[40K] Points Limits

Morning all,

Just a brief one that I've been thinking about over the weekend. As one of the players at the club was without a game, I'd offered to play him and was asked "What points do you want to play?". That then got me onto thinking some more about points limits, which ones people prefer and what the choices are for those points limits.

So, I'll start at the bottom rung of the ladder:

200pt Kill Teams
I've not played this much, but after our demo game at Phalanx, I've been tempted to play a couple of games of this on a Monday night, rather than 1 big game. The appeal to me is that each individual kill makes a difference. In larger games of 40K, I'm so used to pulling 10 Orks off the table, that I don't care much for the losses - it's all part of the bigger picture.

It's also quite cheap to start new forces for, along with painting testers for a larger force. I wouldn't mind using Kill Team as a way of launching some of my next army ideas. I've also got grandiose dreams of building a Veteran Squad to use for Kill Teams that I can incorporate into my Guard army.


400/500pt Combat Patrol
This is the next step up from Kill Teams and provides 40k at an extremely streamlined level. Usually 2 squads, a vehicle and a minor character or so. Another thing I like about playing at this points level is the challenge of writing a good list (albeit, not with Necrons...).

Using a 4 x 4 board along with some objective based missions, or a lot of terrain, really makes the game feel like a narrative skirmish between the forces. It makes it a lot easier to personalise the battles and keep track of everything that's happened along the way.

1000/1250pts
As with 500pts, the appeal of this is that every kill matters. It also means you can play more 40k-esque games with the actual missions and standard force org charts. It also allows you more flexibility with what you want to theme your army around, rather than the barebones 500pt level, where usually once you've fulfilled the force org requirements, you're just left with points for upgrades.

1500pts
This is my personal favourite at the moment. It used to be the "Standard" Tournament size, however since being at MAWS and getting into 40K properly, I've worked towards 2000pts as the norm, to go with Britcon requirements.

Anyways, over the past 3 or 4 months, I've scaled back to 1,500pts and I'm loving it at the moment. I find it a real challenge when designing an army list to use at 1500, as points start to run out quickly. It makes me reconsider my unit sizes, dropping a model or two to bring them under, rather than running full squads and whatnot.

It also means the loss of 500pts and a few less things to move, means that the game ultimately flows a lot faster for me, each unit is more important, and I have to consider deployment, cover and movement in the game a lot more.

1750 /1850pts
I have to say, I've not played a lot at this points level, save for a few tournaments I've been too. It offers more freedom when designing the army list and allows players to take some bigger units, more expensive characters and whatnot.

2000pts
This is where I used to aim towards whenever I would buy or begin making a new army. For the last few years, the plan had always been they would get used at Britcon - so would be within regulations for that.

2k allows a lot of freedom when writing a list, especially when it comes to super units, expensive characters and upgrades. It also changes the amount of scoring units people can bring to the game, which again changes the way you think and move around during the mission.

The only downside with this is the time everything takes. Set up is longer, movement phases take longer and everything else. I like the sight of 2 x 2000pt armies facing off against one another, but I don't enjoy this points level as much as I used to do.

Conclusion
So what do you guys think? There's a few I've not spoken about, like Spearhead, Apocalypse and some of the American tournament points limits like 2250 etc.

Personally, 1500pts is where I like to play at the moment, but I'd love to get some Kill Team games in using a lot of terrain, some really nicely converted models and maybe even just to try and get a Kill Team for each Codex in 40K.

What's your preference on points limits for your games? When it comes to playing and army list writing, as well as factors like cost and transport.

Peace,
SB