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So a game store close to where I live started up an escalation league as a way of familiarizing people with the intricacies of 7th Edition. A pretty good idea in general, I'd say, as it allows both old and new players to have some equal footing and get up to speed on the game as it is now. I got back into the game during sixth, a scant few weeks before seventh came out. I played all of four games under the sixth edition rules, barely enough to get a grasp for the broader strokes of the game, so this league sounded like a good idea for me.

I showed up. First round was 800pts and I brought some second founding Iron Hands I'd been working on. I've decided to use the Raukaan rules because my army has a decidedly Etruscan flavoring and having access to stuff like Gorgon chains and the axe of Medusa just felt appropriate from a narrative sense. So I paid my league fee, grabbed a chair, and started chit-chatting with some of the other crowd. I was paired up with another guy. He and I were the only ones with fully painted forces so we got put at a table closest to the front of the store. Then things got silly.

I was playing Iron Hands with the Raukaan supplement
He was playing Iron Hands with the Raukaan supplement
I was using the rules to convey a second founding chapter of the Iron Hands
He was using the rules for Clan Raukaan and his army was painted as such
His army consisted of some smallish tactical squads in razorbacks with some Dreadnoughts hanging around
My army consisted of some full sized tactical squads in Rhinos

So not only were we using the same rules but we were using almost the same army. The game ran for seven turns and ended in a profound draw.

It wasn't bad at all though. Due to the similarities in our forces we could in essence use each other's notes, learn from one another. Add in the fact that we both rolled like ass, complete and absolute ass, and the game became an rather amusing interaction. Less of a desperate battle and more of a heavy-handed training exercise.

It really made me look forward to the rest of 7th edition.

Sounds fun, wish my FLGS would have an escalation league, i might be tempted to do a small force for that provided it didn't grow too fast.

I think the breakdown of 7th edition is largely when you get into all the random stuff or have the misfortune of playing an abusive list. It sounds like both you and your opponent were of similar mind, which is the best way to play.

I have my first 7th edition battle tonight. Decided not to take it seriously and try forge the narrative a bit. So I took my favorite army and have named all the troopers and my mini goal is to ensure that the astropath survives the battle against the Eldar forces.

I purposly took no dedicated anti tank, so hopefully plasma, krak grenades and powers are enough to kill a few wave serpents (hopefully). Just gonna try be really fluffy about it. Should be fun.

That sounds like a really strange moment, watching your opponent pull out a list the same as yours, but so long as you had fun it's all good.

There's also a pretty cool narrative (no pun intended) to be had here; the Rukaan company are engaging in a series of Honour Duels with a 'lesser' (in their eyes) Second Founding Chapter that have in some long-forgotten way insulted or angered them. Time for the Second Founding lads to prove their worth. It'd make a nice batrep.

Also, Exalted, as games like this are what 40k is about!

 Paradigm wrote:
That sounds like a really strange moment, watching your opponent pull out a list the same as yours, but so long as you had fun it's all good.

There's also a pretty cool narrative (no pun intended) to be had here; the Rukaan company are engaging in a series of Honour Duels with a 'lesser' (in their eyes) Second Founding Chapter that have in some long-forgotten way insulted or angered them. Time for the Second Founding lads to prove their worth. It'd make a nice batrep.

Also, Exalted, as games like this are what 40k is about!

It mainly came when we were getting our models out. Since the points values were so low I and most of the other players on hand just brought specifically what we needed rather than schlep around some horrendously cumbersome army transport. I just grabbed a little cardboard box I had sitting around and put my stuff in it. My opponent had a small tool box, about the size of a loaf of bread. So before I even had a chance to look at his list I could see his models which immediately started pushing the game towards a narrative backing.

The Iron Hands of Clan Raukaan deploying a small patrol force to test that of their successors. In perfect fashion and befitting their reputation the Iron Hands are want to field Dreadnoughts in support of a patrol. Their opposition, the Sons of Antaeus, though have very different resources at their disposal. They don't have the plethora of Dreadnoughts needed to merit sending them out with simple patrols however they do have significantly more man-power; raw bodies that they can devote to an objective. So while we were using the same rules and fielding very similar armies our forces were difference enough to make for an interesting game in and of itself.

My first game was against Imperial Gaurd, an Imperial Knight and Grey Knights.

I was playing Dark Angels with my girlfriend playing Chaos.... We got murdered due to lack of Anti-Tank ability (Only a Predator, Dreadnaught with Twinlink lascannon and Missiles and a couple of plasma weapons), and he had a lot of tanks plus the knight... However we got the Moral victory as my five Terminators fisted the Imperial Knight to death in Mellé (Power Fisted that is). It was glorious.

Ironically, 7th edition came out in the middle of an escalation league at the local GW store (which shows how much advance warning those poor guys get of impending releases). I ended up setting aside my league army and just playing games of 7th with armies designed to test different parts of the new rules, i.e. psychic phase and Unbound. Luckily I have nice opponents to play against and they agreed to it, and it was fun.

I definitely recommend trying the Tactical Objectives in a Maelstrom of War mission, at least once. But I'd also add that you should agree to discard and re-draw/re-roll any objective that is literally impossible to complete (i.e. using a psychic power if you don't have one, or destroying a building with none on the board).

 ErikSetzer wrote:

I definitely recommend trying the Tactical Objectives in a Maelstrom of War mission, at least once. But I'd also add that you should agree to discard and re-draw/re-roll any objective that is literally impossible to complete (i.e. using a psychic power if you don't have one, or destroying a building with none on the board).

Agree 100%. Don't let the random factor scare you away from these missions. The Maelstrom missions truly play differently from anything else in 40K, and its for the better. However, keep in mind you are allowed to discard one card per turn anyway, so it is not too be a deal if you draw something you can't use (there are a handful that could fall into this, especially in smaller games).