Best Game Experience

[Sugarlessllama]

I know the internet loves complaining and kvetching (I'm guilty as well). But I thought it might be time to bring it around to the positive side of things. What's your best experience playing 40K?

My first OFCC (Ordo Fanaticus Club Challenge) I decided to bring Imperial Knights. I love big stompy robots, and was looking forward to adding a Castellan (it had just come out) to my force, bringing it to 2,000 points. There was some hate online but I did it anyway. 

At the event I had a blast. My opponents all brought neat armies, and I was able to play my force in-character (I like to play 40K more like an RPG than a wargame. So I always ask aloud what my commander/unit would do.). I ended up 2-2 and me and my opponents spent a lot of time laughing and drinking beers. I was really surprised and touched when I got two "Favored Opponent" pins. OFCC is different tournament in that they don't have a 1, 2, or 3rd place. There is Best Sportsman (most favored opponent pins), Best Painted (judged), and Best General (team with the most wins). And the top prize goes to Best Sportsman. 

The stand out moment was when a Assasin from an opposing army blew up one of my Knights Errant and survived the explosion. We both had a blast describing the over the top anime scene that must have just transpired, and that obviously, the assassin did not look back at the explosion. I mean, it almost goes without saying.   

[Sword Brother Adelard]

Just, pretty much every game of Adeptus Titanicus.

Nothing tops something going absolutely nuclear in the middle of the battlefield, leaving you and your buddy just staring as all plans go to cuss.

Even when it affects you badly, it's so thematic. I'm playing one of my best friends. I'm running all melee light titans, he's rocking an all warlord Extergimus. I line up a charge with a Reaver on his flank Warlord. It's perfect, I get the distance spot on. He plays a stratagem: Earthshaker Mines. My Reaver essentially trips up, runs straight into the Warlord and dies. It was game changing, and hilarious and thematic.

I got my revenge later when a Warhound got in that Warlords flank at point blank range and totalled him, before then running into another Warlord and taking it down to the last pip of damage, on its HEAD. (Which does sadly mean if I'd rolled any other location on the plasma, I'd have killed it.)

AT just rocks.

[Ahrimanjjb]

Every game I had with my Ork WaaaghAF in 8th edition.

The army was made purely because of the novelty that you could do all flyer armies now, then it was killed by the "Boots on the Ground" rule, then resurrected with a vengeance with the release of the Megatrakk Scrapjet kit.

By the time I was ready to take it to events the list was a Wartrike, Scrapjets and 8 flyers.

I was the 'Bad Guy' in everyone I played's story. It was amazing.

 

I would deploy the army and there would always be a little laugh of surprise as they saw just how many Flyers I'd brought. The game would begin, and after my first turn they would see how destructive the army was and start to sweat. Que a couple of turns of them running around in panic.

Then, the beautiful turning point, as they realised/remembered all they had to do were kill the handful of Scrapjets I had and suddenly I couldn't take objectives.

I would continue hammering everything in their army into the dust, but they would have the opportunity to make clever movement and target priority choices to score what they needed to, and inevitably win the game.

 

 

The WaaaghAF have an almost 100% loss rate, but its such an amazing emotional rollercoaster for my opponents - and also such a unique army for them to play against - that it was impossible not to feel the high along with them and haopy to give them the experience.

 

I'm gutted the army is no longer anywhere near Matched Play legal in 9th - and I'm afraid it would actually be a good list now if I did play it - but it was a great run while it lasted.

 

 

[Grotsmasha]

WAY back in 2nd/3rd Ed. I had THAT space marine Captain model, Power Sword / Stormbolter, and he was USELESS, never made an Invul Armour Save, like EVER. Then I decided to repaint him as 3rd Co. Master Belial, I even CUT THE BANNER OUT IF MY ANGELS OF DEATH CODEX and put it on his back banner. 

You know what happened next battle?

That sucker saved 16x Invul Saves in ONE TURN.

From then on, he rarely made it past the second round of shooting, but he ALWAYS saved above average after his blinging up.

[Valkia the Bloody]

I once managed the impossible.

