Warhammer 40k

[Stargrunt6]

Anyone here play? Is it me, or is strategy takes a backseat to unit selection in this game? I describe it as fantasy battles with guns.

 

When one figure wipes out 3 six-man squads, it makes my eyes roll backwards.

 

Too bad everyone plays that over here, but noone plays Stargrunt 2.

 

No historical gamers around, at least not that I know of.

 

Peace,

 

MCab

[Manic Moran]

You kidding? You should have seen the older version. Talk about Cheese...

 

They've seriously toned down Fantasy as well.

 

Not having an easy time finding players in the Bay Area though.

 

NTM

[Matt Urbanski]

Got sucked into it briefly, and got off relatively light, I only wasted a few hundred bucks on this crap...

 

It's completely absurd that they bill this thing as a wargame - the 'battles' generally don't consist of anything more than unit selection and trying to be the first one to get into close-combat. While the rules make a pretense of requiring balanced forces, this has more to do with making sure people buy as many miniatures as possible than anything else. This is greatly aided by the constant 'flavor of the month' official new units/army lists being published, and the fact that these new armies are objectively stronger than the earlier releases, motivating people to spend money in order to get an advantage. In reality, the game is so simplistic and relies on unit/equipment selection so much that it could be easily abstracted almost completely as a collectible card game with no loss of complexity...

 

It never ceased to amaze me how the people working in the official store I used to frequent managed to keep their faces straight every time some clueless wargaming/military history buff and complete Warhammer newbie would wonder in, and regale everyone in sight with his plans to make cunning use of flanking, support weapons and suppressing fire with the army he was building. I'd always be ambivalent about wanting to tell them to run for it while there was still time and finding out what a ripoff it was the hard way like I did.

 

As far as I'm concerned, the only good games they ever published were Space Hulk and Necromunda... Space Hulk could easily get repetitive, but it did involve very real tactics, and was a good value - and Necromunda was their only other game completely playable with only what came in the $60 starter box set, and it became a very good game if you blew an extra $20 or $30 on additional troops and had the minimum of skill needed to make some additional scenery to supplement the great set included in the box... Unfortunately, it didn't seem to be too popular with the mindless masses - not enough opportunities to one-up your opponent by buying some new shiny toys.

 

 

[Edited by Matt Urbanski (31 May 2002).]

[Chris Gould]

Thats the game thats got everything from space marines to undead armies right.

[MrOuija]

The computer version isn't bad..and free at the Underdogs site.

[Manic Moran]

No, the Undead are Warhammer Fantasy.

 

A lot of the fun of the game isn't the playing of it itself, but the creation of the army in terms of painting and construction. It's also very social, in that you are quite capable of devoting only 40% of your thought processes to the game, and the rest to conversation or just laughing at the fact that Comissar Yarrick has (well, in the old rules, he's not as tough any more) just taken 44 wounds by being turned into swiss cheese with a rotary cannon, and yet passes his 'will to live' roll..

 

NTM

[Stargrunt6]

Originally posted by Chris Gould:

Thats the game thats got everything from space marines to undead armies right.

 

The Necrons are the analogous undead in this game.

 

If this game had suppression, it wouldn't be too bad.

 

Peace,

 

MCab

[PCallahan]

Anybody ever play Epic 40k/Space Marine/Adeptus Titanicus?

 

I played for about four years when the series first came out; I had a great time collecting, painting and playing with massive 6mm armies. Initially, the rules were at least somewhat realistic (for a Sci-fi game) ; actual military tactics were useful on the battlefield. However, later editions became completely warhammer 40k-ish -- everything depended on whether or not a player had the exact units needed to counter an opponents in his collection.

 

While the rule changes for the new editions bugged me, I simply used the old rules. However, what finally killed the game for me was the vicious price gouging on GWs part. I saw the price of a blister pack of tanks triple in price in a couple of years, with no real increase in quality. More appalling, the plastic armies went from being a real bargain to being a complete rip-off, not that far from the metal pieces in price.

 

Pat Callahan

 

PS I still have my Marine army - painted and organized as a division (6 marine battalions, 2 Land Raider Battalions, 2 AT Companies, etc) I still wonder where I found all the time to paint those guys.

[Anthony EJW]

Originally posted by MCab:

Too bad everyone plays that over here, but noone plays Stargrunt 2.

 

Wow, nice to see I'm not the only guy here to have heard (or, more importantly, own) that game. First game I played was an experience- me and the other guy who played it had only played 40k seriously before, so it resulted in us lining our men up and blazing away- too seemingly no effect. Then I tried close assaulting, and got shot to bits. Not that my opponent's platoon was in any better condition.

 

Still playing Full Thrust and Dirtside mostly tho...

[Stargrunt6]

Originally posted by Anthony EJW:

Wow, nice to see I'm not the only guy here to have heard (or, more importantly, own) that game. First game I played was an experience- me and the other guy who played it had only played 40k seriously before, so it resulted in us lining our men up and blazing away- too seemingly no effect. Then I tried close assaulting, and got shot to bits. Not that my opponent's platoon was in any better condition.

 

Still playing Full Thrust and Dirtside mostly tho...

 

I remember playing my first game of SG2 with a friend who plays WH40k religiously. Since in WH40k cover is a moot point, he decided to go out in the open and take a shot at my guys who were in defilade in cover. His squad payed DEARLY for it!

 

Peace,

 

MCab

[Matt Urbanski]

Ok, can someone elaborate on what Stargrunt 2 is? Who makes it, are there minis involved, etc...?

[Anthony EJW]

Originally posted by Matt Urbanski:

Ok, can someone elaborate on what Stargrunt 2 is? Who makes it, are there minis involved, etc...?

