Average cost for a standard 40k army for 10th edition.

[Uprising]

I was discussing this topic with a few buddies over the weekend, and was looking for some feedback for those that still play 40k.  What is the average cost (USD) for a 2000 pt army to play warhammer 40k?  I want to excluded bundle deals (army boxes, combat patrol, starter box, etc), and online discounts (only GW prices).  Please include rulebooks in the prices.  

[Frogian]

For which faction? And why would you exclude combat patrols? 

[NorthernUltramarines]

You're probably looking at around £600-700 in plastic models if you're ignoring 'bundle' sets and combat patrols. Rulebook, codex, tape measure, dice, tools, paints, glue etc. probably clock in around the £200 mark shortly after.

 

I'll use Marines as the base, because they're the most common faction.

 

For £598.50, you get:

 

Lysander 

5 Assault Terminators

 

Gravis Captain

6 Aggressors

 

Ballistus Dread

Redemptor Dread

Gladiator Lancer

 

6 Bladeguard Veterans

6 Eradicators

10 Infiltrators

10 Intercessors

10 Hellblasters

 

Imperial Fist themed it and got a few bigger units in, but you'd hit about the same amount (give or take £50-100) with most marine armies. Some horde armies will be more, some elite armies a little less. It certainly isn't a cheap hobby and I'd never recommend jumping in at that point. Normally you'd recommend a combat patrol/character two units and the tools/paints for around the £175-225 mark. Sigmar is considerably cheaper due to the spearhead boxes being so much better value than 40k ones.

 

[Karhedron]

Imperial Knights probably clock in a smidge under £600. 4 Big Knights and 4 Armigers will get you to about 2000 points depending on the exact configuration and come in at about £580 I think.

 

Having said that, it is pretty much the worst way to buy an army. Using Combat Patrols will save you a decent chunk, getting an edition box set will save you even more. 

[Tawnis]

Short answer, it depends wildly on the army that you want to collect. 

 

Long answer: 

People often go for Custodes because it's cheap, the models are very points heavy and many of the characters come bundled in with the basic units, saving a lot of cost. 
Blade Champion x1
Custodian Guard x5
Jetbike Captain x1
Vertus Praetors x5 (unit of 2 and 3)
Shield Captian x1
Wardens x4
Contemptor Dread x2
Allarus Catpain x1
Allaris Termis x5
Prosecutors x5
This is a pretty reasonable all around Custodes list and would only run you $679.00 USD, though as the combat patrol is fully included in here (not on purpose, they just had so few units) you could easily get it for $616.00 USD from GW.

You can build pretty chunky and cost effective armies from other factions too, though they tend to need to be spammy of a specific type of powerful and cost efficent unit, like Death Gaurd Termis for instance
Mortarion
Lord of Contagion x3
Deathshroud x18
Plague Marines 3x5
This list would be pretty miserable to play into and would feel pretty samy to play as over and over again, but it would only run you $889.00 USD. 

Going for more of a "normal" type army, Necron Capoptek is pretty popular right now, so here's an example of that without going too meta skew on the list: 
Technomancer x2
Wratihs x12
Doomstalkers x2
Plasmancers x2
Immortals x20
Reanimator x1
Geomancer x1
Macrocytes x5
Orikan the Diviner 
Warriors 20x1/10x1
Scarab Swarms 2x3
This list would run you a cool $1423 USD from GW as you run into one of the many issues of buying things directly from GW, Some key characters, like the Plasmancer are not sold individually, but only in a box set with other units, if you want that unit direct from GW, you gotta pay the big bucks, and it is a key powerful addition to the Necron army, especially in Canoptek. (You could also knock this down to $1395 USD as the Heirotek Circle Kill Team has both the Technomacner and 5 Immortals cheaper than getting them individually.) 

Sometimes though, you want to build a theme list, often being restricted to specific units, lets take the popular Kreig for example:
Lord Marshal Dreier
Deathriders x30
Kreig Command Squad x3
Kreig Infantry x120
Kreig Heavy Weapons x3
Combat Engineers x15
Commisr x2
This themed list would run you $1611 USD form GW and there aren't even any consistent discount boxes to rely on anymore that you could lean into if you wanted to. 

Lastly, you can be like me a madman like me and want to run a thematic spammy list that is tweaked to also match up competitively, so no cutting a few units here or there to lower the power level and make the army far less expensive. This is my Kroot Hunting Pack List
Lone Spear x3
War Shaper x2
Flesh Shaper x1
Trail Shaper x1
Farstalkers x36
Carnivores 1x20/4x10
Rampagers x18
Krootox x9
Hounds x10
All told, this list runs in at a heafty $1804 USD, however if you were to account for the new discount Kroot Combat Patrol, which fits 3 of in this list, you could cu that all the way down to $1601, as that kit as some pretty solid savings. 

So, as you can see, depending on the army (the popular Space Marines would fit in somewhere between the Death Guard and Necrons on this list) the cost can vary wildly. Also, I just realized that I forgot to account for the codex cost, so just add $60.00 to each of these totals. 

I hope that helps. 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by Tawnis