A Kalathrax Fiend spies its next meal.

Once you've decided that you’d like to convert your own creature, it may be a bit tricky finding a way to incorporate your wonderful creation into your games of Warhammer 40,000. To get you on the right path, we offer some narrative suggestions for developing your own scenarios.

We've all seen movies like Aliens, Starship Troopers, and Pitch Black in which man pits his wits and intelligence against the superior hunting prowess and cunning of a swarm of alien creatures. Strike teams are sent in; jungle lairs are razed to the ground; and daring rescues are performed to emphasize the drama and tension of the classic struggle of man versus beast.

Using what we see on the silver screen as inspiration, we can come up with a number of possibilities for incorporating feral and primitive monsters into our 40K games. The trick is making it all mesh together into what will be a challenging and rewarding gaming experience for all of the players involved. All gaming groups are different, and individual members may expect different things. Thus, a lot of the decision making is better left up to you and your friends. Just have fun! To get the ball rolling, we broke down the use of creatures in 40K into three primary types of conflicts.

Chiaro Ash Croakers descend on a Pentarant.

1. Monster vs. Monster. Monster vs. Monster scenarios are designed for quick, fun games that are great for killing time. The scenario rules depend largely on what types of creatures you choose to make and how much time you’re willing to dedicate to the cause. The most obvious conflict simply involves you and each of your friends making a monster up to a set points limit and bashing it out in an attempt to ascertain who is the proverbial “king of the jungle.” You could even go one step further and develop a specific world in which your creatures exist and keep track of territory gained and lost by the thinning of each other’s herds.

See, there's plenty of ways to have monster of monster fun. How about a hunting party of a few creatures trying to bring down a larger, more dangerous adversary? Or maybe a herbivorous creature with a few defensive abilities is trying to escape from the table while being pursued by vicious predators. Maybe all of these creatures have been captured and are forced to fight each other in gladiatorial combat. John Shaffer has developed a simple tournament system for monster pitfighting here for you to peruse and implement. Check it out!

2. Army vs. Monster. A classic battle. Play a sort of hunter vs. hunted scenario in which a party of hunters is tracking a predatory creature while the creature, in turn, stalks the hunters. You could use Space Hulk blip counters to represent where the prey may or may not be and then have the creature spring from the shadows onto the unsuspecting trackers. Or how about a tension-filled escape attempt against the overwhelming numbers of a vicious alien swarm? There are plenty of ideas for cool scenarios that can be found in literature and films. These types of games could make for an interesting event during a 40K campaign and could serve as a sort of side quest with specific rewards and consequences.

A Spined Rhodox scatters the Orks that are after its hide!

If you are just looking for a stand up fight or hunt scenario, then try this on for size. Have one player create a creature (or creatures!) up to a certain determined points value using the Creature Creator. You may want to avoid anything with the winged form of locomotion, but it's up to you.

The monster hunting player creates a small force that totals no more than the points cost of the beast or beasts they are hunting. Avoid using powerful characters and wargear, try sticking to standard Troops choices instead. Units do not have to adhere to normal squad coherency, but models on their own must make All Alone tests as normal.

Once both players' forces are ready, set up a 4' x 4' table, slap a bunch of terrain down and get fighting. As an alternative to the standard deployment scheme, you could have the creature set up his models in a hidden fashion. First player to eliminate the other wins!

3. Army vs. Army vs. Monster. Probably the most popular and easiest way to integrate a few monsters into your games is to pit two armies against each other in the standard fashion and throw in the random element of a hostile creature attack for kicks. You could designate specific areas on the table that may house monstrous creatures, which could randomly pop out and attack models foolish enough to get within striking distance. Or perhaps the sounds of battle have spooked the native creatures into a stampede that threatens to overrun everything in its path. However you incorporate creatures into your games is up to you, of course. We offer this scenario suggestion to jump start your creativity.

The noise from a nearby battle disturbs a hive of angry Glovian Stingers!

The lands have been infested with dangerous indigenous creatures. Each piece of terrain could hide creatures lurking in the shadows ready to strike out against meddlesome intruders.

At the end of any Movement Phase in which a model or unit has entered a piece of terrain (e.g., a building, wood, or crater), roll a D6. On a 1-2, no creatures reside there. On a 3-5, the number rolled indicates the number of creatures that are hiding in the terrain. The opposing player should place the creatures anywhere in the terrain piece in base contact with the models that ended their movement there. On the result of a 6, a Large creature with a few scary upgrades is hiding in the terrain. The opposing player may place the creature in base contact with any model(s) in the terrain piece.

On subsequent turns, the creatures will move and assault the nearest player-controlled model (i.e., not another creature). When the creatures are in combat, the opposing player should roll for the creatures to hit, wound, etc., as though the creatures were his own models. If creatures win combat, they will consolidate toward the nearest model (though not another creature). Let your imagination run wild as to what types of creatures would infest a battlefield.