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Hey all. There's a local coffee shop that does gaming nights once per week and I've been tasked with teaching a small group of people (6-10) how to play 40K next week. These are experienced board gamers, but have no Warhammer or 40K experience.

Between myself and a friend we'll have six armies to potentially bring: Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Dark Eldar, CSM, Deamons and Necrons.

Right now I was thinking building small 500pt lists without vehicles to keep things fairly simple (and games that can wrap up quickly), but not just leaning on MEQ to keep things a touch more interesting. Anyone have any advice on how to slowly introduce new players? Are 2v2 games the way to go (one experienced, one newcomer) or would you simply have us shadow the new players?

I've never really taught someone how to play before and brainstorming the simplest way.

Thanks!

I have had great success getting people started with Kill Team. It teaches the basics and makes sense from a new player view. Each model does his own thing ect ect. When you get ready to play "real" 40k, you just explain that the individuals form units that then follow 98% of the same rules they have been playing with.

Yeah I think you alread have a good idea how to. Start with your 500pt games, for the first maybe go simple Move Shoot Assault Leadership. You want short and quick, getting them into the game as fast as you can. You might loose a few players if they have to sit there for an hour learning. Then introduce new concepts each game like psychic powers or what have you.

Yeah the 2v2 where each guy is paired with a experienced player. Just make sure the experienced guy is able and willing to teach. Also make sure they stick to the scope of the lesson, you don't need to flood them with information they can't do anything with yet. That should work out well, and if everyone is patient and friendly you should have 6 more players.

Thanks for the advice. The other guy running it with me is willing to teach, but newer to the game than I am -- which is why I'm spearheading it.

In terms of HQ, I want things to be a little interesting but not overwhelming. Thoughts there? Think a librarian would be too much for the marines?

I second Kill Teams.
It's a great way for players to learn basic mechanics, without the game dragging on for hours causing them to lose interest. That sort of micromanaging transfers over very nicely to large games.

I've taught a few of my friends how to play via Kill Teams, and I honestly don't think they would have learned as quickly any other way. It went like this, basically:

5-8 Kill Team Games
4-5 500-800 Point Games (with assisted list building)
By the next (1000 points) game they knew most the special rules, game mechanics, and stats without checking the books.

Good luck!

I'd vote against kill team. It's a small-points game, but it still uses all of the rules. What you're going to want to do to start with is to have fewer rules.

You can have different unit types, so long as you don't mix vehicles and everything else (I've actually demo'd 40k with just vehicles before and that actually worked pretty smoothly), but prune down everything else.

For example, ignore all special rules (even things like melta), ignore leadership, pretend psychic powers don't exist, etc.

Set up the game where you introduce unit coherency, basic movement, how the hit-wound-save mechanic works, and then explain that you can also run, and you can get into assault (but ignore everything but the hit-wound-save mechanic, making sure to note how similar it is to the shooting phase's). In this way, the new players need to remember like a dozen rules, tops. Having printed copies of the charts for everyone will help as well.

I'd also set up the game to bias towards interesting things happening, even if it doesn't strictly follow the rules. Better that people come away with a good story and learn that it doesn't usually work quite that way is better than a by the book, yet bland exercise between two gunlines. It's that zaniness that makes 40k interesting, not balanced lists re-enacting chess with dice.

Also, I'd pre-make armies for people. Explain that they can make changes in the real game, but for now you're giving them pre-made "characters", and have the lists be as different as possible. A bike army player can learn an extra rule or two to make bikes work (especially if he can ignore the regular rules, like an all-bike list would for movement), and showcasing the kind of diversity, and allowing players to pick what kind of army they want, even if it's from a pre-made set, will be a good thing.

Anyways, if you emphasize the fun, rather than the rules, things will go well. Good luck.

I'd honestly go 500 points games, no HQ. Use things without many special rules. For example SM with a couple tac squads and an assault squad, marines squads where the Sarge has something, but all marines are standard bolter marines. And the assault squad also doesn't have special weapons. It standardizes at first so there aren't many rules for them to remember. There will still be some, but only one weapon type per unit makes it easy.

My first game of 40K was a 500 point game against a friend playing Dark Angels. I was playing Black Templars and had a list consisting of Helbrecht, two crusader squads, an assault squad, land speeder squad and a dreadnought. Dark Angels were (iirc) Belial, a terminator squad, a tactical squad and a predator. We were both so bad at the game that Helbrecht got one-shotted by his predator turn 1 because I put him alone at the front of my army (trying to be cinematic), his terminators spent the entire game marching up the board toward a crusader squad and got whittled down to two models by bolters by the time they made it into close combat, my assault marines did nothing but shoot at his tactical squad with their bolt pistols and my landspeeders did absolutely nothing. The game was a tie, my final turn ending with a lone initiate using the butt of his bolter to cave-in the skull of his last terminator and my dreadnought punching his predator to death.

It was an awful game mechanically, with the both of us ignoring tons of rules and playing like ass, but it was also super fun, and it served to stoke my interest in the game. So, I echo Ailaros' thoughts about emphasizing the fun aspect of 40K, at least initially. 40K really isn't a very good game to play competitively, but it definitely has a charming affinity for zany shenanigans, and, years later those are the things you remember.

