How to Plan Your Miniature Army or Warband 

“Don’t buy the entire army at once” Too late lol

Bought a Troggoth model (Age of Sigmar) because it looked fun to build and paint. Found out you can do an all trogg army, low model count. 10 models in, 3 days painting, and I'm ready to add to it.

4:13 For 40k you would most likely want to start with a Battalion Detachment which is 2 HQs and 3 Troops. If that can't be done, a Patrol Detachment is 1 HQ and 1 Troop. The 1 HQ and 2 Troops system is from previous editions.

This video came at the perfect time for me

*Indomitus Released* "NOW IS MY TIME! I WILL JOIN THE HOBBY PROPERLY!" "I need to prepare" *finds videos telling him not to buy too many models at the beginning*

i’m starting a cadian army currently, my favourite part of the hobby is always the painting and modelling, which is why my first step for a new project is always buy a very small kit (the test kits with 5 guys) and then if i enjoy painting those 5, then buy the rulebook and start the army.

That's one of Murphy's Laws: No plan survives initial contact intact. And don't forget the ever classic: Tracers work both ways.

I also suggest a painting journal where you keep the exact details on your test models. That way you can make sure you replicate what you like. I learned this the hard way!

Thank you for the video, it reflects what I experienced (sometimes painfully) in the past and I'm sure it'll be very helpful for new hobbyist. From my personal experience, a good trick if you want to start a big army game (like AoS) is the following: after you build your 2K points list, build a 1.5K , a 1K and a 500 points army list containing only models that are present in your 2K list. Then, start painting your army by giving absolute priority to the model present in the 500 pts list. Once your "500 pts sub-army" is done, first of all you have accomplish an important milestone of your project (rejoice, champagne, ...) and you now have a small force to try and learn the basics of the game with your friends. Then rince and repeat, paint your 1K army. This time you reach 50% of your big project and have an army for regular small forces game. Then go for your 1.5K and finally to 2K. To sum up, working with sub-army list help you define clear and achievable milestones (don't forget to celebrate the completion of milestone, this is you achieving something big!) and have the huge benefit to allow you to play earlier. And by playing earlier, you'll have the opportunity to alter your 2K master plan if needed. PS: "no plan survive the contact with the enemy" is a paraphrasing of a quote from Helmuth von Molke

My step by step so far since little before Corona: 1. Lot of youtube browsing on 40K in general to see if it really interests me. 2. Downloaded the 40K core rules for free from the Games Workshop page and watched battle reports with that in hand with some notes. 3. Online search for deciding what army in 40k to get and decided to get Blood Angels. 4. Bought few paints, brushes, glue, Blood angels codex and one box of 10 figures Tactical squad. 5. After studying the codex and building and painting 5ish of the models I was very confident on my army of choice. 6. Contacted a friend before lockdown and bought some of his unbuilt basic troop models cheap that go to Blood Angels to have something to build and paint during Corona. 7. Situation now is I have my 1000ish points list preplanned but I keep changing it frequently as I please with few variations depending on the mood. I have 2 Units ready built and painted, third unit in the making and have 2 units waiting in boxes :) 8. This week I need to get the Blood of Baal and maybe few weeks after that the full rulebook before getting any more models and see how I want to go from there :)

Loving your channel. I’m a life long modeler (Gunpla, Star Trek, WW2/WW1), but new to miniature gaming (long time card gamer). I appreciate the effort you put into your video and audio quality in addition to the content itself.

On the small goals point. 1. Mix up the goals. If you did a troops unit in week 1 add in a vehicle/hq for the next. 2. Be aware of other commitments . If you are away for most of the week set a smaller or no goal for it. 3. Set aside rest and/or reward weeks. Have a unit that you really want to paint (even if it's not part of your main goal) and have it planned that once you hit a milestone you set other things aside and do that or have a week of playing rather than painting. 4. Revisit your plan regularly Has it worked for you? Has your main goal changed? (new units/models that no longer fit in your list). Have your outside commitments changed? (Work/family/friends) And rework the plan if needed.

