# Hints and tips for new Warhammer Fantasy players



## squeek (Jun 8, 2008)

Hi all,

I thought it was about time we put our heads together and came up with a collection of useful hints and tips for new Warhammer Fantasy players. We have all been there, stood in the model shop staring at rack after rack of Fantasy boxes and blisters. Or at your gaming group looking over the shoulder of a Fantasy player wondering what the hell is going on.

So lets see if we can come up with some good suggestions and ideas to make starting Fantasy easier for anyone thinking of joining us. If it all goes well this will be stickied and will form a useful resource and draw, resulting in more people to chops about Fantasy with! 

I'll start with the one I have said most often on these boards:

Take a good look at the stickied 'An Introduction to the Armies of Warhammer'. It is written by players of each army for prospective players to help you choose which army is for you. It continues to be a useful resource even for veteran players as no-one knows everything about every army!


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## Captain Galus (Jan 2, 2008)

I say this to all new Fantasy players: *Movement is Critical to Success!* You need to know how fast your troops can move, and more importantly, you need to be able to visualize those movements in your head. Practice this by looking at game boards and guessing how long 6" is, then measure it and see if you were right! You need to be able to measure distances without actually measuring distances in Warhammer Fantasy.

Secondly, Leadership is a very, very important Stat! If a unit breaks, it's pretty much going to stay that way. If it manages to rally, it will still be out of the game for at least one of your turns! Learn damage control: Keep low-Ld units positioned in such a way that they can't flee through each other, as many a Lizardmen player swiftly learns.

Thirdly, unless you play a powergaming army (i.e. Chaos Mortals) get used to not having an armor save. Saves can be modified by the Strength of an attacker, with the average armor save being 5+ it's not that hard to completely negate.


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

High Armour =/= Power Gaming. Vampires and Daemons are THE Power Gamers armies, and they have very few high armour saves.

Never be afraid to Flee. It might seem a wasted opportunity to shoot at a target, but if you're forced to lose your unit by being placed in an unnecessary combat, you have wasted the opportunity of your unit, no matter how small or insignificant their part is. Usually fleeing the charge will leave an enemy unit stranded with little support, after a failed charge - perfect for Artillery, or dedicated Close Combat Units to make the most of the opportunity.

Many people say that Movement is your weapon. They're true, it's what wins many battles - either by Outmaneuvre, or Area denial. However, Deployment is equally as useful. Setting up correctly means less time is wasted by the correction of positioning. Half an inch can make all the difference of having a unit shot by a bucket load of Arrows on the first turn, and making an unimpeded advance.

Learn the Strengths of your Troops. Right down to the Nitty gritty. Make sure you're fully correct, and have the Rulebooks with you at all times. However, instead of slowing a game down, by checking just in case, make sure you know the rule inside and out, so you can say clearly that this does this, and that does that. If questioned about it, know where to look to prove it. It helps in that hidden strengths in innocuous wording can come out - for example Monsters being able to move without penalty in Cover can turn that Wood guarding the flank into a Death trap.

Guessing is far more important in Fantasy - particularly with the Charge system, and the Reactions enemies can have - Learn the distances, and averages to work out how to stack the odds in your favour of succeeding. Warhammer is a large game of Rock-Paper-Scissors, where there is always a counter to something. Once you find what it is, neutralize the weak points of your army by capitalizing on the strong.

Take notes. Turning up to a Friendly game, or even just a pick up and play with a Notepad and Pen, and perhaps even a Camera will enable you to learn. It might sound over analytical, but actually seeing what you did wrong, and where will allow you to see where to improve. Copying down your opponents army lists, and seeing what worked well will tell you what are must stop units.

Play games. As many as possible. Whoever you play, you will learn something. It could be something bad, but then you will know to not do that in future. It could be something good, in which case you'll do that in future. It could be a special rule - in which case you learn to take advantage of it. Or it could just be experience. It's always valuable, and most decent players will tell you what you did well. Be friendly, get yourself known among the local players, and get games, and they'll give you little hints.


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## JokerGod (Jan 21, 2009)

START SLOW! A lot of people try to jump right in to the game and get discouraged from it because they don't understand a lot of the rules. Get the rule book and read it over a few times before you go out and play your first game is a good idea so you understand the basics and know how everything moves. 

As Vas mentioned, play as many games as you can, even if you lose every last one of them you will learn about the game and your army. When I started WarHammer I played 5 games on my first day, got tabled every time but over time I learned the strengths and weaknesses of my army and learned how to use them to my advantage.

