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Dakkerites.

I got back into 40k about a couple if months ago after about a 12 year absence. Back in the day, I mainly just painted rather than gaming much, and any games involved quite a few made up rules as my mates and I bodged along...

Looking to actually get into some gaming this time around, and when I popped into a GW store a month or so ago, they mentioned they'd be happy to do an introductory game to show me the ropes. Skip forward a couple of months, and after various holidays, work, and Christmas I have finally finished painting my first squad and was going to pop into the store on Friday afternoon (1/2 day at work) to pick up some more models.

As a simple question, is doing an introductory game worth it? I'll have to use the GW models there (if they allow that) as I have about 60points to my name at the moment... For those who have done it, or know anyway, are they 'proper', albeit small points I imagine, games or do they do something else? Is it worth the time or shall I just paint up an army, head to a local club and learn from there? I appreciate I won't come out with the tactical skill of Napoleon after it, but just wondering if it's a worthwhile hour or so as a very first intro to playing the game.

Cheers in advance.

Ready.


Go!

They're pretty casual about it, from what I've experienced. I was pretty much a first-timer too, and I just played a few quick games with one troop squad and a HQ unit, so they're not necessarily proper games at all. Personally I found the hands-on experience of it useful, as opposed to just reading about it online.

Generally most GW staff are gamers who just get to wear a special shirt and get paid to play all day. So they are normally pretty good with things like introductory games.

Generally you'll find the points costs and army composition elements fairly lax; its not really about army building but more about just getting an experience with the games core mechanics.

It's worth it to have a tutorial or two so that you can see the game flow and get a real idea for how the game plays; then you can start just playing people as you get your army together and in a proper ordered fashion.


Go along, relax and have some fun ^^

Definitely, seeing the squad/s moving around and getting used to things in person is always a good idea. Then from there you can progress on to the beginners night if they have one at the store or a local gaming club. Don't worry about having a complete encyclopaedic knowledge straight away, most of us still need to check the book from time to time.

From there I'd look to see if the club/store has any vets who'd be willing to have some smaller games with you where they will hopefully deliberately set up situations and army lists so you can get used to seeing different rules in action.

Learning with someone who is also learning is good but a conscientious vet is a better choice as you will be able to learn so much more about the game more quickly and he should be bringing a list with a little less bite to help keep things more interesting. Some people don't believe in pulling punches army list wise however so be sure to check what you are getting

It never hurts - it wouldn't take more than 20 mins to go through the demo.

You'll probably skip over some of the more complex elements to keep things interesting.

Sold!

Excellent, cheers chaps!

Where are you based? I've only been playing a year or so and started with a few casual intro games at GW before playing weekly at the local GW store on gaming night and have recently started going to an independant local store for gaming instead.

I'd be happy to play a starter game with you and would be happy to lend you some models for the game too?

its not a bad idea to get through an intro game, but dont expect them to use all the rules or do things completely "correct" an intro game is to get you hooked on the hobby and want to buy stuff and play more, not generally meant to teach you the game.

When I worked at GW back during the 3rd edition days the overall rules for an intro game were the 4 f's
the game needs to be
Fast
Fun
Furious
Fours (everything hits/wounds/happens on a 4+)

The intro game I played on starting 40k was probably one of the funnest I've ever played.

As an update - in case anyone is interested... - I went and did an intro game this afternoon (big thanks to Dave from GW Coventry if he happens to be reading this!) and am very very glad I did. Having read through the rulebook and thought I had a vague idea what was going on, being able to actually see it in practice was a) ruddy good fun, and b) actually made it all make sense! We just played two turns each (well, 2 for me, 1 for Dave as he only had one model left at the end of my second....) using the Dark Vengeance set and had a good mix of movement, shooting (with various weapons and rules), and combat (again with various weapons rules etc). Some funny moments (the three bikers who managed to run a cultist over, but then couldn't hit a barn door with a chainsword - I think I rolled five 1's!) and generally nixe and relaxed. If any otehr newcomers are reading this then I highly advise popping into a GW store for a game.

Definitely in it now and need to get my Tau force up and running pretty sharpish and get playing properly!

Cheers again for all your previous comments!

Glad to hear you had fun!

And yes playing the game makes a lot of the theory click into place and its also generally a lot easier to learn than just reading the book over and over.

Good luck building up the Tau army!

I had bad expiriance with our one and only GW shop . Wish my was more like yours . I don't know if it is just the people working there or the space they have , but trying to play there is both very hard to pull off and even if you somehow do get to play it isn't realy fun .

Speed12 wrote:
Dakkerites.

I got back into 40k about a couple if months ago after about a 12 year absence. Back in the day, I mainly just painted rather than gaming much, and any games involved quite a few made up rules as my mates and I bodged along...

Looking to actually get into some gaming this time around, and when I popped into a GW store a month or so ago, they mentioned they'd be happy to do an introductory game to show me the ropes. Skip forward a couple of months, and after various holidays, work, and Christmas I have finally finished painting my first squad and was going to pop into the store on Friday afternoon (1/2 day at work) to pick up some more models.

As a simple question, is doing an introductory game worth it? I'll have to use the GW models there (if they allow that) as I have about 60points to my name at the moment... For those who have done it, or know anyway, are they 'proper', albeit small points I imagine, games or do they do something else? Is it worth the time or shall I just paint up an army, head to a local club and learn from there? I appreciate I won't come out with the tactical skill of Napoleon after it, but just wondering if it's a worthwhile hour or so as a very first intro to playing the game.

Cheers in advance.

Ready.


Go!

Hobby is expensive enough that I would use proxies and borrow stuff until you start seeing whats working. No sense throwing $200 at an Ebay bid and then finding out there was a good reason he wanted to get that drek out of his force. Lol.