Project Log 2Plus Easy - Other Games Hobby Blog

[2PlusEasy]

G'day fellow hobbyists,

 

2PlusEasy here. I'm a long time viewer of the Bolter & Chainsword and was a former contributor back in antiquity. Bolter & Chainsword has always been a great and inspiring hobby community. After a break from GW systems, I figured I'd start start fresh with a new hobby blog to get me back in touch with what got me into the hobby in the first place.

 

A bit of an introduction about me and my history in the hobby:

 

• I got into the Tabletop Wargaming hobby in 1998 with Warhammer 40k, and properly in 2001 with the release of GW's Lord of the Rings Strategy Game. I've been in the hobby on and off for over 20 years now, usually switching between Tabletop Wargaming, PC gaming and Tabletop RPGs cyclically.
• I played alot of 40k throughout 3rd - 5th edition, mostly playing Orks and Dark Eldar.  I had alot of fun playing 40k (and Horus Heresy) in this time.
• My first army (which I shared with my brother as a kid) was Black Templars from Codex Armageddon and Daemonhunters when they could mix and match with other Imperial Armies.
• I also dabbled in the Horus Heresy with an Alpha Legion army, being inspired by Dan Abnett's book Legion.
• I got out of 40k during 7th Edition, and the Horus Heresy not much later. (I'll expand on this later)
• I mostly play other gaming systems now, Infinity in particular. But I still enjoy the Warhammer IP for its potential and decided to get back into those "niche," "Blanchitsu" aspects of the GW hobby: Necromunda, Gorkamorka and Inquisimunda etc.
• I'm happy to accept that I'm now "one of the old guard." I'm stuck in my vision of 40k and I'm no longer GW's target audience for sales. But rather then seeing this as a derogatory point, I'm embracing it and using it to inspire my hobby.

 

Now, I'll elaborate why I got out of 40k so that its out of the way:

 

 

General subjective observations:

 

• I'll start by saying that 40k is not a bad game: if tabletop wargaming in a science fiction setting was to have a benchmark, a 5 / 10 average, then 40k is that benchmark.
• The reason 40k is the 5 / 10 benchmark for me is that it isn't a particularly well designed game either. Its game design is old, slow and clunky compared to other, more modern competitors.
• There's also the saying: "any tabletop game that allows you to table your opponent in the first turn without them responding is not good tactics: its poor game design."
• My personal opinion of 40k as a game is that its best played in a casual, narrative context: as a game, 40k is not designed well enough to be taken seriously or competitively like Matched Play and the ITC community tries to make it out to be. Despite the kookiness of some of their content, Kenton and Pat at The Jungle got 40k right: they don't take 40k too seriously and made it their own which is why they were a big influence on me growing up with the hobby.
• To me, 40k as a game and the experience of playing it is dependent on who you play it with. The community of players makes or breaks the game, and in my case it broke the game: I didn't want to take it so seriously, my community did. 
• GW sets a high bench mark for miniature design and quality: their plastic miniatures are still some of the best in the Tabletop Wargaming hobby. However, that quality gap is quickly being narrowed by companies like Corvus Belli (Infinity), Mantic Games (Deadzone, Kings of War, Warpath etc) Wyrd Games (Malifaux), Anvil Industry, Victoria Miniatures and many top notch 3D printing studios. Many other studios like FireForge Games and Northstar Miniatures are also growing more appealing due to their quality to price ratio. Then when you incorporate scale modeling companies (which is a different sub-group of our hobby) who do substantially more detailed plastic kits for far cheaper prices... yeah. So hopefully GW's pricing and marketing team wake up to themselves soon.
• I'm not a fan of GW's draconian business practices. I understand they are a business, but they've done stuff as a company that doesn't sit well with me. Their regional pricing model, their limited release and burn philosophy for kill team and specialist games, their excessive stomping out of 3rd party bitz makers etc. Over time, I've shifted to voting with my wallet.

 

Now, why I got out of 40k:

 

• Despite their flaws, I enjoyed my time playing 40k during 3rd - 5th edition. There were three contributing factors to this in my opinion:

1. I appreciated the darker tone of 40k back then compared to now. Digital artwork and miniature design has done wonders, but it lacks that character of the old, black and white hand-drawn artwork.
2. There was less competition in the wargaming hobby back then: less things to compare 40k to, and also less things to sub-divide the community with
3. The game was easier to keep track of then today: I didn't need the rulebook, the codex, the codex supplement, the mission pack, the annual chapter approved, the eratas and FAQs as well as my annual subscription to play 40k: I just had to live with the fact that my codex might take 10 - 13 years to receive an update (which in the case of my Dark Eldar, it did!)

• I felt the winds blowing during 6th edition and didn't really like where they were heading. The game was becoming ridiculously expensive with regional pricing and regional lockdowns (a sore point consideirng I'm an Australian and this point has only gotten worse). Other gaming systems with more innovative mechanics like Bolt Action and Infinity were also starting to appear by this point. Then 7th edition hit.
• 7th Edition was a cluster of an edition in many, many ways. The additional rules bloat had outgrown the 3rd edition ruleset they were built off. It was a bloated, slow gaming experience by the end of it (provided you weren't tabled by turn 1-2).
• There was also a personal, subjective stake for why I didn't like 7th Edition: the Ork and Dark Eldar codexes were rubbish. Both were released at the start of 7th edition when the Chapterhouse studios court case (which GW lost) and design philosophy had tried to simplify 40k armies using universal special rules and what models were already available. This robbed the Ork and Dark Eldar codexes of their unique character in comparison to their predecessors which genuinely made both armies really unenjoyable to play. Throw on codex creep and the escalating "decurion codexes" that were released afterwards... yeah. Not a fun time. So I pulled the pin.
• I tried 8th edition as a fresh slate, but there were three things that ruined it for me.

