This is another blog I'm doing in reaction to a lot of the negativity that surrounds hobby games. In the midst of all the attitude shown towards it by people who have nothing but criticism for it, it's sometimes all-too-plausible to forget that it's actually quite good fun and you're supposed to be enjoying it. There's no tricks involved with enjoying hobby games; it's all to do with the attitude you go in with, and if you want to enjoy it, you will.
But first, what do I mean by hobby games? Broadly, hobby games is what I say when I'm describing board games, card games, role playing games and war games. They'll almost always include some material components, have a set of rules to them and are mostly - but not always - played competitively, e.g. players play against each other. It could be anything from Chess right the way up to, I don't know, Warhammer would be the obvious choice.
Those who play these games generally have a great time. Those who don't and have no intention to play these games generally look upon them in a passive, dismissive and sometimes quite hostile manner. For a great many people, it would simply not occur to them even to give it a go, and since they're either quite rude or not very forthcoming about the reasons why, (the latter, I suspect, to avoid the former) I'm left to speculate about them. I'll tell you what I think a lot of it is: Stereotyping Start talking to the man on the Clapham Omnibus about Warhammer or Dungeons and Dragons, and his immediate thoughts will be of fat sweaty nerds who live with their mothers on a diet of KFC, and have no hope of a social life or any kind of meaningful sexual relationship. And quite understandably, that is not a world most people want to be a part of. Of course, it's all rubbish, and what we get as a result is people being presumptuous about a group of people who are nowhere near as bad as all that. That having been said, about half of that rather cynical and condescending description applies to me, and the people who I play games with - nice people though most of them are - don't do much to counter the stereotype. Some other arguments centre around not having the time or the money, but these are pretty poor excuses really as you can always get things cheaper if you know where to look, and it's actually not that hard to make time to do something you want to do.
So, a lot of negativity comes from outside its demographic, but what continues to astonish me is the hostility that comes from within its own demographic as well. I've said much of what I want to say about that in the blog I did last year about Bitter Veterans, but I will add that this blog is derived from looking at the posts that Dungeons and Dragons make on their Facebook page. They're talking up what's being released and design-related articles (we're not far away from 5th edition/Next now,) and invariably there are comments under these posts to the general effect of: "Death to Wizards of the Coast!" "4e (Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition) destroyed DnD!" "I'll only ever pay 1st Edition!" and it drives me FREAKING NUTS. Especially if comments like this actually have nothing to do with the feature that's been posted. And that's just with Dungeons and Dragons! That's called trolling, guys. You're trolling your own hobby. Well done.
With turmoil within its own demographic, and a significant amount of the rest of the universe wishing hobby games didn't exist at all, how is anyone who isn't already involved in it supposed to give it a chance, and get in to it?
Well the answer is really quite simple: You've got to WANT to enjoy it.
If you want to give it a chance and have a go, you'll probably enjoy it. If you don't, or you can't work out why you're there, then you won't enjoy it.
So, say someone's starting up a Role Playing Game and asked you to join in. You've never done it before. Chances are, something like this may happen:
If you go in there thinking to yourself "Hmm, games with dice and toy soldiers aren't really my thing, and I don't want to have to learn a lot of rules out of those massive books they all have" then you're not going to enjoy it. Reason is, the real reason RPGs are fun has very little to do with dice or toy soldiers, and only a little bit to do with the rules. However, this is all you expect from the game so that is what all your focus will be on. For the record, it's the engagement with the characters and the immersion into the world of the game that makes it fun. Get that bit right and it can quite often become the highlight of your week. But if you're not aware that this is the whole point of the game, then you'll need to work it out quite quickly or you'll find yourself wondering what's going on.
If you go to the game thinking that "Only nerds play games like this!" - and yes I DO mean nerd in the derogatory sense of the word - well, if you think that, then the only reason you'd go to the game at all is to prove yourself right, which you will. You will see what you expect to see: A small group of people talking about something you neither know nor care about. You won't be able to join in the conversation because you won't know what they're talking about, you'll feel isolated from the group and you'll come to resent hobby games because of the level of involvement the other guys have in it at your expense. So it's probably best not to bother.
If you're there because a friend has brought you along, well that can go either way depending on your pre-conceived ideas, but if that's the only reason you're there, think about this: Your friend has asked you to go to the game because he or she thinks you might enjoy it. The reasons for them thinking about that are their own, but there will be a reason for it. It's not a bad thing to find something new and fun to do in your spare time, and it's certainly a good thing if a friend thinks you might be interested in it as well because they are pro-actively trying to give you something new and fun to do in your spare time. The least you can do, in that situation, is give it a go.
If you come in to it thinking "Never done this before, let's give it a go and see what it's like, then I'll decide what I think about it," then that's absolutely great and we need more people in the world like you. My advice here would be to look for things you enjoy about it, rather than expect to find things that you don't. And if you don't understand something, it's OK to ask other people how it works. Again, ultimately it could go either way. If you decide you enjoy it, then that's great, I can't think of many people who would say no to more people being involved with hobby gaming. If you decide it's really not for you, then that's fair too, and no one will think any the less of you for giving it a go.
And then there's the one that applies to me: "I've always wanted to try this out, let's go to a game and see how much fun it is." I remember going into the roleplaying group for the first time - I had no idea what to expect from the game, but I really wanted to enjoy it so I gave it my best shot. I've made better characters and played better games since then, but for a first attempt - and I had and appreciated a lot of help from the guy who was running it - it could have been far worse. I also remember my "intro game" at Games Workshop, who hadn't really got the idea of doing intro games at that point and put me in a mass participation battle with a tank I had no idea how to use, got blown up in the first couple of turns and I hadn't got a clue why. By the standards of what we would expect if that had happened to a casual onlooker, they should never have seen me again. But I wanted to enjoy it so I came back and gave it another go... Well the rest of the story's another blog in itself.
But you see my point? Because I WANTED to enjoy it, I did - and still do to this very day. Some more than others, but I always try to find the fun in what I'm doing.
I think it's what's called having your glass half full. A lot of people I know could do with re-filling their glasses entirely...
If that tailed off quite badly then it will be something to do with the fact that it's 2am and I've only had 9 hours sleep in the last 48 hours. Time to go to bed I think.
See you all next time!
Matt
Tuesday, 23 July 2013
Friday, 19 July 2013
40K: Chaos Space Marines vs Dark Eldar 11/7/2013
Again behind a bit with the blogs...
So I had a game of 40K last week at Games Workshop Dudley, it didn't go so well for me! Here's why:
Sometimes I have managed to win games by insisting that my opponent uses a smaller army. This worked quite well in Warhammer 7th Edition, where I would tell opponents I could only go up to 1500 points which would mean that they couldn't use their Lord choices, which in turn would cost them the game.
However, insisting that people go from using a 1500pt 40K army to the 600pt army I had ready to roll is taking the piss a little bit, especially on Thursday nights where you get all the tournament-style play going on. Normally I would avoid situations like that but I go into Games Workshop as and when I can, and this particular night I found myself in on a Thursday. My opponent, Craig, was all ready to play 1500pts, and I only had 600... so I had to cobble together an army out of 2 different armies that were both Chaos. On the plus side this was the first time my Khorne Bezerkers had got an outing. On the down side, they never had a chance...
My army consisted of the following:
Craig's army was built around Venoms; squads of 5 Whyches riding in 4 venoms which I'm sure is making many of you who know what that means shaking your heads in sympathy.
Not much to say about the battle really; it was The Emperor's Will game which means that there is one objective on each side, Craig won the game 4-1. I was completely unprepared for fighting this kind of army, and my army was not geared towards tournament play. To my credit I lasted 4 turns before I was tabled, but with far too many shots coming from the splinter cannons on the venoms, I'm astonished I lasted that long. The Bezerkers got wiped out to a man very quickly, and the Raptors didn't even make it into the game, having Deep Striked off the board.
The one victory point I did manage to earn came from having my CSM squads shooting that Craig's Archon and his Incubi. I didn't take them out; 3+ is a tough armour save to get through, but I did take enough of them out to force a panic check which they failed. They also failed the subsequent check to rally, and the game was all over before I'd managed that.
So, what to do next time?
Well, I probably won't be playing a tournament-geared army unless I'm prepared for it, because it made me feel like a nut being cracked with a sledgehammer. But, with that army, the only thing I could have done differently is take my Khorne Lord rather than my Slaanesh one. Reason is, that would make the Khorne Bezerkers count as Troops and therefore scoring units, so on the off chance any of them were still alive by the time they got to the top of the board, they could in theory have taken the objective. As it was, they were Elite, so they didn't have that option.
Can't say I enjoyed that game too much! Got some more work to do before I try taking Craig on again.
