Way Back To Basics
Yeah, so I noted before in my absence I stopped and started doing a lot of things. One of those things I stopped was playing Warhammer. Ah, yes, Warhammer, potentially the biggest money sink known to geek kind. I was a fervent player for many years, and if you read my past posts, I'm sure you can see how important a thing it was.
However, at about the same time I put up my blogging hat and left social media for other things, I shoved all my little toy soldiers into a few very large boxes and bags, packed up my paint, and called it a day. Like so many other things I had become burnt out on the hobby and could not any longer stand to pick up my brushes or try organizing any games.
It had been on the way for a while. It takes commitment and a lot of room to play, and I had managed to collect far more minis than I will likely ever be able to finish in a few lifetimes. I worked on them for the better part of ten years. That's a long, long time and made very good headway in that time. I can't count the number I managed to get done, but it was just so easy to collect them as well.
I've got the kind of personality that likes to collect things. I gather all manner of odd stuff for no reason. I like rocks from riverbanks and beaches. I collect bottles of interesting drinks. I'm starting to collect Com-Block militaria under the guise of bushcrafting on the cheap. I've got more computer systems and parts hanging around than I have shoes. It's not a crime, it's just expensive.
Miniatures are a great hobby for the insular. Lots of hours spent on little details and a lot of thinking about playing, and not as often playing as you would want. I enjoyed my time in the hobby for the most part, and I don't regret the hours spent painting, converting, and collecting minis.
But, as I said, I burned out. I reached a point where I had plateaued in my painting skill, the people I gamed with were getting tired of the runaround involved. Warhammer had stopped being fun. Venues began drying up, social tensions within the group began to mount, and Games Workshop began making changes which became too much to bare.
I want to tackle all these things in turn so we shall proceed, as by list, from least to most interesting :
1.) Venues - There was only ever one realistic large venue for Warhammer or similar in this town, and that was the second version of Comic Hunter, back when it was on University Ave. That was shut long ago. Sure, the competition was often questionable and the scenery sucked, but at least you could get a reasonably sized game in. Comic Hunter v.3 is just too small to support a real minis community and its owner doesn't want one anyway. I can't blame him, there is little money to be made from any mini game I would play.
Following Comic Hunter, there was Empathy Man's basement. As awful a place as that was, you could not argue about the room it had. Most of our last games took place there. Of course, the rest of the group and I fell out with him. The full story is for some other time, but suffice it to say it was long time coming. After that, only Drathorin's chicken barn outside town and Zaku_Sensei's basement were available. Neither were ideal. One is a chicken barn, the other is bereft of table space.
2.) Tensions - Hey, we're almost all of us still great friends. Let's not get anything too far wrong here. Canceling Warhammer didn't cancel our relations. Tensions arose from a lot of sources. We each of us had our own problems with the game by the end. I don't want to speak for the others motivations, it's not really my place. What I will say, is Warhammer managed to bring out much of the worst in us. We became over-competitive. We got petty and we got argumentative. Rules lawyering got in the way.
That was another nail in the Empathy Man coffin. He made sure to keep games one sided and wouldn't give anyone a break even to make things more fun. Then Drathorin and Artai started to call him out on questionable rules interpretations and "rubber rulering". That was where things really began falling apart, and where I believe we started loosing Zaku_Sensei. Again, still really good friends, just loosing him in a wargaming sense.
Of all the negative stuff that came out of end of Warhammer, that's one of the things I regret the most. I don't think Zaku ever got to have the kind of fun he deserved to get from the work and money he put into the game. It's a sad comment on how far the whole thing fell and it bothers me. I can't help but think the game itself owes him an apology, and maybe I do too.
Now, I can't say I was always the better man in this. I had my moments of frustrating pettiness too. I can remember arguing about the impassibility of an inch high foam cliff with a Tyranid player I didn't want to let have any kind of perceived advantage against my Imperial Guard. I can't remember if we ever even really got the game started, but I do remember being a dick. It makes me feel ick even now, because I went on to work a lot of years with that 'Nid player who turned out to be a great guy.
I guess if I'm honest with myself, there was something about Warhammer which made me a lot more competitive than I generally believe myself to be. Or, maybe I am really that competitive and just don't know it. Someone else will likely have to fill me in on on that.
3.)Games Workshop - The Warhammer product itself became toxic over time, mostly due to expense. Now, as I said in the beginning 40K is really expensive. Miniatures and model kits in general are expensive hobbies to be in. That's not really what I'm talking about. As time rolled on, GW created a Lord of the Rings minis game. It took a lot of investment, and it was a flop. It didn't bring in the players they had hoped and there was no way out for them. They had to produce it as per contract. Leaking cash, they sought to make it up by expanding 40K as far as they could. By the time 5th edition had rolled in, Apocalypse became the standard by which the game would be scored. Also, in an attempt to reign in the vast amounts of special rules which began negating all regular game effects, GW began streamlining the rules.
