Getting all your miniature on the tabletop is tough enough. Now 40k Apocalypse rules should help speed up the fun of actually playing!
I know the new edition is really taking up all the spotlight for 40k right now, as it probably should! That said, I‘m still looking forward to the new version of Apocalypse coming. GW already said that the Eye of Terror books (as well as the codexes and other recent book sets) will be usable with the new edition. So, on one hand, we’ll get to play Apocalypse to wave good-bye to the current edition. And on the other hand, we’ll still have this version of Apocalypse to play WITH the new edition. Seems good to me!
Anyhow, Apocalypse is the game mode where you can basically bring ALL your points. This addition to 40k really scales up to tens of thousands of points. It’s really just a matter of finding a place to play and enough time to actually play that many points.
Aside from the time and space commitment, one of the barriers to playing previous iterations of Apocalypse has been the extra rules. However, this version is going back to a time before Apocalypse was really a thing. This version is built on top of the core rules of Warhammer 40,000 but with some tweaks. You won’t have to learn a different version of the game and you won’t have to play with special dice or movement trays. Just bring your models. And try out the 12 new rules adaptations designed to speed things up and keep the game moving.
Apocalyptic Tweaks
From the looks of these rule adaptations they make sense. However, GW did say they were looking to make the system more modular so note that these all the “optional” section for them. But personally, I think they actually do make the games work better.
In big team games with massive hordes of miniatures, for instance, you don’t always want to wait for your friend with 120 Kroot Carnivores to finish his Advances before Deep Striking your single unit of Warp Spiders onto the table. With the Ready Reinforcements rule, you can now do your Reinforcement step at any point during the phase – easy as that.
This is really nice. It helps to keep the game flow moving and also helps to prevent friendly units from blocking or preventing you from getting to deploy your own units. I kind of wish this was a part of the regular style games now that I look at it…
Uh…YES please. This adaption seems really cool and obvious. While you absolutely want to try and take out the enemy’s units, it’s also kind of lame to have the “Alpha Strike” just wipe out the enemy (or your own units) before they get to do anything on the first turn. This way, those big models (or just units of infantry) get to do SOMETHING before they get removed.
These are only a couple of the rules available to tweak your experience, and they all work just as well at 3,000 points as they do at 30,000. To cap it all off, each faction has at least three impressive new Stratagems made specifically for the size and spectacle of Apocalypse games…
So far, so good. I really want a breakdown of the other 10 rules. Again, with these being optional, you don’t have to use them. It really does sound like you can pick-and-choose the additional rules that best fit with the experience you and your opponents are looking for with Apocalypse games. Because, let’s be real here, Apocalypse is not Matched Play. So have some fun with it and customize the game for what you and your friends want to do!
Oh and yeah, about those extra stratagems…check these out:
And yes, those Command Point cost might be high but, in Apoc games, you’ll be getting more CP to compensate for the sheer size of the games.
Time to schedule a game with the crew. I’m starting to think that chipping in for catering sounds like a good idea…
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Writer, Editor, Texas Native, and now Tex-Pat, Adam covers all things Tabletop Gaming. Which includes Warhammer 40,000, Age of Sigmar, D&D, Board Games and everything else that involves dice, boards, cards and a table.
A hobbyist, player, and collector of miniatures and games, Adam’s current obsession are his Death and Chaos Armies for Age of Sigmar, his Blood Angels and Tyranids for 40k, an expanding collection of Marvel: Crisis Protocol minis, and his ever growing Arkham Horror: The Card Game Collection.
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