My tactical marine squad were fighting valiantly for an objective and my opponent was hell-bent on steam-rollering them with a Necron monolith.

The tactical marines were wiped out, but with his last dying breath, the power-fist sergeant killed the monolith.

It was glorious.

We all had a big laugh.

(this was back in 5th edition)

 

[Lord_Ikka]

I have a buddy that I play pretty consistently with- we play tournament prep lists mostly but still have fun. The best games we have is when something unexpected or unusual happens, like a Knight dying to a primaris psyker's melee attack (with a staff of booping!), or a single scarab managing to survive a squad's worth of bolter shots being in cover to keep control of an objective and win the game. Honestly, I rarely have a game that I don't enjoy; I don't get to play as much as I would like so every game is one for me to savor. I may have games I enjoy less, or opponents that I'd rather not play (for various reasons), but for the most part I have fun just gaming and throwing some dice around.

[Cpt_Reaper]

I will always remember the last Apocalypse game my small club ran before I left my home town. It was full of cinematic moments.

We ran out of an empty house on a friend's property, so basically filled it with tables and and every model we had on hand. There were 6 players I think, might have been 8. It was a hot minute ago...the game ran for days. Literal days.

Some of my favourite moments were:

• Leman Russ column getting stuck on a bridge between two tables due to the lead and rear tanks getting wrecked/immobilised and then having to wait for a recovery vehicle to move the ear tank so they could get off the bridge
• A Warhound going nuclear and opening a hole in a line of World Eaters
• The collective "oh no" when someone brought out their scratch built Warlord
• a Thunderbolt being shot down and crashing into a fuel depot, which itself went up
• chasing the enemy General (a Chaos Lord) into a city and realising it was a trap...so many orks

[Halandaar]

I'm afraid mine was Warhammer Fantasy but I'll tell it anyway: High Elves against Beastmen, where my Archmage on Dragon managed to blow up a massive chunk of Bestigors but also himself, half a block of Phoenix Guard and sent his dragon on a rampage through my own flank. Lost the game thanks to his "heroics". It was awesome.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

I feel like Titanicus might be right up your street.

[Helias_Tancred]

Back in the heyday of 7th edition, when my army's warlord, Chapter Master Pedro Kantor, solo'd my opponents Bloodthirster after being called out in a duel!

It was epic!

Never to be repeated or equalled. 

 

 

[tychobi]

Blood Angel assault marine sarge with a chainsword downing a demon prince after tearing through a pile of horrors to secure a game win in a tournament that I won a sportsmanship award in. Unnamed assault sarge you will always be my hero. 

[Karhedron]

back in the glory days of 2nd edition, I had a lone Eldar Guardian with laspistol facing the last survivor of a Terminator squad. This was back in the days when terminators had a 3+ save on 2D6. I took my potshot and my opponent promptly rolled snake-eyes. Must have gone through the eyepiece or something. 

[Freakshow668]

In terms of in-game craziness, during 3rd or 4th ed, I played (traitor) guard versus my mate's Deathwing. Turn 2 he deep striked (deep struck?) A squad of thunder hammer /storm shield termies and a Chaplain into my flank. Turn 3 my Chimera blew away the entire squad, never seen so many 1s rolled in my life. The following turn the Chimera killed the Chaplain. I spent the rest of the game throwing it at the enemy like it was a Baneblade and it got a few more kills.

After that game I always used it as a front-line battle tank.

[Captain Idaho]

Best game experiences I ever had was getting my Ultramarines Honour Guard to work in competitive games.

5th edition maybe? An edition around that time anyway. I've played them in many editions but I think back in mists of time they weren't considered very powerful yet I got some amazing results out of them.

I remember gutting an Ork army with a combination of them charging units I've boltered to death. Top 10 table tournament game vs a powerful contender who just didn't expect 5 dudes to be able to take on 40 Orks over the course of a several turns (with some Tactical Marine bolter help).

Had them wipe out swathes of Marines too.

