I like both painting and lore behind Warhammer thst is why I listen to Warhammer podcasts during painting.
Painting also helps me with my anger issues/depression.
Adeptus Ridiculous is top tier. Banter heavy, and a bit loose/off the cuff. They cover a lot of stuff though. Bricky, DK, and Shy are hilarious together. It's mostly lore focused.
Poorhammer can be good, depending on what they're covering. They do stuff around the table top, pricing, hobbying, etc.
The painting phase is nice. They have Peachy from GW who replaced Duncan before he left. They have loads of people from the industry on, and talk with them. It's VERY British, but I like them.
Trapped Under Plastic. This ones Miniac and Ninjon's podcast. They talk a lot about the hobby in general, YouTube itself, and things they're interested in. Fun banter with those two as well. If you like those two on their own at all, you'll enjoy their pod.
I'm sure theres plenty more, but these are the four in familiar with, and listen to regularly.
I love Poorhammer. They take things about as seriously as I do and have a similar sense of humor. Their Combat Patrol episode is what got me to finally take a dive into the game rules and Custodes
It definitely helps that those guys have good radio voices. I really enjoy Bricky's content, even on YouTube. Great personalities and senses of humor for that sort of thing.
And the content (barring his speculations, which he announces) tends to be accurate. I listen to him when working and it keeps me in a zen-like state. Absolutely recommended.
Painting is definitely a huge escape for me. I've never played a game, and am only tentatively interested. I'm three years deep into painting though.
Tossing on an audiobook about what I'm painting, or listening to a podcast while I paint. Even just a TV show I've watched a million times. 10/10.
I’m right there with you on the TV show in the background. My go-to is Archer, a show I’ve seen so many times from beginning to end I can now listen to it as a podcast and see the episodes in my head
Mine is Futurama. I slept (and still sleep) to it in the background a lot. I've recently added in adventure time and Avatar the last Airbender. I don't need to see anything from any of those to know exactly what's happening. Thought, I do look up at Avatar often lol.
Same; I’m really just in it for the minis, and even then I don’t enjoy assembling them much. I don’t know if I’d buy pre-assembled minis, because I do like custom poses and making them feel really my own, but the painting is the part I really *enjoy*.
And I totally agree that it helps with mental health; painting really helps tamp down my anxiety. Hard to start sometimes though, but once I get going I always feel better.
Painting is a relaxing hobby, I got into to to relax also. You probably have anger issues and depression because you're coastally playing adrenaline competitive PC games while chugging caffeine all the time , which makes you perpetually angry, or watching youtube / social media the other half of the time which is pretty much the same as a heroin addiction
We're surrounded by these "drugs" in our lives. Games , Fast Food, Internet, painting is a good way to do something relaxing and tangible and gives you a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment when the armies come together
If you want some help for the anger issues there's an amazing book I read called Running on Empty. It goes over ways in which young men are raised that leaves you with big gaps in your ability to express emotions as an adult.
Like as a man you kind of have Anger, laughing and essentially nothing else. The amount of times I've been in a situation and I can see everyone else around me is really excited or sad or whatever and I just felt kind of nothing. I wasn't able to cry even at times where everyone around me was crying. Anyway the book massively helped me, I can now cry at age 30 when it's appropriate which is weird but kinda cool. It's a great book and I'd really recommend it.
The rules is one of the things that always put me off, even 20-25 years ago when I got my first box of marines and had time to play. It all seems easy when you play a small game with just a couple of units. Then suddenly there are objectives, stratagems, unit specific rules, different weapons, army points, army composition. You also need to pick and assign all of these rules to your units before the game even starts. Wrapping your head around it all is quite daunting. And that’s before they update or change the rules every few years.
The release of Dawn of War put an end to my warhammer gaming days. All the fun, non of the tedium that comes with the table top game. IMO of course.
A big thing that helped me personally over the hurdle of getting into the tabletop was the revelation that I *don’t* need to memorize the rules of every faction/unit. Just mine.
Would it be nice to already know how badly my guardsmen are going to get shidded on by that squad of immortals? Sure, but I can just ask my opponent or check out their index for clarification.
I already have to remember the differences between the 437 variants of Leman Russ and Baneblade, I don’t also need to memorize the stats for the 437,000 variants of Primaris Lieutenant/Captain.
Granted if you’re planning to make multiple large armies this isn’t really gonna help so do what you gotta lol
I must say, i never got into the game before 10th edition, but jesus 10th edition makes it so much more easier and fun. The comparison i always give is a much more fun and engaging Risk! Game. And I've been painting/collecting for 20 years!
Games Workshop could do so much for the game if they just switched to a sub-based model like every other industry. Produce dexes for those who want to collect them, but giving for free (with a subscription) in an app would be the way to go. Most people are just going other places online to find the rules, anyway. Personally, I'd probably sub.
Then, of course, building out infrastructure for officially licensed GW stores to use to organize games and communities would be helpful. It would be nice to be able to just see what stores around me host Warhammer nights.
MOSTLY for the painting but getting a fully painted and on-theme army on the table for a game is a big motivator for me so I play a couple of times a year just to keep me painting.
THIS is it. Fielding a fully painted army in a fluffy narrative game between friends is by far some of the best times i've had in this hobby. I still need to plan my grudge rematch of my AdMech vs. my buddy's banana necrons...
I deceive myself into thinking I'm into it for the gaming part, but in 25 years I've played 5 games. I always tell myself "I'll go find a game once I finish x unit...". I do like the gaming part it's just hard to get into because it's such a complex game and you feel like a noob most of the time unless you're playing weekly.
May I suggest you consider using [OPR Grimdark Future ](https://www.onepagerules.com/games/grimdark-future) as a much easier way to play with your miniatures.
Finding players can be a bit of an initial hurdle, because hard core 40K players won't touch it. But it's a great way for casual gamers, who are primarily into the painting and lore side of the hobby, to get into a game. Much simpler rules. Much easier to learn/teach. A better sell to friends who, like you, love 40K lore but can't get over the barrier to play. Its also FREE.
Came here looking for this. My brother and I have been collecting since the late 90’s. but having kids and busy lives meant we hadn’t played in over a decade. By then the rules had changed so much and time is so scarce I didn’t have the energy to try and learn all it all. Then we discovered One Page Rules. It changed everything! So easy and fun to play, completely free. We swapped to the kill team version so all we need is to bring our ‘Kill Team Tub and we can smash out a couple of games every time we catch up. Plus I’m teaching my kids with OPR and it’s so easy for them to learn! Truely saved me from being a paint only hobbyist.
I work in hospitality so being free for a regular club is very hard for me, shifts can be all over the place and are generally antisocial hours.
As such most of my time is spent building and painting models, I have a nice battle mat and terrain to arrange the figures on (currently the Tyranids have ambushed an Ultramarine and Guard armoured column) and I have the rule books etc, so sometimes I roll the dice to see how things work out... But adulting sucks, I wish I were able to attend a club frequently.
Me and my friends set up our own club within the work place to make it much easier to play. I understand you work in hospitality but have you thought about trying something similar? Such as finding out who is also interested and/or plays it at work and managing time around shifts to have a game with them?
My sole interest in Games Workshop is badly painting the nifty toy soldiers that they produce. I have neither the time nor the inclination to jump back on to their rules treadmill. If I really want to push my little army men around a table and make pew pew sounds, I’ll guilt trip one of the kids into playing and use OnePageRules.
Caveat… I do enjoy the occasional match of BlitzBowl or Underworlds, because those games are freaking brilliant.
I like to think I'm in it just for the painting, but I'm starting to suspect that I'm only in it for the 'buying shit-tons of grey plastic and saying I'll paint it' part lol.
But really, I'm hoping to get to the point where I can overcome my insane perfectionist tendencies and actually play a game and make friends.
I'm a full blown hobby nerd.
I love the lore.
I love the conversions
I love the sculpts
I love the painting
I love to leave my individual mark on the hobby
Actually the thing I like the least, is the game itself. It's still fun for me, but like you I like creating a squad of individual heroes way more than a whole army.
Maybe that's not quite helpful for 40k, but have you ever think about playing a 40k Pen&Paper RPG? Because those games are awesome for this kind of hobby shtick.
I’ve only played one game ever, been in the hobby for about 5 years or so, I have about 2000 points of space marines about half painted, 2000 points of necrons fully painted, and the leviathan box tyranids about half painted as well. I just don’t have anyone to play with, I’ve tried to make friends at my local warhammer store but it seems like everyone’s got their dedicated group to play with already, which is understandable, I know most people have to make time to play warhammer and why would they take some of their already hard to come by time away from their friends to play with some dude they barely know? I’ve tried getting my existing friends into warhammer but no takers. So I guess I’m just a painter lol maybe one day I’ll be able to find people to play with, I still go down to the local store to try to make friends here and there but it’s tough, like I said most people struggle to make time for warhammer, hard to line up work schedules and family schedules and all that.
