40K Friday: Introducing Some New Players to 40K

 

I mean I've done this before - starting around 2008 - but it has been awhile. Apprentice Boom Gun Brandon has been getting interested in 40K for a while. Not enough to actually read a book on it - that's a real challenge with the younger set now - but enough to keep asking me to play a game. Battletech Terry, longtime veteran of the Succession Wars, has also gotten interested. Invisible Patrick has also gotten interested but was not a part of this game. So, with a pool of interested players and having had a few tryout games in the past year I felt like it was time to get the wheels turning more consistently.

So we did 1000 points per side, Terry playing Eldar, Brandon playing Marines. I had things set up before they arrived and I picked the armies but I gave Terry some options on speed vs. firepower for a few units and Brandon mostly played his own forces with a few reinforcements from mine.

The Eldar - pretty much a sampler force to try them out:

+ FACTION KEYWORD: Xenos - Aeldari

+ DETACHMENT: Warhost

+ TOTAL ARMY POINTS: 1025pts

+

+ WARLORD: Char1: Maugan Ra

+ ENHANCEMENT:

+ NUMBER OF UNITS: 10

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Char1: 1x Maugan Ra (100 pts): Warlord, Maugetar

Char2: 1x Spiritseer (65 pts): Shuriken Pistol, Witch Staff

5x Dark Reapers (90 pts)

• 4x Dark Reaper: 4 with Close combat weapon, Reaper Launcher

• 1x Dark Reaper Exarch: Close combat weapon, Missile Launcher

5x Dire Avengers (80 pts)

• 4x Dire Avenger: 4 with Avenger Shuriken Catapult, Close Combat Weapon

• 1x Dire Avenger Exarch: Close Combat Weapon, Avenger Shuriken Catapult

5x Wraithblades (170 pts): 5 with Ghostaxe and Forceshield

1x Warlock Skyrunners (45 pts): Destructor, Shuriken Pistol, Singing Spear, Twin Shuriken Catapult

3x Windriders (80 pts): 3 with Close Combat Weapon, Scatter Laser

1x Wraithlord (140 pts): Ghostglaive, Wraithbone Fists, 2x Flamer, 2x Starcannon

1x Falcon (130 pts): Pulse Laser, Wraithbone hull, Bright Lance, Shuriken Cannon

1x Wave Serpent (125 pts): Wraithbone Hull, Twin Shuriken Catapult, Twin Bright Lance

 I don't have the Marine list handy but there was a Gravis Captain leading some Aggressors, some Bladeguard, a Ballistus Dreadnought, a Repulsor Executioner ("Boom Gun" needed the biggest gun the marines have of course - he has that nickname for a reason), and some assault intercessors.

Initial deployment

So we had the big marine tank plus the dread facing off against the Falcon and the Wave Serpent at one end of the table. Aggressors and the Captain looking at the Wraithlord in the middle. Bladeguard & half the assault intercessors just looking to secure an objective at the other end. The Marines went first.

Somewhere in Turn 1

Here the Jetbikes + Warlock are already thinning the Aggressors while the tanks are busy hurting each other  

The big fight in Turn 2

In turn 2 the Marines jumped out of the Repulsor and onto the objective but the Wave Serpent moved up on the Eldar turn and dropped out 5 Wraithblades and a Wraithseer who eventually wiped out the Marines completely.

We only managed a few turns as this was the first time in a long time for both of them and this was also before our weekly D&D game so there was a hard time limit. We ended up with a score of 8-5 in favor of the Eldar but the main point of this game was to shake off the rust and also to learn how Secondary Objectives worked since we had been leaving that out thus far. It's very energizing to fire the game up again with new players and certainly engages the painting circuits once again. We had a lot of fun and we have another game coming this weekend - which I will try to document better

Tales of the Valiant Kickstarter for Player's Guide 2

 

Well they have finally gotten around to a new book of major interest. I know monster books are a Kobold Press signature but I was hoping the first add-on to the line would be a character supplement, not a monster book, but at least now that is being corrected.

The preview PDF looks pretty interesting:

• More subclasses - I mean, this was pretty much a given and I would say necessary given the ridiculous number of subclasses in 5E. It looks like we are getting at least 3 new ones per class giving everyone 5 subs per class which should be enough variety to keep multiple campaigns fresh for a long time. Good.
• More Talents - good, they need to expand this area to some degree
• More Boons - this is an area I assumed they would expand in my initial review and I am glad to see it happening.
• Base building - My players are specifically interested in this as they are contemplating building a base in or near Hommlet (yes possibly pushing Rufus and Burne aside) and so this has direct relevance to what they are doing in-game. This is also a potential good outlet for all of the gold coming out of their temple-trashing expeditions so yes, please - bring it on.
•  New Classes: looks like we are getting the Theurge, the Vanguard, and the Witch. I haven't seen much about the Theurge yet but from one of their other 5E magic books:
•  "... the new Theurge class, an Intelligence-based spellcasting class capable of casting both cleric and wizard spells!" and I believe that was the point of the class going back to the 3E Mystic Theurge so sure, OK. Will this mean it gets to pick from both the Arcane and Divine lists? That's a lot of flexibility if so.
• Looks like the Witch is going to be the new second Wyrd caster which is fine - might as well even that out. I don't have a Warlock in my campaign so I don't have much experience with those spells.
• The Vanguard is the most interesting to me - a ToV take on the 4E Warlord, a martial leader/support type character. I had one of these in my 4E campaign and it was a real eye-opener. I've hoped we would get one of these for some newer version of D&D and it looks like we finally might be there. There was a lot of granting another character a free move or a free attack with the 4E version and it looks like that is continuing here. The banner thing also feels a lot like the Pathfinder 1E Cavalier which had a similar ability so this is definitely one I will be watching.

So yes I'll be backing this one and hoping for an early draft of the thing so we can use it in the campaign this year. We might finish out the Temple with just the existing material then if we move onto a new adventure open it up to the new stuff. Not sure and it doesn't really matter until it's available in some form anyway but we will be crossing our fingers here.