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Live numbers, not folklore

How Much Does a Warhammer Army Cost?

What starting each game system actually costs today, computed from the latest prices at every shop we compare — and the honest answer to "is Age of Sigmar cheaper than 40k?".

Warhammer 40,000

£87.20

median start · 25 armies priced

from £41.65 to £94.50

A standard 2,000-point army: ~£400.00

Age of Sigmar

£76.00

median start · 24 armies priced

from £37.40 to £99.00

The Horus Heresy

£92.65

median start · 4 armies priced

from £92.65 to £129.09

Is Age of Sigmar cheaper than 40k?

Age of Sigmar is cheaper to start today: the median Age of Sigmar start is £76.00 (24 armies priced) against £87.20 for 40k (25 armies). The spread matters more than the medians, though — 40k starts run £41.65–£94.50 and AoS £37.40–£99.00, so the army you pick moves the answer more than the game does.

Is Horus Heresy more expensive than 40k?

Yes — today it is the median Horus Heresy start is £92.65 (4 forces priced) against £87.20 for 40k. Heresy armies are built from bigger boxes with more plastic in them, so the per-model price is usually better even when the entry price is higher.

Cheapest start today

The lowest-priced way into any army we track is Age of Sigmar: Introductory Set (Skaven), at £37.40 at Merlin's Miniatures.

One box of Age of Sigmar, not the whole hobby — the figures above say what growing it costs.

What "the cost of an army" means here

The headline is the cost of each army's cheapest currently-priced box — the recognised starting point for its game (Combat Patrol, Spearhead, or a Horus Heresy force box) — at the lowest price we hold across the shops we compare. That is where you begin, not what the hobby costs, so the figure beneath it scales to a standard game: the size people actually build towards.

That second number is an estimate and wears a tilde, but it is not a guess. It is the median across every army we can both price and point, at the per-point rate those real boxes actually sell for today. Everyone else answering this question picked a range and published it; theirs went stale the day Games Workshop last changed the points, and ours moves when a shop changes a price. Armies do not scale perfectly evenly — characters and centrepieces cost differently per point from the rank and file — so read it as a good approximation rather than a quote.

Prices were last checked 25 Sep and can change — the retailer's own page always has the final say. Affiliate links — how we make money.