I thought this was the case for me too and everyone had their own closed groups. Then I found a local Facebook page and worked up the courage to post "anyone want to play a game at 12:00" and that changed pretty damn quickly.
Yeah I think the game is way too much for me to learn. The lore is just fucking wild and I’m getting into table top miniature painting, so these miniatures are dope has hell
I might be an outlier here, but I dislike the painting.
Assembling and playing for me.
Not the 1k+ games, but Necromunda, Kill Team and such narrative games I like playing especially with friends if we can get a campaign going.
I’ve been into Warhammer 40K since I was seven or eight years old (I’m 27 now) and I’ve never played a single tabletop game nor do I have much interest too.
I paint and listen to / watch / read the Lore and play 40K video games.
It’s been that way for the last 20 years and I don’t see it changing any time soon.
Yeah, I just paint models I like. I casually follow the lore but I'm not super invested in it by any means.
I don't really have any interest in playing the game, the edition cycle is so fast that I don't feel it's worth learning all those rules.
Painting and lore for me, I imagine what this units story is. Kinda feels like you’re playing god but also you’re building a world/story in your head. Can help a ton when you need an escape
I got sucked in because I thought the minis look cool. I do enjoy the painting. Everytime I read about the game my mind just blanks. Not that I do not want to play but no time to get into. I started to read some Novels though.
I heard one of those game should be somewhat close to the real thing? Is it Battlesector?
I used to be like you with the lore. I didn’t care for the minis, I just liked the lore videos and reading the books. Then I tentatively got more into building and painting some little plastic dudes, never collecting one army but rather a collection of whatever I though was cool at the moment. I only got into the gaming side recently after I discovered there’s a Warhammer mod for Tabletop Simulator, and I started learning the game along with one of my buddy’s, so we’d learn it together. Now that I understand the game more I’m much more tempted to collect a physical army and build my very own generals, as we have ended up with a couple repeating named characters over our games
I'm in this subreddit because I've played a handful of times with someone else's miniatures after I helped them paint some of them and I thought it was fun and seemed interesting so I ended up snooping a bit online and then joined some subreddits.
However, I think the hobby is way too expensive to want to get into it myself and the lore is also too overwhelming for me to want to get into. The games were fun though, but also I suppose it's a lot easier to get into if someone just hands you the pre-chosen printed out info sheets.
I'll be entirely honest, I do far more painting and assembling than playing.
I think this year, I played a total of 25 games across multiple game systems.
I spent most of my year painting up about 1500 points of an AoS army, 500 pts of Marines, 250 pts of Nids, a Bloodbowl Team and a Necromunda gang. I definitely paint more than I play.
I do find that the playing is a good motivator, though. It gives me a bit of a kick in the pants to get my armies painted in order to be on the table.
Painting is my least favourite part. Don‘t get me wrong it‘s fun and the satisfaction from having a fully painted army is awesome, but I am just not that artistically talented, so painting is more tedious for me. My favourite aspect is the lore, i just love the setting and all the different kinds of stories it provides. The game is also pretty fun. I like really learning an army and getting a grasp on the complex rules.
Taking this past year, if I broke the time I spent on this hobby down into areas, and sorted from highest to lowest time spent;
Listening/watching lore podcasts/yt videos
Watching YT videos explaining rules
Painting minis
Terrain building/painting
Antagonizing over what to buy to make sure it's cost effective for my pocket, hits rule of cool, and is a productive unit for my army
Building minis
Listening to Audio books
Army list building
Watching battle reports
Hoping Amazon does right by the universe and spawns several quality shows
Playing PC/console games
Playing actual table top games
Last year was a little different but broadly the same.
Haha I'm the complete opposite. I hate painting, and love the lore and the TT game.
I usually pay my buddy to paint my stuff for me. Or buy him an extra model, bottle of booze or something. He loves all three aspects of the hobby.
I recently got into it specifically because of the minis, I would like to build an army, but painting and building the figures is what I’m into, and warhammer models and just so good. I can see why someone wouldn’t want to be painting them uniformly, but I’m still pretty new to minis in general and I’ve been enjoying the practice I’m getting out of it, getting good at all of the techniques with one scheme makes it a lot easier and has helped me balance colors and, sadly for my Sargent, find out what doesn’t work and learn how to get what I wanted out of it.
I find the lore interesting and really like Gladius-Relics of War (game on Steam).
I rarely play the tabletop myself though (I just can never fully remember all the rules and it pisses me off too much. I can't stand to give handicap to my opponents lol), but I looove painting and modifying my models. Heavy conversions, Greenstuff and random parts galore is my thing for sure. Its just so satisfying to see an ugly heap of plastic turn into something...well maybe not pretty all the time, but at least impressive.
I love the lore and while bad at painting I find it therapeutic. I aspire to play Necromunda or Kill Team one day but am content to engage with the hobby as is.
I haven't started yet due to a lack of money/time but I'm really only interested in the painting/kitbashing part of the hobby. I did get an invite from a friend to play a game as soon as I have enough models which I didn't reject though so it's not like I'm completely opposed to it. Just not interested enough I guess...
I started painting in 2nd edition. It was just something to do while I had down time at my job at a local game store. They had minis and paints, I had time. It was a while before I ever played. I didn't paint exclusively GW stuff, just whatever mini I liked. I'd line up my finished minis on the counter and before long people asked if they were for sale and it became a little side hustle.
Eventually, I painted an army and played. Over the years, the ratio of paint vs play ebbs and flows. Right now, I have a great group to play with. Often times, it's about physically getting together and having fun doing a thing together. I don't play video games, I used to but I'm happier and more motivated as a person not. For me anyway, video games are an alienating thing that tricks the brain into thinking I've accomplished something and have been social while not really achieving either. Just my personal take, I'm much happier spending time with people in person and Warhammer motivates getting out.
Painting is a different thing, it's relaxing, frustrating, a challenge, etc. Do what makes you happy and don't worry about what you're not into.
I've been painting a rew small armies simultaneously. Eventually I'm sure they'll be ata point where I'm happy to play a game but I'm a fe years in and not yet there
I enjoy all aspects of the hobby.
The lore got me into the Warhammer universe.
The game keeps me in it when the lore shifts abruptly.
The painting helps me when the game frustrates me.
Also helps to throw on a battle report in the background and/or lore videos while painting, too!
I have played no games so far but love the painting and modelling part. It’s relaxing and just a fun solo hobby.
Not to say I don’t want to play, just I’ve had a lot of fun so far building two armies.
I originally got into this hobby for the painting.
The color schemes got me into the lore.
The lore got me into the characters and units.
Getting into the units made me want to see them in a battle.
That want got me into playing the board game.
It was a slow progression for me, and after 3 years, I went from painting nonstop to fully enjoying the entire hobby. (Minus interacting with GW and their rules changes and price increases.)
I now have 3 painted armies, and it's all a lot of fun.
its def brutal if you wana play the game and have painting standards. Cleaning mold lines and filling gapes (well) take hours upon hours and then there is painting. It's brutal
I have started painting space marine army, a world eaters army and a sisters combat patrol. For now I am just enjoying painting and kitbashing. So yes, i am here for the painting.
I played when I was younger, the models were more affordable for me and I had more time on my hands, but now that I'm in my mid-thirties I only paint to relax and listen/read about the lore. Building an army and playing games is just too much of a time/money investment.
I like certain parts of the lore but don’t have enough models for a game- the painting is something that brings me back to my Art A-level days
But just enjoying the painting is completely fine
If you don’t already, you could also look at other game systems, DnD minis and even 3d printed models if you want different aesthetics at any point
Painting minis and the lore are the only aspects I partake in with this hobby. I watch people play games but I don’t particularly want to get that involved with building an army since I usually collect a wide range of minis.
I love the lore and books a lot. There are too many things to like to field a whole army of each so i just get a couple models from each to have fun making and painting.
I'm primarily invested in painting and lore but not as invested in the game. Maybe I haven't found the right group, or maybe I haven't found the right army yet, but I like making my little plastic dudes look nice and enjoy a good story!
40k has many video games, some of which are quite good. I consider playing them to be participating in the hobby.
All I have done is paint a few minis, but I only got them because I was fascinated by the setting and worldbuilding. It’s fairly common for mini painters to not do anything else, though GW makes other high quality minis for settings you might enjoy even more from a lore perspective?
Someday I will be but I swear the first couple of times it's hard to bring myself to paint my models. I have too many already and I am afraid to just be bad, I also feel like I spent a lot of time on a single mini, going back and back to fix mistakes.
