Warhammer 40K at the Library

 It's been a loooong couple weeks at work. I've had to stay exceptionally late twice while votes were counted, delivered and reported. Yesterday, though, I stayed late by my own choice, because I was "getting my own back."

Wargaming is all about killing something, after all. It is an impressively useful hobby, for relaxation after a bad time. I needed it.

I've had the 8th Edition 40K starter set, First Strike, since it was published. It's handy because everything is ready to play and fits in a small package. It also has a series of basic scenarios to teach the elements of the rules. I'm looking for the Fantasy version.

I brought it into Youmedia (our teen tech lab) about an hour from the end of my shift. Despite the fact that I'd gotten four teens out of there two days before to do some coloring in the children's area (!), no one was interested in a more "mature" activity this time. Except Ivan, the staff member. Youmedia right now is understaffed, so has dropped most of its programming; I hope I can (ahem) use this to nudge my own programs into the kids' line of sight.

Speaking of LOS...

This is the first "scenario" in the starter set. It's designed to teach the movement and shooting rules. Three Space Marines are placed in three corners of the board, and two mini-units of three zombies are placed at the fourth. The goal is for the zombies to move off the opposite sides of the board; move off one, and the game is a draw; move off both and the zombies win.

It turns out to be a remarkably even match. Even once we added the "advanced" rules that allow the Marines to fire twice at half range, it was difficult to kill all six before at least one (or two) escaped. This is due primarily to the small size of the board, 22 inches a side. The zombies are slow, but since they don't shoot they are permitted to "advance" (what was once called the fleet-of-foot rule) an extra D6 inches. On average, they move 7" a turn and as much as 10", so can escape the board in three turns most of the time. With only three Marines to work with, it's hard to get in their way.

The next scenario looks even more unfair. It's all six Poxwalkers versus one (1) Reiver Sergeant, and it's meant to showcase the close combat rules.

You'll notice he has a bolt pistol and close combat weapon, so has extra attacks. (Aside - these are fantastic miniatures. Especially on the Plague Marines and zombies, there's a surprising amount of detail.)

Ivan, wanting to try the close-combat rules, charged the Marine into the Poxwalkers. As you can see, he did fearsome execution with his four attacks. Because the Poxwalkers were in two lines so that three of them were more than an inch away, only the first three could attack back. Six attacks hitting on 5+ is not much against four hitting on 3+, and the attacker in 8th edition gets to attack first (no initiative score). The above picture is the result.

Having done that, we both felt what turned out to be overconfident, and put all the figures onto the table, with some extra 3D-printed scenery. The Imperium is celebrating Ascension Day, I suppose.

This is where Space Marines' resilience slowed down the game.

The Reivers (lower right) tore apart the Poxwalkers (upper right) even in the cover of the trees. (Cover isn't really a thing this edition, only adding one to your armor save.)

But the Plague Marines were annoyingly difficult to kill. If you know anything about 40K, you already know this is their schtick, but it was ridiculous. With hindsight, I may have misinterpreted the armor save rules - assuming that the Disgustingly Resilient save (5+ even after losing a wound) was supposed to be rolled even after failing an armor save (3+ for power armor). In previous games, you chose one or the other, so that the DR countered anything that beat your armor outright. Instead, the Armor Piercing score works like Second Edition - it doesn't ignore armor, it reduces it. For example, the Plague Champion's plasma gun has AP -3, which means the Space Marines he hits need not a 3+ to save, but a 6.

He also has a power claw. You can't see the plasma gun in these photos, because it's held on his back by a spare tentacle (did I mention the minis are pretty cool? They didn't interest the teens, unfortunately).

On their side, the Primaris Space Marines have two wounds, so it takes a while to get through them. The power claw and plasma gun help by doing D3 wounds rather than the normal one, but I think we were both bored by the end. It didn't help that we got interrupted several times, a natural consequence of trying to play on the job. In fact, the game ended with the Champion's plasma gun blowing up and killing him - overcharging it does more damage, with a risk of rolling a one. This was fine early in the game - Ivan risked it several times to good effect - but at the end we may have both been hoping to kill him off. He killed a Marine with his final shot, at least.

I eventually realized that troops in close combat could run away, something that wasn't allowed in previous editions. Of course the enemy can always follow up, but being able to shoot at the Champion helped.

I also failed to notice until late that the Reivers had grenades - though they kept missing so it was a wash. The "unit cards" included in the box helped enormously and provide a thematic - if number-crunching - element.

So even though it took around an hour for the Marines to bring the Plague Champion to bay, it was useful practice that will enable me to run the game faster next time, especially if I can entice the teens.

The Champion was eventually on his own. Here he
battles the normal Marines.

And here the Reivers, with lots more attacks. His deadly
powerfist is visible.

And here he takes cover among the Xmas trees.

Thanks to Ivan for his patience and enthusiasm. We'll try it again one of these days.