What are some of your most epic 40k moments?

[Tawnis]

We've all got a few of those stories, ones where the starts align and something magnificent happens of the table. Just thought it would be fun to share a few of those. 

 

One game I was running my Astra Militarum against my best friend's Tau army and it was a crazy nail biter of a game. It was the end of battle round 5 and my opponent needed one final objective to put him over the top and win the game. This objective was held by one of my last units, a squad of 10 Cadians that had managed to survive the game with not a scratch on them by guarding my home objective. The only unit he had in range to get on there was a Riptide, but it only had a single wound remaining. Also, it was just slightly out or range to move onto the objective, so it was going to have to charge to close the distance. 

 

The Ripitide moved up and I over watched with my final CP, not managing to damage it. He took out 7 of my 10 guardsman with it in shooting and managed his 7" charge without needing to use his last CP. Riptide attacked and took out 2 more, leaving me with a lone guardsman on the objective. I attack back. 5 on the hit roll, and 6 on the wound. He rolls a 1 on his save, CP re-rolls, into another 1. 

 

My humble guardsman that once punched a Riptide to death to win me the game is now affectionally known as Corporal Norris. 

Edited May 30 by Tawnis

[Focslain]

Considering I've been in this game for a score and a quarter (25 yrs) I have quite a few.

 

One that is near my favorite was in a game with my Tau vs GSC. This was a crusade game, and my tau commander in enforcer armour was blinged out. 

 

Still during the game she managed to wipe out a squad of purestrains, by herself, when they charged her. Then took out over the course of the battle 20 cultist and two goliath trucks. The trucks were taken out in a single combat after they tried to crush her between them and she destroyed them between her prototype flamer (could be used in melee) and the relic fist. It was something out of an anime at just how much she managed to do and survive. In other games she managed to punch out a daemon prince and later took out a hive tyrant in single combat. Think she 'died' maybe three times over the 20 odd battles she was in.

 

One in the guardsmen line I was facing a buddy's guard army with my wolves and a warhound titan support, just of kicks. 

 

He got a squad of guardmen into melee with it and it took a single meltabomb to bring down the titan from full health due to a couple of crit rolls. (5th or 4th edition, before vehicles had wounds.) My response was "Well sh*t, you Skywalker'd my warhound."

 

Course a more recent epic battle was the House Walk, which you can read out here.

[Grotsmasha]

I also have a few.

 

Way back in 2nd Ed. when myself and three friends got into 40k, we *ALWAYS* played 1v1v1v1, deploying in each table quarter. Inevitably, someone got picked on, and it was typically whoever had the brand new unit. The first time is the most memorable though. I rocked up with a brand new Predator, and one the guys rocked up with a new Ogryn Squad with Commissar in a brand new Chimera. That squad was wiped before his first turn.

 

The second is one of mine. You all know that 3rd Ed metal captain, sword raised, storm bolter, yeah that one. I had him painted up as generic Dark Angel Captain, and he always performed "fine". Then I gave him a repaint, painted on Belials's shoulder pad and back banner. First game out, the usual happened and he was the target of the gaming group, BUT, he was immortal. 16 INV saves passed in a single shooting phase, finished the game at full wounds. He continued to over perform every game I ran him after.

[gideon stargreave]

2nd edition I had a commissar that would not die. He killed a hive tyrant, Fabius bile, and more. I remember me and my friends holding a little funeral for him when he finally succumbed to something like a gretchin. 
 

Gorkamorka. My fiend’s Nob had his brain replaced with a herder squigg and rage quit the campaign 

 

5th(maybe6th) edition - death company attacked a knight, the first one I’d ever faced and I didn’t have any guns big enough for it. Catastrophic explosion blew up the knight, the death company, a dreadnought and a half a squad of noise marines. 