Streamlining a miniatures game isn't usually a bad thing, especially as 40K had become so bogged down with special rules it was becoming impossible for some armies to retain their effectiveness or to keep all the rules straight.
The streamlining seemed haphazard to me. The basic rules, those in the main rulebook, seemed to be going in the right direction. A slew of "universal" special rules which could apply to all kinds of units and give everything uniform, predictable, effects did make things more understandable and fair.
The inconsistencies cropped up in the army lists. Some armies were stripped of what made them unique. Chaos Marines suffered the most. It became impossible to play my Chaos Marines as they had been purchased and had endured through late third and early fourth. There was no way to have an army of Word Bearers and do their fluff any justice. It would have meant at least some investment in an already fairly substantially large army. I did manage to get enough Chaos marines to do the job, but only by luck as someone at work was selling a similarly large army to mine for next to nothing. It was easy to double my numbers, so I did. But I never liked the 5th ed Chaos Marines codex.
Apocalypse was a rule set for truly enormous battles. Thousands of points and a few hundred minis a side. A real beast of expense to gear up for. It worked well to help GW stay in business. The real collectors, like me, were interested in all the new super-heavy models coming out and at least being able to dream of deploying all our massive collections. Big games are fun, at least to me. They take days and aren't to everyone's taste. I get that, but that's not really the issue.
The trouble with Apocalypse was all armies were tailored to it. In my time playing I have been through four army books for my Guard. While each presented a different list, with different powers or points costs, none changed the fundamental play style. I could always tweak my list to conform without having to make a major overhaul to what was by then a very expensive investment. Fifth edition changed everything just enough to make my army, with its 250 minis and multiple vehicles, non-viable without some hundreds of dollars more investment. I had the cash, but not the patience.
It happened also with my Orks. Points costs went down so far for Boyz my massive horde wouldn't cover the new need for troops. Also, this army too had its fundamental operations changed so far the bulk of my Orks were no longer really useful in their rolls. I would have had to do some massive converting of axe-wielders into gun-toters.
Again, it was a bridge too far. In frustration, I shelved my books, put up my armies, and bought a motorcycle. It was the right decision at the time. I had no plans to ever come back to it. The only thing that got left out of packing was a single Tyranid warrior I had on my desk at work. Captain Spikes "Pinchy" Pinchalot is still on one of my shelves, the last holdout until very recently.
This brings us to the reason I'm going on about this. Capt. Allan "Major" Manley, having returned into my life through the happy circumstance of also being at Holland College with me, didn't give up on minis. In his time away on Ontario he kept up with the hobby, switching gears into War Machine and other games. One of the first things he wanted to know was if I was still doing minis too. I told him I wasn't, but I was certainly up to playing any games he might want to try. I hadn't seen him in eons, I didn't want to say no. So, Allan has a standing offer for War Machine on the table whenever school and the military calm down enough for him to get a game together.
In the mean time, he made me an offer I really couldn't refuse. I'm painting one of his armies for profit. I haven't picked up a brush in almost five years. I wasn't sure I could do a reasonable job or if I would be able to stand the work. But, I needed the money, so I took the gig. It was tough going for the first five minis I painted. A lot of my objections to the work were there, but they melted away by Bane Thrall number six. The only thing that has gotten in my way has been school, which is very busy and demands a lot of my time as you can imagine. Also, it took a very long time to get myself into a position where I could commit to doing a good job. I won't lie, I took the job in September and got to it second week of February. I took it slow, painting the regular grunts first. Now that exams are over I'm ready to start taking on the more complex job of painting character models. Thus I've gone and rounded up everyone's paint, searching for whatever is still relatively liquid at this point.
I have to say, I am not hating it. In fact, I found some of my minis in my closet and I may go on to paint them as well. Perhaps all I needed was a break.
A lot of things seem to be coming full circle for me these days. I'm back on social media and I don't feel bad about it. I've got my medical issues under fairly good control now, and school seems to be good for me as well. I'm picking things up where I left off and it seems right.
I'm not 100% convinced I'm back to miniatures yet. This is an unexpected occurrence that's only come about because of a chance meeting with Allan. I'm feeling better about it than I thought, but not good enough to go back to 40K proper. There is too much acrimony left over. I'm not willing to play by GW's rules anymore, quite literally.
So, I'm reading Stargrunt 2 and some other systems. I'm not ready to commit to trying to actually play them at this point. I'm not sure it's really viable, but I am giving it some thought.
