Nick da Boss Bus!

Mark, Maisey and I have been getting to grips with the 6^th edition of Warhammer 40,000 lately by playing small games of 750-1000 points. I feel like I’ve still got a lot to learn. Generally speaking, though, I’m really enjoying the new rules (which I started to read after I stopped dribbling all over the paintings of Holy Terra and the Space Marine Monastery, which NEED to be released as posters).

The last such game was between Mark’s Deathskulls and my Evil Sunz, and was a variation on The Relic (Mission 6, p.131). Rather than having a small relic that could be picked up, we took the mission as inspiration for a scenario in which my warboss (Grimtoof Boomshanka) had left his beloved Boss Bus in the mek’s garage so it could be, er, rebuilt after that git Tycho punched the snot out of it (thanks for that post-Nerd Thunder 3 revenge pasting, Jeff). What with Mark’s mek Tekkwotts being a filthy, swindling Deathskull, he turned up with a bunch of his mates to nick it whilst Grimtoof was out of town driving somewhere really, really fast.

Fortunately, Deathskull exhausts produce almost (but not quite) as much black smoke as those of the Evil Sunz, so Grimtoof and his boyz raced back to the garage when they saw someone was going for the bus. So, our variation on the Relic theme was that, just like with the rulebook, a model had to move into base contact with the Boss Bus to pick up the relic hotwire the motor. As all the tires were flat, and bits of it were still hanging off, we treated the Boss Buss as a piece of difficult terrain that the carrier filching gits/rightful owners could drive six inches a turn.

The two warbands arrived at the garage at pretty much the same time:

Le deployment phase.

They then proceeded to do what Orks do best. That is to say, both armies went straight forwards.

Yep. Saw that coming.

At this point, turns two and three descended into a horrific train wreck of flying green limbs and practically everyone in my army ‘doing da burny dance’ (as Mark’s burna boyz kept shouting whilst roasting entire squads). Apparently, red ones burn fasta.

Anyway, although six plucky Deathskulls started driving the Boss Bus away circa turn four, they had to run a gauntlet of extremely angry speed freaks, and all got shot off the battlewagon (along with bits of the battlewagon, I suspect; fortunately Grimtoof was by this point crispy and dismembered, awaiting a much-needed trip to the Dok, and was in no position to complain).

Net result? Practically everyone in both armies was either killed or maimed, but it doesn’t matter, because I STILL HAVE A BATTLEWAGON. In your face, Tekkwotts.

The moral of this story is that 6^th edition seems much more likely to inspire the kind of narrative gaming everyone at the Beard Bunker loves. Genius.

I’m curious as to what everyone else makes of the new book. What do you think? Leave a comment!

~Charlie