Small games or Big games?

[Victus Mortecarium]

I'm fan of smaller games. I set up my 500 point game to have a splash of everything. Dreadnought here, Company master there, Devestators here, Scout snipers there...

I'm one of those guys that has been into 40K for a while, but really got into it during 5th. We were all newbies, and the 6 of us all got into it together. We bought armies that were way too big for the amount we knew of the game, so most of our games consisted of flipping through rulebooks and arguing.

Once 6th came around, we decided it was time to play smaller games and really get the rules down for what we knew. A couple of my friends left the hobby altogether because they never had a chance to learn all the rules. Otherwise, it really sped up the games, making our turns more frequent, allowing us to practice the basics better.

But yeah, why I like small games:

1. The map looks wayyyy bigger!
2. Faster paced action.
3. It makes my HQ choices feel more important. (I understand they are still important in big games)
4. With unbound lists, making a small game is even easier!
5. Great for learning.

So how many points do you like in your list? Sometimes we play games with 700 points, and 50 "Bonus Points" that can only be spent on upgrades.

[GrauGeist]

I prefer 750 to 1000 pts, because the games play faster and there is more emphasis on maneuver. 750 is a great size, as you definitely have points for "something interesting" on top of the mandatory HQ and Troops.

1250 or 1500 is a little "large" and starts to crowd the board.

At 1750+, the game starts to bog.

400 or 500 pts sometimes feels like you're too heavily taxed to meet HQ and Troops minimums.

[Wolfshade]

I like smallgames, like the erm, Kill Team? or whatever.

But my mates and I usually play around 1000pts which is fun and requires a tactical game of trying to second guess what to take, we have a gentleman's agreement that no flyers at this level, but you still can get rock-paper-scissor games so you get another game of guessing what army they took last time, what is in their collection and what they might take next time.

[CoffeeGrunt]

We tend to play 1k-1.5k sometimes, but 2K is very popular. The games don't get bogged down too much when you're playing on a 4x4, though. :P

[Victus Mortecarium]

That is why I love unbound, great for small games.

[Caitsidhe]

Small games. Less rules to worry about in this ever growing mish-mash. It is also more economically viable for people who can't afford to pay to play. It also gives me a devilish glee to see the games getting ever smaller as Games Workshop keeps trying to make them bigger.

[Victus Mortecarium]

I want to scan all of my armies special rules and put them onto a couple cheat-sheets. I paid 100 dollars for that damn rulebook (That's as much as a textbook). I'm gonna do what I want with it. There are so many darn rules it is getting ridiculous.

[John Bower]

When I'm playing mates it tends to hover between 1500 and 2k, on my own it can be any size for my campaign and is not set by me but by a random number in an Excel sheet that also tells me the mission to play, the weather and even whether to use the tactical cards or not. It also randomises the use of Super heavies.

[energongoodie]

At my gaming group we had been playing 750 games due to limited space.
I was really enjoying them and wasn't too bothered about going bigger.
Then we moved in to our new gaming space and we have more tables and boards than we can use! I have been playing 1500-2000 point games and I'm loving it!
More toys to play with, more models on the other side to blast, more interesting models, more rules more, more, more!

I'm lovin these bigger games. But I'm still looking forward to the challenge of a smaller battle. With the tactical objective cards, less units makes it tougher to spread around the board and score.

[Path Walker]

I love small, quick games but every now and then, when I have the time, its nice to have a 3000 point blowout with all the toys, I think more than 1500, a lot of the tactical challenge of the game disappears as you tend to be able to get more overpowered nonsense and most armies are able to cover all the bases.

I think 1200 is about right for my liking.