So I had a game of 40K last week at Games Workshop Dudley, it didn't go so well for me! Here's why:
Sometimes I have managed to win games by insisting that my opponent uses a smaller army. This worked quite well in Warhammer 7th Edition, where I would tell opponents I could only go up to 1500 points which would mean that they couldn't use their Lord choices, which in turn would cost them the game.
However, insisting that people go from using a 1500pt 40K army to the 600pt army I had ready to roll is taking the piss a little bit, especially on Thursday nights where you get all the tournament-style play going on. Normally I would avoid situations like that but I go into Games Workshop as and when I can, and this particular night I found myself in on a Thursday. My opponent, Craig, was all ready to play 1500pts, and I only had 600... so I had to cobble together an army out of 2 different armies that were both Chaos. On the plus side this was the first time my Khorne Bezerkers had got an outing. On the down side, they never had a chance...
My army consisted of the following:
- Chaos Lord w/ twin lightning claws, a jump pack and the Mark of Slaanesh
- 2 squads of 6 Chaos Space Marines w/ the Mark of Slaanesh, plasma guns and twin lightening claws, and an Icon of Slaanesh which gives them Feel No Pain
- 6 Raptors with 2 Melta Guns, a Plasma Pistol and the Mark of Slaanesh
- 2 squads of 8 Khorne Bezerkers with a Power Axe and a Plasma Pistol.
Craig's army was built around Venoms; squads of 5 Whyches riding in 4 venoms which I'm sure is making many of you who know what that means shaking your heads in sympathy.
Not much to say about the battle really; it was The Emperor's Will game which means that there is one objective on each side, Craig won the game 4-1. I was completely unprepared for fighting this kind of army, and my army was not geared towards tournament play. To my credit I lasted 4 turns before I was tabled, but with far too many shots coming from the splinter cannons on the venoms, I'm astonished I lasted that long. The Bezerkers got wiped out to a man very quickly, and the Raptors didn't even make it into the game, having Deep Striked off the board.
The one victory point I did manage to earn came from having my CSM squads shooting that Craig's Archon and his Incubi. I didn't take them out; 3+ is a tough armour save to get through, but I did take enough of them out to force a panic check which they failed. They also failed the subsequent check to rally, and the game was all over before I'd managed that.
So, what to do next time?
Well, I probably won't be playing a tournament-geared army unless I'm prepared for it, because it made me feel like a nut being cracked with a sledgehammer. But, with that army, the only thing I could have done differently is take my Khorne Lord rather than my Slaanesh one. Reason is, that would make the Khorne Bezerkers count as Troops and therefore scoring units, so on the off chance any of them were still alive by the time they got to the top of the board, they could in theory have taken the objective. As it was, they were Elite, so they didn't have that option.
Can't say I enjoyed that game too much! Got some more work to do before I try taking Craig on again.
Friday, 10 May 2013
Warhammer: Dwarves vs High Elves 8/5/2013
Last Wednesday for the first time I played a game of Warhammer 8th edition. It was one of the opening games in the escalation campaign that is running in Games Workshop Dudley at the moment, and even though the organisation of it was not great, Mike did his best to record results and arrange with the manager how it's all supposed to work when he gets back off his holidays...
It was a 500 point game between me with a group of Dwarves against another guy called Matt with High Elves. This was the first time I'd ever taken on High Elves (when I worked for Workshop, the Chaos armies were the most popular ones,) and certainly the first time I'd used Dwarves (I previously used Empire) so it was always going to be interesting. We played the Meeting Engagement scenario, which meant we're deploying on board corners rather than sides.
Now, when I start a new army, which is about once every 10 minutes, there's always a concept for it; a story behind the reason these warriors are fighting. I find if I do that, then I'm more engaged with the games that I play and with building up the army. This particular Dwarf army I'm building up tells the story of Grambur Firebeard, (a name I've pinched off a retired DnD character,) a young dwarf who has made it his mission to resolve every grudge in the Book of Grudges. He doesn't sit in his halls waiting for trouble to come to him; he actively seeks it out, taking the heads of people who have wronged him or his kin in the past. This has influenced my choice of war gear and army selection, more on this later. However, the battle will be told from the perspective of Grambur, to add what I hope will be a narrative element:
"After weeks of pursuit on our part, the hated Elves had finally decided to take the battle to us. Cagnar and his Quarrellers had taken position on the hill in the village, and I lead Rurluf and his Warriors in a direct march on the Elves and their craven wizard, whose family played a huge and substantial role in what they call 'The War of the Beard.' With the Grudge Rune on my family's axe forged to slay him and his family, we showed no mercy as we launched the attack.
We marched West along the road heading out of the village when we heard it - the tapping of a light drum and the approaching hoofbeats. It seemed the Elves feared our military might, and called upon some reinforcements from the South in the form of their Silver Helms! It mattered not; our target was the mage, and none but the strongest of all adversaries would stop us.
We did, however, concede a few yards to re-organise the unit after the lads, not used to seeing conjuring tricks being waved around, lost some of their nerve as five of our number fell to their fireworks. This gave the cowardly horsemen the chance they needed to take us in the flank. However, I was not to be outdone by the whey-faced horse whisperers, and stepped out of rank, raising my axe in a challenge to their leader to a duel to the death. Clearly feeling his lance would win him the day, he accepted, and regrettably he did hit me with a strength that not even my armour could withstand. However, my axe found its mark, and the Elven cur fell to the ground with a wound to his chest from which he would never recover. The rest of the lads did not fare well, but we stood our ground, and remembering that our prize was the Elven mage, we did not turn to face the cavalry.
The Elven Phoenix Guard did not appear willing to engage us in honourable close combat, preferring instead to presume to singe our whiskers with light shows. This left us free to address the Silver Helms; another fell to my axe and without the momentum of their charge they could do little to answer for it. The malingering mongrels rode off with their tails up their rear ends.
Finally in range, I lead a mighty charge against the Phoenix Guard. Their numbers had been steadily whittled down as a result of the supporting fire from Cagnar's Crossbows, evening out the odds of our victory, and even though they were recreant ragamuffins, they were not unworthy opponents. It is a shame that the same could not be said for the cowardly mage to whom we had journeyed so hard to find our revenge, for when I issued a challenge to face me in single combat, he slunk to the back of his unit like a white-livered rabbit, instead leaving me to the capabilities of their unit champion. I dispatched him, and many more in quick succession. The Elves learned that their flimsy halberds and pointy-eared poncing around was no match for Dwarvish Iron, and broke. However, they were spent from the fight, and we caught up with them easily, scattering the remaining Phoenix Guard.
Alas, the Elven mage was nowhere to be seen. No doubt hiding, or run from the battlefield to meet his superiors and answer for the Elven lives his foolishness has cost. It matters not. I will learn of his whereabouts, pursue him to the end of the world if need be, and take his head for the slight his ancestors imposed on members of the Elder Race! I later learned that, seeing we had the matter in hand, Cagnar retreated from the battlefield when the remnant of the Silver Helms turned their attention towards him. I do not condone him for his actions, but it happens and we would be fools to pretend otherwise...'
So, I won the game, though not altogether comfortably. The Quarrellers had run off the board despite being steadfast, (it happens,) and by the time I'd caught the Phoenix guard, I had about 7 Dwarves left in the entire army. Still, a win is a win!
By luck or judgement? Well I like to think the latter, to be honest. The army selection helped as the Quarrellers meant that I had more points to spend on my Thane, who took the most lives in combat. The flank charge from the Silver Helms was an inconvenience, but I did the right thing in not re-organising the unit to address them; my Thane was on the right side of the unit to deal with it himself and it left the rest of the unit facing forwards to stare down the Phoenix Guard; if I'd turned them around I'd have taken another flank charge! That, along with my not wanting to chase them down when they fled, was probably my best tactical decision.
Strategically, I did everything right given the army selection - choose a game plan, (kill the Wizard,) and stick to it. This is especially important for Dwarves who don't move all that fast; you really do need to be thinking a few turns ahead in Warhammer. I'd taken Quarrellers as opposed to Thunderers because of the fact that the army can spend anything up to a couple of years out on the road, where rain would make a mockery of blackpowder and they wouldn't necessarily have the opportunity to replace it when it ran out. The fact that I'd taken Quarrellers rather than Thunderers helped in a strategic sense as well; the extra 6 inches in range made all the difference, especially as I managed to put them on a hill so they could see all the units no matter who was in front of them. There were times when I missed the extra ballistic skill and the punch of handguns, but overall they did their job well enough.
