So a few months ago I manged to get a 40K army pretty cheaply (£50 for a 500-700 pt army) which had just been sitting on a table. I’d always threatened to play a game with them and finally after a couple of cancelled games due to work I managed a game, a small 500 point game. We played a take and hold (I think thats the name) game where there was 4 objectives to capture.

Typically it all started well with a fairly inoffensive heavy weapon blasting my ramshakkle trukk off the board first turn and boyz being killed by- whacky psychic attacks, sneaky scouts and wolf marines dropping from the skies in a drop pod. Nork also got a lethal peppering from rapid firing bolters.

Thankfully sheer numbers aided by possibly the worst ever saving throws ever seen on a gaming table (from Mike) evened the tide and when the Nob ripped the razorback (a transport vehicle with a heavy bolter) to pieces it was pretty much even stevens. My deff koptas shot up his remaining troops and contested the building that the wolf marines had cleansed of Gretchinto make it a 1-0 win to Nork’s warband!

I really enjoyed the game, Mike is a great opponent and can laugh at the sort of luck that would make grown men cry. He had a list that needed some improvement but that which was very good at fighting mine. His army was as ever for Mike beautifully painted. By contrast I had a sprayed black, take what models you own type of approach and had no clue what I was doing. Thanks must go to the very nice chap from the TA who made sure that I wasn’t being totally bonkers with my troops and the rules.

40K is very much so a quick and streamlined game now (hence the title) and it’s no suprise it sells well, it’s a more simple game than WFB.  This isn’t an insult, simplicity can be a good thing and certainly over-complexity is a bad thing. Whilst I like the greater tactical thinking of WFB there is tactics in 40K and it is a fun game with a rule set which probably makes more sense to in of its self to its own ruleset. I liked the mission thought has to be said that I’m not sure that the other two scenarios are as good, one is a mission that each person gets one objective deep in their deployment zone (called capture and control) and apparently is draw-tastic with most armies doing a lot of controlling and not much capturing and the other uses Kill points which are farsically simple. Basically any unit is worth one point, no matter whather a minimum unit of throw-away gretchin, a 30 point transport vehicle, a massive heavy tank or a big unit of elite troops. Isa makea no sense !

Still it seems quite a fun game and with a new missions book coming out and a lot of expansions is very well supported. One thing you roll a LOAD of dice in 40K. Most units of 10 troops can roll twenty dice a turn but some can roll amazing amounts of dice. A unit of thrirty ork boyz can roll a table breaking one hundred and twenty dice in assault. Its unlikely you’d get that many alive and into combat, but still, I’ve rolled just under fourty dice in an assault before.

I’d like to take out Spaceboss Nork and his boyz out for more games so expect more musings soon enough