Hey Game fans, Zardoz here with another article that hopefully helps you figure out which army you want to play for your favorite wargame. I’ve got some ideas that I hope will help you maximize your time and money while you select the army of choice. Let’s dig right in to some questions to ask before you start picking out units and color schemes.
Research & Ideas into your Army
Starting an army for a Miniature war game is a massive investment in time, energy, and money. I strongly suggest that you do your homework before you start making purchases and getting your fingers stuck together. You can save yourself some stress and maybe a little bit of cash if you do some groundwork
- Watch some games: The best way to learn how an army plays on the table is to watch it in action. Visit your FLGS if you have one, or check the internet. There are several different avenues you can use to learn about how a given army plays on the tabletop.
- Check out the fan sites: Most wargames have several different fan sites, forums, and other internet based resources you can take advantage of. Use the internet to your advantage and see what other people are thinking and how they’re building their army lists.
- Check out the actual models: Games Workshop, for example, hosts a massive catalog of all of their models currently available for their games. Players at your local store have painted armies you can take a look at up close. Find a look that you like, and do more research.
- Check out suppliers: This is not an inexpensive hobby, and you want to maximize your hobby dollars. See if your local store offers a discount club. Check out Ebay. Look into a variety of online market places to make sure that your money is going as far as it can.
Three Primary Factors for Picking Your Army
Factor 1: Raw Power
How powerful is this army compared to other armies? Can it wipe the board with the toughest and most lethal units on the table, or does it struggle to win against the softest of opposition. This is an important consideration for anyone building an army and you should know what your army can do before you buy in. This is not me telling you to avoid a bad army, rather it’s me telling you know what your army is capable of and build your expectations accordingly. Some armies are a labor of love, and will not bring you a lot of success on the tabletop. Others will just wreck everything they bump into on the table. Find your happy spot on this spectrum, and build your list accordingly
Factor 2: Aesthetics
Is this army neat looking? Does the army present an interesting set of choices for the modeler/painter in you, or does it look like a giant pain the ass to build and paint. An army you want to paint is an army that you’re going to put energy and attention into building, and scientific studies (not really) prove that painted armies perform better than unpainted ones. Furthermore, the customization factor can be a thing for a new player. Some folks don’t want to have the same army that everyone else has. Their tiny plastic men have to unique in some way, and some armies convey this with less effort than other armies. In the absence of all other factors, we encourage brand new players to use aesthetics as their guide for picking a new army. Find something you think looks awesome, and go bonkers with it.
Factor 3: Challenge
Does this army have a variety of ways to play, or is there a single build that routinely wins the game. Is this a hard army to play where you have to know exactly what you’re doing, or can you make mistakes and still come out on top? There is a fine balance between of ease of play and complexity that you’re going to have to decide for yourself. Finding that happy medium is something that will take time and practice, but will be immensely rewarding for you after you’ve found it.
First Steps For Your Army
Once you’ve actually found the army that you think like, do more research. If there are local players in your area that play that army, pick their brains. (politely, and not in the middle of a tournament game) If they have time, ask them if they’ll teach you to play and show you there army. Teaching new folks to play is something that not enough of us do, but its important to grow the hobby. If you can, play a few games with folks who are familiar with the army. If you absolutely have to purchase something for your army right now, I suggest the following
- Codex/Army book: This contains all of the rules that you need to play your chosen guys. In most cases it will give you some ideas for the background and coloration of your army.(this assumes you all ready have at least a basic copy of the rules, if you don’t have one of those, grab that while you’re at it).
- Painting Guide: If you don’t have an idea of what colors you want to paint your army, the Painting guide (and there is usually one that comes with each major factional release) gives you a wealth of ideas for the colors you can and should use. Even better for a new painter, it gives you step by step directions for making your army look like the one in the rule book.
Getting into assembling and painting your guys is a completely different article, so we’ll leave this one here for now. Remember to do your research and look at whichever game you’ve chosen. You can find a lot of ideas and inspiration for your army if you look around.
Game On!
-Zardoz the Magnificent
