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Hey guys, just needing a bit of help with something.

So my girls finally figured out after 2 months of us dating that I play 40k, now she's asking me to show her how to play and introduce her to the game.
Has anyone dealt with this sort of thing before and got any advice they can give us?
Any helps appreciated, cheers guys.

That fact she approached you is promising.

Try Kill team without any of the specializations to show her the basic concepts without overloading her with info.

If she told you she wants to play, then don't make a big deal about it. Make up two 500 point lists and have at it.

Allright cheers guys, I'll give it a go. thanks

See if they have any miniature Channing Tatum heads and put them on all your space marines. That may help more than you could imagine.

then marry her...

Pretty much put together two very small "armies" of 500 points or less. Ideally let her play marines, with an HQ and one or two infantry units, versus a similarly selected force of orks or guard, something marines can hopefully beat up on. Maybe put an objective in the middle so she gets that concept too, but I wouldn't worry about it. Mostly you're walking her through the turn sequence and some very basic target priority-type decisions, describing what's going on on both sides of the table, without getting bogged down with too many special rules or the details of the To Hit chart, etc. Especially on your side of the table - say you're playing guard, don't even bother issuing orders. Better to handicap yourself slightly and avoid overwhelming her with unnecessary info.

It's the same way I've introduced plenty of people, friends and girlfriends alike. Just remember you're basically speaking a foreign language when you're talking game mechanics to someone who's never played, so you can go light on the technical details and describe things a little more as a narrative. Be "cinematic" even (damn you GW).

I speak from experience here... my ex-gf was interested in both Fantasy and 40K, so I had the opportunity to try to woo her over to the dark side of expensive geek hobbies...

If you are going to teach her the rules, keep the points low and let her play Space Marines. Even if you think she won't like SMs, or if you want to play them yourself, let her play them. You're just teaching her, not making her commit to an army, and @ 500 points SM have a lot of survivability compared to other armies. This is important, because you NEVER want to table someone who is just starting out and only learning. SM also don't have a lot of special rules (ATSKNF being about it) for her to learn. Just let her get a feel for how the game plays, then let her ask questions about the different armies.

Don't try to force Sisters onto her. I know it will be hard, but you have to resist. If she seems interested in playing Sisters, then let her. But don't make the rookie mistake of talking up the "girl" army, thinking that she will automatically want to play them. Best Ork player I ever met was a woman.

Being able to spell simple words would help. As girls don't like associating with foolish people. So her 'frieking out' is not going to help the situation.

That being said, it takes a certain kind of girl to get into gaming. They are terribly rare, and they don't usually last long in the hobby.

Allright guys thanks for all the help. I'll sort out a small game with Marines and IG. Cheers for the help.

Oh and Faenyin, that was a typo, my mistake.

I second the kill team idea as well. That removes the need to worry about things like coherency and mixed saves, etc and seems a lot more intuitive to a new player.

Ask what her interest is in the game.

My wife liked painting some of the models.

Eldar had an esthetic she liked as well.

Find every way possible to play fast too... later she started saying it was like watching paint dry so I did what I could to streamline.

She may also be wanting more time with you so trying to get into your hobbies... that may pass.

Good luck!

Definately second the kill team approach. See if you can come up with an engaging scenario that isn't just kill them all.

Well at the moment she's been more interested in the painting side, but now she wants to try the gaming side too. She hasn't seen many other armies apart from IG and SM so far, so I'm going to show her the other sorts of things available too and let her get used to the rules before picking an army.

There are always "Hello Kitty conversions".
https://www.google.com/search?q=hello+kitty+space+marines&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=bmfMUr3hOqmR2QWSoYCYBQ&ved=0CCoQsAQ&biw=1218&bih=917
Mind you, even some female friends found this abhorrent.

 Talizvar wrote:
There are always "Hello Kitty conversions".
https://www.google.com/search?q=hello+kitty+space+marines&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=bmfMUr3hOqmR2QWSoYCYBQ&ved=0CCoQsAQ&biw=1218&bih=917
Mind you, even some female friends found this abhorrent.

Thankfully she's not that sort of girl

You can't go wrong with smurfs (from this battle report.)




Break her in slowly and let her win a few games. Then show her all the different armies in the BRB and see which one catches her fancy aesthetically. Then work from there.

Break the game into simple parts.

Drop the idea of force org, list building, warlords, objectives, night fight, reserves, vehicles, and special weapons. Treat it like a souped up board game.

Play mirrored armies. This is important as knowing what your enemy can do is critical for strategy. (I use 10 tactical marines for each player)

Focus on the phases of the game.

