I got into wargaming so I could have a competitive social environment and to go traveling around for large tournaments and just generally have a really awesome hobby. Initially I chose Warmachine/Hordes and started with a Circle of Orboros army, but I never got in games, and one of my main DnD buddies was a pretty solid 40k player - so the switch was made! I've gone through quite a few 40k armies, but have been a pretty dedicated Black Templar player for close to 9 months now. Having only been playing wargames for about a year and a half, I'm pretty sure Warmahordes is where it's at. I don't have many issues mechanically with 40k, and I still love the game and look to play it often, but I think Games Workshop is just handling things poorly. IE: Not playtesting enough, bad balance, cycling through old outdated rules instead of coming up with interesting and fun new ones to put the game in a better spot, etc. They constantly contradict themselves with each successive release, and that just forces you to buy more stuff. Hey, white scars are amazing and scout, so let's release anti-scouting servo skulls in the next release with Inquisition that don't take up a detachment slot and only cost people 34 points, so there's NO reason not to take one to stop the powerful Space Marine build we just released. Or Lords of War and Str D is pretty broken in 6th and people seek to nerf it, so we'll release an army of Str D with Imperial Knights. Or we'll give people options in 7th to play how they want, and Lords of Wars probably won't be allowed in tournaments, but let's make lesser characters Lords of War for no reason other than to make banning Lords of War weird. 7th is good, but at the core it's designed to let you play with whatever you want, which turns into playing whatever you think is fun/powerful, which in turn leaves people buying things from each release each month to create armies that casual players can't handle without losing the "fun" aspect of the game, which is against what a beer and pretzels game should be designed around in the first place. It's an explosion of "F' you! Just buy our stuff for a game we don't give a sh*t about anymore!". It's sad, really.
NOVA Open is coming up sooner than later, and I have my ticket for the 40k GT and expect to bring Black Templars with a couple Imperial Knights. The list has been performing really well, with the exception of a pretty bad showing against Stormravens. I'm anxious to participate in a huge tournament, but the closer it draws near the more convinced I become that it will be my debut and retirement from competitive 40k gaming in any respect. The way GW handles it's games means I'd rather just stick to Fantasy. Fantasy is fun, and while I don't play it enough, I always enjoy my games with it. The problem here is that I'm selling/have sold my Warriors of Chaos Nurgle army and am seeking to move into either Dwarves or Wood Elves. Chaos was powerful, and tons of fun, but I'm anxious to paint something that doesn't relate so much to the Cryx force I've powered through and still have a ton to paint for. Playing Wood Elves does start hitting the territory that GW brought 40k into, IE: Get a free forest that is a Citadel forest (IE: 30 dollar tax on the army to play it out the gate), and then buy another 2-3 from the item that you probably want to take for deep striking additional forests to really thwart the battlefield. Meh. However, GW's cash cow is 40k, and you can see that in the releases, and it feels like Fantasy gets the once over and has sort of slipped through their money hungry gaze and has gotten off a bit easy (probably due to the lack of allying). So, that's that.
With Warmachine/Hordes, I have a Hardcore 50-point tournament this Wednesday evening that I'm looking forward to a good deal. I'm going to be bringing Goreshade3 with a Kraken and some other goodies, so hopefully I can remember to battle report them so I can toss those up here. Today also marks the supposed day that my small 15-point Thornfall Alliance army will arrive. I'm pretty obsessive about things when they start looming on my mind for extending periods, so I'm really holding back just buying everything that Farrows have to offer like I did with Cryx (I own 239 points worth of Cryx and about 5 Warcasters). I have a really fun basing theme I've been working on, so I'm also extremely anxious to get painting them and hoping to learn new things to up my paint game with them. You'll see them soon enough, as Carver is my next model I'll be painting up right after my Bile Thralls. Expect to see the Quilboars...err...Thornfall Alliance stuff within a week or so.
Note: I really do love 40k, and I enjoy the lore and game so very much. But GW doesn't, or at least it doesn't seem like they do with how they are handling everything, so...as a lover and fan of their game, it just puts me in a weird spot. Tag the fact that I am competitive and want to play major tournaments, and I'm pretty much left in the dark over 40k and my future with it. I would much rather play a game where my choice of army doesn't reflect my chances of winning with each new release. That's something that Privateer Press handles extraordinarily well, and GW trips over with massive meta changes every other month.
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