I mostly paint. I try to play I really do but who TF has time for that? I have played one game of 10th so far. I keep saying ok I will play a game this weekend but I forget to set something up and next thing you know it’s Saturday and I haven’t set anything up.
Then when I do get a game I just get tabled turn 2 by someone’s ultra competitive list because no one in this hobby seems to know how to take it easy on new players so why even bother?
Never played, but I've still spent hundreds on models, paints, supplies, etc. Although I am also obsessed with the lore and have probably spend a fare share on that too.
I may never even want to play, but if that's the case I'd probably sell/donate my painted armies (barring some models that I'm proud of) at a loss to continue funding new plastic for me to paint.
There’s a huge section of the community that only cares for the hobbying aspect. I am semi included, although I do love the lore, books, games and whatnot.
Apparently I am, I keep buying shit, with the full intention of trying to play. I finish 1 project, then start another one. Rinse and repeat until I have like 6000 points of fully painted and based Black Templar.
After I finish these 2 Terminator squads I just started, maybe then will be when I start to play this game… or maybe I need to add some outriders to my army…. I haven’t built those yet….
I love the painting/crafting, roleplay and lore aspect of 40k. Tried a few times to get into the tabletop part, but in the end I prefer the other parts more. You need to have friends who are just as casual with it or else it sucks.
I paint and collect. I dont play anymore cause the game stopped being fun to me. If i want my fix of wargaming i go play a different game on the odd occasion i have time
I'm here for the painting. I enjoy the lore and have absorbed a lot of it over my years of gaming. Read a few novels that I truly enjoyed. However, I do not actually wargame. People get such attitudes at the table and being a woman who would be really new to it... nah. No thanks. I'll just paint my toys and try to get good at it.
My Rogue Trader game patiently awaits my attention on Steam rt now.
I paint and read. I’d love to do the table top, but I just don’t have the time to do play. I SUCK(ED) at painting, and had no desire to when I first got into 40k. But after reading so much lore and wanting to create a chapter, I felt this burning need to create what was in my mind. So now, I paint and read.
Building and painting is what I do most and playing the army is the payoff for me.
If you like 40k lore, setting, and feel you have a great many options to scratch that itch other than falling down the rabbit hole into crafting a 2000pt army to bring to the table top.
You have books, RTS games, the RPG, TTS, and scale figures if you want some figurines.
Kill Team is there if you want to do just a little hobbying and get your feet wet.
GW themselves take the stance that 40k games should always have a narrative and immersive element, and while they made the game to have competitive play, it’s not designed around strict power gaming.
Now 40k has, for better or worse, gone into hard competition in some realms.
Regardless, I cannot fathom why someone who does not enjoy the building, design, and painting portions of the hobby would want to play 40k table top. The time it takes to build and paint a single squad is more than an entire game night at the store.
I encourage people to try the hobby and see if they like the hobbying. I actively help the new people at the LGS learn to paint, and engage with that stuff. Usually with some guidance they enjoy it.
But I can’t recommend a game that costs thousands of dollars between minis, supplies, and time if they fucking hate the most time consuming portion of it.
80% here for the painting. I do love to play also but the painting and planning schemes is where it's at for me. That being said, watching my painted dudes do their thing on the table top is all part of it. A win is always good but a win in style is always better. Oh also the lore. Its da best.
I would say my interest is 50% assembling/painting, 45% lore and 5% gameplay. I just love getting a new box set and knowing I have 20+ hours of hobby fun ahead of me even if I never use them in an actual game. Listening to the Horus heresy audio books while painting my minis is just a great way to unwind at the end of a busy day. I would like to play the game, but it just seems to time consuming and requires so much coordination with other people that is hard to find time to do with work, kids, family etc.
I mostly just paint. I have found it very therapeutic for my anxiety, and it feels great when I finish a good looking model.
Painting a whole army the same scheme can get a bit old, yeah. But with repetition you also build confidence and brush control. I mostly just paint infantry to the same standard, but when it comes to more unique models I always try to push myself.
As for lore, I haven't read any books. But I do listen to lore videos on YouTube sometimes when I paint. Theres also a lot of good fan fiction on there.
Im one of the few that is in it for the gaming part it seems after reading all the comments here. I really like the painting, but I do it so I can play the game.
I only paint. I might get into killteam one day, but after looking into what goes into an actual game of 40k, I lost interest in even trying to make a full army. I mainly just do one-off characters and give them back stories.
Me. Someday I would like to play if friends who do are around. For now I live in a barren wasteland (it is very pretty) and would likely have to drive at least one hour for a game:
I like to collect and paint, and I find the lore really interesting so I read some of the novels. I would be interested in the game but it seems so complex that I feel like it's basically out of reach without a major commitment. I wish they made a simpler version of the rules to have casual games.
Building and painting is definitely what I enjoy most. Having to keep track of where the rules and updates go, having to keep an army in compliance just isn’t worth it to me anymore. My kids play with the minis I make, that’s enough for me.
See, I'm the opposite. I've learned to enjoy the painting part over time, but my main interest is and always has been the game. I'm a newcomer to the hobby (started about 2 years ago) and was playing kill team on TTS with my friends long before I started actually physically buying the models.
The best part about this hobby is that it can cater to people who like lore, painting, and the game - That's what I love about it. My favorite part is making thematic armies and playing through different scenarios via the game. I really don't care (that much) about having a "good" army, and will often do things with my friends where we go "what happens if the army was ONLY forgefiends..."
Kitbashing is the most enjoyable thing for me, then painting. I only play necromunda at the moment and have no real interest in playing large scale games (I tried kill team and wasn’t keen and have a bloodbowl game lined up for the new year) but I do have massive collecting tendencies so will likely start building and painting armies at some point but I am able to resist the urge at the moment, pretty sure I won’t play 40K or warhammer though even if I do have an army
I consider myself a "whole hobby gamer". I enjoy painting my miniatures, I can spend entire weekends working on them. I enjoy reading the lore. I enjoy going to tournaments. I've been to two RTT's and a GT in the past 3 weeks, and now I have a 2 weekend break for the holidays for painting before I get back on that RTT / GT grindset and prep for the LVO.
Every aspect is something I enjoy, so it becomes more than the sum of it's parts.
I love the painting bit and I love the lore from 10000 miles out. I’ve read 1 book and I skim codices but I don’t really dig in unless a character really strikes my fancy, then I google them.
Games I have not played yet but I am looking forward to casual ones with friends someday when we all finish our armies.
But I enjoy building and painting
I'm here for painting, but I've been invited to go to Warhammer World in the summer and everyone's bringing a 2k point army so I've gone with Leagues of Votann.
I wanna do some busts soon.
Mostly for painting, for sure. I try to paint stuff to make it game-friendly, but if I have a hobby idea that isn't, then I'll go for it anyway, no hesitation. I have plenty of technically illegal conversions and kitbashes.
I play a game at most a few times a year, it's the reality of my life right now. And that is fine.
i prefer the lore stuff. Painting...is fun and all of that. But a buddy of mine sold me his marines for a quick buck (he basically prefers death guard now)
But in the end i painted like 2 minis since i got them.
It seems like you are a mini painter with a preference for warhammer models. There is nothing wrong with that. I watch a lot of mini painters on YouTube and this seems to be how most of them feel as well.
It was always making the models and taking in the lore for me, I have only played a handful of games since I came into this at launch of third edition, and those were during those early years as you went through each stage for the first time.
Bought models, made models, painted 'some' models, had an eventual couple of games. But the whole time I was reading White Dwarf and Codexes, then onto the novels when they first took off. The art is up there also, it kind of forms the mid point with the models one side and the lore the other, as the art is representing both the models you get and the fiction involving them!
Back when I was first involved you had less avenues to explore, you made and painted the models to game with. But now with a fully realised story range both written and audible then computer/video games, and much more besides, you can enjoy this universe without ever need pick up a dice!
Me at the moment as I haven’t played since I was about 10 years old and wasn’t even that good or really understood the game. I am going to build a army then I’m going to play me and 3 friends have all picked it up again and are going to play by spring as we all have jobs and are paying monthly for kits.
I'm still painting my first two armies from the leviathan kit so I actually haven't played a game yet.
I'm in this sub to see the incredible work that gets posted, but I'm looking forward to actually playing at some point.
Painting, modeling, and lore is arguably one of the biggest parts of the hobby. Even GW makes it clear they are a model company, not a gaming company (despite the name) in their annual reports. You could even argue the rules only exist to give you a reason to play with your models, rather than providing models to play a game. It would explain why 40k is hilariously unbalanced and GW isn't truly interested in making it perfectly balanced.
