My gateway in to the GW hobby was WHFB. I ended up with three armies (Beastmen, WoC and VC’s (which I nearly mortgaged to pay for resin square bases for when The End Times and AoS dropped – thanks GW)) but it was always Beastmen that really held my interest.
I loved the fluff (there’s a short story in the Beastmen 7th ed book (which was also the Beastmen 8th ed book, but it’s fine) about a village having to pay a flesh tithe every full moon. They start by giving up their criminals, then their sick, then their elderly until there’s no one expendable left, they don’t pay the tithe and they get goat-bummed out of existence). I loved the models (even the Pumbagor) and I loved the playstyle (I played ‘ring-around-the-herdstone,’ with three wizards and then three massive blocks of infantry).
When The End Times came and swept the Old World away, I was both apprehensive and enthusiastic in taking up AoS. I invented Balewind Vortex spam and used it to good effect at the first WHW ToS for AoS simultaneously winning all my games (4 major wins and one minor) and coming last in the event (only favourite game votes counted towards your position; all new inventions are scorned, even Balewind Vortex spam). That was with a SCE and Empire mashup that took 3 weeks to paint and looked utter dogsh*t.
And then…nothing. My Gaming partner got the hump with GW and The End Times (then, even more inconsiderately, he became a father – another nail in the coffin) and there was zero interest in any ‘spells and swords,’ games at my club. I went around the block with Malifaux, Bolt Action, Batman, Kings of War but nothing stuck. Either spending money on a new system when you’ve just crated a square base army hurt too much or there wasn’t widespread appeal amongst any new rule set.
It didn’t help that this was the period when 40K was going down the tubes with ridiculous combinations of units from different codices making all conquering armies (until the Eldar book dropped and you could think of all the clever combos you wanted but you’d just get your sh*t pushed back in by a Wraithknight).
Then Betrayal at Calth dropped. Suddenly a game that I knew almost nothing about (I had Black Book One and Angron (still shrink wrapped) because they came out on a WHFB tournament weekend that I was at WHW for) except that I couldn’t afford it became eminently accessible.
I’d read a few of the HH novels (the first five anyway) and liked them (they’re not ‘Perfume, the story of a murderer,’ but I don’t think they’re trying to be either). Those books made me moderately tumescent for Emperors Children. I was away…
A few years on, am I still enjoying the game? Very much so. Here’s my podium of why I like playing 30K:
- The playing community. I’ve not played against any genuine d*ckheads in any game of 30K I’ve played (I may have been the d*ckhead, I wouldn’t know, but that’s not my problem. The 30K playing community does tend to be older, more chilled, and the culture of narrative gaming has grown strongly within 30K. I would just say that although people always claim they’re only in it for the narrative, there’s still a lot of very, very tough lists out there so I don’t fully buy the non competitive angle.
- The online community. Pioneered by some of my favourite hobby resources, the podcast and Batrep scene in 30K is very strong. Book 7 has definitely caused some griping but there are lots of places to hang out online which are genuinely funny and engaging
- The models. Termites aside the last few months have been a slow time for 30K model releases (AoS reboot and 8th ed 40K are always going to take precedence but we’ve also had a number of specialist games releases taking up GW / FW resource). However, the existing range is still so strong that it doesn’t really matter. My EC army has plenty of the army specific models (Kakophoni, Phoenix Terminators, the heads and torsos etc) but I could think of unique and cool looking units for almost every army. I would happily build and paint another army for any legion (I’m not going to for a long time but I wouldn’t cry if the police said I had to).
This section of the site won’t be like the others. I’m really looking forward to building and painting my first 40K army and to really reconnecting with Beastmen (probably) for an AoS force and then documenting my new tournament experiences. The 30K section of this site will be like an old pair of shoes – comfy but nothing flash. There’s some great content from Tom about list building and I will write some event reports etc.
I’m not very good at 30K (I’m not very good at any of the games, that’s not why I play them) but I’m not clueless either (I’ve won a couple of awards at WHW events). I hope you enjoy the blog and let me know your thoughts!