[No Foes Remain]

Years ago when the King's Lynn GW first opened (I was still at collage and would go when I had half days) ended up playing 1k of my DA successors vs necrons who gave me a bit of trouble. At some point in the battle my 5 man terminator squad ended up facing off against 20 or 30 odd warriors and the necron lord. One round of shooting later my sargeant had passed about 20 odd saves before the necron lord shot at him, he still saved. The lord failed the charge and was shot at and charged my next turn by said sargeant who smashed him to pieces while my tactical marines laid down templates (flamers and plasma cannons) on the necrons and removed about half due to a LOT of failed saves.
To make not of that the necron player gave me a few spare necron heads which decorated the base of the sargeant who I then gave an Iron Halo to reward his success and valour, I still have him somewhere and I've been meaning to dig him out and give him a glow up.

 

 

A recent one was at Warhammer World last year, my plasma jetbike squad had been pounding my mates Custodes to the point where he advanced forward with 3 custodians against 10 tacticals, 10 despoilers (with an apothecary) and 5 termies (with my centurion). I was feeling confident after my Sicaran just destroyed his Caladius grav tank (some lucky rolls and it went pop), so I charged my despoilers after a pointless round of shooting. They all died. No matter, my terminators would surely fini- oh they're dead too... Well at least my tacticals will ho- oh, they lost 3 then ran...

The custodians were down to those 3, 2 more and Rubio facing off against my other mate's WB who were similarly mauled and only had a tactical squad as well as a praetor and his termie guard. I still had my jetbikes, another tactical squad, my sicaran and a small group of Solar Auxilia (Vanquisher Russ and a full tercio). Despite that, Custodians won, WB came second and I was last.

[ThePenitentOne]

I played in a HUGE Apocalypse battle back in '08 or so- six players.  The table was L-shaped, and I think the long side was 12' (might have been 10').

 

There were two moments in the game (for me) that really stand out. The first was a unit of Adeptus Arbites tarpitting a Daemon Prince- 3 of them even survived the fight; I think they held him for two full tuns. The second was a Palatine capturing the Praesidium Protectiva carried into battle by Saint Katherine herself. When GW released the Triumph, it blew my mind, because it felt like that Apocalypse game a decade earlier was prophetic.

 

Funny thing about that game? Not only did my team lose, I may have been the lowest scoring player on it and yet it was probably the most fun I've ever had playing Warhammer.

[lhg033]

I havent played properly for a long, long time. 

 

The one that sticks out for me was back in 3rd, possibly 4th. DA and wolves had some specific rule against each other, something like they always hit on a 3 I think.

I had a squad of DA scouts taking on Ragnar - they beat him, he failed his morale and the chased him off the table. 

 

Not actually a game but I do also remember when the Landraider came out, the 'current' one, and I got it, took an age painting it deathwing colours and a friend the just refused to play against it for quite a while because he felt it was too much to deal with.

 

[Ulfast]

One epic moment happend to a friend of mine. A space marine chaplain charges a unit of 6 tau warriors. He fails all his attacks and the tau warrior beat him into death in one round! Combat tau! Everyone was shocked in a funny way :)

[N1SB]

I've told this story before, but I dug around my Cloud Storage, and I've got photographic evidence like a Remembrancer:

 

 

It was a Friday night game about 10 years ago, 30k/AoD/HH 1st ed, 3000 pts of:

 

• My friend Timperial Guard's Death Guard lead by Mortarion allied with...
• ...my Dark Mechanicum allied with Iron Hands they tricked to believe THEY'RE the Loyalists

 

Versus:

 

• Our friend Cazzmatazz, so named as all his armies/RP characters have a bit of razzmatazz, some panache

 

 

+++ BRINGING KNIVES TO A GUN FIGHT +++

 

Timperial Guard and I were new to the 30k.  So innocent, so pure, so naive.  We were told it was about forging a narrative, Marine vs. Marine.  So we optimised for anti-Power Armour.  It was basically this battle that taught us EVERYBODY brings Terminators, Artificer Armour, that it's really a 2+ save meta.

 

Cazzmatazz always, always, ALWAYS creates themed, narrative, story-driven lists.  However, the story is "an elite defense force designed by a Primarch of a siege engineer to optimally kill Traitors" like us.  He had that Rite of War for those Imperial Fist Terminators with ALL Stormshields, then like 40 Lascannons.

 

(And beautifully painted, my shoddy camera couldn't capture their glory.  Their bases were city streets, in preparation for the Siege of Terra.)

