A brand new toy

      The idea of starting a new game is scary at times. I'm not talking about Scrabble or the new God of War. A new miniature war game starts with a lot of choices. The first thing to consider is the game itself and what you need to play it. Basically, any game you want to play will require a rule book, miniatures (of course), a surface to play on, and most likely terrain of some sort. Hopefully, you have a friend or local gaming store to guide you with a table and terrain. Usually, someone is your gateway to this game. They should be able to teach you the rules or loan you the core rules. That leaves priority one on your shoulders. What army, faction or gang do you want to play?

      I think there are a few major factors, and an infinite number of minor ones, that will sway your decision. First one that comes to mind for is character archetype. What do you want your force to portray? Is it the devout followers of the god of light or the assassins that are sworn to destroy them? How about the fallen heroes or the police force of the region, whether they are good or bad? The army may be the mechanical constructs or alien life forms that eat everything in their path. Whatever your flavor, there is some army or character within the army for you.

       The next major factor is presentation. The way the models look is a huge factor when making a choice. I know, for me, if the minis don't click with me I am not going to spend money or time to assemble and paint them. There were many characters and squads that sat in my paint box just because I couldn't bring myself to paint them. The perfect example for me is the Lizard men Saurus  units. I painted all my skinks and Slann, but just can't finish the army because they just don't speak to me. The color scheme just never looked right. I googled snakes, alligators, monitors, & all kinds of reptiles to get a scheme that worked. I even consulted a friend of mine who is a reptile fanatic. I painted a dozen or more models, stripped & repainted them. All to no avail. So, I don't see they will ever get finished.

     The final decision for me is how they play on the table. An army needs to work. It can't be this kind of unit sitting next to a different type of unit and they don't work together. They need to perform the way you intend to use them. You can't expect Orc Arrer Boyz to run forward and beat down Chaos knights in close combat. It's not gonna happen!

   From there, you can decide on theme, paint schemes, armies that your friends play, your personal effects to the battlefield. These I consider minor, because you can paint a Space wolf army black and silver if that is what you really want. The conversions and objective markers and terrain features to go with your army are all defined after the force decision is made.

   I hope this helps anyone looking into starting a new force in a game you already own or getting into a new game altogether.