Bloodbowl is another kind of game. You only need a very limited and cheap number of minis to form your team, and new editions are free and disponible in PDF. Perhaps Malifaux is better to compare with x wing, or Infinity. A team is quite cheap, but as in x wing if you want to expand, you must put some hundreds on the table. But you can expend 20 euros per month and do it without much harm.to your wallet

A starter force of Space Marines from their webstore includes a commander, an elite unit, two basic troop units, transports for the above, a fast moving melee unit and a basic walker, along with the paints, undercoat, glue, cutters and rulebooks sets you back roughly £450.

This produces a thoroughly non-competitive, relatively small army, with little customisation options, and you'll get annihilated by anyone who actually has a collection worth a ****. Oh, and you're playing on your kitchen table using books and toasters for scenery. If you want a board and terrain then add £200.

If you're in the US then that's a cool $1000 or so just to have the beginnings of a collection, although you can fairly easily save 20-25% or so by buying from a third party. In X-Wing terms it's probably equivalent to a person owning an X-Wing, Rebel Aces, a Y-Wing and a Millenium Falcon.

So yeah, some hobbies are more expensive than others. X-Wing is pretty good.

I've been playing for just over two years now, got into the game just before Imperial Aces dropped here in the UK. I've been enjoying the game immensely and I am not disappointed by it. When a wave comes out I usually buy one of everything and while I used to buy enough ships to field 100 points worth of whatever I want, I stopped doing that because...I wasn't doing that. Now I buy expansions based on what I need card or ship wise, although I make sure to have at least one of every ship.

It's not an expensive hobby, considering I play Attack Wing (yes that Attack Wing), and FFG's Star Wars RPG.

With Attack Wing there are 3 ships released every month, and then there are prize ships that if you don't win go for about £20-£50 on ebay. So Attack Wing gets expensive very fast and is in my opinion the inferior game to X-Wing, but still enjoyable, its why I still buy it.

The RPG, core rulebooks are £40 each, and there are three books, Edge of the Empire, Age of Rebellion, Force and Destiny, so that's £120 to have the basics of the three main star wars aspects (Underworld, Warfare, and Jedi/Force Users). However, in each book there are 6 careers, that's 18 careers in total, each career will eventually have its own book and they cost £20 each. Looking at my shelf right now FFG have released 7 of those books so far (4 for Edge, 2 for Age, and 1 for Force). THEN there are the other sourcebooks they come in at £30 each and there are currently 3 of those out (2 for Edge, 1 for Age). GM screens, and adventure books come to £15 (one for each line though) and £20 each respectively.

So all in all, X-Wing is actually the cheapest thing I do, I generally drop a big amount on X-Wing in one go when a new wave comes out, and then never spend anything on it unless I need to.

How long do I intend to go? I will go so long as the game is supported by FFG, since I am one of the commentators for my FLGS X-Wing streams I need to keep up to date with the game and the meta, plus I enjoy the game, why stop if I am enjoying it!

Rumors circulate about Attack Wing ending or going to a 2nd edition, I will probably stop that there...3 ships a month is starting to take it's toll...

Star Wars RPG, I enjoy that the most out of all the hobbies, and yes it is expensive and there are times when 3 books come out at once and costs me £80, but I enjoy it and my 10 players enjoy it and rely on me, so FFG will be getting money from me for many years to come methinks.

Bloodbowl and Necromunda were the best GW games made. The format is way better than 40k and WFB but was also a lot less profitable which is why they aren't around anymore. You could get by fairly cheap playing either and they were meant for campain style play, something which X-Wing isn't (although people are making house rules for this).

I played WFB in the nineties and it was easy to spend $200 on an army back then even (when minimum wage was about $4). You could save a little on generics by shopping at shops that had old stock from years past that was heavily discounted but GW is very good at making sure its newest models are a necessary to play competitively.

I really enjoy X-Wing and will be playing it for a long time. I do miss BB and Necromunda though, being built for campaign style play was a lot of fun. Would be nice to see an official campaign style ruleset for X-Wing.

Dear OP,

Your topic title is misleading.

Sure ain't cheap, cost to play x-wing

Given the quality of the minis, the ease of playing, the artwork and what you get per expansion, compared to the other popular wargames out there at the moment - X-Wing's cost is a drop in the ocean.