I remember reading “stillmania” in a White Dwarf in the early 90’s, (Nigel Stilman). He spoke about painting/adding units to your army via a calendar, eg. March could be the month for witch elves. He also spoke about building (wfb) armies in blocks of 500pts, where possible. That way you avoid issues of over committment. Advice which still resonates today...

One thing I noticed on when to build models: Sometimes it is best, not to build a model you're not going to paint/play with, just because you have time at hand and want to build something. You might find a way of conversion or style later on in which it appeals more to you, or maybe you want to salvage it for parts. Then again those kits might be cheap on ebay and progress is progress.

When I found ASOIAF then I found my game. Big armies & special attachments BUT your wisdom has helped me so much to paint & play.

This video I could have used 2 years ago. Lol. But it’s still good to watch for not just new hobbyists, but those buying into new Armies to expand your collection/try a new style in game “X”

I appreciate you linking all your older videos. Great work. Thank you

Thanks to Adam, I took the plunge on Star Wars: Legion. So far have two core sets; but, as this video suggests and from past experience, I am going to acquire additional units (expansions) slowly and deliberately. That being said I couldn’t help acquire Crannick, Erso and some death troopers already. Sometimes the grey crack addiction wins out.

Guy at my local gamestore recommended joining an “escalation” league which starts at 500 pts and works its way up every week. Seems like a good method for adjusting your list and built in deadlines for assembly/painting. Seems like good advice.

actual god because this madlad posted this for his fellow wargamers at like, 2 in the morning

"Don't buy the entire army all at once" Uh... what if I bought two entire armies all at once? *shoves his 600 EUR worth of USAriadna and JSA models out of sight real quick*

I tell people to find a model they like and then buy the book for that model and build you army that way. You want to make sure you like the models for your army too

Great video! I have recently decided to start huge kitbash army project and will be taking a lot of what you said into consideration and action.

I find, if I am getting worn out on a project, that it helps to keep a few "experiments" around. A mini that I'm learning wet blending or nmm on. I have a partial box of orks, grots and marines in a drawer if I ever feel like building. Push together marines are great for practicing all sorts of techniques. And I've got some Raging Heroes pieces that I'm trying and failing to get up to display quality, but when I need a break I can paint one of those.

Tons of greta information in here. I just got into war gaming (Bolt Action) after years of wanting to get into the one of the things I told myself when I started was that I was not going to go crazy and get one of every army out there. I was just going to concentrate on one country (USA) and build that and play with that army, learn to paint (which brought me to this channel) and develop strategy on how to win and best enjoy the game itself. I had a friend who is a Sarge for Warlord and he taught me how to play and let me borrow the rule book before I bought anything. Focusing on one faction or country realy helped me build a strong force for one and also allowed me to focus more on the playing of the game rather than collecting all the coll pieces that are out there. Now that I have a strong force I can turn my attention to building terrain and my own table. I eventually will build an Axis army (my friend gifted me a bunch of Germans for my birthday...that sounds weird...) so I can then get some support vehicles and tanks and play them too in case someone wants to run Allies. Long way around the barn here, but taking your time, and taking a step back before you open your wallet to the local shop will help prevent you from getting a bunch of stuff you don't need or can't even use. In the end it does not take long to amass a ton of stuff once you get going. Keep up the great videos!

Great advice! My personal method is to build and prime all of the corps units (I play star wars legion) and then start painting them and when I get bored I'll build and paint a commander or support unit and then go back to painting corps. Then repeat until I'm done! I do buy whole armies at once though 😂

Great advice, as always, Uncle Atom! I have absolutely no idea how “list building “ works. Never tabled an army...yet. :0 I have been buying and painting Tyranids for a few years and recently started a Blood Angels army. This is very helpful information. Thanks!

