I’ve been on the road again this week so no game night for me. In fact I haven’t had a great deal of hobby time either. But all this travel has given me some material for a bit of a waffle.
Like a lot of people I have fallen out of love with Games Workshop over the last several years. There was a time when going to the doubles tournament at Warhammer world was a regular event. Something we didn’t even think about, we just booked the tickets as soon as they were available, stopped in the same hotel and generally had a great weekend. There was the mad panic to have everything painted in time then the fun of catching up with the same old friends to see what they had been up to since last time. For me there was always that massive relief if we managed to win a game on day one so I wouldn’t be worried about coming last, second to last was fine but I never wanted to be last. We even played on table number one once, although that was because we were the first to register on the Friday night. But for most of us GW was gaming, there were other things out their but at the end of the day we kept coming back to 40K.
Then a couple of things seemed to happen at the same time. Other games started to become more widely available and GW didn’t run the doubles in January because of some work going on at Warhammer World. And that was it. For the rest of that year I didn’t touch 40K, I didn’t book the doubles for the next year and I’ve not played a single GW game since. Now just for the record I didn’t consciously fall out with GW it was more like we simply drifted apart. And it was surprising how quickly you lose touch with the rules. The last time I played you had a force organisation chart that you had to stick to, there was no mix and match from different codex and that was it. Now it appears you can take pretty much whatever you want in any combination you want, which is where the problem lays for me. How do you get back into a game when it has changed so much?
Even though I haven’t been playing 40k I’ve not totally abandoned it because I’m still a fan of the fiction, ok the Heresy isn’t 40k but it’s the same universe. For me the fluff has always been the most important thing and I think it was this move away from the fluff that made me loose interest in the game. But over the last few weeks since I’ve been painting my Deathwatch I’ve started to get the bug again. I’ve started reading White Dwarf and after seeing that they are bringing out an Imperial Agents codex I’m starting think that I could build a new army. Based around the Deathwatch but under the command of an Inquisitor and her warband. I’ve no idea if would be any good in game terms but I could certainly come up with some interesting background for them and it should also offer some good opportunities for conversations. The very uniform Deathwatch set alongside a warband of very different characters would I think provide a nice contrast.
On the hobby front I’ve been continuing with the Deathwatch. Like I said last week I’ve broken bot box in half and this week I’ve been concentrating on Cassius, Jensus Natorian, Garran Branatar, xx, xx. With me being away for most of the week I’ve not got a great deal done but simply adding a few new colours to them makes a big difference and it keeps me motivated.
And that’s it for this week. At the moment I’m not expecting to spend much time away next week so I should be able to make a bit more progress and possibly even finish off these guys. Anyway have a good week and hope to catch you all again next week.
