Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi guys,
I've never played warhammer 40k, though I've read most of the codex and Im, in theory, familiar with the rules. I also observed a couple of games, both in real life and online.
I want to ask, do you find the gameplay fun ? Engaging ? Boring at times ?

Please, share your stories

If I found the gameplay boring I wouldn't play it, would I? 40k (and Fantasy even more so) is a great game.

Fun? Very.
Engaging? Extremely.
Boring? Never happened to me yet and I've been playing, painting and building since 1998.

I went through periods of moving away from 40k, school, jobs, travel. But it was always there waiting for me. New models, new rules, new lists.

I'm sure everyone is different but this hobby changes all the time and leaves you continuously changing. There are so many armies it is hard to get boring. I have 6 different armies of at least 1500 pts.

To answer you question, if you love the fluff, you love the modeling I think you will love the game. If you don't...Then you can still paint and build. You won't know until you try.

FYI theory is one thing. Game play is totally different. There have been times I thought I built the perfect list and had it embarrassed. Remember it is a dice game so anything can happen. Just this weekend I thought I'd run a single LR vs an army with 10 meltas and 9 lascannons (some twin linked). All that happened to it was 2 weapon destroyed and immobilized. However the immobilazed result was my own undoing by rolling a 1 driving into ruins.

Anything can happen! Theory means very little to me in 40k and game play is where it is at.

The only time it can get boring is during the opponent's movement phase of a 15,000 point per side Apocalypse game.

That's generally time for a snack.

As a dissenting opinion, there are some occasions that the game becomes boring, for me thats usually when my friends decide its a tourny practice night without telling me (Fluffy Tau lists can't compete with GK, a finely tuned DE list, and BA razorspam)

I find the game to be a lot of fun, tactically outmaneuvering my opponents and trying new unit lists and combinations. I also like to watch my buddies play (all 14 of us have armies) and give my 2 cents on how to maneuver and deploy their units on tough decisions. My only gripe that takes away the fun of any game for me is when I play against or see my friends play against a list that has a broken element about it or a rules that can be exploited. I'd prefer my games to be more tactical and depend on clever utilization of units than straight broken units, (see Eldar jetbikes, Runes of Warding, Dante's descent of angels, Grey Hunters, etc).

It "CAN" be fun but not always...

I find if you throw out all the 5E missions.. IE: Kill Points and Objectives.... you can have stunning games of 40k.

Overall though Warhammer Fantasy is more fun and more balanced. So you could always look into that game system.

Engaging, always. Mostly because of those dice. Those evil dice. Or blessed dice.

It's fun when you are playing to do so. Having a fun game normally involves no rules disputes, friendly people, and a close game. It's never fun to get blasted to oblivion without killing anything in return.

Ideally, it's an engaging, fun game that tells a cool story. A bad game can get pretty uninteresting though, or the third game in a tournament can get to be a bit of a slog. So in general it's a very engaging game. When I'm stomping someone into the ground or getting utterly reamed I can't say it is though.

The setting is extremely engaging at times, and extremely dull at others. Part of the fun of 40k is the scope. You have so many different 'flavors' in the universe that you can find just about whatever suits your taste. You can mix and match with the stuff you do want to read about/play with, and ignore the others. That's probably what I like most about 40k.

And with all that said about variety in the 40k world....

90% of all matches will be IoM vs IoM.....


YAY!

It's engaging enough that this weekend I played a 2k game vs Blood Angels in a tournament and we finished in just over an hour... but both of us thought we were being slow and were close to the time limit.

It was similar my second game, but almost getting tabled (had a single Tyranid Warrior left) adds to the speed...

I find it sometimes boring when I play my Necron gunline against mechspam Blood Angels, just because if the mission is capture & control, the game will be a draw, and both players know this from the first roll of the dice. The rest of the game will come down to one or two possible last-turn gambits, otherwise the outcome is virtually written in stone.

Milisim wrote:And with all that said about variety in the 40k world....

90% of all matches will be IoM vs IoM.....


YAY!

Judging by your avatar and ranking, I assume you play Tau?

If you consider that IoM make up around half of the armies, brings in the most sales, get the most codexupdates and almost everything is written from their perspective, it's not that strange is it?

Sure, I would like it to see a lot more people playing Tyranids, Eldar or Tau, but you can't blame the persons playing those armies in my eyes.
If GW brought out a decent codex or some updates every once in a while, I guess that there would be quite some more players for those armies.

(On a second thought, this might have seemed harsh... Wasn't intended in such a way.)

Milisim wrote:And with all that said about variety in the 40k world....

90% of all matches will be IoM vs IoM.....


YAY!

Oh really? I find this to be higly inaccurate, your gaming circle must REALLY suck then.

back on topic :

I find the game intresting and amusing. I have yet to be bored or irritated by the game

Not any more, it's why I stopped playing 40k.

After 14 or so years of the current system, it has grown stale. 5th ed is just 3.4ed (3rd had the "trial" vehicle and close combat rules additions - 3.1 and 3.2, which became 4th (3.3) and 5th ed).

Maybe 7th ed might bring me back. I doubt it. I can see a large amount of plastic infantry going into a skip.

I wouldn't say boring, but being the victim of a turn 1 alpha strike can make the rest of the game pretty aggravating. When you are tabled by turn 3-4 through no real fault of your own it can leave a bad taste in your mouth.

Going home and kicking the dog and beating the kids helps though. j/k.

I used to find it interesting, but I now rarely play, as the games became monotonous and boring about half a year ago.
I have since moved to FoW which, IMO, is a much more enjoyable and engaging game.

I personally find 5th Ed. to be a little one-dimentional: most of the combat is basically reduced to "who can bring the biggest beatstick?". As a result, lately I have become enamoured with Warmachine and its much more dynamic system.

Is all the missions fault!

Use 3E or 4E missions... Hell use WHFB missions in a 40k setting!

So much variety!

I enjoy the game, though the preponderance of SM's gets a little dull.

I find the recent trend towards everything being 'optimized' and 'competitive' or be labelled as trash to be a huge detractor to my enjoyment though.

I like to bring themed armies, and i get very tired of teenage neck wanna-grow-a-beards telling my why my army is crap, and that i should take suchandsuch as it's the only viable (another word i'm comint to hate) option.

I don't mind as much at tournaments, as they are intended for competition, but when every conversation about favourite units is couched interms of percentages and viability it makes me want to look for another game, where people actually want to play if for fun, not an excercise in algebra

Not just 40k, btw. Warmachine players get this way somemes too, as do some roleplayers (D and D and similar) that i've met.

It just seems to be more and more common in 40K circles lately.

For me an enjoyable game is one i'll remember, and fighting the same army lists again and again gets a tad samey. That vicious dule between Old Zogwart and Old One Eye on top of a burning battlewagon will stick in my mind far better... (he got nommed )

I fond 40k is only as fun as the person you are playing. If you are playing a boring person you will find that game boring. If you play a fun ot even normal person you will most likley have a good time.

It gets really fun when random things start happening.
Like a guardsman passing 3 5+ saves, or a Nightscyth that somehow shrugs off 2 meltas, a lascannon and 10 SM with krak grenades (true story)

The random element is important for me.

It allows for the great victories against the odds, or the defeats snatched from the jaws of victory

I find it to be very fun and engaging. The only things I find boring about it are painting/assembling and not playing....
Seriously if GW sold assembled painted models I would buy them in a heartbeat.

I still enjoy it as a game, as well as a hobby.
Not so fond of tournament-based games, they tend to be crush-or-be-crushed, which I don't find engaging.