I welcomed a potential new member to the club Monday by agreeing to play a game of 40k 8th edition with him and below is a report of how it went.….
Let me first mention that I hate Warhammer 40k as a game!!! Ok that probably needs a little explanation, I guess it’s not the game so much as the power gamer and the latest super codex that they have.
I have loved the fluff and the background and of course the figures for many many years now, I started playing 40k back in the Rogue Trader days, some of my figures date back to then as well, and I guess my favourite version was the 2nd edition, before all the Dark Millennium silliness – another Vortex Grenade anyone? 2nd edition was for me a great skirmish game.
I played a few of the following editions, but I lost interest at about 5th edition, and I have never really played it much since, I have tried a few times over the years but have been totally put off by the power gamer with the must have uber units, or the whoever goes first wins syndrome!!
So, I was very pleased and surprised by how the rules played in the game tonight, it seemed very fast and very simple, but with things like the stratagems in the game there are plenty of things that can be done to add a little depth / tactics to the game, not massive game changers but enough to make a difference to the turn, things like a re-roll or the chance to interrupt the order of the assaults etc, so as I said I was surprised by how the game ran.
Any way I turned up with 1,000 points of Space Marines, which I pointed up as Ultramarines, not knowing much about the 8th edition rules other than what I had seen at the club, I was not sure what I was expecting from the game.
My old Space Marines didn’t look too bad on the table considering how old some of them are, I have steered away from the new mega sized Marine stuff for this army as it would look ridiculous because of the size difference, although I do have some of the new Plague Marines which I am looking forward to painting someday.
Well my opponent and tutor for the evening brought along some of his nicely painted Tyranid stuff, mainly Termagants but with a large unit of Genstealers, and one big horrible Exocrine!! By the end of the game I hated that thing…
My list was pretty basic, I had two 8 man Tactical squads, a small squad of Scouts, a Predator, a Landspeeder, one Rhino, a Dreadnought, and all led by a Captain ( my Warlord ) and a Chaplain.
I learned very early on that I had not brought enough shooty things! Nor had I brought any dice that would roll higher than a three…. Oh dear, my curse of the 1’s was back again tonight.
We played a “Relic” scenario, one counter ( the relic ) was placed in the centre of the table and whoever controlled that at the end of the game was the winner, but after seeing all those Tyranids on the table it looked like going to the centre of the table and standing on that relic was a suicide mission!!
But hey it was just a learning game for me so I was up for it, I got to go first and started to try and reduce the size of that large Genstealer horde, almost everything I had fired into them and killed a good few, but it didn’t seem to make them look any less frightening!
I could not do much with my Predator or the Dreadnought, my shooting was not going well.
Then the Genstealers charged into my Scouts in the centre of the table and ripped them apart, ouch!
First lesson learned about Genstealers, don’t let them get close enough to charge!
Second lesson learned is that the Emperors finest can be out shot by acid spitting bugs! Holy shite! The Exocrine is very nasty and seemed to be leading a charmed life as my Marines in the Predator just could not make any of their lascannon shots count, and to make things worse my Dreadnought obviously had his mind on other things, as it only scored one point of damage the whole game, the Emperor would not be pleased.
Third lesson learned was that I needed something in my army to stop those damn psychic powers, Smite was deadly and I had no way of stopping it.
For most of the game Close Combat raged around the centre of the table, somehow my Captain carried on killing things even after he saw the Chaplain shredded in close combat along with almost every other Space Marine.
By the end of the night I had lost my Predator, Landspeeder, Scouts, almost all the Marines and my Chaplain, and had no one close enough to the Relic to claim a victory, but luckily there were no Tyranids close to the Relic either, so I could probably claim a draw!
Things I learned about 8th edition…
It was very smooth / simple / fast, and has a lot of nice touches like the Stratagems to make the game more interesting and tactical, this version has a big thumb’s up from me…. But…. There’s always a but… even after just this small glimpse into the workings of this newest rendition of the 40k rules I could see that there will be the same old chances for the power gamer to exploit the rules / codices for their own benefit and players like myself, who mainly play for the fun and enjoyment, will be slaughtered every time we play.