I've already played more X-Wing in 3 years than I have 40K in 20...

Bloodbowl and Necromunda were the best GW games made. The format is way better than 40k and WFB but was also a lot less profitable which is why they aren't around anymore. You could get by fairly cheap playing either and they were meant for campain style play, something which X-Wing isn't (although people are making house rules for this).

(...)

Man o War was also quite good. Fleet action with fantasy ships, nice movement system. Not much needed to be even visually very appealing.

Very cheap to have fleets, so GW discontinued after only 2,5 years, as they were not making enough money with it.

Bloodbowl and Necromunda were the best GW games made. The format is way better than 40k and WFB but was also a lot less profitable which is why they aren't around anymore. You could get by fairly cheap playing either and they were meant for campain style play, something which X-Wing isn't (although people are making house rules for this).

(...)

Man o War was also quite good. Fleet action with fantasy ships, nice movement system. Not much needed to be even visually very appealing.

Very cheap to have fleets, so GW discontinued after only 2,5 years, as they were not making enough money with it.

Battlefleet Gothic was quite fun as well, and Mordheim. All the specialist games, really. But, as you said, they weren't profitable so they were canned so the great money-making machine could continue. It's funny that the 40K god-emperor is a vampire feasting on living souls - pretty apt metaphor for GW and its player base.

I got out of Warhammer several years ago and I'm never ever ever going back. GW is literally the worst company in the world.

I see a lot of references to GW and MTG. I have never invested in any of those games, so just out of curiousity: How much does one roughly spend on these games compared to X-wing?

More. Oh, so very much more.

The Warhammer Fantasy army I played at the last event I attended retails for about $550-600. And that's not counting all the hours and money in paints/painting. And that cost is only for the part I played. I have at least that much more for the same army. And I have 4 more armies. I have a lot of minis I need to sell, if anyone is interested......

I see a lot of references to GW and MTG. I have never invested in any of those games, so just out of curiousity: How much does one roughly spend on these games compared to X-wing?

More. Oh, so very much more.

The Warhammer Fantasy army I played at the last event I attended retails for about $550-600. And that's not counting all the hours and money in paints/painting. And that cost is only for the part I played. I have at least that much more for the same army. And I have 4 more armies. I have a lot of minis I need to sell, if anyone is interested......

The cost depends on a couple of factors, but my last Tau list for 40k was something like $750 and a competitive MtG deck can run from a couple hundred in Standard to enough to buy a car in Vintage/Legacy. The best entertainment-for-cost value I've gotten out of MtG is probably in Commander and I could buy everything in X-Wing a few times over for the cost of one of my decks.

Learn to play on Vassal. Completely free, more games available, and you can just exit a room if someone brings a broken list that you don't want to play.

Stop buying overpriced plastic, and use the free binary version.

Plus you'll get a lot better a lot faster on Vassal.

I think you are a little too much on slogangs

STOP BUYING OVERPRICED PLASTIC !!! FREE THE DOLPHINS !!!

You are in a FFG Forum, man

Greetings

Personally the plastic ships are a large part of the appeal - they're iconic and the family are interested in seeing them. I am being relatively restrained on purchases because I am personally more interested in some casual play with SW ships than in the tournament aspect.

Regards

Edward

You can play viable lists for 100$. So it is a rather inexpensive miniature game. It only cost alot if you want a tons of variability and try new stuff all the time.

I've saved money buying cards off ebay that don't require token sheets. This game is cheap compared to 40k, where you need hundreds of dollars short of Taudar to be viable.

If GW was making this game, the core set would be $100 and the small ship expansions would be $30 each. The rulebook wouldn't be included, in fact it would be a hard cover book with 500 pages and 400 of those pages would be fluff.

Looking at an online sight it seems MtG costs about $90 for a booster box. Now I don't remember my distributions but that should leave you with a playable set (4 copies) of each common card and multiples of most uncommons plus a good selection of rares. Sadly, filling out the rares and uncommons may cost that much more. Now with three releases a year it should be obvious how expensive MtG can get if you try to remain competitive with full sets of cards. While I know it is certainly possible to build fun and even functional "budget decks" many of those would still cost $10-$20 and are likely to get destroyed by someone who isn't using those same budget restrictions.

