new posterboys?

[Arachnid99]

We all came to our favourte armies because they seemed kewl to us and that goes for players past and present. No one says, ' hmmm wonder what army is in the spot light now I'll go play them'. People get a view of an army because it is in the spot light. Check. Then if that army appeals to them they might start to play them.

 

I don't subscribe to the idea that older players went on a soul searching journey to find their match paint and fluffwise any more than current players do. They just happened to do it at a time previous to the new.

 

Actually I think you're wrong there. When I first started I painted my first 4 models (really, really badly) as Ultramarines, then Codex Armageddon came out and I got hooked on the Black Templars, I loved their fluff and I though their paint scheme was awesome and I've never looked back. However if that book hadn't come out just as I was getting into the hobby and if they hadn't been in the spotlight at that point I probably wouldn't have heard of them, though I doubt I'd still be an Ultramarine collector today. Even then I found their fluff off-putting and I've never been a fan of their colour scheme.

 

In all certainty I would never have really got 40k and dropped it after a few months, just like Magic the Gathering and a dozen other hobbies I went though between the ages of 10 and 15.

[Rik Riorik]

You didn't get into the Black Templars though because they came out at that time. You got into them because they got your attention AND THEN you realised you LOVED them. You didn't love them because Codex Armageddon was the latest release.

 

Me I started playing Dwarfs and knew feck all about 40k apart from some articles in the WDs I got (the first of which happened to include the WB Index Astartes). I went through Blood Angels and Imperial Guard before I realised the Word Bearers was what had tickled my fancy almost from the start. But it wasn't because they were the first I ever read about. It was because their religious nature really is something that fascinates me.

[Kol Saresk]

I'm confused. You just disagreed with him by agreein how he found out about the BT and then you sort of proved my point about what I said. Some people are joining the armies because they saw it while it was in the spotlight and went with it. Some people were like, "Ooh! Pretty colors!" and others actually sort of looked on Lexicanum and other wikis until they found something they liked.

[Lord Ragnarok]

I thought we were discussing who the poster boys were going to be and not who things folks are jumping on the limited set of chaos armies available to pick?

[Feste]

I'm unsure as to what the problem with enjoying an army because they've been spotlighted is. Sure, it's not the cool alternative choice but no-one drops a couple of hundred pounds on plastic if they're not inspired by them.

 

In all honesty, yep First Heretic is a MASSIVE reason that I'm starting to collect Word Bearers. It did all sorts of things for me, showed me that Lorgar and his sons are doing exactly what they loved to do, that the Bearers' religiosity rather than a turn-off for me actually almost represents the whole point of collecting CSM, and further that Possessed Marines and Possessed Robots are awesome.

 

But none of this would have happened if the timing wasn't right, if the Horus Heresy wasn't being pushed hard and if A D-B hadn't written a kick-ass story. It also helps that I play against an Ultramarine player. So sure, I'm probably a great example of the 'new wave'. If it helps, I'm still holding off from getting too much plastic because a whole load of new stuff is around the corner.

 

So no, I don't have a long emotional attachment to the legion forged my own Long War, but that doesn't mean that my love for them isn't genuine. But neither does the fact that I'm loving the Legion detract from anyone else's love of them. And I'll end it there, coz I've mentioned love far too often in this post and my Dark Apostle is looking at me funny.

[Rik Riorik]

EDIT: I sort of get the mentality that Saa and others are talking about. They came to the Word Bearers because at the time, there were no real books after books devoted to a sole Legion or Warband. There were no international events held to celebrate a battle between two Legions with the main selling point of "The Word Bearers are back to finish the job."(I wonder which side won that?) People came to their armies not because they happened to have the spotlight in the current selling novel, but because people searched for which Legion held their flavor or which warband they liked the color scheme of so they could make their own flavor. Now, I don't know if it is coincidence or what, but the Word Bearers and Night Lords practically gained followers over night when the Word Bearers and Night Lords trilogies were published alongside the HH books The First Heretic and Know No Fear. And most of the newer(not all, just the overwhelming majority) players are simply joining in because they thought the army was cool, not because it actually fit them. Some of them go ahead and create a diverse warband that fits them. Some change ships until they find "their" crew. Some just keep on going because either the current army actually happens to be their flavor or they just don't care.

 

So yes, there maybe a heavy "influx" of new players, but like someone said some posts back, this gives you seniority. You are the Council of Sicarus. You are the Black Cardinal of Ghalmek. You might as well be Lorgar Aurelian. What you can do is play some games beside them, teach them who the Word Bearers really are if they don't already know. You may bring a new believer to the flock.

 

You originally wrote this Kol. That was what I originally wrote about. Which seems to belittle newer players motives, vs older players, to have an army just because it is in the spot light. Whilst their motives are just the same as any older player who picked the army outside of a window of spot light. Because they saw something they could relate to and dug. The spot light might be a medium that brings awareness. Just like Codex Armageddon brought awareness above. But all the awareness in the world doesn't help if you don't dig what is brought to your attention.

[Caffeineated Chaos]

Idk. I've always been drawn to Word Bearers, first b/c of their color scheme, and then their fluff, esp that they were the first to fall and that they corrupted the Warmaster. I always considered making at least part of my forces WB since I started playing Chaos. I found myself adding more and more WB style fluff to my Khornate warband and considering a mixed force of WB w/ a contingent of splinter WE, until finally I just bit the bullet and switched over to the Bearers of the Word.