Before “40k in 40mins” was a semi-popular youtube batrep thing, it could be found in the pages of White Dwarf as an alternate mode of play, restricting the points to just 400 as well as some other limitations.
It really got me thinking about my first interactions with 40k as a wee lad, begging for models for christmas and birthdays and how the incredibly limited access to models made each one special.
And for me 40k just isn’t special anymore, the huge doomsday level characters turning up to a little tiffs week in and week out is frankly bonkers.
That revulsion to the comicness of having opponents with an adult budget and 2000pt armies lead me away from large scale games to skirmishes like Necromunda for quite a while.
Until I played Turnip28
Something about the deliberate limitations and focus on making your own little freaks to die horribly over the last unchipped teacup in Cist captured my heart.
The final nail in the coffin was the wonderful folk on the D.U.E. discord starting another excellent informal challenge, this time “nostalgia of future past” this got lots of folk excited to make up a Stillmania force of whatever was nostalgic to them.
So I wrote up a quick list based around the legendary space marine battlepile with an additional 105pt dreadnought incase I needed to bring the points up to 500.
My key design brief for this was that even if I couldn’t afford them pointswise, I wanted a full command squad with billowing banners, apothocaries and techmarines joined by some mortal weirdos gathered around holding things and screaming their hymns!
This was what i wanted in my minds eye in 1997 but now finally, I’m in a place to achieve.
Luckily I still had a random assortment of metal models from those heady days but all the plastic marines had been binned or gifted away.
After snagging a few deals on ebay including the holy grail model of my youth, the second version of the Emperor’s Champion (pending a headswap). I awaited their slow shipping downunder and dreamt up some over the top names for each model, as well as starting the slow repair work on the existing models I had.
My poor chopped up Black Templar Marshal has been given new life. I always wanted to give him a thunder hammer, making many versions over the years, from PVC to airdry clay…all before I’d heard of pinning.
He now carries a fairly sleek but brutal thunder hammer and in true 90s fashion an inexplicably over-scoped bolter with a ton of bullets being fed into it so you know he means business!
And here is a quick test for the colour scheme, in a shocking turn of events I’ve tried to mimick Blanche’s sketchy washed out style, with buff/offwhite eye lenses and red that highlights to a washed out pink rather than a vivid orange.
All that’s left to do is get on with it and I’ll share some pics soon.
+++now playing: Cool World – Chatpile+++
+++End Transmission+++
P.S.
For both my own recollection as well as the spirit of free use I’m going to paraphrase the restrictions and force org here but you could google 40k in 40 minutes 2003 pdf.
Minimum of 1 troops choice and 0-1 HQ, if you choose not to bring a HQ unit then select a Sargent or equivalent to be your force commander.
You dont have alot of room in 400pts but you can have any number of other force org slots.
No models with more than 2 wounds.
No 2+or 2++ saves.
No special characters.
No vehicle with total armour over 33.
And that’s it!
Crom's Hall 