 

...just once, I'd like to fight an army whose theme is "my guys suck, lead by a sucky general"...

 

...and, as part of his narrative army for these Sons of Dorn, the great base builder, he had an Aquila Strongpoint.

 

Have you ever faced an Aquila Strongpoint?  Have you even seen one?  If you haven't, you live a more blessed life than me.

 

 

+++ THE UNSTOPPABLE FORCE AND IMMOVABLE OBJECT +++

 

 

The Aquila Strongpoint is that huge hunk of plastic.  It's like your rich childhood friend's Castle Greyskull while you only had your cousin's spare He-Man.  It has a Macro Cannon, designed to take down the biggest Titans, an unstoppable force.  Then it has an Armour Value of 15, which makes it an immovable object.

 

Timperial Guard and I've played 40k since 1st ed.  Not only had we never heard of Armour Value 15, it sounded mathematically impossible to us.

 

To those that hadn't played 40k before 8th ed, Armour Value for Vehicles and Fortifications were designed so that small arms, like Bolters, could never penetrate say, a Land Raider.  You roll Strength plus a D6, so a Bolter's S4 with a max roll of 6 gives a sum of 10, while a Land Raiders had an Armour Value of 14.

 

So you need the most powerful gun, like a Lascannon, Strength 9 + a D6; with a lucky 6 it would add up to 15 to penetrate a Land Raider.

 

The Aquila Stronghold's Armour Value of 15 means even Lascannons can't go through.  It would just gradually plink away at it.  Meanwhile, that Macro Cannon would just be constantly bombarding you while you shoot at it with pea shooters.  Pre-game, I was trying to solve this problem like it was maths homework.

 

Cazzmatazz, on the other hand, was having the time of his life during deployment.  He's taller than me, and I'm 6', so the table height was basically below waist level.  He was posing with his Aquila Stronghold, like the 3 Amigos pose, the D-Generation X "suck it", he asked Timperial Guard to take pictures for his Instagram.

 

Cazzmatazz is a really good guy, I admire him greatly, as he's the only expat I know that speaks fluent Cantonese.  This is a rarely acquired language because it's so rarely taught, so people usually learn Mandarin instead.  It shows he's very respectful of people, because he absorbed their language by being among them.

 

But there was no way I could let that Aquila Stronghold stand after his display and still call myself a man.  But how?

 

 

+++ THE LITTLE ENGINE (of Destruction) THAT COULD +++

 

I had Myrmidon Destructors, 3 units of 3, each specialising in the 3 weapon types that came with the Forgeworld miniatures.  The star was supposed to be the Irradiation Engines, these Template Torrent death flamers that had Fleshbane and pierces 3+ Power Armour saves.  Then...there were Conversion Beamers.

 

 

Conversion Beamers were a legacy of 1st ed 40k and 1st ed Space Hulk.  I had those old models on Genestealer Hybrids.  They didn't even have a grip/handle, so they'd awkwardly sit on their shoulders.  Remember in high school physics, light dissipated the further away, like the inverse square law?

 

Conversion Beamers did the opposite.  The further away they shot, the more powerful they'd got.  However, it was a gimmick.  Everyone told me they were useless.  Even at 42" they were only Strength 8.  I basically paid a lot of points for a glorified missile launcher.  Then I pulled up my Taghmata Red Book...

 

...at 42" to 72", they became Strength 10 (TEN)!  Or EXACTLY JUST ENOUGH to pierce the Aquila Strongpoint, if I rolled a 6.

 

Like that story of the steam engine, for taking down an Aquila Strongpoint, it's only these Conversion Beamer Myrmidons that could.

 

 

+++ THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST +++

 

We all understood it would be a shootout between the Aquila Strongpoint's Macrocannon and these Myrmidons' Conversion Beamers.  It was clear whoever shot 1st shot last, because the other person would be dead and won't get a chance to fire.  All we had to do was to have won the Initiative roll.

 

OF COURSE Timperial Guard and I had lost the Initiative roll.  To his credit, Cazzmatazz suggested, "You COULD seize the initiative..."

 

"Alright, Techpriest," interjected Timperial Guard even before Cazzmatazz could close his mouth, "roll a 6 to seize initiative."

