Thoughts on Warmachine vs 40k so far...

Four games in and I see no reason at all to think Warmachine is in any way a bad investment. In fact, I'm more driven than ever to build a couple of solid 35 pt lists, now that the GW price hikes are driving more players in the direction of alternative game systems (read: Warmachine).

As the proud owner of (almost) fully painted armies of Grey Knights, Chaos Space Marines, Necrons and a shit-tonne of Blood Angels, I'm not terribly keen on abandoning 40k entirely. I practically grew up with 40k, drawn to it since the 1st edition of Space Hulk and White Dwarf issue 144, and in my eyes, no game out there can ever have a universe to match that of Warhammer 40k. That having been said, I've kind of reached the point where I've got an army for every occasion and, apart from some new Canoptek Wraiths and some paints, I see no reason to spend a penny more in GW's direction.

So how's it looking now? Let's see...


40k:
1) Price hikes! Gadzooks, did you see what a Stormraven costs now?!
2) Flyers, yay!
3) Plastic Canoptek Spyder and Wraith goodness, yay!
4) The END OF 5th EDITION! Oh, my...
5) I've put in a LOT of time and effort collecting and painting my armies. I've gotten quite attached to them and really have no intention of selling them and ditching 40k forever...

Warmachine:
1) My Khador and Menoth armies are building up nicely. Soon I'll have comfortable 25 pt armies in both.
2) Want a different army? Switch out the caster!
3) Watching the battle reports, 35 pts of Warmachine has all the depth in tactics and strategy as a 1750pt game of 40k, often for less than half of the model count. And price.
4) Warjacks do all the cool stuff you wish dreadnoughts would. Slam! Throw! Armlock! Seriously, those grabby arms on dreadnoughts deserve to be put to better use.
5) Not really relevant to me, as I'm already building a pair of armies based on the Battle Box contents, but Privateer Press has been kind enough to do this here Summer Sale.

Honestly, looking at the two side by side and knowing what I know about the two gaming systems, the only thing that keeps me playing 40k is my prior investment. As it stands, building an army like my current Blood Angels list will, at current GW prices, cost a little under USD550 (including a little extra for bits, e.g. Infernus pistols, meltaguns and plasmaguns for the Razorback turrets). Not including the Codex and the 5th Edition Rulebook. For that kind of money, with the Summer Sale that's currently on, I could get 3 perfectly adequate 25 pt armies, with money left over to take the army of my choice to a comfortable 35 pts. Each with a whopping great big full-colour army book which, for USD2 more, puts any GW codex to shame.

So, seriously, is there any reason whatsoever for me to spend more than I already have on GW?