Warhammer 40,000 – Chaosbunker Classics

If you have followed my Imperial Fists project log over the last few weeks, you will probably have read about the CHAOSBUNKER CLASSICS. But let me give you a brief introduction.

In autumn of last year, I moved forward with my idea of hosting a small get-together to play some Warhammer 40,000 2nd Edition, mainly to provide a proper deadline for an army project - because you have a motivational problem until you have a time problem. What initially started as a simple “let’s see if we can get 4 to 6 people committed” quickly gained momentum. More people joined (and some unfortunately had to cancel due to time constraints), but we still ended up with ten people fully committed to painting a 1,500-point army for a weekend of retro gaming.

The idea behind the Chaosbunker Classics is to bring back the aesthetics of the old games and recapture some of the magic of Bring Out Your Lead here in Germany. The events won’t be limited to 40k 2nd Edition - this one was, but future events will explore the look and feel of classic games and miniatures, possibly using different rulesets to recreate certain settings. Since 1,500 points of 40k was already a challenge, I don’t see 2,000-point Warhammer Fantasy Battles armies as a viable scope for upcoming events.

These are narrative events, not focused on meta-gaming or a tournament mindset. The first Chaosbunker Classics featured a narrative story arc, which I’ll cover in a separate article.

Over the past year, the idea became more and more tangible. With people like Zigor already hosting 40k 2nd Edition demos at Rhein-Main-Multiversum, and support from Tobias and Evi of Team Würfelkrieg (who also support Torsten with CONflict Rhineland), things really got rolling. More people joined: Holger / Indigo, Florian / Celebration Parallax, Christian / Fritz, Tom / Rekrom, Flip, and another Christian - each with a fully painted army.

I looked for a suitable location, and the local parish centre turned out to be perfect. It offered proper infrastructure: parking, a small kitchen with a fridge, plenty of tables, and a central location between Cologne and Frankfurt, just minutes from the Autobahn - which was especially convenient for players coming from Franconia and even Berlin (!).

We set up a few tables, and everyone brought along amazing, era-appropriate terrain (more pictures below). It was a great start.

Another benefit of having people from all over the country: a wonderfully diverse fridge.

The event ran over two days and told the story of an Imperial shrine world of the Ecclesiarchy, where a powerful relic was protected by the Sisters of Battle. A large Waaagh! from multiple clans took interest in this relic and attacked the planet. The Imperium sent out a call for aid, and several Space Marine Chapters dispatched relief forces to support the Sisters in their defence. All this turmoil also attracted the attention of a Chaos warband.

We split into Imperials and Orks/Chaos and played three phases. In the first, the Orks attempted to establish bridgeheads on the planet. In the second, the defenders tried to push them back—or the Orks attempted to seize the relic. The third phase… well, that depended on how the second phase played out. More on that in the upcoming narrative campaign dossier.

The terrain was a mix of handcrafted pieces and 3D prints, including many from Doctor Spork and rocks from the Stone Trove Kickstarter. And of course, proper bright green gaming mats!

I had the pleasure of playing my first game with my old friend Holger, with whom I started wargaming back in 1995. He brought his amazing Ork army — had an absolute blast!

Lots of pictures of the players browsing the books. Since most of the previous weeks were spent painting, painting, and more painting, there wasn’t much time left to properly study the rules. On top of that, the rules are sometimes less clearly defined than in newer editions, so we spent quite a bit of time checking exact wording. There was also a strong “Mandela effect” at play, with some rules mixing in from Warhammer Fantasy rules or later editions of 40k.

We used the evening of the first day for a photoshoot to create some proper eye candy. Huge thanks again to Tobias and Evi of Team Würfelkrieg for staging the armies so perfectly - they really captured that classic White Dwarf nostalgia. And don’t worry, we’ll showcase each army in that style soon - just give me a bit of time.

The open-ended Saturday evening gave us time to discuss project ideas, conversions, and ongoing hunts for additions to our armies, as well as to take a closer look at some truly stunning miniatures.

By early Sunday afternoon, the final games were finished. We restored the venue to its original state and headed home—exhausted, but in a very satisfying way. It was genuinely impressive to see how much effort everyone had put into this weekend.

The event was much more than just those two days. It was about the entire journey leading up to it. Since October, we had a WhatsApp group chat where we shared progress, gave feedback when someone got stuck, and kept each other motivated. This was especially important during the final two weeks, which were intense. In the last 8 to 10 days, I painted every evening for 3 to 4 hours, and it was clear others were doing the same. People posted updates constantly, sometimes “I’m done” at 11 pm, sometimes “calling it a night” at 4 am. I’d sometimes post my first update in the morning, picking up where someone else had just gone to bed. The same went for brainstorming ideas, digging up old Citadel Journal datafaxes, and keeping motivation high.

So, a big thank you to everyone who participated. It was an incredibly fun experience. We created great stories on the tabletop, and there’s already strong interest in the next installment—I’m quite sure this won’t be the last.

What’s next? We’ll be bringing our miniatures to CONflict this year to try them out in other rulesets (most likely 3rd Edition and OPR), and we’ll start planning future Chaosbunker Classics events - possibly including Herohammer on a larger skirmish scale, as well as a Necromunda95/Inq28/Inquisimunda campaign weekend. But the 40k event will return as well, as the story of the relict needs to be continued.