I gamed Orks from about 96 to 2007 when they broke them. I had inherited Orks as my kids wanted the space marines and orks were in the 2nd Ed box. I knew what I wanted for my next army, Eldar and instead of buying them from GW I went into my local minis store and bought a Dar army fresh out of the box. The advantages were I told them what I wanted and because I gave them a figure they gave me 15% off. Which I duly used for additional minis and paints. I ended up with an Autarch and Warlocks for HQ, 3 box of Guardians for troops, 2 Serpents, Dragons, Scorpions and Banshee and Dark Reapers. My colour scheme, tin bitz and metalics for the elites and heavies. There were flat colours to break up the shiny bits but the army actually grew from there. But I could not have made that purchase without copping a hiding with Orks to start off with, learning what worked for me and what didn't. You may find your second army can be bought in one hit without it feeling like it was overwhelming to build an paint because of your humble beginnings.

+1 for coming right out and saying you're not good at the "strategy". Subscribing to this channel, for sho'!

When I first got into WH40k, I read the White Dwarft magazines to get some understanding on the games and models until I found a store in another town that sold them and bought Codex: Imperial Guard 5th edition. I read through the codex to get more on the army before I went and bought a Cadian Command squad, then bought the infantry on the next month, and slowly build them up from a small skirmish to a large army. The only model I never used in any game is the Baneblade, which I bought a year later after I first bought my models. It looks good in the display cabinet though, and still painting it. I just gave it a camoflauge for the first time when the lockdown began this year.

I wish I’d seen this video a couple months ago, I bought 1500 points worth of Ossiarch Bonereapers for age of Sigmar. I have finished one model (Katakross) I also have the sisters of Battle army box that is not started. Great video!

Is it just me that enjoys TM vids in a sorta ASMR way? I'm chillin, eating a tenderloin and mac n cheese sammich, and thinking "Yes, I know all this, but... please go on, good sir." I also watch seemingly obvious topics to see if I missed anything, but still! So relaxing, dude!

Very, very good. Pure gold TM!

Great video :) I'm about to start a new army for 40k, and this gave me something to think about.

Your observations are spot-on as a emerging 40K player in the early 2000s I overbought and had a lot of troops that weren't really necessary to play the game. After a few games I learned to streamline that in turn sped up my overall gameplay which made me a better player.

To the best of my knowledge, the FOC in 40K 8th edition has changed dramatically compared to 7th to fit several different play styles. The simplest being the Patrol Detachment which, to the best of my knowledge, only requires one HQ and one Troops (not two as it was in 7th Edition). There are also Spearhead Detachments that focus on Heavy Support, Vanguard Detachments that focus on Elites, Outrider Detachments that focus on Fast Attack and others as well. So, for 40K (at least in 8th edition), depending on how you want to play the game, you actually may not have to run any troops. So, you may never paint any troops. Kirioth (another RU-vidr), for example, has an entire army of nothing but Dreadnoughts.

My friend built my warband list for me and bought my minis. I'm running Daughters of Khaine, mainly using Melusai. For their colours I'm using white lipped python's as inspiration, I'm adding some fun multichrome to the paint job to bring the snake vibe.

OMG YES make a list, is like the best thing you could do before going out buying

Wish I'd seen this a couple of months ago. Still glad I saw it, since it's all good advice to keep in mind and I'm considering grabbing a Sisters of Battle army. I'm just getting so tired of painting Guardsmen. I'll be sure to share this with a couple of my buddies before they dive into 40k the way I did.

I really appreciate your videos. You dont know how many times your video has been perfect for my situation.

Crazy good timing - FLGS is doing assistance and guidance for getting back into 4ok and even they dont get into this quality advice. Some iffy painted Eldar coming soon!

Comming from RPG into tabletop after too many years to recount.New Rulebook Kings of War 3rd . Make the Bases to the unit size ,then add the models onto the multibase,easy way to start . While my 40k 1st edition plastic sits 1/4 painted and mostly still on thier sprues,unplayed. Some good advice on the whole army buys, pre new year sales buys.. still have to work on batch painting ,so I like the advice.

Good advice as always. Thanks for the video!

the deadline idea is a great one! I think I will try that!

