I was just wondering if there are any people who play Warhammer 40k in the Poughkeepsie area. I'll be heading back to New Paltz in about a month and for the most part only have 2 people to play with and I'd like to expand my horizons so to speak.

I play Orks and could MAYBE do 1000 points, probably a little less, but I'm always trying to add pieces so I can play in some of the really big games.

For the most part I'll be heading over to Dragon's Den every once in awhile to play, but it would certainly be much easier if I could make plans with other people rather than just show up and see who wants to play.

Well I play but I'm not in your area. I play Imperial manly SM, IG and Demonhunters. I tend to have my armies focused on the IG component with specialised back up from Deamonhunters or SMs as needed. Gives be fodder and shock troops plus SMs have some nice fast attack options.

I just added some Burna Boyz to my collection and I'm hoping to test them out. Had a Kommando squad with a Burna attached and the damage it caused was so sweet.

My Armies tend to be a Green Tide style army, with huge units composed of Ork Boyz led by a Nob or a Warboss and some specialized units for support. Favorite setup so far is a 30 ork squad of Boyz, a warboss, 3 bikers and a squad of Kommandos led by Boss Snikrot. Thus far: won about half of the games against one of my friends (he does Daemons or Eldar, whichever he feels like at the time) and I am undefeated against my other friend (Tau).

The game shop nearby in Poughkeepsie is only about a 20 minute drive from me and hosts a tabletop night every thursday, so I figured I'd start trying that, but thought it might be easier if I already knew some people...

Edit: So where do you play? If I ever find myself around there for whatever reason, maybe I could look you up. So that I might declare Waagh! on your puny humanz! BWAHAHA!

I used to play regular Warhammer, but I'm not in your area either.

Just wait till you face Necrons. Damn them coming back to life repeatedly. I've only lost with my 400point tournament army against orks and necrons and drew against space marines we basicly pined each other behind building as we both knew who ever enter the field of fire would be killed the next turn. The orks only won due to grot spam the necrons I must have killed that army 3times in total.

Not familiar with the exact things in 40k, but isn't 400 a kind of small army? In fantasy I generally ran a 1k army, and even did a few 2k battles, but maybe the numbers are different (Yeah, the 2k was massive and involved around 100 troops on each side)

It really depends on what size you want to play/shell out the cash for. But yea, 400 is pretty small comparatively. Lately I've been playing 500 points but that's really only because Orks are damn expensive. I could have 30 ork boyz for 180 points, and they only sell them in packs of 11 ork boys...so it gets pretty expensive as compared to an army like Space Marines where you might get something like half that many models for 180 (and thus spend less money to build an army). I don't know the actual cost of SMs, but I'd be willing to bet I made a pretty good estimate.

Yeah, money can be an issue. Thankfully Lizardmen minis tended to come in boxes with like 30 of them. I think I fielded my 2k army with like 5 boxes of minis, and a couple of large creatures (Triceratops and the ultra fat frog king/shaman guy)

400 points is tiny to say I also have enough to field a 4th ed legal 5k-8k army. It's not 5th ed legal as a few models have options that can't be taken any more.

Also I hate my love for IG. The damn painting of 100s of them gets insanely tedious. I know in 4th ed you can play 100 as a squad of conscripts for a low point cost and that's only one squad out of up to 6. With out any suporting units.

I hear ya, Orks have the same problem. And I take care to make them look really good, so I usualy end up spending several hours on on mini. So far, I've got 25 Ork Boys, 3 Ork Nobs and my Warboss painted. And only 200 more models to go! ugh

I tend to rush job my gurnts though seeing as I was taught to paint be golden daemon entreats its still a slow process. On officers or more sepcial squads I can spends ages. Rushing grunts tends to be production line as well base, second base, Base amour ect ect so I keep my paint mixes consitent per squad or two seeign as I tend to mix alot.

I like to keep color schemes consistent, but tend to work on models one at a time instead of assembly lining them.

