Waking Dead

These past few weeks I’ve been working on Chaos again, but this time it’s been Warriors of Chaos rather than Space Marines. I’ve put together a 2500 point list to try out under the new rules, and I’m just putting the finishing touches to the miniatures. There’s an Exalted Champion of Slaanesh on a Monstrous Mount that I’m using as a BSB, a Sorcerer Lord of Tzeentch on a Disc, two other Sorcerers, a large Marauder bunker, two units of Chaos Warriors and two units of Chaos Knights. I’ve also got a Hellcannon on order to complete the list, although I’m missing Champions for the two Chaos Warriors units. I just don’t like the regular Champion models, so I’ll have to pick up a couple of the metal ones from Games Workshop. In the meantime I’m going to use Sigvald and Wulfrik as proxies.

Taking a break from the Warriors but sticking with the Chaos powers, I also put together these chaps:

The guy on the right is a Herald of Khorne BSB assembled from the Forge World Herald that comes with the Daemon Prince of Khorne. I converted a standard Bloodletter banner and slightly re-posed him on the base. You might also be able to make out the dead body that accompanies him subtly draped over the rocks in the background. I’m really pleased with how this guy turned out, and he’ll look great in my 2500 point Daemons list.

The guy on the left is something a bit special. In the 8th Edition madness I’ve also created a 2500 point Beastmen list, and the list calls for a Ghorgon. I’ve not been satisfied with any conversions I’ve seen online, but a lucky Google image search brought up a link to the Herdstone where I found this sculpt. It’s called the Avatar de Gauroch from a French miniature company called Illyad Games. Unfortunately these guys went out of business a while ago – sadly like a lot of niche French manufacturers – but I managed to locate one at Ludik Bazar. He stands slightly taller than a Doombull and, although he doesn’t have four arms, makes for an excellent Ghorgon.

The only other model I’ve been having difficulty locating is a BSB for the list. There’s a great limited edition sculpt from the old Beasts of Chaos army boxed set (which you can see here) but it’s pretty rare and fetches a high price. Even better, however, is another limited edition sculpt that is being sold at the ETC tournament in Germany. The esteemed Ben Curry pointed me to this thread on the Warhammer Forum, and has offered to buy one for me while he’s out there. I think you’ll agree that it’s an even nicer sculpt and, having seen it in person today at Maelstrom Games, he’s going to look awesome in a ranked-up unit of Gors.

That’s about it for this week. I’ve started thinking about converting that Forge World Daemon Prince of Khorne into a Bloodthirster, and the dragon wings I’ve sized up will do nicely. It’s going to need some ‘green stuff’ work to get them to sit correctly between the shoulder pads and the spinal spikes, but I think I can pull it off. The size of the wings is actually spot-on, so it’s either those or nothing really. I might attempt that in the week if my Hellcannon doesn’t turn up. Either way, I’ll see you soon, war game fans!

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Well, so much for a weekly update! What with work and being away – twice – I’ve not had time for much in the way of miniatures. However, the last week or so I’ve been cleaning up my Chaos Space Marines army for a local campaign in a few months. I inherited most of this army from someone else, who I think inherited it from someone else himself, so some of these boys are quite old. And being old, they’re also in need of a little TLC…

The front two rows are my attempts to salvage some vanilla Marines with Bolters. There’re two Aspiring Champions in there with Plasma Pistols and a couple of regular dudes with Plasma Guns. I need to clean up and re-assemble another three Bolter Marines and they’re good to go as two squads of 10.

A little further back are my first three Raptors, including the unit Champion with twin Lightning Claws. I’ve got another Raptor with Bolt Pistol and Chainsword to assemble and one with a Meltagun, then that squad’s also complete. I’d like to get my hands on a Raptor Lord to lead them, but he can wait.

The next row back is a vanilla squad of Havocs, as they come out of the box. I never use these guys, but I own them so I thought I’d at least assemble them. Not sure what I’m going to do with such a mix of weapons; maybe they’ll see an Apocalypse game at some point…

Finally, the back row contains a Lord with Power Weapon and Plasma Pistol, and some Chosen. I’m still missing a few special weapons so I can’t finish that Chosen squad just yet, but so far we have an Aspiring Champion with Power Weapon and Bolt Pistol, and a regular guy with the same wargear. The other two are both armed with Plasma Guns. My plan for these is to use two squads of two, one with Plasmas and Meltas and the other with Flamers and Power Weapons.