1. The min-maxing arms race for command points.
2. The shift away from customisation and conversions to "all in one gaming pieces in clampacks."
3. My earlier point that the community makes or breaks 40k: in my case it broke the experience for me, which almost drove me out of the hobby entirely.

• In addition to my growing frustrations with GW's pricing and the 40k community, I also didn't have the time or the funds for the expected 2000 point 40k game, let alone the time to paint the miniatures required. I needed smaller scale games which were faster paced... and Kill team wasn't it.
• What kept me in the hobby was branching out to other systems and seeing what else was out there. Games with different design philosophies, communities with different ideas etc. Games like Infinity, Deadzone, Bolt Action, Star Wars: Legion, Frostgrave, Conquest and Kings of War really opened my eyes to the possibility of modern tabletop wargaming and filled the gaming void that I was craving. Honestly, having free rules, free army builders and innovative, fast paced games makes going back to playing GW games very hard.

 

However, eventually things come back full circle: I was seeking a hobby experience again rather then just a gaming experience. I still appreciate the Warhammer 40k IP: its setting is great and its modelling opportunities even greater.

 

 

Why I'm getting back into Necromunda and other "niche" aspects of the 40k hobby, and what I like about it:

 

• Necromunda, Gorkamorka and Inquisitor have always been games of nostalgia for me. I used to watch the older players play it when I was a kid at the GW battlebunkers (when they existed) and local gaming stores. They weren't without their flaws (such as being easy to abuse and powergame) but they always seemed a much more collaborative game with their RPG elements which stood out to me. The custom terrain for these games were also inspiring in an age where you had to make your own.
• I got into 40k during 3rd Edition as mentioned previously. But I remember alot of older players who played 2nd edition and had access to alot of books from the 2nd edition era. I was inspired by the bright colours and the contrastingly dark artwork. Most epic game stories that the old guard always talked about 25 years later always seemed to come from playing 2nd edition too. Necromunda refers back to this era, the era that got me into 40k in the first place.
• I was later inspired by the darker elements of the 40k IP: the Inquisitor tabletop game, Dan Abnett's Eisenhorn and Ravenor series etc. The elements that took 40k and put it under the microscope. Hence why Necromunda, Blanchitsu and Inquisimunda really appeals to me: its a sandbox to explore these darker elements of the 40k IP both as a hobby project and as a game.
• As far as GW systems go, Necromunda is a little bit more innovative then the average with its alternating activations, subplots and campaign mechanics.
• Necromunda is a sandbox: you can use as much or as little of its content as you like. And with an arbitrator, you can essentially house rule whatever you like.
• Being an RPG player, Necromunda's RPG elements appeal to me. Having an arbitrator in the game is a huge thing and something I feel alot of Necromunda players don't utilise enough.

What I don't like about Necromunda:

 

• Its produced by GW, and suffers from GW business practices (such as forge world exclusive character models... in regional prices...)
• Necromunda's rules and content release model reminds me of the cluster that was D&D 3.5: all of the rules are dispersed over a ridiculous amount of expensive books that actively override or contradict each other. Its hard to keep track of it all.
• I'm actually not a fan of the Necromunda models. They look great, but they're not as modular or easy to convert as I'd like. But again, Necromunda isn't just limited to the six houses of Hive Primus so there's a broad scope to use other miniatures and ranges from GW and third parties to achieve your artistic vision.

 

So, now that's all out of the way, we can get to the meat of this topic: The Hobby!

 

My local gaming group in Australia's tropical north use the the Terror-Australis Hive as its current setting. I intend to work within that setting.

 

This is my (intended) hobby schedule for 2022 - 2023:

 

• Finish my Delaque Gang to a tabletop ready standard (completed)
• Continue work on my Slaaneshi Chaos Helot Cults Gang to a higher then tabletop standard (in progress.)
• Commence my Squats Gang who counts-as Orlocks (in progress)
• Commence my rival Ork Gang (counts-as Goliaths) to my Squats
• Commence my Outcast / Chaos Helot Cult gang based off the Corvus Cabal (not an original idea but it works really well)
• Commence my Cawdor Gang themed around Witchhunters, repentants and Crusaders (again, not an original idea but different enough from Cawdor's established identity as a house of poor, faithful souls)

Anyways, thanks for stopping by. You're an inspiring community and I hope to contribute to it.

 

Here's a picture of my semi-completed Delaque Gang for your perusal:

 

 

[2PlusEasy]

Some Individual shots:

 

The unnamed Gang Leader:

 

 

Unnamed Ganger 02:

 

 

Unnamed Ganger 03:

 

[Dosjetka]

That's quite the introduction: welcome to the boards and the Necromunda subforum, 2PlusEasy! :tu:

 

It's good to see someone with clear reasons for coming back to the hobby and, I think, it'll help you focus and keep yourself engaged/motivated in the long run. In any case, you're off to a solid start with your Delaque models: I especially like the almost sickly-pale skin and the slight wear on the robes.

 

What can we expect to see next? :)