 

You guys see what was going on.  Cazzmatazz, aside from being a perfect sportsman, also knew he was going to win, but he wanted a legitimate victory; to beat idiots like us forgetting to make a seize the initiative roll robs him of a clean win.  Timperial Guard, on the other hand, just wanted to shift all responsibility to me.

 

(This is so typical of Timperial Guard.  He's generally a great guy.  If you're going on a trip and need someone to feed your cat, he's the 1st one you ask.  When there's a hiking accident, he's literally the 1st person his school calls.  But he will stick his tongue under his lower lip and make "nnngh" sounds all night for a flubbed roll.)

 

It was high noon.  The 3 Amigos pelvic thrusting Aquila Strongpoint against 3 Myrmidons that everyone said were worthless.

 

So I rolled a 6 to seize initiative.  The 3 Myrmidons walked to the very brim of the terrain mat to get 42" for max reverse-inverse square law.  One misses but two hit, and one of those hits rolled another 6 for armour penetration.  Then the roll for the damage table...another 6 (or it added up to 6 with the AP value, etc.)

 

6, 6, 6.  The number of the beast.  The Aquila Strongpoint EXPLODED.

 

Cazzmatazz would later point out some of the Lascannon Devastators standing on it would've been wounded.  See what I mean, such a sportsman.  Timperial Guard and I would, even after this great opening salvo, barely eke out a pyrrhic victory (as opposed to Cazzmatazz's phallic victory, amirite?)  The best was yet to come.

 

 

+++ 2 DAYS LATER +++

 

The above happened on a Friday night.  Timperial Guard was also running a Ravenloft campaign on Sunday afternoons.

 

In that RPG group was my other good friend who brought me back to The Hobby, Tourney Tony in Toronto.  Timperial Guard and I were setting down our character sheets and gamer snacks or whatever before we planned to tell him about our epic game the night before.

 

But it was Tourney Tony who started the conversation, "Uh...guys, did you do something to Cazzmatazz?"

 

Timperial Guard and I looked at each other; we were the ones supposed to gloat to Tourney Tony, how did he find out before we had a chance to?  Our Friendly Local Gaming Store moved like a few city blocks away from him, so apparently he was there when Cazzmatazz showed up...you know how we react after certain losses?

 

Cazzmatazz is a soft-spoken guy, but he's friends with everyone, and they could sense his displeasure at those 3 Myrmidon Destructors.

 

He's also known as a great analyst of the game, so the word got around about these Conversion Beamers despite OR because of them being so overlooked.  Everyone had dismissed them, but them achieving max power at 42", which was very possible in the apocalyptic 3000 to 4000 pts games people liked...whoa.

 

On 5/31/2025 at 1:32 AM, Tawnis said:

My humble guardsman that once punched a Riptide to death to win me the game is now affectionally known as Corporal Norris. 

 

My unit got a far less flattering nickname.  You know how local metas can get gossipy?  Nobody called them Conversion Beamer Myrmidon Destructors, especially since English is a 2nd language here.  According to Tourney Tony, people nicknamed them Those Conversion Beam Motherfxxxers.

[gaurdian31]

I have three memorable moments, I may have posted them before. Two of them happened in Apocalypse games back in the day.

 

The first was a during a game against Orks, I had an assault Terminator squad with shields and hammers deep strike near a Stompa, which then proceeded to annihilate them and nearly a full tactical squad. The sergeant of the tactical squad lives through the onslaught, charges the Stompa and then proceeds to punch it to death with a power fist, causing it to have a chain reaction and explode, wiping out some nearby Orks and he managed to live through that.

 

The second one was when I had a Chaos Spawn live through 3 entire armies worth of shooting as he was the only viable target in the first turn. I was on a team with a guard player who had all of his tanks on one side of this giant board where they couldn't get shot, but also couldn't shoot back, the rest of my army was in reserve hanging out on some Defilers as there was a formation you could take to ride in on them with Khorne Berzerkers and the third player on my team was Eldar and they were in reserve to come in with the Defilers. My chaos spawn was out in the middle of the board in cover and made all of his saves. it was crazy.