Once I’ve finished with this little lot I’m going to sort out the pile of Khorne Berzerker bits I have lying around on my desk, and pick up another pack of Death Guard sprues from Forge World to convert up. My next major task after that is to assemble the two Defilers I still have on sprues, and then we’re back to clean-up. Who knows, maybe I’ll get back to painting them before the end of the year…

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I’m trying something a little different here on Waking Dead, largely because I haven’t updated for so long, and largely because I’m getting busy with miniatures again. I’m going to update at the end of every week (usually Fridays but today is early because I won’t be here tomorrow) with a picture and brief description of what I’ve been up to that week. The title is shamelessly stolen from Beasts of War, but the intent is a little different. Without further ado, here’s the first On the Table…

This week I’ve been assembling Hordes miniatures from Privateer Press in preparation for the release of Hordes MkII in July. In the image you can see a unit of 6 Legion of Everblight Striders and a Strider Deathstalker solo on the left, and a unit of 6 Skorne Praetorian Swordsmen and Master Tormentor Morghoul on the right. Slightly difficult to see is a unit of 4 Skorne Paingiver Beast Handlers in the background.

The Striders are an interesting proposition. I bought them because I really liked the models, but I know that Archers or Swordsmen would have been a better pick for expanding the starter set. Saying that I’ve yet to play with them, but I’m not expecting my initial lists to be optimal. These guys are probably going to get painted up in standard Legion colours, and with a similar style of snow base to my Khador force.

My Skorne on the other hand are a bit closer to optimal. I’ve read a lot on the awesome BattleCollege about Skorne and how to expand the starter set, and Paingivers generally come first followed closely by Swordsmen. Of course none of this means I’m guaranteed the win, but it does at least give me a good starting point to learn the system. I’ll be painting these in slightly more muted colours than standard Skorne, but they’ll still feature the usual red and gold.

You might also notice in the background a couple of unopened boxes; these are two starter sets for Infinity, the sci-fi skirmish game from Corvus Belli. I picked up the Human Sphere expansion book from Maelstrom Games last time I was down, and I figured what the hell, might as well grab some miniatures while I’m at it! I opted for two of the new sectorial forces, namely the Japanese Sectorial Army for Yu Jing and the Hassassin Bahram for Haqqislam. I’ve yet to play a game of Infinity – and to be honest with all the Warmachine and Hordes MkII goodness at the moment it might take a while – but I’ve read the main rulebook twice now and it looks like a fascinating game. Not sure when you’ll see the miniatures themselves on the table, but I might assemble them in the next couple of weeks just to see what they look like.

That’s it for this week; next week I’m hoping to assemble a few more units for Hordes, and also do an audit of my 2,000 point Chaos Space Marines force for Warhammer 40,000. Mike is running a Planetary Empires campaign when we come back from GenCon, and although I’ve got another few months to sort it out, I’d like to get a head start on the list. So far I need to buy another set of ten Death Guard upgrades from Forge World and assemble another two Khorne Berserkers. Other than that it’s just a matter of painting the new units, and finishing off the existing ones. All the rest are at least base-coated, but I’d like them washed and highlighted before the campaign starts.

See you in a week, game fans!

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There’s a real spate of new fighting games coming out in the new year. God of War, arguably the king of this particular pile, returns in glorious High Definition for its third installment. The original Devil May Cry team is joining the party with its new IP Bayonetta, a combination of angels, boobs and Japanese kitsch so heady it had EDGE all in a fap. Even the venerable Castlevania series has been deemed fit for a fighting makeover.

There are even two new boys entering the fray: Darksiders and Dante’s Inferno. Both look agreeably pleasing to the eye, although the latter’s lead character appears to have an unfortunate case of Clive Owen. And whilst Darksiders would appear to borrow equally from the Zelda series, it’s still very much in the same camp. Unfortunately I don’t know a lot about Darksiders, so I’m going to concentrate on EA’s latest money-spinner instead.

