Phonelobster vs Wargaming Communities ROUND 7

[Neo Phonelobster Prime]

The Premise of this adventure
I have not been involved in tabletop wargaming communities specifically for some time. But if you noticed in the miniatures thread, I still paint and collect miniatures for those games. So I thought hey, one of these communities exists near me I haven't been involved for between 10-15 years they seem to have gamers in my age range and with similar interests from the pictures. Imma gonna try and get involved.

For the community!

Why I haven't been involved in wargaming communities lately
They all fucking closed.

About 10+ years ago the gaming store the local community was centered around closed.

The next gaming store over that the next community was centered around. Closed.

The gaming club that still played table top wargames was mismanaged so badly it collapsed until it was like me and one other guy. Then it recovered because that other guy put a lot of work in, but it came back pretty much exclusively as a board game community.

The warmachine and infinity communities, became weird and insular and only organised competitive tournaments in dark urban alley ways at midnight or something.

The next two war gaming clubs over were pretty far away at this point and one was a wierdo ancient one that has existed for more than 50 years and if you turn up people are just as likely to be playing fucking Napoleonics, and the otherone consisted mostly of gamers who, metaphorically at least basically would not talk to or make eye contact and just sort of seemed silently hostile while you could hear banjo music playing in the background somehow.

Then a gaming store trying to have a community around it came back, but further away. And it was run by "that guy" from several of my previous real life adventure stories. You know the one who bought into a franchise that should be called "The gaming stores that can only exist in the crumbling ruins of what used to be a real economy" and then rented an inaccessible store that was too small, furnished it with stolen kindergarten furniture and did not seem all that aware he had opened directly next door to a famous regional brothel.

The one time I went there to play a board game "that guy" made it needlessly creepy, as previously mentioned so, fuck that for an hours drive with no parking safe from very sticky fig trees, those guys from clockwork orange looking for ultra violence and rogue trigger happy broken parking ticket machines.

ANOTHER outlet of "The kind of gaming stores that can only exist in the crumbling ruins of what used to be a real economy" had opened finally nearer to me. In a bigger venue. A sensible one, minimum one block from any brothels as far as I know. They also have adult sized furnishings.

I have until now been avoiding it. In part because I know of a vile rapist (thanks for that gaming) who might have been active there and I just didn't want to have to tolerate him. But he moved to the board gaming club instead so fuck. Now the board gaming community isn't tolerable and the wargaming one MIGHT be.

So I decided to try and join in the local wargaming community

THIS is the story of how that worked out so far.

[Neo Phonelobster Prime]

Hopes and Dreams
OK. So. I like Infinity miniatures. I got a bunch. I want to use them.

Now. I don't approve of the infinity RULES. They have some very good rules, but also some very bad ones. Mostly because the fuckers just didn't stop writing more and more complex rules for no fucking reason. But I will tolerate the rules for some social game play and an excuse to use my cool miniatures IN that social game play.

What I IDEALLY wanted was... to play Infinity.

Settling for Second Best
Look there are a lot of Indy wargames out there all of a sudden. And the franchise that is the mad max version of what your local gaming store used to be IS an indy chain NOT tied to the creepy yolk of games workshop.

So hey. I could play whatever is active locally. I'm prepared to start collecting something from Mantic or whatever the fuck, lets do this.

Or fuck it, I don't really want to but I HAVE still got a bunch of warmachine minis, could play that.

The reality of... oh for fucks sake
Well. The local Infinity community WAS (supposedly) very active, but the one guy who was somehow keeping that organised got sick or something and it evaporated... back into those distant back alley tournament only scenes if not even less than that.

And they are trying to recruit for ONE indy wargame... but I have reason to believe it's like 1 and a half guys. And their chosen wargame is Distopian Wars. A fucking BOAT game, and I just cannot put together the interest in that.

So what ARE they playing?

Other than MtG and loud pokemon and world championship bad TTRPG shouting (now with clapping or possibly even small fireworks I cannot tell what that fucking crack noise is they are making)?

Age of Fucking Sigmar
The indy gaming stores table top wargaming community... mostly plays Age of Sigmar.

Fuck. What a turd.

