Wargaming Idea: Warhammer 40,000 25th Anniversary Tournament
This year will be the 25th anniversary of the release of Warhammer 40,000 - a quarter of a century since the first edition hardback rules, "Rogue Trader" emerged into a world where sci-fi gaming was considered a bit dead. I own many different editions of the many Games Workshop games and have been rereading 40K 1st Ed recently as part of my Chaos Space Marine painting. Ambling about town today, stuck on jury duty, I had an idea for a game to celebrate the original edition of the rules.
Basic principle is pretty simple - run a few small battles using purely the original 1st Ed rulebook. This edition is more skirmish focused so the battle size would be purposefully quite small - probably only 500 points, which in this edition would just be enough for two bare-bones Space Marine Tactical Squads. Even with the older, clunkier rules, this would allow for games to be comparatively brief and minimise the space required to play. (It also means that players who wish to paint new models for the game don't have to paint too much.)
Despite the points, however, there would be no structured army lists! Pages 58 - 60 of 40K 1st Ed covers point values for the soldiers in the book but also has formula for calculating values for your own inventions - according to Rick Priestly in an interview, because they didn't think it would sell well enough to justify many figures so wanted to make the game usable without their support. (How things change.) Players would be encouraged to use this system and go mental - whether it's converting modern figures and races into the old rules, breaking out some older figures like Space Marines with Conversion Beamers, or doing something totally mental like statting out your D&D Beholder figure for 40K. This goes double for vehicles which, on release, GW had zero kits available for and so the rules assume you'll be trying to stat up your personal conversion.
If you don't know the 1st Ed rules, have no fear! I am one of a few people I know who own hardcopies and there are, er, "backups" of this long out-of-print book available here and there. And if you want a proper copy, a rummage on eBay or Amazon can turn up slightly bashed copies for reasonable costs. You'll probably recognise many of the basics, anyway - the key stat numbers and what they represent haven't changed too much and essentially the same to-hit tables have always been used, though there's a few extra stats on an infantryman's line and the vehicle rules are a bit clunkier. (And let's not talk about psykers.) The book is big but just as with later editions a lot of it is fluff, stat blocks you won't need and hobby advice - the actual core rules fit on the first 50 pages and summary sheets at the back deal with almost every weapon you'll need.
I'd probably do something like a Blood Bowl tournament in which you can play many games but only your top three performances count for scoring. Unfortunately, one of the notable absences in 40K 1st Ed is a victory condition - the game assumes you'll play scenarios, not random competition games - so I'll need to devise a simple scoring system. (Possibly just measure the points value of enemy troops you destroy versus those of your own you lose.) At the end, either the top scoring team wins - or, if players prefer, a grand final can be played by the top two teams.
Does this sound like something anyone would be interested in doing later in the year?
Basic principle is pretty simple - run a few small battles using purely the original 1st Ed rulebook. This edition is more skirmish focused so the battle size would be purposefully quite small - probably only 500 points, which in this edition would just be enough for two bare-bones Space Marine Tactical Squads. Even with the older, clunkier rules, this would allow for games to be comparatively brief and minimise the space required to play. (It also means that players who wish to paint new models for the game don't have to paint too much.)
Despite the points, however, there would be no structured army lists! Pages 58 - 60 of 40K 1st Ed covers point values for the soldiers in the book but also has formula for calculating values for your own inventions - according to Rick Priestly in an interview, because they didn't think it would sell well enough to justify many figures so wanted to make the game usable without their support. (How things change.) Players would be encouraged to use this system and go mental - whether it's converting modern figures and races into the old rules, breaking out some older figures like Space Marines with Conversion Beamers, or doing something totally mental like statting out your D&D Beholder figure for 40K. This goes double for vehicles which, on release, GW had zero kits available for and so the rules assume you'll be trying to stat up your personal conversion.
If you don't know the 1st Ed rules, have no fear! I am one of a few people I know who own hardcopies and there are, er, "backups" of this long out-of-print book available here and there. And if you want a proper copy, a rummage on eBay or Amazon can turn up slightly bashed copies for reasonable costs. You'll probably recognise many of the basics, anyway - the key stat numbers and what they represent haven't changed too much and essentially the same to-hit tables have always been used, though there's a few extra stats on an infantryman's line and the vehicle rules are a bit clunkier. (And let's not talk about psykers.) The book is big but just as with later editions a lot of it is fluff, stat blocks you won't need and hobby advice - the actual core rules fit on the first 50 pages and summary sheets at the back deal with almost every weapon you'll need.
I'd probably do something like a Blood Bowl tournament in which you can play many games but only your top three performances count for scoring. Unfortunately, one of the notable absences in 40K 1st Ed is a victory condition - the game assumes you'll play scenarios, not random competition games - so I'll need to devise a simple scoring system. (Possibly just measure the points value of enemy troops you destroy versus those of your own you lose.) At the end, either the top scoring team wins - or, if players prefer, a grand final can be played by the top two teams.
Does this sound like something anyone would be interested in doing later in the year?