When You Love 40K but Can't Keep Up: The Pace, the Prices and the Armies Heading to Legends

A lot of longtime Warhammer 40,000 fans still love the hobby but feel like they're always one release behind, and from thousands of comments, a pile of Reddit threads and Games Workshop's own numbers, I think the reasons come down to the pace, the prices and the armies heading to Legends. By the end of this piece I'll also share the one rule that kind of got me painting again, and why I don't think any of us are really behind at all.

I started painting and playing 40k by buying somebody else's Blood Angels army off eBay, and I'm still stripping and repainting it. There's a Dreadnought in my army on my shelf right now missing a leg. He's been through enough.

Other hobbyists are drifting away from Warhammer, and plenty of fans say they're fed up

More recently, I've noticed a load of creators kind of starting to move away from Warhammer. I want to give a shout out to Midwinter Minis, because I think he kind of set the ball rolling on this one. Once I started researching, I realized there are a lot more people doing it too. Even painters who'd only ever painted Space Marines are picking up other models and other brands now.

So I started digging into how the wider community feels, rather than just the people we follow online. It turns out loads of people are feeling pretty fed up with Warhammer right now. And I get it. There are evenings where I want to spend time with the hobby and somehow end up reading about what's changed instead of painting a model or playing a game. I've already got a job. The little red men are meant to be the break from it.

New people are still finding Warhammer. I'm thinking more about the people who painted Space Marines in the '90s or early 2000s, wandered off for a bit, then came back with adult money and about 45 minutes of free time a week. One Warhammer 40k Reddit thread I found is titled "Is it hobby burnout? Trying to find the love again?" The whole concept of the post is that building, painting and playing have all stopped giving the poster satisfaction. It had two votes and 18 comments, and one person saying something I think a lot of us will recognize.

Games Workshop had a record year, but a returning fan needs something different

Meanwhile, Games Workshop has just had a record year: nearly 660 million in revenue and over a million people at its events. Plenty of people are clearly enjoying the hobby. I don't think someone starting out and someone trying to get back in need the same thing, though. If you're the second one, all this new stuff doesn't always help.

And there is a lot of new stuff. 11th edition arrived in June, three years after 10th. Before I'd got my head around that, there was the Armageddon box, new starter sets and an Ork codex, and now the Space Marine codex. Custodes is already on the way. In the middle of all of that, Games Workshop unveiled 150 new paints. 150. I once bought Citadel Air paint without even owning an airbrush, because I was that much of a beginner, so you can imagine how I handle that sort of decision.

Any one release on its own is fine, but if you stack them up, I feel slightly like I'm super behind all the time. One comment on Reddit put it far better than I could: "For some exhilarating, but for others it's exhausting." They meant playing every week versus once or twice a month. Same game, completely different experience.

I'm a slow painter, and another pot of paint won't finish a squad

I am slow. A unit gets done when I've actually got the time and fancy doing it. My pile of shame isn't some legendary warehouse of gray plastic. It's mostly just a few Blood Angels and that one legged Dreadnought. Some of those new paints look amazing, especially the reds. I don't think another pot is going to finish a squad for me, though.

Most of the comments I read weren't asking Games Workshop to stop making things. People just kind of wanted time to enjoy what they've already got before the next thing lands.

A price rise of about 4% and a $420 limited edition Space Marine codex

Then there's that little voice saying if you want it, you'd better buy it now. In September, prices went up again by about 4% on average. The Mark V Tactical Squad went from £54.50 to £57. It's the sort of increase you only notice when you're already at the till, reconsidering whether your existing Marines need any friends.

Then there's the new Space Marine codex. The normal US edition is $40. The limited edition is $420. Nobody needs that version to play.

Spikey Bits reckons the hobby now caters to people who buy an army, play it for a few months, and then move on. I don't play like that. I bought Jump Pack Intercessors because they felt right for my army, not because I'd worked out some clever meta plan.