My Dwarf Warriors weren't so good though. They were OK, but as their main strength is their durability (toughness 4, leadership 9 and heavy armour before you've even taken any upgrades) they were good at that but little else. Granted, I shouldn't expect much against Elves of any kind, but the plain fact is it was an immense struggle for any of them to land a blow on the Phoenix Guard, much less kill them once they had. Perhaps I'm expecting a little too much of the rank and file. Why don't I make then Longbeards? Well, it's again a part of the story of the army - spending years away from home, looking for trouble rather than waiting for it to come to you, taking a pro-active approach to resolving grudges - this is not a cause that would attract old, set-in-their ways, grumbling Longbeards. They'd probably view Grambur as an upstart young dwarf (or at least, young by Dwarf standards. He actually looks quite old but, to quote Terry Pratchett "If you're a Dwarf you start looking old when you're 5, and you're still looking old 200 years later.") So, no Longbeards, and there probably won't be any Iron Breakers in the army either for the same reason.
Which brings me on to the Dwarf Thane Himself, Grambur, and let's be honest he won that battle for me. If it's a war of attrition, you're always going to be hard-pressed to defeat Dwarves, and if one of those Dwarves has a great-axe and 3 attacks per turn, taking them head on is a very risky business indeed. He took the most Elves down, and the Master Rune of Grombrindal made him almost immortal as well, though there were one or two close calls. While I wouldn't say no to seeing him perform like that again, that's a lot of reliance on one model; at some point I'm going to roll 2 1s for his armour save and he'll die. If that happens, I've lost the only thing in the army that can get the job done. Not a nice position to be in.
There were also some bits and pieces I'd bought to fill out the points, some of which worked, some didn't. I already mentioned the Master Rune of Grombrindal which was a life-saver. Less useful was the Rune of Determination that I'd put on the Standard Bearer in the Dwarf Warriors. What that does is allows you to roll your first break test in combat on 1D6 rather than 2, which I guess would have been useful except that the unit was never actually called upon to take the test. Or it did and I forgot to use it. Either way it wouldn't have made a difference. Also the Grudge Rune was useful but not quite in the way I was expecting. While Matt guessed correctly that I'd nominated the Mage as the target, it didn't help to take him out since the two characters never had the fortune to meet. However it probably was conducive to him refusing every challenge I issued, which meant he couldn't participate in any of the combats which was an advantage.
So what's next for the army? I've got a Grudge Thrower I'm painting up, but what I'd really like next is a unit that can get it done in close combat. Given the nature and theme of the army, I'm looking at maybe Slayers or Rangers. Either would be useful, but probably Slayers as they can use their weapons either 2 1 handed or 1 2 handed; I might need that flexibility if I come across something like Skaven.
Until next time...
It was a 500 point game between me with a group of Dwarves against another guy called Matt with High Elves. This was the first time I'd ever taken on High Elves (when I worked for Workshop, the Chaos armies were the most popular ones,) and certainly the first time I'd used Dwarves (I previously used Empire) so it was always going to be interesting. We played the Meeting Engagement scenario, which meant we're deploying on board corners rather than sides.
Now, when I start a new army, which is about once every 10 minutes, there's always a concept for it; a story behind the reason these warriors are fighting. I find if I do that, then I'm more engaged with the games that I play and with building up the army. This particular Dwarf army I'm building up tells the story of Grambur Firebeard, (a name I've pinched off a retired DnD character,) a young dwarf who has made it his mission to resolve every grudge in the Book of Grudges. He doesn't sit in his halls waiting for trouble to come to him; he actively seeks it out, taking the heads of people who have wronged him or his kin in the past. This has influenced my choice of war gear and army selection, more on this later. However, the battle will be told from the perspective of Grambur, to add what I hope will be a narrative element:
"After weeks of pursuit on our part, the hated Elves had finally decided to take the battle to us. Cagnar and his Quarrellers had taken position on the hill in the village, and I lead Rurluf and his Warriors in a direct march on the Elves and their craven wizard, whose family played a huge and substantial role in what they call 'The War of the Beard.' With the Grudge Rune on my family's axe forged to slay him and his family, we showed no mercy as we launched the attack.
We marched West along the road heading out of the village when we heard it - the tapping of a light drum and the approaching hoofbeats. It seemed the Elves feared our military might, and called upon some reinforcements from the South in the form of their Silver Helms! It mattered not; our target was the mage, and none but the strongest of all adversaries would stop us.
We did, however, concede a few yards to re-organise the unit after the lads, not used to seeing conjuring tricks being waved around, lost some of their nerve as five of our number fell to their fireworks. This gave the cowardly horsemen the chance they needed to take us in the flank. However, I was not to be outdone by the whey-faced horse whisperers, and stepped out of rank, raising my axe in a challenge to their leader to a duel to the death. Clearly feeling his lance would win him the day, he accepted, and regrettably he did hit me with a strength that not even my armour could withstand. However, my axe found its mark, and the Elven cur fell to the ground with a wound to his chest from which he would never recover. The rest of the lads did not fare well, but we stood our ground, and remembering that our prize was the Elven mage, we did not turn to face the cavalry.
The Elven Phoenix Guard did not appear willing to engage us in honourable close combat, preferring instead to presume to singe our whiskers with light shows. This left us free to address the Silver Helms; another fell to my axe and without the momentum of their charge they could do little to answer for it. The malingering mongrels rode off with their tails up their rear ends.
Finally in range, I lead a mighty charge against the Phoenix Guard. Their numbers had been steadily whittled down as a result of the supporting fire from Cagnar's Crossbows, evening out the odds of our victory, and even though they were recreant ragamuffins, they were not unworthy opponents. It is a shame that the same could not be said for the cowardly mage to whom we had journeyed so hard to find our revenge, for when I issued a challenge to face me in single combat, he slunk to the back of his unit like a white-livered rabbit, instead leaving me to the capabilities of their unit champion. I dispatched him, and many more in quick succession. The Elves learned that their flimsy halberds and pointy-eared poncing around was no match for Dwarvish Iron, and broke. However, they were spent from the fight, and we caught up with them easily, scattering the remaining Phoenix Guard.
Alas, the Elven mage was nowhere to be seen. No doubt hiding, or run from the battlefield to meet his superiors and answer for the Elven lives his foolishness has cost. It matters not. I will learn of his whereabouts, pursue him to the end of the world if need be, and take his head for the slight his ancestors imposed on members of the Elder Race! I later learned that, seeing we had the matter in hand, Cagnar retreated from the battlefield when the remnant of the Silver Helms turned their attention towards him. I do not condone him for his actions, but it happens and we would be fools to pretend otherwise...'
So, I won the game, though not altogether comfortably. The Quarrellers had run off the board despite being steadfast, (it happens,) and by the time I'd caught the Phoenix guard, I had about 7 Dwarves left in the entire army. Still, a win is a win!
By luck or judgement? Well I like to think the latter, to be honest. The army selection helped as the Quarrellers meant that I had more points to spend on my Thane, who took the most lives in combat. The flank charge from the Silver Helms was an inconvenience, but I did the right thing in not re-organising the unit to address them; my Thane was on the right side of the unit to deal with it himself and it left the rest of the unit facing forwards to stare down the Phoenix Guard; if I'd turned them around I'd have taken another flank charge! That, along with my not wanting to chase them down when they fled, was probably my best tactical decision.
Strategically, I did everything right given the army selection - choose a game plan, (kill the Wizard,) and stick to it. This is especially important for Dwarves who don't move all that fast; you really do need to be thinking a few turns ahead in Warhammer. I'd taken Quarrellers as opposed to Thunderers because of the fact that the army can spend anything up to a couple of years out on the road, where rain would make a mockery of blackpowder and they wouldn't necessarily have the opportunity to replace it when it ran out. The fact that I'd taken Quarrellers rather than Thunderers helped in a strategic sense as well; the extra 6 inches in range made all the difference, especially as I managed to put them on a hill so they could see all the units no matter who was in front of them. There were times when I missed the extra ballistic skill and the punch of handguns, but overall they did their job well enough.
My Dwarf Warriors weren't so good though. They were OK, but as their main strength is their durability (toughness 4, leadership 9 and heavy armour before you've even taken any upgrades) they were good at that but little else. Granted, I shouldn't expect much against Elves of any kind, but the plain fact is it was an immense struggle for any of them to land a blow on the Phoenix Guard, much less kill them once they had. Perhaps I'm expecting a little too much of the rank and file. Why don't I make then Longbeards? Well, it's again a part of the story of the army - spending years away from home, looking for trouble rather than waiting for it to come to you, taking a pro-active approach to resolving grudges - this is not a cause that would attract old, set-in-their ways, grumbling Longbeards. They'd probably view Grambur as an upstart young dwarf (or at least, young by Dwarf standards. He actually looks quite old but, to quote Terry Pratchett "If you're a Dwarf you start looking old when you're 5, and you're still looking old 200 years later.") So, no Longbeards, and there probably won't be any Iron Breakers in the army either for the same reason.