 

The last was a game in 4th or 5th, I was playing Necrons and a buddy was playing Space Marines. Had a squad of Warriors beat a Terminator squad in melee, My buddy missed all his attacks and the warriors made most of theirs and then he failed a ton of 2 plus saves. We were both shocked. Neither of us thought that was going to happen. I was losing that game up until that turn.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

One of my very first games of 40K, back in 3rd ed using the army lists in the rulebook, I had a lictor get killed in melee by 3 very lucky grots.  Its still the go-to for my friend (who was playing the grots) and I for improbable dice results - though, more of an epic moment for my friend than myself.

 

My 2000 point game of my chaos knights against 2 stompas and a gorkonaut (9th ed) was kind of epic, not because of anything that happened in the game but more because it was like playing Battletech with ridiculously large minis.  Normally one doesn't expect 4000 points of models to be... 21 models.

Edited June 3 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Knightsword]

I've had some fun moments, but they're all so long ago back in 3rd and 4th that I can't remember the details for most of them. The one that has always stuck in my mind with perfect clarity was around 2002/03 and was more of an epic fail rather than epic moment though.

 

My local GW store had a big event battle and everyone was allowed to field two units. There were so many people crammed around the table and the table was even more crammed with models to the point where movement phases were like playing Tetris. Everyone was throwing down pretty much every heavy vehicle available in the game back during this time. There were even a couple of resin Lucius pattern Baneblades. I fielded my newly finished Command Squad and Land Raider Prometheus, featuring the only Techmarine on the table. The main centerpiece and objective of the event was a custom built Warlord Titan that Imperium was fighting to control against a Chaos and Xenos teamup.

 

As the battle progressed my units acquitted themselves admirably although the Prometheus got blasted off the table in turn 2. The Command Squad managed to avoid being instant deathed an unnatural amount of times with the opponent's scatter dice rolling in my favour each time. At the crux of the battle I got my suriving squad members (the Techmarine and Captain) next to the Titan and the GW store staff anounced that as I had the only Techmarine that I could take control of the Titan and use it's weapons which used custom 12 inch blast templates. They were always biased towards the Imperium normally and this time was no exception. They shouted so that everyone could hear that all I needed to do was roll a 2+ and it was my team's to control. That's a lot of pressure for a 12 year old and all eyes were now on me, and true to form a I rolled a 1.... Everyone was speechless for a second and then the Chaos and Xenos players cheered. The staff were visibly desperate for me to succeed and quickly came up with an excuse as to why I could reroll it, which got a lot of jeers. Of course I rolled another 1 . The opposing team burst into laughter and I could feel daggers in my back from the rest of the Imperium team and store staff. Needless to say I didn't show up to any events for a long time out of sheer embarassment.

[kabaakaba]

Not an epic thing but funny, we have few stores in city back in the 6th ed. it's 11 stores iirc and EVERY stuff member i knew played slaanesh demons/EC. 

[Tawnis]

5 hours ago, Knightsword said:

I've had some fun moments, but they're all so long ago back in 3rd and 4th that I can't remember the details for most of them. The one that has always stuck in my mind with perfect clarity was around 2002/03 and was more of an epic fail rather than epic moment though.

 

My local GW store had a big event battle and everyone was allowed to field two units. There were so many people crammed around the table and the table was even more crammed with models to the point where movement phases were like playing Tetris. Everyone was throwing down pretty much every heavy vehicle available in the game back during this time. There were even a couple of resin Lucius pattern Baneblades. I fielded my newly finished Command Squad and Land Raider Prometheus, featuring the only Techmarine on the table. The main centerpiece and objective of the event was a custom built Warlord Titan that Imperium was fighting to control against a Chaos and Xenos teamup.

