The Privateer Press price problem.

Its also worth noting that there's a lot more emphasis on perfectly tuned lists at all levels of WM/H.

by contrast, due in no small part to the GW communities general preference for Hobby over competition as well as opposition to "WAAC" players, Players don't fiddle with lists in pursuit of meta benders as much.

For examples Flyer Spam is currently HUGE in the GT scene in 8th. so if you were meta chasing you'd need approximately 440 MSRP in flyers for Marine armies, while Eldar have a similar list with Hemlocks that clocks in over 400 dollars as well.

Then there's the hordes lists for 'Nids and Orks that upwards of 800 dollars. (orks for example are running upwards of 180 boys in GT lists.  at 30 US for 11 boyz, thats 480 just in Boyz)

Import or not, when going from 1 box needed for 60 vs 3-4 boxes for 25 each, an imbalance is easily recognized.

Now, I can't say AoS solved 8th Edition's issues in that regard or not, but one of AoS's biggest problems was the lack of coherent army design (aka points, FOC, etc) until the General's Handbook came out. Apparently, people taking time to address those thing pre-game was too much for many, especially in America. Admittedly, unless you have agreements already set ahead of time, that can take some time to come to an agreement on, and that is time out of actually playing the game.

Sure WM/H isn't cheap, and I probably should have prefaced my comments as being simply counter to the narrative that "GW was cheaper because per model costs are lower"

My point was the purpose of collection matters, are you looking to have variety for competitive play or you just looking for beer and pretzels.

Tis why i mentioned GT lists and not "forge the narrative" oh "hobbyists"


$1000 for a comprehensive force vs $440 for a single Spam list.  Wanna have Razorbacks, Land Raiders, Bikes, etc for when you get bored or the meta turns against you? That will cost you more


$1000 for set of models capable of playing in ANY format (champions, Masters 2 or 3 lists, local steamrollers, leagues etc) vs $440 who competitive value is entirely dependent on the basic ITC format.  Local events may disallow such lists and that 440 dollars is useless for leagues, or any other format etc



The point is that any comparison between PP and GW prices should include WHY you're building the collection and WHAT you're building it towards.

Everyone who gripes about PP prices and brings up the "GW is cheaper in X, Y, or Z ways" are typically people who never try to play 40k with the same Competitive fervor as they do WM/H.  So sure playing 40k without expectations of competitive success is cheap but so is playing Warmachine, if all you care about is having the bare minimum set of models needed to play a local event. 

I think that's a great point. I think the important question isn't "how expensive is this game?", because there isn't a simple answer to that. The important question is "how much are you wanting/willing to spend?". You get what you pay for, regardless of what game you choose.

I've stopped buying PP stuff almost totally now. I think the last thing I actually bought was before winter. I've had friends get me stuff in exchange for painting their models but I dunno if that counts.

My problem is that the quality of the models is poop. They look ugly, monopose and they're a chore to paint. I mean I can deal with monopose. I can deal with ugly. But together? Maaaaannnn...

Between the time I stopped buying PP stuff I've been collecting Malifaux and those models are SO MUCH FUN to paint. They drip character, they aren't overburdened with detail and even a basic paint job makes them look good. Now with 8th 40k I've been looking at filling gaps in my Sisters Of Battle army. I was pleasently surprised when I found out Pentient Engines and Sister Repentias were cheaper than warjacks and a PP 10-man unit respectivly. Likewise I have conversion plans for Crusaders, Death Cult Assassins and Acroflagellants all using GW models.

Part of this is as I mentioned, PP models are both monopose and ugly and I can forgive a lot if a model is one or the other but fun to paint. Another part is that I'm just sick of PPs faffing about with Mk3. Mk3 feels like a botched MMO launch and now this whole theme thing is "the big patch" which will fix everything before it goes F2P.

Any hobby is expensive

If your into cars or anything it's a lot of money. Even railway model collectors.

It doesn't excuse silliness with pricing. I look at the costs of the new Behemoth and I cry a little.