Which brings me on to the Dwarf Thane Himself, Grambur, and let's be honest he won that battle for me. If it's a war of attrition, you're always going to be hard-pressed to defeat Dwarves, and if one of those Dwarves has a great-axe and 3 attacks per turn, taking them head on is a very risky business indeed. He took the most Elves down, and the Master Rune of Grombrindal made him almost immortal as well, though there were one or two close calls. While I wouldn't say no to seeing him perform like that again, that's a lot of reliance on one model; at some point I'm going to roll 2 1s for his armour save and he'll die. If that happens, I've lost the only thing in the army that can get the job done. Not a nice position to be in.
There were also some bits and pieces I'd bought to fill out the points, some of which worked, some didn't. I already mentioned the Master Rune of Grombrindal which was a life-saver. Less useful was the Rune of Determination that I'd put on the Standard Bearer in the Dwarf Warriors. What that does is allows you to roll your first break test in combat on 1D6 rather than 2, which I guess would have been useful except that the unit was never actually called upon to take the test. Or it did and I forgot to use it. Either way it wouldn't have made a difference. Also the Grudge Rune was useful but not quite in the way I was expecting. While Matt guessed correctly that I'd nominated the Mage as the target, it didn't help to take him out since the two characters never had the fortune to meet. However it probably was conducive to him refusing every challenge I issued, which meant he couldn't participate in any of the combats which was an advantage.
So what's next for the army? I've got a Grudge Thrower I'm painting up, but what I'd really like next is a unit that can get it done in close combat. Given the nature and theme of the army, I'm looking at maybe Slayers or Rangers. Either would be useful, but probably Slayers as they can use their weapons either 2 1 handed or 1 2 handed; I might need that flexibility if I come across something like Skaven.
Until next time...
Sunday, 7 April 2013
Warhammer World Invasion: April 2013
It took a while to get there but for me, the 2013 season is now on! Last week at Warhammer World I finally got to play some full games of the new edition of Warhammer 40K. It was an Invasion event that runs there from time to time, particularly in the school holidays, and it being a doubles event I partnered up with Dave and took the Iron Scars clan to their inaugral tournament. Here's how it all went down:
Because I wanted to use a new army for this, I designed a new Chaos Space Marine army around a god that is used far too little - Slaanesh. Granted, they lack the brutality of Khorne, or the reslience of Nurgle, but having cut my teeth on Dark Eldar way back when I first started the hobby, I am very well aware of how useful that extra initiative can be. Here's my army list:
Quite a lot going on there for a small army. What was supposed to happen was the Raptors deep-strike onto the battlefield either straight away or 1 turn in, use their Melta guns to destroy either the vehicles or whatever the enemy had sunk the most points on, and harrass the rest of the army until the end of the game, contesting objectives if at all possible. The rest of the force would support them by holding our objectives, firing plasma shots at hard targets, and in the case of the Chaos Space Marine Lord, jumping into any combat that needed supporting. Dave had taken a swarm of 75 Orks lead by a Big Mek, going on the assumption that whatever damage they took, there'd still be plenty more where they came from. We entered battle with all this in mind, and campaigned to aid the Dudley store in their victory...
A quick note about the games, as there were elements common to all of them:
When we found ourselves up against Grey Knights and Blood Angels, including some Death Company, I was convinced we were going do die a quick and horrible death. The scenario was Big Guns Never Tire (Objectives (in our case 4) with Heavy Support counting as scoring units as well as granting victory points) with Hammer and Anvil deployment, so we had a long way to go before we got into any kind of fighting. The Grey Knights, funnily enough, had a pinkish tint to them, their commander Ben attributing this to the time they spend fighting Slaanesh, and I was eager to continue the Rivalry!
They hadn't counted on the Raptors, and it was a good day for their Champion as he dispatched a Blood Angels Assualt Sergeant in Black Rage and a Grey Knight Justicar in single combat; not always a wise move to make but a necessary one since Chaos Champions have no choice in the matter. This cost our enemies the game, since the rest of the combat has no effect on the participants of the challenge, so by the end of the 3rd turn their objective was still contested as the Champion was still alive where his comrades had fallen. Elsewhere, the other objectives remained bitterly contested as the remaining forces of the Space Marines arrived via Deep Strike, but it was not enough firepower to move either the Orks or the Chaos Marines from their objectives. In the end, Dave and I won on Secondary victory points, and while it was not the decisive win we would have chosen, it was enough to get the day off to a promising start.
Final Score: Chaos/Orks win 2-0.
Round Two: Chaos/Orks vs Necrons/Tryanids
This was a battle we were dreading. The only thing worse than an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object is having to take on a combined strength of an unstoppable force (the Tryanids) AND an immovable object (the Necrons.) To make matters worse, we'd landed a 6-objective Scouring scenario (Objectives, with Fast Attack counting as scoring units and awarding victory points) and the 1 specialised unit that we had was Fast Attack (the Raptors.) This wasn't going to change my game plan, but we'd have to watch our step carefully...
Losing the first turn to a seize of initiative cost us dearly, as we found several large blast templates on top of us courtesy of the Necrons which wiped out a significant number of the Orks before we'd even got started. My Chaos Marines made an immediate grab for 2 of the objectives while we concentrated fire on the Gargoyles. We wiped the unit out, denying the enemy a fast scoring unit and earning us a couple of victory points.
Notwithstanding the arrival of the Raptors, it then became a war of attrition, which with so many guns supporting an onslaught of Tyranids was always going to be a struggle to win. However the balance of power literally came down to the last 10 minutes of the game where 1 of 3 things had to happen in order to win:
Result: Necrons/Tryanids win 7-5.
Round Three: Chaos/Orks vs Dark Angels/Space Wolves
While we'd never be so arrogant as to suggest we had this one in the bag, we did approach this particular battle with a certain amount of confidence. I had the firepower to take out heavily armoured units, and Dave had the numbers to overwhelm them. So much so that, even with Vanguard deployment (imprecise and hard to strategise,) Emperor's Will objectives (1 objective each) and staring 2 Vindicators in the face right at the start of the game, we were confident that we'd do a good job with this one.
We could not have been more wrong. Due to some appalling deployment on my part, 1 of my squads of Chaos Marines was left out in the open and was shot to pieces in the first turn, giving our enemies first blood. My Chaos Lord was not long in following. Dave had mercifully granted Outflank to his leader during the Warlord Traits stage, and he seized the opportunity to wreak havoc on the left flank of the Space Marine forces, with it must be said some success. We also put up a fierce defence of our own objective. The Raptors arrived behind enemy lines as planned, but were rattled firstly by the squad of Space Wolves in a Razorback, and secondly by the Vindicator they were desperately trying to destroy blowing up in their face and wiping out the entire squad. Both sides managed to hold on to their objectives at the end of the game, but the secondary victory points meant that the Space Marines managed to win the day quite comfortably.
Result: Dark Angels/Space Wolves win 7-3.
Final Result
Well, even if there was more than 1 position of Store Champion, we were never going to get it with only 1 win out of 3, so well done to Chris and Mason for their well-deserved victories!
However, after a gruelling and even battle, the Dudley store eventually won. It was level-pegging up until the last 5 games, which swung it in Dudley's favour, so well done to those guys for covering the tracks of those who didn't do so well!
What have I learned?
Because it wouldn't be proper to write all this without taking something from it...
Given that it was the first time either me or Dave had played a full game of 6th edition 40K, we were caught out by the rules changes a surprisingly small number of times. There were occassions where we made some tactically poor decisions that we could learn from, so here's a few things that had a significant impact on what was eventually decided, and how we can learn from it:
Because I wanted to use a new army for this, I designed a new Chaos Space Marine army around a god that is used far too little - Slaanesh. Granted, they lack the brutality of Khorne, or the reslience of Nurgle, but having cut my teeth on Dark Eldar way back when I first started the hobby, I am very well aware of how useful that extra initiative can be. Here's my army list:
| Components | Points | Total Points | Total Army | |
| HQ | Chaos Lord | 65 | 120 | 600 |
| Jump Pack | 15 | |||
| Lightning Claw (2) | 30 | |||
| Mark of Slaanesh | 10 | |||
| Troops | Chaos Space Marines (6) | 88 | 161 | |
| Lightning Claw (2) | 30 | |||
| Close Combat Weapon (5) | 10 | |||
| Plasma Gun | 15 | |||
| Veterans of the Long War (6) | 6 | |||
| Mark of Slaanesh | 12 | |||
| Chaos Space Marines (6) | 88 | 155 | ||
| Lightning Claw (2) | 30 | |||
| Close Combat Weapon (5) | 10 | |||
| Plasma Gun | 15 | |||
| Mark of Slaanesh | 12 | |||
| Fast Attack | Raptors (6) | 112 | 164 | |
| Meltagun (2) | 20 | |||
| Plasma Pistol | 15 | |||
| Melta Bombs | 5 | |||
| Mark of Slaanesh (6) | 12 |
A quick note about the games, as there were elements common to all of them:
- The games were all supposed to be Doubles games, with 600pts per player, using the standard force organisation chart. Now, the chart can be applied somewhat loosely in small-point games, but in this case the rules stood firm to stop people taking dirty, cheesey armies to what was supposed to be a friendly tournament.
