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I would have never tried it myself if it wasn't for the global pandemic. I was always leery of it, thinking it would be too fiddly and too hard to learn to be worth my time. I was wrong. Here's how to get started yourself...

1) Buy TTS now. (right now, it's on a Steam sale at -50% off!) Install it.

2) On your TTS steam library page go to workshop and type in '40k table'. I recommend Night Time, Burning City, Industrial - there are lots of lovely pre-made boards, and lots of lovely effects for them. Some won't be suitable - wrong dimensions, weird layout, etc. But there are loads of great boards there to choose from. Subscribe to the them.

3) Next go on and type in a faction name and behold the riches. Full 'painted' armies with all the units you could possibly want to try out, sitting there and waiting for you on some kind stranger's virtual table. Subsrcibe to them. Subscribe to them allllll...

4) Start up TTS and start a single game. All your tables and all your armies will be there as options for you to load. Open up the army file you chose to start with. (Make a list on Battlscribe and assemble the models you'll need.) Copy/paste is your friend. Once you have them all sorted (deleting the stuff that you don't need works for me), drag a box around them and highlight them all, right click and press 'save object'. give it a name boyo. You'r done with this table now, it's only purpose was to sort your army out. On to an actual 40k table...

5) Load up a table. Shut any warning windows that open regarding missing textures (ther might be a few, depending on the table's age). Paste your army onto the board. Here's the only clunky part of this whole process: They 'drop' on the middle of the board. Highlight them all again, click on the place you'd like them to appear and cut/paste them there. From here you're ready to go: so go to save/load under games and save the table. It's all ready for you whenever you want to play that army on that table.

Have a play around with models, spin them with q/e, lift them up with r, cut and paste them, press L to lock them in place, control-z to undo, grab them and hold Tab to move them while measuring distance, etc, etc. This is all fairly simple when you've practiced for ten minutes, so practice for ten minutes.

6) Finally, optionally, you're probably going to want to put together some useful tools: an ITC scoresheet, some dice rollers, some dice for your factions. Have a poke around worshop and assemble all the tools you love in one place and save them all as an object, so no matter what new board you open, you'll always have everything you need.

7) Go back to main menu and start a multiplayer game up. Friends on steam can easily join your game. 'Promote' them when they join the table so that they can load and modify their armies.

8) You can use the in-game text box or mic-support if you want, but I strongly recommend getting Discord working alongside TTS as well, the free awesome app used by computer gamers the world over.

There you go. As many armies and games of 40k as your heart could wish for in this time of isolation, all for about £8. There's nothing stopping you from still playing 40k during this crisis - in fact you'll probably be playing more than you ever have before. Fill yer boots!*


*Side effects include realisation that armies you've ignored are awesome, endless nights of social wargaming fun and sharp increases in your skill level from getting in reps.

After briefly looking over TTS and its mechanics, I can't help but think even a 1000pt game of 40k is going to be very fiddly and time-consuming.

After a few games it's roughly equivalent to a physical game in time taken. However horde lists are a pain, I'm not sure how viable it would be to run ork horde vs guard IS spam for example

 Valkyrie wrote:
After briefly looking over TTS and its mechanics, I can't help but think even a 1000pt game of 40k is going to be very fiddly and time-consuming.

It's actually faster because of the tools the community has made. Dice rolling is a lot faster and army creation is a doddle too. If you go to the Subreddit to get the discord link, we're all happy to help you.

I wish, I could buy stuff online. I am slowly getting crazy without training and school.

 Valkyrie wrote:
After briefly looking over TTS and its mechanics, I can't help but think even a 1000pt game of 40k is going to be very fiddly and time-consuming.

In fairness, real, physical 40K is fiddly and time-consuming. TTS lets you move groups of models as if they were on a movement tray, instantly delete models as they get removed, and resolve LOS by flying exactly to a model's-eye view. Shortcuts like these help to offset the slightly more cumbersome mechanics involved in using a computer interface.

Once you get used to the interface I find it plays as fast as or faster than regular 40K.

 Valkyrie wrote:
After briefly looking over TTS and its mechanics, I can't help but think even a 1000pt game of 40k is going to be very fiddly and time-consuming.

Just like the real thing.

 Valkyrie wrote:
After briefly looking over TTS and its mechanics, I can't help but think even a 1000pt game of 40k is going to be very fiddly and time-consuming.