1) Black Spray Base Coat (Can do multiple models at once). I find using the spray cans for the base coat works really well, even coating and done very quickly. Metal models tend to have some problems since the paint kind of drips off of them, but that's easily remedied with multiple base coats over several days.
2) I usually paint the clothing/armor first, some shade of brown/brown red. This isn't always the same since orks don't always dress the same (in my vision of what they should look like at least).
3) Next I do the skin, and this takes a long time. I start out with a coat of Orkhide Shade, a very VERY dark green, then when that dries I put on a coat of GOblin Green, letting some of the Orkhide show through, then a drybrush coat of Snot Green and finally add some light highlights of Camo green.
4) Any other armor/weapons, usually I use either black, silver or bone-white, depending on what the item is (guns are silver, handls for axes might be bone or just black.)
5) Squad colors: I like this part, easy to do but makes the model that much more interesting. I usually have a specific color/pattern that I apply to models depending on which squad they belong to. For instance, my ork mob with Shootas (assault rifles) have blue tiger strikes and braveheart style face paintings. This is either applied directly on the skin or on some of the weapons/armor. The idea is that they have a unifying characteristic without cluttering the model.

Of course, this all takes a long time to do, and sometimes I will spend an entire evening doing only one or two models. Luckily, I have been getting better at it and have started being able to spend less time to get pretty much the same quality.

if I ever play, I'll probably either be getting an IG or tau army. Probably tau, it appeals to my anime/sci-fi tastes.

Your Tau shall fall before the might of the Orks! WAAAGH!!!!!

PBTHHHHT, I have a decent chunk of an IG Army that I'm taking offers on. Let me know if you're interested in details.

I don't even know what the races are for the most part.

Imperial, Orks, Eldar (or something like that for the elves)... I've played the video games, but don't know if all of those are actual races or not. I'd likely go with the bug guys if they're a real option.

I've played my share.

Tyranids are ok swarmy Tau are over played massively or they where last time I look at least 60% of all army sI see are SM or Tau the other runners up are Orks and CSM tyrandi seam to be up there as well. Dark Eldar really need a revamp they are running with rule that don't quite work in 5th ed or 4th ed tbh. The other armys are more evenly split.

Tau are ok to begin with theres not much stratigic choice in what to field. Well less than other lists and they are quite easy to paint en-mass.

I'd likely play as either the Tyranids or the Necrons. I've always had a tendency towards the more 'xeno' races.

If I were going to play 40k, it would be Thousand Sons/Tzeentchian Chaos Marines. For the Changer of Ways!

I started out playing Dark Eldar. I love their fluff, but only played 'em for a few years because they just felt so top-heavy; their HQ and Elite choices were awesome, and their Troop choices mediocre at best, so it always felt like HeroHammer. Games would invariably come down to my boss man (and Incubi bodyguard) slashing up someone else's boss man (and Elite bodyguard), and often the whole game would come down to nothing more than my Combat Drugs and/or a Shadow Field (2+ invulnerable save) roll. Anything else that happened anywhere else on the table was a secondary or tertiary concern.

It was kind of boring, actually.

In recent years they've afforded them a few more options (like the all-Wych army) that are probably a little more fun or balanced or whatever...but by then I'd lost interest.

A Gaunt's Ghosts fan, after that I ran Imperial Guard. What better way to move entirely away from a melee-oriented HeroHammer game, right? I had a couple hundred of the old metal Cadian minis all duded up and ready to roll, and had a good time slinging buckets of dice. I didn't have a single Leman Russ, just a couple Chimera transports and a few Walkers -- and I had a blast. I'm an "infantry" guy at heart, and everyone loved seeing a Guard army that wasn't just "How many Tanks can you fit, on and two Troops choices, too." I loved the feel of the army, but it was a pain in the butt to haul that many models around, set that many models up, etc, etc. Financial woes reared their ugly head, and I sold them off.