 

As the battle progressed my units acquitted themselves admirably although the Prometheus got blasted off the table in turn 2. The Command Squad managed to avoid being instant deathed an unnatural amount of times with the opponent's scatter dice rolling in my favour each time. At the crux of the battle I got my suriving squad members (the Techmarine and Captain) next to the Titan and the GW store staff anounced that as I had the only Techmarine that I could take control of the Titan and use it's weapons which used custom 12 inch blast templates. They were always biased towards the Imperium normally and this time was no exception. They shouted so that everyone could hear that all I needed to do was roll a 2+ and it was my team's to control. That's a lot of pressure for a 12 year old and all eyes were now on me, and true to form a I rolled a 1.... Everyone was speechless for a second and then the Chaos and Xenos players cheered. The staff were visibly desperate for me to succeed and quickly came up with an excuse as to why I could reroll it, which got a lot of jeers. Of course I rolled another 1 . The opposing team burst into laughter and I could feel daggers in my back from the rest of the Imperium team and store staff. Needless to say I didn't show up to any events for a long time out of sheer embarassment.

That's a great story and a cool narrative. It was also pretty neat to see the dice fix an unfair bias, though sad that you felt responsible for the roll. Still seem like in general it was a blast. I love giant games like that where small stories of improbable and memorable events appear all over the place. 

[Dark Shepherd]

Had a game in 8th where I needed 3 wounds on a d3 damage roll from Njal to kill a Chaos Lord , both 2k armies were down to 1 model left each, rolled a 6 :)

[Jolemai]

A Smash Captain destroying a Knight Castellan, which caused a chain reaction that accounted for two other Knights.

 

Usually when one of my units gains a reputation my Termite was hated across two editions, as was my Fragioso back in the day. There's been others too.

 

Having a winning streak at my club for half an edition, and winning the club's tournament was an epic moment for me.

 

B&C-wise, it would be commanding the winning BA side during the ETL 

 

If we include Apocalypse:

 

A Vindicare Assassin getting the kill shot on a Reaver Titan.

 

A Cerberus shutting down a Reaver Titan for a turn (double lasblaster and dual turbolaser configuration).

 

A Phantom Titan instagibbing Warhound Titan.

 

A 42,000 point game on a 14x6 board with three satellite tables.

 

I miss Apocalypse 

[kabaakaba]

Remember conscripts killing khorn berserkers, which ripped apart whole second platoon and almost kill first, on overwatch and commissar finished khârn whom leading them. 

[Khulu]

In 8th edition, @_Saracen fired a Mortis Dreadnought with Twin Heavy Bolters into a unit of my Canoptek Acanthrites. 12 shots, hitting on 4s because the Acanthrites gave -1. 11 out of 12 shots hit, all 11 wound (I believe this was also on 4s). I proceeded to fail 10 3+ armor saves, wiping the whole unit. Just a near perfect round of shooting.

[Tawnis]

I had one game back in when Tau drones could function as independent units if their characters moved away. 

 

I'd was running a Firstborn Marine list against my friend playing Tau (same guys as the first story) back when he was just getting into the game. He'd flown his Coldstar commander in on my flank to try and pop my Razroback, but wiffed on the melta rolls, but charged it to keep it and my command squad inside locked up. Next turn he fell back with it, but left his remaining shield drone behind to keep my transport stuck there. This drone made a dozen invul saves over the course of the game and didn't finally got down until the bottom of turn 5. He not only kept the Lascannons focused on it so that I couldn't shoot the Coldstar, but tied up my transport and kept the Command squad back long enough that they basically did nothing all game either. 

 

After the game, my friend gave that drone a special paint job and we know affectionately refer to it as Hodor, because it had one job, and it did it. 

Edited June 4 by Tawnis

[Ahzek451]

Memory is starting to fade, but... from one of my first tournaments. around the time the crux terminatus 5++ was introduced to terminators. I was playing 3rd ed. Thousand sons. The local tournament scene was dominated by a guy that was at least 20 years my senior. I remember winning by a hair and upsetting his win streak but this was mostly due to epic dumb luck. The epic moment I recall: I had a large unit of 10 terminators nicely bunched up, ripe for a large blast template to kill every single model. He had an ork army and I can't recall what he was firing, but of the 10 dice I needed to roll for saves...not a single one was under 5.  The look of astonishment on both of our faces...lol. 

Edited June 9 by Ahzek451

[The Praetorian of Inwit]

In my very first game I charged my 5 man Scouts unit into a Carnifex. This was all the way back in 2003 or 2004 I think. They actually did okay, considering the Carnifex was set up for melee.