Thursday 31 October 2013

Warhammer - the STD of wargaming....

I started proper wargaming at the age of eleven, having previously spent many a happy hour alone in my room with my toys wargaming in all but name. I am now forty seven and the bug has never died, if anything it grew and became all consuming, having other people to wargame with! I have had many a casual dalliance with various periods over the years, flitting between one thing and another as the interest arose and passion became inflamed...then casting that aside as the new love of my wargaming life appeared on the scene......is it me or is this post getting a tad saucy? Well, can't be helped, I am a man of great passion after all and I make no apology for it.

Anyway, as you know I have recently been involved in that 'Wargame Nasty', Warhammer, something that I have showed no previous interest in at all...good, wholesome, clean living boy that I am. I have sneered derisively at the mere thought of such a game and considered those that did play to be in the foetid pit of wargame debauchery, not a little odd and a tad...well...wargame perverted; there, I have said it. But now..........

I collected a small Skaven army, nothing too involved, I could give it up anytime I wanted of course. I read the army book, did a bit a maths and with my proper wargame mind calculated a point based army that was well rounded and militarily sensible and even plausible...apart from the magic spells options. It all got a bit runny after that.

Then I played my first game...actually, it was a bit worse than that...if I am truly honest dear reader. I actually fielded an unpainted army.......I know, I am sorry! I didn't mean for it to go as far as that, I really didn't you must believe me! ..... I played a warhammer game with an unpainted army that I owned and as if that was not terrible enough.......I enjoyed it. I'm sorry, I need to stop for a moment.........










OK. so I played my first game. I won. But more than that I found myself getting to like that simple way the game worked, the way one could build an army without the restrictions and the oppressive Victorian social values...even the strange magic element where you can blow up an enemy with a weird spell...or make it melt...or change sides....and that a game only lasted  for six simple turns and could have an actual result at the end of it......it wasn't complicated....the armies were fun, my Skaven have a very good chance of blowing themselves up at the drop of a hat and I liked it all the more. I arranged to play a second game at the next club meeting and I found myself looking forward to it.....

I played a second game with the unpainted army and already I had a very good understanding of the rules and could even run sections of it. I made movement trays for my large Clanrat units...I even offered to help touch up and re base a friends 15mm ancient army in return for some old Skaven models and it was then that it hit me; I was lost with little hope of a safe return. The true depth of my condition was brought home to me at this years SELWG, I actively encouraged my good, good friend to buy a warhammer army book and the beginnings of an Ogre Kingdom army.

As the title of this post states, Warhammer is the STD of wargaming.....its all just simple fun until you realise you have become infected, and then you get the urge to pass it on......

8 comments:

  1. Antibiotics! And lots of them. That's what you need. Yeah Ok warhammer is an OK uncomplicated game. It works well and gives a result. That's not the issue. The issue is that every 3-4 years you will need to buy new rules, new figures and all the army books again as Evil Empire Games "Improves" them.

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    1. ...or mercury, the usual and favoured cure...although the delivery method was perhaps as nasty as the illness! Yep, you are right about the evil empire and their goal-post moving, legalised drug pushing at best but what can you do? i can give it up whenever I want anyway......

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    2. Got to say I agree. However I got hooked by GW when I was 9-10 so I've grown up with the constant rule/army updates, price rises and my army being left in the dark across multiple rules updates. I went through a blip in the late 90's / early 00's where I had to adjust my opinion that GW were the Paladins of the hobby to they're actually just robbing bast*rds. But then I love the models and the game is fun to play and im looking forward to taking my armies into the club for the 1st time for what will likely be the 1st of many thrashings.

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  2. Got to say I completely agree, however it was GW that got me hooked when I was 9-10 years old. So I've grown up with the constant updates and price raises and my army being left in the dark across multiple rule updates. I went through a blip in the late 90's / early 00's where I had to adjust to the realisation that GW weren't the Paladins of the hobby I thought they were and were actually just robbing bast*rds. But I love their models and the game is fun to play and i'm looking forward to taking my army in to the club for what will likely be the 1st of many thrashings.

    Drew

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    1. Hi Drew,
      I was supposed to be playing warhammer with phil at the next meeting but he has cried off, scared probably...although probably not! so whilst you bash steve I think I am playing/test pirate game with mark...but then back to skaven eating beastmen!

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  3. Sounds interesting, sea/naval warfare or skirmish game with models? Ive got some 28mm Foundry Pirates that have never seen action..... or paint for that matter.

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    1. Hi Drew,
      The game is called Cutlass, rules and figures via the black scorpion website but I am sure anything would do. I know you are due to play steve at the next meeting but if the game works it will no doubt get used next year.....although I am sure you could give it a go with Mark or another club member before then. Am I right in thinking you are playing steve at the next meeting?

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    2. Yeah that's the plan, although could you email/txt me Steve's contact details as we didn't really discuss it much.

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