Warhammer left a lot of bad taste in a lot of mouths, and maybe it is not possible to overcome it or worth the effort of trying. However, I think it may be worth my own while to start painting again without the strange pressures that come with playing the game.
However, at about the same time I put up my blogging hat and left social media for other things, I shoved all my little toy soldiers into a few very large boxes and bags, packed up my paint, and called it a day. Like so many other things I had become burnt out on the hobby and could not any longer stand to pick up my brushes or try organizing any games.
It had been on the way for a while. It takes commitment and a lot of room to play, and I had managed to collect far more minis than I will likely ever be able to finish in a few lifetimes. I worked on them for the better part of ten years. That's a long, long time and made very good headway in that time. I can't count the number I managed to get done, but it was just so easy to collect them as well.
I've got the kind of personality that likes to collect things. I gather all manner of odd stuff for no reason. I like rocks from riverbanks and beaches. I collect bottles of interesting drinks. I'm starting to collect Com-Block militaria under the guise of bushcrafting on the cheap. I've got more computer systems and parts hanging around than I have shoes. It's not a crime, it's just expensive.
Miniatures are a great hobby for the insular. Lots of hours spent on little details and a lot of thinking about playing, and not as often playing as you would want. I enjoyed my time in the hobby for the most part, and I don't regret the hours spent painting, converting, and collecting minis.
But, as I said, I burned out. I reached a point where I had plateaued in my painting skill, the people I gamed with were getting tired of the runaround involved. Warhammer had stopped being fun. Venues began drying up, social tensions within the group began to mount, and Games Workshop began making changes which became too much to bare.
I want to tackle all these things in turn so we shall proceed, as by list, from least to most interesting :
1.) Venues - There was only ever one realistic large venue for Warhammer or similar in this town, and that was the second version of Comic Hunter, back when it was on University Ave. That was shut long ago. Sure, the competition was often questionable and the scenery sucked, but at least you could get a reasonably sized game in. Comic Hunter v.3 is just too small to support a real minis community and its owner doesn't want one anyway. I can't blame him, there is little money to be made from any mini game I would play.
Following Comic Hunter, there was Empathy Man's basement. As awful a place as that was, you could not argue about the room it had. Most of our last games took place there. Of course, the rest of the group and I fell out with him. The full story is for some other time, but suffice it to say it was long time coming. After that, only Drathorin's chicken barn outside town and Zaku_Sensei's basement were available. Neither were ideal. One is a chicken barn, the other is bereft of table space.
2.) Tensions - Hey, we're almost all of us still great friends. Let's not get anything too far wrong here. Canceling Warhammer didn't cancel our relations. Tensions arose from a lot of sources. We each of us had our own problems with the game by the end. I don't want to speak for the others motivations, it's not really my place. What I will say, is Warhammer managed to bring out much of the worst in us. We became over-competitive. We got petty and we got argumentative. Rules lawyering got in the way.
That was another nail in the Empathy Man coffin. He made sure to keep games one sided and wouldn't give anyone a break even to make things more fun. Then Drathorin and Artai started to call him out on questionable rules interpretations and "rubber rulering". That was where things really began falling apart, and where I believe we started loosing Zaku_Sensei. Again, still really good friends, just loosing him in a wargaming sense.
Of all the negative stuff that came out of end of Warhammer, that's one of the things I regret the most. I don't think Zaku ever got to have the kind of fun he deserved to get from the work and money he put into the game. It's a sad comment on how far the whole thing fell and it bothers me. I can't help but think the game itself owes him an apology, and maybe I do too.
Now, I can't say I was always the better man in this. I had my moments of frustrating pettiness too. I can remember arguing about the impassibility of an inch high foam cliff with a Tyranid player I didn't want to let have any kind of perceived advantage against my Imperial Guard. I can't remember if we ever even really got the game started, but I do remember being a dick. It makes me feel ick even now, because I went on to work a lot of years with that 'Nid player who turned out to be a great guy.
I guess if I'm honest with myself, there was something about Warhammer which made me a lot more competitive than I generally believe myself to be. Or, maybe I am really that competitive and just don't know it. Someone else will likely have to fill me in on on that.
3.)Games Workshop - The Warhammer product itself became toxic over time, mostly due to expense. Now, as I said in the beginning 40K is really expensive. Miniatures and model kits in general are expensive hobbies to be in. That's not really what I'm talking about. As time rolled on, GW created a Lord of the Rings minis game. It took a lot of investment, and it was a flop. It didn't bring in the players they had hoped and there was no way out for them. They had to produce it as per contract. Leaking cash, they sought to make it up by expanding 40K as far as they could. By the time 5th edition had rolled in, Apocalypse became the standard by which the game would be scored. Also, in an attempt to reign in the vast amounts of special rules which began negating all regular game effects, GW began streamlining the rules.
