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Has anybody ever tried 500-point matchups?

The idea is to:

– introduce family members to the game; ease them into the hobby

– smaller armies = cheaper = can afford more armies = more choices for the household

Of course, we will eventually be graduating into 1,000-point (and higher) games.

So... has anybody ever tried 500-point matchups? Are they going to be fun? (Not looking for a mindblowing experience, just relatively good, fun romps.)

Yes- that's my favourite way to play.

At such a low point level, infantry will be the focus- there isn't a force org chart that enforces this though... So you have to be vigilant about the match ups. It is possible to field something at 500 points that say, 3 infantry squads would really struggle to take out.

When people play the objectives rather than striving to table their opponent, 500 points is pretty fun. Book keeping is way easier, and as a Crusader, that was important to me.

Would kill team be better?

mrFickle wrote:
Would kill team be better?

BTW.

It'd be different, not better as there's a lot more detail to keep track of in KT.

mrFickle wrote:
Would kill team be better?

I'd say that depends on how many family members OP is talking about. With two players, 40k is doable, particularly if either player is interested in either of the factions in the starter set, or if there's a combat patrol box they really like.

But the more players you add to the circle, the better an option KT becomes- especially if it's OP who is buying all of the things. What I would suggest as Kill Teams that can ally in 40k. This allows you to have a collection of Kill Teams, but also builds stronger cores for 40k. For example, if one person liked Pathfinders and another liked Kroot, that's two 40k units as an army core rather than one.

The other thing about family gaming: download EVERY Index from warcom ASAP. Every dex that drops invalidates those cards, but if your gaming circle is family, grow your armies by playing Kill Team and continue to use the free versions of everything to play 40k by combining those KTs. Once your 40k armies are big enough, then you might dive into codex purchases.

I ambushed my wife with the bloodbowl starter.
When we went to Warhammer World (we were following her favourite band around the UK on their farewell tour, my price was warhammer world when we were in nottingham), of all the models of tanks and dudes and dioramas - what she spotted and ran across the room for were the bloodbowl figures.

So yeah, it was a 'fun' present. Painting project for me - her scheme. Game for us and some of her other girl friends. sports nuts all.

Mrs deadnight is not a gamer in the slightest. She'd have zero interest in the 'mass battle' game.

But football? Sold.

We'll play occasionally. She usually wins.

But yeah - some of out circle will bloodbowl. One will shadespire, maybe kill team if the scenario is more narrative focused (like my hordes mode kill team). Mass battle game? No chance.

 PPPointyEars wrote:
Has anybody ever tried 500-point matchups?

The idea is to:

– introduce family members to the game; ease them into the hobby

– smaller armies = cheaper = can afford more armies = more choices for the household

Of course, we will eventually be graduating into 1,000-point (and higher) games.

So... has anybody ever tried 500-point matchups? Are they going to be fun? (Not looking for a mindblowing experience, just relatively good, fun romps.)

Games at 500 points can be wonky if there are no restrictions, but since you are essentially setting up the forces you can have a good time. Combat Patrols would be one place to start - they also have simplified Stratagem lists etc. Combat Patrols are fixed forces that are, in theory, balanced against each.

If you want more freedom you can certainly build 500 point forces that are balanced against each other. You can play the simplified Only War mission as well without Secondaries etc and only four Objectices. Combat Patrol can be good for beginners because it has one Secondary (choice from two) so its a way to dip your toe into the full game without overload. Combat Patrols are also nice because you can get the whole force in one shot.

If you go with 500 point forces you pick yourself then try to avoid powerful units that could skew things. A Redemptor Dread, for instance, can be an absolute terror in a 500 point game. I suppose you could mitigate this by choosing an enemy force that could handle the Dread, but I would stick to basic troops with a few "elites" or specials thrown in for flavour along with one or two characters.

I would steer clear of Kill Team as the rules are quite different, so its not a great intro mechanic. Others may disagree.

I might recommend Combat Patrol instead, but the game can definitely be played with 500 point forces of normal stuff. My group did an escalation league where we started at 500. Games will sometimes be one-sided, snowballing quickly once one player lands a telling blow (i.e. eliminating the opponent's key unit), but it can still be fun.

Back in a previous millennium, starter games in store were max of three units, two of which had to be "normal" infantry squads, the third usually being a not OTT leader. Transports were fine, baneblades were not.

If you're sensible about it don't see why it shouldn't still work. Original combat patrol followed similar principles IIRC

TangoTwoBravo wrote:


Games at 500 points can be wonky if there are no restrictions, but since you are essentially setting up the forces you can have a good time. Combat Patrols would be one place to start - they also have simplified Stratagem lists etc. Combat Patrols are fixed forces that are, in theory, balanced against each.

If you want more freedom you can certainly build 500 point forces that are balanced against each other. You can play the simplified Only War mission as well without Secondaries etc and only four Objectices. Combat Patrol can be good for beginners because it has one Secondary (choice from two) so its a way to dip your toe into the full game without overload. Combat Patrols are also nice because you can get the whole force in one shot.

If you go with 500 point forces you pick yourself then try to avoid powerful units that could skew things. A Redemptor Dread, for instance, can be an absolute terror in a 500 point game. I suppose you could mitigate this by choosing an enemy force that could handle the Dread, but I would stick to basic troops with a few "elites" or specials thrown in for flavour along with one or two characters.

I would steer clear of Kill Team as the rules are quite different, so its not a great intro mechanic. Others may disagree.

Combat Patrol is almost certainly the way to go - especially the ones that have been reconfigured or already were configured for 10th ed Combat Patrol Rules. Some of the older ones could be somewhat problematic with vehicles the Dreadknight, the Impulsor, etc Most Combat Patrols just won't have the ability to death with a monster/vehicle. At least not with normal ability - the new DA combat patrol has 5 Hellblasters, and while they can take down an Impulsor, its going to take a while. Some of that is also solved by how specific the Combat Patrols are. The BA Impulsor has the missile launcher top, while the Black Templar Impulsor has the Orbital Comms - which apparently do nothing in Combat Patrol. The old DA Combat Patrol had a Dread with the Plasma Canon instead of the Onslaught Gatling Canon which could be fairly OP in a game with only 20 ish infantry - this helps Combat Patrol put out a balanced game at lower point levels.

For 500 games I can also recommend the boarding action rules. The terrain isn't really needed, just use anything you got, but the restrictions on units, faction abilities, S and enhancement make it an easier to learn, and in my opinion also better balanced, game mode.
While Combat patrol has the distinct advantage that you can just get the army as is from a box, boarding actions allow you some list building, which may be more interesting.

The new white dwarf has rules for combat patrol including multiple players

500pts is fun! Not many units to be planning for and hopefully using paired down special rules.

This is the way I taught all my kids to play, very fun and quite fast to play.
Over time they have all developed their own collections which makes birthdays and Xmas easy, toys for all.
Now I've started to build and paint an army for my grandson to use.y daughter says I've plenty of time to paint it as he's.only 3 Weeks old.