"Suggestions for convincing 40k buddies to play historics?" Topic

I've got some 40k buddies I play with regularly, and I'm trying to coax them into playing some WWII and modern wargames. Any ideas?

Thanks
Ric

Well, the new WWI ruleset is said to be based on WH40K. Perhaps that could be a good start into historics.
Another possibility is using a totally different set of rules but with the same 40K fluff. That is, adapting Stargrunt II or 5150 (already done) to 40K world (marines, etc.)

Tell them you will melt all their figures with a blow torch unless they play with you

Watch a cool period movie (maybe Saving Private Ryan or Blackhawk Down for WW2/Modern) and mention how cool it would be to game that. Get the figures for both sides and run the game….

Play something squad or platoon level, in a lot of ways wh40k will seem similar… Until they try and charge of course…

If you want to play 28mm, why not just buy and paint some figures?
If one of your buddies has some Imperial Guard they could stand in for WWII figures. The obvious one is Valhalans for the Eastern front either Soviet or German, but any IG figures should be okay.
There are plenty of WWII rules for 10 – 30 figures a side, then once you start to play with a bit of luck and a good pitch you may hook someone.
Until about 5 years ago I used to collect GW figures and play GW games exclusively, then FoW started me collecting historical figures and I soon moved on to 28mm WWII. Personally now I think my 28mm WWII stuff looks much better than anything I ever did with GW figures.

Flames of War.

Chicks dig us more then geeks!!

More tactics, less spikes?

I agree with John. Flames of War is very similar to 40K in a lot of the concepts with tweaks to make it play like WWII. So with that in mind you can get them into a game that will seems somewhat familiar to them and that is WWII-like.

Flames of War. Absolutely! If your friends get hooked you might even get them to use their new figures in a historical wargame.

Start them off with some WWWII games first.

Many people see historical as a bit daunting, do late this mix at all with early that, and these were used only in the pacific and I can use these but they have the wrong hats from the book, and what color am I suppose to paint these?

If your looking to get them interested your going to be doing all the buying and painting at first. WWII suddenly gets more exciting when your trying to get hellboy to take down a German necromancer.

Then weed out the weirds over games until your down to WWII.

Or you could just be wasting a lot of money trying to convince your friends to play something they are not interested in.

Show them what a game looks like when all the figures on the table are painted.

Blitzkreig commanders mechanics are based on Warmaster. Some of the 40k players may be familiar with other GW products, so this might make it a bit easier.

Phil

FOW is good, but if they are visual types, the smaller minis might make a difference if they are used to the size of 40k miniatures.

I'd say buy a squad or two of two different forces, paint 'em up and try a squad level game using something free from the internet…small investment in case they don't go for it.

If they like it, maybe transition into one of the other systems out there with more forces. If they buy a squad or two themselves even better.

I came from 40k years ago myself, so I know it can be done!

If they already have an interest in history, that makes it so much easier. In which case, I found that the "fluff" of 40k started to sound pretty silly once you started to study real history. For example the "Attack on Istvaan III" sounds pretty goofy once I really got into history. And it only took one kid on CMON years ago to tell me the name I gave a miniature wasn't "correct" as per the fluff to make me really get tired of the 40k mentality.

Whatever tactic you use, I wish you luck. It's always nice to have new blood in the historicals side of things, and they can always till play 40k on the side, if they must, haha.

Good luck!

First off is rules! You can't game without rules, and they can really make a difference to enjoyment. If you have a favorite set of rules for the period that you know well, use them. Your players will find it much easier to learn and enjoy the game if the person teaching them knows the rules.

Second is scenario: Keep It Simple Stupid! One of the big differences with historicals is that games tend to besed on realisticly plausible (if not actually) historical scenarios. For a new game/period a straight forward scenario with clear cut objectives is best.

Third the troops: Go with at most three types of things in each army. A couple squads of riflemen, a support weapon, and maybe a vehicle. Enough to give a taste, but not introduce too many confusing special rules.

Fourth is the game table: If you can provide both sides with nicely painted figures (NO proxies!) and good terrain the game will make a better impression.

Fifth is inspiration: Find a movie that gets you excited to game the period, devise a scenario based on the movie (need not be exact, just inspired by) watch the movie, or at least the key scene(s) with your players, then play the game. For example the begining of Gladiator always gets me pumped for doing Romans vs Barbarians, Last of teh Mohicans is very inspirational for F&IW. Black Hawk Down should be great for Moderns. Enemy at the Gates makes me want to game WW2 Stalingrad.

For WW2 iron Ivan's Disposable Heroes/Coffin for Seven Brothers should be easy for 40K gamers to pick up. I'm not particularly interested in WW2, but these rules had me thinking about Sgt Rock and Easy Company gaming.

Try Memoir '44, a board game with minis. A game takes about an hour. If it gets them interested in WW2, move into more detailed mini rules and set-up.

Split the difference and play something like AEWW2. You can either play it with historical and/or non historical stuff. Also fewer figures are required for play so there is not a giant monetary investment.

Start playing 40K CityFight or Necromunda. But show up with painted 28mm WWII figures.

They're already playing Wierd War One…

For recent historicals like WWII, you'll probably get very little real resistance from IG players, since they are already channeling historical forces.

In general, however, 40k players *love* their army-specific "cheats", so getting them to abandon them for settings where player skill means a LOT more will remain a challenge.

Well, it's not the rules and I've tried FoW. The complaints are mainly that there aren't any cool flying alien things. I've got plenty, and I mean plenty, of figures. At least a 1000 28mm figs. I've thought about using some 40k conversions to use modern or WWII troops against 40k stuff and am going to try that the next time we game. Thanks for the thoughts so far, hopefully some of this will help!

Ric

Sometimes the "cool flying alien things" are cool because they are alien, and sometimes they are cool because they fly. See my previous point about "cheats". A game like 40k that is centered around groundpounders often has trouble balancing the effects of, for all intents and purposes, armored attack helicopters (Eldar and Tau). Why argue about the terrain when you don't care about the terrain unless your unit is falling-out-of-the-sky dead.

Speaking of Weird War try West Winds Secrets of the Third Reich. Use 90% of your 28mm historical stuff and add in the cool flying Nazi and British things.

Germen Jet Mecha
link

British Airbourne Transport
link

Then, after a game or two of that, 'accidently forget' the wierd stuff and play a normal game.

Oh, as for your idea of mixing modern with 40k, have your moderns fight against some Tyranid beasties (if they have one.) It could be a Coverfield like game.

Sounds good, thanks everybody!