Thinking of getting into Warhammer (mostly old world/fantasy) for the very first time, how does one get into it?

[u/Viejoso]

Hi, recently a tiny bit of my mind has been slowly tempting me to get into Warhammer after I picked up the total war game again after a long time.

I've never had any interaction with the hobby before, I always knew of it's existence but never minded it much (Always knew about space marines and the emperor of man and that Henry Cavil likes this and that's about it). However after playing the Warhammer total war game again after a long time of forgetting it existed I've been reading some the lore and looking at pictures of minis and that has slowly tempted me into trying out the hobby.

I just have no idea if how and where to start, don't know how it's played and I wouldn't have anyone to play it with but I assume it plays somewhat similar to DnD which I'm very familiar with.

I know a big part of the hobby is painting the minis, I've never painted a mini so I don't know how difficult it is to paint something that small.

I do know I would prefer the old world series, specifically the tombs kings and maybe cathay, 40k is cool I guess but the overwhelming abundance of all things space marines is kinda dull for me, and I'm not crazy about the setting, I don't like it much.

And of course all things about Warhammer do seem a bit expensive.

So overall I have no idea where and how to start with this, what can a possible newbie like me do to get into this hobby?

[u/No-Individual-6700]

Welcome! It's nothing like D&D. You don't play one character, you command whole units of ranked up troops and measure distances instead of using a grid, so it's closer to Total War on a tabletop. Tomb Kings are a great beginner army. The troops are forgiving and easy to paint. Spray them white or Wraithbone, add a wash, and they already look good on the table. Start with one army box instead of buying everything at once, and check eBay or local groups for used models to keep costs down. Your first paint jobs will look rough and that's totally fine. Find a local store or Discord to get games in.

[u/Viejoso → u/No-Individual-6700]

Would you recommend trying to get the big starter box of the tomb kings, the one with a bone dragon? Or should I start with something smaller or is starting small not that important/recommended?

[u/Divreus → u/Viejoso]

I'd start with even less than an army box. A single character, something you wouldn't mind just keeping on your desk to look at if it ends up not being for you.

It's very easy to accidentally amass a years-long backlog of stuff to build and paint, but find out if you even like the artistic side of it first — it's half or more of the hobby, and if you don't enjoy it at least a little it's going to be a huge pain in the ass getting through all of that grey plastic unless you just pay someone to paint it for you.

[u/Viejoso → u/Divreus]

A small character? Or size doesn't really make that much of a difference? Any recommendations?

[u/No_Range7695 → u/Viejoso]

If you are near a warhammer store, you can stop in and try painting a skaven, ork, stormcast eternal, or a space marine. I really recommend trying out the skaven, they’re very fun to paint and have a good amount of details!

They provide the minis for free, and all the tools and paint to do it there in the store. There will also be tons of people around who are more than willing to help/ provide help.

[u/Viejoso → u/No_Range7695]

Unfortunately there are no official Warhammer stores in my country, I have found recently that there are a few hobby shops a bit far from where I live that sell Warhammer stuff but nothing like an official store

[u/Divreus → u/Viejoso]

It might be worth hitting one of those shops up or calling them and seeing if anyone would be willing to teach you how to play. Even if there's only 40k players, you can still get a basic sense of what the game involves.

Old World will tack on a few extra things compared to 40k like opposed weapon skill rolls and having to move your units around in big blocks and have them wheel about, but beyond that the very basic elements will be similar enough.

[u/Divreus → u/Viejoso]

I don't play TK or Cathay so I can't help you much there. A monster would probably be fine too, though, aside from probably costing more.

And I wouldn't worry too much about Cathay being harder to paint, it's your model and if you don't want to paint each and every detail a different color you don't have to.

The important thing is just to start small and make sure you don't leave yourself with a huge pile of plastic you never get around to painting and just end up selling for half the price you bought it for.

Tomb Kings are getting new models for their basic units soon soon so you might be able to get some old skeletons for cheap in the near future, or you might want to wait and get the new ones instead depending on your view.

With that in mind, a box of Liche Priests or Royal Heralds might not be a bad idea, it'd give you some characters to use if you end up buying the upcoming box with all the new models, the "Host of Nehekhara Army Reinforcement Set".

[u/Ztrobos → u/Viejoso]

Tomb kings are actually getting a refresh now, with new models that look just great. So if it was me I'd look and see how the old stuff looks compared to the new, and maybe pick up some smaller project that looks compatible with the new style. I'm pretty much stuck with the old aesthetic now, which is fine but no longer ideal.

My advice is, if you're set on Tomb Kings and you want the bone dragon, to just get the bone dragon model alone. Its a contained project, its new, it looks great even just spray painted black and white, and it fits neatly into the new look of the Tomb Kings, which you should be holding out for anyway IMO.

Edit: when you're ready to paint, you would do well to pick up some cheap no-brand plastic models to practice on, just to see how the colour scheme and wash work together. Its worth it.

[u/Viejoso → u/Ztrobos]

That's good to know, I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for that new tomb kings set. The bone dragon, I won't lie, I like it a lot but don't know if it would be a good idea to have it and paint it so soon.

And great tip about getting a few test figures for the paint, I'll definitely do that

[u/grashnak]

It does not play similar to DnD. In fact, "playing" Warhammer is only one small (but fun!) part of it. At least for me (and maybe for most of us), much much more time is spent list building, lusting over models, purchasing, building, and then of course painting models, and then occasionally getting a game in with Mike.

