For the LOVE of the Game!

I have been playing a lot of 40K of late including the last three tournaments I have played in. This mainly had to do with my preparation for the Cancon 40K event that I was attending because the Fantasy event was organized so late.

I have “returned” to fantasy and in my preparations for my first game in a little while I started to read the Australian Warhammer Forums again. What a mistake. There is a war going on between those who play 8th and those who want to changed 8th to suit their opinion of how the game should be played. It appears as though the change group is the majority on the forums and after discussing this with many Victorian players on the weekend I discovered something. Lots of the play 8th edition group have stopped going onto Wargamerau (especially the Fantasy) forums out of sheer disgust (three separate players).

Hell I almost rage quit the game out of frustration and anger over people monkeying with the rules this week so I can understand their feelings. (I will spare you my feeling specifically as I am sure many of you have read them in previous posts) 40K is just as fun for me to play and I don’t have to deal with this crap.

I also found out that a respected Melbourne Tourney will be running with significant rules “modifications” later this year. Now I am immediately tempted to say forget about it and “vote with my feet” and skip it on principal alone. It is not that easy though is it? If I stop going to events (and I am part of a large club that sees these changes as horrible) that I disagree with AND my club does likewise we are just giving ammo to the idiots who say that 8th is dying because the game is terrible. If we do go we are supporting people changing the rules because they want Warhammer 7.5… There is no way to win here…

This alone makes Warhammer fantasy almost no fun anymore and encourages me to leave people to destroying their own scene. Why bother?

Wellllll… On Saturday I took the train/bus out to the Hampton Club with a couple of friends and really enjoyed the trip out talking fantasy. I then got a really good game in with my “new” skaven army (I just finished my stormvermin unit sans blood spatters) against club president Greg Johnson and his Empire list from Cancon. The results of the game are irrelevant except that for the first time in a while I really enjoyed fantasy battle. Magic barely took a part in the game again confusing me as to why people get so bent out of shape. There were dice rolling, units moving and fighting. In short I had a BLAST. It totally rekindled my enthusiasm for the game.

I would recommend any time that we get too caught up in the politics and silliness that occurs in the local scene that we kick back an enjoy a game with a good opponent and remember why it is that do play these games in the first place. Fun.

Til Next Time…