Live numbers, not folklore
How Much Does a Warhammer Army Cost?
What starting each game system actually costs today, computed from live prices at every shop we compare — and the honest answer to "is Age of Sigmar cheaper than 40k?".
Warhammer 40,000
C$174.25
median start · 24 armies priced
from C$90.62 to C$229.76
A standard 2,000-point army: ~C$890.00
Age of Sigmar
C$153.00
median start · 22 armies priced
from C$81.20 to C$318.37
The Horus Heresy
C$200.06
median start · 3 armies priced
from C$200.06 to C$225.25
Is Age of Sigmar cheaper than 40k?
Age of Sigmar is cheaper to start today: the median Age of Sigmar start is C$153.00 (22 armies priced) against C$174.25 for 40k (24 armies). The spread matters more than the medians, though — 40k starts run C$90.62–C$229.76 and AoS C$81.20–C$318.37, so the army you pick moves the answer more than the game does.
Is Horus Heresy more expensive than 40k?
Yes — today it is the median Horus Heresy start is C$200.06 (3 forces priced) against C$174.25 for 40k. Heresy armies are built from bigger boxes with more plastic in them, so the per-model price is usually better even when the entry price is higher.
Cheapest start today
The lowest-priced way into any army we track is Age of Sigmar: Introductory Set (Skaven), at C$81.20 at Cataclysm Collectables · eBay.
One box of Age of Sigmar, not the whole hobby — the figures above say what growing it costs.
What "the cost of an army" means here
The headline is the cost of each army's cheapest currently-priced box — the recognised starting point for its game (Combat Patrol, Spearhead, or a Horus Heresy force box) — at the lowest live price across the shops we compare. That is where you begin, not what the hobby costs, so the figure beneath it scales to a standard game: the size people actually build towards.
That second number is an estimate and wears a tilde, but it is not a guess. It is the median across every army we can both price and point, at the per-point rate those real boxes actually sell for today. Everyone else answering this question picked a range and published it; theirs went stale the day Games Workshop last changed the points, and ours moves when a shop changes a price. Armies do not scale perfectly evenly — characters and centrepieces cost differently per point from the rank and file — so read it as a good approximation rather than a quote.
Prices were last checked 25 Aug and can change — the retailer's own page always has the final say. Affiliate links — how we make money.