Trying Combat Patrol: Our First Steps from AoS into Warhammer 40,000
We had one of those classic hobby chat moments recently: someone drops a casual “New Skaven? :)” and suddenly we are talking about trying an entirely different system.
This time it was Warhammer 40,000, or more specifically Combat Patrol. Michał has been digging through the rules since yesterday, because on Friday he and Paweł are planning a test game. Not a full jump into giant armies and list-building spreadsheets right away — just a controlled first contact.
Why Combat Patrol caught our attention
The biggest selling point for us, at least at this stage, is that Combat Patrol completely removes the pain of army building.
And honestly, that sounds like a very smart way to enter 40k.
When you are coming from another game, learning a new ruleset is already enough of a challenge. If on top of that you also have to figure out what is legal, what is efficient, what synergizes with what, and whether you accidentally built something unplayable… that can be a lot. Combat Patrol seems to cut through all of that and lets us focus on the actual game.
How different is 40k from Age of Sigmar?
According to Michał, after reading through the rules, there are quite a few differences compared to Age of Sigmar, but so far none of them feel truly fundamental. That is encouraging.
So this does not look like one of those situations where we have to unlearn everything and start from zero. Instead, it feels more like learning a different dialect of a language we already speak.
The wound roll comparison: Toughness vs weapon strength
One rule that stood out in the discussion is the way attacks convert into wounds.
In 40k, units have Toughness, and weapons have their own offensive value. After the hit roll, you do not just check a fixed number on the weapon profile the way AoS players might expect. Instead, you compare the target’s Toughness with the attacking weapon’s value to determine what you need for the wound roll.
Michał summed it up as feeling a bit like Warcry in that regard, which is actually a very helpful comparison for us.
If you already have some Warcry intuition in your brain, that probably makes the transition a little smoother.
One shot, one model
The other moment that made us stop and go wait, what? was the clarification about ranged attacks.
A single ranged attack cannot kill more than one model.
So even if you have some absurd cannon shot dealing 20 damage and you fire it into a unit of tiny infantry, that one attack still only removes one model, not a whole cluster of them.
That was surprising enough that we had to make sure we understood it correctly. Stas immediately asked whether that really meant not more than one model, and yes — model, not unit.
It is one of those rules that probably makes perfect sense once you have played a few games, but from the outside it definitely produces a strong first reaction.
First impressions before dice hit the table
Right now we are still at the pre-game stage, so these are very much first reading impressions, not a battle report. But even from this short exchange, a few things are already clear:
- Combat Patrol looks like a friendly entry point into 40k
- The rules seem different from AoS, but not alien
- The Toughness vs weapon comparison is one of the key things to internalize early
- Damage spillover not deleting multiple models from one ranged attack is going to take a moment to get used to
We are very curious how all of this will feel in practice once Michał and Paweł get that trial game in on Friday. Reading rules is one thing; seeing whether the system actually clicks at the table is the real test.
If this goes well, maybe that innocent “New Skaven?” question was the beginning of something bigger.