- The games we played were all fast, dirty and scrappy, and with just the right balance between competitiveness and friendlyness; we couldn't have asked for a better set of opponents.
- Regular games of 40K can last for up to 7 turns, and more commonly 5, but because of the limited time constraints, none of our games lasted longer than 3 turns each.
When we found ourselves up against Grey Knights and Blood Angels, including some Death Company, I was convinced we were going do die a quick and horrible death. The scenario was Big Guns Never Tire (Objectives (in our case 4) with Heavy Support counting as scoring units as well as granting victory points) with Hammer and Anvil deployment, so we had a long way to go before we got into any kind of fighting. The Grey Knights, funnily enough, had a pinkish tint to them, their commander Ben attributing this to the time they spend fighting Slaanesh, and I was eager to continue the Rivalry!
They hadn't counted on the Raptors, and it was a good day for their Champion as he dispatched a Blood Angels Assualt Sergeant in Black Rage and a Grey Knight Justicar in single combat; not always a wise move to make but a necessary one since Chaos Champions have no choice in the matter. This cost our enemies the game, since the rest of the combat has no effect on the participants of the challenge, so by the end of the 3rd turn their objective was still contested as the Champion was still alive where his comrades had fallen. Elsewhere, the other objectives remained bitterly contested as the remaining forces of the Space Marines arrived via Deep Strike, but it was not enough firepower to move either the Orks or the Chaos Marines from their objectives. In the end, Dave and I won on Secondary victory points, and while it was not the decisive win we would have chosen, it was enough to get the day off to a promising start.
Final Score: Chaos/Orks win 2-0.
Round Two: Chaos/Orks vs Necrons/Tryanids
This was a battle we were dreading. The only thing worse than an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object is having to take on a combined strength of an unstoppable force (the Tryanids) AND an immovable object (the Necrons.) To make matters worse, we'd landed a 6-objective Scouring scenario (Objectives, with Fast Attack counting as scoring units and awarding victory points) and the 1 specialised unit that we had was Fast Attack (the Raptors.) This wasn't going to change my game plan, but we'd have to watch our step carefully...
Losing the first turn to a seize of initiative cost us dearly, as we found several large blast templates on top of us courtesy of the Necrons which wiped out a significant number of the Orks before we'd even got started. My Chaos Marines made an immediate grab for 2 of the objectives while we concentrated fire on the Gargoyles. We wiped the unit out, denying the enemy a fast scoring unit and earning us a couple of victory points.
Notwithstanding the arrival of the Raptors, it then became a war of attrition, which with so many guns supporting an onslaught of Tyranids was always going to be a struggle to win. However the balance of power literally came down to the last 10 minutes of the game where 1 of 3 things had to happen in order to win:
- The skeletal wreck of one of my units of Chaos Marines needed to score a high enough Run roll to get to the objective on the left hand side of our deployment zone,
- The Orks holding one of our objectives needed to pass a leadership test forced by the presence and attacks of a Zonathrope,
- The Raptors needed to defeat a squad of 6 Necrons in close combat and force them to flee from the objective they were holding.
Result: Necrons/Tryanids win 7-5.
Round Three: Chaos/Orks vs Dark Angels/Space Wolves
While we'd never be so arrogant as to suggest we had this one in the bag, we did approach this particular battle with a certain amount of confidence. I had the firepower to take out heavily armoured units, and Dave had the numbers to overwhelm them. So much so that, even with Vanguard deployment (imprecise and hard to strategise,) Emperor's Will objectives (1 objective each) and staring 2 Vindicators in the face right at the start of the game, we were confident that we'd do a good job with this one.
We could not have been more wrong. Due to some appalling deployment on my part, 1 of my squads of Chaos Marines was left out in the open and was shot to pieces in the first turn, giving our enemies first blood. My Chaos Lord was not long in following. Dave had mercifully granted Outflank to his leader during the Warlord Traits stage, and he seized the opportunity to wreak havoc on the left flank of the Space Marine forces, with it must be said some success. We also put up a fierce defence of our own objective. The Raptors arrived behind enemy lines as planned, but were rattled firstly by the squad of Space Wolves in a Razorback, and secondly by the Vindicator they were desperately trying to destroy blowing up in their face and wiping out the entire squad. Both sides managed to hold on to their objectives at the end of the game, but the secondary victory points meant that the Space Marines managed to win the day quite comfortably.
Result: Dark Angels/Space Wolves win 7-3.
Final Result
Well, even if there was more than 1 position of Store Champion, we were never going to get it with only 1 win out of 3, so well done to Chris and Mason for their well-deserved victories!
However, after a gruelling and even battle, the Dudley store eventually won. It was level-pegging up until the last 5 games, which swung it in Dudley's favour, so well done to those guys for covering the tracks of those who didn't do so well!
What have I learned?
Because it wouldn't be proper to write all this without taking something from it...
Given that it was the first time either me or Dave had played a full game of 6th edition 40K, we were caught out by the rules changes a surprisingly small number of times. There were occassions where we made some tactically poor decisions that we could learn from, so here's a few things that had a significant impact on what was eventually decided, and how we can learn from it:
- Objectives give you points, Secondary Victory Points win games. What you have to do in order to collect these secondary points (be the first player/team to wipe out 1 unit, kill the enemy commander and finish the game with models in the enemy deployment zone) appear to favour aggressive tactics, and while my Raptors were conducive to this, the other squads weren't doing much more than hold on to the objectives. That's fine; everything was useful to one degree or another. Just keep in mind that the game now seems to favour agression. Use it!
- It didn't always help but the Mark of Slaanesh was a real bonus against the Grey Knights and Blood Angels. The higher initiative gives you an edge; a way to tip the balance against two fundamentaly similar stat lines. Space Marine Armies are never going to be large, which means losing even 1 of them will hurt. If they're lost before they've even had a chance to fight back, it's worth the extra couple of points that the higher initiative will give you. You won't necessarily hit very hard - giving a Power Fist or such like to a model with the Mark of Slaanesh is meaningless - but power weapons and lightning claws should work well enough for most situations. Build on it!
- One thing I didn't realise about my Raptors is that they cause Fear. While this doesn't cripple you in quite the same way that it does in Warhammer Fantasy, it can still be effective in reducing the weapon skill of your opponent. Given the opponents we faced, it would only really have helped in the Tyranids/Necrons battle, but it's worth remembering for the future, I think.
- The next stage for the army is to add some more Raptors, which will come as no surprise given how much I've been banging on about them throughout this blog. I discussed my 'Tank Hunter' tactic above; it worked, but not well. I simply couldn't bring enough firepower to one squad to do enough damage to a vehicle to take it out in one turn. The solution? Another squad of Raptors. Arming them in the same way will double the firepower I can bring, and if one of them gets a mishap during Deep Strike, at least my tactic isn't totally lost. I'll also be taking their Melta Bombs away, as their firepower makes it less than necessary, and also I'm taking Veterans of the Long War away from the Chaos Space Marine squads. It's a useful rule against Space Marines, and brings your leadership up to 9/10, but it didn't make much difference in practice. I'm not saying they'll never have it again, but I want to see how the new Raptors work out first...
Tuesday, 19 February 2013
How I feel about Games Workshop
Ladies and Gentlemen it has been a while, but I am back with another running commentary about games, gaming and people who game. Now, since a lot of the inspiration for this entire blog comes from the negative attitude towards Games Workshop, I thought I would make my own contribution to it. Let us be clear though: This is not a rant. I know I sit on the fence a lot with this kind of thing, and usually I'm not willing to make a decision one way or the other, but actually this is more of a 'hit-back' at those who have nothing better to do than to rant at GW. Still interested? Read on...
So what triggered this? Not for the first time it was actually a Facebook conversation that started all this off. The original comment was posted by a former staffer Ben, wondering out loud whether to sell all his GW hobby because "GW doesn't want me to use it anyway!" This comment later turned out to be to do with their pricing, which to be fair gets ridiculously higher on a yearly basis. After which we had the usual bombardment of agreement from bitter veterans, talking up Warmachine, Infinity, Malifaux or whatever. One person in particular, who I won't name since I don't, as far as I know, know the guy in person, was having a fine old time talking about how GW don't care that 90% of people don't like the price increases or the imbalance in the rules, prefering to focus instead on the people who want to buy the lastest new shiny things and divorced parents trying to buy their child's love who make up the remaining 10%. I wasn't sure where he'd got these figures from, but it did make me wonder when was the last time he actually went into a Games Workshop store and found out what goes on down there. I was also amused to see some comments from my former manager Andy, talking up 40K as opposed to the other games in a way that to anybody else might seem formulaic. Having worked for him for year and a half, it was not hard to picture him saying all of those things in the 'dismissive of all non-GW products' manner that I'd come to expect from him, and in spite of everything else I actually allowed myself a little smile at this.
