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Played my first ever 40K battle last night against my cousin using the Assault on Black Reach starter set with the addition of an Ork Trukk. My cousin plays heroclicks and had a basic understanding of miniature gaming, and I had praciticed the rules a bit, but it was pretty clear neither of us knew what we were doing. He just decided to forgo a mission and simply try to kill eachother.

I took the Orks and divided the 20 boyz into a 8 and 12 man unit placing the Trukk in the 12 man unit and embarking them. We set up some terrain blocking los across the table and we began the battle.

My trukk raced across the table and hid behind a building while everyone else ran forward. The Space Marines positioned the Dread to intercept my Trukk and was able to see it and shot it at, but luckily missed, he moved his Terminators and Captain up, he found a gap he could shoot his missle launcher through which scattered far away.

My Trukk ran away and thanks to its long move was able to get away. The 8 man squad moved into shooting range of the Terminators and did nothing, and the DeffKoptas fired some inefective missles at the Dred.

His turn, the Terminators and Captain killed 4 of the 8 man boyz unit. The Dred shot down a Deffkopta, and the Tac squad moved up.

My Turn The Nobz run forward again but are still out of range, the 4 remainaing boyz kill a terminator in shooting, then assault and kill one more but are wiped out, My Trukk drives across the board and finds a spot close to the Terminators to hide. The DeffKoptas can't hurt the Dred again, poor rolls.

His turn, the termintors move forward and manage to get a shot at the trukk which makes a cover save, The Tac squad unloads on the warboss who is out in the open in front of the Nobz, he dies. The Dread finishes off the remaining deffcoptas.

My Turn, the 12 boyz disembark from the truck, fire off a handfull of dice in useless shooting against the terminators, then charge into the breech. My Cousin is blown away by the sheer number of dice I'm rolling in attacks. I manage to kill 2 more terminators, but lost 4 orks. The Nobz are barelyout of assault range on the Tac squad and can't hit a barn in shooting. THe Koptas are all burning wrecks.

His turn, The Tac Squad gets 4 wounds in shooting against the Nobs then assault and get a few more. The Dread is wanding around trying to find something to shoot at, The 2 remaining termys and captain kill 3 more orks, I can't hurt them. I concede the game.

My cousin's impression is that 40K is "complicated" and "uses way to many dice" though he thinks the models look cool. He says next time we play he would rather play heroscape which he assures me is "way more fun"

My impression is that 40K is complicated and uses way to many dice too, and that I'm a real idiot for putting a 8 man boyz squad up against his best unit while my Trukk drove around the board running from the Dred. I also grow to hate the Space Marine's armor saves even more.

Well, at the least you got your first game under your belt.

If I were you, I'd go to a local game store and get some help in making the next game a bit more entertaining.

The game involves lots of dice rolling, but you'd be suprised how powerful certain units are because the dice are not normally stacked to do alot of damage versus premium units unless you maximize your army's killing power and know what to kill.

Ork boys for instance are not that tough while Terminators are normally a very strong unit.

Good luck!

Hope you had fun, certainly sounds like it

I agree with WarOne, for the first couple of games you want to play with someone who knows the rules if possible - makes learning them a lot easier.

There are a lot of dice and rules, but that's because there is more involved in the game than in something like heroclicks (doesn't make either game good or bad, just different game play).

You can't beat the fun of having your fav unit storm a hill top or take an objective on the last turn

Orks roll alot of dice. Other armies aren't as bad, but yeah GW games are about rolling handfuls (and sometimes bucket loads of dice). That's one of the things I like about the game. Rolling that many dice is fun and the more dice you roll the more likely you will see the statistical averages on the table.

A couple more games and you'll get a good feel for each army's strength.

AoBR is a pretty evenly matched set. The big issue I see is that you split that boyz squad into 12 and 8. 8 boyz are not going to do much when they have no transport, and are too small to survive a round of enemy fire. 20 boyz will be able to take a couple wounds in the shooting phase to get a a good number of boyz in combat. Two squads of 10 both in trucks will speed across the table in the trucks to get into assault. The idea for orks is you want to overwhelm your foe with an outnumbering volume of attacks ( you will eventually beat his armor saves). The slugga boyz in the AoBR box in particular are made to get into close combat as fast as possible because they are all kitted out to gain an extra close combat attack at the expense of taking only a handgun (the slugga) rather than the ork rifle (The shoota which is like the slugga but Assault 2 with a 24" range). Also you shouldn't have seperated your warboss from the safety of a squad. He isn't the most heavily armored guy, and he needs those regular ork bodies around him to soak up enemy fire. Also the truck shouldn't have run from anything. The boyz need to assault and the truck armor is cardboard so it won't last for long. It's just a method to get your boyz in to close combat faster. Also orks need to be the ones charging into assault because they really need those combat bonuses from Furious Charge.

