Lost and Found: Playing "Fun" Army Lists

Warhammer 40,000 can be a really competitive, dog-eat-dog, cuthroat game to play. Anyone who's been to a major tournament can attest to the fact that competitors will take damn near anything to win. 2 Bloodthirsters and 3 flying Daemon Princes? Sure. 9 Leman Russ Tanks? Absolutely. Logan Grimnar and 30 Wolfguard in Terminator armor? You bet. You get a room full of sweaty, elitist, beardy old hobbyists who all brought their favorite Death Star unit to crush their opponents. These guys deliberate and obsess about their army list for weeks in advance of their next tournament, only to get totally shatterblasted by 17 Dark Lances and end up in 14th place or some crap. It seems more like work than an enjoyable hobby, and it looks exhausting. And if this sounds familiar then this post is for you.

To be free of this, what I consider to be the "dark side" or table top wargaming, I myself almost exclusively play friendly games in a league at my local game store. In our league it's all about having fun and playing an awesome narrative battle. It's more about playing the game and less about winning. To accomplish this, we all build armies using "Fun List" guidelines.

What this means is that our small brotherhood (and 1 sister... so a Brother/Sisterhood...?) of gamers has two simple unspoken rules - play to have fun, and don't be cheap. What this means in practice is that when we all make army lists, we add units that we think are cool rather than thinking of the min/max metagame. Dark Eldar Mandrakes, Space Marine Scouts with shotguns and Space Marine Dreadnoughts with a twin-linked Heavy Bolter are all common sights in our circle. Are these units the best possible expenditure of points available? No, but that's not the point. The points is to have a memorable, fun battle using units that we actually enjoyed building, enjoyed painting, and enjoy seeing on our minature battlefields. It's all about the "WOW, THAT'S AWESOME!" factor, rather than the "I'M INVINCIBLE!"

Now, that's not to say that things like Land Raiders packed with Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield Terminators are never seen - they definitely are. But you'll never see more than one of those, rather than 2 or 3 in a "competitive" list. Our "Fun Armies" try to be as diverse as possible, so as to explore the depth of tactical choices available to our army. In my Blood Angels army, for example, I have no more than 1 squad of anything. 1 Tactical Squad, 1 Scout Squad, 1 Assault Squad, 1 Devastator Squad, a Dreadnought, a Vindicator, and a Captain - because Space Marines are led by Captains, damn it, and not by frikkin Chaplains. (You never see a goddamned Chaplain leading a squad of United States Marines, do you? Hell no. Because they're Chaplains. They belong in the back, with the gear.)

I guess that I'm saying here is that sometimes it's better to have friendly game with a group of pals instead of everyone trying to one-up eachother and constantly comparing their Army Lists' penis size every 40k day. I'd urge everyone to change up your army lists every once in a while. The next time you meet up with the local 40k club, maybe both try playing a fun game. Use units and tactics that you wouldn't usually try. Stop turtling with your Rhino and charge those Space Marines across the battlefield like they've got a pair! Take ridiculous risks! Make an army list that flies in the face of common sense. I bet you'll have a great time. And you know what? You might actually even learn something about the way your army works, and be able to use that knowledge in the next competitive tournament that you play.

-Matt-

Lost and Found: How Hobby Burnout Happens, Part 1

I've been thinking a lot about the Warhammer 40,000 hobby lately, and I think I'd like to share some of those thoughts with whomever is kind enough to have a read here at A Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy.

Now, I've had something of a love/hate relationship with Warhammer 40,000 for quite a while. I started the hobby nearly 12 years ago, and when I got into the game it was awesome! It was affordable, the local community was huge and full of good people who were excited just to play the game, collect and paint the models! I got into the game with a Space Marine Tactical Squad, a Rhino and a Space Marine Captain with a Power Sword right after my very first demo game at Ga mes Workshop Great Lakes Crossing. From the moment of my first beginner game I knew I was hooked. Every time I got paid from my McJob I'd get a new box of something and after a few months I was swimming in Space Marines.

Life was awesome (hobby life, that is). I collected Space Marines exclusively for longer than I can remember... it must have been at least 5 years. It was the only time in my hobby career that I remember having multiple painted armies (all of them were Ultramarines... but I had 3 or 4 distinct "themed" armies.) It was also the only time I recally being so passionately into the hobby.

But soon it all came crashing down because I started collecting other armies.

A new Tau rulebook came out and I thought they were frakkin' awesome! I bought up a bunch of Tau, painted them, got them on the table and started playing games. And I got totally spanked on the battlefield. Why? Because they didn't play like Space Marines. So I started to add things to my collection to make them MORE like Space Marines. "Fire Warriors are Toughness 3 and 4+ armor? Pfft. I'll take minimum troops and lots of Crisis Suits! Then they'll be the equivalent of Space Marines! Yeah!"

Soon I had about 2,500 points of Tau and I was totally depressed. I had won probably... 3 out of dozens of games. I started to lose faith in my army and my skills as a player. Because I started to lose so often, I started to avoid playing games. Because I didn't play games very often, I found little point in painting my armies. Because I had no interest in painting, I lost the inclination to buy and collect and soon.... my hobby was dead.

And it died for a stupid reason. It died because I had already found my army and my chosen play style, and was trying to force a different army with a different play style to be just like Space Marines... and when I think about how ridiculous it all was I sort of want to kick myself for causing my own hobby burnout.

