Hobby Experience

 In other news, I find myself liking the idea of Warmachine more and more.  I currently posses the MKI rules for both Warmachine and Hordes, and have always favoured Hordes (due to the stronger fantasy style link) but I don't possess any army or have attempted to make one.  In fact I own a single model, a Trollblood yeti creature (Frost Troll?) which I attempted to paint for a contest but just never liked it when I put brush to metal.  

One reason why I put the rules aside is that, I don't really game and I found the rules confusing.  I'd need to watch a game and probably have someone run me through the rules to properly understand.  However, I am now beginning to consider my hobby more.  I am, at heart, a GW fan boy.  I own all the Fantasy army and rule books from the 4th ed onwards (except 4th/5th ed Lizardmen and Chaos Dwarfs) as well as most of the Fantasy based background books and a lot of the novels.  The same goes for 40k, all codices since 3rd ed.  I also own various supplements and game add-ons (Planetary Empires and Apocalypse for example) and use a lot of their products (spray, paint etc).

So, my hobby experience has firmly been embedded in the GW world.  I have only recently begun to look outside their main two "headliners", so to speak.  I have played Mordheim a little bit, and have a great love of Blood Bowl (though, I am only currently playing it on FUMBBL.com).  These games are a lot of fun, don't cost so much and allow for more personalisation.  However, what do they all have in common?  GW no longer supports them, in fact they have seemingly recently shafted the BB community with the way they have handled the new rules set.  And yet, they all have a large cult following.  BB is perhaps the most supported by the players, with lots of tournaments going on and a very strong community.  Mordheim also has this, albeit to a lesser extent.  

I find these other games to be a lot of fun.  The rules are generally well done, with a few problems here or there.  I just wish GW would give them some love, rather than abandoning them in favour of 40K and Fantasy, and to a lesser extent Lord of the Rings.  A single updated FAQ or something each year would be great.  That said.  I have seem some great fan based websites and designs for Mordheim in particular.  I have also considered picking up LOTR.  I will admit that when GW announced they were making a LOTR system and it grappled its way into the third slot for the 'Headliners" I was a bit upset and annoyed.  Hoping it would die and swearing I'd never play it.  This was, and is, a naive and stupid view.  I still haven't played it but I have had a look at the rule set and I was impressed.  It is simple, quick and well written.  I think it sits sort of between Fantasy and 40k in that its simple, quick and easy to play - like 40k - but also involves some complicated rules to make it a bit more challenging - like Fantasy.  To this end, I have considered picking it up as another game.  Or just some stuff to paint.

Back to my first point about Warmachine.  I like the minis and the rules, from what most say, are easy to understand and play quite smoothly.  So, I am considering picking this up.  Khador appeals to me.  It will also be something extra to expand my gaming experience and perhaps stop me viewing GW quite so often through my rose-tinted glasses.  We shall see.

Oh yeah.  [SHAMELESS PLUG]   Go check out the Fantasy Hub of http://the-tradingpost.blogspot.com/ and tell others to join.  The more the merrier!  Any ideas, blogs to add or anything please email me on thetradingpostblog[at]googlemail.com