End-of-year thoughts: Getting back into Warhammer

As a byproduct of our by now largely moribund Rogue Trader tabletop role-playing campaign, I've gotten back into Warhammer, kind of. At least to the extent that I have opinions on it again.

**

Rules bloat is getting completely out of control in Warhammer 40,000. Let's take my Chaos army as an example. Back when we decided to get (re)started with Warhammer 40,000, my players were going to have an Imperial army, so the obvious thing to do, both fluffwise and based on the models I had at hand, was to build a Chaos army for them to fight. Since I have a theology degree, clearly my legion choice was Word Bearers. We got through the first and second games just fine with the Imperial Guard and Chaos Space Marine codexes.

For our third game, we wanted to use my old Space Marine vehicles and some Imperial Knights, which meant more codexes, but I'm fine with that; especially since at the time, the Renegade Knights codex was a free download.

However, since I'm playing Word Bearers, I was interested in the new Dark Apostle rules in the Vigilus Ablaze campaign book, and I bought it so we could use the new prayers in our game. I had also planned to field some Obliterators, but the Shadowspear boxed set came out around that time, with new rules and points costs for them. I was completely perplexed by the idea that a boxed set could suddenly change the matched play rules for a unit, and ended up not using them.

The next thing that happens is that a new Chaos Marine codex comes out. I was a bit annoyed by this, to be honest! I felt like I'd shelled out over 60€ on two books, only to have them immediately superseded. I was around for 3rd edition, when they also released two codexes for some armies - but it was explicitly done because a new edition was coming, and the new codexes would be "forward-compatible". This time they've said no such thing.

Then it turns out that the new codex actually doesn't include the specialist detachment rules in Vigilus Ablaze, so I guess I didn't completely waste my money. Should I still buy the new codex, though? Absolutely not, because right on the heels of the new codex they announce the next line of campaign books, the first of which, Faith and Fury, will include new legion rules for the Word Bearers! So do I get Faith and Fury, or do I wait for a third codex that maybe incorporates the legion rules in Faith and Fury, or maybe doesn't? I'm also delighted I didn't buy the new loyalist Marine codex, because guess what? They're also getting a pile of new rules in Faith and Fury!

Back in third edition times, we got quite a few rules updates in White Dwarf, and they also came up with Chapter Approved books, so if you wanted to do something clever, it was quite possible you'd have to lug around some WDs and a Chapter Approved book in addition to your codex. People did complain! But what makes eighth edition potentially much stranger is that now rules are popping up in all kinds of places, from 40k boxed sets to expansions for other games, like Kill Team and Blackstone Fortress. You can make a whole battalion with Blackstone Fortress rules, although I think you'd be better off with Renegades and Heretics from the Imperial Armour book. This can be a bit confusing.

By the way, in the middle of all this, Chapter Approved comes out once a year and they keep tinkering with the points values. I had some success with Chaos Cultists in our first games, but when they went up to 5 points each and lost access to legion traits I started looking at Renegade Militia instead - only for Chaos Cultists to drop back to 4 points in CA 2019.

But really, the worst thing is the new codexes. I like codexes! I own most of the 3rd edition ones, I think, and at least the CSM 3.5 codex. But the fact that the current ones might be superseded within the same edition has just completely put me off buying any. I know I want some Machine Cult units for my Imperial army, and now that we've been playing Munchkin 40,000 and enjoying some Necron-based humor, I might even like to look into Necrons - but why buy a codex when for all I know, a newer version is coming out next month? And why buy a campaign book if the rules in it are going to be reprinted in a more convenient book later that year?

To take another example, I really like the Adeptus Mechanicus Archaeopter that was shown off at the Warhammer 40,000 Open Day, and I'd like to make an AdMech detachment for my Imperial army. But again, what's the point of getting a Codex if a new one might appear at any time and make it obsolete?

The lesson seems to be to only buy new books if I'm going to be using the rules in them imminently. Saves money, I guess. I can't imagine this is the outcome GW had in mind.

**

Then there's Age of Sigmar. Apparently when I wasn't keeping up with things, they decided to blow up the Warhammer Fantasy world, the chief objectives seeming to be to make Sigmar into Fantasy Emperor, introduce his tremendously boring Fantasy Space Marines and change all the names into something easier to trademark. So instead of orcs you now have Orruks, dwarves are Duardin, and so on. It all feels more than a little silly, like calling the Imperial Guard "Astra Militarum" (which means "stars of the soldiers" but never mind), but all over the place. The fluff is also kind of weird, because they've kept so many of the old Warhammer Fantasy units but changed the backgrounds. For example, you still get Black Ark Corsairs, but now Black Arks are just ships, rather than magically floating elven castles. And so on.

On the other hand, they're doing a bunch of interesting things with it, like flying sharks and steampunk dwarves with flying ships, so I'm actually kinda on board with it. Also, with the Cities of Sigmar army book, I can have an army with elves, dwarves, humans and flying sharks, which sounds like a fun thing to collect. It's just that I'm not one bit interested in any of the new fluff.

On top of all this, though, last month GW announced they're bringing the Old World back. To be honest, I don't really care. I'm getting bored with nostalgia.

**

Finally, though, there was this blog post, published after the author died of cancer. In a moving post in general, what really stuck with me was his admonishment to stick to projects and finish them, both as a way to control your spending and, well, to get things done. With more modelling projects underway that I can count, I felt that. So I think that's going to be my new year's resolution for 2020 and indeed the decade in general: I will finish modelling projects before starting new ones.

So in practice, that means building up tournament-sized Imperial and Chaos armies for next summer, and actually finishing all the damn models! Once they're done, I'm going to see about turning my very eclectic Warhammer Fantasy collection into something Age of Sigmar-ish. Luckily, Cities of Sigmar makes that look surprisingly likely. Even though I very rarely play and am mostly a collector, I still prefer collecting an army that would make at least some sense on the tabletop, in some more-or-less current edition of the game. And I do enjoy playing when I get the chance!

Especially when working on abstract things like lecture courses or academic articles, I've found it thoroughly relaxing to be able to work with my hands and concentrate on building or painting something. I'm going to try adding the additional dimension of actually finishing projects. We'll see how it goes.