Pick and army you like. If you don't like your army and are just trying to win, you will never have fun playing. Sit back and look at the models, your first army should never be based on how it plays on the table but if you like it or not. Look at the models and pick an army you think looks cool, read over a codex or two to see what they get and what it dos. Try asking questions, I ma yet to meet a vet gamer that didn't answer the questions of a new player.

Don't come in to this thinking it will be cheap... Its not. Its an expensive hobby but a lot of fun and a good investment if you stick with it for years to come.


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## Dafistofmork (Jan 9, 2009)

always plan what you are going to buy-as said it is a very expensive hobby, so you want as little money wastage as possible. if possible, cut corners by buying from inderpendent stockists, espicaly over the interweb-much cheaper. be imagintive- if you want a unit but the modle is uber expensive think of a cheap alternitive, e.g assembiling a treeman out of the plastic dryads box set. you get credit for being imagintive, creative and for an aWsome (thats awsome with a capital W) conversion-and you save money at the same time.


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## N0rdicNinja (Sep 17, 2008)

One tid bit to add, for those moving from 40k to Fantasy, Leadership is a drastically more important stat in Fantasy then it is in 40k. Be smart with your Generals! XD


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## xaiff101 (Jul 7, 2008)

Talk to people at your local game club, especially about any army your are thinking about starting. If some one told me that they wanted to start Skaven I'd tell them to save their money, as they're being reviewed pretty soon. It would suck to buy an army just to find out that a lot of things change the next month. You wouldn't want to buy a bunch of models just to find out that they're being replaced with better looking, cheaper models. 

Research your army. There's almost always a page in your army book somewhere that has special rules for most units in your armies. Like being immune to psychology, or causing fear. 

Don't always go for the army that people tell you to. It's nice to take the ones recommended into consideration, and don't be deterred from the army that _you_ like and want to start. If some one said they'd want to start Tomb Kings I'd tell them that that army is fairly underpowered when compared to a lot of other armies, but can still be fun to play with. 

There's always that guy at the club that knows all of the rules. You know the one that I'm talking about, the one that everyone goes to when they have a rules dispute. But a lot of times he either wont be there, or wont know. Make sure that you get the FAQ and errata for your rulebook and armybook. But don't be afraid to ask questions also.

Write your armylists down. When you have spare time on your hands, write as many different ones that you could. It helps you get used to your armybook, what kind of setup you prefer, and it's best to have the list that you're playing close by for a reference. I also like when my opponents have their list written down. Not only so I can see what kind of things are in his army, but also to make sure that he's at the right point limit, and not a couple hundred over. Which always sucks when that's the only reason you lost. 

Try to have preconstructed lists available. Not only because it's faster to whip one out and start playing, but because then you don't feel the need to "tailor" your list to fight your opponent. I've ran into this scenario plenty of times. I have my list on a table and I'm getting my army set up, when my opponent comes strolling over, picks up my list and book, and starts looking for ways to exploit my army. Such as Skulltaker _having_ to issue a challenge, and that he has flaming attacks. So what does he do? He takes a hero with Dragon Armour (Or whatever the High Elf armour is) so that he can get into a challenge, then kill Skulltaker without being touched in return. 
That made for an unpleasent game. I didn't want to say anything because I didn't want to come off as a powergamer. It's just not a nice thing to do.


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## Darktheos (May 9, 2008)

Play for fun, for both you and the people you play against. I'm not saying to not play to win so much as don't be that guy no one wants to play because you powergame all the time or after you get done you opponent wants to punch you to make you shut up.

As was said before ask about armies you would like to play and also ask about armies people are playing. I didn't chose a army I wasn't able to play because I didn't know about it lost a lot and bought a new army.

But mostly play to have fun.


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## Wiccus (Jun 2, 2008)

This isnt a rule based suggesting but it is important anyways. PAINT AS YOU BUY THE MODELS. If you just buy a regiment and then paint it before buying your next model/models and continue in that fashion you will have a great looking army in no time. Its so daunting to look at like a full army but none of it is painted, it makes you not want to paint as it seems overwhelming. Just start small and work your way up after playing many low point games.


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## Mivarlocht (Jan 26, 2009)

How about knowing the basic concepts of all opposing armies regarding what hurts your army the most? I think that expands on general knowledge of other armies as a whole, and can be crucial to winning. I've found that I often lose to an army that functions in ways I'm not aware of, and that's purely because I am unaware of _what they do._ I am a relatively new player, but that doesn't mean I don't make a conscious effort to look over a friend's Codex in the downtime between games at the FLGS (or watching another game and paying strict attention to the actions of each army).


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