While it's hard to quantify staying competitive in WotC's DnD and StarWars skirmish games could also be very expensive due to the random nature of boosters. Throw in a collectable factor and some minis were going for more than $60 each and are still selling for more than $40.

If GW was making this game, the core set would be $100 and the small ship expansions would be $30 each. The rulebook wouldn't be included, in fact it would be a hard cover book with 500 pages and 400 of those pages would be fluff.

The ships would not be assembled or painted either. Also, every expansion would have an over-priced 'collector's edition', bringing additional fluff and nothing else.

Now for those of you that haven't played Warhammer and thus do not known the ridiculous costs involved, let me put it into perspective. Just buying the main 40k rule book and a single army book/codex (both of which you need before you can even think of playing the game) will set you back $135.

We could put in it another way, $135 is more than enough to buy everything you need in X-wing for decently high competitive play and probably have a few dollars still left to spend.

I envy your prices... small ships start out at €16.50 here...

Buy your ships on ebay where there is free international shipping :-p

My next order from Mini's Market will be about $230 which will include several ships and an Epic. My next GW purchase will $330 for 11 Marines and a bunch of Genestealer Cultists and a flimsy playing board.

You tell me which game is the better deal.

Here is a Comparison for Warhammer 40,000k.

Keep in mind that for Warhammer your not going to field everything you buy.(depending on your mood and such) Your going to build to 2k points for most games. You must have 2 core troops and 1 HQ, but you can build past that and will. You can run a max of 2 HQ, 6 Core Troops, 3 Assaults, 3 Heavy, 3 Fast Attack and 3 Elites choices in each game which 1 choice could be a couple of units.

Now if your playing TAU (which I did) a basic core set of Firewarriors (basic troop choice) is 50.00 for box of 10 however you can run 12 for 1 squad choice, which means you need 2 boxes. You max out at 72 units for 6 troop choices and this is highly recommended for this Army because they are bad at hitting but can shoot weapons twice if in range. Now if your going to attach drones to each unit you going to want to buy a couple of drone boxes, or if you want them to ride a APC that's 1 per squad also. There are different Weapons configs for each troop choice which means if your playing and the weapons must be on the Mins or you cant use them your going to buy maybe 1 to 2 more boxes so you have the different models. By the way the basic troop choice config is about 200 points as described above. This does not take in account you must assemble and if your playing in tornys fully paint with 3 different colors and undercoat not counting as one. (GW never wants bad looking mins in any pictures from there ternys as it makes the product look bad) If you want someone to paint the models good that's 10-25 per model that is small much more larger. So for 100 firewarriors your looking at 1,000 for the mins and 1,000-2,000 for someone else to paint them.) There are 2 other core troop choices for this army.

​I have not even covered HQ or anything else, but your spending 50 - 100 for a squad or even a single model when your going to want up to 3 models for a single unit choice in most non core troop option . Your going to want to buy at least 3 of each of the following for most army's based on the if the weapons are not on the model you cant use them. Also below does not include forgeworld models (this is 250 for a single model if you want one in your army https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-WW/Tau-KX139-Ta'unar-Supremacy-Armourand again you have to build and paint it having someone else do the larger models can run you from 1k-5k depending on the person. Also Forgeworld has a 1K ship model so if you wanting to have everything for a TAU army its 20,000 and up before you even look at putting them together and paint). Here is the site for building a list feel free to play with it. http://www.epicroster.com/Calculator?army=564ed7bbe4b09f26c891dee7f

Here is a list of the main TAU units for sale before you look at forgeworld.

56-05-60 Tau Farsight Enclaves (2nd Ed.) SOURCEBOOK ~ FEB 27 $33.00
56-06 Tau Empire Fire Warriors Strike Team/Breacher Team PLASTIC BOX $50.00
56-07 Tau Empire XV8 Crisis Battlesuits PLASTIC BOX $75.00
56-09 Tau Empire Pathfinder Team PLASTIC BOX $35.00
56-10 Tau Empire TY7 Devilfish PLASTIC BOX $38.00
56-11 Tau Hammerhead Gunship/Sky Ray (1 Ship) BOX $60.00
56-12 Tau Sun Shark Bomber/Razorshark Strike Fighter (1 Ship) BOX $65.00
56-13 Tau XV104 Riptide Battlesuit (1 Suit and 2 Drones) BOX $85.00
56-14 Tau Empire XV25 Stealth Battlesuits PLASTIC BOX $27.00
56-15 Tau Empire XV88 Broadside Battlesuit PLASTIC BOX $50.00
56-16 Tau Cadre Fireblade (1) $20.00
56-18 Tau Empire KV128 Stormsurge PLASTIC BOX $150.00
56-19 Tau Empire TX4 Piranha PLASTIC BOX $30.00

