Here We Go Again.... (RANT)

It has been a big year of changes in my life with a divorce, a new job, a new place to live, a new love, etc etc etc...  As such my hobby has taken a bit of a hit and my desire to keep my life together has taken the front seat.  That said, life has been amazing the last six months or so and all is really good!  

To my point, as I have effectively had my head in the sand I feel like I have missed a few shifts in the ol war dolly scene down here in Melbourne/ Australia.  I also feel like some shifts that should have happened have not and I am shocked about what is going on.  

Case in point, Orktoberfest...  I attended Orkfest a few years back and (one personality clash aside) I had a blast.  It was early days into 8th and so the TO ran the event as a comp free event and while it was disappointing that a few rules changes were made to make 8th edition more like 7th, it was early days.  This morning I thought it might check the Orkfest pack (forgetting it was well into October.... Duh!) to see if I could sneak in a quick trip up to play again.  No such luck...  I missed it.  I also took a good look at the players pack to be honest... I was horrified.  No missions, significant changes to the rules (magic dice restrictions, unit size caps, victory point changes, infinite hills, etc...), no comp and 20 players...  This was not the event that I remember.  Or maybe it is...  True I only played once...  Maybe I just assumed it would get better over time.   I know it is just my opinion but I am pretty disappointed that people aren’t over the switch to 8^th by now. 

Victorian events (cancon aside) have been the largest of their kind in recent years.  The Victorian scene is continuing to grow and evolve.  Over the years we have seen a variety of events that mix up 8^th without actually changing the rules or how the game is played.  New players continue to come over from 40K and even occasionally from Warmachine, if they don’t come out of nowhere and start from scratch.  I believe this is largely do to Victoria being the only place to fully embrace 8^th edition within Australia.

8^th is balanced (or is at least far more so than 7^th) with new army books that seem to generally avoid the GW obligatory power creep.    It works, it is being fully supported and it is evolving…  Sure it is not perfect but nothing ever is.  6th Ed of 40k seems to have missed this phenomenon but to be fair comp seems to have died in the process...  C'est La Vie...

Now…  Off to Axemaster…