I've been looking at ways without altering game mechanics to try and minimize the 'must go first or probably lose' effect 40K seems to have (it may be real or imagined, but folks believe it). Has anyone come up with something that works and is fair for all the various armies involved?

all dependant on what i am facing and what the terrain looks like.

You did say "without altering" and that IS altering. You still get your "Phases" and it effectively gets rid of "FTS"

even niftier is tau smart missle systems which ignore nightfighting rules all together. >

Of course, even in alternating unit activation this comes up, just on a smaller scale.  Any competitive chess player will tell you that White moving first is a big advantage.

i totally disagree, but then i have a non standard tau force-i run it as a tank company

i always want fisrt turn, i like S3 area terrain as much as the next guy, but i want to stay moving with 3 hammerheads and 5 fishon the table. i try to hide as much as possible just in case i don't go first but even then if my opponant has say a basilisk etc...my skimmers could take penning hits even hidden. with my 12" move in turn 1 i am going to hit something even if it is hidden thanks to the smart missle system. my shortest effective range is my burst cannon with the effective range of 30"  when combined with my move.

That's awesome.  I was thinking about it in Cathedral last night. 

I have a friend who doesn't play 40k anymore who used to be just about the best player in the area.  He and I would often go head to head in epic games during the leagues or the league finals.  We had a game of his Tyranids vs my Eldar in 3rd edition (probably 1750pts or so) which went for about five hours.  We took almost an hour just deploying.  These were the most chess-like 40k games I ever played.  Skill and planning were everything.  Not coincidentally, he had also been a tournament chess player.  He often referred to who had the "tempo" in the game, meaning the initiative- forcing your opponent to react to your moves.  In chess, White starts with the tempo and part of Black's challenge is stealing it. 

My wife just read this, and said, "hrm, he's right... wait, does that make me a powergamer too?"

all GTs as far as i know(and have experienced) have very little terrain for a very simple reason. GW has to transport it all and set it up. since it is not at thier own facility. you try to image bringing 25% terrain for 100+ 48" X72" tables

al the RTTs i have played alt have been at dedicated gaming stores who have tons of terrain sitting arounf and even predesigned tables so finding 25% terrain there is a cinch.

This is part of why the US GTs were expensive.  They literally had more than a hundred 4x6 hard-surfaced tables and enough terrain pieces to get fairly close to 25% coverage.  It was a bit less, but when the tables and terrain were built, it was still 3rd edition.  They also hauled around a few Games Day tables.  All of it got packed into trucks and driven hundreds (thousands?  Did they use the same tables in Chicago or LA?) of miles.

Posted By mughi3 on 12/29/2006 7:14 PM

al the RTTs i have played alt have been at dedicated gaming stores who have tons of terrain sitting arounf and even predesigned tables so finding 25% terrain there is a cinch.

Likewise here.  I've heard of some of the Indy events and some of the local Games Day tournaments having too little, because they have a high attendance and don't have the resources of the GTs.  That said, many do nowadays put a ton of effort and money into them.  The tables at The Colonial GT last year are all Gale Force Nine originals that they actually produce professionally for sale.  Really gorgeous.

http://www.gf9.com/terrain/albums/album21/forest_01_600x400.jpg

http://www.gf9.com/terrain/albums/album25/rocky_waste_01_600x450.jpg

Those are two of the four or five standard types they had at The Colonial, though they used about a third to a quarter of that much terrain for Warhammer.

Adepticon has had issues in the past, partially due to having really massive attendance.  They're putting in a heroic effort for 2007, though.

http://adepticon.org/modules.php?name=Terrain

Actually not the case.

It’s tough to see in that pic, but there are five bases of movable rocks there that are usually played as size 3 area terrain, five hilly rock formations, and five pools of water.  The way they’ve arranged that table it doesn’t look like as much, because a lot of the pieces are near the edges.  The hills and area terrain bases are all movable, but they’re so well made that the hills and the rocks on the area terrain bases look like they’re molded on.