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2022 is coming to an end and you know what that means: it’s going to be time for the New Year, New Army challenge. If you’re not familiar with New Year, New Army, it’s exactly what it sounds like it is: it’s starting 2023 with the goal of building a new, complete miniature wargaming army. You don’t have to do it in the first month or first quarter. It can take all year. And honestly, the point of the challenge is just to get you not to stagnate but to branch out and try something new.

With that in mind, here are our top 7 tips for New Year, New Army:

1. Go With Your Gut

There are a lot of reasons to pick a new miniature wargaming army: you could pick one because they’re great in the meta or because you love the models–or whatever makes you excited. But even though creating an entirely new army is going to be a commitment doesn’t mean you need to get analysis paralysis. When it comes to choosing a new army for New Year, New Army, go with the one that feels best to you.

This means, if you’ve always been eyeing the models for Ossiarch Bone-Reapers and think they just look really cool–that might be the one to pick. It means if you’ve always wanted a Tallarn Desert Raiders army but you’ve been reluctant to try kitbashing, the new Cadia Stands box might be a good place to start. It means if you’ve been playing a really crappy army and losing tournaments, maybe now is the right time to chase the competitive scene.

Whatever drives you about tabletop wargaming, chase it. And don’t overthink it. Go with your gut.

2. New Year, New Army Could Mean New Year, New Game

Don’t think that just because you’ve always played Warhammer 40k that your new army needs to be a Warhammer 40k army. The new year could very well be the best time to try an entirely new game. If you’ve always wanted to dip a toe into Star Wars Legion, 2023 might be the best year for Star Wars Legion. If you’ve wanted to dabble in historicals, there are a ton of options. (Read this for our Top 20 Best Miniature Wargames.)

One of the nice things about this strategy is that starter sets for games are often the easiest ways to get into a game. Buying a starter set for A Song of Ice and Fire gets you a ton of great models, and puts you halfway toward your new army. The starter boxes for Bolt Action give you almost all the models you need for a full 1000 point army for about $75, which is pretty phenomenal if you’re coming from Games Workshop.

You may worry that the new game that you want to start collecting isn’t played by anyone that you know. If that’s the case, then either choose a game that’s sold at your FLGS, so you can be reasonably sure that gamers at the store play, or choose a game with a 2-player starter set and become a game advocate for it.

3. Don’t Worry About The Meta

Yes, in #1 we talked about chasing the competitive scene if you want to–and you can–but here’s the deal with the meta. By the time that you pick a new army, collect a new army, paint the new army, and get it on the tabletop, the meta will have changed. Games get rebalanced with new FAQs and Erratas all the time so that what’s on top today is not going to be on top six months from now.

Really, the only way you can effectively chase the meta is if you have the money to drop on an entirely new army, paint them all fast, and get them on the table within a month. If that’s not you–and for most people it’s not–then worrying about the most ideal meta army is a waste of time.

Don’t get us wrong. There’s is absolutely no downside to wanting to play an army that actually wins games. That’s great and good. And there’s no reason, when you’re making you’re new army to think about the best units in a faction or read articles like “The Top Three Space Marine Tanks.” There’s a difference between creating the best version of your army and chasing the temporary meta imbalances that favor one faction over another.

4. “New Year, New Army?” New TO YOU

A lot of the time, we kind of fall into a miniature wargaming army. We might have bought the starter set and just played Necrons because that’s what came in our half of the Indomitus box. And therefore we don’t put a lot of thought into what makes it new to us. If we’re going to make this a new year for a new army, we should make it new to us.

But now is the time to seize the bull by the horns and make the army that you’ve always wanted to make. This means that you don’t need to go by what comes in a starter box if you don’t want to. Make a Space Marine army that is all close combat or all fast attack. Make a Bolt Action army that is specific to the regiment that your grandpa fought in. Make a Star Wars Legion army that is entirely from Rogue One.

Whatever it is you want to do, now is the time to make a plan and do it. You’re starting from the ground up so you can really have free rein to be as innovative and different as you want to be.

5. Marie Kondo This Crap: Do What Sparks Joy

I know that not everyone has unlimited money to spend on miniature wargaming, but when it comes to New Year, New Army, you really need to pick something that is going to bring you joy. People can define this is different ways, but the biggest thing is to just do whatever looks cool to you.

So, for example, in my house, my wife and I make Amazon wishlists for each other so we know what to get, so we’re essentially picking our own presents. And I asked for some Star Wars Legion, and a little (very little) Warhammer, and for SPQR, the historical Roman miniatures game from Warlord Games.

I’ve played a lot of Hail Caesar (well, I’ve painted a lot of Hail Caesar) but the problem is that I don’t like rank-and-flank games and SPQR is skirmish.

Now, I know NO ONE in my town who has ever even heard of SPQR, let alone plays it, but it was what sparked joy in me, so I wanted to dive into it. I honestly don’t know the rules well enough to know if the starter set gets me close to an entire New Army, but it looks like so much fun to paint, and all of the expansions (like this and this and this) look like so much fun that I’m into it.

6. Don’t Bite Off More than You Can Chew

One thing that I really, REALLY, don’t want to pressure people into doing is to spending $600 on something that you can’t afford. I’m a big believer (from long, hard experience) to never put miniatures on a credit card, and I’m definitely not saying that you should buy 2000 points worth of Stormcast Eternals in January and paint them all through the year. It’s a great way to go into debt, and a great way to burn out.

Instead, what I’m saying is to pick the army you want to focus on, and start looking at potential army lists. Say it’s time you finally made that Deathwing army you’ve always wanted to, or you want a full fighting force of Bolt Action commandos. Start reading, start making plans. See what you’ll need to get you across the finish line.

Because remember: this is “New Year, New Army,” not “January, New Army.”

7. Do Something Unique

Now that you’ve picked a new army that you want to paint, whether it’s an all-dragon Stormcast Eternals army, or an all-zombie Soulblight Gravelords army, or a massive horde of French Napoleonics–now do something unique with them.

The unique thing could be to paint them in a paint scheme that is completely different from what you’ve seen before. There are so many places you can find miniatures painted with different color schemes, but one source of inspiration I’d point you to is Dana Howl’s channel. Dana comes from animation and has a color pallette in her head which seems to be completely different from everyone elses. See the miracles she can perform with cyan and magenta.

Or if you’re doing historical, consider something that Sonic Sledgehammer has been doing and creating a fictional historical fiction. They’re models that look pretty close to Napoleonics, but they’re from his own imaginary country.

Or honestly, maybe the “unique” thing for you is that you are more historically accurate than ever before. I’ve painted a lot of Bolt Action, but my grandpa fought in the 333rd Regiment of the 84th Infantry, and I really want to make a game that is as authentic to him as possible.

So when I say “be unique” I mean, be different from what you’ve done in the past.

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