The Future is Different....But Bright!

I’m somebody who likes to throw heart and soul into my hobby endeavours. Generally I find it hard to try and play multiple systems at the same time. So since coming back to gaming in 1998, I’ve played DBM (Ancient Historicals) 1998-2001, Warhammer 40k 2002-2007 and Warhammer Fantasy 2007-2015. I might dabble around the edges in other games but generally I’m a single focus person.

For the past few months my gaming has been in a state of flux. I recognised early that Age of Sigmar in its current form held little of no interest for me. I’ve continued listening to podcasts, reading blogs and visiting forums promoting Age of Sigmar but it has not changed that early opinion. Certainly I can see a couple of positives around the game – continued manufacturer support and an impression that more of the units are useable than in competitive WHFB – however my opinion of the company given the way they handled the last two years of WHFB gives me no faith that they are motivated by anything other than selling the latest model (and here in New Zealand at extraordinarily excessive prices). I understand that from the point of view of shareholders but I believe that they care little for people’s continued longevity in the hobby past the first $1000 of purchases. Effectively, churn and burn.

That has left a number of alternative paths.

One of these is to continue to play Warhammer Fantasy Battles, either in its current form (v8 or community advanced versions v8.5 or Furionhammer). Personally I love WHFB 8th Edition. It is the most enjoyable version I played and I’d put it in my favourite rulesets like DBM 2.0 or 40k 4th Ed. However I see problems continuing to play it. Firstly, GW abandoned it over two years ago. Therefore it requires “house rules” be they FAQs or Comp to ensure both balance and greater playability. The problem with this is that my view may not be the same as your view and this can lead to dissatisfaction and fragmentation of what is likely to be a fragile continuing player base. The other key problem – and the one that has become increasingly evident to me over the past few months – is that there is nothing to look forward to. The game is frozen. The release schedule is frozen. This is it. Now I am sure some local communities can survive but they will require strong leadership often vested in 1-2 people. What happens when those people move on?  A fortnight ago GW destroyed the Island of Blood Starter Sets. Where then does the new blood come from? No new models, no new rules, decreasing visibility and no access to the basic resources (rulebooks) to play the game. I have come around to the view that decline is inevitable. It may be at different speeds but just like King Knut…….

The second is to embrace some advancement of the game. For instance, the Ninth Age project being put together by the Europeans (Swede Comp & ETC Comp). This offers some advancement of the game with the promise of new Army Books and new mechanisms. An argument can be made that there is some potential. I was originally quite enthusiastic for this project but as time has gone on some of this initial optimism has diminished. Again there are a number of reasons. Firstly, while the project has wide community involvement, it is labouring under all the worst excesses of design by committee. Layers and layers of unnecessary complexity seem to be being built into the rules for what I expect is little actual utility. This is not going to help the rules being accessible and a lack of accessibility sets it on a downward long-term path. Yes the rules may be enormously intricate and may provide greater strategic and tactical conundrums but if no-one plays….

The project still suffers from a lack of manufacturer support. That means both progression and new releases are not going to happen. Fluff may not matter to all gamers but it does matter to me. The environment off which I hang my games is important to me and it needs to be immersive and offer some progression.

So where does that leave me?

Well, with Kings of War.

This game has been around for a number of years and recently released its 2nd Edition. For years, local gamer Tane Woodley has been trying to get me to give the game ago but I never have. Why? Well first and foremost, I was really happy with Warhammer 8th Edition. I loved the game and loved playing it. As noted above, I’m a single focus guy and was happy with what I had. Secondly, any reading I did on the game indicated some fairly basic issues. These appear to have been addressed with the release of a new edition (as you’d expect). Sure this edition will through up other issues but we are seeing progression. The third reason was army coverage. I saw it as largely a game of limited races (one of which wasn’t my beloved Vermin). Over the years they have released more races and importantly they recently released Warhammer “Refugee” army lists with the promise to incorporate into established game over time.

So we have a living ruleset put together by a commercial manufacturer. This commercial backing means that there is something to look forward to. A company committed to a massed ranked game promising ongoing releases and progression. Suddenly something to look forward to. I hadn’t realised that promise of something new was as fundamental to my gaming experience as it appears it is.

Therefore I have decided to embrace Kings of War. I intend to give it 6-12 months to see whether it develops into the game/world I hope it can become. And as a single focus guy, for me that means immersion. So this blog will increasingly focus on the world of Mantica and the KoW ruleset reflecting what will be my gaming focus. Hopefully I’ll find sufficient local gamers to play against to scratch my wargaming itch. I have sufficient unpainted figures to continue the hobby aspects for a good few years. But for the future the Troop, Regiment, Horde and Legion will be the currency of choice.