Beginning Warhammer Tabletop Game

Hi Veeky Forums, I've never posted here before but I've been reading about the Warhammer game, particularly Age of Sigmar and I really liked the Total War video game and got interested in the lore and hand painting the models and playing on those beautiful looking landscape tables just seems like a really fun hobby to get into. I just don't know where to start!

Is it hard to get into? There's a shop in my town where people play and I was thinking about stopping by this weekend to watch but I was wondering if anyone here could give me some tips? I appreciate it!

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games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/Downloads/CitadelPaintingSystem.pdf
amazon.com/Stormcast-Eternals-and-Paint-Set/dp/B01D8L0SD6
youtu.be/VepXVggrfiE
twitter.com/AnonBabble

Start slow and take it easy.
Don't buy a full army, but individual units you like and build and paint them as you go.

Total War portrays a different setting. You were goofed.

There are three Warhammer universes:

Warhammer fantasy, which is what Total War: Warhammer is based on, a kind of grittier Tolkien high fantasy world loosely based on Medieval Europe.

Age of Sigmar, the Warhammer Fantasy successor that is a more mythological setting.

Warhammer 40,000, the science fantasy version Warhammer Fantasy that is kind of an alternate reality reflection of the fantasy universe. This is by far the most popular of the three.

If you want to get into the hobby, look over all the armies in the game system you like and find one you like the look and aesthetic feel of. Buy an HQ unit - a leader - and maybe a box of line troops. Assemble and paint all of these models completely before spending money on anything else. You don't want to blow $600 on this hobby and realize you have a giant pile of hastily-assembled gray plastic men you now want to sell. Take your time and lovingly paint and convert every model before moving on to more.

Also, never, NEVER buy an ugly model just because you like its rules in the tabletop game. Have high standards for the models you like, and if you want Axeman the Axegrinding Battleaxe but hate his model, convert one from a different, better-looking model.

It's way easier to get into Age of Sigmar than it was to get into the old Warhammer Fanasy Battles, which is what Total War is based on.

Now, you can play a small group of soldiers and expand to a larger one later on, whereas you used to be required to buy huge blocks of men and giant armies just to play. For example, you could probably start with 30 skeletons and a couple undead leaders right now. It used to be 30 skeletons wasn't even enough for "one" block of infantry.

This times a hundred.
Finish that tac squad/sigmarine squad.
It helps if you choose a paint scheme and go for it. Citadel is good for that with their base-shade-layer pairings, but you should also prepare by getting, in addition to paints:
>Assembly Tools: (sprue cutters, cutting knife, paring knife, plastic glue)
>Spray Primer: (Citadel do white or black, but grey works for both light and dark models. It's important to choose one to suit the colours you'll be using). Note that only Corax White and Chaos Black are true primers, while the others are merely spray versions of their base colours, which can be useful - spray on blue if you're doing ultramarines, for example, and it'll be much smoother and quicker than doing it with a brush. Citadel's primers aren't exceptionally better than any other brand of primer, so feel free to purchase as you wish there.
>Brushes: You'll need about four or five brushes in my opinion: A small-to-medium-sized "base brush" and/or a medium-large "base brush", a very small "detail brush", a large "shade brush", and a small-to-medium "drybrush". GW's Citadel brand isn't my favourite when it comes to detail brushes, and they're more expensive overall than other brands, but I do like their "shade brush", large base brush (square head), and their drybrushes, because they do very specific modelling tasks well, whereas general-purpose and detail brushes can be gotten from non-model-specific art brands like Winsor and Newton.
>Brush Supplies: You should definitely get a brush cleaner like "the masters", which is expensive but worth it. You could also get a flow extender or fluid retardant from brands like W&N or Liquitex, they're liquids that make the paint flow more on brushes and dry out more slowly than water. Not truly necessary but can be helpful.

>Beginning Warhammer Tabletop Game
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!

>Age of Sigmar
>more mythological setting.
>fedora-dwarves, space marines, Iron Horde and MtG/Moba artstyle
>mythological

>Varnish: There's two types of varnish, "gloss" (shiny), and "matte" (non-reflective). Both protect your models from the paint being scuffed off, but they can also be used to change the way washes or shades flow into the recesses of the figures. Generally putting a gloss varnish on before a wash means the wash won't spread out as much over the figure and just go in the corners and cracks. If people have used gloss varnish 99 times out of a hundred they'll use matte varnish to get rid of the shiny effect, and perhaps put the glossy varnish back on parts on which a shiny effect is desired. Both spray and brush-on varieties are available. Brush-on varnish isn't good for brushes so use an old brush for that task, but an advantage over spray varnish is that it can be targeted specifically at certain areas, and can be used in more weather conditions with less risk of crystallizing and putting a "fog" over your minis.

A final thing to note is that you should generally use acrylic paint, rather than oil or enamel paint, because acrylic paint can be thinned with water, whereas if you wanted to use oil paint you'd use turpentine, and have to put it over a glossed mini because the plastic can't take that.

games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/Downloads/CitadelPaintingSystem.pdf

Don't play anything made by Games Workshop or Privateer Press. They are noob traps. I would recommend seeing what else is played at your store.