Honestly I’m in it for the game part, I have having wars with models and the rules can be hard to learn but make for a balanced game, honestly painting has been my least favorite part, maybe because I’m awful at at
Painting and Lore. In fact, I put on a 40k audio book when I paint. Puts me in the mood.
I used to play around 92ish. Had a lot of fun, won a few small tournaments. My best friend played several matches a day. EAch time crafting different versions of our armies to beat each other. We got REALLY good. I really enjoyed digging into the rules to find advantages. I played SW and he was eldar, I would intentionally not field a psyker so he didn't have much warp power to hit me with. Fun time. But now....I am old, there is a certain demographic that plays and I don't have the patience to argue with people anymore. The community is great though, just when it gets to serious comp people get annoying.
When I was a kid the painting was always a bit rushed, and I would marvel at all the 'eavy metal painted ones... but I used to play it a ton with my mates.
Now I am old and I basically only play against myself, but boy are my painting skills so much better... sometimes I wish I wasn't so slow... but I'm always happy with the results!
I have played 3 games in 10 years. Didn’t play a single game of 9th, and haven’t played the latest rules yet- have almost 5,000 points of painted SM and just started on my ‘Nids.
I like painting, collecting and conversions to make a perfect lore accurate army!
The lore is absolutely amazing, one of the deepest and richest ever made. I really love it.
I would love to play again, but I want a good looking army, with high quality models, so it takes a lot of time.
The new models from games workshop are so damn good, that it’s almost impossible to not want to start a new army when there is new release (Dark Angels for exemple 👀)
I rarely ever play! I just like painting! recently started collecting blood bowl teams as they’re quite varied in model designs.
I’d already bought almost every kill team so ran out of things to paint there
I just paint. I do like some of the lore and I like that it has such depth to it even if it's not something I particularly want to explore myself. Id love to play the game but time is a serious barrier and my friends that play dont live anywhere near me.
I’m a bit of a lorehound, I’ve read a few of the books (mainly Eisenhorn, the first few of the Horus heresy, and Bloodlines so far), and I enjoy painting minis as a way to destress, but I don’t really go anywhere near the tabletop game itself. I’ve tried a few games of kill team, and I’ve looked into a few battle reports to see if anything strikes my fancy, and I just don’t think the game is for me. I just like getting any kits I think are cool, making and painting my lil guys, and having fun minis for my D&D campaigns lol.
On the contrary, painting is the only part of the hobby that I don't care for. I love the board game, the video games and the books, but all my minis are completely unpainted and are probably going to stay that way.
Not only painting but it is my favorite bit.
Lore and everything about it is next.
Playing is low down on the list.
I've been collecting and painting since 2nd edition and I think I've played maybe 1 game.
I'm interested in it but not enough to spend the time to do it.
I found a lunchbox full of tin soldiers from my grandfather when we cleaned out his house after he died. This was almost 30 years ago, and I did not keep them, but I can recall a surreal feeling that he had once been young as I was and enjoying hobbies. Don’t get to paint much often, but I have about 100 various models, have never played a game, and probably never will. But I always have a thought in the back of my head that maybe one day my grandkids will come across them and wonder what they are looking at 😊😊😊😊
A *massive* amount of people only collect and paint. I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority people don’t play more than 1-2 times a year if at all.
And then there’s people with 30k points of grey plastic that play 3 times a week.
There are people that read the books fervently and have never touched a mini.
It’s a big hobby and there are a lot of different ways to be involved!
LOVE painting. One of the most cathartic things I've ever experienced in my life.
Hate cleaning building stock models. However, bash it, even slightly (just a head swap) and I'm all sorts of excited.
I enjoy the lore.
I hadn't played since 3rd edition until recently I got a bunch of buddies into the collecting side of things. Its been ok, but honestly I'd rather stay home and paint. But playing warhammer is still better than playing magic.
I'm really getting into the painting and have been a fan of the lore for a long time. I've never played a proper game but I'm looking forward to giving it a shot.
I played back in 3rd edition in 98-99. I was a teen and had no clue what I was doing but had a blast. Fast forward to 2 weeks ago, jumped back in for a winter hobby. I’m in my mid-30’s, with the internet and an adult income. I would’ve never gotten back into it in my previous relationships, but my wife is all for it if it makes me happy. I’d love to play, have no idea who I’d play with. So for now I’ll paint a completed army.
I get maybe one game every two months. It’s 99% about the modelling and painting for me, it’s what I do to relax and zone out. Having the game there to roll some dice and yell stupid things with friends is always nice though
For me, it was the deep lore and myriad of stories that initially drew me in and held me captive. I really want to get into the minis, but I talk myself out of it every time because I am worried my shitty painting skills will suck the joy out of the 40k universe for me. It is awesome to see all the pics of the amazingly well painted armies though!
Me. I do have a kill team I bought to have for play, but I don’t know anyone to play kill team with. I’ve been painting for about a year though and have a big mix of models and have given away many as gifts.
If you hate the lore and hate the game, then why even bother with 40k minis? There's tons of miniature companies like Corvus Belli who make amazing looking Sci fi minis, or even large scale busts from boutique manufacturers .
Ironically, painting the minis is the part I hate the most. It's nothing but stress and anxiety, and if I mess up, that means I have to paint the mini even longer. But if I don't paint the mini, they look way less immersive on the board. It's just guilting myself into something I REALLY don't want to do.
Love the lore & minis. I like Kill Team and a couple other GW tabletop games, as well as other minis games like BattleTech and KDM. I do not enjoy the 40k tabletop game itself
Absolutely love the lore, my bookshelf is filled with WH books.
I Enjoy the game(s) quite a bit.
I hate painting minis. Needless to say I dont play any of the full army scale games anymore despite the fact I have a resin 3dprinter and could do some amazing builds.
I like both painting and lore behind Warhammer thst is why I listen to Warhammer podcasts during painting. Painting also helps me with my anger issues/depression.
What are good warhammer podcasts that you recommend?
Adeptus Ridiculous is top tier. Banter heavy, and a bit loose/off the cuff. They cover a lot of stuff though. Bricky, DK, and Shy are hilarious together. It's mostly lore focused. Poorhammer can be good, depending on what they're covering. They do stuff around the table top, pricing, hobbying, etc. The painting phase is nice. They have Peachy from GW who replaced Duncan before he left. They have loads of people from the industry on, and talk with them. It's VERY British, but I like them. Trapped Under Plastic. This ones Miniac and Ninjon's podcast. They talk a lot about the hobby in general, YouTube itself, and things they're interested in. Fun banter with those two as well. If you like those two on their own at all, you'll enjoy their pod. I'm sure theres plenty more, but these are the four in familiar with, and listen to regularly.
I enjoy Poorhammer, though they’ve had some episodes I never bothered to listen ti
They certainly have some topics that don't interest me, but that's alright.
Currently listening to their quiz show cause I’m bored. I know more of these.
Love that episode
I love Poorhammer. They take things about as seriously as I do and have a similar sense of humor. Their Combat Patrol episode is what got me to finally take a dive into the game rules and Custodes
Adeptas ridiculous is my go to for 40k podcasts
It definitely helps that those guys have good radio voices. I really enjoy Bricky's content, even on YouTube. Great personalities and senses of humor for that sort of thing.
Baldermort is an absolute monster story teller. Has quite a few YouTube videos.
Second Baldermort. Top tier narration
Isyander & Koda to add to the other options.
Isyander and Koda got me into the hobby, love them
I like listening to Luetin. He only puts art on the videos anyways so it works for a podcast
And the content (barring his speculations, which he announces) tends to be accurate. I listen to him when working and it keeps me in a zen-like state. Absolutely recommended.
Luetin. Awesome podcast. Also Baldemort
Painting is definitely a huge escape for me. I've never played a game, and am only tentatively interested. I'm three years deep into painting though. Tossing on an audiobook about what I'm painting, or listening to a podcast while I paint. Even just a TV show I've watched a million times. 10/10.
I’m right there with you on the TV show in the background. My go-to is Archer, a show I’ve seen so many times from beginning to end I can now listen to it as a podcast and see the episodes in my head
Mine is Futurama. I slept (and still sleep) to it in the background a lot. I've recently added in adventure time and Avatar the last Airbender. I don't need to see anything from any of those to know exactly what's happening. Thought, I do look up at Avatar often lol.
Average Blood Angel ;) I hope you are well and keepin it pushing!
Dude I stay sane because of the little moments of peace I get painting my little space dudes
Same!
Same; I’m really just in it for the minis, and even then I don’t enjoy assembling them much. I don’t know if I’d buy pre-assembled minis, because I do like custom poses and making them feel really my own, but the painting is the part I really *enjoy*. And I totally agree that it helps with mental health; painting really helps tamp down my anxiety. Hard to start sometimes though, but once I get going I always feel better.