The Dante’s Inferno demo hit the US store at the weekend, and I’ve given it about an hour’s play overall. The first thing that hits you is just how many gratuitous nipple shots there are, and not just female ones either. The second thing that hits you – at least after you look past all the boobs – is whether or not you’re actually playing God of War by mistake. You see, whilst some games may steal a little here and there, EA has effectively reverse-engineered Sony’s classic and reconstituted it with a slightly different set of textures.

I’m really not kidding. Five minutes with the demo ought to convince you. It doesn’t just look the same either, it even plays the same; it is uncannily familiar. Yet whilst it has taken considerable skill to achieve this level of mimicry, something got lost in translation.

After playing Dante’s Inferno the other night, and having previously spent some time in Bayonetta’s company, I was jonesing for more high-velocity fighting action. It was at this point I remembered I still hadn’t finished Ninja Blade. Now, as anybody who follows my Twitter updates will know, I’m a bit of a Ninja Blade apologist. Despite being the very definition of a 7/10 game (Metacritic currently has it at 68), I absolutely love it. Most of that is down to video gaming’s ultimate badass Ken Ogawa. Frankly, you can keep your Dante’s and your Kratos’ and your Ryu Hayabusa’s – there’s only one man for me.

Yes, that really is a ninja on a motorcycle.

Ninja Blade is, by and large, a mix of Ninja Gaiden and God of War. It has combos, power-ups, QTEs, and massive end-of-level bosses. It even features bi-lingual dialogue so you can clearly see the team’s aims. But none of this comes across as cynical. In fact I get the impression that the team wanted to make a game in this genre because they fucking love it. The game is infused with utterly hatstand moments that can only be born out of love. From surfing a sidewinder missile to uppercutting a 747, Ken Ogawa is every doujin fantasy rolled into one. And then covered in awesome and set alight.

Contrast this with the aforementioned Dante’s Inferno. At no point during the hour I played it did I ever experience anything approaching pleasure. Sure, my gamer brain was being tickled by the pattern-matching and pretty lights, but like a MacDonald’s meal I was ultimately left unfulfilled.

So here’s my point for those of you in the cheap seats: if you’re going to copy something at least understand why you’re copying it in the first place. Visceral know how to make a compelling game – they proved as much with Dead Space – but the EA machine appears to have gotten the better of them. Instead of copying the underlying mechanics and re-purposing them, they have mathematically analysed God of War to the point where any potential joy has been replaced by a formula. It’s like taking a delicious meal and trying to replicate it chemically; what you’re left with may appear to be the same, but you’re missing the nuances the chef applied in the cooking.

And seriously, what’s with stitching fabric to his skin? At least Kratos had a pretty good reason to be covered in ash.

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I completed Dragon Age a few days ago. I really enjoyed it overall, and despite the amount of hours I’d invested in it, I immediately went and made another character and started a second playthrough. I wanted to do the things I’d missed the first time around, like play through the whole of Orzammar with Shale, or have the Werewolves on my side for the final battle. Dragon Age, as with pretty much all of Bioware’s games, presents you with choices. But there’s something fundamentally wrong with all of this, even given the game’s addictive qualities. You see, for all they spout about difficult decisions and long-term change, they continually hamstring themselves by chaining their games to plots that offer neither.

I am at least thankful that they have chosen to remove the good/evil swingometer from Dragon Age; this was a throwback to the light side/dark side gauge of Knights of the Old Republic, and an unnecessary contrivance. But they still want you to think that the choices you make allow you to be one or the other. In fact, it’s nothing of the sort. All of Bioware’s games – and Dragon Age is no exception – fall short of delivering on their promises. Their much-vaunted choices really only boil down to playing the part of the hero, or being a total prick.