Move / shoot / assault / hand to hand

Make a basic chart of the phase order.

Explain how to "hit and wound" with shooting and hand to hand. Sometimes a simple goal of "roll a 4 and you hit me" is enough. Sometimes people will want to understand the system , if this is the case , go into it, but otherwise giving a "roll goal" is usually good enough.

Make a chart with the models armor save and shooting range on it and place a corrisponding model next to the appropriate rules.

I have used this method to intro a few people into 40k. And the simpler and quicker it is, the more people seem to like it.

If they like the game enough we will play another game and add the idea of combat squad and heavy weapons.

After that, they should know if they like the game or not.

I play on a 4'x4' board during these tutorial games. I also try and make the terrain look as cool as possible. This really gets noobs into the game!

Let us know how it goes!

With her approaching first, that's a plus!

My wife was exposed to 40k early on. As a GF prior to marriage, she was exposed to my 40k stuff because it was littered all over my apartment. Of course, for the first time seeing small tiny weird looking stuff, she had to ask....and so began the explanation / showcase of miniatures.

Since then, I've corrupted her into a gamer...she's mostly an online PC gamer....wayyy more than I am (kinda scary sometimes). She is quite familiar with 40k due to DoW, etc.

If you're lucky, she'll enjoy building armies and then fielding them in battle.

I echo the sentiment about starting small. Being able to treat her like she's an absolute newbie, as opposed to a veteran player, is the key. Small, basic forces built to be a tutorial to the basics of the game is the best way, and then build upon that if she shows interest.

Luckily my wife has been exposed to my gaming since we first met almost 9 years ago, as so is an old hat at having it around. Hell, I just spent the last few days in this snowstorm playing Kingdoms of Amalur on the 360 for an average of 6-7 hours a day.

But even now, I have to remember that she doesn't have the exposure to the minutia of the games like 40K that I have, so we play with forces that don't require that.

When I taught my last GF, I started simple as well, basic movement and shooting. Then introduced assault.

Let her get that down a few very small games, then introduced vehicles.

I let her try both marines, and guard, then after a while introduced her to a lot of other races.

Never mix girls and gaming, it never ends well

 Asmodai Asmodean wrote:
Never mix girls and gaming, it never ends well

Because we kick your sorry emasculated behinds every time?

I don't know if I should laugh or be insulted! All it took for me was for my boyfriend to show me Tyranids. That was..ten years ago now and BAM, 40k.

How to get the girlfriend into 40k without freaking her out?

1.) Put on some Barry White.

2.) Invite her over.

3.) Answer the door like this.

I'd also suggest introducing her to a variety of systems. 40k isn't particularly friendly to new players, thanks to the massive cost and convoluted ruleset. If she likes it enough to get invested, good for her, but there are plenty of games that might be more interesting and affordable to her, such as Infinity or Malifaux. Additionally, she might prefer more intimate systems, like RPGs, so it might be worth your while to introduce her to that as well. It could offer a great chance for discovery not only for her, but also for yourself.

On the idea of teaching her the game itself, do it oldschool and bring in a friend to help. Ideally the best way to learn a game is against an opponent that is NOT teaching you. I just helped a friend teach his girlfriend how to play. It was basically their army vs. me, and we kept the points total low (750 game). Hopefully the friend isn't a dick and bringing along really dumb stuff like hell turkeys.

It also makes it a more social event, and if she gets bored, hey, it's a party anyway.

Secondly, I would be clear the game is not even all that important. If she doesn't like the game, maybe she'll still really enjoy the hobby aspect. If you've got any "How to Paint" books or DVDs around, have her watch it and get her some starter minis to fiddle with! I still drop $50~ bucks a month on minis and I don't even play the tabletop game anymore because I don't like it. The owner of our little hobby shop is a 65 year old woman who got interested in hobbying seeing all us nerds get into it, and bought and painted the entire Lord of the Rings starter box. Turns out she's super, super talented at it naturally which is a pretty cool thing to discover you're good at the ripe young age of 65.

If you have a GW nearby, take her in for one of those "trial games" that they do with the Dark Vengeance box set. Show her all the armies, and let her pick. I thought my wife would like the Eldar, but she went for Necrons.

Get her to play a better game that has balance rule something like blood bowl. There is like 21 very different teams they all have a different way of playing. Plus you don't need 17,000 dice, a bucket & an hour of your life only to fail to kill any Pallys

 Farseer Faenyin wrote:
Being able to spell simple words would help. As girls don't like associating with foolish people. So her 'frieking out' is not going to help the situation.

You must not associate with women very often.