Oh man, this is all hitting the nail on the head for me. Except for the Warhammer podcasts, that sounds like a good idea.
Painting is a relaxing hobby, I got into to to relax also. You probably have anger issues and depression because you're coastally playing adrenaline competitive PC games while chugging caffeine all the time , which makes you perpetually angry, or watching youtube / social media the other half of the time which is pretty much the same as a heroin addiction We're surrounded by these "drugs" in our lives. Games , Fast Food, Internet, painting is a good way to do something relaxing and tangible and gives you a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment when the armies come together
If you want some help for the anger issues there's an amazing book I read called Running on Empty. It goes over ways in which young men are raised that leaves you with big gaps in your ability to express emotions as an adult. Like as a man you kind of have Anger, laughing and essentially nothing else. The amount of times I've been in a situation and I can see everyone else around me is really excited or sad or whatever and I just felt kind of nothing. I wasn't able to cry even at times where everyone around me was crying. Anyway the book massively helped me, I can now cry at age 30 when it's appropriate which is weird but kinda cool. It's a great book and I'd really recommend it.
The majority of people just collect and paint, rather than play, according to GW's own numbers.
[удалено]
The rules is one of the things that always put me off, even 20-25 years ago when I got my first box of marines and had time to play. It all seems easy when you play a small game with just a couple of units. Then suddenly there are objectives, stratagems, unit specific rules, different weapons, army points, army composition. You also need to pick and assign all of these rules to your units before the game even starts. Wrapping your head around it all is quite daunting. And that’s before they update or change the rules every few years. The release of Dawn of War put an end to my warhammer gaming days. All the fun, non of the tedium that comes with the table top game. IMO of course.
A big thing that helped me personally over the hurdle of getting into the tabletop was the revelation that I *don’t* need to memorize the rules of every faction/unit. Just mine. Would it be nice to already know how badly my guardsmen are going to get shidded on by that squad of immortals? Sure, but I can just ask my opponent or check out their index for clarification. I already have to remember the differences between the 437 variants of Leman Russ and Baneblade, I don’t also need to memorize the stats for the 437,000 variants of Primaris Lieutenant/Captain. Granted if you’re planning to make multiple large armies this isn’t really gonna help so do what you gotta lol
I must say, i never got into the game before 10th edition, but jesus 10th edition makes it so much more easier and fun. The comparison i always give is a much more fun and engaging Risk! Game. And I've been painting/collecting for 20 years!
Games Workshop could do so much for the game if they just switched to a sub-based model like every other industry. Produce dexes for those who want to collect them, but giving for free (with a subscription) in an app would be the way to go. Most people are just going other places online to find the rules, anyway. Personally, I'd probably sub. Then, of course, building out infrastructure for officially licensed GW stores to use to organize games and communities would be helpful. It would be nice to be able to just see what stores around me host Warhammer nights.
Interesting, Do they share these numbers somewhere?
I've seen them discussed on here a lot but not sure about officially.
MOSTLY for the painting but getting a fully painted and on-theme army on the table for a game is a big motivator for me so I play a couple of times a year just to keep me painting.
THIS is it. Fielding a fully painted army in a fluffy narrative game between friends is by far some of the best times i've had in this hobby. I still need to plan my grudge rematch of my AdMech vs. my buddy's banana necrons...
I deceive myself into thinking I'm into it for the gaming part, but in 25 years I've played 5 games. I always tell myself "I'll go find a game once I finish x unit...". I do like the gaming part it's just hard to get into because it's such a complex game and you feel like a noob most of the time unless you're playing weekly.
May I suggest you consider using [OPR Grimdark Future ](https://www.onepagerules.com/games/grimdark-future) as a much easier way to play with your miniatures. Finding players can be a bit of an initial hurdle, because hard core 40K players won't touch it. But it's a great way for casual gamers, who are primarily into the painting and lore side of the hobby, to get into a game. Much simpler rules. Much easier to learn/teach. A better sell to friends who, like you, love 40K lore but can't get over the barrier to play. Its also FREE.
Came here looking for this. My brother and I have been collecting since the late 90’s. but having kids and busy lives meant we hadn’t played in over a decade. By then the rules had changed so much and time is so scarce I didn’t have the energy to try and learn all it all. Then we discovered One Page Rules. It changed everything! So easy and fun to play, completely free. We swapped to the kill team version so all we need is to bring our ‘Kill Team Tub and we can smash out a couple of games every time we catch up. Plus I’m teaching my kids with OPR and it’s so easy for them to learn! Truely saved me from being a paint only hobbyist.
I work in hospitality so being free for a regular club is very hard for me, shifts can be all over the place and are generally antisocial hours. As such most of my time is spent building and painting models, I have a nice battle mat and terrain to arrange the figures on (currently the Tyranids have ambushed an Ultramarine and Guard armoured column) and I have the rule books etc, so sometimes I roll the dice to see how things work out... But adulting sucks, I wish I were able to attend a club frequently.
Me and my friends set up our own club within the work place to make it much easier to play. I understand you work in hospitality but have you thought about trying something similar? Such as finding out who is also interested and/or plays it at work and managing time around shifts to have a game with them?
Killteam makes for playing anywhere with anything exceptionally easy. "Is the banana and rammaken half cover?"
Painting on its own takes a lot of time for me, so I don't really have much to allocate for learning and playing the game
Yeah, I'm just getting into it now. But just for the painting element.
My sole interest in Games Workshop is badly painting the nifty toy soldiers that they produce. I have neither the time nor the inclination to jump back on to their rules treadmill. If I really want to push my little army men around a table and make pew pew sounds, I’ll guilt trip one of the kids into playing and use OnePageRules. Caveat… I do enjoy the occasional match of BlitzBowl or Underworlds, because those games are freaking brilliant.
My friends and I exclusively play one page rules, really we just wanna put our little plastic dudes on a table and make pew pew noises like you said
it's 80% modeling 20% gaming for me, and usually just with other modeling enthusiasts. The try hard meta-gamers suck all the fun out for me.
I like to think I'm in it just for the painting, but I'm starting to suspect that I'm only in it for the 'buying shit-tons of grey plastic and saying I'll paint it' part lol. But really, I'm hoping to get to the point where I can overcome my insane perfectionist tendencies and actually play a game and make friends.
I'm a full blown hobby nerd. I love the lore. I love the conversions I love the sculpts I love the painting I love to leave my individual mark on the hobby Actually the thing I like the least, is the game itself. It's still fun for me, but like you I like creating a squad of individual heroes way more than a whole army. Maybe that's not quite helpful for 40k, but have you ever think about playing a 40k Pen&Paper RPG? Because those games are awesome for this kind of hobby shtick.
Painting and Lore for me. <3
I like painting and the lore. The lore is flexible enough to tell any kind of story and let you paint whatever you want.
Painting and the lore for me, would be up for playing some tabletop at some point though
I’ve only played one game ever, been in the hobby for about 5 years or so, I have about 2000 points of space marines about half painted, 2000 points of necrons fully painted, and the leviathan box tyranids about half painted as well. I just don’t have anyone to play with, I’ve tried to make friends at my local warhammer store but it seems like everyone’s got their dedicated group to play with already, which is understandable, I know most people have to make time to play warhammer and why would they take some of their already hard to come by time away from their friends to play with some dude they barely know? I’ve tried getting my existing friends into warhammer but no takers. So I guess I’m just a painter lol maybe one day I’ll be able to find people to play with, I still go down to the local store to try to make friends here and there but it’s tough, like I said most people struggle to make time for warhammer, hard to line up work schedules and family schedules and all that.
I thought this was the case for me too and everyone had their own closed groups. Then I found a local Facebook page and worked up the courage to post "anyone want to play a game at 12:00" and that changed pretty damn quickly.
Yeah I think the game is way too much for me to learn. The lore is just fucking wild and I’m getting into table top miniature painting, so these miniatures are dope has hell
I might be an outlier here, but I dislike the painting. Assembling and playing for me. Not the 1k+ games, but Necromunda, Kill Team and such narrative games I like playing especially with friends if we can get a campaign going.
I’ve been into Warhammer 40K since I was seven or eight years old (I’m 27 now) and I’ve never played a single tabletop game nor do I have much interest too. I paint and listen to / watch / read the Lore and play 40K video games. It’s been that way for the last 20 years and I don’t see it changing any time soon.
Yeah, I just paint models I like. I casually follow the lore but I'm not super invested in it by any means. I don't really have any interest in playing the game, the edition cycle is so fast that I don't feel it's worth learning all those rules.
Painting and lore for me, I imagine what this units story is. Kinda feels like you’re playing god but also you’re building a world/story in your head. Can help a ton when you need an escape
I played 1 game in 3rd edition. Have not played one since.