Let’s go back to the plot of Dragon Age for a moment. At the end of the day, all I’m really in it for is to kill the Archdemon and prevent the Blight. That’s it. It’s one choice, and it seems to fall squarely under the ‘being a hero’ category. If I was able to be truly evil, I might have the option of joining with the ranks of Ogres and Hurlocks, perhaps even overthrowing the Archdemon and leading the Blight to the surface myself. That is real choice. Deciding between going ahead with the mission or totally subverting it is what I expect when Bioware make their bold claims. Deciding to insult someone’s sexuality instead of thanking them isn’t quite the pinnacle of player-driven storytelling. Perhaps laughing maniacally and twirling my mustache whilst saying it might improve things.

There are no shades of grey in Bioware’s world. Oh sure, the elves are oppressed and the dwarfs are embroiled in bitter in-fighting – there’s even a rape sub-plot. But honestly, it’s a pretty clear-cut traditional fantasy world straight out of Tolkien’s playbook. A superior and generally well-realised fantasy world, but generic nonetheless. Compare this to the world of Andrej Sapkowski’s The Witcher, a universe also cut from the same cloth, but a universe twisted and reshaped to mimic the author’s Eastern European homeland. The game, also created by a Polish team, is as ambiguous as its protagonist. There is no greater good, and there isn’t really any great evil. There is simply life and the choices of how you live it.

That’s not to say that CDProjekt got it totally right – there are still times when you get rail-roaded as with every other RPG on the market. But – and it’s a crucial but – at least they make their choices meaningful. I literally sat for 20 minutes staring at my dialogue options during one protracted encounter. I could not easily discern where each option would take me, and it totally blindsided me. Bioware take note: when my dialogue options are ‘tell him he’s awesome’ or ‘kick him in the nuts’, and both of them progress the plot in exactly the same way, I’m not really being presented with much of a choice.

It’s not just dialogue either; I simply chose this as the most obvious way of presenting my argument. For me, if we want to give the player real and meaningful choices, the absolute biggest change to RPGs (and gaming in general) must come from a flexibility in how the story plays out. You can keep the plot simple – kill the Archdemon, prevent the Blight – but if you really want to make players think, give them the option of doing the opposite. Could you imagine playing through a game and reaching the conclusion, only to start again and play through it all from the opposite side? How much richer would the experience be?

So, back to Dragon Age. Despite my criticisms I’m looking forward to playing through the game as a total prick. I know that I won’t be able to alter the story in any substantial way, and I already know how it ends, but there are subtle changes that I can experience along the way. I just wish somebody somewhere would give me more of a choice.

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Royal Mail has conspired to keep it out of my hands for nearly two weeks, but my Malifaux stuff finally arrived this morning. I’ve been undecided for a while about whether or not I wanted to play it, but somebody on the Warhammer Forum was selling the rulebook, two starter sets and two fate decks for a reasonable price, so I took the plunge.

The first thing that hit me was how tiny the miniatures are. They’re roughly the same scale as the humanoids in Warmachine and Hordes, but the metal is very thin. Consequently they are extremely light and feel very fragile. Even the Warpig, which comes on a 50mm base, is nowhere near as chunky as similar-sized pieces from other manufacturers. That’s not to say that they aren’t well sculpted – the level of detail is pretty high – it’s more that they require a little more care than other games.

Whilst I’m on the subject of the miniatures, I thought I’d mention what I think has been my major stumbling block with this game right from the beginning. All the talk about Malifaux being the new hotness seems to stem from how awesome the miniatures and background to the game are. Honestly, I just don’t get it. Firstly, the miniatures range varies massively in quality and tone. Compare the Executioner to Wuppwecht – they might as well be from two completely different games. From a range of about 50 individual sculpts, only a handful are even remotely appealing.

Secondly, the background or ’story’ behind the game is equally as disjointed. It reads like fan-fiction, or worse a homebrew LARP setting. I guess for me a game has to be aspirational in that it features characters I can relate to and even be in awe of. Malifaux has ‘bog gremlins’ and little ice creatures that look like somebody has sneezed. Look, I’m all for a bit of humour in my games, but I like my humour with a healthy dose of awesome. Take GW’s Orks for example; sure, they’re packed with humour, but they also tick all the badassery boxes as well.

