Warhammer 40K: How To REALLY Get Started Playing 40K
Getting started with Warhammer 40K, or any wargame, can be hard. A little planning and advice can be a big help.
Warhammer 40,000 is a an appealing game to many. But getting started in the hobby can be hard. Many players get started and fizzle out quickly. This leads to wasting time and money. Many others may find 40k through books or video games and want to get into the tabletop game but find it too daunting. I get it. I’ve been playing 40K for 20 years now and I’ve done just about everything in the hobby — from owning a store and organizing events, to playing in national tournaments, attending cons and producing content here at BoLS. So let me share a few pieces of advice that might hopefully help any new players out there.
N.B. While this advice is aimed at getting into 40K most of it can be applied to any miniatures wargame.
Decide What You Want Out Of 40K
40K is a huge hobby with many aspects to it. People play for any number of reasons and want different things out of it. One of the best things a new player can do when getting into the hobby is figure out what they want from it. It can be anything — from just enjoying the game, to painting or converting models, to finding something to bond with a family member over, to becoming a top tournament player.
While there is no need to hyper focus, it can help to have some focus when getting into the game. For instance, if you want to work on painting, you don’t need to worry about the meta and can focus on buying units that you like the look of. On the other hand, someone who just wants to master the competitive scene will need to the opposite. Understanding what you want from the game will help you avoid frustration and wasting money.
Play An Army You Like Because of Background
Picking an army to play is one of the first and most important steps to playing 40k. When figuring out what army to play it’s tempting for a new player to ask: “What is good?” Don’t do this. The 40k Meta is always changing. What’s good today may be horrible next year or next month or even in a week! Picking an army based on its current power level will often leave you feeling unattached or uninterested in the force. Unless your goal is to be the best tournament player and you have enough disposable income to constantly buy the best new army, this strategy won’t work and will lead to you burnt out and frustrated.
Instead look at the models. Read the fluff. Find an army that speaks to you. Find the army you can play for 20 years through good and bad times. That will keep you in the game.
Don’t Ask How Good An Army Is – Ask How Easy is it to Collect
This goes along with my point above. A much better question to ask about a potential army is: “How easy it is to collect?” Alternatively, ask how recently it was updated or how current it is? For instance, Space Marines are always going to be a good army for beginners to start with because it has a big range that is easy to find, collect, build, and is updated regularly.
Ask around. Ask your local gaming store about which models they can get easily and which ones have been out of stock for a while. Also check with them about painting and assembly – having a hundred plus difficult models to build will kill your drive to actually play the game before you even finish building them.
Plan Your Army Out
It’s a very simple piece of advice but planning your army out ahead of time will save you time and money in the long run. Many players get into the game and just start randomly picking models to buy and paint. If that works for you, great! But it’s also very inefficient. Planning an army out at the start and slowly building up to up will save you time and money and let you focus on getting stuff you need so you can get playing. Then once you have that core army built you can start branching out.
Crusade Armies are really great for starting out!
It can also help to plan you army at different point levels, If your plan is to build a 2000 pts (or 100 PL) army then plan it out, but also plan out 500 pts, 1000 pts and 1500 pts versions of the same (using the same models.). Build the 500 pts army first so you can get playing right away. Work your way to 1000, then 1500, and then finish it. This way you can use the army and play it before the whole thing is finished and enjoy actually getting to PLAY from the get go.
Make Some Good Friends or Get Yours To Start With You
Playing with friends it always going to make the game more fun. It will also help you keep interested and motivated. Playing with people you like and trust and is a great way to learn the game and grow comfortable with it. Find some other new players and learn together.
Go To A Tournament
Like the Austin GT!
Even if you don’t want to be a very competitive player, everyone should go to one tournament in their life. Tournaments are a big part of 40K and can be an amazing experience. Try it once at least to see what all the fuss is about. Local Tournaments are a great place to get games in and meet local players. You might even make some friends along the way. The larger Grand Tournaments are great places to check out the full range of the hobby and amazing places to meet folks from all over and see armies you’ve never even dreamed of.
Find A Community
Maybe even some kind of “Warhammer” Community?
Be it a group at your FLGS or an online community like the BoLS comments section (where only the best people hang out) community will enrich your life. Finding people to hang out with, play with, and just to talk about the hobby, lore and tactics is really important. It’s arguably one of the main reasons we play games in person. Finding a good community is key to enjoying the hobby.
Try Out All The Aspects
No, not those Aspects…not what I meant!
While it’s good to focus on what you want out of the game part of finding that it is trying out new stuff. This hobby is huge and has a lot to offer. I wrote about some of those things in my article about avoiding burnout. All that is still true. Explore the game, the setting, and the hobby.
Don’t Let Anyone Decide What’s Fun For You
Once you’ve found your goal and decided what you want of the game don’t let anyone tell you you have to do ‘X’ to be in the hobby or enjoy it. Maybe all you want to do is paint. That’s fine! Don’t let people convince you you have to play to be a “real warhammer nerd.” Or maybe you hate painting and just want to push bare plastic around. That’s OK. Don’t let people tell you you have to be a painter to play. Find what makes the game fun and do that, ignore the people on the internet saying you have to be the best at tournaments or that playing in tournaments makes you a jerk. It’s you game — find your fun.
Just Do It
I know thats some basic advice but maybe it can help any new players out there. And remember, the most important thing is just to do it. Just play, just collect, get off the fence and jump in with the rest of us. The water is just fine!
Share your advice for new players down in the comments!