1) It's games workshop.
2) It's games workshops biggest ever fuck you to it's own customers.
3) They killed warhammer fantasy for Age Of Sigmar
4) It's ugly as fuck

It's sufficiently departed from the normal fantasy aesthetic I couldn't even throw together a temporarily convincing army from the models I do have. Even though they have after THREE FUCKING EDITIONS made concessions to try and draw in former warhammer fantasy players by adding some factions that are loosely the same as old warhammer fantasy ones.

I HAVE some old Vampire Knights vampires and skelletons. There IS an Age of Sigmar vampires and skeletons faction. The bases are all wrong but whatever. Problem is the AoS skeletons look nothing like fucking regular skeletons and the AoS vampires look nothing like ANY vampires I have (I have a few) and I don't like the AoS look.

And the rules? To some extent who the fuck knows? I don't want to pay to find out, OR pirate to find out. Loosely I recall they were an attempt to dumb down warhammer fantasy to an even simpler version of 40K instead, specifically eliminating facing, formations, flanking and morale, the entire fucking core of warhammer fantasy other than a generic fantasy aesthetic that they ALSO threw out.

Also the first edition of AoS released WITHOUT FUCKING POINTS COSTINGS. They actually fucking games workshop official rules were. "Put whatever you like on the table to fight whatever they other guy wants to put on the table". ANYTHING GOES.

And I mean. Obviously that was fucking infantile and like the vast majority of warhammer fantasy players, and gamers in general back in the day I heard that and did that spin around on your heel thing and walk right back out the door thing.

AND YET. Somehow by just burning 3 editions of resource down a fucking hole Age of Sigmar is SOMEHOW now considered a success broadly and is dominant locally.

And they are promoting people to get into it.

EVEN THOUGH Games Workshop is not supplying enough product and has already announced a new rival fantasy army game is about to be released.

Now, the new fantasy army thing, some sort of warhammer fantasy revival, would be more my thing (barely) it isn't out yet and might take upwards of a year. And it's PROBABLY a cynical fake out JUST to destroy indy alternative spiritual successors.

But with games workshops history of leaving gamers high and dry with pretty sudden hard discontinued game systems... now is not the fucking time to START collecting Age of Sigmar even if there EVER was a time to do that.

If I'm gonna play with Games Workshop I'll just play 40K thank you
So at that point, fuck it. I Will play 40k instead.

Reasons to do so?
1) I can tolerate the cosmetics of it, or some of it, unlike Age Of Ugly.
2) I still have enough models for it to lower the cost/risk of entry for me.
3) A brand new edition of 40k has JUST released so at leasts it's at the START of an active cycle, right?
4) GW has actually released the rules AND an army builder FOR FREE lowering the cost/risk of entry further.
5) They DO reportedly have an active group of 40K players as they (supposedly) are promoting it with the new edition.
6) Better yet they are promoting a slowly scaling low army point cap entry point type thing. Meaning I can scale in slowly with what I have really easily and hold off on buying new shit until I decide if I like this community/edition.

So after initial scouting, that's what is happening. Or what was meant to be happening.

So how did that go? Great right? I mean OBVIOUSLY...

[Neo Phonelobster Prime]

The Mad Max gaming Store Franchise vs Retail vs the internet vs organisation vs me
Lets start with a few things.

This gaming store does not have it's own website. It has... some sort of Facebook presence, but I will get back to that.

The franchise has a website. Mostly just an online store. A fairly pricey one, with not great stock, ESPECIALLY (suspiciously) if you try to "pick up in store" not just at the store in question, but just in the entire greater local region that contains at leas 3 branches of the store.

Since I don't Facebook anymore (yet), the only source of online information specific to the actual physical location of this specific store... is it's google maps entry.

Like most of those, it is not super informative.

The most useful part is that someone, presumably a guest, helpfully put up the weekly event schedule in the form of a photo. You know. Just like customers at MY store put up photos of my plants I sell BUT ONLY IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER WHILE THEY ARE ALL DEAD AND WE AREN"T EVEN SUPPOSED TO BE OPEN WHY ARE YOU EVEN HERE I THOUGHT I SHUT THE GATE WE ARE CLOSED THIS MONTH.

And just as helpfully it was from a year ago and was definitely out of date because it didn't even match the same days the store closed on according to its google maps opening hours.

