How to build a Warhammer army – a beginner’s guide to Warhammer 40,000 and Age of Sigmar

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GameCentral offers some advice on how to get into the Warhammer tabletop games, including painting your first figures and cheap starter sets.

Warhammer has become so popular over the last few years that Panini recently released a Warhammer 40,000: Warriors of the Emperor sticker album; for those that would rather collect photos of Space Marines than footballers. If you’ve seen tabletop battles taking place at your local gaming café the idea of a filling a sticker album probably seems a lot easier than creating your own Warhammer army from scratch, but that’s not necessarily the case.

So where to start? Your local board game café is the best place to tap into the massive community, who will be happy to help you in every aspect of the hobby. Many, like my local Bad Moon Cafe, run ‘learn to play’ Warhammer sessions where you can meet like-minded novices. All the dice rolls, plastic rulers, and different stats and abilities may seem intimidating at first but like any game the number one priority in Warhammer is just having fun.

Your first big question will be if you want to play Age of Sigmar or Warhammer 40,000. Formally known as Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Age of Sigmar is a Tolkien-esque world with familiar races like elves, orcs, and goblins. Meanwhile, Warhammer 40,000 features sci-fi takes on many of the same creatures, while adding elite human warriors called Space Marines who are kitted out in complex mechanical suits and battle armies of aliens across vibrant alien landscapes.

To help you decide you might want to splash out on these Warhammer Getting Started magazines or Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000, which include all the basic information and a couple of miniatures to help you