While I haven’t really been posting much lately, I have been doing a bit of (slow) painting as well as playing some videogames, listening to podcasts, watching YouTube and the like. One channel that’s popped up on my radar is a new, smaller one, the 40k-centric “Arbitor Ian“. I’ve been enjoying his videos over the last few days as background to painting, and one that I felt worth drawing some attention to is the one I titled this post on, a followup to “OPEN PLAY in Warhammer 40k – Improving an underused format” (see below)
He then followed it up with this one – “FILTHY CASUAL PLAY for Warhammer 40k: A simpler way to play.” Which attempts to address some of the Combo-Hammer and rules bloat that discourages many people (including myself) from getting into (or in my case) getting back into playing 40k – Warlord Traits, Relics, Objectives, Psychic Powers and all of the rest of the non-model, rule-complexity stuff that’s been layered over the top of “Pick your guys, go to table, roll dice and have gun”.
I’d like to give these try next time I attempt to get back into 40k – though I haven’t played it in some time now – having had a couple of casual learner-games of 8th here, but my old group is long scattered to the winds, and my more recent gaming group really wasn’t a minis group anyway. Then something happened in 2020 that really prevented me from venturing out to seek new opportunities to stand in large indoor venues filled with strangers or invite them into my home, and until that abates, I’ll just keep painting and likely playing simpler minis games and board games…
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
If it’s a way that works for you mate, then it’s got to be a good thing
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I don’t know when I’ll even get that far again given the way things are right now. At least I should be able to get some boardgaming in!
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This is really good stuff. I’d like to get back into playing 40k as I have enough Marine bits to build several squads but after watching a lot of games on YouTube I’m amazed at how complicated it’s become. I’m also in awe of the players who can remember every single little rule (one good channel is Play On Tabletop, if you’re interested; their vids are really well done. Check out the Genestealer Cult v Khorne for a great game).
Thanks for sharing this, I might have to give it a go!
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No worries Matt – they’ve really layered on the levels of complexity to new heights after the stripped-back re-release of 8th, haven’t they?
I’ll check out that vid when I have a chance. I think I’ve heard of those guys….
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Awesome – this is the only way I like to play… even better, add a GM! 😊
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Yeah, that would be ideal. I’ve sadly been in the position of perpetual GM for such things for a number of years, which is fine in small doses of course, but…
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The Instagrammer pizzagrenadier also has a rules-lite version of warhammer, if you’re looking to compare.
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Sounds interesting, though I’m not on Instagram (and when I briefly opened an account, I got nonstop “you tried to log into your account from Pakistan”-type spam, so I killed off that pretty quickly.
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I’ll look the channel up.
I always take quite a tool boxy approach to rulesets anyway.
Cheers,
Pete.
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Yeah, having a group of like-minded players willing to treat games in such a manner is really the ideal.
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