So, 500 points with basic units (infantry and maybe just one vehicle per side that they can pick(no flyers)) and no upgrades sounds like a good way to start. Teach him the phase order of each turn. Teach the basics of movement (6 inch move, 1d6'' run, 2d6'' charge), leave the dangerous/difficult terrain rules at home, than the basics of shooting (roll to hit, roll to wound, roll saves), leave cover and focus fire at home. Teach wound allocation, line-of-sight, etc.

Baby steps.

 Ailaros wrote:
I'd vote against kill team. It's a small-points game, but it still uses all of the rules. What you're going to want to do to start with is to have fewer rules.

You can have different unit types, so long as you don't mix vehicles and everything else (I've actually demo'd 40k with just vehicles before and that actually worked pretty smoothly), but prune down everything else.

For example, ignore all special rules (even things like melta), ignore leadership, pretend psychic powers don't exist, etc.

Set up the game where you introduce unit coherency, basic movement, how the hit-wound-save mechanic works, and then explain that you can also run, and you can get into assault (but ignore everything but the hit-wound-save mechanic, making sure to note how similar it is to the shooting phase's). In this way, the new players need to remember like a dozen rules, tops. Having printed copies of the charts for everyone will help as well.

I'd also set up the game to bias towards interesting things happening, even if it doesn't strictly follow the rules. Better that people come away with a good story and learn that it doesn't usually work quite that way is better than a by the book, yet bland exercise between two gunlines. It's that zaniness that makes 40k interesting, not balanced lists re-enacting chess with dice.

Also, I'd pre-make armies for people. Explain that they can make changes in the real game, but for now you're giving them pre-made "characters", and have the lists be as different as possible. A bike army player can learn an extra rule or two to make bikes work (especially if he can ignore the regular rules, like an all-bike list would for movement), and showcasing the kind of diversity, and allowing players to pick what kind of army they want, even if it's from a pre-made set, will be a good thing.

Anyways, if you emphasize the fun, rather than the rules, things will go well. Good luck.

I agree with this. Simplify the rules, cut it down to bare bones, if models have special rules, assume they don't for the purposes of the intro game. Don't worry too much about point limits, just have 2 or 3 units per side and try and balance the unit sizes so the outcome is reasonably close (might take some play testing). I wouldn't worry about kill team, just have small units (maybe even smaller than legal depending on what armies you pick) and I wouldn't even bother about things like special weapons. If it's a tac squad, just make them all have bolters, maybe make 1 model a heavy weapon or something like that.

Print off the to hit, to wound and save modifier tables, and write up a basic turn sequence. Focus on those few points (how you move, shoot, assault and how models kill each other).

That's how they always used to do it at the local GW (they probably still do, I just haven't watched an intro game for years). They'd line up the models from the boxed set at the time and just strip the rules down to the basics. That let them "forge a narrative" so to speak, so you can explain what's going on and focus on the fun of playing a game with another person rather than getting bogged down in rules. Once you strip the rules down to their basics and don't have too many special weapons or oddities in the armies, a game with 20 or so models per side goes pretty fast.

Dreadnoughts are actually a great way to introduce newbies to vehicles, as they require a lot less finesse to position well, and since they are so cheap, they easily fit into small games.

I taught my friend to play 40k with dark vengeance. The small scenarios are tailor fit for introducing new people to 40k mechanics, try using the those scenarios as a source of inspiration?

Zewrath wrote:
I taught my friend to play 40k with dark vengeance. The small scenarios are tailor fit for introducing new people to 40k mechanics, try using the those scenarios as a source of inspiration?

This. This times 10000.

Take a leaf from GW - intro games.

Remove as many special rules as you can, and introduce the IGOUGO mechanic, the phases, and core concepts such as WS, BS, etc.

Fit a few game in, with marines, chaos, orks, guard. Aim for them to be 30 minutes long, as you want repetition to ingrain the basic ruels.

Assuming they are the average boardgamer, they should pick up rules and tactics very quickly, once you get playing.

Main thing is to do just that - get playing. Try to focus less on explaining the rules, and more on demonstratign them.

As well as keeping the games small and simple, another thing to remember is that if a unit dominates too much don't take it every time.

It's not always the obvious units either. Had problems when I was teaching my girlfriend with Beserkers, who seem to have the most ridiculous luck imaginable. After two games with them surviving plasma fire and taking out enemy armies single-handedly they have been shelved for the moment.

Start off with simple units with few special rules and work up from there. When I have taught people I also tend to neglect all but the core mechanics for the first couple of games.

Very Important, do not attempt to convince them they need a 2000 pt army right away. as we all know the price is too high and it will make them run for cover. keep venues small, 500-750 to start then 750-1000 points 6 months later etc.

I typically find that keeping it simple. 1 HQ and 2 troop with maybe one tank or walker, makes for very enjoyable games for newbies.

Have them read the rule book

 Dalymiddleboro wrote:
Have them read the rule book

Only after they've seen a game, and they know what rules were used.

Combat Squad games are good for learning, but can get complex.
If it was me, I'd take 2-3 units per side, and leave the special weapons out of it.

I've done something like this:

Game 1: two tactical squads vs two tactical squads

Do this until the person gets the rules... start adding in other units and then give the new guy all the units covered and take on a new army (say orks). Keep it fun, and the teacher should be playing to lose.

Once they've got down a solid 1k SM list, turn them loose and let them explore the game.