How to Guide:
Getting Started With Wargaming

There are many reasons for a person to be interested in playing tabletop wargaming. Some are driven by the desire to learn and execute strategies and attacking combos like the famous Generals of old. Others want to fully explore the creative aspect of the hobby and work towards modeling, painting and conversion. Of course, there are those who just think that the figures that they buy at their local game store look cool and like putting them together.

No matter what your reason is, tabletop wargaming is a hobby that can be extremely rewarding. Yet for all of those individuals who haven’t picked a gaming system or picked an army, the initial start-up can seem like a daunting task. That’s where I come in, hoping to help newer players be able to pick the right army for whatever system they plan on playing.

Read up on the System

Tabletop wargaming is so diverse, that no matter what kind of playing style you fancy, there is a system that will work for you. All of the major systems have a similar theme in that the main rules are easy to pick up, but there are a lot of nuances that are present to make it difficult to master. At their core, Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 from Games Workshop are systems where you roll d6’s and tally up how many successes you have. There is also Warmachine and HORDES from Privateer press which instead emphasize stat lines and adding d6 rolls to see who has the higher total score. In addition, there are systems like Malifaux by Wyrd Miniatures that don’t use dice at all and use decks of cards to determine what happens next.

All are different methods, but all rule sets work for their particular settings. Main factors that you can use to help decide what system to play include what your friends are playing, what games they are demoing at your local game store, and how expensive the models and figures can be. If you can get a few practice games in with the systems, it can help determine if that particular play style is something you like or loathe.