Cegorach's Rose

Putting some finishing touches on the Nightspinners, picking up some snacks, then we're off to Pasco for Atomic City. See you there nerds!

Asks are enabled now, in case you were at all curious about warhammer 40k and its lore I guess!

games workshop named a dude Dog Dogson

The closest analogy to Warhammer 40k I've found so far is chess. Each piece on the board has different strengths relative to one another and each brings value which can change based on its context. While a Queen can do more than any other piece, a Pawn in exactly the right place can be the key to a victory. Players spend their time jockeying for board position and plays are enabled with the combined strengths of resources with vastly different capabilities.

Chess, under the lens of 40k, is kind of like playing a game entirely with the charge phase. When you charge, you move your pieces into melee contact with your opponent, often occupying the space that they once did. Except 40k is like chess with shooting. The Queen has a gun now. Girlboss moment. Diversity win. It's also worth noting that luck and chance are involved. Imagine if every time you moved to take an opponent's piece in chess, you rolled two dice to see how far you can go. With two dice, some distances in the middle are very likely. You can also take risks, hoping to roll wildly high... and sometimes be rewarded by full-sending it. However, on the other extreme, you can also roll snake eyes and fail a trivial 3" charge. Volatility!

As 40k players, we offset volatility with the movement phase. Think like a chess player, you don't always have to take pieces: sometimes you can just move to a stronger position. Units in 10th edition 40k can move, then shoot (if you can see your target), then attempt a charge (if you're close enough). Crucially, every model in 40k has a built-in movement characteristic and you don't have to roll dice to move! (unless you want extra movement, but we won't be focusing on Advances). When 40k players say that the game is about movement, part of what we mean is that the movement phase is a deterministic resource. It's not volatile (unless you expose yourself to overwatch, but, again, not our focus). The movement phase allows you to guarantee a board position that enables scoring and opens up future plays. We also say that the charge phase is a second movement phase. Charging to get further up the board can fail, but that doesn't mean your gameplan is ruined. 40k at its heart is about risk management. If you're behind in a game, then taking a risky play may be the only winning option. Maybe the match is stable or you're ahead and the upside of a risky play is high enough. If you have a 1 in 3 chance to drop a sledgehammer on your opponent's gameplan, and you still get your points if you fail the charge, why wouldn't you risk it?

Let's go back to our chess analogy. Instead of alternating moves with your opponent, with each player "activating" one piece at a time, we alternate turns. In a turn, each player can opt to do things with all of their pieces. Then your opponent does the same. In exchange, 40k games have a predetermined endpoint: each player gets 5 turns to activate their models (move, shoot, charge) and score points.

Unlike chess, 40k isn't really about killing (though by god there is a lot of killing). When all is said and done, 40k is played on the scoreboard. There's a primary mission that is always about controlling key points on the map king-of-the-hill style, and secondary missions that layer in specific goals. Secondaries can include criteria like holding your opponent's home objective, killing 1-3 of their units in a turn, and standing in a specific place so you can perform an idle animation for free points (aka "doing an action"). Some of these certainly involve killing, but taking opponents' resources off the board can often be an optional step on the path to victory. It's about removing the key obstacles on your path to number-go-up, or denying your opponent resources for their scoring.

So where can you stand on your path to number-go-up? 10th edition 40k boards are always 60"x44" rectangles with various pieces of terrain on them. Missions can include different deployments which dictate where you and your opponent can start your models. And terrain are different kinds of objects on the table that allow you to hide your models so you don't get flavor blasted off the face of the planet. Usually, ruins made from shattered buildings provide the best competitive play experience. At the start of this article, you can see an example terrain layout from the current competitive season: the Leviathan GT mission pack. This layout is often, affectionately, called "thunderdome" by the community. When you combine it with a deployment style and mission, you get a complete board like the one embedded below. (via screenshot from the Tabletop Battles app)

Unlike chess, 40k players get to choose where their models start on the board. The green and red side (not very cash money for colorblind players!) each provide the area that models can be deployed. Players alternate in the deployment step, each placing units and trying to gain a positional advantage over their opponent. While I do think there's interesting theory and Choices to be made in deployment, I find that it's more about not making mistakes than it is about clever Playmaking. For newer players, learning how not to get turned into a carbon smear if you go second can be a difficult part of the learning curve. Perhaps this can be iterated on and made more interesting in future editions. Still, deployment theory comes down to matchup experience and risk/reward management, so perhaps it is worth keeping in its current form. In the end, good layouts that give you places to hide make all the difference.

Dear reader, that's pretty much 40k. While not quite enough detail to play your first game, I hope this illustrates some parts that make 40k special. Maybe now you can understand why someone would choose to spend their whole weekend at a GT on their feet, furrowing their brow at a folding table for 9 hours a day and saying "Sounds good" three hundred times a game until they're hoarse.

At the end of the day, I love 40k and I love our community. I have made so many friends since I started playing. As someone who doesn't fit right in among straight white guys, the community, both competitive and casual, has still been so welcoming. (Shoutout to the Waystone club in Ballard and everyone there! <3)

If you're interested in learning the game, I encourage you to find a local community and ask for a teaching game. Some wonderful folks will even let you borrow models to get started and try new models in person. Tabletop simulator can also be a great resource, but I found it tough when starting to find good quality matches in big discords. I think this is getting better though! I encourage you to get out there and play some 40k. You might just get hooked!