If I Was Starting WARGAMING in 2024

0:00 in this video I'll tell you what I'd do if I was starting or getting back into tabletop wargaming in 2024 there's a lot of options but I have my favorites this Channel's purpose is to help get people into the wargaming and Miniatures hobby new war Gamers uh lapsed War Gamers I want to give all of you the information and insight you need to get in into a hobby which I'll admit can be a little daunting to start sometimes if you don't have the proper information the following things are what I'd be doing if I was just starting now in 20124 with the benefit of knowledge that I've gained over the last 20 years of course I'm going to split up uh this whole thing into like four categories 3D print non-3d print Warhammer and non- Warhammer so we'll start with 3D printing now this doesn't mean that you'd have to own a 3D printer this isn't a you know like how to about getting into 3D printing for wargaming I am not the person that you should ask about that believe me instead this section will just be about 3D printed Miniatures and like where to get them and things like that if you have a friend that likes 3D printing and likes being paid to print stuff for you then the wargaming world is really your

1:32 oyster I talked about the freedom that 3D printing brings to Warhammer here pachow there are millions of 3D printer files out there in the wargaming world the files that you need for 3D printing are called STL files they're sculpted by someone usually on a computer using software sometimes the sculptor works in the physical world you know with putty and clay and stuff like like that and then uses this expensive machine this 3D scanner to scan the thing that they sculpted and turned it into an STL file they do that so that they don't have to ship things all over the world and they can you know scan their creation and then they can you know allow people to buy it all over the planet without any shipping involved at all it's all you know internet but most of them are actually designed and and created in a computer either way the STL file is the thing that you need if you're going to 3D print the item the miniature the piece of terrain whatever yourself or have like I said a 3D printing friend do it for you depending on size multiple STL files can be printed on a printer at once so where do you get these STL files well usually you get them online many sculptors will sell their STL files that they make directly through their own website or maybe they'll have like a patreon right and then the people who support them you know then get all the new stls that the sculptor makes every month for example whatever there are also online marketplaces that sell STL

3:05 files from thousands of different sculptur some of these files can even be free you know um there's places like thingaverse which is generally mostly free I'm pretty sure and uh Cults 3D which is kind of a mix of you know free and paid content but those places you know aren't just all about minis then there's my minifactory which is all about Miniatures it's kind right there in the name in my opinion my minifactory is the best Marketplace to find stls for wargaming models upgrade parts for your models terrain you name it all the like biggest 3D sculptors kind of Hawk their Wares over at my minifactory some stuff is free but most files have a cost honestly as they should this allows the sculptors to do this this sculpting uh you know as part of their job or maybe even their entire job and then just keep creating all kinds of files for you to get printed and then paint and enjoy the cost is usually pretty reasonable and then you can of course print yourself as many uh copies of the models uh as you want relatively recently there's a newer company that's kind of attached to/ owned by my minifactory a company called only games they sell printed 3D models from my minifactory Now understand I don't think every model that's available on my minifactory is also available to purchase printed through only games but a lot of them are so if you don't have a

4:37 3D printer and you don't have a friend with a 3D printer but you love this specific model that you found on my minifactory check on only games and they'll probably print it for you and and and send it to you that's what I did recently with these knuckle bones Miniatures a quick note here because I know people will ask there are no official Games Workshop STL files if you see a model on one of of these sites I mentioned that looks exactly like a Warhammer model like a current forsale Warhammer model or even an old one whatever then it's most likely an illegal scan and you shouldn't download and print that file files like that are committing intellectual property theft and say what you will about piracy and massive corporations and all that but as a Creator myself I'm completely against that kind of thing also there's tons of models out there that aren't pirated scans but will still work just fine for your GW games for the most part 3D printing is the way I personally would start in 2024 again I would probably work with someone else to do the printing but the absolutely amazing amount of choice that's available and the fact that the models even when you factor in the STL cost and like the printing resin cost and all that kind of stuff they are wildly cheaper than the models on offer from the biggest companies in the industry like Games Workshop for example all that makes it a great way to start and and as you're like learning painting being able to print the same models repeatedly for learning to paint is a great plan but

6:07 what if you wanted to stay away from 3D printing maybe you just don't want to go down that road and you'd rather stick with you know like the traditional materials for your Miniatures then there are still a ton of companies that make great kits that you can build and paint for whatever kind of games that you'll be getting into I've talked about some of these before but I'll hit them again quickly so that you can use the links Down Below in the description and go to you know check them out these are all pretty much Miniatures that aren't attached to a specific game so you can use them with whatever you'd like one of my favorite Miniatures companies these days is a company called War Games Atlantic who make amazing plastic model kits for nearly every era and genre you might be interested in fantasy stuff like lizard men and halflings and skeletons and more sci-fi stuff like colonial Marines alien bugs prison Troopers and and and more uh and even historical models like ancient Fighters and stuff like that all the way up to like World War I and World War II soldiers they're all hard plastic modular and posable kits that you can build however you'd like plus they're really inexpensive usually you get 24 to 30 models per $35 box then there's other companies out there that also make models that I love uh Anvil industry which I've talked about before P Chow uh they make great modular models out of resin instead of plastic and they mostly focus on sci-fi

