Preping a campain for a gaming group, new players

[surebet]

Greets,

I had a couple hundred dollars left in this semester’s gaming club’s budget, so after a quick glance at the rules and figs I bought a few cases of boosters.

I have never seen a game that’s so messy to prepare, plastic bags everywhere. The cat had fun though!

Anyway, I have a nice spread of minis to start, now I need a few tips.

We usually play 40k and other tabletop games, so usually terrain making is a key priority while starting a new system/scale.

From what I see, there is no commercially available terrain outside of 2D maps. Is 3D terrain frowned upon for some reason?

Also, although this might go beyond the scope of the game, how well are 1000+ point games supported, time aside? What pointage would you recommend for an 8 hour game?

Looking forward to lurking the forums a bit to read what has already been posted, but I just wanted to say hi!

[Motdc]

There are no problems with 3D terrain, its just that WotC was targeting the game to be a bit on the simpler side.  Some people on here have posted excellend 3D terrain pics.

I rarely play above 150, but I hear a lot on large-scale games.  Probably best to start with some of the published lareg-scale scenarios to get an idea of how they work.

8 hours, hmm that depends on how new the players are.  Refering to the rules can slow things down a bit.

What set(s) did you purchase?  North Africa, or something else?

[sublime828]

We normally play 500 pt games and occasionally a 1000 pt game.  For a 500 pt game, I would use 9 maps 3 by 3.  For a thousand, 4 by 4.  If you are new to the game, it will take a long time, especially if you are playing elimination instead of object based games.  Either way, its a lot of fun.

[surebet]

Thanks for the replies!

I guess we’ll start with conventionnal sized games for now, at least get a few guys up to speed on the rules.

As for what I bought, a bit of everything. Since this was more or less an impulse buy I asked the guy to give me what I needed to start games.

[Audacity]

I like to get into the big games (so far at 1800 points each, heavy on the armour and 700 when infantry heavy).  I love the look of 3 D boards and build my own from styrofoam.

When you get that big, you need umpires who are really into the rules and who can keep the game on task.  Each player really can’t effectively fight more that 15 pieces and fewer is better unless there are all the same model.  Otherwise knowing their special abilities is tough to keep up with.  I have seen all sorts of games lost by those who have not employed the abilities properly.

With multiple players have the teams send up their players in some sort of order and have a designated die roller.  It keeps it faster.  Also, no thinking when its your turn to move or assault.  All that needs to be done ahead of time.

Have fun!  Where are you, can we join in?

Let me know how 40K people take to this.  I’ve a club on my campus (Trent U. in Peterborough Ontario)that I’m unsure of how to break into with this game.