Sticking your toe in the water
I recently received an email asking for suggestions about starting a very small Tyranid army, and also for other small, inexpensive armies. Here's what he asked...

Hello Sir,
My name is Walter and I am interested in playing Warhammer 40k (I really would like to just paint a couple first, but figured 'eh, why not try to learn n' play'). I got the 5th edition rule book and the codex for tyranids, the ones I seem to like the most, and have been reading up on the game for about a day now. Two of my friends said they would try the game also, so I figured if we all get armies around the size of 250-300 pts, it would be a really small and basic start for learning and actually playing.

My question for you is what type of army could you make for such a small amount of points? Everytime I build a little army that size on paper it just looks kind of dinky, plus one of my friends is fairly skeptical of the game and I doubt either one would like to build a bigger army for more money....
So if you had any recommendations I would greatly appreciate them including any advice on a tiny army other than tyranids since neither of my friends has picked an army yet or even looked at a codex.

Thank you for your time.
Walter S.

Aside from this one, the rest of these pictures are from small games. If you check out the battle reports behind them, or a lot of my Tau battle reports, you'll find quite a few small games. (This is actually a small part of a 1500pt battle, though.)

Inexpensive Starter kits
Hello Walter,

Tyranids are definitely some cool and interesting models to paint. I'm glad to hear you are interested in playing the game and it sounds like you've got a good start. Probably the cheapest way for your friends to get small armies would be for them to pick up the Assault on Black Reach boxed set. That would give one a Space Marine army up to about 600pts and the other an Ork army of similar size. That costs about $90, so that's $45 each, pretty good for an inexpensive starter army and it shouldn't really break the bank. Then all they'd need would be their codexen (Assuming that one would like Space Marines and the other would like Orks.)

As for you (and them, if they don't want Orks and Space Marines) the cheapest way to pick up models is probably Ebay. You can often find "extra" stuff that somebody didn't want, such as the Orks or Space Marines from the afore-mentioned boxed set, or models from someone that is getting rid of pieces they don't use or what have you. Especially since you are interested in painting, make sure you can see a good picture of the items you are bidding on. If you aren't careful, you might get older versions of models (which can be cool, but they can also be very much _not_ what you are looking for.) While it's better to get unpainted models, you can generally remove the paint by using a soak of Simple Green.

If you'd prefer to buy the models new, check out The War Store, they've got good prices, good shipping and Neal is legendary in the gaming community for his fabulous customer service. Also check out your local gaming stores and GW stores. Not only do they usually provide gaming tables and terrain, but you can also get painting and hobby tips and meet like-minded players.

Playing Small Games
With smaller point values like you are talking about, I'd recommend using the Patrol Clash (also known as 40k in 40 minutes, or occasionally LunchHammer) rules, which are some restrictions on the standard 40k army selections and such. (For example, while a Hive Tyrant is a great choice for a Tyranid army, in games under 600pts, your opponent is unlikely to have anything that will be able to deal with it and it will basically ruin the game, though the Terminator squad might have a chance at taking it down.)

I'll post a short description of the rules here, but I'd recommend checking out Patrolclash.org.uk to get more information.

-400pts
-You must take 1 Troop choice
-You may take a maximum of 1 HQ choice
-the remaining points may be spent anywhere you want
-No model may have more than 2 wounds
-No special characters
-No 2+ saves
-No vehicles with a total armor value greater than 33.

-When a patrol takes 50% casualties (based on numerical strength) it must start to take leadership tests based on the commander's ability at the start of its turn or break and lose the battle. If neither force breaks at the end of the game then the patrol inflicting the most damage in points wins.

I'd also recommend playing on a 3x4 table area, with 18" between deployment zones and a 9" deep deployment zone.

As a note, the forces included in the Assault on Black Reach boxed set _do_ violate some of the Patrol Clash rules (Dreadnaughts have more armor than is supposed to be allowed, Terminators have 2+ saves, etc.) If you check out the patrol clash site, they give some suggestions how to fix this. (As an example, they have a character that is normally 3 Wounds. For the Patrol Clash game, they use it as a 2W model, but charge fewer points for it. For the Dreadnaughts, you might allow them with AV11 instead of 12, and make them a bit cheaper.)