 

Stargrunt 2 is a generic sci-fi minitures game for use with 25mm or 15mm troops, for games from Platoon right up to Company level. The basic rules are fairly straight forward, but the 'advanced' rules cover a lot of situations. (Such as air support, casualty evacuation, artillery support, optional background etc)

 

The few games I played had a fairly gritty and realistic feel to them; and were still very enjoyable. Highly recommended.

 

The owners are a relatively small busisness called GZG based in the UK who do a variety of models. Most of them are pretty good. Last I heard tho, they've split with Geo-Hex, the company who distibuted their minis in the US.

[Anthony EJW]

Originally posted by MCab:

I remember playing my first game of SG2 with a friend who plays WH40k religiously.  Since in WH40k cover is a moot point, he decided to go out in the open and take a shot at my guys who were in defilade in cover.  His squad payed DEARLY for it!

 

Peace,

 

MCab

 

lol- yes, charging in your whole army for close combat does not work well when your squads can be suppressed.

[Stargrunt6]

Originally posted by Anthony EJW:

lol- yes, charging in your whole army for close combat does not work well when your squads can be suppressed.

 

 

Suppressed? Heck, his squad got hamburgered!

 

Peace,

 

MCab

[EvilTommy]

I used to play 40K when they started selling the components here over a decade ago, and I must admit I had a better time with it when I set my mind to 'Beer & Pretzels' mode. I built a Stuart tank and sci-fi'd it to look like the ones in the sketches, and it was suitable to the 28mm infantry. Unfortunately, at it's baptism of fire, it was hit by some wonder weapon and literally overturned on it's turret. That was the same game where the robot train - a track crossed the table as part of an industrial park - appeared randomly and one of my Guardsmen got run over.

[Michael Eastes]

40K can be a fun diversion, but any moments of realism are merely glitches in the game system.

 

The game combines oh-wow futuristic wunderwaffe with older-than-mankind black magic spell casting, so tactical planning becomes a function of which minis you deploy and how you spend your points before the game. (Many tactical plans fall through as soon as the enemy reveals the ability to teleport around the battlefield at will.)Sort of Hollywood-like in a way- the victor is the best producer.

[Wolfi-S]

Originally posted by Matt Urbanski:

[...]

It never ceased to amaze me how the people working in the official store I used to frequent managed to keep their faces straight every time some clueless wargaming/military history buff and complete Warhammer newbie would wonder in, and regale everyone in sight with his plans to make cunning use of flanking, support weapons and suppressing fire with the army he was building.    I'd always be ambivalent about wanting to tell them to run for it while there was still time and finding out what a ripoff it was the hard way like I did.

[...]

<font size=1>[Edited by Matt Urbanski (31 May 2002).]

 

haha, exactly my experience ! Sometimes I go to a GW-shop just for fun, to see what new stuff they have and it is really everytime the same sad procedure: parents are dragged into the shop by they children who simply MUST have that new LandRaider etc. Of course the clerk will support this claim by adding some of his own 'experience' ("ah... when I played yesterday, I used this great LandRaider to deploy my assault sqaud right in his rear !")

If you want to really financially ruin a family, give the son the WH40K basic box. After that thee is no esacpe for them

[Wolfi-S]

just to make it clear:

 

I really like the WH40K background story and I have read some of the WH40K novels, but it cannot be denied, that those folks have a great tendency to every drop of money out of people. The prices in the official stores are really ridicoulus. I have also heard, that, during the first heigt of Warhammer/WH40K in the 80s, they did put some serious pressure on most smaller fantasy stores in Great Britain, forcing them to take some unwanted competition products from the shelf by threatening not to supply the shop with GW stuff anymore.

[Stargrunt6]

Originally posted by Wolfi-S:

just to make it clear:

 

I really like the WH40K background story and I have read some of the WH40K novels, but it cannot be denied, that those folks have a great tendency to every drop of money out of people. The prices in the official stores are really ridicoulus. I have also heard, that, during the first heigt of Warhammer/WH40K in the 80s, they did put some serious pressure on most smaller fantasy stores in Great Britain, forcing them to take some unwanted competition products from the shelf by threatening not to supply the shop with GW stuff anymore.

 

 

What they do is make them devote X amount of shelf space strictly for GW stuff with nothing else around. They even have some sort of Gestapo going around to check this.

 

Peace,

 

MCab

[Matt Urbanski]

Games Workshop really has no excuse for the prices they set, especially considering the bulk they sell their stuff in and how much of what they sell these days is made from plastic. It's a wonder how a company like Reaper stays in business (cross fingers) - they don't sell nearly as many minis, their quality on average is probably better, and they charge around a $1 less per figure for 25 or 28 millimiter minis. (and about half as much as GW for their larger minis)

[EvilTommy]

I just checked out the Reaper miniatures site and I must say the artwork is brilliant. One feature I liked right off was the lack of gaudy excess that usually accompanies GW figures. The human footmen and archers were particularly well done.

[Burncycle]

I just got manually volunteered to play Warhammer 40k.

 

My dad doesen't play wargames. But he does like painting the peices and stuff. So when he bought what seems like a friggin chapter, it really raised an eyebrow. This basically means I'm going to be playing warhammer... joy. Not that there's anything wrong with it, I just wasnt very interested.... ah well.

 

In any case, the store sells dreadnaughts for $34!!! I dunno but that seems kinda high to me!

[Paul G]

WH40K: Chaos Gate is a pretty good turn based tactical wargame for the PC. Very cool campaign.

[alamaniac]

I only know PC version, but I still get raped all the time.