I have received a small figure from Warhammer40k by my friend.

The hobby seems fun, and the Imperial Guard looks fun, but there are a few obstacles:
1: I've heard these things are outrageously expensive.
2: They seem to have tons of lore to study up on
3: I am awful at painting things.
4: The rules seem insane






If someone could help with any of these 5 problems, I shall thank you

You can hire people to paint. But it's expensive. It's not hard to just color between they lines.

Yeah there really is no preventing any of your problems.

If you want to get into a cheaper, still strategic, still fun tabletop that's cheap but still a little rule intensive, try Axis and Allies. It's got a pretty great following to boot.

the axis and allies map is trash

The gameplay supersedes how awful you think anything is.

#2: for lore, just go to /r/AskScienceFiction and search the Warhammer 40k posts. They give you a decent idea of what's up. Feel free to PM me as well about lore.

Edited 7/23/2015 21:10:53

It's expensive, but no more than any other hobby (that costs money to participate in)

Lore/rules are part of the game, if you play with a good bunch of people they can help you as you play though, and you need good people if you want to play...

You don't *have* to paint them. Also you can get away with painting most models with a simple colour scheme using maybe only 3 colours or so. I can help with any tips if you want, just PM me.

Also ask in the store, if you're serious about it and intend to spend money they are usually super helpful.

A decent size army is probably going to cost you say (guessing America money here) $100-$300

Edited 7/23/2015 21:53:12

Axis and Allies sounds fun. But like Buffalo said, maybe they should make a nicer world map...

Well my other hobbies were mostly hand-me-downs.

My dad and grandfather's model trains, my brothers LEGOS when I was younger. Starting a whole hobby as intensive (i think) as Warhammer, I just don't know where to start. There's a Games Workshop 10 minutes away, so I may go there for help.

The world map honestly does not detract from the game whatsoever.

Still not as bad as one of skunk's early maps. (No offense dude )

True, but lets face it, Africa let itself go.

Play with the figurines of Warhammer40K is just insane : too much expensive if you want an army and have strategic games. Anyway, you could play paper RPG on this world, an that is really fun if you have great friends to play with and you just need one rule book (Dark Heresy for exemple), some dices and some paper and you could play during days and days just limited by your imagination.

A&A is unquestionably the best strategy board game... except for maybe chess.

A&A is essentially chess.

Different situations :

Skilled Team vs Noob Team - Instant skilled win.

Noob Team vs Noob Team - Usually takes a while, but the one who has lost more usually wins.

Skilled Team vs Skilled Team - Long, interesting games.

It's comparable to warlight strategic games.