Welcome to the hobby!

Welcome to the hobby!
A little advice on orks...

1) Best way to learn is to just read the rule book from cover to cover, then find or make a quick referance sheet for when you play. The act of writing out your own stats and rules gets them into your head more effectively. The other best way to learn is to just play, pop into your FLGS and ask a staff member for a game (they don't know the rules either) and won't (or shouldn't) be cruel and mean. I wouldn't advise playing any veterans first off, some are nice, but most are rather mean in my experiance.
2) Get used to the missions, you can win some missions even if most of you men are wiped out. That one ork standing on objective can win a game for you!
3) Boys are minimum squad size 10, Either get more trasports or pile them into one 20 man unit, just imagine all those attacks on the charge!
4) As you can see, ork shooting isn't very accurate. It can be good with certain units, but best bets are in combat where numbers are on your side.
5) Desperate times call for desperate measures! Those 8 boys are worth 6 each (so 48 points) and each terminator is worth 40 on its own!
6) I would have put the nobs in the truck, they are you most killy unit and shout do their best to get somewhere fast.
7) The warboss is best left in a unit, where he can't be picked out with shooting.
8) Invest in powerklaws! A power klaw will double your strength in combat, and it ignores armour (but you go last). A nob in the boys unit with a klaw, and a few nobs in the nobs unit with klaws will up their killyness alot. Strength 8(9 on the charge) wounds marines on 2+ with no armour save to boot! against the dread strength 8 will glance on 4, pen on a 5+. Also that little marine captain will be smooshy paste if he gets his by one of those, as if he gets hit by anything double hit toughtness, he will be afflicted by what is called "instant death"
--- On a side note: Don't charge your Warboss into a dread (dread is S:10, Warboss T:5), very messy.

My impression is that 40K is complicated and uses way to many dice too, and that I'm a real idiot for putting a 8 man boyz squad up against his best unit while my Trukk drove around the board running from the Dred. I also grow to hate the Space Marine's armor saves even more.

phillosmaster wrote:Orks roll alot of dice. Other armies aren't as bad, but yeah GW games are about rolling handfuls (and sometimes bucket loads of dice). That's one of the things I like about the game. Rolling that many dice is fun and the more dice you roll the more likely you will see the statistical averages on the table.

A couple more games and you'll get a good feel for each army's strength.

AoBR is a pretty evenly matched set. The big issue I see is that you split that boyz squad into 12 and 8. 8 boyz are not going to do much when they have no transport, and are too small to survive a round of enemy fire. 20 boyz will be able to take a couple wounds in the shooting phase to get a a good number of boyz in combat. Two squads of 10 both in trucks will speed across the table in the trucks to get into assault. The idea for orks is you want to overwhelm your foe with an outnumbering volume of attacks ( you will eventually beat his armor saves). The slugga boyz in the AoBR box in particular are made to get into close combat as fast as possible because they are all kitted out to gain an extra close combat attack at the expense of taking only a handgun (the slugga) rather than the ork rifle (The shoota which is like the slugga but Assault 2 with a 24" range). Also you shouldn't have seperated your warboss from the safety of a squad. He isn't the most heavily armored guy, and he needs those regular ork bodies around him to soak up enemy fire. Also the truck shouldn't have run from anything. The boyz need to assault and the truck armor is cardboard so it won't last for long. It's just a method to get your boyz in to close combat faster. Also orks need to be the ones charging into assault because they really need those combat bonuses from Furious Charge.

Ork shoota's only have 18 in reach

My bad. Serves me right for playing too many armies....and too many systems

Thanks for the tips. I was thinking that I should have put the warboss in a unit after the game started.

I'm trying to decide if I want to augment the Space Marine force or the Ork force so I can get into some games with my not so local, local gaming store. Anyone want to give me some advise on what they'd pick up? I would appreciate it.

This is pretty funny, sounds exactly like what my friend told me the first game I had him play of 40k last weekend...

That it was complicated and he wanted to go play heroscape...

The insane amount of dice are half the fun

you should of had the warboss and some nobs in the trukk to get them into combat asap

other then that the AOBR set is a bit tough on the ork player

4 orks killed 2 terminators? One of them in the shooting phase? That is luck right there. My terminators usually rip through entire units suffering hardly any losses.

I've never actually lost a terminator to Slugga fire.