My point here is that for some people it is sometimes better to focus on a single army and project rather than multiple different armies and multiple different projects. What starts as a simple exlporation into the varied aspects of the Warhammer 40,000 hobby can quickly end in flames and frustration.

Right now I have been super focused on building and painting my Eldar army and I'm making more progress at a greater rate at a higher quality than I ever have before in my hobby. If any of you reading this are experiencing this type of frustration, maybe do yourself a favor and take step back, get back to your original hobby roots and stop yourself from being so busy inside the hobby. Play a few games or, if you're more interested in the hobby side of the hobby, paint or convert something.

Calm down with your hobby. You might be glad that you did.

My Triumphant Return!

So... I've returned to the Warhammer 40,000 hobby after an extended hiatus.

Oh, and I've started blogging again. But more on that later. Or maybe not. We'll see.

Anyway, earlier this year I decided that I was going to put together a small Blood Angels army. Nothing huge, just 750 points of red death. I completed a 10-man Assault Squad as well as a totally awesome Land Speeder. Everything was going well and then... I got burned out.

....just like my hobby. *sniffle*

And I'm not talking your average garden variety hobby burnout. I'm talking a Games Workshop hobby burnout so deep and severe that I began cleaning out my subterranean hobby lair, putting all of my models on Ebay and the like to sell, and started to consider myself a guy who didn't participate in that hobby anymore.

Where hobbies go to die.

It was bad. I even started collecting and playing Warmachine/Hordes to fill the void. It's actually a pretty damned fun game system. I'm going to keep up with that, and it will be represented here in the blog. I sold nearly all of my Warhammer 40,000 models and accessories. Space Marines, Tau, Orks, Chaos Marines, Daemons and Necrons were all sold. I even sold my tape measure, carry cases, dice, templates and my 6th edition rule book. I was out. Done. Finished. Kaput. Also, I was several other phrases for the word done that I don't even know.

...and also nerdy. Very nerdy. And depressed, angry, tired and done. ...so really, just regularly nerdy...?

But then something happened - Games Workshop went ahead and updated the Tau Empire with new models, new rules and created a new release buzz that was so huge and far reaching into the worldwide hobby community that I began to feel the effects. I became curious after seeing a picture of the new Tau Riptide on a Google+ community that I'm a part of. I... had to know what it did in the game. I had to know the effect it was having on 6th edition Warhammer 40,000, and I had to know all of the associated rules for it. I hit the internet and had all of my answers within the hour. Then I had to see it in action for myself, so I took a long lunch break at work and headed up to my local hobby store. And there it was - a Riptide in all it's painted (sloppily) glory, destroying some poor bastard's Orks. It was a thing of beauty. I thought it would be awesome to start a new Tau army.

...if they could do this, I might actually start the army. 

But then I remembered that I hate the Tau. They have a lame back story, and they have vertical slits in their faces that closely resemble female genitalia. ....and no amount of badassery is going to win out over "I have a vagina for a nose" with me.

Seriously! Slaanesh daemons would literally fuck their faces! How can you not see it!?

I was discouraged again. Then I heard rumors that the Eldar are being released soon... and I thought to myself... "I've been trying like hell to sell some Eldar that are in my basement... maybe I should just keep them!" And keep them I did. I took those Guardians and a War Walkers that have been lurking in my basement forever and assembled them. I even traded some old Warmachine 'jacks for even more Eldar. And in recent days, to solidify the fact that I really am well and truly devoted to collecting and finishing a new Eldar army, I purchased the Avatar of Khaine model from Forge World - the one with the spear. I've always wanted to paint that model since my very first days working for Games Workshop (longer ago that I care to remember) and I really look forward to it.

Stargate: Iyanden

And that whole tirade brings us to now. This past week I've been working on a unit of 10 Eldar Guardians with a Scatter Blaster. I've been experimenting with a highlighting technique that I picked up from one of my fellow painters. It's quick and dirty and effective, and I love the way it looks so far. I'm going to keep doing it for the whole rest of the army.

They're a work in progress. Shut up.

I also just celebrated my birthday, so I've got a bit of extra $$$ in my pocket. Add to that the fact that I've been trying like hell to sell off the last vestiges of my Chaos Space Marines army and I'd have to say that I'm ready to make some damned purchases.

This perfectly conveys my hobby spending habits.

I wonder what I should buy first? I'd be open to any suggestions for a starting Eldar army.

Also, taking a cue from my friend Jay over at Jay's Workshop, I think that I'm going to start posting a Unit-Per-Week, along with some of my thoughts about Wargaming, Warhammer 40,000, painting, modelling, thoughts about the 40k universe and background, rules concerns, and even some stuff about my Warmachine/Hordes experiences because to date I've had nothing but positive things to say about WarmaHordes.

Anyhow, I'll be sure to post here again soon.

~Matt~

The Red Thirst

I've been painting for a few days now, and rather than get sick of it - like what has happened with every other project I've started since taking off the Power Armor - I'm hungry for it. I'm very motivated to paint now, and I'm moving forward quickly with my Blood Angels project. I think, perhaps, it's because I find it challenging to paint white and red. Or perhaps it's the rich background found in the Blood Angels codex, but I'm totally hooked by these new Space Marines. I officially have the Red Thirst, and I don't forsee it going away any time soon.