[TheWarmaster]

I've loved reading these stories! Here's mine:

I started my High School Warhammer club waaay back in the day. Our local GW staff came out and supported us and gave us loads of stuff to get started. BFG starter sets, 40k/fantasy starter sets, loads of paints, glues, scenery etc. 

This went on for a while and around the same time, my Dad converted our attic into a Warhammer room for me, complete with 6x4 table with loads of scenery and a painting space of my own etc. I had everything a kid could possibly need for doing Warhammer. This was all back in 3rd edition. 

So, on Wednesdays we had Warhammer club after school, and then me and another 3 lads would head to mine to continue Warhammer in the attic. We'd always order a load of Chinese food and then play a huge battle until it got late. 

Every week. Best hobby time ever tbh. Man, I miss those days. Life was far simpler. 

[Jolemai]

This:

 

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Mine was a two day campaign with loyalists versus traitors… it was HH but 40K was still in 7th edition so you bring 40K CSM units. Traitor forces won and my battle brothers voted me the Warmaster… better and much more fun than any GT I ever attended.

Edited September 28, 2022 by BLACK BLΠFLY

[tychobi]

Actually I'm gonna change mine. I got to play vs Miniwargaming Dave a true Warhammer ambassador and all around great dude and his world eaters.  Had a hard time not going full fangirl but it still made a decent YouTube video and was one of the coolest moments of my gaming career.  I lost so hard! Thanks Dave!

[N1SB]

My story takes place in 30k, Horus Heresy 1.0, and the morale is: what was bitter can totally turn sweet.

My friend Timperial Guard and I were playing against another friend.  We were allied, so it was like:

• Timperial Guard's Death Guard army with Mortarion (2,000 points)
• my Dark Mechanicum allied detachment (1,000 points)

Versus:

• our other friend's Imperial Fists Rite of War + Fortification (3,000 points)

The Fortification was an Aquila Stronghold.  You may have never faced it, so here's one beautifully painted by Den of Imagination:

 

 THE IMPENETRABLE FORTRESS 

It was early on in my 30k career.  I was so innocent back then, because I did not know there even existed Armour Values above 14, which belonged to the hardiest of vehicles, a Land's Raider.  To those that only played recent editions of 40k, 30k has this Armour Value mechanic for Tanks and Forts.  You have To Hit it with your Ballistic Skill, then roll a D6 + the weapon's Strength.  If you match the Armour Value, you merely plink at it, doing minor Glancing Hit damage.  What you want is TO BEAT the Armour Value, roll over it, to do serious Penetration damage.  So for a Lascannon to really blow up a Land's Raider, it has To Hit, then roll a 6 to Penetrate its Hull.

This Aquila Stronghold has an Armour Value of 15.  Even a Lascannon can only even plink at it on a roll of 6.

While we had almost no chance to destroy it, it had that giant macrocannon AND 10 Imperial Fist Lascannon Marines on it.

What's worse, we already rolled for Initiative to see who'd deploy 1st and shoot 1st...and of course he won that roll.

Our Imperial Fist friend knew he had us dead to rights.  During Deployment, he told us to take pics of it with him posing.

(FYI, table-height was just below his belt, so I'll let you imagine how he posed with that cannon.  For all intents and purposes, you could photoshop Timperial Guard or me bent over the table in place of this Fortification, for how we imagined this battle would go.)

Timperial Guard and I did what we could...and deployed EXACTLY 49" away, out of range of at least his 10 Lascannons.

 

 TO PENETRATE THE IMPENETRABLE 

It was then that I remembered I had this Mechanicum unit: Myrmidon Destructors with Conversion Beamers.

Most of my friends started 40k after 3rd edition.  Conversion Beamers were a 1st edition weapon, back when we called 40k "Rogue Trader".  They always mocked me for taking them for nostalgic reasons, and even I must admit it was just an old conceit.  The only reason I even brought them for this fight was because Timperial Guard also started in 1st, he played Space Crusade and stuff, so at least he didn't give me the usual grief (instead, he would soon give me unusual grief).

The thing about the Conversion Beamer was its weapon Strength increased the FURTHER you were from your target.

