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I'm trying to learn how to play this 40K game. I don't know many people who play, so I'm kinda just trying to learn on my own by reading and watching youtube.

Here are a couple of things I'm just a little confused about. I have the AoBR set. The 10 man Tach squad, in the Black Reach book, it says that 6 of them have pistols. Why only 6? How do I know which 6? Also, for the models that do have the pistol and the boltgun, do they get to shoot both, or is this pistol just used for the assault? Can I split this squad up into 2 squads, even though there is only 1 Sargent?

I'm sure I'm missing a lot more than this, but this is a good start


- Nate

Do you have the space marine Codex?

All tactical marines have a bolter and a bolt pistol. Then we are talking one of the 10 gets to be the sergeant and can have a chainsword or power weapon instead of his bolter.
Finally one guy can have a special weapon and one a heavy weapon instead of his bolter.

The bolter and bolt pistol provide you some flexibility because a bolter is rapid fire. Rapid fire mean you shot it and you can't assault. So as a marine you are chosing whether you are in assault range and whether you want to assault. If you want to assault, you fire your bolt pistols and put 1 shot into them and then charge. If you don't want to assault, you blast them with 2 shots from their bolters.

Only if you take a full 10 man tactical can you split them into combat squads of 5. Typically, most will go sgt + special weapon + 3 bolters and then 4 bolters + heavy weapon. The advantage is the HW needs to be stationary to fire while most of the specials require you to get up close and personnal to have an effect.

Every Space Marine comes with a polt pistol and a bolter as standard. they can choose to fire either one each shootign phase, each one has it's advantages.

I'm not sure where the 6 thing has come from. In the case of the AOBR models. one marine will lose his bolter to have a flamer, another will lose his bolter to get the missile launcher. And the sergeant starts with a pistol adn sword instead of the bolter (i think).

Learning the rules form the AOBR book is a good way to get the basics, you HAVE to get the codex for your army as well.

If you dont have a local gaming store to play at, go online and have a look around for gaming clubs. They tend to pop up all over the place.

First off, welcome to 40k! It's less of a game than a hobby. It takes a lot of time and patience, but well worth it if you stick things out. The rules are fairly complex, and there's lots of issues that take a long time to understand. Don't get overwhelmed, and improve slowly (in rules, tactics, and modeling). It comes with time.

To answer your current questions:

Why do only 6 have bolt pistols? I don't know. That seems like a mistake. All 10 should have a bolt pistol (the Sergent can exchange it for something else, but the other 9 will have it).

How do models with multiple guns fire? Models (other than Monstrous Creatures) can only fire 1 weapon per shooting phase. You get to choose which weapon to fire every phase. The advantage of the Boltgun is that you get extra range if you don't move, and can get an extra shot. The drawback is that you cannot launch an assault if you fire a rapid fire weapon (like the Boltgun). So, basically, you fire the Boltgun if you are not going to assault later that turn, and fire the Pistol is you are going to assault later that turn.

Can I split into 2 squads even though there is only 1 Sargent? Yes, absolutely. Combat Squads is a special rule for Space Marine armies, where you can split a full squad of 10 guys into 2 separate groups of 5. There is no requirement to have another Sargent, and no way to actually get a 2nd of for the 2nd squad.

Sweet! Thanks for all the replies. I do have a SM Codex, I think I was just mostly confused about the whole, 6 models have pistols thing.

And Grakmar, I know what you mean about it being a Hobby more than a game... I've actually had my AoBR for a while, like a couple of years. I've been trying to get them all painted up, since this is the first time I've done any painting or anything it's taking me forever. I have added a few Termies and a Land Raider to my SM army and another 5 Nobs to my Orks. I'm trying to get both armies up, so that way I can play with someone who doesn't have an army. I seem to only work in spurts. I'm getting married soon and that's been taking up lots of time. I can't wait until the point I can get to where I can play a whole game all the way through without stopping in the middle and saying "Crap... I've been doing this wrong the whole time!"

Thanks,
Nate

That's why I was asking if you had the codex, just go it's section in the back for Tactical Squads.

JamesDean: I did go to the Codex and read what it said about the Tactical Squads. But that doesn't explain why the Black Reach book says only six models have a pistol, and that's mainly what I was confused by. I was just trying to find out what I was missing.

Oh sorry, GW has this bad thing about typos and misprints and bad english.

The codexes are their better attempts imo.

Yeah, I also noticed something that confused me on the Orks side too with the Black Reach book. I can't remember of the top of my head, but it was something with the points not adding up or something. I'll have to look into that again. Maybe it was with the Warboss, I couldn't figure out if he had a boss pole or not. I can't remember for sure if that was it or not...

- N8

The Marines were given a deliberate advantage in units and points, because GW has a hard-on for marines.

I think its something like a 135 pt difference. which at those points levels is a pretty big one.

