Warhammer 40K - The Lowest Common Denominator?

[Primarch]

Next week I have to go and book the room for NagoyaHammer next year. As always, I expect 40K to be allocated for one full day, simply because it is the one game that the majority of people have armies for.

That said, is it the one game that the majority of people want to play? In the couple of months leading up to NagoyaHammer this year, a lot of people said "I haven't played 40K since the last NagoyaHammer," or something to that effect. Since the event this year, I haven't seen a lot of 40K being played and almost no discussion of it online.

Going back a few years, to when this website was still very much in it's infancy, I remember playing 40K nearly every month, with events in Ogaki and Nagoya, regular gaming at Joshin and just about everywhere in-between. I played 15,000 point apocalypse games over weekends and enjoyed every second of it. Badruck and I would engage in massive online arguments about which unit was better, or the best way to play the game or use a certain type of model.

So what happened? Where has the fun gone and why is 40K now the game that only really gets any table time at NagoyaHammer? For me, there has been a big lean towards historical games eating up a lot of my time, but that hasn't stopped me from spending some time playing SF/Fantasy games that I enjoy. Clearly something changed that stopped me from enjoying 40K and I'm not sure if I can put my finger on exactly what it was.

Probably, it was a number of factors. First and foremost is the simple rising cost of the game. I like to have new toys for the systems I play and if I can't afford said toys, I am less inclined to play.
GW's frantic release schedule isn't a positive factor either. Codecies are expensive and having to replace them in less than 2 years is frankly ridiculous. For a while it looked like the newer books might be more balanced, but Eldar seem to keep getting better, while Nids are still very much reliant on NidZilla lists to stand up to others.
In the last edition, it was no secret that I didn't like the allies charts that much, nor the double FOC nonsense. 7th has made things worse (for me) in that regard with the unbound lists. I find the "pay to win" formations rules (ie. buy X, Y and Z units and get a pile of bonus rules) off-putting as well.

But all that is just me. My point is, if we are going to play 40K at NagoyaHammer for a full day, why should we do it? If no-one cares that much for the rest of the year, why devote a day to it? Is it really that it is just the lowest common denominator between us? I still love the background and fluff, the core of 7th edition as a mechanism for moving minis around a table and rolling dice is just as good/bad as any previous editions. I just see a whole lot of apathy about it compared to other systems. I don't want to go to the effort of organising and running a day of gaming when the sole motivation of most players is "I'm only playing this because everyone else is playing this." That makes no sense. I want people to play games because "I LOVE playing this and can think of no finer way to spend a day."

Thanks for reading.
P.

[kojibear]

I still enjoy the idea of 40k - the moments when something cool, something narrative, something unexpected happens. I felt the old Warhammer fantasy, for the most part, continued to offer that kind of experience. But40k seemed to move towards a system that made this more and more unachievable without a lot of planning and co-operation of like minded spirits. At Nagoya hammer last year I ran my sole surviving member of a squad of marines, a Chaplain, at a Dark Eldar Tantalus and jumped up on it to try and shove a grenade down its engine exhaust (well, that was the image in my head was showing me). Although my chaplain did not achieve said victory to bring down the giant sail barge, it was heaps of fun. That being said, the match up was on the whole not as fun as we wished. My opponents were awesome, great sports, great souls, but the armies and units on the table just didn't really allow for a great deal of excitement with that match up. I remember well the Warhammer Fantasy events at Orktoberfest, and while the 'bad match up' scenario kind of happened a little, it was not as severe as how it exists in the current version of 40k - at least how my humble self sees it

Nagoyahammer - as the name itself suggests - has traditionally revolved around Warhammer 40k. I think Primarch asks a good question. Do we choose 40k because it is merely what everyone has access too, or because it is what we all enjoy. I certainly enjoy making and painting stuff in preparation for it - but the actual playing of the 40k games themselves are just so random in terms of how much fun will be had by both players due to the match ups of units and armies. I am fully aware other game systems share this propensity to varying degrees, but as I said earlier, 40k is really epitomising this more and more with the recent editions and army books.

If it is the event itself, the lead up, the building and painting, the camaraderie that is what we crave more than the actual game system, then maybe we could try something else?

Look forward to hearing what you guys all think

Kojibear

[me_in_japan]

A good question, and one worth a bit of thought. I think the answer to this will very much depend on the individual, so for what it's worth, here's my (edit: very very very long) take on it.

I look forward to playing 40k at Naghammer partly because it's the only time I play the game through the year. I don't play half as much of any game system as I'd like, but that doesn't reflect a lack of desire to play em. I can certainly see a decline in the overall popularity of 40k on these boards, and in many ways i agree with Prim as to the reasons. Speaking personally, a big part of my own demotivation is certainly GWs attitude to gamers. I was actually talking to Spev and Lovejoy about this the other day. Take Eldar for example. I love dem pointy ears - that's pretty clear, I'd imagine. Corsairs in particular have always appealed - that's what got me into 40k in the first place. So when FW released IA 11 a couple of years back I was pretty excited. I already had a bunch of eldar and dark eldar figs, so I bought a small amount of stuff with which to build a bare-bones army.* Small army obtained, I set about painting it. It took about 6 months to get it about half done, and I brought it to Naghammer last year and had fun with it. Then 40k updated, and the corsair book got so outdated that it became unplayable. I waited for an update. I waited for minis for units that were in the book but unavailable (like any HQ, for example...). I continued to wait. Now after over a year of having an unplayable army gathering dust on my shelf I hear news of FW releasing an updated version of IA 11. Which will undoubtedly cost in the region of 50 quid. That's 50 quid to use an army I already spent 50 quid on the rules for and used about three times before they were left behind in the rush to whatever edition of the rules we're on now.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...