In a nutshell I’m really regretting this purchase. Instead of convincing me that everyone was right about this game, actually holding the stuff in my hands has only confirmed my worst fears. With Infinity looking increasingly more interesting, and the re-release of Hell Dorado around the corner, Malifaux at the moment isn’t firing my synapses as much as it has for other people. Unless the game itself is something special, enough to overlook my issues with the background and miniature range, then I can see this being sold on again.

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For anyone that followed my Twitter updates over the weekend, you’ll know that things didn’t quite go according to plan. After getting kicked about the hall all day Saturday, I was in pretty bad spirits come Sunday morning.  Then someone decided to kick me in the nuts just for fun. I was quite looking forward to clawing back some dignity by playing another weaker build, but lo and behold I was actually facing off against a ringer with a top-tier Dark Elf list. ‘How?’ one might ask. Because he missed two games on Saturday through illness and ended up on the bottom tables for game four, that’s how. Oh, the humanity.

After getting kicked about a bit more – admittedly through making a horrendous error of judgment when declaring charging order – I found myself on the very bottom table for my last game. Clearly my opponent had not had a great weekend either, so I did the only decent thing I could: crush him mercilessly.

I scored a massive win (he only took 112 points off me) which took me out of the bottom five and up to the heady heights of… 113. Still, it’s not dead last, but it’s clearly my worst ever performance at a tournament. Elsewhere the rest of the Cocks suffered just as badly, with Mike and his Orcs & Goblins finishing one place above me in 112th, Radders’ Wood Elves at 76 and the Vampire Counts making Chris the biggest Cock in 60th. We finished dead last in the team competition though.

Despite all of this: despite gauging the power level completely wrong; despite making small but costly mistakes; despite setting up in front of a Skaven gunline with no cover; despite playing a banned Lizardmen list… Despite all of this, I had a great time. I’ll be back next year no doubt, this time with something that requires a bit less finesse and a bit more power.

So that’s me done for tournaments this year. I’ll be back in January for the Warhammer World 40K Doubles, but in the meantime you might be able to catch me and the Cocks at the Warlords club nights. That’s if they let us in, of course…

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About 4 or 5 years ago, I started a WLD campaign not long after the book was launched. My plan was to run a decidedly old-school dungeon bash, featuring not-at-all serious characters with a low life expectancy. We played a couple of extended sessions that took the PCs, eventually, to Region B, but I was never entirely satisfied, and we haven’t picked it up since.

Well, I’m itching to start it all up again. I want to go back to the beginning and run it properly this time – not necessarily any more seriously, but with a bit more invested in the characters and more focus on my behalf. We’ve also got a slightly different group now, so there’s really no reason not to. I’m going to let the players come up with new characters if they want, but I really like the guys we’ve already rolled up. I mean, who doesn’t like a party of four halflings and two dwarfs?

Here’s my preferred roll-call:

Chris: Burgess Applecrust, Halfling Cleric
Si: Brandy Butter, Halfling Wizard
Phil: Fingers McGee, Halfling Thief
Mark B: Stilton Segal, Halfling Monk (and former chef)*
Mark R: Sparco Broomhandle, Dwarf Wizard
Mike: Dreng Doomfist, Dwarf Barbarian

*On reading through Mark B’s character sheet, I discovered the only equipment he had was a knife, a fork, a spoon, a cheese-grater, and a selection of assorted pies…

Obviously some of the classes aren’t optimal – we could do with swapping one of the wizards for a sorcerer perhaps, and we don’t have a tank – but I love the group dynamic. Also, Si has written quite a bit of back story for the halfling village of Dingly Dell, and I wouldn’t want to upset Jenny Bustletrump.

Hopefully I’ll be kicking things off on Wednesday the 26th of August, so join me in the aftermath to see how it all went down.

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I’m pretty sure I have OCD. Maybe not full-blown OCD, but some sort of moderate geek form of OCD. I have a habit of latching onto a hobby and getting real hardcore about it; you can probably tell this already from the links on the Collections page. This has caused me all manner of problems over the years when I’ve simply had too many hobbies for (a) the amount of free time I have, and (b) the amount of spare cash I have.