Yeah... so I bought the soul wars box and the tempest of souls box. So now I have two full armies to build and paint. It's fine everything is fine.

Great advice. Lot of value in this vid. Thank you.

Yeah, I didn't get a chance to buy the whole army at once because my brother did that for me. I didn't really want to play 40k or spend the money (though I think the lore is fun and I enjoy painting. I just haven't really been able to get into the gameplay of the miniatures games I've tried). So he literally just showed up at my house one day with a bunch of Adepta Sororitas. His ploy worked, not only did I agree to at least try the game (honestly, how could I not after that?) but I played my first game with him today and it genuinely was a blast. And, yes, I do know how lucky I am to have a brother that awesome.

Great video! Excellent points!

I originally started off 40k, a couple months ago I bought a magazine that came with a primaris intercessor and i also had two free ones from the store. I later picked blood Angel's and studied the lore, read the books but I didnt like the new primaris models, so I chose to hunt down the older models and about a month ago I bought a blood Angel's tactial squad as well as a whirlwind for a small little army my friend bought me a dreadnought a week before that. It took a total of 13 hours to paint the whirlwind, a couple hrs to paint my dreadnought but I'm not a fast painter and I'm not a noob I'd say I've got some skill with modeling for multiple years however I'm not amazing I'm still learning. However the tactial squad ive been working on here and there and I'm very impressed with taking my time it's been a couple weeks and I'm on my 6th tacial marine. I think I enjoy painting more than the gaming and I'd like to thank you for all the content and advice your provided its helped me tremendously. My main motivation other than to be better and better on each marine I always admired the guys and girls whom painted up their marines and kitsch and got to display them in the games workshops stores. I found that to be sweet to show them off and for potentially anyone new like myself to come in and see the models and to capture their imagination and motivation and I influence them to try soemthing new. As well as the competitions my goal for 2020 is to improve my skill in painting and model making becuase I'd like to participate some day in the near future.

Great advice! Now I have to finish painting so I can lead my nincompoops to victory 😜 The quote “No plan survives contact with the enemy,” is from Generalfeldmarschall Helmuth von Moltke the Elder (1800-1891).

"Resist buying powerful things"... yeah. I am playing 4th edition fantasy to today since 1993, and funny, the first model I bought was... A VAMPIRE! (back then it was called "Undead army" and it had a choice of just 1 vampire). He had: STRENGTH 7, TOUGNESS 6, WOUNDS 4, WEAPON SKILL 8, ATTACKS 5. Yeah.... very >>reasonable

The pachows seem to be lacking in sparkle today 😉

I am staring down my first fully painted army ever (due by the 26th of Jan) and it all started by me being sensible for once and buying and fully painting 10 skeletons (chaff frontline troops). I then made sure I fully painted my 40 skeleton warriors and all my other foot slogging troops before I touched my big monsters and heroes and lo and behold but I am now actually going to finish a project.

Good advice as always!

This helped a load thanks!

Thanks for another great video!

I just started a Tau army. I bought the Start Collecting set. It is pretty big I suppose, but no matter how the game goes, they will look great with my Gunpla and other sci-fi themes. Probably will also get an Imperial Guard SC box as well. At the very least, they’ll look great with my WW2/WW1 models!

"Buy the rulebook first" Did the exact opposite, on the advice of the guy at the GW shop btw. looking back on it now, I should have got the rule book and codex first. because the starter set he recommended was the absolute worst, and I bought two of them before I realized I was looking at the wrong ones.

I just picked up a kindle copy of Reality's Edge. The hard part is finding a way to get the cool cyberpunk minis that are not GW 40k minis kit bashed to look like cyberpunk minis. I'm in Japan. Also, in the future, d&d minis will be nice. I could easily convert my old mordheim shadow elves war band into frostgrave if I saw that being played, but I really just want to paint cyberpunk stuff.

So helpful, thank you!

The PCHOW per Video rate is through the roof! Love it!

