500 Point Games

[ElectricPaladin]

I'd like to have a thread about the following game format:

• 500 points
• 1-4 Heroes, 1+ Battleline

I think it would make a good introductory format and a way for brand new players with small collections to experiment with Matched Play.

The thing is, I'm not sure the game remains coherent at that scale. I've played two games so far. In the first, my mob of ghouls supported by an abhorrent on foot and a varghulf completely rolled a mob of skinks supported by two skink priests and a salamander. In a subsequent game, my ghouls were nearly completely ineffective against a lord celestant and his retinue of ten liberators and six prosecutors (my opponent took some casualties but tabled me).

The questions are:

• What are your experiences of small games?
• Do you feel that the game holds together at this level?
• If not, what can we do with comp, battleplans, etc. to make Matched Play viable at this level?

Go!

[Vasshpit]

Maybe at this point level try something similar to how Kill Team works in 40k and make each model move and operate idependently.

Just a suggestion.

[chord]

At under 1K points I feel it's best to use open play but with points.  Bring whatever you want as long as it falls under 1K points and you discuss with the other play if it makes sense for the scenario.

 

 

[wayniac]

16 minutes ago, chord said:

At under 1K points I feel it's best to use open play but with points.  Bring whatever you want as long as it falls under 1K points and you discuss with the other play if it makes sense for the scenario.

 

 

I agree with this.  At that level you might as well come up with cool scenarios and work things out from there, don't try to use pure Matched Play.

[Bostian]

In my experience, using smaller armies like these work great for multi-player games. They certainly play relatively fast, and running demo games at this level is just about right to get someone learning the game. I've called it my 2-by-2 set-up:  2 units and 2 heroes (one hero with some magic) so there are some variety of warscrolls but not too many for a new player to sort through.

On the other hand, I've played a few Regiment of Renown games with just 100 points without any big units or wizards, and we had some fun & fast games. Very good for when arriving early at a venue and waiting for that one guy in the group that always shows up late.

I've been wondering if using small sized armies like this, like the Path to Glory structure, would work for a mini-tournament event. Imagine 5-6 games resolved in a single day! The fact that even the winner of a PtG game may still only win as much glory as the loser makes it, I think, more about playing games with different opponents rather than playing to win a GT.

 

[Lucio]

I agree that at 500 points, it's not worth trying to preserve the restrictions and just play with the models that you find fun to use.

[Kramer]

I have played most games in the past couple of months at 500 points. Next week i start a narrative map campaign  that starts of with 100p skirmish and from there grows from 100 to 500, 1000 1500 and the finale at 2000. 

The reason for this is I introduced two friends to the hobby and myself and another friend to AoS. And we all love it. A few suggestions though based on my experience  

1. Also drop the 'buy per certain amount' 

2. Don't use magical terrain when you start

3. Don't use formation and allegiance abilities in the first games 

prevent that new players feel overwhelmed so they can feel in control and you so fine ?

[someone2040]

One thing you could do to is halve the unit starting sizes (probably rounding up, but rounding down might work as well for 3's). Maybe make it you can't take 'command models' unless the unit has the actual minimum on the warscroll (or maybe only allow 1 command model up until the minimum on warscroll).

By halving the minimums, you'll get the game running a bit smoother as you'll have more models running around. Otherwise most games aren't going to be that interesting as at 500 points you'll likely get like 1 hero and 2-4 units. Not many tactical options to really make and you can't have very interesting scenarios either (Less units to move around = less tactics = less ability to contest objectives).

 

A quick Freeguild list could look something like this:

Freeguild General 100

5 Freeguild Guard 40

5 Freeguild Handgunners 50

5 Greatswords 80

3 Outriders 84

2 Demigryphs 133

Total: 487 points / 6 separate kits

That's obviously a fairly diverse range of units, but you could easily write something like this as well:

Freeguild General 100

5 Freeguild Guard 40

5 Freeguild Guard 40

5 Freeguild Handgunners 50

5 Freeguild Handgunners 50

3 Demigryphs 200

Total:  480 points / 4 separate kits

 

You could probably do something pretty easily with a lot of getting started boxes and just add an extra kit or so to make up the rest of the points.

[Agent of Chaos]

I'm currently toying with the following idea for a path to glory style campaign...

Start with small warbands, say 400-500 points, 1 x leader, no monsters and spend remaining points on anything you like. The fluff is that a single hero with a small band of followers is starting out on their own journey for glory.

The first two battles, rather than fighting other warbands, use the Raging Fury rules (One warband against a single monster) starting with something low level (e.g. daemon prince) followed by something stronger (e.g. dragon). If successful the warband gains extra points (100/200) to spend on more leaders /troops for the next battle (to represent more followers flocking to the banner of the rising hero) as well as the hero/unit rewards from the path to glory tables.

After slaying the two monsters, two warbands could face off in a Monster's Lair battle (to keep with the monster hunting theme) with the reward being a magic weapon OR the warbands face off in some other pitched battle format (as they would then be at a respectable 600-900 points each).

[Kramer]

4 minutes ago, Agent of Chaos said:

I'm currently toying with the following idea for a path to glory style campaign...

Start with small warbands, say 400-500 points, 1 x leader, no monsters and spend remaining points on anything you like. The fluff is that a single hero with a small band of followers is starting out on their own journey for glory.

The first two battles, rather than fighting other warbands, use the Raging Fury rules (One warband against a single monster) starting with something low level (e.g. daemon prince) followed by something stronger (e.g. dragon). If successful the warband gains extra points (100/200) to spend on more leaders /troops for the next battle (to represent more followers flocking to the banner of the rising hero) as well as the hero/unit rewards from the path to glory tables.

After slaying the two monsters, two warbands could face off in a Monster's Lair battle (to keep with the monster hunting theme) with the reward being a magic weapon OR the warbands face off in some other pitched battle format (as they would then be at a respectable 600-900 points each).

You could also start with 100-200 point skirmish and build up to full units.