I don’t have the answer to this, I am not sure there is one, but if I do play 8th edition 40k again I will be choosing my opponents carefully…
I play 8th edition 40k and your assessment is accurate except linking the power gaming to the newest codex. 8th has a detachment system and in a tournament army you can take units from 3 different codexes so long as they all share the same general faction keyword (imperium, chaos, tyranid, eldar, etc.,).
Power creep just hasn’t been there. The latest codexes are good, but totally in line with all the early ones except the week grey knights. The real powergaming is when you build a multi detachment army designed to include particular abilities and stratagems across 3 different codexes. Often the stratagems from one codex will totally effect the units from another!
GW wants to sell to as many people as possible so they created their “three ways to play” which are open, narrative and matched play. If you tell people you aren’t interested in matched play, that will spare you from 90%+ of the possible poor opponents as that is the tournament mode.
Thanks for your comments, I sort of want to agree with you about 8th edition, but I have already seen a few nasty forces out there, like Eldar with their extra minus ones to hit, I have seen an army get almost no hits during a game against them!! also there are some nasty Orks out there and they don’t even have a codex yet.. but to fair to you I know less about 8th than most people so you are probably right in your assessment of the new edition.
Mac
You’re right about certain craftworld/chapter/legion/whatever abilities being better than others. And then when you combine that with only taking the best things in the codex you can get a stronger army.
I guess my point was that the real powerful armies are a level even beyond that. Instead of taking the best abilities and units from one codex or subfaction, take it from two or three. Like combined Nurgle Tzeentch chaos armies.
I’ve been sticking to smaller games with people who are also not into building strong armies and it’s been great. If I didn’t have those opponents, I would sell my stuff tomorrow. As soon as someone takes the time to build as strong as army as possible, even if they aren’t good at it, it’s like you’re playing two different games.
I have to agree, all my games are against friends that don’t build the silly powerful armies, but that is not just 40k, that covers all the games I play.
Again thanks for your comments, and keep playing those smaller friendlier games.
Mac
Hi Mac,
Just read this one – I used to play 40K many years ago but stopped when the cost per figure grew larger than I could stomach (I used to work for GW and I knew what the real cost to make the figures was – I don’t mind a bit of a mark-up, but flamin’ hell!). My preferred 40K version was the original Rogue Trader ruleset, but I modified the rules to allow (almost) simultaneous play, as follows (and bear with me – I can barely remember the turn sequence now!):
CHARGE PHASE – Charges are declared in order of LOWEST initiative first, then next lowest etc. All the declared charges are then resolved in order of HIGHEST initiative first, the next highest etc. Charging figures/units with equal initiative BOTH get to charge and get the +1 bonus!
MOVEMENT PHASE – LOWEST initiative figures/units move first, then next lowest etc. If two figures/units have equal initiative roll randomly to see who moves first.
RANGED COMBAT – All ranged attacks are declared in order of LOWEST initiative first, then next lowest etc. Once all ranged attacks are declared they are resolved simultaneously.
MELEE PHASE – This is resolved as per normal.
PSIONICS PHASE – All uses of psi powers are declared in order of LOWEST initiative first, then next lowest etc. Once all uses have been declared, resolve all psi powers in order of HIGHEST initiative, then next highest etc. Psi power use is NOT simultaneous – it’s all done at the speed of thought!
MORALE – all required morale rolls are now resolved simultaneously.
I found these small changes altered the entire feel of the game. No more do you get ‘I go first – I then shoot half your squad dead – now it’s your turn … good luck!’
Instead you end up with both sides taking the chance to break for cover and small unit tactics become normal. No more line ’em up and gun ’em down!
Those were the good old days! Before anything like the rigid codex armies, uber space marine troopers and silly pricing policies.
But I still love the setting, the grim-dark-gothic feel to it all, and some of the old miniatures were simply awesome!
Happy Gaming!
Hi Vic,
Sounds like a good option to make 40k a better game ( actually anything is better than what they have now )
I have had a few games of 40k where we just used the Bolt Action dice system and that changed the whole feel of the game.
It took away that “now it’s you turn good luck!!” it really makes you think about which unit to use and when… probably why I used it in Stars & Lasers, I just hate the “I go you go rubbish”
I have also used the one page rules “FUBAR” to run 40k games and that also works well.
To me small unit tactics is what 40k is all about.
I also love the older figures… I have many, but for big games I just get out my Epic stuff.
Mac