I began this post as a simple reply to Demitra's comment on my last entry. It grew a life of its own, so here it is. If you want the condensed version, skip to the bottom.
I dislike the fact that 40k is basically an exercise in list building. There are armies that you can hand to little Timmy who's never played the game before and will roll over their opponent pretty much no matter what he does (the Ork "Green Tide" army being the foremost example). I understand that everything has it's foil, but I don't want to invest another ~$150 to add the mobility of either Land Raiders or Ravenwing Land Speeders to my army.
I have my Hell Pit Abomination. I don't need a second one, I just want it for if I ever go up against "That Guy". The dude who brings Teclis. The dude who brings nothing but war machines and sets up along the back edge of the board. Etc., etc. Trust me there's a lot of "That Guy" out there.
I can win with just one Abomination. My Rat Ogres cause units to explode in a shower of tiny bits. Warp Lightning Cannons (while requiring a bit more finesse) can make units evaporate. And the look on my opponent's face when I told him my Poisoned Wind Mortars wounded his Toughness 7 (yeah magic) White Lions on a 5+ regardless of their toughness was priceless. I've yet to pull out half the toys in my toolbox- Doomwheels, Warpfire Throwers, Stormvermin, Plague Monks (with or without Plague Furnace) and the infamous Screaming Bell are all on my to-do list. All of these models are viable options. This is where Fantasy tends to differ from 40k.
Yes, in Fantasy there are "Auto Include" units, and those you avoid like the plague, but I've won games using the "stay away from them" models in ways my opponent didn't expect. Snotlings are insanely cheap. Deploy them so that their front is 8" away from your Night Goblins, and on an average roll to release your Fanatics they'll "pop" through both units leading to massive casualties for the enemy, and a few dead snotlings for the goblins.
As you can see on my "On The Workbench" list, I plan on building an Ogre army from two battalions. This will no doubt be the cheapest (and lowest model count) army I've ever built. From memory the army consists of:
-Tyrant
-Butcher x 2
-Bruiser Battle Standard Bearer
-Iron Guts x 6
-Bulls x 6
-Bulls x 6
-Leadbelchers x 2
-Leadbelchers x 2
With magic items (and I have some pretty funny combos in there) this comes to 2,000 points. Not too much of an investment in terms of time or money, and with the new Monstrous Infantry rules, it's actually a fairly intimidating army to face.
With a Chaos Warrior army, I can run you through how to build either a fairly competitive or cheeseball army with little effort, but a substantial outlay of money. With empire, just spam artillery (mortars and cannons it seems).
Now as much as I'd like you to get into Fantasy or Flames of War, I'm not going to twist your arm. I will lament it from time to time, and I will continue to play 40k, Warmachine, and Uncharted Seas despite how they each grate on my nerves in their own way. You're not dragging me into these games, so don't get that impression. I play them of my own free will.
What I do lament is how you disliked MalifauX, and how I can bet you'd dislike Anima: Tactics (if you were to ever agree to pick up models for it in the first place). I enjoy those games, and from what I hear Flames of War is a great game. It's just a pity that I'll never get to play any of them.
I get how you feel like you're being buried under a mountain of pewter and plastic. I've been there. It's just now that I'm beginning to trudge through these mountains and mole-hills based on what I feel I can accomplish in a day. For me, I set aside an hour or two of alone time to listen to my various podcasts and crank out a mini or twelve. Today I did my Hell Pit Abomination, and I plan on showing a semi-step-by-step breakdown as to how the ungodly thing goes together, This has to be one of the most frustrating minis ever released- outranking even the Drop Pod. I, however, digress.
I guess what I'm saying is that (as my blog's title implies) I'm a bit ADD when it comes to wargames. My baby, my game that's always there to come back to, is Warhammer. Warmachine used to be that snuggly place, but there's just some disconnect for me between Mk.1 & Mk.2. I get Warhammer. It's a game of patience and out maneuvering your opponent. Warhammer 40,000 it seems is just a game of tooling up your army and dashing across the board hoping your army is more adept at bashing heads in than his is.
Well, I've rambled on long enough. All I really wanted to say is that I wish you'd start playing Warhammer, but I can see why you don't.
Looks like my last attempt at leaving a comment here got eaten by the ether. Second time is the charm...
ReplyDeleteFirst off the bat is Flames of War. It's just not gonna happen. Modern stuff holds no interest for me. It seems popular though, so there must be people out there that play it. The cards in Malifaux don't do it for me either, and the insane number of special rules is a large barrier to entry, but I'm not set against it.
Having a couple days reflection, I think my big thing is consistency. I'd like to be able to sink my teeth into something for a while. I get the gamer ADD thing, and given my druthers I'd probably sprawl across the gaming landscape and treat it like a buffet, but reality just doesn't allow for it. I want to take the time to figure out how my army works, what the parts do, how things interact, and do it for myself instead of getting the internet digest version. I like having the short-cut option, but I want to learn things on my own as well. Of course this approach requires time to execute.
This time requirement is biggest for hobbying, which is at least as important to me as actually gaming. 2 hours is a dozen finished minis for you, but it's maybe a color or two on 5 minis for me. This is really the biggest hurdle, as I want to play with painted armies as much as anyone. As noted elsewhere, I have plenty of projects in the hopper, and those have some work in on them already. A fantasy army is starting from a dead stop. While I like the potential there, as I can go in whatever direction I want without trying to fit in existing models, it's a big undertaking, especially since Fantasy armies seem to be larger than 40k ones, or Warmachine, certainly larger than Uncharted Seas, and probably as big as all of those combined. I've been painting the same 3 Blood Angels for the past 2 weeks or so. Imagine how long a single block of 40 infantry would take.
With all of that said, I dug around in my mountain of stuff and found that I actually have a sizable Empire army, albeit with the vast majority still in cellophane. I also found a 7th ed Empire book that I didn't even know I had. So this is going in the pipe, but it's at the rear, which means don't expect anything before, say, summer at best. On a related note, do you have an extra Island of Blood rulebook? I'm not going in for the set or the hardcover, so I'd end up getting one off Ebay and I figure I'd rather the money go to someone I know than some random.
In conclusion, let me stress again that this is a long term project and won't get any love any time soon. I do have the stuff already though, so I figure I may as well use it.
I knew I forgot something. What kind of Fantasy resources are there on the internets? I've found a couple podcasts, but have yet to see a Bell of Lost Souls type of site. Any links?
ReplyDeleteWell, Podhammer and Bad Dice are the two best Warhammer podcasts I've found. DakkaDakka has a great Warhammer section, and every once in awhile Warseer has its moments.
ReplyDeleteAs I said before, I have accepted your reluctance to play WHFB. It's cool with me.
As far as my other mini rulebook goes, it's found a temporary residence at A.K.'s. Sorry.