Which reminds me I need to update my own opening hours on google maps because SOMEONE FUCKING CHANGED THEM AGAIN TO SOME RANDOM BULLSHIT WHY DO PEOPLE DO THAT WHY DOES GOOGLE LET THEM THEY HAVE FUCKING TRIPLE VERIFIED ME AS THE OWNER AND IT TAKES ME A FUCKING WEEK AND VARIOUS IDENTITY HOOPS FOR ME THE CHANGE THEM MYSELF.

Anyway.

So I have no choice I need to go in person for what I know will be at least itself a not super conductive trip to talk to possibly crazy people. Something I could just stay at home for at the moment NO THAT PLANT IS NOT FOR SALE ITS FUCKING DEAD ITS WINTER WE ARE CLOSED ON THURSDAYS AND FOR THE MONTH OF JULY FFS.

Mad Max franchise outlet's shocking secret
Retail wise it is a fucking irradiated wasteland.

I have been to the two other nearby outlets years ago (the "that guy" oompaloompa scale one next to the brothel, and the one down the coast that moved twice and went out of business once because someone stole one batch of Magic cards and they were staying open by exactly that margin of assets one).

They had stock on the shelves and they had pretty OK maybe even highly competitive pricing.

Just as an example. I thought I might buy some paints just as a pretext to show good intent to the store owners while talking to them about less obviously profitable stuff.

They didn't have enough paints on their paint racks for me to find a paint I could actually justify buying.

I bought some (over priced) side cutters intended for plastic sprus because my wife wanted something to clip the dogs claws with.

As for other items? Well, they have some CCG junk. For games I do not and will not collect or play.

They had a sad selection of board games.

Their wargame products on the shelves were... holy shit bad.

Want to buy Infinity? They had 3 items from one faction that are so old I am pretty sure they are out of print.

Want to buy Distopian Wars? That indy game they suggested when prompted? No, nothing.

Want to buy 40k? The big name wargame just now releasing a new edition? Well... you COULD, only just, build a viable (official) mimium 1000 point army. For space marines only. If you pick the right chapter. AND if you buy the new edition starter set. Otherwise fuck you.

Got Eldar? The faction that everyone is talking up as super the best broken suddenly, why yes I do, so I mean, since it's so hype you have... ONE FUCKING MODEL on the shelf. A god damn farseer on a flying bike WHO THE FUCK WANTS THAT?

Still, from what I understand GW has escalated artificial scarcity and supply side failures to new heights lately. So the fact you COULD buy the new starter set and get like 1/2 a marine army you could finish with some extras and 1/2 a tyranid army THAT YOU CANNOT does put this store ahead of like at least two major western countries on retail stocks on the shelf.

OK. So fuck it. AGE OF SIGMAR? The number one promoted miniatures game with the "wow we have a huge community, I swear we did a tournament and there were like 40 guys!" Do you actually want to buy that?

Well. Do you like steam punk ballooning dwarves? Balloon punks as it were? Honestly of the available options they rank pretty high to me, but that might be because of very low bar competition issues.

Well good thing, because if I WAS able to stomach Age of Sigmar, Balloon punks are the only faction with more than a single unit on the shelves and by virtue of having like one unit AND the only army starter box are effectively the ONLY available faction to viable start a new army of.

But then I wasn't actually able to stomach starting an Age of Sigmar army almost exclusively on the basis of "well I guess ballon punk dwarves are something I do not have yet..."

So. On another visit (more on that later) I asked how I could support the store... You know, actually spend money there, not really pointing out that you know... they basically weren't actually selling anything.

Well. I can order things in. Not on the fucking website, can't order in things for pick up there unless they already have it, which they don't. Gotta talk to the guy and get him to order it in. And online store prices are stupid high for an online store, not great in available items either. And why the fuck would I order online (via a guy) for a higher price to wait for it to be delivered to NOT MY HOUSE about 30 minutes drive away? (fifteen minute cities are coming to get me, ARE THEY!)

[Neo Phonelobster Prime]

Getting a fucking game in
Right.

I have an eldar army right. Crash hot all the hype right now don't you know. Everybody loves or hates their uber new rules!

I haven't played for maybe 15 years. But I have a damn army I can put them in a card board box with some makeshift padding and just turn up and play. I've scouted the store, spoken to the guy (just the one shop owner guy, the place was pretty empty... in a way that's not at all a definite spoiler).

I mean yeah he seemed not super enthusiastic and actually sort of depressed and sometimes almost passive aggressive, but hey wargamers am-I-rite?