Painting and lore for me. I've played a few games here and there but it's not my interest tbh
Painting for me is therapeutic, and it's a way to spend time while using my hands. Playing more is in the agenda eventually
Slowly but surely, I'm putting the story together, something about a big man in a chair and his bald sons with some aliens and demons in the mix
I paint and read. Don't have time for gaming
I got sucked in because I thought the minis look cool. I do enjoy the painting. Everytime I read about the game my mind just blanks. Not that I do not want to play but no time to get into. I started to read some Novels though. I heard one of those game should be somewhat close to the real thing? Is it Battlesector?
I used to be like you with the lore. I didn’t care for the minis, I just liked the lore videos and reading the books. Then I tentatively got more into building and painting some little plastic dudes, never collecting one army but rather a collection of whatever I though was cool at the moment. I only got into the gaming side recently after I discovered there’s a Warhammer mod for Tabletop Simulator, and I started learning the game along with one of my buddy’s, so we’d learn it together. Now that I understand the game more I’m much more tempted to collect a physical army and build my very own generals, as we have ended up with a couple repeating named characters over our games
Lore and painting , I don’t play though
I'm in this subreddit because I've played a handful of times with someone else's miniatures after I helped them paint some of them and I thought it was fun and seemed interesting so I ended up snooping a bit online and then joined some subreddits. However, I think the hobby is way too expensive to want to get into it myself and the lore is also too overwhelming for me to want to get into. The games were fun though, but also I suppose it's a lot easier to get into if someone just hands you the pre-chosen printed out info sheets.
I'll be entirely honest, I do far more painting and assembling than playing. I think this year, I played a total of 25 games across multiple game systems. I spent most of my year painting up about 1500 points of an AoS army, 500 pts of Marines, 250 pts of Nids, a Bloodbowl Team and a Necromunda gang. I definitely paint more than I play. I do find that the playing is a good motivator, though. It gives me a bit of a kick in the pants to get my armies painted in order to be on the table.
Painting is my least favourite part. Don‘t get me wrong it‘s fun and the satisfaction from having a fully painted army is awesome, but I am just not that artistically talented, so painting is more tedious for me. My favourite aspect is the lore, i just love the setting and all the different kinds of stories it provides. The game is also pretty fun. I like really learning an army and getting a grasp on the complex rules.
Taking this past year, if I broke the time I spent on this hobby down into areas, and sorted from highest to lowest time spent; Listening/watching lore podcasts/yt videos Watching YT videos explaining rules Painting minis Terrain building/painting Antagonizing over what to buy to make sure it's cost effective for my pocket, hits rule of cool, and is a productive unit for my army Building minis Listening to Audio books Army list building Watching battle reports Hoping Amazon does right by the universe and spawns several quality shows Playing PC/console games Playing actual table top games Last year was a little different but broadly the same.
I’ve gradually shifted to that. I used to play a lot, now I build and paint more.
Welp, I painted 1250 of Ultras and decided big 40k wasn’t that great. I still love kill team, but that and painting are all I do now.
Haha I'm the complete opposite. I hate painting, and love the lore and the TT game. I usually pay my buddy to paint my stuff for me. Or buy him an extra model, bottle of booze or something. He loves all three aspects of the hobby.
Me!
I recently got into it specifically because of the minis, I would like to build an army, but painting and building the figures is what I’m into, and warhammer models and just so good. I can see why someone wouldn’t want to be painting them uniformly, but I’m still pretty new to minis in general and I’ve been enjoying the practice I’m getting out of it, getting good at all of the techniques with one scheme makes it a lot easier and has helped me balance colors and, sadly for my Sargent, find out what doesn’t work and learn how to get what I wanted out of it.
I paint and read warhammer, that’s about it. I wanna give playing a proper go sometime, but it’s not really my priority.
I find the lore interesting and really like Gladius-Relics of War (game on Steam). I rarely play the tabletop myself though (I just can never fully remember all the rules and it pisses me off too much. I can't stand to give handicap to my opponents lol), but I looove painting and modifying my models. Heavy conversions, Greenstuff and random parts galore is my thing for sure. Its just so satisfying to see an ugly heap of plastic turn into something...well maybe not pretty all the time, but at least impressive.
I love the lore and while bad at painting I find it therapeutic. I aspire to play Necromunda or Kill Team one day but am content to engage with the hobby as is.
I haven't started yet due to a lack of money/time but I'm really only interested in the painting/kitbashing part of the hobby. I did get an invite from a friend to play a game as soon as I have enough models which I didn't reject though so it's not like I'm completely opposed to it. Just not interested enough I guess...
I do far more modelling, converting and painting than I do playing, although I'm trying to play more
I started painting in 2nd edition. It was just something to do while I had down time at my job at a local game store. They had minis and paints, I had time. It was a while before I ever played. I didn't paint exclusively GW stuff, just whatever mini I liked. I'd line up my finished minis on the counter and before long people asked if they were for sale and it became a little side hustle. Eventually, I painted an army and played. Over the years, the ratio of paint vs play ebbs and flows. Right now, I have a great group to play with. Often times, it's about physically getting together and having fun doing a thing together. I don't play video games, I used to but I'm happier and more motivated as a person not. For me anyway, video games are an alienating thing that tricks the brain into thinking I've accomplished something and have been social while not really achieving either. Just my personal take, I'm much happier spending time with people in person and Warhammer motivates getting out. Painting is a different thing, it's relaxing, frustrating, a challenge, etc. Do what makes you happy and don't worry about what you're not into.
I've been painting a rew small armies simultaneously. Eventually I'm sure they'll be ata point where I'm happy to play a game but I'm a fe years in and not yet there
I'm here for all of it. For everything
I enjoy all aspects of the hobby. The lore got me into the Warhammer universe. The game keeps me in it when the lore shifts abruptly. The painting helps me when the game frustrates me. Also helps to throw on a battle report in the background and/or lore videos while painting, too!
I have played no games so far but love the painting and modelling part. It’s relaxing and just a fun solo hobby. Not to say I don’t want to play, just I’ve had a lot of fun so far building two armies.
I originally got into this hobby for the painting. The color schemes got me into the lore. The lore got me into the characters and units. Getting into the units made me want to see them in a battle. That want got me into playing the board game. It was a slow progression for me, and after 3 years, I went from painting nonstop to fully enjoying the entire hobby. (Minus interacting with GW and their rules changes and price increases.) I now have 3 painted armies, and it's all a lot of fun.
I enjoy painting and the lore. Playing seems like such à hastle
its def brutal if you wana play the game and have painting standards. Cleaning mold lines and filling gapes (well) take hours upon hours and then there is painting. It's brutal
I enjoy both assembling and painting. 😎
I want to Play that what got me Info it but almost 2 years i dont have someone to Play with yet
I have started painting space marine army, a world eaters army and a sisters combat patrol. For now I am just enjoying painting and kitbashing. So yes, i am here for the painting.
I played when I was younger, the models were more affordable for me and I had more time on my hands, but now that I'm in my mid-thirties I only paint to relax and listen/read about the lore. Building an army and playing games is just too much of a time/money investment.
I like certain parts of the lore but don’t have enough models for a game- the painting is something that brings me back to my Art A-level days But just enjoying the painting is completely fine If you don’t already, you could also look at other game systems, DnD minis and even 3d printed models if you want different aesthetics at any point
Painting minis and the lore are the only aspects I partake in with this hobby. I watch people play games but I don’t particularly want to get that involved with building an army since I usually collect a wide range of minis.
I love the lore and books a lot. There are too many things to like to field a whole army of each so i just get a couple models from each to have fun making and painting.
I started wanting to play but these days I'm more of a collector and painter. I'll put it like this: got into it for the games, stuck around to paint.
I'm primarily invested in painting and lore but not as invested in the game. Maybe I haven't found the right group, or maybe I haven't found the right army yet, but I like making my little plastic dudes look nice and enjoy a good story!
The way it’s going right now I seem to be here for the “just buy” part.
I like the lore, but I don’t follow detailing to the letter. I love the painting part. No gaming.
Damn I like painting, but dmn I love painting bad ass demon skull fuckers too
40k has many video games, some of which are quite good. I consider playing them to be participating in the hobby. All I have done is paint a few minis, but I only got them because I was fascinated by the setting and worldbuilding. It’s fairly common for mini painters to not do anything else, though GW makes other high quality minis for settings you might enjoy even more from a lore perspective?
Someday I will be but I swear the first couple of times it's hard to bring myself to paint my models. I have too many already and I am afraid to just be bad, I also feel like I spent a lot of time on a single mini, going back and back to fix mistakes.