It’s been a long and difficult process, but I’ve cut down on my hobbies, stripping away the more expensive stuff – classic gaming, natch – and leaving only the stuff that really interests me. Granted, some of this stuff is still pretty expensive, but it’s manageable. Part of this stripping away hasn’t always meant dropping a hobby altogether; sometimes it’s just meant cutting down. I’ve done something like that recently with my RPG collection. Realistically, I GM about once every 18-24 months, and there are games on my shelf that frankly I have no real intention of ever running. So I’m getting rid of them, simple as that.

This recent bout of cutting back has allowed me to investigate something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time: build up my wargaming collection. Apart from the obvious space and cost issues, I’ve struggled to find a decent product listing for GW’s games. I suppose I’ve been spoilt with how many awesome sites there are – and where – giving exhaustive details about RPG releases since the dawn of time. But that all changed when I stumbled across Lexicanum.

So I had the space, the money, the desire and now, most importantly, the knowledge. I’ve rejigged my War Games collection page to include details of every edition of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000, and I’m slowly starting to build up a collection. Most of the older stuff has come from my regular war gaming buddy Chris, but I’ve also managed to scour the tubes for some bargains. In fact, less than an hour ago I bagged a mint copy of the 3rd Edition Warhammer 40,000 rulebook – in cardboard slip-case, no less.

Anyway, as with most mental disorders, I felt compelled to share this one with you. I’m intrigued to see how different each edition of the games are compared to each other, and whether or not my memory of them is all that accurate. Ben over at Veni, Vidi has undertaken a similar experiment to play one game from each edition of Warhammer, and I’m really looking forward to his reports. Oh, and while you’re there, check out his continuing 3rd Edition fantasy retrospective.

One other minor update before I go: my Tomb Kings are coming along well. I struggled with a colour scheme for a while, then had some basing issues, but having finally settled on a ‘barrow kings’-style theme, I’m cooking on gas. I’ve already got a full unit of Skeleton Warriors painted, as well as my Hierophant, Tomb King, three Carrion and two Tomb Scorpions. I’ve just put the base coats on the front rank of Tomb Guard, so I’ll try to put up some pictures soon. I’ve also got another practice game this coming Sunday against Chris’ Vampire Counts, which should be anything but a grind-fest given our lists. Perhaps I’ll even post a short battle report, who knows?

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I was listening to the wonderful HeelanHammer last night, and something cropped up that I find common to all Fantasy podcasts: they hate 40K. I realise that this is not a new phenomenon, nor is it limited solely to podcasts. For whatever reason, Fantasy players look down on 40K, safe in the knowledge that their game is far more tactical, far more rewarding, and far too intelligent for the average 40K player.

They are wrong.

Let me get this out of the way first: I do believe that Warhammer Fantasy provides a greater degree strategic play than Warhammer 40,000. The extent of this difference is, however, marginal. I would also argue that the reasons for Fantasy’s greater depth are far more nebulous and indeed nefarious than people generally believe. I’d like to try and put forward an explanation for this, and I hope that I can do this without igniting another flame war. Small hope, I know.

Before we start, I should point out that this article compares the two most recent rulesets: 5th Edition 40K and 7th Edition Fantasy. No other comparison is valid at this time.

So: more tactical, more rewarding, more intelligent. That’s pretty much the way the argument normally goes. I’ll try and tackle each point in sequence, explain why I believe it to be false, and provide a reason why Fantasy players should pick up 40K after each explanation. First up, then, is the belief that Fantasy is the more tactical game.

If you were to casually browse the Fantasy section of the Warhammer Forum you’ll find that the majority of topics tend to focus on rules discussion, far more in fact than the 40K forum. There is no doubt that Fantasy has a steep learning curve, and there follows that there should be a large amount of discussion relating to the rules. The problem is that a lot of people seem to formulate an opinion along the lines of ‘more talk about rules = greater tactical depth’. This is of course patently false; Fantasy is not a more tactical game than 40K, it is simply different.

