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Choosing Your First Warhammer Army
Four questions decide your first army: which one you like the look of, what it costs, how much of it you get for the money, and how hard it is to paint. We can answer the last three with dated prices and sourced numbers — here is each of them.
What will it cost?
Computed from live shop prices, with the date we checked them.
Cheapest 40k army to start
Every Warhammer 40,000 army ranked by what its cheapest box costs today.
Cheapest Age of Sigmar army
The same ranking for Age of Sigmar, usually decided by the Spearhead boxes.
What a Warhammer army costs
What each system costs to start and to field a standard army — and whether Age of Sigmar really is cheaper than 40k.
Which box should I buy?
Every army-in-a-box family, ranked by what it actually saves you.
Combat Patrols ranked by value
Every 40k Combat Patrol, ranked by what it saves against buying its kits separately.
Spearheads ranked by value
Age of Sigmar's army-in-a-box range, priced and ranked the same way.
Horus Heresy boxes
Combat Forces, Battle Groups and the Saturnine starter — the biggest boxes in the hobby.
Kill Team boxes
The smallest way in: one box of six to fourteen models is a complete, playable force.
How many points is a Combat Patrol?
Every box summed from the Munitorum Field Manual — they run 255 to 740, not a flat 500.
Age of Darkness vs Saturnine
The two Horus Heresy big boxes hold different miniatures. Which one is still in print.
How hard is it to paint?
Rated per faction, with the reasoning shown so you can disagree.
Already know what you want?
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