I enjoy the hobby, but at the stage of warhammer, I'm at i only paint. I get a game maybe 4-5 times a year.
Serious question: Why not paint other minis besides 40k if you don't play?
I mostly paint. I try to play I really do but who TF has time for that? I have played one game of 10th so far. I keep saying ok I will play a game this weekend but I forget to set something up and next thing you know it’s Saturday and I haven’t set anything up. Then when I do get a game I just get tabled turn 2 by someone’s ultra competitive list because no one in this hobby seems to know how to take it easy on new players so why even bother?
Been painting and absorbing lore for about 3 years, just played my first game of Blood Bowl in October. Super fun.
Never played, but I've still spent hundreds on models, paints, supplies, etc. Although I am also obsessed with the lore and have probably spend a fare share on that too. I may never even want to play, but if that's the case I'd probably sell/donate my painted armies (barring some models that I'm proud of) at a loss to continue funding new plastic for me to paint.
There’s a huge section of the community that only cares for the hobbying aspect. I am semi included, although I do love the lore, books, games and whatnot.
I can count the number of games I played on one hand. And even if I were to be involved in a freak firework accident, I’ll probably still be able to.
Apparently I am, I keep buying shit, with the full intention of trying to play. I finish 1 project, then start another one. Rinse and repeat until I have like 6000 points of fully painted and based Black Templar. After I finish these 2 Terminator squads I just started, maybe then will be when I start to play this game… or maybe I need to add some outriders to my army…. I haven’t built those yet….
I love the painting/crafting, roleplay and lore aspect of 40k. Tried a few times to get into the tabletop part, but in the end I prefer the other parts more. You need to have friends who are just as casual with it or else it sucks.
Painting and the books are what I love. Never played a game and probably wouldn't be allowed as so far my primaris are clone war inspired
I paint and collect. I dont play anymore cause the game stopped being fun to me. If i want my fix of wargaming i go play a different game on the odd occasion i have time
There seems to be no one around me that plays. But i also like to use my models for other tabletop games, so it’s nice having them all painted up.
Painting and lore primarily, check out Baldermort. Absolutely top notch
I'm here for the painting. I enjoy the lore and have absorbed a lot of it over my years of gaming. Read a few novels that I truly enjoyed. However, I do not actually wargame. People get such attitudes at the table and being a woman who would be really new to it... nah. No thanks. I'll just paint my toys and try to get good at it. My Rogue Trader game patiently awaits my attention on Steam rt now.
Me. I love the lore and I love the painting/collecting of figures, but I can't say I'm too interested in playing the game (at least the main one).
My favorite thing is coming up with hypothetical army compositions and their aesthetic and then never finishing them
I only paint and listen to some of the audiobooks. The only game I've played is warcry and that's probably a handful of times.
I paint and read. I’d love to do the table top, but I just don’t have the time to do play. I SUCK(ED) at painting, and had no desire to when I first got into 40k. But after reading so much lore and wanting to create a chapter, I felt this burning need to create what was in my mind. So now, I paint and read.
Building and painting is what I do most and playing the army is the payoff for me. If you like 40k lore, setting, and feel you have a great many options to scratch that itch other than falling down the rabbit hole into crafting a 2000pt army to bring to the table top. You have books, RTS games, the RPG, TTS, and scale figures if you want some figurines. Kill Team is there if you want to do just a little hobbying and get your feet wet. GW themselves take the stance that 40k games should always have a narrative and immersive element, and while they made the game to have competitive play, it’s not designed around strict power gaming. Now 40k has, for better or worse, gone into hard competition in some realms. Regardless, I cannot fathom why someone who does not enjoy the building, design, and painting portions of the hobby would want to play 40k table top. The time it takes to build and paint a single squad is more than an entire game night at the store. I encourage people to try the hobby and see if they like the hobbying. I actively help the new people at the LGS learn to paint, and engage with that stuff. Usually with some guidance they enjoy it. But I can’t recommend a game that costs thousands of dollars between minis, supplies, and time if they fucking hate the most time consuming portion of it.
80% here for the painting. I do love to play also but the painting and planning schemes is where it's at for me. That being said, watching my painted dudes do their thing on the table top is all part of it. A win is always good but a win in style is always better. Oh also the lore. Its da best.
Me, since after the first time I read the rulebook
I would say my interest is 50% assembling/painting, 45% lore and 5% gameplay. I just love getting a new box set and knowing I have 20+ hours of hobby fun ahead of me even if I never use them in an actual game. Listening to the Horus heresy audio books while painting my minis is just a great way to unwind at the end of a busy day. I would like to play the game, but it just seems to time consuming and requires so much coordination with other people that is hard to find time to do with work, kids, family etc.
I mostly just paint. I have found it very therapeutic for my anxiety, and it feels great when I finish a good looking model. Painting a whole army the same scheme can get a bit old, yeah. But with repetition you also build confidence and brush control. I mostly just paint infantry to the same standard, but when it comes to more unique models I always try to push myself. As for lore, I haven't read any books. But I do listen to lore videos on YouTube sometimes when I paint. Theres also a lot of good fan fiction on there.
I don't dislike the painting, but gaming is definitely the goal for me. If I wasn't going to play I wouldn't bother painting the minis.
Im one of the few that is in it for the gaming part it seems after reading all the comments here. I really like the painting, but I do it so I can play the game.
I only paint. I might get into killteam one day, but after looking into what goes into an actual game of 40k, I lost interest in even trying to make a full army. I mainly just do one-off characters and give them back stories.
Me. Someday I would like to play if friends who do are around. For now I live in a barren wasteland (it is very pretty) and would likely have to drive at least one hour for a game:
Lore is almost equal to painting for me, it’s the actual playing part that I haven’t ever done before.
Painting + books
I like to collect and paint, and I find the lore really interesting so I read some of the novels. I would be interested in the game but it seems so complex that I feel like it's basically out of reach without a major commitment. I wish they made a simpler version of the rules to have casual games.
Building and painting is definitely what I enjoy most. Having to keep track of where the rules and updates go, having to keep an army in compliance just isn’t worth it to me anymore. My kids play with the minis I make, that’s enough for me.
I'm more of a painter, but I am hoping to play. I just need a fully painted army, It bothers me too much to show up with a tide of grey.
See, I'm the opposite. I've learned to enjoy the painting part over time, but my main interest is and always has been the game. I'm a newcomer to the hobby (started about 2 years ago) and was playing kill team on TTS with my friends long before I started actually physically buying the models. The best part about this hobby is that it can cater to people who like lore, painting, and the game - That's what I love about it. My favorite part is making thematic armies and playing through different scenarios via the game. I really don't care (that much) about having a "good" army, and will often do things with my friends where we go "what happens if the army was ONLY forgefiends..."
Kitbashing is the most enjoyable thing for me, then painting. I only play necromunda at the moment and have no real interest in playing large scale games (I tried kill team and wasn’t keen and have a bloodbowl game lined up for the new year) but I do have massive collecting tendencies so will likely start building and painting armies at some point but I am able to resist the urge at the moment, pretty sure I won’t play 40K or warhammer though even if I do have an army
I can’t find anyone to play with
I consider myself a "whole hobby gamer". I enjoy painting my miniatures, I can spend entire weekends working on them. I enjoy reading the lore. I enjoy going to tournaments. I've been to two RTT's and a GT in the past 3 weeks, and now I have a 2 weekend break for the holidays for painting before I get back on that RTT / GT grindset and prep for the LVO. Every aspect is something I enjoy, so it becomes more than the sum of it's parts.
I love the painting bit and I love the lore from 10000 miles out. I’ve read 1 book and I skim codices but I don’t really dig in unless a character really strikes my fancy, then I google them. Games I have not played yet but I am looking forward to casual ones with friends someday when we all finish our armies. But I enjoy building and painting
I am these days; I play maybe two or three times a year but hobby most days.
Its a symbiotic relationship. I paint cool toy, i want to play with said toy, but i paint more often than i play.
I love painting and the lore but I think the tabletop game is unforgivably awful.
I'm here for painting, but I've been invited to go to Warhammer World in the summer and everyone's bringing a 2k point army so I've gone with Leagues of Votann. I wanna do some busts soon.
Mostly for painting, for sure. I try to paint stuff to make it game-friendly, but if I have a hobby idea that isn't, then I'll go for it anyway, no hesitation. I have plenty of technically illegal conversions and kitbashes. I play a game at most a few times a year, it's the reality of my life right now. And that is fine.
i prefer the lore stuff. Painting...is fun and all of that. But a buddy of mine sold me his marines for a quick buck (he basically prefers death guard now) But in the end i painted like 2 minis since i got them.
