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Hey all,

I haven't been on here in years, and I haven't played 40k since 5E came around, but I'll start by saying that once I got my army all built up, I found that I absolutely hated actually playing 40k. You take forever to setup units, then agonize over moving everything, and then everything's dead in two or three turns. The pacing and time commitment of actual 40k are a huge turnoff to me, and what I've heard of the current state makes it sound like it's only gotten worse.

That said, I am fascinated by the boxed games that GW has been releasing lately. I picked up a copy of Imperial Knights: Renegade for the models, but the rules actually look like fun. They are only a couple pages and seem like a tighter, focused experience that I can play with my non-wargaming brother or a couple friends. My question is, are the other games like that? My brother and I were looking at Lost Patrol, Deathwatch: Overkill, the flyer duels, and the Horus Heresy game. The fact that they are tile based seems like an advantage, and we like the idea of a couple boxed games that are concise and straightforward, but that we could add a few different models or factions to over time if we are looking to expand. The GW site says that Kill Team comes with a mini version of the full 40k rulebook, which is a turn-off in my mind, but it's tough to get a sense from the item descriptions how the others play. Are people here into the boxed games, or are they just watered-down 40k with limited scope? Because that's actually kind of what I'm looking for.

So, uh, thoughts? Recommendations on which to start with? Lost Patrol is the cheapest, and the new rules in White Dwarf would give me a reason to paint some Terminators.

If you have a good PC, look up the games: Dawn of War, Dawn of War 2, Battlefleet Gothic: Armada, Space Hulk and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine via Steam.

Save you a lot of time and money.

Silver Tower is AoS, not 40k, and I haven't played it (I'm not much of a boardgamer), but I can tell you that it looks more modular/expansible than the rest of the range and if I were to try one of their boxed games it'd be that one.

The boxed games are mediocre games to mask the production of some excellent plastic models. However, being a GW product (and most filled with a large number of plastic models) you'll end up paying a lot of money for a mediocre game. Add to that the games feature normal models most of the time and you'll spend a lot of time cutting out and assembling miniatures etc.

In short, skip GW unless you're absolutely dying to game in the GW "world". There are far better, faster, easier, more non-GW friendly games.

Zombicide is excellent (particularly Black Plague), BSieged is a riot, etc. There are loads of great actual board games out there for 1/2 the price of a GW boxed game --- and in almost every case the miniatures are simple single piece affairs with zero modeling required.

I'd vouch for Lost Patrol being a tonne of fun to play - it's very fast paced since the game is deliberately weighted to favour the Genestealers, and you can pack in 4 or 5 games in an hour. Even though the board is randomly generated and helps to keep each game fresh, the mechanics are extremely simplistic.

Overall, worth the price, but not a game you'd want to play hours on end due to its repetitive nature thanks to the unexplored mechanics.

Kill Team is a good idea as it isn't exactly a board game - you can play whatever faction you fancy for a start, and while the game plays like 40k, the small scale and extra rules that allow for independent movement and specialists allow again for fast games that can be played over a lunchtime easily. We don't think there is any major difference between the rules for 6th and the rules for 7th, so you'd be fine rolling with the free download for 6th ed Kill Team.

Hope this helps

G.A

 Selym wrote:
If you have a good PC, look up the games: Dawn of War, Dawn of War 2, Battlefleet Gothic: Armada, Space Hulk and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine via Steam.

Save you a lot of time and money.

Heh, I've played DOW 1 and 2 and they are a fantastic way to get that 40k action itch. The problem is they just make me want to build models, but I can't wrap my head around buying too many actual models if I'm not going to play some game with them.

https://boardgamegeek.com/video/97590/lost-patrol/lost-patrol-dice-tower-review-sam-healey

Review of lost patrol