56-20 Tau Empire XV95 Ghostkeel Battlesuit PLASTIC BOX $75.00
56-22 Tau Empire Commander PLASTIC BOX $50.00
56-23 Tau Empire Drones PLASTIC - LIMITED $12.00

56-25 Tau Empire Coalition Command PLASTIC BOX ~ FEB 27 $60.00
56-50 Tau Empire Tidewall Gunrig PLASTIC BOX $60.00
56-51 Tau Empire Tidewall Shieldline PLASTIC BOX $55.00
56-52 Tau Empire Tidewall Droneport PLASTIC BOX $50.00


GW changes Army's about every 5 years, which you need to pick up as they sometime change the units you own (new weapons or equipment most be on the model) or some Army's will just never be used again. (squats)

in short spending 5k for x-wing to have 12 of each small, 6 of each large and epics with a past core set and the new one is much cheaper, spending 800ish on 1 of everything is even better. I know there are some Warhammer 40K armies that are cheaper I just know Tau and for Warhammer I know Skaven which is worse. Skaven have there basic model at 2 points and your building to again 2k worth of an army.


​EDIT (also you can have units from different factions on your side now so its more money to buy 2-3 different armies seeing you can play with them)

My next order from Mini's Market will be about $230 which will include several ships and an Epic. My next GW purchase will $330 for 11 Marines and a bunch of Genestealer Cultists and a flimsy playing board.

You tell me which game is the better deal.

Uh, X-Wing?

Not to expensive for me when I drop 2k on a camera lens. I do not buy every ship though. Just what i like to use. My goal to have at least 10 of each faction. Along there with reb/imp. Only 4 s/v.

Not to expensive for me when I drop 2k on a camera lens. I do not buy every ship though. Just what i like to use. My goal to have at least 10 of each faction. Along there with reb/imp. Only 4 s/v.

​You cant use more then 6 of each large and 12 of each small for an epic game, just food for thought.

​Also I feel like dropping 2k on a camera lens might do some damage , if its in coins.

The thing that really makes me wonder about GW is at this point, if I want to buy a 4k printer and use the bootleg templates to make my own models or buy the metal plates to make prints, for much cheaper then most armies why would I invest into GW again. (not that I would do that or prove of it just make your own game) I have heard at somepoint they want to stop non GW people from selling their models and make it all in house then make the models cheaper but that has never happened. As a teen I had much more time to paint and assemble models, my hands where much more steady after years of working an office job typing numbers my hands just don't work the same for painting, GW just seems to be to much of a bother these days and its too much money for a good army with options, and don't talk about storage which is a pain through the butt.

​Last thing GW makes great models they suck at making clear rules, terrible items that are OP (void grend), or the fact that the armies you pay much more for are much stronger. Last time I played Skaven I found a way to use 7 ratling guns for something like 100 shots, throw 300 rocks and use a crap ton of warp lighting in a single shooting round. By far the Skaven army will cost the most for a Warhammer Fan army but can vaporize an opponent in a single round.

Not to expensive for me when I drop 2k on a camera lens. I do not buy every ship though. Just what i like to use. My goal to have at least 10 of each faction. Along there with reb/imp. Only 4 s/v.

Which one? Here I've been considering spending some $1300 or so for a new camera body and then another $1000+ for a monster telephoto zoom. While the camera may be toward the top end of crop sensors I know lenses can to a LOT higher but when I'm not getting paid for pictures they are hard to justify.

That's another thing about X-Wing's cost compared to some of the other things you could spend your "entertainment" money on. When you're done you should still have all of those models, cards, and stuff which you can potentially resell and recoup a large percentage of your initial investment. I kind of wish I'd bought into MtG when I first had the chance because there are few of those early cards which you could potentially use to trade one card for all the X-Wing products you might reasonably use. I'm thinking that even my Red Dragon "miniature" has possibly appreciated to 6x what I paid for it.