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With our first game coming later in the month...quick question.

For 4x4 board with 500 points each. Is it too much to bring a Chimera and a Leman russ for the opposing Eldar to handle or is that perfectly normal?

Got 2 guard units, 1 Scions , command squad, heavy unit...then the chimera and LR. Its a nice way of getting to 500 quicker rather than loads of infantry...but got this nagging doubt it will unbalance things?

Its a friendly game with a friend(who is also new)

VAYASEN wrote:
With our first game coming later in the month...quick question.

For 4x4 board with 500 points each. Is it too much to bring a Chimera and a Leman russ for the opposing Eldar to handle or is that perfectly normal?

Got 2 guard units, 1 Scions , command squad, heavy unit...then the chimera and LR. Its a nice way of getting to 500 quicker rather than loads of infantry...but got this nagging doubt it will unbalance things?

Its a friendly game with a friend(who is also new)

Sounds fine to me. Depends a bit on what your opponent brings but a Leman Russ shouldn’t be to much.

VAYASEN wrote:
With our first game coming later in the month...quick question.

For 4x4 board with 500 points each. Is it too much to bring a Chimera and a Leman russ for the opposing Eldar to handle or is that perfectly normal?

Got 2 guard units, 1 Scions , command squad, heavy unit...then the chimera and LR. Its a nice way of getting to 500 quicker rather than loads of infantry...but got this nagging doubt it will unbalance things?

Its a friendly game with a friend(who is also new)

At 500 pts the rock&paper&scissor starts to be quite an issue. He won't be able to field balanced force at that point so likely will skew at something. So if he brings in good AT killing power you will be toast, if not he'll be toast.

Also matters what he'll have. For example were you to play vs brand new sister player you could play 500 pts list vs his ~800 pts list(what you get in 2xlaunch pocket) and you would crush him with ease as the thing has almost literally zero AT weapons (issue I'm having with my SOB force. Friend has orks but with vehicle theme. How am I supposed to tackle battlewagon when I have 2 plasma pistols to go around? can't wait for full release so I can get some exorcists and melta weapons...)

40k isnt' all that well designed for that small games(plenty of non scalable rules) so balance will be always wonky. So don't worry and just try it out. If it proves to be too good adjust. Also playing scenario where objectives matter more and adding plenty los blocking terrain helps.

VAYASEN wrote:
With our first game coming later in the month...quick question.

For 4x4 board with 500 points each. Is it too much to bring a Chimera and a Leman russ for the opposing Eldar to handle or is that perfectly normal?

Got 2 guard units, 1 Scions , command squad, heavy unit...then the chimera and LR. Its a nice way of getting to 500 quicker rather than loads of infantry...but got this nagging doubt it will unbalance things?

Its a friendly game with a friend(who is also new)

Try it and see. Astra Militarum without vehicles are just cannon fodder, though.

The type of Leman Russ will matter.
Having a 72" range is a waste, and a shorter-range main gun might be worth a look.

Chimerae are nothing special, and if your opponent cannot pop that open, they're going to generally have a hard time.

Anyway, IG vehicles miss most things they fire at. They can try ignoring the tank. Find a nice place to park it to skip the penalty for firing HWs, and the turret benefit of half-speed.

They hit just as often as they miss though ;-) And it's only 25% less hits than marines have.

Agreed on chimera though. It's bad. But if opponent has nothing that can hurt them or one source(at which point russ can deal with it) then they can be surprisingly tough. I remember I had chimeras do quite a bit in slow grow league(though that's been a while). Opponents rarely had anything to hurt vehicles so chimera+russ was surprisingly hard combo.

500 is quite a rock paper scissor.

tneva82 wrote:
They hit just as often as they miss though ;-)

Less if they move. Heavy Weapons on vehicles still (usually) suffer from the -1 to-hit. Once they start taking damage, it gets worse. A couple of good hits on them will make a big difference.

Against Eldar, whose weapons are usually S4 and S6, taking on a T7 vehicle isn't impossible. T8 though, those S4s are going to struggle.

I'd give it a try with what you've got and refine the army lists for future games if it turns out to be terribly one sided.

For a suggestion, at my FLGS we sometimes play 500pts with these house rules:

3'*3' table
Max 1 detachment
No 2+ saves
No vehicles
No bikes
No MCs
Only BRB Strategems
No Flyers
No models with more than 7 wounds
No Lords of War
No FW

This might not suit what you want, but seems to work well for us especially as an introduction for new players and might be useful as a jumping off point for smaller games.

@Aash, those "nothing fun permitted" restrictions just sound like you should go play kill team instead for small games.

VAYASEN wrote:
With our first game coming later in the month...quick question.

For 4x4 board with 500 points each. Is it too much to bring a Chimera and a Leman russ for the opposing Eldar to handle or is that perfectly normal?

Got 2 guard units, 1 Scions , command squad, heavy unit...then the chimera and LR. Its a nice way of getting to 500 quicker rather than loads of infantry...but got this nagging doubt it will unbalance things?

Its a friendly game with a friend(who is also new)

I wouldn't say that's a strong list.

I'm looking at:
1x TC w/ Battlecannon, Lascannon
1x CC
3x Infantry
1x Veterans w/ Plasmaguns
1x Chimera
using the Vigilus Mechanized Company for an upcoming 500 point game with a newbie playing Chaos.

It really depends on what your opponent owns right now though. I think my opponent will be running something like Lord, Sorc, 2xCSM, 1xCultists, and a dinobot, so I think my list sounds at about the same level as his.

 Inquisitor Lord Katherine wrote:
@Aash, those "nothing fun permitted" restrictions just sound like you should go play kill team instead for small games.

Different people think different units are fun, just trying to make a helpful suggestion. I found playing small 500pt games with the above restrictions were a great way for me to get used to the rules of 8th ed. after having been out of the hobby for a good number of years, and were useful in building a core for a new army to add on to in the future for bigger games, but each to their own.

Aash wrote:

 Inquisitor Lord Katherine wrote:
@Aash, those "nothing fun permitted" restrictions just sound like you should go play kill team instead for small games.

Different people think different units are fun, just trying to make a helpful suggestion. I found playing small 500pt games with the above restrictions were a great way for me to get used to the rules of 8th ed. after having been out of the hobby for a good number of years, and were useful in building a core for a new army to add on to in the future for bigger games, but each to their own.

All those restrictions just cut the pool down to essentially just basic infantry, slightly-less-basic infantry, and characters, but excludes most of the things that really define a faction. At that point, you really should just play kill team, it has all of those and is designed to work with just those and at small scale.


For 500 points, I usually recommend a battalion with 3 units of infantry, one strong hero character, one basic cheap character, and one "I want that" unit like a tank or monster.

Imperial Guard without tanks is just fodder and boring. Take what you want to the first game and cater from there.

You may find your opponent has brought enough to table you on turn one.

Facing an 'unkillable' unit builds skills needed for bigger games.
Can't kill a tank, due to the high-T? Learn which weapons and options your army has (Mortal Wounds, etc) to do that.
And so on.