How to Start Warhammer in 2026: The Best Starter Sets Before Black Friday

Want to get into Warhammer, or buy a starter set as a gift? With Black Friday and Christmas coming, this is when most people start. The good news: you don't need a huge army. Here's where to begin for each game, what a beginner actually needs, and how to avoid wasting money.

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First, pick your game

"Warhammer" is really several games. Pick the one whose models you like best, because you'll be painting them for hours:

• Warhammer 40,000: grimdark sci-fi. Space Marines, Orks, Necrons, Chaos. The most popular game and the easiest to find opponents for.
• Age of Sigmar: high fantasy. Dwarfs, undead, daemons and monsters.
• Kill Team and Necromunda: small skirmish games with about 5 to 15 models a side. Quick to paint, quick to play, and great on a budget.

Warhammer 40,000: start with a Combat Patrol

A Combat Patrol box is a small, ready-made army for one faction, built to be played straight away in the Combat Patrol format. It's the best value way into 40K, and every major army has one. Pick the faction you think looks coolest. Necrons, Orks and Space Marines are all easy for beginners.

Images: Games Workshop / Warhammer Community

Already hooked? This year's Christmas Battleforces are bigger boxes with a lot of models for the price. They're limited and often sell out, so they suit someone who already knows which army they want.

Age of Sigmar: start with a Spearhead box

For Age of Sigmar, the starter is a Spearhead box: a small force made for the quick Spearhead game mode. Like a Combat Patrol, it's a complete small army you can play with right away, and it's the core of a bigger army later. The Spearhead boxes are among the items our readers click most.

Small games: Kill Team and Necromunda

If a whole army sounds like too much, start small. Kill Team uses a handful of elite models on a dense board, and Necromunda is gang warfare in a giant hive city, where your fighters gain skills and scars over a campaign. House Orlock just got a whole new wave of models.

What every beginner actually needs

Models are only half of it. To build and paint your first army, you need:

• Clippers to cut parts from the frame (hobby clippers are much better than scissors).
• Plastic glue made for miniatures.
• A primer (spray or brush-on) so paint sticks.
• A few paints and two brushes. A starter Citadel paint set covers the basics. New paint lines like Warhammer Tone Pro make shading easier, too.

Good light helps more than you'd think. Painting under a dim ceiling light makes small details hard to see. A daylight desk lamp works, or a clamp-on magnifier such as the NUEYiO 10X magnifying lamp if your eyes aren't what they used to be.

Don't buy everything at once. A starter army and a basic paint set keep you busy for weeks.

Black Friday: how to save money

• Games Workshop rarely discounts its own store. Savings, when they happen, usually come from independent hobby stores and online retailers, so compare before you buy.
• Bundles beat single kits. Combat Patrols, Spearheads and Battleforces cost less than buying the same models one by one.
• Limited boxes sell out. Battleforces and special editions often don't come back, so don't wait until the week before Christmas.
• Buying a gift? Ask which army they collect first, or stick to paints and tools, which are always useful. Our Warhammer gift guide has more ideas.

My take

Start small and pick what you love the look of. A Combat Patrol or Spearhead, a few paints and a pair of clippers is everything you need for months of fun. The biggest mistake beginners make is buying three armies before finishing one. Which army did you start with?