Streamlining a miniatures game isn't usually a bad thing, especially as 40K had become so bogged down with special rules it was becoming impossible for some armies to retain their effectiveness or to keep all the rules straight.
The streamlining seemed haphazard to me. The basic rules, those in the main rulebook, seemed to be going in the right direction. A slew of "universal" special rules which could apply to all kinds of units and give everything uniform, predictable, effects did make things more understandable and fair.
The inconsistencies cropped up in the army lists. Some armies were stripped of what made them unique. Chaos Marines suffered the most. It became impossible to play my Chaos Marines as they had been purchased and had endured through late third and early fourth. There was no way to have an army of Word Bearers and do their fluff any justice. It would have meant at least some investment in an already fairly substantially large army. I did manage to get enough Chaos marines to do the job, but only by luck as someone at work was selling a similarly large army to mine for next to nothing. It was easy to double my numbers, so I did. But I never liked the 5th ed Chaos Marines codex.
Apocalypse was a rule set for truly enormous battles. Thousands of points and a few hundred minis a side. A real beast of expense to gear up for. It worked well to help GW stay in business. The real collectors, like me, were interested in all the new super-heavy models coming out and at least being able to dream of deploying all our massive collections. Big games are fun, at least to me. They take days and aren't to everyone's taste. I get that, but that's not really the issue.
The trouble with Apocalypse was all armies were tailored to it. In my time playing I have been through four army books for my Guard. While each presented a different list, with different powers or points costs, none changed the fundamental play style. I could always tweak my list to conform without having to make a major overhaul to what was by then a very expensive investment. Fifth edition changed everything just enough to make my army, with its 250 minis and multiple vehicles, non-viable without some hundreds of dollars more investment. I had the cash, but not the patience.
It happened also with my Orks. Points costs went down so far for Boyz my massive horde wouldn't cover the new need for troops. Also, this army too had its fundamental operations changed so far the bulk of my Orks were no longer really useful in their rolls. I would have had to do some massive converting of axe-wielders into gun-toters.
Again, it was a bridge too far. In frustration, I shelved my books, put up my armies, and bought a motorcycle. It was the right decision at the time. I had no plans to ever come back to it. The only thing that got left out of packing was a single Tyranid warrior I had on my desk at work. Captain Spikes "Pinchy" Pinchalot is still on one of my shelves, the last holdout until very recently.
This brings us to the reason I'm going on about this. Capt. Allan "Major" Manley, having returned into my life through the happy circumstance of also being at Holland College with me, didn't give up on minis. In his time away on Ontario he kept up with the hobby, switching gears into War Machine and other games. One of the first things he wanted to know was if I was still doing minis too. I told him I wasn't, but I was certainly up to playing any games he might want to try. I hadn't seen him in eons, I didn't want to say no. So, Allan has a standing offer for War Machine on the table whenever school and the military calm down enough for him to get a game together.
In the mean time, he made me an offer I really couldn't refuse. I'm painting one of his armies for profit. I haven't picked up a brush in almost five years. I wasn't sure I could do a reasonable job or if I would be able to stand the work. But, I needed the money, so I took the gig. It was tough going for the first five minis I painted. A lot of my objections to the work were there, but they melted away by Bane Thrall number six. The only thing that has gotten in my way has been school, which is very busy and demands a lot of my time as you can imagine. Also, it took a very long time to get myself into a position where I could commit to doing a good job. I won't lie, I took the job in September and got to it second week of February. I took it slow, painting the regular grunts first. Now that exams are over I'm ready to start taking on the more complex job of painting character models. Thus I've gone and rounded up everyone's paint, searching for whatever is still relatively liquid at this point.
I have to say, I am not hating it. In fact, I found some of my minis in my closet and I may go on to paint them as well. Perhaps all I needed was a break.
A lot of things seem to be coming full circle for me these days. I'm back on social media and I don't feel bad about it. I've got my medical issues under fairly good control now, and school seems to be good for me as well. I'm picking things up where I left off and it seems right.
I'm not 100% convinced I'm back to miniatures yet. This is an unexpected occurrence that's only come about because of a chance meeting with Allan. I'm feeling better about it than I thought, but not good enough to go back to 40K proper. There is too much acrimony left over. I'm not willing to play by GW's rules anymore, quite literally.
So, I'm reading Stargrunt 2 and some other systems. I'm not ready to commit to trying to actually play them at this point. I'm not sure it's really viable, but I am giving it some thought.
Warhammer left a lot of bad taste in a lot of mouths, and maybe it is not possible to overcome it or worth the effort of trying. However, I think it may be worth my own while to start painting again without the strange pressures that come with playing the game.