We all know that Warhammer can be expensive. It takes a lot of time and money to buy, build and paint your armies. In this week’s post, I want to ask the question : is Warhammer too hard for a beginner. Is it too difficult to get into?
Where do you start with Warhammer?
Since I have recently become a dad I am questioning if Games Workshop’s practices are friendly for a kid. If I wasn’t in the Warhammer hobby already, could my daughter start playing?
So let’s start from the beginning. Imagine this.
You are walking by your local friendly game store and your kid asks you if you can go inside. Eventually the kid expresses interest in Warhammer. So you look at what the store has in stock. You want to understand what a starter product would be. You also want to know if it would be suitable for a kid.
The Warhammer Starter Set problem
I dug through Games Workshop’s web store to see what the starter products are. I actually found it pretty confusing myself.
Apart from the fact that the website is quite difficult to navigate… Why are there three different starter sets for Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Age of Sigmar? Which one should I get?
For instance, Age of Sigmar has an Introductory Starter Set, a Starter Set and then an Ultimate Starter Set.
Now you tell me if this makes any sense from a new customers point of view. Which one is the starter set I should be getting?
The Introductory one should provide a good introduction right? So why would I get the slightly bigger Starter Set? Is that the normal one? What about the Ultimate Starter Set.. is that for experienced hobbies and I should not buy it? So many questions!
I am an experienced Warhammer enthusiast. I know that the smallest set does not give a comprehensive introduction to the game. Whoever buys the introductory starter set will probably be disappointed when they get it up and running. But that is not something that a new player would be aware of!
Spearhead and Combat Patrol
On the other hand the Warhammer Age Of Sigmar Ultimate Starter Set is really the complete product as it contains two Spearhead forces to play with.
In my opinion, this provides the best introductory experience by far and the closest replica to the full-blown Warhammer Age of Sigmar. It provides a complete flavour of what Warhammer is about.
Both Spearhead mode for Age of Sigmar and Combat Patrol mode for Warhammer 40k are great moves from Games Workshop to attract new players. The fact that you only need one box to start is perfect in my opinion. And I hear that Spearhead games are great fun!
However, the Ultimate Starter Set may look too expensive to buy outright if you have never been introduced to Warhammer before. Having to dish out 130 pounds for a box full of plastic toy soldiers is too much for a parent to buy on a whim, let alone a kid that has no income.
I think the Warhammer Age Of Sigmar Ultimate Starter Set is a hard sell for a potential new player. Even if it is still cheaper than buying all of the items separately, I wouldn’t want to spend all that money.
On the other hand, the Introductory Starter Set on the other hand is actually very bad value because it doesn’t provide the full experience like the Ultimate Starter Set does.
Starting Warhammer too hard! What to do?
In my opinion Games Workshop should get rid of the three starter sets boxes proposition.
Instead, they should provide one single box that contains the full experience. And I mean the full experience. It should also contain dice (why on her earth aren’t there dice in the box), rulers, the whole shabang.
Most of all it should be cheap. Ideally the box would be a loss leader. Good value for money so that it’s an easy sell and it should provide the whole Warhammer experience. Basically make the Ultimate Starter Set but cheaper so that it becomes an insta-buy for people to buy on a whim.
But what do you think? Do you like the 3 starter sets that Games Workshop currently offers? Are these Warhammer Starter Set well placed? Or what would you change? Let me know in the comments!