Following on from my fantasy themed ramblings yesterday, I'm continuing with a sci-fi themed waffle today.
As with yesterday's post, I've been following the Rogue Trader community with great interest over the last few years and memories of teenage gaming with 2nd edition 40k is still strong with me and I've had several goes at putting together old themed warbands but with similarly dismal luck.
The older ranges are becoming more expensive second hand as the Oldhammer community continues to grow and what was up till about 6-7 years ago cheap metal miniatures are getting very expensive.
I've been playing around with the option of using the new plastic miniatures combined with some retro bits and bobs to get the old 40k feel and with the pending release of the new edition of the game which from the blurb GW have released looks to be scalable, and incorporates a lot of narrative gaming, the temptation is great!
There's also the siren call of Epic 40k to look at too! I've put together some small forces for that too and would love to expand them but my interest in them has waned somewhat as I've been conflicted between playing small skirmishes or painting up a big army that suits the scale but was unlikely to ever see a game.
There's also a plethora of non GW games that I love that I'm interested in playing from Warzone to Vor, Void, Star Mogul or Kryomek. Each has a great setting and interesting forces but some are difficult to get (Warzone!) whilst others have sculpts that just don't work for me.
I could sculpt my own stuff for them in my own sort of style but there's something about the retro charm of Warzone with the chunky figures and 90's paint jobs that really appeals to me.
There's also Battletech, which is going through a bit of a renaissance at the moment (and some spectacular GW style business approaches which seems to have got a lot of folks backs up all of a sudden) but that is a project that I have either my own sculpts or paper counters for so it's kind of covered.
Looking back at this post and yesterdays, I find myself with lots of options but struggling with the motivation to actually do anything constructive about it. Yes I've sculpted and painted tons of stuff over the Lockdown but I haven't got two warbands for the same system, style or indeed scale during the whole time.
Maybe I need to take a page from the Oldhammer Army Challenge and give myself a goal to work towards, be it to build two small forces and play some games or just to concentrate at least initially on getting one force done one unit at a time. There was always something really exciting about reading the Tale of Four Gamers sagas back in White Dwarf so maybe this approach would be doable, with a tale of a solitary gamer taking the place.
Solitary or solo gaming is a must for me as I just cannot cope with playing in clubs or local store as every time I've tried, I end up pitted against a power gamer or rules lawyer who seems to take great effort to drain any enjoyment of the game and replace it with an abiding dislike for the prospect of playing again.
Instead I've thoroughly enjoyed becoming a solo gamer as I can bodge rules, scenarios or indeed the game to fit a narrative I enjoy. It's about the only time I seem to have a reasonable opponent and I seem to always get the side I'm pushing to win soundly beaten!
I'll have a look at the new edition of 40k and see if it does what I'm interested in or failing that, I have my Song of Blasters game that I have written which should allow for a more personal, quick skirmish sort of an experience that I enjoy. The question is what miniatures should I go for...
I'm going to have to have a ponder on it to see what I can realistically do and what will spark my imagination to keep going and more importantly, enjoying my hobby!
Tomorrow I'll be looking at some Microscale stuff that I've found interesting and ponder further upon what I'm going to do next but in the meantime, All the best and once again, thanks for reading my waffle!
At least it looks like sometimes you play....something.
ReplyDeleteI do not.
I feel you. Now I'm scratch building a mech out of rubbish. It won't have any use tho.
My latest sculpts have been like 2 demons, 2 ciborgs... Total lack of focus on anything that may serve as a proxy for a game.
I usually get frustrated about that and guess what wife says every time: it's a hobby, its goal is to be fun not efficient.
I don't know you, but what gets me going is to have my imagination busy. May it be scheming a theme for a warband, game mechanics or scenarios, sculpting and painting, reading, drawing...
Then I end up with no usable stuff but a couple of minis at best, per month but it's not the destination but the journey.
That sounds fantastic but yeah. So many game systems...
I'd say number 1 priority should be finishing stuff.
You already had few critter commandos' penguins. Get them done and provide an enemy warband.
Kryomek looks like needs a lot of figs to work so I'd pass and determine generic crap, like dudes that could be used both for chronopia AND leviathan, and such.
I recall dwarves looking pretty similar in both games. May be the artwork tho.
Dunno, but let us know what you'll come with.
So far I've stepped into quicksands (hobby ones) and ain't sure where to head next too...
Wow Javi, couldn't have worded it any better.
DeleteI'm kind of in the same boat, I love working on projects but rarely manage to finish any.
What about your robots? Don't you have two fieldable forces forces for them?
With the sizeable 15mm collection you already have and some creations of your own; it's probably the way to go for 40k, especially on the 3' by 3' table you got, with the least amount of effort.
Despite your hobby funk this is still the best blog ever, ponderings and rambles included. Keep up the great work, whichever direction you decide. Always inspirational.
ReplyDeleteShucks!
DeleteThanks for the support! I worry that my gnat like attention span puts folks off with my constant skipping from topic to topic without much in the way of getting things completed!
It is indeed a good post. It's a shame you don't live near me because I play in a similar fashion. I'm not very interested in rules lawyering and I find that most systems aren't good or balanced enough to justify being really competitive.
ReplyDeleteSome of the best gaming I've done was the old Necromunda rules, with an old friend. It involved a lot of talking that wasn't just about the game itself, a lot of conversions of the miniatures, which were all basically individual characters, and the development of the gang over several games. I think these are the things that interest me the most.
As to what I collect, I've slowly collected a 40k Chaos army that I'll almost never play, but otherwise it's largely warbands. Part of the appeal of Chaos is that I can just use any models I like. Anyway, keep pondering. Your Battletech project has inspired me to paint my own Epic models. Keep up the good work!
Sad times!
DeleteThe old Necromunda set was fantastic for playing narrative games (such as the rather fine one you've been playing over on your most excellent blog!)
I seem to be slowly and at times painfully weaning myself off buying figures, with a few notable exceptions as I move towards sculpting my own gubbins instead.
I really need to get some resin casting done though as it would speed up things greatly, even if I got a bunch of dollies made...