OK. Come back Friday after 4:30 pm. the 40k slow start guys play then. Its a busy night in general packed with MtG players, role players and Age of Sigmar. But also its the active night for the 40k guys.

Good. I can do afternoons/early evenings. Friday is not the best, but its doable.

I turn up on Friday. My wife, at first curious about a community that also plays board games *(does not turn out to play board games), comes along.

The turn out on the evening is not strong. In general. Even the MtG guys, though clearly active enough are not an all devouring locust swarm and the TTRPGers aren't even in the back yelling about ghosts and locking each other out of or into rooms in the middle of combats for fun and profit.

There are 4 wargamers.

Age of Sigmar players clustered around one table and 2 armies. They don't really want to talk, they just sort of stare kinda behind my shoulder (possibly at my wife) while someone somewhere starts to play a banjo.

Shop guy is pushing for me to play an intro game of Age of Sigmar with them. It is easy for me to get out of it, because rather clearly none of them want to.

Apparently it was a low turn out, which drove away the 40k players because... they had for some reason entered a state of temporary disgrace on the number of available war gaming tables because... they sold or shipped away some for some reason and had not replaced them yet? And Shop guy had actively been warning them off coming in to play because of the shortage of tables.

Which there wasn't because there were empty wargaming tables.

And which he didn't because he didn't warn ME like 2 days before, he was just like "Yep Friday night".

Well fuck it, but war-gamers-am-i-rite? Right?

Attempt 2
The 40k guys have been very active on SUNDAYS around the middle of the day, hell they start early often at 11, go all afternoon. SUNDAY is their day.

OK, its Friday now, you are telling me this. I definitely WILL be here on SUNDAY. At NOON. With my 40k slow start low points army as discussed. AGAIN. I am making it very clear I will be here Sunday for this specific game.

Now it's Sunday. I turn up. before Noon. it's nothing but Pokemon players and shouty rpg. I go to lunch I come back. Still no wargamers at all. I wait for nearly an hour. ONE GUY TURNS UP!!!

We start a game of 40k, my first in over a decade. I'll get back to how that game was but... OK. Anyway. A game.

Then 1 and a half other 40k guys turn up.

When the game is done half guy has vanished and one other guy wants a game. No, not with the new guy trying to get into the hobby and the community WITH THE OTHER GUY, who is.... hrm... war-gamers-am-I-rite kinda guy. Which leaves me with nothing much to do, so fuck it, one game and I'm done (gee I hope it was a good fun game experience).

So shop guy is like, yeah sorry, see actually there is a Magic event scheduled this afternoon, which is probably why the 40k guys came in late or not at all, I don't know.

And I'm like "I can't keep coming in every Sunday because soon plants will be growing and I will not be able to shout at customers from behind a closed gate and demand they stop changing my google maps opening hours just because they cannot tolerate a large printed sign saying "Closed Thursdays" ".

But I say. I will definitely make it for ONE MORE SUNDAY. I will come in NEXT SUNDAY at the same time. I tell the shop guy, I tell the 2 and a half guys that are the only representatives of the actual 40k gaming community. SEE YOU NEXT SUNDAY they say.

IN FACT. Shop guy says. There will be a big 40k turn out next Sunday because Slow start is going from 500 points to 750 points, RIGHT THEN, so the guys will all be in!

And fucking hell. Next Sunday, ZIP. NO ONE. Not a peep. It's loud pokemon and holy shit the TTRPGers have borged into a single mega table, who they fuck plays D&D at a table for 12+ people? With an apparent rate of Kender Style sabateurs of about 25%? And SOMEONE making an irregular cracking sound like small fire works every now and again with no seeming reaction.

Anyway, sat around for an hour. Went and got some stationary instead.

Oh shop guy, you think no one came in today possibly because you... ? HELD A 40K TOURNAMENT ON SATURDAY?

Well fucking hell. COULD HAVE MENTIONED THAT? Maybe you know. LAST SUNDAY. You know when we were discussing exactly this.

Oh hey look, my fault for not being up on (apparently surprisingly short notice) face book announcements. Only fuck it I was they had a mid week Magic tournament no god damn mention of a Saturday 40k tournament. At least according to the admittedly not super diligent face book spy I married.

The Future
For this and following reasons I am inclined to call bullshit on the whole plan.