Yeah, I watched a vid on YouTube and the host admitted that it would be a pain in the ass to play a Horde army. So just invent some AI rules on the fly and play against yourself.

Can someone explain what the issue with hordes is? TTS makes it easy to drag-select an entire unit and move them all at once in perfect formation; I've found it easier to play hordes in TTS than in real life.

Been playing a few games on TTS since quarantine started and it's pretty good. Only issues are trying to hug the wall on the bottom of a ruin and the game frequently sending the model up a floor, and when trying to save time by moving a large group of models and hitting a piece of terrain causing them to ball up.

Overall it generally takes about the same amount of time as in person if not a bit faster as dice rolling is quicker and LOS easy to determine.

Does take some getting used to the ui and how tts works but once you're comfortable with the interface it's really easy.

I get a game a month atm thanks to having a very young child and my partner being a teacher so working on nights etc.

TTS has been a life saver so far, did a 2v2 game a couple of weeks back, the first hour or so was figuring out some of the tools and movement but it really wasn't much if any slower.

Two videos from VanX from the Discord on how to set up Tabletop Simulator for 40k. I also wrote a handy 1 click installer to install the Catalogue so no need to faff about there either. https://github.com/BaconCatBug/Battleforged-Workshop-Mod-Compilation-Updater

Great content, thanks Bacon!

Any good Twitch streamers for this? I wouldn’t mind having this play in the background during painting/etc.

 catbarf wrote:
Can someone explain what the issue with hordes is? TTS makes it easy to drag-select an entire unit and move them all at once in perfect formation; I've found it easier to play hordes in TTS than in real life.

It completely goes to hell when you need to pile in or when moving around terrain or when you accidentally bunch up your unit into a ball. So don't try playing a green tide in TTS. Otherwise, it's decent, but not a replacement for playing with your own models.

Just played my first game, and I found it hugely accessible. I played a 2000pt Chaos Knight list against my buddy's Orks, just because I was learning the ropes, and thought that dealing with 5 models would be easiest. However, after this, I have every confidence in running any kind of list. My buddy didn't run a green tide, but his list had plenty of Boyz. Can't say it took any longer than a normal game. I recommend it!

 Jidmah wrote:

 catbarf wrote:
Can someone explain what the issue with hordes is? TTS makes it easy to drag-select an entire unit and move them all at once in perfect formation; I've found it easier to play hordes in TTS than in real life.

It completely goes to hell when you need to pile in or when moving around terrain or when you accidentally bunch up your unit into a ball. So don't try playing a green tide in TTS. Otherwise, it's decent, but not a replacement for playing with your own models.

You do know you can disable that, right? Or are you just going to complain about stuff that is user error and blame it on the program?

 BaconCatBug wrote:

 Jidmah wrote:

 catbarf wrote:
Can someone explain what the issue with hordes is? TTS makes it easy to drag-select an entire unit and move them all at once in perfect formation; I've found it easier to play hordes in TTS than in real life.

It completely goes to hell when you need to pile in or when moving around terrain or when you accidentally bunch up your unit into a ball. So don't try playing a green tide in TTS. Otherwise, it's decent, but not a replacement for playing with your own models.

You do know you can disable that, right? Or are you just going to complain about stuff that is user error and blame it on the program?

Well that is the standard process for a large amount of IT.

 BaconCatBug wrote:

 Jidmah wrote:

 catbarf wrote:
Can someone explain what the issue with hordes is? TTS makes it easy to drag-select an entire unit and move them all at once in perfect formation; I've found it easier to play hordes in TTS than in real life.

It completely goes to hell when you need to pile in or when moving around terrain or when you accidentally bunch up your unit into a ball. So don't try playing a green tide in TTS. Otherwise, it's decent, but not a replacement for playing with your own models.

You do know you can disable that, right? Or are you just going to complain about stuff that is user error and blame it on the program?

No, I didn't because there is absolutely no way to find out easily. Bad accessibility is something that can rightfully be blamed on a program.

In comparison to a regular strategy game, TTS is absolutely terrible. If it weren't the only way to play WH40k remotely, I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.

Bacon, how do you disable the bunchup? I'm interested!

 BaconCatBug wrote:
You do know you can disable that, right? Or are you just going to complain about stuff that is user error and blame it on the program?

I've used TTS a fair bit and didn't know that either.

In UX, what management likes to call 'user error' is what we call 'bad design'...

grouchoben wrote:Bacon, how do you disable the bunchup? I'm interested!

catbarf wrote:

 BaconCatBug wrote:
You do know you can disable that, right? Or are you just going to complain about stuff that is user error and blame it on the program?

