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So Incurus and I finally got ourselves togther and played my first WH40k game ever and his first in many many years.
After a quick trip to our FLGS to part with more money we settled into our first game, which was about becoming familiar with the rules more than anything.

We both had 2 squads, I had a joint force of Ultrasmurfs and Eldar (striking scorpions) and Incurus had 2 squads of Chaos Marines.

This is scored on who best remembered/got the rules right.

So Incurus got in early with post-deployment/pre-first turn point when he explained that the first player takes his movement, shooting and assault phase before the next player.
Hogwash, every wargame known to man works that first one player moves then the next player moves then you go to shooting...that was until I read the first few pages. 1-nil to Incurus.

So we kicked off and after Incurus spectacularly managed to not kill any of my guys (we had no terrain btw) it was my go.

My marine, opened up, unfortunatley I was particularly slow at reading the tables and remembering what scores were needed to score hits/wounds/whatever, so Incurus was reading out stats to me, howvere he was using the Chaos Marine codex and instead of reading Assault cannon stats, read out autocannon stats. We realised at the rolling for wounds stage, which was too late, so we stuck with autocannon for turn one. Little did I know but I just evened the score 1-1.

I had moved my striking scorpions forward, then ran them during the shooting phase, then assaulted with them thanks to their fleet of foot whi....oh wait, Scorpions dont have fleet of foot. Unfortunatley i didn't discover this until i got home to read my codex. ooops 2-1 to incurus.

Anyway, the aspect warriors were useless, until we hit the Exarch - he was awesome and drew first blood.

Next turn, lead to Incurus gaining his first kill, but it was during his assault phase things got exciting. Whilst working out how many A's I had, Incurus informed me that he was absolutley sure that mandiblasters could only be used during the first assault. Oh! That changed things a bit and is the reason I was desperate to get home and check the codex, nope, no sign of that rule, I should have been roling an extra die. I even the score again to 2-2.

During the assault phase Incurus' chaos champion's assault fist got to have a go. He scored and hit and caused a wound. Fortunatley my armour saved him. I was at this stage my memory worked against me and I was swearing blind there was something wrong with that. I managed to find the rules on power fists and reveled the truth behind power fists - scratch one scorpion, but I take the lead 2-3 on the rules.

Things continued for a while, with me sending models flying with dice, Incurus rolling an inordinate amount of ones and lots of discussion about how our armies will be built in time.

Eventually my Marines were whittled down to the sargeant and marine with assault cannon and they had more than 2' between them. I felt sure that next movement phase I "had" to move them back into cohesion. Incurus informed me I was wrong, reached across the table and moved the models close to each other. I've re-read the rules and as far as I can tell, I did have to move them back into cohesion, which would have meant they could not fire in the shooting phase as they both had heavy weapons (Can someone clarify?). Anyway I'm claiming a point for that 2-4 to me.

At some point I managed to grab 8 dice when I was meant to only be rolling 4, I can't remember why now, but suffice to say I was scoring hits that I didn't deserve - sorry dude. 3-4

Despite his malfunctioning mandiblasters the exarch came out on tops, taking 6 chaos marines in total before being overcome by both units of CSM.

Too late I remembered that I should have been adding an extra 1A for the fact that the scorpions have pistols. Oh dear, first their mandiblasters are faulty then their pistols run out of ammo. that evens things up 4-4.

TBH all the way throughout the game I wasn't sure what/when I was meant to be rolling and aiming for what score. So I think Incurus should gain an additional and final victory point!

Finally, I really enjoyed my first game of WH40, we plan to pop along to veterans night at our FLGS and observe a few games being played, but I can't wait to play again.

So you had space marines and Eldar on the same team? What point value were you playing at?

we didn't bother with points, it was just 2 squads each. when we went into GW I bought a pack of guardians, so next time I'll just field my guardians and scorpions. Although Incurus bought a Deamon Prince, so I think he'll have the upper hand.

Any thoughts on what to use on my supporyt weapon? I was tempted by the rocket launcher, but only because it sounds good and i fancy painting it.