I’ve being following your advices for Bolt & Action. I bought a single squad to start my arm - no paints though - the intention is to buy the rest across the year, another squad, the HQ, then either an AT gun or a third infantary squad. I might need to change somethings though, the unit I want to make was trained by the french from 1904 to 1926, but they employed 2 automatic weapons on their dragoons squad instead of 1. They also wear dark blue trench coats instead of camuflage, but hey, most effective unit in this country’s history, they want you to know that when you see them coming.

The "look at the books first" advice is excellent, but I'd advise to try to borrow the rulebook and the army books/tomes/codexes from a friend first. When it's possible to do so again another great idea is to go to a game appropriate hobby store during super low traffic hours. The people working there are 99.999% genuine fans that will quite often literally set up a game for you to try if they have nothing better to do. Also most stores will have a selection of the actual models. Looking at miniatures in person is another deal entirely than on the internet or in magazines.

Im hoping people are actually listening to you. Greatness sir.

hahaha iv already jumped headfirst into 40k. First time really excited to start playing!

I started by learning what army I wanted to build, then found out Adepta Sororitas was out of print for a long time.... so changed course to a similar style army, Salamanders Space Marines. I bought the 8th edition rulebook first. Then began buying the cheapest unfinished Space Marine stuff I could find on Ebay. My objective was to learn how to paint while filling out a decent troop core for the army. By the time I finished a bunch of old tactical squads, I was competent enough to do a decent job on the named characters. Now I got the codexes andordered a new Primaris Vanguard starter box, since the old line of marines is being phased out.

Perfect timing as my son and I want to get into Kill Team!! Uncle Atom, I applied to join the FB page quite a few days ago, and have not had any reply. Does it usually take awhile to get an answer? It would be under first name Ron, and my last name starts with an R. Excellent vid!

Hmmmm. So buying all the minis then turning them into a warband isn't the most efficient way of doing things? Darn.

Found this after the fact. Building my second game’s big army. Legion was done successfully, working on 40k 9th. Still enjoy legion but something about variety.

Look up Hal Thigham from the old hobby magazine MWAN. His articles on planning a project are legendary!

Playing multiple gangs or warbands in a skirmish game can sometimes be even more involved than a large army because of all the converting and kitbashing required plus unique paint schemes for different units

Strategy is psychology. Surprise effeft, bluff etc. Give stuff to eat to your opponent, let him fall inthe the trap and then you can apply your plan. This is what strategy is

You should also check out the great Dave Taylor's book "Armies, Legions and Hordes" which is about this exact topic!

If you're looking for specific strategies. Auspex tactics is amazing

new armies are def not my first rodeo.. but i always tend to "over buy" and find i have waay to many points to field everything so i make a few diff lists with what i want to try out..

I just started building my army out of epoxy sculpt, i’ve made 3 minis so far,they’re anthropomorphic horses with swords

Started with 40k (again) 2 months ago. Liked GSC (cool new models, playstyle seemed fun) so I bought a box of neophytes. Great choice because I learned so much building and painting them, amongst which: I paint slow as fuck and I don't want to have to paint faster. So now I'm planning to buy Custodes. Will still start with one troop box of course ;)

The mini-deadlines are key to a big project. I find without them I either have no motivation to do anything or I start getting MASSIVE mission creep.

That would have been really good advice about 10 years ago when I started collecting my orks ;D I bought a box of boys and assembled tham all as Shootas ^^’ What a waste...

Great video. I'm struggling with this right now. Bought a large lot of Age of Sigmar models (after reading the book first!) Picked out colors, tested them, happy with it, and then puttered out after the first five as they just take so long to do the blending on by hand and still haven't bought an airbrush yet. I've been distracting myself with other projects as of yet to avoid the pile of grey plastic on the table.

"Don't buy the entire army all at once" is both good and bad advice. It's good advice because it helps you paint in smaller batches, it's bad advice for when things go out of stock. I'm still picking up second hand bretonnia models for my army! I must admit i understand the reasoning behind it, but having been hurt one or two times by stuff that just went out and never came back in stock, i always try to buy a complete force at once!