Briefly overlapping with my time as a loyal dog-soldier infantry grunt in the Imperial Guard, I picked up a Space Wolf list. It gave me options. When I wanted to stand and shoot, I got my Guard. When I wanted to howl and charge, I played my Wolves (13th Company, in fact, once those rules came out). It was a fun list, and didn't feel as "HeroHammer" as my old Dark Eldar despite being very melee-centric, because everyone in the army was a roving hand-to-hand badass. This was the only 40k list I've ever played in a tournament, and everyone I played against was thrilled to see them -- they were just fun to play against, and I took crazy risks with them in true "glory, or die trying" fashion.

During one tournament, it was my 13th Company against a Khorne army, and every tournament judge came over to our table to watch the monstrous, horrible, glorious, bloodshed. What's more, it was a special scenario where both sides were supposed to come onto the table piecemeal...but 13th Company special rules allowed me to be there in my entirety; so really, the game was "big 13th Company army gobbles up Khorne army a unit as a time as it wanders onto the board." The judges, and my opponent, liked that I'd initially asked for permission to change the scenario, because I felt it was unfair to my opponent. They all shook their heads, and said I deserved to catch a break for being the only person they'd ever seen bring 13th Company to a tournament -- even my opponent! -- so we all just relaxed and watched the face-eating commence.

Rules changes came and went, money came and went, my interest in 40k came and went...I sold off my Wolves to a new kid just getting into the hobby, and now...

Now...

*looks around nervously*

Now I just play Vanilla Marines.

I know, I know! It's all backwards of me, to start with "complex" armies and work my way towards the "noob list," but that's just how the dice fell. I like the simplicity of painting Space Marines. I like the rock solid reliability of their fluff, the streamlining of rules in the latest edition made them dirt simple to keep track of (compared to the complexity of my other wargames), and I got some really good deals from the Space Marines vs. Orks boxed sets (bought in "halfies" with several Ork-playing friends). I have a Mechanized Infantry type list, with transports for every unit (but a couple Scouts), and it's just kind of fun to have a dirt-simple, basic, no frills, "boots on the ground" sort of toy soldier list. I've got a unit of Devastators, a ten-man Assault Squad with Jump Packs, two units of Scouts...and Tactical Marines. Just guys with bolters, doing the Emperor's work. No fancy rules, no jinky tricks to surprise my opponents with, just a fairly mobile (thanks to Rhinos and Razorbacks), fairly resilient, AK47-reliable army for some dakka-dakka.

Good, clean, fun.

I have to admit, there is a certain je ne sais quoi to a good, simple, shooty Space Marine force. Like you said, they're not fancy, they don't rely on tricky stunts, they just march forward and blow the living fuck out of anything that gets in their way. It's a brand of badass all its own.

I've got just enough assault ability to still throw down and have a good time, when it's what's called for -- my Chaplain (converted Emperor's Champion model) leading a 10-strong Assault Marine squad, all with jump packs -- so I'm not just shooting...but, yeah. I like the trusty bolter dakka-dakka sound, I like the idea of 10-man squads all in the same armor, advancing almost in step with one another, with a single heavy weapon and a single assault weapon between them, I like the "Codex" feel...the uniformity of it is fun, to me, with Space Marines. The relentless, grinding, advance.

Check out history channel! Some military armored suit exoskeleton thing on right now. Totally looks like the first step to power armor

Edit: Darn, they changed subject to cyborgs

I started out Space Marines was a toss up them or Tau. I then move one to demon hunters and finaly IG. I however tend to mix and match with the ally rules. A favrate of mine is a IG base army with inqistion stroom troopers, Inquestilord and retinue, assassin of choice if so inclined and a few grey knights. This give me an army with a huge chunk of "fodder" IG squads can hold their own back up with mechanised stormtrooper suport both inqustinolal and base IG the latter mounted in Valkyries as they are awesome hunter killers. Plus a deepstriking squad of grey knights can really turn the tide. If I'm playing huge points I tend to have 1 landraider for my inquisitor lord and hand full of chimeras a valkyre, sentinels and a few tanks.The only real down side is that it's a broad army it doesn't have a niche or a weakness. How ever it plays really well has a nice theam and is a rare army to see fielded. I've been toying with maybe adding soem grey knight terminators and dropping my inqusitor down a notch. A IG swarm with +2 and +3 armor heavy hitters deepstriking could be fun. As they'll likely take the focus of the oponets fire powe letting my other men move in unmolested and even if they don't they pack enought of a pucnh in assault and shooting to cause havok.

