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Okay guys where do I begin, I picked up a copy of the rule book and i'm blown away with all the stuff I need to memorise. I play dark eldar so I decided I would focus on the open top/fast skimmers and passenger shooting rules but I still manage when I finally pluck up the courage to play a game get it completely wrong. It's frustrating because I know my opponent would rather be facing someone who was an actual challenge but instead he's stuck trying not to board wipe me by turn two. Does anybody get where i'm coming from or have any tips on when/what to learn? Because at the moment I don't feel like playing, I enjoy the game but I just don't want to be stuck facing someone who will kick me off the bard in one turn and yes I know dark eldar are probably one of if not the worst starter armies, but i've had space marines and they were just boring as hell. I have the strategies all planned out in my head etc and then I forget a certain rule which means my raiders can't fire their dark lances and my passengers fire snap shots so my paper boat was eaten by a carnifex killing my warlord and running the whole unit off the table by turn 3 it's just if I had learned properly that my guys couldn't fire at full BS if the raider moved, I could have shot the carnifex to shreds with 20 something 3+ shots. It's little things like that and learning the core rules in general, I still end up measuring wrong etc. What do you guys recommend I do?

During 1st and 2nd edition I made cue cards, I still have them lol. ...you might try watching some video batreps on YouTube.

As Gunzhard said, watch video battle reports on youtube. I like miniwargaming and wargamingforfun because they show everything and not just turn summaries.

Don't be afraid to check your rulebook. There are quick reference sections at the back of most of them.

And don't put too much pressure on yourself. The best way to learn this game is by playing it. I know people who've been playing 10+ years, and still don't have all the rules memorized.

As sad as the notion of playing 40k with yourself might seem, you might want to set up a few solo exercises for yourself.

Pit a unit of Kabalites against a unit of Wyches, for instance: Push the models around, roll the dice, get comfy with the rules on the models and weapons, etc.. You can do this with your vehicles/other units, too. A patient, understanding opponent might even be willing to play a [i]tiny[//i] game with you. Something along the lines of no more than 200pts with 1 or 2 troop choices fighting each other, just to help you get used to it.

Just relax a bit and give it time.
Read your rulebook again slowly and try to remember the basic stuff about each phase and unit type.
Practice is of course your best shot at learning the rules and we learn the rules by our mistakes. Now you will never forget again that if you move, you do not fire at full BS.

As pointed above, i believe playing small games of 500 pts is the best way to learn the ropes. Find a willing friend and give it a go. It is certainly better for a seasoned player to spend half an hour in a 500 pt game than 3-4 hours on a full battle.
You can even play 2-3 such games each afternoon

Start small. We started just one troop for both players without hq. Second time we had the swooping hawks vs. Sororitas battle conclave. Our armies are eldar against sororitas.

Dark Vengeance is very good for learning rules. I think it is important to let new player to win.

Start with 750 points, and with simple objectives like simply killing your enemy. Don't mix in too many different unit types at first, but rather add them gradually. Also finding someone who actually knows the game, and then asking them to do a tutorial game with you will help you a lot.

What I can tell you is that there is no one point at which you will "know W40K", because there's always something to discuss, or some strange combo, which will force you to pour over the rules. People refer to me as a walking W40K rulebook, but I still find myself wondering about certain rules and situations.

Get a decent reference sheet and play with some one who is willing to walk you through the game.

Don't hesitate to ask why a certain thing is happening if you don't understand.

I think i'll definitely check out some bat reps it helps me if I am shown how to do something.

What I usually did when I played back in 5th is when making my army list, I did it using an Excel sheet. I'll put the stats in and a box with equipment. With each equipment which has a special rule, I summarise the rule so that I won;t need to look in the Codex/Ruleook and just look at my army list what a certain thing does. I found this helped the flow of the game tremendously.

It looks like this;



While I understand it doesn't help alot, it is a handy reminder for some special rules which you can see when you need to look up the stats when making an attack.

I think I definitely need to make shorthand notes on vehicle movement etc.

 Jimsolo wrote:
Don't be afraid to check your rulebook. There are quick reference sections at the back of most of them.

And don't put too much pressure on yourself. The best way to learn this game is by playing it. I know people who've been playing 10+ years, and still don't have all the rules memorized.