If I continue at this point it means becoming directly active on facebook again, and some the fuck how matchmaking specific games on there (is that even particularly viable on Face Book?

For some fucking reason every remotely physically accessible wargaming community in Australia has almost exclusively Face Book as it's online presence but in the past on any effort to jump the face book hurdle they always ended up being dead communities by then anyway.

Still If I'm trying to do that then fuck it I can push for Infinity or whatever the fuck and don't have to get cornered into fucking Age of Sigmar, or 40k, OR THIS SPECIFIC STORE RELATED COMMUNITY AT ALL.

Because I know there's some sort of back alley infinity street fighting tournament league nearby AND the weird Napoleonics and creepy Nazi game fans that also sometimes play Infinity and other diverse games club. At the very least.

So if I have to be actually personally active on Face Book... why spend my time or money in or near your game store? Which seems to be on it's last legs along with it's wargaming community?

[Thaluikhain]

Huh, by odd coincidence this thursday I was at my local(ish) GW store and told it was best to arrange a match by FB, though I was early in the morning, and there were two games underway (so 4 people playing). I was also there for the first time in ages to pick up some MTO stuff I hadn't collected in a while because I had covid until recently.

I'm a bit surprised you didn't mention 40k's new army lists. Where you can have a 5 man terminator squad or a 10 man squad, and nothing in between. And the upgrades for sergeants, heavy weapons etc don't cost anything. That is, if you don't have the more killiest, what in previous editions was the most expensive (points wise) wargear on your models, you are missing out. Your sergeant model has a chainsword, like lots of sergeants do? No different from one with a plasma pistol and powersword.

Oh, and also they look to be phasing out real (that is Firstborn) space marines.

[Neo Phonelobster Prime]

But it was more than that
It wasn't just the total organisational fuck you.

Games Workshop Magic Helped Too
So hey. I mean. Of course it did. I knew it would, it's why my preference was anything but Games Workshop and why my entry strategy was "lets not give Games Workshop money until this turns out to be viable"

So those free rules and army builder app? The free rules are out the window when paid digital codexes start coming in. And the free army builder is out the window at the end of THIS MONTH (like what, tops under 2 months since the release of the new edition, so promotional, so hype) because IT becomes part of a PAID SUBSCRIPTION... to games workshops own failed MEDIA STREAMING SERVICE, which is RAISING ITS PRICE from "fuck no, not for that lack of content" to "you gotta be fucking kidding me THAT MUCH just for an army builder app your rivals give away for free just to get people into their games?"

And GW released the new edition Eldar (sorry Aeldari so they can copyright/trade mark it now), as officially GW fan boy acreddited "broken over powered crazy".

So great I get to have people going on about how OP eldar are... even though it was a core rule that wasn't remotely that bad and got nerfed into the ground within days of release (just in time to render a bunch of printed products redundant for the people who PAID FOR RULES IN THIS DAY AND AGE). And only ever made like 2 already a bit too good models a bit too much better... and which are still a bit too good along with EVERY factions models that share that one kinda fucking broken keyword/mechanic.

Two models I don't have, and would hesitate to buy even if I did get into it for cosmetic reasons, and the fact that one is actually a Dick Gun, sorry, D-Gun, but it looks it too.

Any you know I looked into some other factions rules to try an get a base line on what's standard stats and abilities right?

And fucking hell. The Eldar faction ability people were shitting their pants over is so incredibly weaker, even pre-nerf compared to what space marines alone get (and other factions too), but just compared to space marines the gap is so fucking huge I don't have to do the math to know the space marines factional ability wiped the god damn floor on damage output. AND they have that one fucking keyword/ability that "broke" the eldar factional ability AND their factional ability is MORE synergistic with that one fucking keyword/ability! AND does other stuff better! AND their fucking other options like strategems are more base point powerful AND synergistic than Eldar ones with EVERYTHING they do too!

But as usual with 40k. Space marines are never OP, but anyone else ever getting anything nice is. I give them a month to notice what fucking Necrons do now. Only, why should I expect that, the so called "competitive scene" for GW games is made out of some of the most oblivious gamers on Earth.

Of course Games Workshop made it as hard as possible for me to just get used models to the table at all as well.

The new edition now requires all units to field in one or if you are lucky two fixed numbers of models. Mostly 5s and 10s. Sometimes 10s and 20s. And options are... free... but sometimes also what used to be optional attachments are now compulsory...

