From http://listentomywords-mom.blogspot,com
So this post is a sort of it response to this post on Bell of Lost Souls:
http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2012/06/price-of-wargaming-spring-2012.html
It is also that sort of post no gamer really wants to know, but I did it anyways as I was curious. First go check out that post on BoLS before continuing here.
I have done the math to compare the cost new for 6 army I have currently including 2 Dust Warfare, 2 Warmachine, 1 40k, and 1 Warhammer Ancient Battles.
First let me say this... How often when building armies do we just build to a fixed point value, say 50pts in warmachine (my preferred point value) and stop? I have know 2 players (that I know of) in my entire career of playing Warmachine/Hordes that has done this for those two games. It is more common in GW games (building to 2k as I did here) ad stopping, I have done this myself. Dust is too new to know if that will be the trend or not but from everything I have seen most people blow right by the 300pt mark to give themselves some flexibility to handle different enemy builds/strategies/ or character mixes (I have with both my armies).
DUST WARFARE
Army 1: Allies - Average Game 300pts/ Total Points 650pts $309
Army 2: Axis - Average Game 300pts/ Total Points 450pts - $267
WARMACHINE
Army 3: Khador - Average Game 50pts/ Total Points 167pts - $985 (5 Warcaster, 1 Battle Engine)
Army 4: Menoth - Average Game 50pts/ Total Points 51pts - $223 (4 Warcasters)
WARHAMMER 40,000
Army 5: Orks - Average Game 2000pts/ Total Points 2000pts - $693
WARHAMMER ANCIENT BATTLES
Army 6: v2 Mid Anglo-Saxons - Average Game 2000pts/ Total Points $2000 - $175
Okay so now lets talk about how the different armies compare. Is Dust Warefare, Army 1, the Allies are a fare bit high point wise but a good number of the points above 400 are filled by regularly unused characters and a Heavy Walker which I rarely use also (at least right now). The same goes for the points over 350 for Army 2, the Axis, except all the extra points are in unused characters as I do not own a heavy walker for Axis at this time. Both of these armies were purchased from scratch recently.
Army 3, Khador, represents the Mk 2 collection I have been building up since Winter of 2010-2011 when I first got back into the game till now. While this is a fairly large army it still only includes 5 warcasters and does not include 50ish pts of models I am still using from my previous Mk1 Khador army. Army 4 is the Menoth project I will be doing for the slow grow. While I have 4 casters listed the components of this army are really for only 3 of the 4, Kreoss, Feora, and Reznik (leaving out the Testament). However I still need another $73 worth of minis before I can field the planned list for these 3 casters at 35/50pt games.The total project cost for my target collection for my Menoth has me spending an additional $500+ more and that does not include a Battle Engine, 3Kreoss, or the Menoth Colossal.
Army 5 and 6 are really the only self contained armies, built to the target point level as both 40K and WAB both lend themselves to fixed list play, do the higher model count necessary to play both armies. Army 5, Orks for 40k is an all comers tournament list with big squads, 5 vehicles, and several hard hitting units. While the army only features 1 Battle Wagon and no Big Mek, it does include a unit of 10 Nobz with a Painboy and mix of gear, a big unit of Lootaz, a big unit of Stormboyz, and 2 of the new Ork Planes released this past weekend. The model count for the ork army is 121 models and 5 Vehicles.
Army 6, the WAB saxon army is by far the cheapest, but only thanks to the fact that it is all plastic, made from 6 boxes of Wargames Factory Saxon minis that come 32 models to a box, 4 bags of Old Glory Spear Tips, and some brass rod. This army is all infantry and is a wapping 171 models strong.
So what does all this info show? Comparatively, All plastic WAB armies can be cheap but are uncommon, at least at the moment. The next Cheapest is tied with starter Warmachine/Hordes armies and Dust Warfare armies. The most expensive of the one shot armies, not unsurprisingly is GW, though warmachine armies as you begin adding additional Warcaster and new models like full units, Cav, additional warjacks, and battle engines to your collections can grow in cost exponentially fast too.
To sum up, of course there will be exceptions to the rule, however for the most part it looks like Dust Warfare wins out on cost, but currently it has the least options army construction wise on how the game is played (2.5 factions out at the moment). Warmachine, while cheaper to get into then GW, ends up costing around the same amount as a GW army does in the long run, assuming you expand both to allow for more list building options. That leaves GW games with the highest entry cost to get into, but in the long run it is probably going to be just as expensive as warmachine or hordes is to play.
WAB, while the cheapest in this comparison, is the exception to the rule in this case. Usually WAB armies are a high precentage metal and are probably to hardest to find games for of all for 4 game types listed. Also the branch of GW the produces WAB just closed its doors a few weeks ago and so the rules, at least as official WAB rules go, are no longer being supported.
If anyone wants I can post full list of models for all these armies as required.