Consequences of growing up - wargame newb

[The Reverend]

So I'm an adult now;family, school, job, house, etc and all the time consumingness that comes with it. Its more and more difficult to show up every week to a DnD campaign , in fact i was asked to switch classes in our 4e game because i wasn't there often enough to dish out healing, because of this I am looking at alternatives for entertainment. I've always been a big fan of strategic and tactical wargaming on the computer and have participated in quite a few miniature based combats, but only a game or two of any system.
What I'm looking for.
1. Advice on the popular wargaming systems both ground and ship particularly SciFi and scifantasy: is warmachines, warhammer & 40K, at43, Starfleet battles,full thrust, grunt etc.

2. Money is not a huge issue, but i would like miniatures i can move from system to system.

3. Availability of players: i want to be able to find people that play the game, the main reason I'm considering warhammer 40k in fact, even if their minis are expensive.

4. I would like to have both a fleet and an army.

Thankyou very much

[Mx.Silver]

I'm going to leave your first question for the moment, since popularity of systems tends to vary a lot from region to region (that and I'm not at all familiar with AT43, Starfleet or Grunt, and I haven't touched 40k since at least 2 editions ago).



2. Money is not a huge issue, but i would like miniatures i can move from system to system.

Using Proxy minis is unlikely to be a problem as long as you keep scale in mind and since 28mm is probably the most common it won't be too much of a problem. Just bear in mind that more official gaming locations/events don't often tolerate proxies. It'll also require some additional note-keeping to keep track of exactly what each proxy model represents.



3. Availability of players: i want to be able to find people that play the game, the main reason I'm considering warhammer 40k in fact, even if their minis are expensive.

That really depends on your local scene, I'm afraid. While 40k is probably the most likely to be played in any given area, it's still not a guarantee there'll be a lot of other players so your best bet to scout out the scene first to get an idea. If there are other systems being played in your area it really wouldn't hurt to consider them before jumping to the 'safe' option of 40k (for the sake of your wallet if nothing else).


4. I would like to have both a fleet and an army.

Then you're going to have to collect 2 different games (with the possible exception of Dystopian Wars, which doesn't do proxies very well at all). It is also worth noting that fleet games aren't as popular, so there's a higher risk of not having opponents, so again it's important to check your local scene. Fleet games are usually less expensive though, and don't require much in the way of terrain so actually collecting them isn't a very demanding prospect.

[The Reverend]

What systems do you use or have used?

YEah a fleet and an army is a given I figured, a fleet would be the easiest collect as alot of systems allow bring your own model.

[Mx.Silver]

What systems do you use or have used?

I'm at least familiar with Hordes/Warmachine, Malifaux, Anima Tactics, Infinity, Uncharted Seas and Firestorm Armada. I would point out though that I have little gaming experience with hem though, so I can't provide detailed strategic advice, nor much commentary on their respective playerbases (general system rundowns though I can do). As previous mentioned, my experience with the Warhammer Games (fantasy and 40k) is around 2 editions out of date (around the time I stopped due to financial constraints and various changes in my personal life - not least of which was moving).



YEah a fleet and an army is a given I figured, a fleet would be the easiest collect as alot of systems allow bring your own model.
True. Spartan Games systems (Uncharted Seas, Firestorm Armada, Dystopian Wars) tend to be very proxy friendly, to the point of actually including paper cut-outs of the core ships with their rulebook for proxy use.