Yeah that's ridiculously lucky. I think it's something like 1 in 36 slugga shots will kill a termie.

welcome! glad you've started. I think that with a little tweaking you can make a greaet ork list out of AoBR

Yes 40K uses a lot of dice. when I blade storm with my Dire Avengers its 30 dice. Part of the fun is how are you going to get those guys in range to shoot and at what.

It's amazing how many 1s you can roll when you need a 2+ save. and how many 2s you roll when you need a 3+.

Terminators aren't invulnerable at all.

Welcome to the game

Risks and variables, definatley what you should proccess whilst playing. good luck in your next games mate.

As others have said, all the dice is half the fun!

A few suggestions for next time:
-Keep the Boys in a squad of 20
-Attach the Warboss to the Boys, run as fast as you can towards the tactical squad.
-Put the Nobs in the truck
-Dont keep the 'koptas together, use them as 3 seperate units, atleast one of the should be abe to get a shot on the dread's rear armour that way

If you are looking to make a bigger army from the AoBR set, I'd have to suggest Orks.

Alright, wwelcome to the hobby, and keep persisting!
The game seems complicated to begin yet, but gets easier as you keep playing.
Some tips on using orks:
Use only one boyz squad of 20
give the nobz the trukk instead
Join the Warboss to the nob squad.
As someone else said, get some power klaws! They give space marines a good whoopin'!
At games workshop stores, they often host fun games for beginners which might be a bit more enjoyable to start with.
-Warboss Gutsnagga

gatt_molson wrote:Thanks for the tips. I was thinking that I should have put the warboss in a unit after the game started.

I'm trying to decide if I want to augment the Space Marine force or the Ork force so I can get into some games with my not so local, local gaming store. Anyone want to give me some advise on what they'd pick up? I would appreciate it.

I hate to say it bu SMs are you best bet to quickly collect/paint up a decent force any store that stocks 40k will prolly have most of your range they are easy to play and ebay is full of cheap 2nd stuff because theres just so many marine armies out there.

One downside is alot of players resent how cheap and easy marines are to play and they seem to be ragarded as the n00b army (not saying I agree) Basically if you are going to play a horde style army double what you think its going to cost to purchase and build the army.

Another thing that is over looked is terrain if your not going to playalot games at stores etc then you are going to need alot of it for 40k but its cheap and fun to make and will really make your games more exciting and visually enjoyable.

Thanks for the information guys, I recently played a second game and followed some of your advise. This time the space marines were grinded under my orkish boots.

http://budget40k.wordpress.com/2010/09/23/assault-on-black-reach-battle-report-2/

The game seems complicated at first. I promise you though when you play it for a few months you'll have you and your friends codex plus the rules memorized. There is a learning curve to burst and once you do the game its self is simple. Its the strategy against good players that is the hard part.

This is such an awesome game. Ive played yugioh, magic, heroclix and naruto and nothing has kept my interest and attention like 40k. I now play nothing but 40k and never plain to quite. Like they said above you do need to get a game in at a store so some people can help you out tho. Hope you like it as much as i have

Corennus wrote:It's amazing how many 1s you can roll when you need a 2+ save. and how many 2s you roll when you need a 3+.

Terminators aren't invulnerable at all.

iv had some interesting luck with the termies...fired 50 odd lasgun shots, using first rank, second rank, and taken no wounds against them due to there hugely annoying saves. then one laspistol shot ripped through his armour and killed him...

Which ever army you like best. pick that one and run with it. i would personally pick space marines

Best thing that i have done with AOBR and a ork battle force is put 9 nobs with big choppas eavey armour and cybork bodies 1 pain boy and AOBR warboss in a truck they lasted 3 turns of firing from space marines and necrons. They killed 20 space marines and got first turn assult. Bad thing it almost cost me 500 points but they work

I'm confused why people find 40k so complicated...

It's a lot more simple than Fantasy, and in my opinion, unless you feel the need to memorize every single obscure rule the moment you start playing, then you won't be confused.

When kids come into the shop with Rhinos and they seem to think they're fast skimmers, or bikes or infantry or something, they're obviously trying to take in too much information at once.

Or what's worse is when they REFUSE to read the rulebooks...

grayspark wrote:I'm confused why people find 40k so complicated...

It's a lot more simple than Fantasy, and in my opinion, unless you feel the need to memorize every single obscure rule the moment you start playing, then you won't be confused.

When kids come into the shop with Rhinos and they seem to think they're fast skimmers, or bikes or infantry or something, they're obviously trying to take in too much information at once.

Or what's worse is when they REFUSE to read the rulebooks...

I agree.