State of my 40K

Well for starters I would like to thank the International House of Paincakes for accepting me into their blog network, I really appreciate it guys!

So.. 40K. For old readers or listeners of mine you kind of already know my stance on 40K. You can skip to the next paragraph if you want. For new readers let me give you a brief history of me and 40K. I first heard of 40K way back in 3rd edition. I had friends of mine who would play in between days that we were not playing AD&D (Skills and Powers FTW!) and I would always watch over their shoulders. I would pick up a codex they weren't using at the time and read and I ended up getting hooked on the story line. I didn't actually start playing 40K until 4th edition when I picked up Black Templars as my first army. I always liked their color scheme since they first came out in the Armageddon Codex and seeing that they got their own codex made it a win win. I had such a blast with my Templars back in 4th and had many memorable moments with them on the table top. Then work got in the way so I had to take a year or two off from the game. When things settled down with work I got back into 40K and this was after 5th came out. I was in for quite a surprise when I learned that I could no longer consolidate into another unit after a successful assault. I felt that it pretty much broke my army because that was their main strength in 4th Ed, being able to assault someone on their turn. I then started an Eldar army because they were the other army I really go into when I first got into 40K. They did pretty well for an outdated codex but it sucked seeing all the new shinies the new codex armies got while my two armies were left in the dust. This on top of non stop price increases and a lack of new codexes (mainly mine) began to disenfranchise me from the game. Long story short I ranted about it almost non stop on Dice Like Thunder and The Eternal Warriors and by the time 6th edition came out I was pretty much done.

Now that you're up to speed on my history of 40K (or you just skipped ahead), let me tell you about the State of my 40K. For started I still haven't played a game since 6th edition came out. The rules just seem to be blah, too many of them. It's almost like they took a few pages out of 2nd edition, but the army sizes are still just as big is not bigger then they were in 5th. Allies are a joke in my opinion but it was nice to see GW come out with more codexes, until they got to the Space Marines. It was pretty insulting to a long time Black Templar player to see your army get their own book taken away from them. I would have even settled for one of those mini dexes they seem to throw around these days but I didn't even get that. The sheer amount of mini dexes and supplement GW has been releasing has, in my opinion, made things even more confusing because there's too much out there.

The game hasn't gotten any cheaper to get into, prices are still going up like they're going out of style. I have moved on to games like Dreadball, Deadzone and Warmachine/Hordes. I tend to prefer lower model count games. I recently tried to sell my Black Templars but I just couldn't do it. When I went to take inventory of what I had I realized how long I had owned these dudes and how much time, effort and money I put into them. I actually got really sentimental and told my wife "Honey, I just can't do it" lol. So they will remain in their foam trays for the time being.

Will I ever play 40K again? I don't think I can say yes or no. I recently had a conversation with Chaos Dave and the rest of the Screaming Heretics and Dave was telling us about the wargaming clubs in England. Just being responsible for a unit or two in a big team game sounds like a lot of fun. If something like this ever came up I could see bringing my Templars out and giving it a go. I've always had a blast in team games, they were always more fun then 1 on 1.

Do I still despise GW? Yea, I'm pretty sure I still do but I don't let it get to me as much as it has in the past. I still thing the company is in serious risk of either going under or being bought out if things don't change. I'll still make fun of them or call them out on their stupidity but I don't dwell on it.  I have other games and things to do now. The one thing GW does have going for them still is their fluff. As much as I've hated GW I've always been a huge fan of Black Library. I'll admit some books aren't my cup of tea and I'll refer to those books as bolter porn because they just glorify how amazing and awesome Space Marines are. Once you get passed that BL puts out some amazing story lines. I am currently going back and starting the Gaunts Ghosts series that I never finished. I only have the first omnibus in paperback. Now if I can only find my Nook that suddenly went missing......