One Page 40K

Having painted up the killa kans I was keen to put them into action. I have played a few games of 40K over the past decade, but I never got to grips with the system, always found it a bit cumbersome. I looked at alternatives but they all seemed just as complex. I wanted a Lasers Rampant kind of game - simple rules, easy to play without spending too much time nose in rulebook. I remembered a cut down version called "40K in 40 minutes" but when I googled I came up with one-page-rules. This is a stripped down version of the original game, the rules really are summarised on one page - though with a very small font! Still, it was worth a shot, so I gathered together all my painted troops and my meagre terrain collection and pitched them against a mate's Chaos Marines.

The game was pretty good. It was 40K-esque but much streamlined. Play proceeds by alternate units, so the orks activated one unit, then Chaos, then back to the orks, etc. An activation is either hold, walk, run, or assault. Each troop type has a quality, roll this or higher to hit in shooting or combat, to save a hit, to pass a morale test. It sounds bland, but there were quite a few different weapons types, walkers, vehicles, monsters and the like. Just enough flavour to make the orcs expendable and the Daemon Prince unstoppable! Our first game lasted about 90 minutes, I think after a couple more games this could easily be trimmed to an hour. As you can see in the photo, it was doable on my dining table, though more terrain is needed. The orks took a real beating from Chaos, though both kans survived the whole game so a minor victory there. It also gave me a couple of ideas what to paint next. Well worth downloading and taking a look.