I didn't mention them (because I've never used them), but I've also got 60 -- yes, sixty -- of the old metal Stormtrooper models (sometimes called the "SWAT" Stormtroopers) all painted up and ready to go. A buddy of mine that's an excellent painter had recently lost his job, I saw a crazy huge lot of Stormtroopers on eBay for cheap, and in order to (a) give him some money without (b) giving him the money, he painted them all up for me.

I need to check out whatever Inquisitorial Codex is currently rules legal, and look into a way to add them to a Marine list (or vice versa)...it'll be like Space Marines and their little brothers. My Scouts will get to feel like badasses compared to someone!

Well the use of demonhunter in 5th ed is iffy atm. A new codex in on the books. But I think the allies rule are still the same as in 4th ed so it should be ok. But you have to play a base army with DH allies as the army list of the other have changes so you can't play a DH army with IG allies (really) and the same is likely true with SMs

I was thinking of a DH army as a secondary, especially with Grey Knights, but if the codex is iffy, I'll probably wait. Of course, I've also bee interested in starting a 'Nids army as well as a Space Wolves army, so maybe I'll look into one of those next.

For now though: WAAAGH!!!!

It's not iffy to use as a second it is to use as a primary in a mixed force. Just as always new codex incoming means well you could have to remake the army again in a year/few months.

Yea...I'll probably stay with Orks for a while... they're fun to play, can actually win sometimes, and are great for comedy. Plus they don't seem to change all that much with newer addtions of the game (though I must say, 4th edition "Mob Rule" kicked so much more ass than the current version of the rule).

Plus I'd rather spend my money on new Orks or terrain (either building my own or buying preconstructed)

If i ever have enought spare cash and if they finally realese that xenos hunters codex, i will play Deathwatch. Their just so badass.
But untill then i just read the novels.

Orks are certainly doing well right now. They're a very competitive list (if built for it), and they're not as pathetically "hah hah" as they were in earlier editions. GW really hit the right balance with 'em this edition/codex, I think...fun and with some amusing abilities, but still plenty dark and scary instead of just being comic relief.

Before the move, Orks were far and away my most common opponent (my two regular 40k buddies both played 'em). It led to some really fantastic battles that fit the fluff perfectly -- stalwart Marines standing fast against the oncoming green horde, and with neither side sure who was winning until the bitter, bloody, end.

Oh, I know they're more balanced and more competitiive now, but I miss some of the older rules still. I can't remember which edition it was, but one of the rules for Orks using grenades (or stikkbombs, as they called them) was to roll a die. On a certain result, the ork throws the pin instead of the grenade, resulting in casualties of course. That would always crack me up!

So, I borrowed a copy of the core book from a friend, and read through the Tyranid stuff, and I really like them. I get a feel that the battle could turn hugely based on a stroke of bad luck or poor planning since they have a bunch of really expensive models, but at the same time, I see a bunch of potential for causing true mayhem in enemy lines and they do have some real cheap screeners (6 point fleet models with 2 attacks , for 10 points they get extra S and I when they attack and do damage when they die )

Now I just need to scrape together a bunch of money to get some models and painting stuff (Used to have some, but I don't even know that it is still around)

Am I the only one that is surprised that there isn't a true warhammer 40k video game? Like that uses the actual 40k rules as opposed to the current computer games (Which are cool, don't get me wrong)? I mean they made blood bowl as a true adaptation, they wasted alot of time on blitz, but the classic game is there exactly as you would play it on tabletop with only a couple omissions (like goblin bombs for some reason, and the ability to not reroll with abilities that grant rerolls).