The orks get a couple of boyz squads (pretty much inferior to marines in every way, but cheap ), 3 deffkoptas, a warboss and a bodyguard of Nobz.

The Marines get a captain, terminators, a coupe, of Tac squads of marines and a dread.

Terminators and dreadnoughts are hard for orks to crack without powerklaws, which only the Warboss gets.

Orks are very very easy to gun down with bolter fire, and have nothing much that can hurt the dread, barring the deffkoptas getting a rear shot (unlikely) or the warboss punching it (and the dread will get to swing and instakill him first.) .

It's a great set for models, but a pretty unfair matchup. 2 boxes or orks vs one box of marines is a bit fairer

Aobr marines were costed using the 4th edition marine book. If you drop 3 bolters flamer missile launcher and run the captain as bolter/chainsword then I think the points are amlost even. Go along to a gw beginners evening just ignore the hard sell

I've learned nearly everything from reading the BRB VEEERY closely. But that is because I've been traveling for some 6 weeks and after 3 i ran out of books and only had my BRB and dex left. So yeah, I know them both pretty well I consider, knowing the anwer to almot every question in this forum without looking into the book. (I have checked)

So my advice is: just read the book very closely, then you will eventually know everything there is to know.

So were the Orks pointed as 4th edition? Is that maybe why I found a discrepancy in the Orks points? Could just be me not totaling the points correctly....

Yeah thats the 4e codex it came out a few months before 5th edition. but the points are right at 450. IF you drop the dread, flamer and missile launcher then its like 453 for the marines

Nate 54 wrote:Yeah, I also noticed something that confused me on the Orks side too with the Black Reach book. I can't remember of the top of my head, but it was something with the points not adding up or something. I'll have to look into that again. Maybe it was with the Warboss, I couldn't figure out if he had a boss pole or not. I can't remember for sure if that was it or not...

- N8

Nate 54 wrote:So were the Orks pointed as 4th edition? Is that maybe why I found a discrepancy in the Orks points? Could just be me not totaling the points correctly....

AOBR Orks:

By just looking at the models:

Warboss
- powerklaw
- cybork
- 'eavy armor
- boss Pole
- Twin-linked Shoota
-> 110

5 Nobz
- 'eavy armor
-> 125

20 Boyz
- 2x big shoota
-> 130

3 Koptaz
- 3x twin-linked rokkit launcha
-> 135

Total: 500 points, or 525 if you consider nobz and boyz having stikkbombz(the models have them, but it's a mostly useless upgrade)

The ork codex did not change from 4th to 5th, but the marine codex did. A common way to even out the odds in AOBR games is to simple take away the dreadnought.

Jidmah wrote:

Nate 54 wrote:Yeah, I also noticed something that confused me on the Orks side too with the Black Reach book. I can't remember of the top of my head, but it was something with the points not adding up or something. I'll have to look into that again. Maybe it was with the Warboss, I couldn't figure out if he had a boss pole or not. I can't remember for sure if that was it or not...

- N8

Nate 54 wrote:So were the Orks pointed as 4th edition? Is that maybe why I found a discrepancy in the Orks points? Could just be me not totaling the points correctly....

AOBR Orks:

By just looking at the models:

Warboss
- powerklaw
- cybork
- 'eavy armor
- boss Pole
- Twin-linked Shoota
-> 110

5 Nobz
- 'eavy armor
-> 125

20 Boyz
- 2x big shoota
-> 130

3 Koptaz
- 3x twin-linked rokkit launcha
-> 135

Total: 500 points, or 525 if you consider nobz and boyz having stikkbombz(the models have them, but it's a mostly useless upgrade)

The ork codex did not change from 4th to 5th, but the marine codex did. A common way to even out the odds in AOBR games is to simple take away the dreadnought.

according to the aobr booklet:

the way aobr outfitted the orks, its just a boss w/ power klaw and 5 plain nobs. for 185 pts.

the tac squad has power armor, bolt pistol, frag grenades, 6 have bolt guns, flamer, missile launcher, sgt has a CCW.

Now for some fun way to even up the pts I'd add a pk for a nob, and a battle wagon & deff rolla that brings you up to 585 orks, 585 sm.
You could also just use your best force voice and hand wave and go "those aren't the choppas you seek, those are power klaws" 5 nobs with power klaws brings you up to 575 orks.
Or you could just forget wysiwyg and give the nobs a bunch of war gear to play wounds.

But ya GW really does not like the orks. they give the sm's some really good upgrades and units and just bare bones the orks.

Here's how the Black Reach book has them, I don't have my Ork codex so I can't compare:

Warboss:
- Ork armour
- Shoota
- Power Klaw

Nobz:
- Ork armour
- Choppa
- Slugga

It combines the Warboss and Nobz with a total of 185pts With the total Ork army at 450pts.

The upgrades I listed are definitely modeled onto the models, so you could just as well use them that way to get the points more close.