to some new shiny models...
Until then, don't be disheartened Cobbers, gamer's and collectors! Our hobby may be expensive but so long as we're smart and help each other out, we can get some impressive armies...without the impressive price!
Keep the faith! and happy Wargaming folks!