If I may suggest try to play using points, as without them it can get ridiculously unfair quickly as some units are vastly superior and cost more

We wanted to get a hand on of the rules first and really learn to understand the impact that the statline has before we start playing to points!

As a example, i had NO idea just how powerful a 3+ save really is!

Also hangfire! I forgot my bolt pistols too so that narrowed things down a bit too!

I swear blind mandiblasters many, MANY years ago when i played were only on the first assault :( i blame GW for updating the rules!

Was great fun though, officially now with one unit of 10 noise marines, 1 unit of 10 chaos marines and my BEAUTIFUL daemon prince - I have a legal (ish) army! woo

My favourite "whoops" moment has to be the rending blade, "Right, so i've hit 4 times, so that raises my strength to 8 -picks up 8 dice- ... wait a minute? why do you have 8 dice! you only had 4 attacks"

hehe, really helped though - Ignoring points, equipment, proper decent rules and everything else it gave me a real feel for the game and how "things work"

Also regardlesss of the rules mess ups, complete ignorance of official army lists and competency.

No matter the mandiblasters, or that i had more men than Hangfire, I WON! wooo!

You my friend have possibly the best attitude toward this game possible. Avoid listening to anyone who tells you to start taking it seriously and counting points and regular marines can't carry assault cannons and etc etc etc.

Picking the rocket launcher because it sounds cool and you want to paint it is a perfectly legitimate way to go!!

Just continue to have fun!

Awesome scoring system!

Please fill us in on your next battle.

I love that. Winning by who has the most mess ups. A most excellent scoring system. I would have won quite a few games myself with this system

I forgot to add that you should get yourself the avatar next time and have your buddy get another squad, that way you'll both have an awesome monster and two squads

MMmmmmm Avatar, I think I want to save up my pennies and get the forgeworld one.

Since our game I have been frantically gluing togther my guardian squad (may have been a bad purchase) and just today Incurus passed me the Farseer with warlock bodyguard box. So we now have 3 squads each and I have a tonne of painting to do.

I know officially I don't have a complete army as the scorps are elites and not troops, but that'll have to wait until after christmas.

Thank you for your comments, I was concerned I'd get shot down in flames but this has been encouraging.

Hangfire wrote:Thank you for your comments, I was concerned I'd get shot down in flames but this has been encouraging.

I think its refreshing to see some people just treating like a game, instead of a hyper-competitive second job.

Keep at it!

Awesome game, I love the approach & attitude.

One note to a question in the writeup: You would have to move the guys back into cohesion as soon as possible, so they wouldn't be able to fire heavies.

You're quite right, and I said that during the game. Incurus disagreed and just moved the models, because he's had more experience albeit from years ago I was tending to agree. That's why I gave myself a point cause I got the rule right - although we didn't take the time to check it.

Went to GW in bournemouth last night, zOMG there were a lot of bodies in need of a shower. After standing around for half an hour looking lost we left. Seems you need to turn up with an army to get any attention.

Yeah there can be some weird people at those stores, but also some really friendly players. This is how I played some of my first games against my IG friend. I think at one point he was using a leman russ with a tau rail gun on a sponson (dont ask me how). For the longest time we didn't know how morale worked so more often than not, my big tough guys would get beaten to death by unnaturally courageous guardsmen mobs :p Your battle report was fun to read, and it made me all nostalgic! You sir, get a thumbs up!

Agreed. Excellent approach to getting the hang of things.

I remember when I first started playing (2nd ed) with a buddy of mine. I remember a marine with H.Bolters for arms being quite the dude to get. We used the kickball approach to picking armies. (I'll take this one, you take that one, i'll take this one, you take that one.) Also used a Leman Russ, Eldar Falcon, and marines all in the same army, etc. Ah memories.

When watching other folks in a store, it just depends. Some take questions with open minds and hearts, others don't want you to bother them.

Adding points and whatnot to your game won't be difficult. Since it is a different "phase" of playing, you might not even notice really. G'luck with getting into things.