Warhammer 40k’s 11th edition has arrived with a healthy crop of boxes to entice new players (or those just wanting a good deal on a big bunch of minis). One of these, the 11th edition starter set, is specifically intended to teach you the game, with all the dice, rulers, minis, and terrain you need, plus a booklet designed to walk you through the experience.
Apparently 40k has a reputation for slightly shaky starter sets, and while I own a surprising amount of Warhammer and have painted a fair few minis, setting them up on my table and rolling some dice is a Rubicon I have yet to cross. Until now that is. What better way to test the starter set than to give it to someone who is actually just starting?
Will I be brought around to worship the Emperor and his glorious dice? Or will I slink off somewhere to… I don’t know, join Nurgle or something. This metaphor got away from me, but cut me some slack, we’re in a multi-month heatwave here.
What’s inside?
When it comes to the contents, the 11th edition 40k starter set is sort of like the Armageddon-lite. On the Ork side it has a Warboss, 20 Boyz (two of them Nobs), 10 Gretchin, a Wartrakk, and the wonderful new Weirdboy. Compared to Armageddon you’re missing out on a Big Mek, Bannernob, Painboy, and Bigboss. If you’re purely counting model numbers, that doesn’t seem like much!
Since it’s a more elite army, the Space Marine side has less than half the models total. Here we have a Captain, Librarian, 5 Intercessors, 5 Vanguard Veterans, and the new Land Speeder. Compared to Armageddon, we’re lacking 5 Intercessors, 3 Eradicators, a Chaplain, and an Ancient standard bearer.
Obviously, you save a lot compared to what you’d pay buying all these models separately, though the value proposition gets shakier if you’re not interested in all of these models. If you’re brand new, it seems like the best option would be to go halvsies and split the box’s contents with a mate, rather than starting two armies at the same time.
There’s also six sprues of pretty terrain!
Building
Constructing these minis was an enjoyable experience as ever, though I found I disagreed with the order of operations on some of the more densely detailed Space Marine characters. I’m a little wary of push-fit models, usually preferring to cut the pegs off and glue the minis together for a snugger fit. I tried to do it ‘authentically’ here though for the sake of the review. For the Imperium half of the box, this worked out fine, the bulky armor disguising any imperfect joins. The Xenos side was another story though, with some particularly irksome gaps standing out right in the middle of the Orks shoulder pads. I quickly caved and went back to my old ways for the remainder of my minis.
While I’m still in the early stages of painting these creations, one thing I should note is that this box is lacking a transfer sheet. I gaslit myself into thinking I’d misplaced one, but nope – it’s just not included. Which is a little annoying!
Learning
The ‘learn to play’ section talks you through four scenarios, gradually explaining the rules and introducing new models and complexity. At first, you just have two characters hacking away at each other in melee. Then moving and charging is covered, followed by the shooting phase. And finally, you learn how to actually score points with a strategic objective.
This all works very nicely as a stepwise way to learn the basics. It explains some rules to you, presents a scenario, then talks you through each step of that scenario, reminding you what you just learned. Perfect.
I do have a few minor gripes, though. For instance, the book contains tables reminding you how to calculate wound and save rolls, and it would be great to have a handout for these. They’re included again in a quick reference section near the back (and by scenario 4 I’d almost got it memorized), but this might’ve worked better as a separate sheet to avoid unnecessary rulebook flicking.
The set up section could also be made more visually clear as well. For instance, it was not obvious to me where terrain was supposed to be placed and what kind of terrain I should be using. The unit list also drew no distinction between a nob and a regular ork boy, forcing me to squint at an unclear top-down image to work out if the former should be in each scenario or not. These seem like small issues, but it left me feeling uncertain, and worried that I wasn’t doing it ‘right’.
However, my primary issue with this learning section is that I wish it was a little longer. It ends with strategic objectives, then contains just one page discussing the command phase and stratagems. I would’ve loved to have another scenario or even two playing around with these, with the book demonstrating how different tactics can help you win a match.
It feels like I was just approaching the point where Warhammer becomes an actual game instead of a die-rolling combat simulator, but hadn’t quite got there yet.
In fact, while this set does a good job of teaching the mechanics very straightforwardly, it doesn’t ever go into detail about how you might play the game in different ways in order to actually try and win. It’s a competent rules-teacher, but not a great game-teacher, if that makes any sense.
Overall, I feel like the starter set is a decent jumping off point, but I’m left feeling like the best way to learn Warhammer is probably to have someone else who already knows the ancient art inside out show you the ropes.
Source: Wargamer
