I’ve been writing this blog for a few weeks now and have got a bit of content on 30K and Necromunda (within the lifetime of this blog I’ve built and painted my Necromunda gang). But that’s not what this was meant to be about. What this was meant to be about was documenting my experiences navigating from total noob to the cut throat world of tournament 40K gaming.
Actually just writing that last sentence made me do a little sick in my mouth (I’m not competitive at all). So what’s all this about?
Why am I getting into 40K?
Loads of reasons, here are some of them:
- It’s my hobby. Fairly ephemeral one this. I’m just drawn to 40K like a moth to a flame. Tabletop wargaming has always been one of my main hobbies (I have heaps including, but not limited to, cycle touring, the clarinet, video gaming, golf and heaps of other stuff). 40K (whatever 30K elitists (of which I am 100% one)) say is by far the biggest game in town. Being a table top wargamer and not having at least a functioning 40K army is a bit weird
- I’ll be able to play more games. This one isn’t really true. I live in a weird place at the moment and so don’t play outside of UK based events I fly back for (a grand total of one this year). Also, my gaming group doesn’t play 40K (with the exception of one guy who is a good friend and I’ll be drilling for advice soon). However, I can see that life might change before too long and a potential location change is on the cards. 40K might be a good way of meeting new people wherever I end up.
- It’s more stuff to paint. This is a big one. I don’t yet know how I will be painting my army (I have an idea but there’s a long way to go yet) but as this is my hobby, if I don’t have stuff to paint then I feel a bit lost. I’ll be discussing painting options in more detail when I come to the painting section of this blog (obviously). I could have painted another 30K legion but this way I’ll get to try some new techniques (and paint something that isn’t power armour (#spoileralert).
- To give me something to write about here. So this blog is my new hobby and I wanted to use it to document exactly what it’s like to go from complete noob to 40K tournament player. I’ll try and document everything I can – the good and the bad and I hope you can get in touch with your thoughts too.
So those are some of the reasons why I want to start playing 40K…but just having an army and rolling dice isn’t an aspiration; what does success look like here? What do I actually want to achieve?
- I want an army I’m proud of (or an army I know I will be proud of one day). Game systems are creeping up a bit on me – I want to build and paint an AoS army this year and I am going to get involved in Adeptus Titanicus when it drops – so the likelihood is I’ll try and get this army up to a neat tabletop standard and leave the opportunity to upgrade the finish in the future.
- However painful it is, I want to experience the really competitive edge of 40K gaming. This is nothing more than masochism to be honest; I’m not interested in winning anything but I would like a tough school and to understand where the outer edges of the competitive landscape look. This really is just a reaction to one of my un-informed biases about 40K (that the competitive meta is horrible).
- After the competitive experience I want to roll back to some more chilled events (if they exist) and find my sweet spot for really enjoying the game (assuming I don’t have an epiphany and fall in love with balls to the wall WAAC tournament 40K play).
Ok so those are the reasons I want to play 40K and what I want to get out of this experience. But where am I actually starting from?
Hmm, bit of a candid admission here. I’m a 40K 8th ed. noob but I have played 7th ed. In fact my total number of 40K games is ~10 (including five as the doubles partner of my good friend Tom who is teaching you to write 30K lists here). I’ve had two 40K armies previously:
- A double predator Minotaurs Space Marine army. Yep, it won all the games it deserved to.
- A knight army. Yes, you read that right. I went from a list with no statistical chance of winning anything to a literal kerbstomping rape train with no brakes. I did a knight army as a quick way to get into 40K before but all it really was was a quick way to becoming the most hated man in the room.
So I’m not a complete noob and I have experienced tournament 40K as the doubles partner of a winning machine but 8th ed is very different and I’m branching out on my own. But what are my preconceived ideas about 8th ed. 40K? What am I worried about? (disclaimer, I don’t “worry,’ about anything (other than my pension pot and my kids)):
- The game system is dysfunctional. I’ve heard lots of stories of first turn scoops in tournaments because losing the first turn means losing the game. I will not scoop, guaranteed, but I’m interested to see if this is really the case
- The hobby standard is appalling at events because the meta changes so quickly units blow in and out of fashion all the time. This is more of an issue to me; I’ll be fully painted as well as I can be within my aspirations for the army. I hate playing against, ‘no effort,’ armies. We’ve all been there. Your stuff doen’s have to look amazing. It doesn’t even have to look good. It just has to look good to you – if you really think your army looks crap, you’re probably right.
- Everything is hyper competitive all the time. I’m hearing terms like ‘soup,’ (which I understand to mean units from lots of different books bunched together just because it’s good, not because it’s thematic) and it’s making me feel a bit sick. Hopefully I’ll be able to throw a wet blanket on this attitude!
- It’s a younger demographic. Younger than 30K anyway. This is almost certainly true. 30K is uniquely veteran in its player base. I like that but, who knows, there may be elements of the 40K culture I can use in 30K anyway.
So, that’s why I want to play, what i want to achieve, my starting point and a few of the pre conceived ideas I have about the 40K hobby at the moment. The next stop will be picking an army. I’m looking forward to that bit. Actually that’s a bit of a weirs thing to write because I’ve picked it already and an writing this in reverse but I’m looking forward to writing about it I guess.
I hope my 40K journey is interesting and, of course, if you have any comments let me know!