My conribution to all of this was as follows:
"Well here's an argument I never get tired of! It's really not such a big deal; I don't necessarily like some of the things that GW do but since I can always find enough that I do like to keep me engaged, I don't take every possible opportunity to snarl at them either..."
And when Ben realised he'd basically started an argument, he gave his clarified views about the current edition of the games and assured us all that he wanted no one to fall out over it. I followed it up with:
"Ben, I agree with everything your last comment said, with the exception of WH8th, which I have yet to play so I couldn't honestly say one way or the other. But the "GW Sucks" comments annoy me as they usually appear to be opportunistic ranting from veterans who 9/10 will go ahead and buy/play GW stuff anyway. Especially when, as in this case, the comments appear to originate from staffers or ex-staffers, as there is a presumption that those guys know what they're talking about which gives the people who want to complain something that they think is solid to base their arguments on."
After my first comment, Kev, who is or was a manager at one of the Games Workshop stores, asked me "in regards to what? Please be specific as I am curious. :) " And that is going to be the focus of this blog: Answering the questions and having my own say on the matter. As I'm not sure what Kev was asking me, what keeps me engaged or what don't I like about GW that I would otherwise be snarling at, I'll answer both, as they're both means to the same end.
So to kick us off:
Pricing Issues
It's really easy to pick on GW for this as there is no way they can stick up for themselves or pretend that the amount of money they charge for their product is in any way a small amount of money unless you own Switzerland or something. Because of the way they price their products these days, somebody getting into the hobby for the first time would have to drop in excess of £100 on it just to get started, and another £3/400 on expansions and add-ons before they're playing and painting at a level that is touted from the very beginning of their hobby experience. I certainly don't enjoy having to pay £30 for a codex and £23 for a box of Chaos Space Marines, a kid who's only income is a paper round hasn't got a chance, and it's not much better if you're on a part time wage and you have to, you know, eat.
But it does annoy me when people moan about it as though it's a new thing. GW's annual price rise is something that's happened every year now for about the last 12, and should not be news to anyone who's been in to the hobby for longer than a couple of years at the very most. The people who GW plan their business around are the new recruits to the hobby, and they aren't going to know the difference; they'll either choose to buy it at the price GW happen to be charging at the time or they won't. If they do, good for them, and if they don't, then it's no skin off GW's nose because they can't lose a customer they never had in the first place. I don't buy that the amount they're charging for their product is relative to the amount it costs them to produce it and I will NEVER thank GW for making me pay even more for their stuff than I already do. But I accept that it is going to happen whether I like it or not, and no amount of whinging, whining, or throwing my toys out of the pram in the form of quitting the hobby in protest, is going to make the slightest bit of difference.
Balance Issues
Right, this is a bit of a tricky one, as my opinion on this is just that - my opinion. I'm not basing it on fact, I'm basing it on what I've heard from other people and my own hobby experience. So what I say here might not be the consensus, it is literally just how I feel about this.
A large part of the issue with the GW games appears to be that they're not balanced, i.e. you're not necessarily going to put two equal-sized armies on the table and get a fair fight out of it, because one army will inevitably be better than the other to a certain degree. One term I hear bandied around a lot is 'Power Creep,' which refers to the idea that the latest army will be a little bit better than the one that was released before, and that one was better than the one released prior to that, and so on. I don't know if this is true or not because I've never made it my mission to find out all the nasty tournament combos etc; if I like an army I'll collect it, if I don't then I won't. And sometimes I hear that other games are more balanced because they have less factions, better rules, and so on. I don't know, I don't play any of those other games so I'm not in a position where I can say one way or the other. All this is what I've heard.
The problem is that I don't really play GW games at a level where balance issues affect me. I'm not what would normally be considered a 'tournament player,' where such imbalances would become an issue. I don't design my armies to be 'dirty,' 'cheesy,' 'broken' or any of it, simply because I don't know how; I collect the models I like and see where it goes from there. And while I am designing some of my more recent 40K armies with specific tactics in mind, I have yet to see if it will actually do me any good. The only balance issues I've ever come across have been when I've played against people who ARE tournament players, who DO write dirty, cheesy, broken army lists, in which case I tend to get wiped out very quickly and I don't enjoy the game very much because of the rather abrasive attitude that comes with some - not all - such players.
My feeling is that you're playing a wargame; you are going to design your armies to have the advantage over others, and nothing but experience will tell you how to do this. I imagine that any war game is going to have balance issues to a certain extent, because of the different capabilities of each faction that means that one is probably going to be better than the other in at least one respect, and it could just as easily work the other way round. The only wargame I can think of that is 100% balanced with regard to the rules is Chess. So there you go; if you want a balanced game, go ahead and play Chess.
Games Workshop's Business Plan
This title might seem a bit abstract, but it is worth a mention because I've seen many complaints that GW do very little to support their long-term hobbyists. This takes me right back to the 'Bitter Veterans' rant, where I see far too much of 'GW don't care about us, so I don't care about them; I'm selling all my armies and I'll never play the game again.' Just the kind of single-minded obstinacy that really sets my teeth on edge...
As far as I can see, all veterans actually want, apart from a balanced rule system, is for things to remain exactly as they are and never change. Or more accurately, for things to be how they were when they remember enjoying the hobby most, be that 5, 10, 15 years ago or maybe even longer. Sorry guys but that's not going to happen. The hobby has to evolve or it will stagnate; I've spoken about this before, and what isn't helping wargaming in general is a refusal to accept this simple but necessary fact.
So what, you think GW don't care about you because they're updating their rules, bringing out new games, armies, focusing their efforts on recruiting new people into the hobby? Well you're quite right - they don't. They can't. They're not going to run a successful business with the same customers for 20 years; business doesn't work like that. If you manage to stay in to the hobby for 20 years then that's great, but GW do expect you to be able to sort yourself out after that long, even if that means jumping ship to other companies and other games.
Games Workshop are under no illusions about the longetivity of their games, or at least the extent to which they can affect it. They know that if they recruit someone into their hobby, they will have that person for the 1-3 years it takes for them to realise that what they enjoy about the hobby, be it the painting, the gaming, the coversions, the novels or whatever, they can get for significantly less money and higher quality if they know where to look. And they'll milk them for all they're worth during that time, all the while recruiting new people into the hobby for another 1-3 years... by continuing this cycle, and focusing their business plan on new people who don't know or care that it was cheaper 5 years ago (what wasn't?) and certainly give a donkey's doo-dahs about balance issues, GW continues to survive. Not by looking after veterans. They can look after themselves, or at least that is the presumption.
So all that being the case, what keeps me engaged?
Several reasons, really, and I suspect they will all come down to the same thing, but anyway:
The Warhammer/40K material
This had been an integral part of my imagination for nearly half my life, and still would be if Dungeons and Dragons hadn't taken over. High Fantasy and Space-Age Heroes really do excite me.
Now, I'm not necessarily talking about the narrative plots, canon or whatever that you get in Black Library novels. I've read several of them and though Dreadfleet was so bad to the degree that I actually couldn't stand to read it anymore, most of them work well enough. However I do find them rather repetitive, and the bleak apocalyptic visions of the 41st Millenium, which was basically all I did read for about a year, got old after a while. The snippets of information or story that you would normally get in the rulebooks or codices are normally as long as they need to be to keep me engaged, and the longer material is there if I needed it.
No, I'm talking about my own opinions of the background material; what everything is, why it does what it does. And this is kind of hard to explain, but I think this is the reason why fan fiction is quite a big thing - it allows some kind of interaction into the setting or the world you have created. Confused? OK - Best game of 40K I ever played was my old Chaos Space Marine army, which by the standards of most armies was useless, against a guy called James and he had Ultramarines. Straight away you've got a long-standing rivalry. Now, consider the following:
The People
This works on so many levels that is a whole blog in and of itself, but there are two main reasons I enjoy the company of people who come in to Games Workshop:
The Immersion
I've already talked about the meaning of this with the background material, but at it's most simplest interpretation, 'Immersion' is the measurement of the extent of your engagement in the hobby. And I've been thinking about this a lot lately through the Roleplaying group and also through war games and board games; the most I enjoy any game really is how engaged I am with the character and personality of what I am playing.
For example, the Slaanesh army I'm working on for the upcoming Warhammer World Invasion tournament coming up in April has, I think, a lot of character. All the champions other than the Raptor have Lightning Claws. All the squads number 6 members. They all have the Mark of Slaanesh; utterly devoted to the Prince of Pleasure. I'm certainly looking forward to getting some games in with them to see how well they all work together to the end, and coming up with an explaination as to why they've subjegated a clan of Orks to their cause...