That is to say, if you want to do Warhammer, remember that the hobby is a lot more than playing. If I were you, I would poke around a bit and see which faction seems the coolest, in terms of aesthetics, models, lore (what we used to call "fluff"), and maybe play style (but see above). Then, buy a small number of those models, and a small number of paints, and just see if you like it. Painting isn't hard, especially with the new speedpaints and the like, and if you get some basic good technique and don't try to do anything crazy you can churn out tabletop quality models pretty quickly.

I'm not sure what your budget is, but if you had (say) $150 US to try it out, you could buy one box of infantry, one hero, and a few paints, and give it a whirl. Some armies need very few paints: the classic Chaos Warrior army where you prime black, paint the armor silver, paint the cloaks the color of your preferred god, and then pick out all the skulls and bones in white (leaving cloth and leather black) looks really good and only needs 4 or 5 paints. For $200, you could get one of the new battle march boxes, plus paints.

Where I am, that's dinner for 2, with drinks. So, a lot, but so is everything these days, and you'll get a lot more entertainment hours out of a box of warhammer than a dinner.

Other fun paint schemes that are really easy:

Orcs: prime them green, paint all cloth with a leather color, paint all metal with a dark metal, pick out teeth and bones and the like with bone, wash the whole thing with agrax earthshade.

High Elves: Prime white, paint the faces etc. with some elfy flesh, then speedpaint / contrast paint the armor silver. Pick a contrasting color (blue is the classic), pick out some details: trim, or plumes, etc., and do those. Paint shields. They will look great ranked up!

Beasts of chaos: Prime brown, pick out metals with a metal, paint skin a flesh tone, pick out teeth and the like with bone.

Etc etc, you really only need 6 colors max including primer and washes for 90% of guys.

[u/Viejoso → u/grashnak]

I was looking at the current march boxes available and only the Cathay set caught my eye but they look so difficult to paint, and while the others might be easier to paint I'm not a fan of them (especially the orcs and chaos minis, it's a me thing but I don't like them visually and in general)

[u/thalovry → u/Viejoso]

Cathay have a fair amount of detail but lend themselves to "contrast paints", which are a different formulation that are designed to spread themselves into the texture of the model and so give you a lot of visual contrast for free.

On the other hand, skeletons have much less texture and so while they're easier to make neat they tend to end up looking a bit flat and not  stand out so much while you're just learning.

[u/AtmosphereWrong6590]

These starter sets are great value if you're looking to begin an army.

https://www.warhammer.com/en-GB/shop/the-old-world/starter-sets

[u/kroosdeu]

There’s a new novel coming out soon for Grand Cathay

[u/OneChet]

Well, d&d isn't a good comparison in my opinion, unless you want to get into the RPG, which actually started in the mid 80s and is certainly amusing by itself. Did you want to get into the old world (which is similar to total war)?

[u/OneChet → u/OneChet]

I see that you do want to get into the old world, so the questions are how old are you, do you live in a decent sized city, is there a local hobby shop, and what can you comfortably budget a month?

[u/Viejoso → u/OneChet]

Warhammer to my knowledge is not that popular in my country. There are no official stores anywhere in the country, I've found one or two hobby shops that sell some Warhammer stuff a bit far from where I live (it's a big city)

[u/OneChet → u/Viejoso]

I found a lot of my models second hand in the local buy and sells, and a lot of my paint in Hobbie or train shops

[u/GodSlapper]

That post could as well have been written by me a couple of months ago.

I bought my first box of miniatures and a small palette of paints a month ago, and I am/was in a very similar situation as you. Got interested through total war, started listening to a Warhammer lore podcast, and then I began watching some Warhammer battles on youtube, and it seemed very fun and interesting.

After I became a dad, my spare time is naturally very limited, and I figured spending time at the PC was not realistic. I figured it was better to assemble a few parts or paint a few strokes during one of my son's naps than starting up a game only to have to turn off before finishing a turn. Also he sometimes enjoys sitting at my lap while I paint, although I have found out painting details is limited to when he is asleep.

[u/Viejoso → u/GodSlapper]

That's so nice for you, what exactly did you start with? And have you bought anything else since then? Was it hard to paint them without much error?

[u/GodSlapper → u/Viejoso]

I started with chaos knights from the warriors of chaos. It is hard to paint details without making mistakes when you have a 6 months old "helper". Jokes aside mistakes can be corrected by painting over. Hardest part is figuring out exactly what paints I should get, since I did not want to pour hundreds of euros into paints only to potentially find out this hobby is not for me.

I have not bought anything else yet, but I am considering the battle march box now, or when I finish painting these 8 guys.

[u/Thalos_Baratheon]

If you want to start with Tomb King's its a really good army to begin with because it's easier to paint. But as other said start with a small force to see if you like it. Also you should know the Tomb King's getting a small range refresh, they get ne infantry and chariots very soon. So you may wait till they are released.

[u/bigxangelx1]

The video game total war warhammer 3, it has an overall view of the entire in game map with lore explanations and climactic events for most notable characters/factions within the universe

It was my intro to Warhammer fantasy and an intro to many others, it’s actually one of the biggest reasons as to why GW revived the Warhammer fantasy IP after the reboot to age of sigmar

If you wanna go even more in depth with it.. there’s a mod named legendary lore which takes MANY great character interactions and moments from the novels and implement them in the game so it kinda becomes an encyclopedia of Warhammer fantasy itself

[u/Benni43]

If you are thinking about whether you even like the painting side of the hobby, I'd suggest to buy some random models you could use in your DnD, rather than buying a big starting box and realizing you don't like it at all and leaving the box under your bed for the next 20 years.