So for instance, models once bought in packs of fucking 2, and still now sold in packs of 4 or 6 now need to be fielded in 5s and 10s.

I have some guardian defenders left lying around. I have 17 of them. I have NO heavy weapon platform attachments for them.

They can ONLY be fielded in 10 men squads with 1 attached heavy weapons platform now.

Oh but also THEIR BASE SIZE HAS CHANGED. To some sort of bullshit size no one but GW uses that is WAY bigger than you would thing guardian defenders would fit on.

So I need to change their bases, which means they won't fit in the new miniature transporting solution that FINALLY arrived over a month late OH THATS ITS WHOLE SEPARATE THING TOO.

But NO I DON"T need to change their base size because GW doesn't actually list required base sizes and just says "legal base size is what they were sold with" which means THESE fucking guardian defenders get tiny bases because they are old and NEW guardian defenders get giant bases because they are new and no one even really can agree on which option is better or has any meaningful effect on the fucking game.

And hey at least I get new casts... after 15 years... FUCKING BARELY, half my fucking fire dragons are only out of date because they are metal, its the same fucking sculpt. New sculpts are basically just farseers, knock off farseers, jet bikes and that one double size wraithlord abomination. MAYBE some space clowns if I could face painting and fielding them.

Oh yeah. And I DID use this as an excuse to paint the few remaining unpainted Eldar I had. Because fucking hell the whole point of this mess was to put painted models on tables and fuck yeah I put a fully painted army on the table in that one game.


And About that one game...
It was the fucking stereotypical everything wrong with 40k from a decade ago that people would talk about.

The other guy went to an introductory game with a maxed out online top rated space marine cheese unit forming the bulk of his "introductory" army. (fuck it, I half suspect it's from the starter box so lets not over play his choice there).

It ate almost my entire army in ONE SINGLE ROUND OF SHOOTING FROM JUST THAT UNIT. I'm pretty sure that despite powerful legitimate cheese he rather blatantly fucking cheated how many and what weapons it even legally had, AND THEN it got a free additional round of shooting because of course it did because space marines + an additional title in unit name.

It was hands down better at anti-infantry, anti-vehicle, tanking damage ALL AT THE SAME TIME and at least matched my potential specialist unit capabilities in every other field at the same time. And I'm pretty sure that was the LEGIT portion of his rules implementation of the unit.

So I got to sit there while other guy and 1 and a half extra guys tole me how OP eldar were (and kept being all "wait what no way" while I, the fucking new guy told them how they fucking actually work in the rules) and watching largely helplessly while one squad of extra cheese marines just killed my entire army turn 1 (without even going first).

Oh and OF COURSE his entire army was unpainted and barely assembled. Making it just a magical experience. With the added cosmetic cheffs kiss of the store table and terrain being some of the most second rate ugly shit I have ever fucking seen. ESPECIALLY the MDF terrain. I have opened and assembled MDF Terrain that looked GREAT completely unpainted, sure as hell better than than this stuff that wouldn't pass required detail level or variety as background building silhouettes in an ultra post modern low budget community stage play. (Oh and their terrain was designed in such a way to interact with at least the new edition rules in deeply unproductive ways like NEVER EVER BLOCKING ANY LINE OF SIGHT ANYWHERE).

So anyway
Against my better judgement I tried to interact with wargaming communities again. War gaming communities firmly won. I'm not sure that wargaming communities realize that this specific aspect of interaction isn't the bit that's supposed to be winnable.

[Neo Phonelobster Prime]

Huh, by odd coincidence this thursday I was at my local(ish) GW store and told it was best to arrange a match by FB, though I was early in the morning, and there were two games underway (so 4 people playing). I was also there for the first time in ages to pick up some MTO stuff I hadn't collected in a while because I had covid until recently.

I'm not sure I have an official local GW store anymore. Anyway it wasn't very local at all. And I never liked the official GW stores because wow. And the internet tells me GW doesn't allow games in store anymore, at least not in the UK. Which admittedly, is also very not local to me.

But also this store DOES NOT OPEN MORNINGS... except barely on weekends.

Oh, and also they look to be phasing out real (that is Firstborn) space marines.

AND ABOUT THAT
I Could have brought along 500 points of space marines. MAYBE 750.

I never purchased space marines. But being a war gaming and miniature enthusiast they just sort of... accrued.