There is a lot of truth in this post. Everyone had to start from somewhere. Put yourself out there and play. Watch some "How to Play" youtube videos while you're painting and flip through your rule book and codex.

Enjoy it!

It just seems so much to digest and I know it must be frustrating for players who want proper opponents who actually know the rules.

Meh. If they want new players in their area, they need to get over themselves and help the new guy!

 Likan Wolfsheim wrote:
As sad as the notion of playing 40k with yourself might seem, you might want to set up a few solo exercises for yourself.

Pit a unit of Kabalites against a unit of Wyches, for instance: Push the models around, roll the dice, get comfy with the rules on the models and weapons, etc.. You can do this with your vehicles/other units, too. A patient, understanding opponent might even be willing to play a [i]tiny[//i] game with you. Something along the lines of no more than 200pts with 1 or 2 troop choices fighting each other, just to help you get used to it.

Great advice! I did this exact thing well not Dark Eldar but I put units against each other and played it out. Was the best way to see the rules work. I also found a local guy who was super patient and didn't mind playing starter games and walking me through it. I am paying that forward now to another guy looking to start a IG army. It's a great way to build the community.

That is a fantastic idea, i'll pit my warriors against each other just to play with rolling to wound, wound allocation etc

Not a bad start. take your time and read the rules, make yourself some notes and/or cheat sheets.

A dispute that came up in a game I played recently was for an open topped vehicle, do the passengers need to shoot at the same thing as the vehicle itself? I couldn't find anything in the rules about it.

The vehicle and passengers are different units. The passengers do NOT need to shoot at what the vehicle shoots at, and vice versa.

My opponent insisted they did! Oh well on the brightside blasterborn just became hilarious!

Don't try to memorize rules. You learn them from experience.

Bring the rulebook, use the quick reference near the end. Play through a few games with the understanding you will screw some things up. Think about your games afterwards and before long you will have a grasp of how to do well.

The Miniwargaming channel on you tube has some good how to videos. I sent them to a new player and he liked them.

I second playing against your own units. This works for almost every game, not just 40k.

Also, be wary of people who try to insist rules without showing you proof. If you are ever unsure of something, look it up, even if he is a veteran and even if he sounds 100% sure of himself. There are literally thousands of rules in this game, and there is no way that everyone can have them all memorized to perfection.

Sometimes, even when I am fairly certain of a rule, I look it up anyway. So yea, don't let someone more experienced try to tell you how your army works just because they have been playing for ten years. Truth is 6th edition has only been out for around a year, so everyone is fairly new!

First, ignore YMDC.
Second, play against yourself. Make notes of the rules you consistently forget.
Third, make notecards, or notes on your armylist.

I learnt the rules in less than 3 weeks by going to My local games workshop and joined a beginners course

I'm with the others that suggested Minwargaming. Search Youtube for batreps with your army, watching someone else play them and seeing how they use the units can really really help. I did this for both Tau and Necrons and although I've never played a game, I know most of the rules for each army.

Basically everything has been said. I make myself a minidex: A couple of Pages where I summarize the rules and abilities of the units I actually have and field.

This is especially necessary with the redundant classifications. There are quite a couple of cases when there is a USR that is basically the combination of two other USRs or an ability or piece of wargear that grants you some USR but has a different name for fluff reasons or whatever. Also, try to remember the difference between rampage, fury, wrath, rage, bloodlust.... I feel that khorne demons are especially plagued by this but probably applies to most other factions as well.

There is no point in trying to memorize all the options for all the armies out there, start by learning your own units and work up from there by playing against others.

My main problem was understanding how far a vehicle could move and have all it's passengers shoot full BS, as my dark eldar raider squadrons full of warriors and sliscus was intended to be a bristling hornets nest of poisoned shots and just about durable enough to endure tyranid shooting but instead I moved too far, my opponent was unwilling to allow me to reverse the move, I missed a vast majority of my shots and lost two raiders to termagaunt shooting, pretty embarrasing.

Simply:

Get rulebook.

Have two units, with exactly the same loadouts and rules.

Play on an open table.

Do movement, shooting, and assault phases until someone loses.

Add spice as needed.

That's how I demo, and how I make champions. Do you wanna be a champion? Start small then, and grow big.