There are other ways to be immersed in the hobby, the game I described above was one of the highlights, but it's really not hard to do. Next time you're starting an army, ask yourself a few questions like:
So why don't I play other games?
I read a lot of blogs and have heard a lot of people talking online about Malifaux, War Machine, Hordes, Infinity, Flames of War and quite a few other war games that work in a similar vein to Warhammer and 40K. I was even tempted by Mantic, who have what could cynically be described as their own versions of both games, Kings of War and Warpath. I've heard people say that these games are generally preferable to the Games Workshop roster because of various different reasons, ranging from the better models, better balancing, better rules, or simply by not being Games Workshop. And yes, I've heard that those games are cheaper to get started playing as well. So why don't I play any of those games?
The answer is actually quite simple: I don't know anybody else who does.
Well, that's not literally true. Obviously I know some people or I'd never have thought about it at all. It's just that the people I know who play games like that tend to be online, through blogs, or those facebook friends where you don't really know who they are but you know someone who does. I'm also in a Wargamers Anonymous group on Facebook and those guys talk about those different games as well. Thing is, I rarely, if ever, meet any of those guys in person, and I only consider them 'friends' in the loosest possible sence of the word, if at all.
So why don't I go down to a gaming shop and check them out, I hear you cry? Well, I probably would, but as I live in North Dudley, the nearest shops that do that sort of thing are Wayland's Forge in Birmingham (which I've been in a couple of times before and it feels like a less friendly version of GW,) and Titan Games in Lichfield (run by former GW manager Adam who's a really nice guy and I'm sure is doing great things with his shop, though I have yet to see it in person.) It would take me anything up to a couple of hours to get to either shop, so regular visits are out of the question, plus paying for parking etc... just to get a different game, when I've got 2 Games Workshop stores that are a 20 minute drive away in either direction. It would almost be like starting a new hobby entirely, and that is not a prospect I find very alluring.
Nor is going down to the gaming clubs. I managed to upset one of the guys on the committee of the nearest one to me, Dudley Darklords, by going off on one about the dirty tournament players that make up a significant number of its members, so I will never show my face down there as long as I live. (By the way this wasn't intentional. It's just that, when I'm high as a kite on adrenaline, as I was that day after finishing a particularly punishing game of 40K, I can end up speaking without thinking and saying some incredibly stupid things.) The others that I am aware of all meet on Fridays, and I've talked a couple of times on the blog about why weekends are no good for me.
I know two people socially who play games, one of which I'm pretty sure is almost always strapped for money so the idea of buying into a new game system isn't high on his agenda right now. The other I know through my girlfriend, and he lives quite a long way away so even though he's tried to get me in to different games in the past, it just hasn't worked. I know I'm not exactly helping the situation by not getting invloved with the games. But the plain fact of the matter is that I don't have the time, I don't have the money, and I certainly don't have the space to invest into a completely new game that I only have a very small chance of ever being able to play, for the reasons outlined above, just because someone I barely know has told me that I should. It's not that I don't want to, it's just that I haven't got what I'm going to need in order to make it happen.
Whether that will always be the case I don't know. But for now, I'll stick with Games Workshop. I still enjoy it, after all.
And just as importantly, I still WANT to enjoy it.
So what triggered this? Not for the first time it was actually a Facebook conversation that started all this off. The original comment was posted by a former staffer Ben, wondering out loud whether to sell all his GW hobby because "GW doesn't want me to use it anyway!" This comment later turned out to be to do with their pricing, which to be fair gets ridiculously higher on a yearly basis. After which we had the usual bombardment of agreement from bitter veterans, talking up Warmachine, Infinity, Malifaux or whatever. One person in particular, who I won't name since I don't, as far as I know, know the guy in person, was having a fine old time talking about how GW don't care that 90% of people don't like the price increases or the imbalance in the rules, prefering to focus instead on the people who want to buy the lastest new shiny things and divorced parents trying to buy their child's love who make up the remaining 10%. I wasn't sure where he'd got these figures from, but it did make me wonder when was the last time he actually went into a Games Workshop store and found out what goes on down there. I was also amused to see some comments from my former manager Andy, talking up 40K as opposed to the other games in a way that to anybody else might seem formulaic. Having worked for him for year and a half, it was not hard to picture him saying all of those things in the 'dismissive of all non-GW products' manner that I'd come to expect from him, and in spite of everything else I actually allowed myself a little smile at this.
My conribution to all of this was as follows:
"Well here's an argument I never get tired of! It's really not such a big deal; I don't necessarily like some of the things that GW do but since I can always find enough that I do like to keep me engaged, I don't take every possible opportunity to snarl at them either..."
And when Ben realised he'd basically started an argument, he gave his clarified views about the current edition of the games and assured us all that he wanted no one to fall out over it. I followed it up with:
"Ben, I agree with everything your last comment said, with the exception of WH8th, which I have yet to play so I couldn't honestly say one way or the other. But the "GW Sucks" comments annoy me as they usually appear to be opportunistic ranting from veterans who 9/10 will go ahead and buy/play GW stuff anyway. Especially when, as in this case, the comments appear to originate from staffers or ex-staffers, as there is a presumption that those guys know what they're talking about which gives the people who want to complain something that they think is solid to base their arguments on."
After my first comment, Kev, who is or was a manager at one of the Games Workshop stores, asked me "in regards to what? Please be specific as I am curious. :) " And that is going to be the focus of this blog: Answering the questions and having my own say on the matter. As I'm not sure what Kev was asking me, what keeps me engaged or what don't I like about GW that I would otherwise be snarling at, I'll answer both, as they're both means to the same end.
So to kick us off:
Pricing Issues
It's really easy to pick on GW for this as there is no way they can stick up for themselves or pretend that the amount of money they charge for their product is in any way a small amount of money unless you own Switzerland or something. Because of the way they price their products these days, somebody getting into the hobby for the first time would have to drop in excess of £100 on it just to get started, and another £3/400 on expansions and add-ons before they're playing and painting at a level that is touted from the very beginning of their hobby experience. I certainly don't enjoy having to pay £30 for a codex and £23 for a box of Chaos Space Marines, a kid who's only income is a paper round hasn't got a chance, and it's not much better if you're on a part time wage and you have to, you know, eat.
But it does annoy me when people moan about it as though it's a new thing. GW's annual price rise is something that's happened every year now for about the last 12, and should not be news to anyone who's been in to the hobby for longer than a couple of years at the very most. The people who GW plan their business around are the new recruits to the hobby, and they aren't going to know the difference; they'll either choose to buy it at the price GW happen to be charging at the time or they won't. If they do, good for them, and if they don't, then it's no skin off GW's nose because they can't lose a customer they never had in the first place. I don't buy that the amount they're charging for their product is relative to the amount it costs them to produce it and I will NEVER thank GW for making me pay even more for their stuff than I already do. But I accept that it is going to happen whether I like it or not, and no amount of whinging, whining, or throwing my toys out of the pram in the form of quitting the hobby in protest, is going to make the slightest bit of difference.
Balance Issues
Right, this is a bit of a tricky one, as my opinion on this is just that - my opinion. I'm not basing it on fact, I'm basing it on what I've heard from other people and my own hobby experience. So what I say here might not be the consensus, it is literally just how I feel about this.
A large part of the issue with the GW games appears to be that they're not balanced, i.e. you're not necessarily going to put two equal-sized armies on the table and get a fair fight out of it, because one army will inevitably be better than the other to a certain degree. One term I hear bandied around a lot is 'Power Creep,' which refers to the idea that the latest army will be a little bit better than the one that was released before, and that one was better than the one released prior to that, and so on. I don't know if this is true or not because I've never made it my mission to find out all the nasty tournament combos etc; if I like an army I'll collect it, if I don't then I won't. And sometimes I hear that other games are more balanced because they have less factions, better rules, and so on. I don't know, I don't play any of those other games so I'm not in a position where I can say one way or the other. All this is what I've heard.
The problem is that I don't really play GW games at a level where balance issues affect me. I'm not what would normally be considered a 'tournament player,' where such imbalances would become an issue. I don't design my armies to be 'dirty,' 'cheesy,' 'broken' or any of it, simply because I don't know how; I collect the models I like and see where it goes from there. And while I am designing some of my more recent 40K armies with specific tactics in mind, I have yet to see if it will actually do me any good. The only balance issues I've ever come across have been when I've played against people who ARE tournament players, who DO write dirty, cheesy, broken army lists, in which case I tend to get wiped out very quickly and I don't enjoy the game very much because of the rather abrasive attitude that comes with some - not all - such players.
