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So obviously COVID and 9th arrived together, and I have played only one pilot game at 500 points... so not really at all. I've arranged a very cautiously distanced outdoor matchup on Saturday, and my opponent and I are going to try for two back to back. So consider us veteran players who are very new to 9th-- we're efficient and know our lists, but we'll need to reference the core rules a bit for turn sequence and scoring.

What's a good mission to play? Something simple and flavorful where each of us can get a turn at going first? And what's a viable points level sub-2000 where codexes come to life and missions function, but we can still hope to squeeze in two games (say 3-4 hours each at noob pace)? It'll probably be Sororitas vs. Astra Militarum if that guides your advice.

Thanks for the suggestions!

I’m not 100% sure on the missions just yet, not played enough to know which are the most balanced/fun.

But I’d recommend 1k if you’re trying to fit in 2 games. Relaxing and having a good time with 1k can take 2 hours I’ve found with my mates. 1.5 is the best spot for under 2k if you’re looking to field a few cool units though, so if you have a good amount of time, you could probably squeeze in a 1.5k game along with a 1k.

I would say 1000pts would be a good starting point.

For missions the options would be:

Open War: The most basic with very simple objectives. Great for beginners to 9th.

Crusade: The narrative missions. More complex than open war. The crusade system is meant for leagues and casual play. There are a lot of asymmetric missions where the attacker and defender have different objectives.

Matched play: most people avoid these as the CA2020 missions are generally better for competitive play.

Chapter Approved 2020 tournament missions: If you are interested in more competitive games then this would what I would suggest. It has rules for 1000pt and 2000pt games. Most people play 2000pts of course but all the events I have seen have all been using these missions. They are great for pick up games as well.

I would say CA2020 and crusade have the best missions. It just depends on what you are looking for.

Something at or under 1000pts, with 1-2 primary and one secondary. But a lot depends on what armies are used. If you do the intreduction to 9th with an or both armies that are not suited to be played in 9th, like Knights or Tau, your results maybe drasticaly worse, comparing to using some of the marine armies or harlis or orcs or nurgle soup.

Both 500 and 1000 points work well for quick games, for getting to know the edition the missions from the BRB are good enough.

Just make sure use the suggested table sizes for those missions, they get weird otherwise.

Hold of on crusade until you have a good understanding of 9th - crusade puts quite a few layers of rules on top of normal games.

I say 750 - 1k games are fantastic for initial learning and leaves enough other units one whiff shooting phase wont feel like you've lost the game.

Then slowly, go up 100.250 points when you feel confident.

I personally advocate for 1500 point games as standard, it makes for interesting list choices and games are not too long.

Thanks for the guidance... we'll play two at 1000. Sounds like the basic mission is the place to start, and we could switch up lists and still play pretty efficiently. Thanks for the tip on table size as well.