Would be very cool if I could play real warhammer 40k without investing hundreds of dollars in minis and hundreds of hours painting them all (or more $ having someone else paint them)

It does seem like a bit of an oversight. AFAIK, there isn't even a MegaMek equivalent (MegaMek being a free, open-source Java implementation of BattleTech).

Yea, but how well did Blood Bowl do? It hasn't gotten a lot of ad time from what I can see, leading me to believe that it wasn't very popular.

Also, I don't really think a "true" warhammer 40k VG adaptation would be all that great. Part of the allure, for me at least, is the actual physical models themselves. Painting them, gluing them to look how you want and even modifying them with leftover bitz helps get you that much more involved in the setting. A Video Game would kind of take away from that.

Although, since Dawn of War did pretty well, maybe I'm just being silly and a "true" videogame adaptation would be better than the second coming of christ.... who knows?

Also, anyone else excited about the announced Dark Millennium Online? I know I am...

I just can't deiced whether I want to play Orks (WAAGH!) or Space Marines (Love the novels!)

Plus it looks like, maybe, TITANS!?
http://www.darkmillenniumonline.com/

Edit: Yes, I know that the trailer has been out for a while. Karoline's comment about video games just made me think of this.

All I want to know is whether I will be able to play a Thousand Sons sorcerer. I don't imagine I'll stick with the game any longer than I did Warhammer Online, but it should at least be good for a month or two.

Have you played any other MMOs besides WAR? IMO Age of Rckoning is pretty much just a WoW ripoff (yes, I know Warcraft is a Warhammer ripoff, but blizzard made WoW before Mythic made WAR)

From the trailer, Dark Millennium looks like it will be more of an shooter style MMO (you can see a targeting reticle at one point).
And I'm sure you'll be able to at least play some sort of CSM psyker, if not a Thou Sons sorcerer. It just wouldn't be Christmas without it...er...Warhammer without it!

I've played WoW and EVE Online extensively, although I never really got into the PvP part of EVE; I've also played City of Heroes, Champions Online, EverQuest, Star Trek Online, and of course Warhammer Online.

Was just curious whether you not playing WAR a lot was because you liked different MMOs more or because MMOs just weren't your thing (either or is fine by me, just curious)

It did exceedingly well. They are making an expansion for it that includes all the races they left out on the original pass (about 13 or so, mostly the ones with a 'this race is really exceedingly ultra hard to play' disclaimer, or a couple with the 'you aren't going to win often' disclaimer)


True, I know part of the appeal is having the models and stuff, but I still think there would be a huge number of people who would get and play a video game version. Heck, I'd imagine even you would get it just so you can try out different races from time to time and such without having to dump a couple hundred dollars in minis. And think how much quicker it would be with the game automatically picking out hits and remembering all the rules and everything for you.

Oh, and of course if people are just starting out, it gives them a chance to try out different stuff and see how it works, so they don't buy some big tank mini that they end up not using all that often.

Honestly, I don't imagine it would be that hard to make either. I mean if they just grabbed the people who did DoW and DoW II, they'd already have all the models ready, including how they look moving and firing and everything. They'd just need to set up everything, which I imagine would be too hard for a turn based game.

Heck, I know I could write programs to do all the basic rolls in no time, measuring distances would be easy, etc. Still plenty of work, but given how many people got a game like blood bowl, I'm sure they could easily have it be worth their while.

Oh yeah, you might want to check out fallen earth. It is a shooter style MMO and is quite a bit of fun.

Planetside was a pretty good Shooter/MMO...too bad it never caught on

Oh, I remember that (I think) it was fairly good.

So, since it is a favorite past time of mine, I went through and made a couple Tyranid Armies. I think they're decent, but I don't really have anything to compare them to, so I figured I'd post them to see what people though. If I do decide to get into this, I want to know I have at least a reasonable army before I buy a bunch of models.

