Welcome to the Blog for the first article of what i hope is a productive and insightful new year in the world of games. One of our big feature events that is starting this year is our Armies on Display activity which we’ll go into much deeper in another article but this comes up every so often and is something that i think is important enough to get a blog post of its own. How do I as a newcomer get started with Warhammer 40,000. We’re using Warhammer 40K as a baseline because it is fairly ubiquitous in the hobby, but the basic premise holds true for most games. Sit a spell under our learning tree and we’ll see if we can’t help you out some.
First off, welcome to the hobby of wargaming and I do sincerely hope you find it an enjoyable experience. There are a lot of different ways to consume the hobby and in the context of the miniatures game itself, there are three primary motivators for a person to dig in. First, there are the rules focused people who enjoy the hobby for the game’s sake. Second, there are the modellers, who are in the hobby for the sake of putting together the kits and building the miniatures. The final broad group are the painters. They are in the hobby because they love to bring the miniatures to life with their artistic talents.
Now, before you get any funny ideas, none of these motivations are wrong. You, as the responsible adult we hope you will eventually be, are perfectly capable of defining your own fun on your terms. I would also suggest that if you are getting into this hobby, you are doing it to have fun. None of these motivations are exclusionary either. There are omnivores who collect and assemble minis they paint that they take to games every week. There are also people who find aspects of the hobby not for them. More than one painter has no intention of playing the game, but loves the models.
Now let’s take a look at this from the perspective of the person who is coming into the game for the rules aspect of it. Generally these gamers are going to do as much research as they can on the game before they commit to any particular army. They’re going to google search to look up articles on the army they like, they’ll check youtube for battle reports and analysis breakdowns. These folks are looking for the tools to make an informed decision before they commit money to the hobby. They are going to spend a great deal of time working the mechanics of the game until they find the army that fits their expected style of play. From there you see a couple of derivations.
The first derivation of this style of gamer are Win-At-All-Cost (WAAC) players. These players have no concern for the amount of fun that their opponents have and generally look at the game in terms of how they can dominate the game space and crush their opposition. There are some specific niches where these players shine, particularly in the tournament scene, but they can be less appealing for more casual players to deal with.
The second derivation of this style of gamer finds a specific army list that they like and will specifically build that army. They don’t chase metas or fad armies and have a specific style of play that they prefer and stick with it. These players are usually superbly familiar with their chosen army and have studied the permutations of what they want to play exhaustively.
The second major perspective of the hobbyist are the modelers. The Modelers are more focused on the construction aspect of the hobby than the game itself or the painting. Whether it's building stock kits into the items shown on the boxes or taking parts of multiple kits and combining them into a single model, the crafting and building of the individual models is the driving focus of these hobbyists. Again, these fall into a couple of different variations, as we’ll discuss below.
The first variation of these builders will build the kit in front of them to the exact specifications in the instructions. These are also the folks who build Lego sets to the exact instructions and then every once in a while will pull them out to play with them. They don’t necessarily stay within a single faction for the models they build, and you can often see many different armies represented in a single collection. However, since they are building for the models and not for the game, this is not a detriment to their hobby experience.
The second variation of these builders will take parts from a bunch of different kits to build the model they want to see on the table. ‘Kitbashing’ or converting your models is a time honored aspect of the hobby and there are tons of videos and articles on the hows of this particular build style. These folks will go to great lengths to find the right part for the conversion they are wanting to build or fabricate it themselves.
Finally, the last major perspective of the hobbyists are the painters. Painting is a huge aspect of the hobby and can be a great deal of fun. Some folks will paint a specific army to match an existing force. Other folks will go wild with the blank canvas of an army project and come up with their own take on the entire force.
Painting your take on an established force can be a super rewarding hobby. Your version of the 2nd company of the Ultramarines or Hive Fleet Kraken can be a fantastic project. First, you have a wide range of publications and visual guides to help you find the right match to the project you’re working on. Second, your army is instantly recognizable by other folks in the hobby.
The counterpoint to the above are the painters who use their army as a blank canvas and run wild with their paint. Realistically, you can paint your models any colors you want, using any paints you want. This can also be a lot of fun, but it is a little harder, because it’s a lot of trial and error to dial in the paint mixes you want and there are usually fewer guides available. With these considerations in mind, they can still be a lot of fun for you to dive into.
Each of these perspectives is a completely valid expression of the hobby, and however you come to it, they are all perfectly reasonable experiences to share. These are the main ways that people will find their way into the hobby, and stay tuned for updates on how to buy in and build your first army for Warhammer 40,000 (and if you’re very, very good, we’ll try Age of Sigmar too). Be well, be safe, and enjoy your hobbying.
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