My advice is yes buy an army box usually they will come with the minimum requirement for your army and sometimes it even comes with the rulebook in A5 format you save tons of money doing that. I have many example but ill go with a great game that nobody wants to play. Black powder from warlord games if you buy the 2 army starter its like 150$ If you buy everything separate its 450. If you want to try yes buy a core unit and paint it but don't buy everything separately you lose a crap ton of money.

Thank you Uncle Adam, I was going do new year, new army, decided on sororitas. But I was at a loss on where to start, I'm rather new to the hobby especially the game, the book is obvious answer that I did consider I was in it for the painting. Bought the 8e starter set got half way before burn out lol so I think starting with the rules great idea. Question: get book, hq, and 3 boxes of troops, with end goal of having a battalion (I know I'll need at least those for an army of any size) and flushing it out as I drive deeper? Or book, study, then models?

I would only recommend buying an entire army all at once, if and only if, you are following the "rule of cool" and you can also afford to get it all commission painted.

While these days I tend to plan my armies I still end up buying some extra models if I like those and I think that I might want to use those some day.

Proper planning is real important. Best to plan small armies. 500 pts. Two or three squads. Or a skirmish warband. And start playing. Planning large armies never get finished and is a road to disaster. Be satisfied with less. I also like to think about terrain and an attractive game board. Cheap and effective.

It wouldn't be too weird doing a Soviet army in all red fatigues and a US army in all blue fatigues. Red Alert, anyone?

That "now i'm missing one miniature and what about flyers" etc. is one of the main reasons that pushed me away from games like Warhammer. Then I found out about games that don't require specific miniatures and for the first time in my life now I've started playing table top wargames because all of a sudden they feel approachable.

Murphy's Law is another good thing to keep in mind.

Buy the rule book for game X or watch Battle Reports for game X to determine if the faction your eyeing is right for the play style you have in mind. Results may vary.

I'm getting ready to compete my deathgaurd army 15k point this year I got about 10% done so far

Hi Uncle Atom. I had a question or two for you. What video editing software do you use? Is there any video editing software you would recommend to use or avoid? I ask the above question because I got a Warhammer 40k Dark Imperium Box for Christmas and being as it seems that no one on RU-vid who has a miniatures channel has ever done a video series of starting from a ZERO POINT of Building, Basing and Painting miniatures and figured that it might be a interesting series for those who just starting or maybe thinking about starting. Yes, I realize that most of the miniatures channels on RU-vid are done by people who have been Building, Basing, Painting and Playing Miniatures for years most likely and it the likely real why such a video series does not seem to exist. I love watching your channel and thank you because of all of the helpful information about the motivation; building, basing and painting of both miniatures and terrain. But most importantly your thoughts about start kits, rules books and appendices books for the many wargames out there. I wish you and your channel the best of luck and continued growth in the future. Thank you. PS. I'm also asking this same question of the other Miniatures and Hobby Channels I watch just so you know.

I think i should do a space marine army but only paint the left arm

I would love to have the will to paint all the little emblems and filigree on all my dudes. but i dont have the drive to paint and no one can see that stuff anyways on the table so i only really go for the leader type models.

More a technical question from a novice painter, if I build sub assemblies and then rattle can prime everything can I still use the gw plastic cement to stick it all together afterwards?

I made this mistake with old Fantasy 8th edi chaos army. Got some skull crushers cause they were cool. Bought at the end around 9000 points of models off flebay. Had fun but was overwhelmed. Sold most of the army last year. Kept a few models I 'REALLY' like and enough for a few warbands and baddies for DnD.

This is the order in which I approach each warband. It seems logical to me...but probably it is useful to put it all together for new players.

I got into 40k but with the way life is going, I think 9th edition will be out by the time I'm playing. I got the codex but not the rulebook. I'm ok with that for now.

any ideas for homebrew warband/chapters and named characters that aren't like, Magnus or Dente?

The Gw site does have 360 views on models, it was basically the only way that my necromunda gang looked like real gangers.