One thing that is great about the wargaming hobby is the variety of activities that it includes. I haven't been able to play a lot recently but that doesn't mean that I'm not involved and interested in the hobby. I have been painting a fair bit, reading background fluff (especially the Iron Kingdoms background Warmachine and Hordes are set in), keeping up with new releases and also engaging in the time-honoured art of List-Fu.
The latter is a lot of fun for me. I compare it to window shopping in a way. I put together armies that I will probably never actually collect, which lets me make forces that I would not consider in real life since finances are something most of us must take consideration of. Who has not considered the fun of building a Forge World Elysians army or an army running all dreanoughts etc.?
For me it's a way to really imagine the setting and story in a way that brings it to life. I read the fiction in the various rulebooks or army books and then I want to create a force that will be able to create the stories on the tabletop that I see in my head, even if it's just for the sake of a thought experiment. It also brings to mind the different tactical challenges on offer as you try to compose the best force for what you want to do or how you want to play. I think this can work in a competitive sense, of course, but also in a more casual way when if you're the kind to think about which weapons those marines should be armed with from a background point of view and then find the pieces that fit into that with respect to points and FOCs.
Recently I've been very inspired by the setting and environment of Warmachine and Hordes from Privateer Press. I've flirted with this briefly before but now I'm getting to the stage of really wanting to invest some time and money into the game. It will of course depend on whether I can find some gaming partners over here but I think it won't be too hard, especially since the non-GW crowd seems to have grown in recent months. One of the things that is a real benefit to Warmachine (as I'm given to understand) is that there are very few units that are actually bad. The game revolves around combinations and synergies between units to provide power and so even a "weaker piece" can hold a very important place in an army as long as you work it in somewhere. This is fun for me because I get to choose the models I find the most fun and I don't have the worries that I'll be lugging around a model that makes my games less fun by it all being more difficult.
Then again, there is always the temptation to kick around with some Infinity models as a gaming buddy over here has a starter set he's never opened, plus Old Shatter Hands has promised to bring his models for some tabletop sci-fi action in the summer when he visits Slovakia with his family. Of course, some Malifaux with creepy
Following this post will be a series of others looking at the kind of models and lists that spark my interest in different game systems.
- So do you like list-fu and creating armies in your mind or on paper?
- Is it a waste of time that could be better spent playing or painting?
- What kind of lists have you created that, in all likelihood, you will never actually collect?
