Game Night

I managed to play a game at my place with my bud, Campbell, proud owner of a newly acquired Necron army off of Bartertown.  Campbell says that he originally wanted to play Necrons when our group first played 40K at the outset of 5th Edition, but one of our guys convinced him out of it.  So Campbell is now a happy camper, after waiting 3 or 4 years.

As his opponent, I find Necrons to be a more interesting adversary than his other armies, Tyranids and Orks.  Plus the models look wicked.

I stepped up the point-count to 1250.  Back in 5th Edition, I had some 1500-point lists, so I blew the dust off of those and tweaked them.

We played a simple pitched battle, annihilation game, just to learn the forces and to continue instilling the rules in our heads (especially mine).  It's amazing how even the basic rules become questionable when you're actually playing the game.  I look forward to having that weight lifted when I play Dust Warfare!  Regardless, though, I am enjoying playing 6th Edition 40K, and I find myself interested in exploring my army options and adding new models and units.

During the game, I felt significantly overpowered, compared to the Necron force.  It felt like Campbell had 1500 points to my 1250, let's say.  Campbell and I discussed it afterwards, and I'm finally accepting the fact that I really need to take list-building seriously in order to play a matched game.  I've resisted doing that, out of the stubborn view that the game should be played on the table, not on the spreadsheet.  I've improved my outlook on that front, though, in two ways.  First, I'm accepting that 40K is simply not the game I want it to be.  Steve says, it's an acquisition/logistics game, not a tactical/operations game.  Regardless, we both find it a fun game to play, even if it's not exactly what we want it to be.  Second, I compare 40K to Magic: The Gathering.  Magic is played in two parts: deck-building and playing.  That's analogous to 40K.  I enjoy deck-building in Magic.  Therefore, I can apply the same attitude towards list-building in 40K.

Here are more photos of the game (no commentary).  We played a little over 3 turns.