So up to 18" away, it's Strength 6.  Beyond 18", it becomes Strength 8.  Beyond 42", it's becomes Strength 10.

The Aquila Stronghold was Armour Value 15.  We could Penetrate with a 1 in 6 chance NEVER TELL ME THE ODDS.

Except both my friends told me the odds.  Timperial Guard tried to be Professor Mathemagic by explaining "oh, since we deployed exactly 49" away, if you add the Strength to your D6 roll, you could Penetrate that Armour Value of 15 by rolling a 6" like he just won the Nobel Prize for solving the Anti-Life Equation, and the Imperial Fist player, to his credit as a fair gamer and good sportsman, reminded us that we could Seize the Initiative on a 6.

Timperial Guard was notoriously unlucky with dice, so he told me to start rolling.

In fact, he just expected me to KEEP ROLLING 6s NON-STOP to Seize Initiative, To Hit, then Penetrate.

I roll to Seize Initiative, got a 6, Timperial Guard's being super-helpful, "See, I told you, now keep rolling 6s."

After moves, roll To Hit with the Conversion Beamers, 2 hit, 1 misses, Tim's all, "Nn~gh, I told you to roll only 6s."

Roll To Wound Penetrate, a 5, learned the Fort had so many Hull Points that it was worthless...then finally, a 6.

(In case you were wondering, I used generic freebie GW white dice, not loaded Legion-specific dice.)

Penetrating the impenetrable, rolled to see what happens, blew up some ammo cache, everything exploded, big gun got destroyed, a bunch of his Imperial Fist Lascannon Marines got blowed up.  Timperial Guard's beaming at me like he should take credit for this.  If I were to ask him what his corpsestarch-eating grin was for, he'd tell me, "Well, obviously those lucky dice rolls came from the moral support I gave you," the bastard.  And, of course, had I not rolled all those 6s, he'd've absolutely blamed me for losing him the game.

We hadn't won the game just yet.  We literally had just merely leveled the playing field by felling that fort.

We did eventually win, but if you asked me at that moment, I'd have told you it was the worst game I've ever had.

 

 WHERE IT TURNED SWEET 

That game was on a Friday night.  I later met with Timperial Guard and others for Dungeons & Dragons that Sunday.

One of our D&D friends, Tourney Tony who's now in Toronto, sidled up to me, "Hey, I heard you blew up (guy's) Aquila."

Then Timperial Guard added, "Yeah, so-and-so also called me last night, and asked about the Conversion Beamers."

What happened was, the day after that game, the Imperial Fist friend went to the FLGS and, directly related to this...

On 9/24/2022 at 12:52 AM, Sugarlessllama said:

I know the internet loves complaining and kvetching (I'm guilty as well).

...he apparently kvetched about the Myrmidon Destructors with Conversion Beamers so much, everyone heard about them.

It's the story of The Little Engine (of Destruction) That Could.  Everyone pooh-pooh'd these Conversion Beam Myrmidons until this battle, now the whole local meta is asking which other idiots in the area took them because they'll absolutely wreck their own impenetrable units.

People stopped calling them Myrmidons and just referred to them as MotherXXXXers from then on.  I founded a new Mechanicum sect within their Order of Blessed Ruin, the Mater Fornicatus.  I was only dethroned later by a distant friend who used the Ordinatus Ulator.

Compliments, positive feedback, being constructive...that's politeness.  Kvetching is real emotion.  The opposite of love isn't hate, it's apathy; you're okay when your significant other is mad at you, it means they still care, it's when they stop caring you're in trouble.

And that's how I shared Mortarion's Bitter Cup (Buried Dagger reference) and found it sweet.

Moral of the Story - sages say, count no man happy until the end is known.  I suggest, sometimes it takes even longer.

[Helias_Tancred]

On 9/27/2022 at 1:41 PM, tychobi said:

Blood Angel assault marine sarge with a chainsword downing a demon prince after tearing through a pile of horrors to secure a game win in a tournament that I won a sportsmanship award in. Unnamed assault sarge you will always be my hero. 

Those sort of events are what makes the game!!