n00b observations of wh40k

Played Warhammer40k tabletop with my brother on Saturday night. We called it a game at the end of turn 4. It was a take-and-hold scenario we played and by then (about 1am), it was obvious my army was being slaughtered with no chance of capturing enough winning flags. Any "under-dispute" flags consisted of two or three of my guys standing against tanks. Er... no thanks. I'd rather just go to bed.

What was cool, however, was knowing that I built the army from scratch using the old pen-and-paper method. I didn't use Army Builder so the experience of costing my units based on information I actually had to read was very enlightening. And it made the game run a lot smoother too because I had a fairly good idea how each unit reacted to an attack. This totally unlike clicking a whole bunch of options in software just because I had points to spare and then having to look through the print-out during game time to find out who had what. That said, I've also learned that I need to be more consistent to avoid confusion. All vehicles should have the same defensive counter-measures, or all troops should be given the same Target-Lock abilities, etc... Because I wrote up the army over the span of a few days, there were instances where I forgot to add the same upgrade to a particular unit, etc...

That said, for the game itself I learned what goodies I need and what goodies I don't need. Counters - I don't need. My brother happened to have some stock pieces we used as resources... a barrel, or an unmarked chest, or a tank of "fuel." Really, I don't see the purpose of ever spending the money on a counter set for the Cities of Death line. What I would like are vehicle damage dice.
As our armies have grown, we've started fielding more and more vehicles in our games. And checking the dice cross-references in the book becomes a monotonous chore. And since WH40K is slow enough as it is, every little time-saving gimmick is useful.

On a final note: I need to start collecting buildings. Reading the Cities of Death expansion book has got me all excited to try urban warfare... It will be a somewhat expensive investment but relative to everything else, it's small to be able to breathe new life into the games.