An Age of Sigmar starter set taught me a box can be good value and still wrong for you

I have bought the wrong thing, though. There was an Age of Sigmar starter set that seemed like a sensible way to get painting again. I then spent two weeks making myself paint Stormcast and Kruleboyz, and I just wasn't excited about it. I ended up putting the brushes down.

A box can be good value and still be the wrong box for you. So when money and free time are tight, every purchase starts to feel like a decision you need to get right, and limited editions are very good at making you decide before you're ready.

The new Space Marine codex drops 17 units, with the classic Dreadnought among those moving to Legends

Some people have spent years building an army, and now some of the units that make it theirs are leaving the codex. The new Space Marine codex drops 17 units. Tactical Squads can stand in as Intercessors. The classic Dreadnought, the Predators, the Stormraven and others move to Legends. You can still play them casually, but if you loved fielding them in the main game, that doesn't entirely settle it.

In one Reddit thread, someone says they would rather Games Workshop updated the armies people already own before adding another faction. Plenty of people pushed back, but I can kind of see why. Then there's a poor bloke who has just finished a gorgeous Raptors Hammerfall Bunker, and his post is basically: lovely, just in time for Legends. It looks so good. I'd still need a little sit down.

Some of my army is repainted, some of it is new, and some of it is still proudly the color of unfulfilled ambition. As far as I can tell, none of it is on that list. My one legged Dreadnought is a Ballistus, so I'm not going to pretend Games Workshop has personally confiscated him. But I do get why people are attached to the older stuff.

Old 40k still has a pull, and I kind of get why people find the Tactical Squad timing a little weird

The image that gets me is that second edition style artwork: the Blood Angels, the Orks, the huge banners, everything slightly excessive. The new Armageddon box nods to it. That scrappy, colorful 40k still has a pull.

Games Workshop is selling a new Mark V Tactical Squad for the Horus Heresy while the classic Tactical Squad is leaving the main 40k codex. It's a different game, yes, but seeing those two announcements side by side, I kind of get why people find it a little bit weird.

People are enjoying 11th edition too, and so am I

I should say that people are enjoying 11th. GamesRadar calls it "the most balanced start to a Warhammer 40k edition that I can remember." You can enjoy the game and feel worn down by the hobby at the same time.

I'm enjoying it. I lost my first proper game in 11th. Dante spent most of it keeping Lemartes alive, which is somehow the bit I remember more clearly than anything tactically useful I did. That's what Games Workshop gets right for me: you end up with these ridiculous little stories you tell people afterwards. The game itself is fine. What's got harder is feeling settled if you want to build one army, keep its history, and still be playing those same models years from now.

Legends, codexes and Combat Patrol: how I'm handling it

I don't want to tell you the hobby feels exhausting and then send you off to feel exhausted somewhere else, so here's what I'm doing. Legends doesn't mean your models have vanished. For a game with your mates, just agree what you both want to play. You don't need to treat every preorder like an appointment. Your current codex works until its replacement arrives, and you can let everyone else read the new one first. Very brave of them. I'll be over here finishing the models I've already bought.

You can also play smaller. Combat Patrol is one army, a manageable project, and a game that doesn't need your entire Saturday. You don't have to work your way up to 2,000 points for it to count.

My one rule: pick up a brush when you can, put it down when you can't

The biggest one for me goes back to the Stormcast. Forcing myself to paint them made me want to stop painting altogether. My Blood Angels pulled me back because I actually cared about them. So my rule is just pick up a brush when you can, and put it down when you can't. If all I want to do this week is read about Sanguinius, that's me enjoying Warhammer. If I fancy painting one model, lovely. If I don't, the model will still be there next week, judging me from the shelf.

You're not behind. You're allowed to enjoy the bit of this hobby that's yours. A lot of these comments come from people who still love Warhammer. They're just worn out trying to keep up. I'm still here because I love the stories, the models, and the daft moments on the table you'll bring up with a mate six months later. My first army was Blood Angels, and yes, I'm still playing them.

What was your first 40k army, and is it still getting a game or is it living in a box somewhere?