7:40 with like a little bit of other stuff thrown into the mix they have a lot of models that it work really well as proxies for the more popular games out there right now then there's also Frost grave and star grave minis from Northstar military figures they're made for you know those two games Frost grave and star grave but you can use them in any kind of game that you like fantasy sci-fi whatever I talked about them recently as well pachow there's tons of other companies out there making Miniatures in traditional materials as well just uh do a Google for things like fantasy Miniatures or sci-fi Miniatures and you'll find so many options I'll be honest most friendly local game stores don't stock these kinds of Miniatures that I just mentioned as shelf space is pretty precious and you got to put the stuff in there that sells a whole bunch however you might be able to order some of these things uh you know through your local shop to help support them if your shop can't order them or perhaps won't order them for some reason then you can get them online so that's Miniatures but what about the games that you play with these Miniatures well I want you to understand that there are again thousands of game systems out there most of them don't have Associated Miniatures you know attached to them but some do if you want to find Great wargaming rule sets online I'd tell you to start at War Games Vault you can find just about every kind of wargaming rule set there sci-fi uh fantasy historical Skirmish

9:11 scale Army scale even wargaming rule sets licensed from video games there's tons but what's the one system I'd tell you to look at to start onepage rules is probably your smartest move they make Grim dark future and Grim dark future firefight which are sci-fi games Army scale and Skirmish scale respectively they also make uh age of fantasy and age of fantasy Skirmish which are again Army scale and Skirmish scale respectively obviously you know fantasy stuff too they even make um uh age fantasy regiments now you know if you like more kind of rank and flank you know type games all of these games only cost five bucks each and once you've bought one all the updates and the new versions and stuff that they make going forward basically from then on are included and you get them for free you can use whatever models you'd like with the onepage rules games and they are kind of designed to work well with Warhammer models if those are the models that you already have or you know if those are what you want to be using that said they also make tons of 3D print files for their games so you can use those as well if you'd like I personally love a lot of their sculps and you can get a bunch of them also through only games you know printing service that I mentioned later if you don't have access to a 3D printer or you know a friend with one onepage rules is getting bigger and bigger and you're finding more and more events for it and people playing it also it's not

10:41 as like bloated and over complicated for specifically beginners to understand yet it still has strategic depth to the game play there's tons of factions to choose from whether you enjoy sci-fi or fantasy and they have arguably the best army building website in the entire industry when you're done building your Force through their their army building website you get a great easyto read sheet that not only has all of your unit stats on it but also has descriptions of all of your units special abilities so you don't have to go back and constantly reference the book lastly if I was getting into wargaming today in 2024 and I decided that I had to get into Warhammer and Games Workshop related stuff what would I do I would probably start small and I'd try to get into war cry currently there's a crypt of blood Starter Set available from Games Workshop for war cry 110 bucks which will technically get you enough to play small games of war cry with two players it's got a little bit of terrain too and a mat and the rules and everything that you pretty much need it's a pretty decent starting place in the Warhammer universe and frankly war cry is probably the best rule set that game Workshop currently makes in my opinion and in other people's opinions as well however if I decided that I had to start with Warhammer 40,000 right games workshop's most popular game well then I'd start

12:11 with combat Patrol for 160 bucks you get a force uh of models and there's a lot of different ones to choose from and then you know you build it and you paint it and then you download the free rules and the free army info and with all the stats and the unit information and all that kind of stuff and you are ready to go you're playing the actual 40K rules not some sort of limited sort of starter version of the rules the combat Patrol unit stats are a bit different than the regular 40K unit stats but otherwise you're playing the same game if you prefer fantasy and war cry you know isn't enough to scratch that itch then age of Sigmar is what you're probably looking for that said there's not a combat Patrol equivalent in age of Sigmar yet the new addition of age of Sigmar fourth edition will be coming out this summer probably right like there's a slim chance they might not release it this summer but they're generally on a three-year cycle and this summer is three years since the launch of Third Edition AG of Sigmar and you know you do the math so but you know if they don't then turn those like $140 Vanguard boxes that they currently have for AG of Sigmar if they don't turn those into basically combat patrols for ages Sigmar then I think they're kind of Dum so my point is wait till this summer one additional note I've just told you about Miniatures both 3D printed and traditional and Warhammer and non- Warhammer game systems that covers everything doesn't it it does not

13:42 actually uh if you're getting into the hobby today then you probably also need paints and tools and all that other stuff as well so that you can turn these models you know glue them together and and actually make them something luckily I already made that video last year about how to get from zero to war gamer for less than a hundred bucks butow and that' be the best place to start to figure out what you need for paints and glues and tools and whatnot for cheap there you are those are ways I'd start today in 2024 if I was starting from scratch or maybe coming back from a long time away from the hobby I gave you many options depending on what you like and ways you like to play personally for me like I said it would be all 3D printed craziness and indie games like space weirdos and forbidden Psalm but it would also be Grim dark future fire fight as well that's of their games that's the sweet spot for me so what did I miss what's your advice for people getting into wargaming in 2024 let me know in the comments down below and share this video with people wondering about getting into the hobby if you liked this video and more content like this then hit the like button down below it's free and I think you also get little fireworks or something like that let me know what you got also it helps this video in the algorithm to be shown to more potential new war Gamers and we all want more war gamers in the hobby also subscribe if you want to see more videos

15:13 like this one every single Friday and thanks for watching hey