I've used TTS a fair bit and didn't know that either.

In UX, what management likes to call 'user error' is what we call 'bad design'...

Set your physics to "Locked" mode.

I agree, there should be an easier and more explicit setting, and it is bad UX, but it is still there and a very simple "How do I disable clumping" in the discord would take you all of 6 seconds.

BaconCatBug wrote:You do know you can disable that, right? Or are you just going to complain about stuff that is user error and blame it on the program?

BaconCatBug wrote:Set your physics to "Locked" mode.

I agree, there should be an easier and more explicit setting, and it is bad UX,

Which means you lied and you were extremely unpolite about it.
I was aware that locking physics removed the clumping, but it also removes some other features so we kept it on for our games.

but it is still there and a very simple "How do I disable clumping" in the discord would take you all of 6 seconds.

Are answers there as helpful as the ones you give on these forums?

No, I didn't lie. It's bad UX, but most people are able to get around it, mainly by, ya know, asking.

 BaconCatBug wrote:
No, I didn't lie. It's bad UX, but most people are able to get around it, mainly by, ya know, asking.

 BaconCatBug wrote:
You do know you can disable that, right? Or are you just going to complain about stuff that is user error and blame it on the program?

You can't disable it without also disabling a bunch of other features which are quite helpful for certain tasks. But of course, you knew that, as usual being technically right is infinitely more important to you than being helpful.

You are also telling me that asking on a discord which is in no way related to the actual software, which is not actually documented anywhere and - worst of all - seem to have the extremely helpful you as a member, somehow turns a major problem of TTS (not only for 40k players) which is well documented and known to the developers since at least 2017 into a user error on my side that I have no right to blame the program for.

Bad UX is a software defect. Just because a workaround exists doesn't change the fact that the software is defective, and a user has every right to complain about defective software. That the workaround isn't even documented properly and that you have to actively ask a hard to find community to know about it makes it worse, not better.

You would do well to apply the same standards to rules and software. Anything else is just hypocrisy.

 Jidmah wrote:

 BaconCatBug wrote:
No, I didn't lie. It's bad UX, but most people are able to get around it, mainly by, ya know, asking.

 BaconCatBug wrote:
You do know you can disable that, right? Or are you just going to complain about stuff that is user error and blame it on the program?

You can't disable it without also disabling a bunch of other features which are quite helpful for certain tasks. But of course, you knew that, as usual being technically right is infinitely more important to you than being helpful.

You are also telling me that asking on a discord which is in no way related to the actual software, which is not actually documented anywhere and - worst of all - seem to have the extremely helpful you as a member, somehow turns a major problem of TTS (not only for 40k players) which is well documented and known to the developers since at least 2017 into a user error on my side that I have no right to blame the program for.

Bad UX is a software defect. Just because a workaround exists doesn't change the fact that the software is defective, and a user has every right to complain about defective software. That the workaround isn't even documented properly and that you have to actively ask a hard to find community to know about it makes it worse, not better.

You would do well to apply the same standards to rules and software. Anything else is just hypocrisy.

I was talking about asking on the official Tabletop Simulator Discord, but you do you.

While I appreciate the effort going into "Look! it's easy!" I confess it doesn't look that easy. I'll pass, but thanks for the information. Maybe in September I'll be desperate...

It really doesn't look easy. It gets worse when OP implies using copy paste from battlescribe is really easy. There's a reason I don't use battlescribe and that's because there are easier ways for me to write an army list.

Even without BattleScribe, it’s still fairly easy. Biggest issue is the host has to have access to all the armies/models that will be used (or at least, I haven’t found an option for joiners to load the models themselves).

I’m still learning about the game (TTS), but the online tutorials are really helpful. The program has evolved a lot since it was first released, and playing with it for about 10-15 minutes before jumping into trying a game helps a lot.

 Stormonu wrote:
Even without BattleScribe, it’s still fairly easy. Biggest issue is the host has to have access to all the armies/models that will be used (or at least, I haven’t found an option for joiners to load the models themselves).

I’m still learning about the game (TTS), but the online tutorials are really helpful. The program has evolved a lot since it was first released, and playing with it for about 10-15 minutes before jumping into trying a game helps a lot.

The host has to promote the guest for them to spawn models in. The base map mod will automatically do that for you