My feeling is that you're playing a wargame; you are going to design your armies to have the advantage over others, and nothing but experience will tell you how to do this. I imagine that any war game is going to have balance issues to a certain extent, because of the different capabilities of each faction that means that one is probably going to be better than the other in at least one respect, and it could just as easily work the other way round. The only wargame I can think of that is 100% balanced with regard to the rules is Chess. So there you go; if you want a balanced game, go ahead and play Chess.
Games Workshop's Business Plan
This title might seem a bit abstract, but it is worth a mention because I've seen many complaints that GW do very little to support their long-term hobbyists. This takes me right back to the 'Bitter Veterans' rant, where I see far too much of 'GW don't care about us, so I don't care about them; I'm selling all my armies and I'll never play the game again.' Just the kind of single-minded obstinacy that really sets my teeth on edge...
As far as I can see, all veterans actually want, apart from a balanced rule system, is for things to remain exactly as they are and never change. Or more accurately, for things to be how they were when they remember enjoying the hobby most, be that 5, 10, 15 years ago or maybe even longer. Sorry guys but that's not going to happen. The hobby has to evolve or it will stagnate; I've spoken about this before, and what isn't helping wargaming in general is a refusal to accept this simple but necessary fact.
So what, you think GW don't care about you because they're updating their rules, bringing out new games, armies, focusing their efforts on recruiting new people into the hobby? Well you're quite right - they don't. They can't. They're not going to run a successful business with the same customers for 20 years; business doesn't work like that. If you manage to stay in to the hobby for 20 years then that's great, but GW do expect you to be able to sort yourself out after that long, even if that means jumping ship to other companies and other games.
Games Workshop are under no illusions about the longetivity of their games, or at least the extent to which they can affect it. They know that if they recruit someone into their hobby, they will have that person for the 1-3 years it takes for them to realise that what they enjoy about the hobby, be it the painting, the gaming, the coversions, the novels or whatever, they can get for significantly less money and higher quality if they know where to look. And they'll milk them for all they're worth during that time, all the while recruiting new people into the hobby for another 1-3 years... by continuing this cycle, and focusing their business plan on new people who don't know or care that it was cheaper 5 years ago (what wasn't?) and certainly give a donkey's doo-dahs about balance issues, GW continues to survive. Not by looking after veterans. They can look after themselves, or at least that is the presumption.
So all that being the case, what keeps me engaged?
Several reasons, really, and I suspect they will all come down to the same thing, but anyway:
The Warhammer/40K material
This had been an integral part of my imagination for nearly half my life, and still would be if Dungeons and Dragons hadn't taken over. High Fantasy and Space-Age Heroes really do excite me.
Now, I'm not necessarily talking about the narrative plots, canon or whatever that you get in Black Library novels. I've read several of them and though Dreadfleet was so bad to the degree that I actually couldn't stand to read it anymore, most of them work well enough. However I do find them rather repetitive, and the bleak apocalyptic visions of the 41st Millenium, which was basically all I did read for about a year, got old after a while. The snippets of information or story that you would normally get in the rulebooks or codices are normally as long as they need to be to keep me engaged, and the longer material is there if I needed it.
No, I'm talking about my own opinions of the background material; what everything is, why it does what it does. And this is kind of hard to explain, but I think this is the reason why fan fiction is quite a big thing - it allows some kind of interaction into the setting or the world you have created. Confused? OK - Best game of 40K I ever played was my old Chaos Space Marine army, which by the standards of most armies was useless, against a guy called James and he had Ultramarines. Straight away you've got a long-standing rivalry. Now, consider the following:
- I was using my own Legion, the Red Earth legion. What do they want with the Ultramarines? Does their rivalry have an even deeper seed than the Horus Heresy?
- During the game, my Chaos Sorcerer managed to take out 14 enemies, including a Scout Squad he dispatched in one turn. Who is this Sorcerer, and what dark pact must he have made to grant him such power? Why is he involved with the Red Earth legion? What is his mission?
- Said Scout Squad was on top of a building. What was in that building? Why were the Space Marines fighting tooth and nail to defend it? (It was an Objectives misson.)
- My Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour actually managed to Deep Strike off the board. Where did he go?
- During the game, I allowed James to make a move he'd forgotten to do during the movement phase, which brought him into assualt range with one of my Chaos Space Marine squads. While it was not tactically sound to do this, I wanted to see if a half-strength command squad could take on a full-strength CSM squad. And the CSMs would have wanted the same thing, of that I am certain.
The People
This works on so many levels that is a whole blog in and of itself, but there are two main reasons I enjoy the company of people who come in to Games Workshop:
- Other than my mate Dave, I don't know anyone else socially who plays, so this is the only way I can really get a game in.
- Regardless of what else goes on in our lives, we've always got the hobby as common ground we can talk about.
The Immersion
I've already talked about the meaning of this with the background material, but at it's most simplest interpretation, 'Immersion' is the measurement of the extent of your engagement in the hobby. And I've been thinking about this a lot lately through the Roleplaying group and also through war games and board games; the most I enjoy any game really is how engaged I am with the character and personality of what I am playing.
For example, the Slaanesh army I'm working on for the upcoming Warhammer World Invasion tournament coming up in April has, I think, a lot of character. All the champions other than the Raptor have Lightning Claws. All the squads number 6 members. They all have the Mark of Slaanesh; utterly devoted to the Prince of Pleasure. I'm certainly looking forward to getting some games in with them to see how well they all work together to the end, and coming up with an explaination as to why they've subjegated a clan of Orks to their cause...
There are other ways to be immersed in the hobby, the game I described above was one of the highlights, but it's really not hard to do. Next time you're starting an army, ask yourself a few questions like:
- Who are these guys?
- Where did they come from?
- Why did they leave (or stay?)
- What do they fight for?
- What tactics do they like to employ?
- What weapons do they prefer to use?
- What weapons/units/tactics do they intentionally avoid?
- If the army has come together from several regiments/chapters/legions/clans, why was the alliance made?
- How do they feel about the battles ahead?
- What will they do when it's all over?
So why don't I play other games?
I read a lot of blogs and have heard a lot of people talking online about Malifaux, War Machine, Hordes, Infinity, Flames of War and quite a few other war games that work in a similar vein to Warhammer and 40K. I was even tempted by Mantic, who have what could cynically be described as their own versions of both games, Kings of War and Warpath. I've heard people say that these games are generally preferable to the Games Workshop roster because of various different reasons, ranging from the better models, better balancing, better rules, or simply by not being Games Workshop. And yes, I've heard that those games are cheaper to get started playing as well. So why don't I play any of those games?
The answer is actually quite simple: I don't know anybody else who does.
Well, that's not literally true. Obviously I know some people or I'd never have thought about it at all. It's just that the people I know who play games like that tend to be online, through blogs, or those facebook friends where you don't really know who they are but you know someone who does. I'm also in a Wargamers Anonymous group on Facebook and those guys talk about those different games as well. Thing is, I rarely, if ever, meet any of those guys in person, and I only consider them 'friends' in the loosest possible sence of the word, if at all.
So why don't I go down to a gaming shop and check them out, I hear you cry? Well, I probably would, but as I live in North Dudley, the nearest shops that do that sort of thing are Wayland's Forge in Birmingham (which I've been in a couple of times before and it feels like a less friendly version of GW,) and Titan Games in Lichfield (run by former GW manager Adam who's a really nice guy and I'm sure is doing great things with his shop, though I have yet to see it in person.) It would take me anything up to a couple of hours to get to either shop, so regular visits are out of the question, plus paying for parking etc... just to get a different game, when I've got 2 Games Workshop stores that are a 20 minute drive away in either direction. It would almost be like starting a new hobby entirely, and that is not a prospect I find very alluring.
Nor is going down to the gaming clubs. I managed to upset one of the guys on the committee of the nearest one to me, Dudley Darklords, by going off on one about the dirty tournament players that make up a significant number of its members, so I will never show my face down there as long as I live. (By the way this wasn't intentional. It's just that, when I'm high as a kite on adrenaline, as I was that day after finishing a particularly punishing game of 40K, I can end up speaking without thinking and saying some incredibly stupid things.) The others that I am aware of all meet on Fridays, and I've talked a couple of times on the blog about why weekends are no good for me.
I know two people socially who play games, one of which I'm pretty sure is almost always strapped for money so the idea of buying into a new game system isn't high on his agenda right now. The other I know through my girlfriend, and he lives quite a long way away so even though he's tried to get me in to different games in the past, it just hasn't worked. I know I'm not exactly helping the situation by not getting invloved with the games. But the plain fact of the matter is that I don't have the time, I don't have the money, and I certainly don't have the space to invest into a completely new game that I only have a very small chance of ever being able to play, for the reasons outlined above, just because someone I barely know has told me that I should. It's not that I don't want to, it's just that I haven't got what I'm going to need in order to make it happen.
Whether that will always be the case I don't know. But for now, I'll stick with Games Workshop. I still enjoy it, after all.
And just as importantly, I still WANT to enjoy it.
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