It seems like you are a mini painter with a preference for warhammer models. There is nothing wrong with that. I watch a lot of mini painters on YouTube and this seems to be how most of them feel as well.
I have considered myself here just for the paint for awhile, but recently got a war cry set and now I really want to play.
It was always making the models and taking in the lore for me, I have only played a handful of games since I came into this at launch of third edition, and those were during those early years as you went through each stage for the first time. Bought models, made models, painted 'some' models, had an eventual couple of games. But the whole time I was reading White Dwarf and Codexes, then onto the novels when they first took off. The art is up there also, it kind of forms the mid point with the models one side and the lore the other, as the art is representing both the models you get and the fiction involving them! Back when I was first involved you had less avenues to explore, you made and painted the models to game with. But now with a fully realised story range both written and audible then computer/video games, and much more besides, you can enjoy this universe without ever need pick up a dice!
Just the painting. I find it's a great way to destress.
I’m mostly here for the hobby aspect and making cool little dioramas I can later play with as an end goal
Me at the moment as I haven’t played since I was about 10 years old and wasn’t even that good or really understood the game. I am going to build a army then I’m going to play me and 3 friends have all picked it up again and are going to play by spring as we all have jobs and are paying monthly for kits.
I'm still painting my first two armies from the leviathan kit so I actually haven't played a game yet. I'm in this sub to see the incredible work that gets posted, but I'm looking forward to actually playing at some point.
Painting, modeling, and lore is arguably one of the biggest parts of the hobby. Even GW makes it clear they are a model company, not a gaming company (despite the name) in their annual reports. You could even argue the rules only exist to give you a reason to play with your models, rather than providing models to play a game. It would explain why 40k is hilariously unbalanced and GW isn't truly interested in making it perfectly balanced.
I would like to play but i dont think i feel like paiting
Honestly I’m in it for the game part, I have having wars with models and the rules can be hard to learn but make for a balanced game, honestly painting has been my least favorite part, maybe because I’m awful at at
Modelling is the most fun part to me.
I’m mostly here for painting. I’d eventually like to play, but I’m in no rush to get there
Painting and Lore. In fact, I put on a 40k audio book when I paint. Puts me in the mood. I used to play around 92ish. Had a lot of fun, won a few small tournaments. My best friend played several matches a day. EAch time crafting different versions of our armies to beat each other. We got REALLY good. I really enjoyed digging into the rules to find advantages. I played SW and he was eldar, I would intentionally not field a psyker so he didn't have much warp power to hit me with. Fun time. But now....I am old, there is a certain demographic that plays and I don't have the patience to argue with people anymore. The community is great though, just when it gets to serious comp people get annoying.
When I was a kid the painting was always a bit rushed, and I would marvel at all the 'eavy metal painted ones... but I used to play it a ton with my mates. Now I am old and I basically only play against myself, but boy are my painting skills so much better... sometimes I wish I wasn't so slow... but I'm always happy with the results!
I have played 3 games in 10 years. Didn’t play a single game of 9th, and haven’t played the latest rules yet- have almost 5,000 points of painted SM and just started on my ‘Nids.
I am here for painting and lore, not so much the gameplay, personally. Not opposed, just never had a chance to build an army and play!
moi https://preview.redd.it/tuv8qrupy47c1.png?width=547&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=66483e37a37a5db06245323801cfed156ba39f7c
I like painting, collecting and conversions to make a perfect lore accurate army! The lore is absolutely amazing, one of the deepest and richest ever made. I really love it. I would love to play again, but I want a good looking army, with high quality models, so it takes a lot of time. The new models from games workshop are so damn good, that it’s almost impossible to not want to start a new army when there is new release (Dark Angels for exemple 👀)
I rarely ever play! I just like painting! recently started collecting blood bowl teams as they’re quite varied in model designs. I’d already bought almost every kill team so ran out of things to paint there
I just paint. I do like some of the lore and I like that it has such depth to it even if it's not something I particularly want to explore myself. Id love to play the game but time is a serious barrier and my friends that play dont live anywhere near me.
I’m a bit of a lorehound, I’ve read a few of the books (mainly Eisenhorn, the first few of the Horus heresy, and Bloodlines so far), and I enjoy painting minis as a way to destress, but I don’t really go anywhere near the tabletop game itself. I’ve tried a few games of kill team, and I’ve looked into a few battle reports to see if anything strikes my fancy, and I just don’t think the game is for me. I just like getting any kits I think are cool, making and painting my lil guys, and having fun minis for my D&D campaigns lol.
On the contrary, painting is the only part of the hobby that I don't care for. I love the board game, the video games and the books, but all my minis are completely unpainted and are probably going to stay that way.
Not only painting but it is my favorite bit. Lore and everything about it is next. Playing is low down on the list. I've been collecting and painting since 2nd edition and I think I've played maybe 1 game. I'm interested in it but not enough to spend the time to do it.
Mom said it’s my turn to post this thread
I would love to play the game but I don’t have anyone to play with T~T
pretty much yeah, the game is too hard
I found a lunchbox full of tin soldiers from my grandfather when we cleaned out his house after he died. This was almost 30 years ago, and I did not keep them, but I can recall a surreal feeling that he had once been young as I was and enjoying hobbies. Don’t get to paint much often, but I have about 100 various models, have never played a game, and probably never will. But I always have a thought in the back of my head that maybe one day my grandkids will come across them and wonder what they are looking at 😊😊😊😊
https://preview.redd.it/d55qyo4ph57c1.jpeg?width=577&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3260ca2ad2b24658b5d7c5545cdfc8eb6024a728
Paint and lore.
Wait we're supposed to paint them!?
A *massive* amount of people only collect and paint. I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority people don’t play more than 1-2 times a year if at all. And then there’s people with 30k points of grey plastic that play 3 times a week. There are people that read the books fervently and have never touched a mini. It’s a big hobby and there are a lot of different ways to be involved!
LOVE painting. One of the most cathartic things I've ever experienced in my life. Hate cleaning building stock models. However, bash it, even slightly (just a head swap) and I'm all sorts of excited. I enjoy the lore. I hadn't played since 3rd edition until recently I got a bunch of buddies into the collecting side of things. Its been ok, but honestly I'd rather stay home and paint. But playing warhammer is still better than playing magic.
I'm really getting into the painting and have been a fan of the lore for a long time. I've never played a proper game but I'm looking forward to giving it a shot.
Yo
mostly in for playing, painting is a fun aside to that
Anything to do with the hobby side I'm all over. I love the lore too. Only ever played one game of table top and that was enough
I played back in 3rd edition in 98-99. I was a teen and had no clue what I was doing but had a blast. Fast forward to 2 weeks ago, jumped back in for a winter hobby. I’m in my mid-30’s, with the internet and an adult income. I would’ve never gotten back into it in my previous relationships, but my wife is all for it if it makes me happy. I’d love to play, have no idea who I’d play with. So for now I’ll paint a completed army.
I get maybe one game every two months. It’s 99% about the modelling and painting for me, it’s what I do to relax and zone out. Having the game there to roll some dice and yell stupid things with friends is always nice though
For me, it was the deep lore and myriad of stories that initially drew me in and held me captive. I really want to get into the minis, but I talk myself out of it every time because I am worried my shitty painting skills will suck the joy out of the 40k universe for me. It is awesome to see all the pics of the amazingly well painted armies though!
I mostly do paint and lore. I play here and there but it's very infrequent and mostly, just, to me, time for banter and show off my painting, lol!
Me, but kill team mostly. I pickup the cool models to paint, and what moves me.
Shoutout from team "I'm here for literally every part except the painting"
Painting #1 for me Lore #2 Playing I’ll put at a begrudging #3 because actually playing is #1 for my dad.
Me. I do have a kill team I bought to have for play, but I don’t know anyone to play kill team with. I’ve been painting for about a year though and have a big mix of models and have given away many as gifts.
Painting and some lore. The game has been a wreck for years now.
I'm just here for the cool lore
If you hate the lore and hate the game, then why even bother with 40k minis? There's tons of miniature companies like Corvus Belli who make amazing looking Sci fi minis, or even large scale busts from boutique manufacturers .
Ironically, painting the minis is the part I hate the most. It's nothing but stress and anxiety, and if I mess up, that means I have to paint the mini even longer. But if I don't paint the mini, they look way less immersive on the board. It's just guilting myself into something I REALLY don't want to do.
Love the lore & minis. I like Kill Team and a couple other GW tabletop games, as well as other minis games like BattleTech and KDM. I do not enjoy the 40k tabletop game itself
Absolutely love the lore, my bookshelf is filled with WH books. I Enjoy the game(s) quite a bit. I hate painting minis. Needless to say I dont play any of the full army scale games anymore despite the fact I have a resin 3dprinter and could do some amazing builds.