Army 1: Fairly standard 'advance and kick butt' army. 1000 points

Lurk means that if there is no synapse creature within 12", it must pass a leadership test or it is unable to move or assault, but may still shoot and use powers.
Synapse Creature means units within 12" are fearless, and will automatically rally if within 12" at movement.
Shadow in the Warp means enemy psykers within 12" must roll 3d6 for their powers, and any double 1 or double 6 causes perils of warp.

So the basic idea is to run up to the enemy with Tereagants shielding my Warriors (Who have the prime attached) while the Trevigon advances, pumping out reinforcements on the way which act as its honor guard to get the boosts for being within 6", and the biovores rain down pain, which even if they miss still generate bombs that will either blow up on the enemy eventually anyway, or each bomb can tie up an entire enemy unit's shots if they want to clear them out.

I'll post the other army later, that took quite a while to write out.

Today I brought a devisator squad for the sake of painting a death watch squad. £20 I can't really aford to spend.

@Karoline:
I lightly skimmed over your army, but don't really know much about running 'Nids, so can't offer much of my own experience.
From what I can see at first, it seems solid for the beginnings of a swarm. The trevigon is a nice little touch, with the chance to add some additional gaunts to your army (just make sure to buy enough pieces, a lot of people can get really picky about letting you use proxies).

One of my friends (who unfortunately goes to RIT, so I can't game with him very often) plays 'Nids and says that one of his favorite and most effective strategies is to field massive swarms of gaunts. Can't remember which is which, but he prefers the melee gaunts over the ranged ones (hormagaunts or termagaunts, can't remember which one is melee), and will simply overrun all opposition by assaulting.

According to him it is pretty effective and wins quite a bit against "elite" armies of Tau or Eldar. I must say I have similar success as my Orks are composed almost entirely of Ork Boys (Troop, 6 points apiece) and a Warboss (HQ) with either a small contingent of Kaommandos (Elite) or Warbikers (Fast). My friend who plays Eldar Elites usually remarks that it is hard to keep up with me since my boys can soak just as much damage as his rangers/banshees, are amazing in melee, and outnumber him 3 to 1. Can't say whether this translates well to 'Nids, but since they are a swarm army, I'd imagine it would.

It's good of you to have a plan for your army as well, but I've found that after a few battles with small stuff, you start changing your plans around. I was originally not going to use Burna Boys (Orks with Flamethrowers, Oh my!) but after witnessing my Tau friend utterly demolish one of my mobs with them, I figured I'd have to try them out...
Plans are nice, all I'm saying is they're bound to change eventually so don't commit to that army too quickly...

Of course, i believe you said you used to play Warhammer Fantasy, so maybe you're already familiar with what I'm saying and I've been ranting for too long.

I'm gonna stop now.

Yeah, that'd be the Homagaunts. Even with no add-ons at 6 points each they are

With Bounding Leap (roll three dice when running, pick highest), Fleet, and Move through Cover. And they get to reroll 1s on melee attacks. For an extra 2 points each they can get Furious Charge which gives them an extra +1 I and S on a charge (Meaning 3 attacks at I6 and S4 with rerolling 1s to hit), and for another 2 points they get Poison 4+ so they can wound even very tough things without trouble (Makes the furious charge kinda pointless though, so usually only get one or the other). So yeah, I could totally see having an army with nearly a hundred of these being a serious danger to 'elite' troops. Their main weakness would be serious trouble taking down a tank. For that they could have a Hive Tyrant as the HQ guy who is a monstrous creature with strength 6, meaning he could beat down on tanks in melee (2d6+6 to beat rear armor? Yes please). Could also go with the Tervigon (Can act as HQ or Troops depending on certain things) as it would also have 2d6+5 against rear, and be able to sit around putting out even more troops. Yeah, you could literally field 100 of those guys with a mix of poison 4+ and furious charge, then have a Tervigon in the back to put out a couple dozen of the ranged guys to act as backup and tank destroyers.
Edit: And synapse range wouldn't be a big problem either, because if they get out of range and fail their leadership... they are simply required to attack enemies