A small Tyranid Army
Even if you aren't using the Patrol Clash rules, but still want a small army, I think probably the best Tyranid way would be to use a Tyranid Prime and a couple of broods of Gaunts. At around 300pts, you could have about 15-18 Termagants and about the same number of Hormagaunts (or slighly more of one and less of the other, which would fit better with standard boxed sets.) Have the Prime join one of the broods, and run the other one in front of them for cover. As you get into higher point values, an easy scale up would be adding another Prime and some more Gaunts. On the other hand, if you want a bit more variety as you scaled up, you might try a couple of Hive Guard or Zoanthropes for some shooting, or some Ymgarl Genestealers or even a Lictor for more combat and more psychological effect.

As a note, there is currently no Tyranid Prime model, but as it's basically an Alpha Warrior, you could pick up a box of Warrior models and just build him to look a little more impressive. (Standing on a stone or something would be a good start.) Similarly, there aren't models for the Ymgarl Genestealers, though the boxed set should include at least one head with the Feeder Tendrils (the Cthulhu-looking mouth tentacles.) If you want more of them, get some modeling putty (I'd recommend Apoxie Sculpt, but Green Stuff/Kneadatite will also work well) and roll up a bunch of little tentacles, then carve out the lower jaw and attach them.

3-Way Games
I can't help but notice that there are three of you. This can be somewhat difficult if all of you are together and want to play at the same time. One way to do it is to have 2 people form a team to take on the other one. If one person has 600pts and each of the other two have 300, it should work out fairly well. On the other talon, sometimes you don't want to play as a team. Early in my 40k career, my friends and I ran into the problem of 3-way games rather frequently. If you just play a standard game, either one person gets ganged up on, or somebody gets left out of the fight. We did come up with a pretty good mission that works for 3 players, though. It's called Capture the Frog.

Carpe Ranam (Capture the Frog)The Mad Prophet thinks he is a frog. (That’s why he’s called the Mad Prophet.) He has valuable information or technology or magic or something such that each army or race has a serious interest in capturing him. (The Dark Angels want to question him about the Fallen, the Eldar want to understand his secrets for harnessing magic, the Tyranids want to consume him and integrate his warp powers into the next generation of Genestealers, etc.) The Mad Prophet is invulnerable, so weapons cannot hurt him (though an interesting variant would be to get rid of this, making players be more careful around him.) However, he is easily spooked. During each player’s turn, if a weapon is fired or targeted within six inches of the Mad Prophet, or there is movement or close combat within that range, the Mad Prophet is spooked. At the end of that player’s turn, the player rolls a scatter die and 2d6 to see where the Prophet hops (teleports?) The Mad Prophet will not get lost in the warp or go off the board edge. If he would go off the board edge, let him “bounce” back from the edge of the board (as in, if he would move 3" beyond the board edge, move him 3" away from the board edge, perhaps using the scatter die for a new direction.) If he would land on top of a model, place him as close as possible on the opposite side of the model from where he hopped. Models may not attack the Mad Prophet in close combat and they cannot simply pick him up. The winner is determined by which side has the closest model to the Mad Prophet at the end of the game (very important to use random game length.) If there is more than one model at the same distance to the Mad Prophet at the end of the game, then the side with the most models at the nearest one inch increment to the Mad Prophet will be the winner. (For example: each side has 1 model touching, one side has 3 models within an inch, but the other side has 4 models within an inch, the second side is the winner.)

Some notes about this scenario: The name derives from the original game. We were trying to play a multiplayer game with three people, and were looking for something to be an objective. One of the players had a frog miniature from somewhere. In 40k scale, this frog would be about waist high on a Space Marine (about 3.5 feet, so this would be a rather large frog) at that point we started calling it Capture the Frog or Carpe Ranam. We played it on several occasions and had fun with it. Somewhat later, the player with the frog moved on, but we still wanted to play the game. The store owner had a painted miniature mixed in with some terrain bitz, and the figure was some sort of robed fantasy wizard or priest. We used the robed figure, but still used the hopping rules, so we decided he actually thought that he was a frog, and so the Mad Prophet was born! Anyway, I hope that if you do play multiplayer games, you use a somewhat balanced mission like this, as it really helps make the game better for all concerned. If you use this scenario and have fun, please write me and let me know about it.

If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know

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