Wednesday, October 29, 2014

The end of a relationship?

The past few weeks have been pretty crazy in my life and I feel I need to share all of this with you. I've been blogging for a little over a year and a half with you and because I feel that I have some kind of connection with you readers I feel that I can unload this burden with you. Lately I've started straying from the love of my life. For over the past 10 years, through thick and thin I have always stuck by my love but recently I've started to get that feeling that we no longer connect. Over the past couple of years she has become more and more closed up and doesn't want to share her thoughts with me. Now she rarely talks to me, except when she wants me to spend my money on her. To add further insult she will say one thing in one instant and then on the drop of a dime she invalidates her previous comments and says something completely different. It's like your first love in high school, where you think that this is the one that you will love for the rest of your life and that nothing will tear you apart. But like all things, people change over time and one day you realize that the person you thought you knew is no longer that person.

Recently, a friend of mine introduced me to someone else, someone who offered me a different perspective on life and has given me a new outlook. At first it was just a quick and casual introduction but I quickly found myself looking her up and wanting to spend more time with her. I've been making excuses to stay out after work and on the occasional weekend just to be with her. Is this the one whom I was meant to be or is she really just an escape, an excuse, to strike back at my true love for shutting me out?



So dear reader, what would you do in this situation? I know that many of you have probably been down this same path and have felt the exact same thing that I am feeling now. Do I leave Games Workshop and make a clean break for Warmachine or do I try to balance both in my life and hope that they do not find out about each other. Wait, what... did you think I was talking about my wife? Oh she may take my money and change her mind on a dime but I could never leave her, I couldn't afford the alimony ;)



Recently, a buddy of mine started playing Hordes at the local store. I was over at his place three weekends ago and we spent a good two hours going over his army and the mechanics of the game. I left that night with some quick starter rules and spent the next few hours pouring over the Privateer website, looking at the models. In the next few days I played a demo at the store and soon enough my son and I walked away with two battle boxes. He picked up the Skorne and I picked up the Protectorates of Menoth. over the past two weeks we have played 5-6 games now and we are having a blast. The models may not be as nice as GW's kits but being able to play a game straight out of the box with very little rules reading makes for a nice change of pace.

The start of my Menoth army

The start of my son's Skorne army
 Our local store is starting a Journeymans league next week and we plan on attending and learning more about the game and the strength and weaknesses of our two armies. I've been itching to start painting the models but according to the league rules you cannot start painting until the league starts. We also bought the army books for each of our factions so that we can start learning about what other models to add to our forces over time. The fluff, while not as fleshed out as GW's, it is still interesting. One other thing that I like about Privateer Press is their magazine, No Quarter. It is basically formatted like White Dwarf used to be back in the day. In the most recent issue I picked up it has plenty of fluff and background stories, a strategy guide for starting a Menoth army, a conversion guide, terrain building guide and lore and history for someone who wants to play a campaign or role playing game out of the lore. While I am nowhere near that stage yet, the lore and backstory were well fleshed out and made me more interested in the warmachine/hoardes fluff.

A game from Monday night against Smitty. We played a Halloween themed game where zombies swarmed us for 4 rounds.

His army is hiding behind the building ;)



So, does this mean I am dropping 40k and Fantasy? No, but in the past year, almost all of my games played have been in tournaments and to be honest, the tournament scene is getting ugly ever since GW opened the flood gates to what players can bring to a game. I'd rather get in more friendly games outside of the events but its getting harder and harder to find the time to set up a day to play a game, where as warmachine or x-wing take, at most and hour or so to play. This way I can get in a couple of friendly games with my son or my friends rather than devoting a day to finding someone to play 40k on the off weekend. This will be an interesting journey over the next couple of months as I am attending Adepticon for the first time next year and I'll be participating in the 40k team event but I think I will also be spending some time at the x-wing and possibly the warmachine tables as well.


Yeah, Menoth is pretty bad-assed.



I know that this blog has always been about 40k so I will ask you readers, do you want to see me blog about my journey with warmachine over the next few months as I learn the game, or stick with my 40k and Fantasy projects? Chances are that I will be spending more time painting my army, playing games and eventually building terrain that is more themed to warmachine. For now I have been playing on my swamp board and it really looks cool but as I learn more about the Warmhoardes lore I may get the itch to start building terrain to reflect that world. Lastly, for any of you who do play warmachine or Hoardes, do you have any advice for a budding Kreoss/Menoth player like myself or my son's Morgul themed skorne army? I'd love to hear your take on each faction and your overall thoughts of the game.

9 comments:

  1. Not interested in Warmachine. But don't ask us man, it your time/effort/hobby. It's not like a one off thing that you do for your readers, it's the whole content of your blog which must be pleasing to you first of all. The 40K fans will probably wonder off (myself included) but I am sure you will attract a new fan base from Warmachine.
    Cheers

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  2. nothing about warmachine interests me.. The models just don't do it for me. I'm riding this 40k thing out. Saturdays are easiest for me to get games in and if I go to a tourney, I'm guaranteed 3 games. I've heard some bad things about warmachine tournies and the builds

    I miss the throwback Thursday posts.

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  3. The same thing happens to me. Every couple of years my interest in 40k may wane and so I pick up something new. Battlefleet Gothic was first. Warmachine followed. Then Mordhiem, then Infinity, then Dust, and then X-Wing. I enjoy all of these games. I've got a small Khador army and always liked the models and fluff. If you want to try something new, then do so. Warmachine is fun, our group used to play quite a bit of it but slowed down when our Cygnar player bought lots of shooting units and began to blast us off the board. Every game has balance issues but Warmahordes always felt pretty balanced, I just didn't want to buy more models to make a new list at the time. My brother plays Menoth, but I will never stray from Mother Khador. Menoth would have been my second choice army for sure. I like seeing posts about any game really and some Warmachine is great by me.

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  4. I completely understand.
    I had played 40K from 1993 until 2013, when I had finally had enough and called it quits.
    I also found Warmachine and Hordes and I love it.
    I have gone to tournaments and Conventions and I can tell you that the crowd is a great group of guys and very inviting.
    Having actually played at a Warmachine tournament that had 90 plus people, I can say that it was one of the least contentious large gaming events I have ever attended. As a new player, I was able to go 4-2 at my first large convention and I had a ton of fun and learned a lot.
    The top tier tournament players are all great guys who are willing to help you with your game and your understanding of the game.
    I wish you luck on whatever you decided to do, and I would enjoy reading your experiences.

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  5. I actually do play both and I enjoy some Warmachine from time to time as well. Both games go through phases for me. That said, I would like to add that all of the Warmachine uber fanboys like to talk about how much longer 40k takes to play, but only the small Warmachine games you have been playing take less time. A BB game is the equivalent of playing 500 points of 40k on a 4x4 table. The 50 point games people want to play for tournaments take just as long as most 1850 games of 40k. All of that said, kudos to you for trying something new and I hope you enjoy it.

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  6. I'll keep following either way so bring on the new game. always interested in terrain and the like as well.

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  7. Do whatever you are passionate about and it will translate into great content. My pals are getting the Warmachine bug recently too. I just use the Legion starter force whenever they want to play.

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  8. Kev you gotta do what interests you first and foremost. I go through down periods as well but I pick up an RC car or camping or lately even pickin up xwing and magic the gathering. I prefer a completely different escape rather than slightly different. Just don't forget us.

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  9. I was in that situation as well, however I chose the classy girl, that is Dropzone Commander.

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