They are of course all OLD marines. On the "sort of wrong" base sizes.

But shortly after adding up what I had, and yes, working around that fives and tens thing... Just getting enough points that I was like "well, I could twist my wife's arm or bring another second person then if I can't get a match we can just take a table of our own and infiltrate the community without them even realising it!".

Some of those preliminary phasing outs were announced (and more rumored).

So. My vintage metal flying brick that needs so much fucking work to fix up, well Land Speeders are out. A full third of the models I have and the ones I JUST based and started painting... Jet pack Assualt marines. They are out.

The ORIGINAL ultra cheap plastic terminators that came with a paint set. Probably not technically out, but look so fucking tiny compared to modern models (and were never you know, cosmetically good). The OTHER tactical marines that also used to come with paint. Probably still usable. The heavy weapon marines that... I don't know where they came from... MAYBE usuable, there are only two but they COULD be in a tactical squad...

The command squad which used to be a way to get a selection of characters apparently in pre-redundancy state and reduced to some sort of weird multi model character unit that I didn't even look at...

Yeah well basically short version. Whenever the dropping of jet pack marines and whatever to legends actually happens I go from like a 600-700 point legal space marine list to like, I don't know 300?

So... dragging anyone else into this with me instantly became a dead end without additional purchases as obstacles to entry.

Which means solo Eldar or bust.

[Neo Phonelobster Prime]

Oh and another another thing.

When I was a kid I wanted to play Epic
I liked the scale. It seemed a lot more interesting and viable.

But no one played it. "The guys" got into warhammer fantasy (in the days of fucking winds of magic that was its own nightmare am-i-rite era), which is why I have vintage GW plastic skeletons.

So here I am looking to be active again and GW announces a revival of EPIC.

Reviving Epic... again?
So. Seemingly GW keeps doing epic scale "speciality" games.

And "Speciality" means fuck you we never print enough and we instantly discontinue it for decades.

The BETTER enable this cycle they keep narrowing the scope of the Epic scale specialty games so it could never possible gain a wider audience.

So... there was the Titans only one (like the original pre-proto-epic) and there was the planes only one? Really?

And NOW the new one to be is... 30k only so fuck you xenos and non-empire and just... really?

And I'm like "Typical GW speciality games bait and switch only the suckers will fall for".

And I'm like, no, lets go deeper, there was a bit of an internet buzz over people using 3d printing and ebay type secondary markets to revive the original epic. So this is GW cashing in that buzz AND destroying that indy, in fact totally non-commercial movement before it becomes a thing...

BUT NO. NOW I'm like, oh so Mantic Games was working on an Epic scale sci-fi game and GW suddenly announced Epic 30k riiiight in time to make them effectively drop their project at least temporarily.

If GW had released a real broad 40k Epic scale game, I would have been tempted, if Mantic had released an Epic scale sci fi game, despite my misgivings on their setting and cosmetics, I'd probably have just fucking bought it.

But no. GW put a god damn end to that now didn't they.

Right at the same time as the events this thread is about.

[Thaluikhain]

And I'm like "Typical GW speciality games bait and switch only the suckers will fall for".

GW has decided to make some of its spin off games models (warcry, kill-team)usable in their main games, though they look weird and clunky and don't fit the aesthetics that well. But, ok, points for that, that's one step in the right direction. Though that ends up with a mess of weird options, which is a problem as it is.

With a bit of work, the Orlock gangers from Necromunda make decent Imperial Guard (sorry, Astra Militarum) or stealer cultists....the other gang models are technically good, I guess, but a mess, IMHO, and the fluff is worse. I do like the Necromunda terrain, but more as inspirations for making my own stuff, not buying that premade terrain.

Otherwise...meh.

[Neo Phonelobster Prime]

GW has decided to make some of its spin off games models (warcry, kill-team)usable in their main games, though they look weird and clunky and don't fit the aesthetics that well. But, ok, points for that, that's one step in the right direction. Though that ends up with a mess of weird options, which is a problem as it is.

I suspect that's another response to Mantic and Indy games that are sharing the same models from the same settings in skirmish and wargame scales of model numbers. A pretty consumer friendly alternative low bar to entry option for new customers and a reward of basically another game mode for existing customers.

Games workshop of course finds a way of doing something cosmetically similar only evil, greedy and also just needlessly kinda dogshit.