Deja Vu

I was sitting on Army Builder tapping away at yet another Skaven list and I thought “Jeez I really should be painting that Tomb Herald and Archers I need to finish my TK list”. New armies always instil a level of excitement but in this case not enough to postpone working on another Skaven list.


I started to question why was this and basically decided it comes done to certain armies you just “get”. Whether it be the imagery, the playstyle, the models, even your success with it, the army just retains its appeal. I’ve had this in every system I’ve played – Historical Ancients, Warhammer 40k and Fantasy. In each you develop a favourite army and while you might over time play different races you never stray far from your real love.

For a lot of people this can be a financial consideration, wargaming armies cost money and the investment in dollars and time means that they don’t have the option to switch regularly. On a related note they may be trying to maximise their ”investment”. If you play a game a week and your army cost you $1000 then the cost per game is $20. However if you use it for two years, it drops to $10/game (scary numbers I know). It illustrates why some people stick with an army for a while – if finances are the motivating factor.


Personally I own – or have access to – all the Fantasy armies bar Brets and Dwarfs. Similar with 40k – all except the SM Variant Chapters and IG – so my choice to stick playing the majority of games with 1-2 armies is not lack of opportunity.


The single biggest reason I don’t play 40k much is that I don’t like the lack of love for Legions in the last Codex:Chaos Space Marines. Within 5 minutes of reading the codex I knew it was over for me and that meant I opted out of the back end of 4th Ed and all of 5th Ed. Every now and then I try to get back in but the game (or my game at least) just lacks soul. For me the rumoured Chaos Legions book is pretty much the best thing GW can do for me. I don’t care what the rules are like but give us back our soul!


And this I’m finding is flowing over to Fantasy. I love lots of races but when push comes to shove I prefer playing Skaven more than any other race. They were the first I bought to build and I’ve now been playing them pretty exclusively for two years – far more than with any previous race. Last year alone I played 130 games with them. Now this longevity has been helped by the release of a new army book and an edition change but I’m just as keen to play them today as I’ve been at any time in the past. They just “get” me and me them.


So I sat there last night tapping away on Army Builder and I was just as excited with what I came up with as if I was building my first list.


Boring but content!