The reason why there is so much discussion about rules is because Warhammer Fantasy is fundamentally an imprecise ruleset. It isn’t broken as some people suggest, it’s unclear. This lack of clarity provides the steep learning curve; it doesn’t provide the game with its tactical depth. What depth there is – and let’s be honest, there’s a fair old amount of it – is complicated the further you look into it by being poorly written. It’s like peering into a lake and thinking it deeper than it is because the bottom is so murky.

Conversely, the latest incarnation of 40K is the tightest ruleset that Games Workshop has ever produced. That’s not to say it is flawless – no rulset can claim such a thing – but it offers very little room for interpretation of the rules. 4th Edition was, even by GW’s own admission, a bit of a mess. But they have learned from their mistakes, and provided clear and concise information throughout. I suspect that most of 40K’s naysayers would see this as a distinct lack of depth – why, how will we debate this sentence for 15+ pages on our favourite forum? No, 40K does not lack in depth… it’s just easier to see the bottom.

Lesson #1: Having a more streamlined ruleset allows you to focus more on the core skills of generalship. You don’t need to spend half your turn discussing an outcome that isn’t covered in the rulebook because chances are it’s already covered. And the times that something odd does occur, you can normally follow a very logical path to reach a mutually agreeable solution. Put simply, it gives you more time to put the rules into practice than arguing back and forth about the definition of the rules.

My second point is to do with the perceived depth inherent in the Fantasy ruleset, and the notion that this is why it is the more rewarding game.

In Fantasy, each phase of the game is its own mini-contest, with players frequently planning two or three turns ahead, setting up charges and counter-charges, and trying to plot their opponent’s downfall over the full course of the game. 40K, at least to the casual observer, is a far more reactive game. It relies on situational awareness more than any form of long-term planning, and is arguably a more accurate simulation of a real battlefield scenario.

Admittedly this is a gross over-simplification, and the nuances present in each army contribute more to the moment-to-moment battle than the overall ruleset, but bear with me for the time being – I’ll get onto armies later.

Essentially then, Fantasy plays the long-game. This is, in my opinion, the single biggest contributing factor to Fantasy’s greater perceived depth over 40K. If the game makes you think further ahead, it must have more depth, right? Well, no, it’s not right. All this really means is that the rewards take a much longer time in coming: something you set up at the start of the game can take until the last turn to come to fruition. Are the rewards therefore greater? Subjectively, yes, but that’s only the same as eating a burger after a week of salads – it’s still just a burger.

Lesson #2: 40K rewards players who think on their feet to a much greater degree than Fantasy. The game is played at a faster pace, requiring each general to weigh up a large number of possibilities in a very short space of time. Not only are you learning to plan and execute strategies more quickly, you are also enjoying the positive benefits of ‘lots of little rewards’. Again, this is not better, just different, and experiencing one allows you to enjoy the other more thoroughly.

My last point relates to something that really grates on me: Fantasy requires a greater degree of intelligence to play than 40K. To my mind the only reason that this even crops up is because Fantasy contains such a massive quantity of data to consume. Armies are extremely diverse, despite the trend in recent army books to unify certain rules. Each list has an almost completely different set of magic items, lores and special rules. 40K instead has one ‘master’ armoury, with flavour added to armies through subtle variations and additions.

We can argue indefinitely about the merits of both systems – I’d imagine I could happily stand in either corner – but the fact remains that 40K has again been a victim of its own streamlining. Please do not confuse intelligence with knowledge. Fantasy requires a greater degree of the latter than 40K, but no less of the former.

Lesson #3: Less surprises lurking in your enemy’s list means more time spent outwitting them on the field. You know that model is armed with a Plasma Cannon because you can see it. You know what a Plasma Cannon does because it’s the same Plasma Cannon that you’ve got in your list. Does that make it any easier to deal with? Of course not – but your thoughts are on how to beat your opponent, not on how to beat the list.

And that’s it in a nutshell. I don’t expect that this is at all definitive, nor am I naive enough to think that I can change peoples’ minds with one over-long rant. I am simply laying out the state of play as I see it – I am only able to appreciate the merits of both games because I treat them both equally. You could, in fact, do this whole thing in reverse, and list the reasons why 40K players should play Fantasy. I suspect the outcome, however, would prove more benefit to them away from the game than during it.

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