I think I'll just wait for Bran Stark on this one.

The thing is, there's a flip side to this story. Y'see when I was talking to Spev and Lovejoy about this we were playing Judge Dredd, a game I've played maybe 6 times in my life. Spev had kindly offered me a copy of his digital rulebook so I could list build at home. But y'know what? I like warlord games. I feel we could form a mutually beneficial relationship. So, I politely refused Spev's kind offer and went online and paid for my own copy of the book.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that I'm fed up being shafted by GW. They ain't getting any more of my money. So my 40k armies ain't going to grow (much.) So my motivation to play is much decreased.

However...

I already have 4 and a half (Harley's) 40k armies. They ain't none of em finished, and I have more than enough bare plastic/resin/pewter lying around to accommodate my painting needs for years to come. Nagoyahammer provides me with a reason to do so. I do enjoy the spectacle of a fully painted 40k army laid out on the tabletop. The scale of it is just more impressive than the other games I play (Dredd, Mali, WMH, infinity). So, I guess the appeal of Naghammer is, for me, that it gives me a reason to play 40k, and by extension, justify the silly amount of 40k minis I already own.


*a set of 10 wings, heads, and guns, a d-cannon tank, 3 light tanks and a flyer. This cost in the region of 230quid. I realise this is FW we're talking about, but still. The rest of my army (a general, a psyker, 6 bikers, 10 ground-pounder corsairs, 2 tanks and a 5-man elite squad) were cobbled from minis I had already.

[Admiral-Badruck]

Well I am still keen to play but I don't know how anymore that is the big problem. They have changed the rules and the armies I played. I couldn't keep up. I would love to keep playing but since Kaine stopped being my friend I don't really have anyone to play with. I meant I have not have an invite for a pickup game in ages. I'm still really keen to throw dice and drink beer if anyone wants to play.

[Colonel Voss]

I guess for me, it is a non-issue anymore as I am out of the game. All I have left are the dark eldar I am trying to sell off. My reasons are legion from GW actions, policies and prices to even some of the things players have said to me.

But there is one thing that finally pushed it over the edge, and truly has prevented me from shifting to 30k. I am a big story person. I love creating a background and fluff for my armies and games. GW just doesn't work that way anymore, so I've moved on to greener pastures. For 40k, the rpg does it much better and cheaper than the wargames anymore.

[Spevna]

I'd like to play a day of 40K because it is almost the only time I put a full army on the table.

For me, it's an annual event I look forward to. Putting an army together, meeting in up with mates I usual see once a year, and grabbing a few beers after

I've got plenty of time to play all the other games I like, so NagHam is where I get my full on 40K fix

[The Underdweller]

Well, I would be happier with a WarmaHordes tournament. But, since that sentiment wouldn't be shared with most of the members of this forum, it would probably be a bad idea!

Even though I have lost some of my enthusiasm for the game, I think it is still nice for everyone to get together one day a year and hang out while playing a game that we all own. So, I would come and play 40K still.

[Lovejoy]

Like so many of us, I haven't played 40k since Nagoyahammer, and hadn't for months before that (bar practice games). I am definitely exasperated with the churning out of expensive codexes, frustrated by mickey-taking prices, and I play too infrequently to actually remember rules with any accuracy. I'm just generally in the dying days of a poisonous relationship with GW. At this point its partly about nostalgia... And about the need to justify the minis languishing in the hobby room, basically. They must be played with, or it was all a waste of money, wasn't it?
To be perfectly honest, I do want a 40k experience at Naghammer (so, minis and fluff) but using the 40k rules wouldn't matter to me, in fact I would prefer not too - I would probably be more content pushing GW stuff about using Antares or Rogue Trader. I think we could still have a grimdark experience, free from the lunatic rules changes using another system.
You may say I'm a dreamer. But hey, I'm not the only one...

[Admiral-Badruck]

Nostalgia is the key word. That is the only reason I don chuck all the stuff out a window on a fire watch it burn. Which is what I want to do every time I here the latest news.

[me_in_japan]

I figure that my stuff is my stuff, and chucking it all in a fit of frustration at the company that made it would ultimately be cutting off my own nose to spite my face. I'm as vexed with GW as the next man, but I intend to carry on enjoying the 40k that I have, and just not buy any new stuff. Not so much in a "screw you geedubs! No more of my cash for you!" kinda way - it's more that I just don't wanna buy any more 40k stuff from them. I'm waiting on a bunch of dark eldar from raging heroes, and I have plenty stuff in hand to be getting on with, so I plan on just chugging away with what I've got and letting newer systems provide the new-shiny hit of the hobby.