Back in 2018 or so, my girlfriend's younger brother decided to get into 40k with some friends. He really started getting into it, so I gifted around some paints and brushes, and eventually gifted him a bunch of old Slaanesh Daemons of mine (his faction of choice).
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| Who could say no to that face? A nice little kitbash with my favorite fantasy warrior helmet and weapon. These got a very shiny Tzeentch-inspired scheme. The power weapon could use a little more work, and the gun barrels are slightly off-center, but it was my first time playing with either thing, so I was happy with the result. |
Years previously I had picked up a Chaos Lord kit on discount from a local game shop. Seemed like a cool model at the time, but I never got around to painting it up for fun. And as his interest in hobbying grew, I decided buy a box of Chaos Space Marines and Chaos Bikers and join him in a few casual games.
It ... did not go all that well.
We used the dumbed-down freebie rules for 8th to keep it simple, but despite being college-aged, list-building eluded the young'uns, and they could not manage a legal list, (not with points, nor with power level... they couldn't even get the basic detachment approach down for 8th). Innumerable rules and 8th Command Points were similarly always misunderstood. It just wasn't great. We got (I think) three-or-four games in before Fall 2019 and schooling asserted themselves as priorities.
After the first game, I had been trying to figure out some basic industrial terrain to add to the table, and happened on a fantastic youtube channel: Wyloch's Armory. While on a hiatus currently, the channel is still a treasure trove of great terrain hobbying projects and advice. Seriously, go check out that channel. It's great for D&D, fantasy, industrial, sci-fi... all sorts of fantastic hobby ideas.
As I delved deeper into the channel, I found some oddly titled battle reports, between things like Robot Legions and Battle Brothers and Alien Hives. The thumbnails all had 40k minis though, so I was confused. As it turns out, these were battle reports for a great ruleset from OnePageRules. I was immediately smitten, and encourage you to check them out as well.
Essentially, their "schtick" is to take an existing game and distill it into something very basic (typically, 1-2 pages of basic rules). They focus chiefly on GW, with rules to mimic 40k, AOS, and WHFB, though they do have a nice selection some one-off games, including takes on Gaslands, the insanely cool Crossfire wargame, and a few oddballs, like a game designed around plastic toy Army Men. Rules are free, though you can join their patreon to help playtest, preview new games, or just get files for 3d printing (and 2d printing, for the ultimate in casual wargaming).
Grimdark Future is their 40k equivalent, and the ruleset appeals far more to me than the real deal! All of their rules are done by the same group (themselves) with the same points calculator, so while you lose the very granular distinctions for each subset of the big factions (no ultra-distinct chapters here, though you can mess with some special rules and upgrades), in exchange, you get a pretty balanced game. That is a win in my book!
The gameplay is similar to the inspiration, with lists and points and various upgrades and such built ahead of time, but the game takes the I-go-U-go formula down to the unit level, thereby limiting degenerate combos and preventing crippling alpha strikes, while creating a more dynamic battle. I very much like this approach!
While play moves unit-to-unit, things are still tracked by model (wounds taken, can it see enough to take the shot, etc). That's not too bad actually, as their other neat rules trick is limiting the number of models in a unit. If you buy a unit of 5 marines, you can bump that to 10 (if everyone has the same gear, no mixing and matching, for simplicity), but no higher. So Death Star units are quite hard to field. While this limits some army design, when the result is better balance, I still count this as a win.
Age of Fantasy is ... well, their fantasy equivalent, and follows the same general rules: the I-go-U-go approach by unit; model-level tracking; and limiting the unit size (though with Fantasy, the units are larger, with most starting at 10 and maxing out at 20).
All in all, I still prefer Kings of War for my fantasy game of choice. Being able to ignore the individual model is still a stroke of genius in my book, and this lets it really capture a mass battle feel. More KoW posts coming soon!
But...
If you are in need of terrain tips for any wargaming or RPG setting, check out Wyloch's Armory.
And if you need another easy game in your arsenal, definitely consider something from OnePageRules.
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